Stone Gardens: The leader of the Cook Gang died in federal prison serving a 45-year sentence delivered by Judge Parker

William Tuttle Cook w

William Tuttle Cook was born on December 19, 1872 near Fort Gibson on the Grand River in the Cherokee Nation, in what is now Cherokee County. His father, James Cook, had come from Tennessee after serving in the Union Army during the Civil War. His mother, Caroline Victoria Post, born in 1849, carried one-quarter Cherokee blood as the daughter of Tatnall Holt Post, who had served as sheriff of the Illinois District of the Cherokee Nation, and Mary Reese.

The family settled on land along the Grand River four -miles north of Fort Gibson and raised two sons: William and his younger brother James Henry, often called Jim. A half sister, Luella Martin, born in 1871 to Caroline and James Martin, later joined the household.

Janes Cook died in 1878 when William was five. Caroline grew dissatisfied with the situation. She rented out the farm, sold most of the livestock, and moved the family for a short time near Fort Smith . They soon returned to the Fort Gibson and Hulbert area and tried to make a living as best they could.

Caroline married again, this time to a half-Cherokee man. The family then shifted to the Fourteen Mile Creek area, fourteen miles west of Tahlequah. When Caroline died in 1884, William was eleven.

The stepfather took all of her property and deserted the children.

The three children entered the Cherokee Orphans Asylum at Tahlequah. Their half-sister Luella, who had married Robert "Bob" Harden, later took responsibility for them and brought them into her home.

At age fourteen, William left to find his own path. He rode south into the Creek Nation and hired on as a cowpuncher.

In 1892, he faced federal charges for selling whiskey to Indians. Instead of waiting for arrest, he crossed into New Mexico Territory and worked cattle for a man named Page near Puerto de Luna.

He returned to Indian Territory in 1893 and signed on as a posseman under Deputy United States Marshal W. C. Smith. That same year, Judge Isaac Parker sentenced him to forty days in the Fort Smith jail on the whiskey charge. While inside, he spoke openly about plans to gather a band of riders once freed.

Early in 1894, his brother Jim faced charges of larceny and assault with intent to kill and fled into the Creek Nation. William quit his marshal work and joined him. There, the brothers connected with Crawford Goldsby, known as Cherokee Bill.

They gathered a shifting group that included Thurman "Skeeter" Baldwin, Elmer "Chicken" Lucas, Curtis "Curt" Dayson, Jess "Buck" Snyder, Henry "Texas Jack Starr" Munson, Lon Gordon, Jim French, George Sanders, and Sam McWilliams, who called himself the Verdigris Kid.

Others joined from time to time. The band became known as the Cook Gang and operated from June 1894 into early 1895 across the Cherokee, Creek, and Seminole Nations. They robbed stagecoaches, trains, banks, stores, and individuals. They took cash, watches, horses, and payrolls.

One night in June on Fourteen Mile Creek, they fought a Cherokee posse at the home of Effie Crittenden; a marshal named Sequoyah Houston died in the exchange. On July 31, they hit the Lincoln County Bank in Chandler and a barber named J. M. Mitchell was killed in the gunfire

. On October 20 they wrecked a Kansas City and Missouri Pacific express train at Coretta and robbed passengers and the express car. O

The gang struck places from Wetumka to Claremore to Braggs, sometimes in small parties and sometimes together. Rewards rose above seven thousand dollars. Travelers hid their money, businesses closed early, and local leaders called for federal troops.

William Cook was tracked through Texas and into New Mexico Territory. On January 11,1895 Sheriff C. C. Perry and two deputies located him alone in a sod house on a cattle ranch southeast of old Fort Sumner. He surrendered without resistance.

Returned

to Fort Smith, he stood trial on multiple counts of armed robbery. On February 12, 1895 a jury found him guilty on the bank robbery charge. Judge Parker sentenced him to forty-five years in the federal prison at Albany, New York. Crowds gathered at train depots along the route to catch a glimpse of the famous outlaw as he passed.

In prison, William earned trustee status. In 1899 he developed consumption. He died on February 7, 1900 at age twenty-seven. His body was shipped back to Oklahoma and placed in the IOOF Cemetery at Hulbert in Cherokee County.

The grave carries no stone. It is marked only with mussel shells gathered from the nearby river

.His younger brother James Henry "Jim" Cook, who had ridden with the gang, died later in 1900 and rests in the same Hulbert Cemetery. Half sister Luella Martin, born in 1871, married William B. Baker after her time with Robert Harden.

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The family line that began with a Union veteran from Tennessee and a sheriff's daughter from the Cherokee Nation ended for William in a distant prison cell, then returned to the quiet ground near the rivers where he had grown up.

The mussel shells remain the only visible record on his plot, a simple marker chosen by those who brought him home.