Our Arklahoma Heritage: A dispute over fishing nets lead to a murder that went unpunished in 1900 Fort Smithn

In the spring of 1900, a routine quarrel between two fishermen escalated into tragedy along the Arkansas River near Fort Smith.

Benjamin H. Threlkeld, a white man, shot and killed Harry Graham, a 28-year-old Black fisherman, over a dispute involving fish nets.

The incident took place southeast of downtown, near a river island connected by an old iron

Graham lived in Coke Hill, a segregated, flood-prone shanty town at Belle Point where the Arkansas and Poteau Rivers converge.

This impoverished community, often called a "no man's land," was home to many African Americans in modest homes, outside formal city jurisdiction.

A short notice in the May 3, 1900, The Paris Express described the shooting and noted Threlkeld's claim of self-defense.

In the Jim Crow-era South, such interracial incidents often received minimal scrutiny, and no public records of a trial or conviction survive. Threlkeld appears to have been acquitted or charges dropped.

nnn

Graham was buried in the Sebastian County Poor Farm Cemetery (Elmwood Cemetery), a pauper's field for the indigent with mostly unmarked

Shortly after, Threlkeld relocated to St. Joseph in Buchanan County, Missouri. He spent over 65 years there, working as a salesman and raising a family. He died at age 90 in the mid-1960s

Graham's life ended in obscurity and poverty, while Threlkeld lived a long, unremarkable life far from the river where the shooting occurred.

 Coke Hill was later cleared and incorporated into the Fort Smith National Historic Site.