He Hung 'em High: John Childers was one of the few condemned not sent to the gallows by Issac C. Parker
- Dennis McCaslin
- Jul 8, 2025
- 2 min read
On a sweltering August morning in 1873, a crowd of nearly 2,000 gathered near the gallows at Fort Smith. They had come to witness history--the first federal execution ever carried out by the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Arkansas.
The condemned man was 24-year-old John Childers, a Cherokee man convicted of murdering an Indian trader named Reyburn Wedding nearly three years earlier.
The execution marked the beginning of a grim chapter in Fort Smith’s legacy, one that would see 86 men hanged over the next two decades. But for Childers, the story began with a black horse, a failed negotiation, and a fatal decision.
In October 1870, Childers encountered Wedding near Caney Creek in the Cherokee Nation, just below the Kansas line.
Wedding, an Indian trader, was traveling with a wagon pulled by a striking black horse. Childers, described as strong and muscular, attempted to trade for the animal. When Wedding refused, Childers killed him and took the horse, along with $280 in cash.
US Deputy Joseph Vannoy arrested Childers near Bixby, Oklahoma, in December 1870. But the young man escaped custody within ten miles of their journey. He was recaptured in January 1871 and jailed in Van Buren, then the seat of the federal court.
On May 3, he escaped again--this time with six other inmates, all described by the Van Buren Press as “desperate characters” with “evidence for conviction most positive in all the cases”.
Childers was arrested a third time and finally brought to trial in Fort Smith after the court relocated there.
He was convicted on November 25, 1872, but his attorneys filed for a new trial. That motion was denied in May 1873 by Judge William Story, who sentenced him to hang.
As the date of execution approached, Childers made one unusual request: that his hair not be cut before his death. In Cherokee culture, long hair is a sacred connection to one’s lineage and strength.
Though the judge, William Story, had no authority over the matter, the jailer, Captain Berry, agreed to honor the request.
“The prisoner seemed much pleased,” reported the Southern Standard.
On the morning of August 15, Childers walked to the gallows with what one newspaper described as “firm, easy tread.” He smoked a cigar with “cool indifference,” showing no outward signs of fear. Before the noose was placed around his neck, he confessed to the murder of Reyburn Wedding.
The execution of John Childers was the first of many carried out at Fort Smith, a place that would become infamous for its gallows. Between 1873 and 1896, the court sentenced dozens of men to death, many of them Native Americans tried under federal jurisdiction for crimes committed in Indian Territory.
