In the lurid style of the day a story was widely reported in September of 1897 under the heading, "Horrible Brutality!"
The event was in the Coalgate area of Indian Territory, south of McAlester. A man named Wiley Ross, identified as a "non-citizen" (meaning he was not a member of a Native American tribe and thus was only living there by permission of the Federal Government and tribal authorities). It also mentioned that he was partially deaf and had, three weeks earlier, married a 15 year old girl from that area. Some, the news accounts added, thought he was not a cunning and devious devil and others that he was not "in a right mind." The account seems to support that description.
The most recent Saturday the girl's father and brother came by her house to visit and found no one about. Concerned they conducted a search. About a quarter of a mile down the road they found her lashed to a tree in a startling condition. She had been tied there for three days with only three drinks of water in all that time.
As the weak young woman's story was heard it was learned that her trials began some ten days earlier when her husband tied her to a wagon wheel. After securing her the man had then fired off his Winchester over her head and near by several times. Then, he began to beat her with a club. How long he beat her she was not sure because she became unconscious.
The next outrage was to tie a rope around her neck and hoist her up by the rafter in the cabin. This he did until he supposed she was dead. After he learned she had survived this treatment, however, he then tied her to a chair in the house. Beside her was a large container with a spout holding powder used to ignite papers and sticks in the fireplace. He arranged papers in the spout to form a trail and then from a distance he lit the paper and exited the cabin. He obviously was expecting the powder to ignite and explode into flames.
Coming back in after a time he was greatly disappointed on seeing that the paper had burned but had broken from the spout and did not ignite.
Finding he had failed he then dragged to the tree and tied her there where she was found. She was famished, out of her mind, and unable to speak. It was feared that Mrs. Ross would die from her abuse.
Authorities searching the house verified there was much blood, clubs and other implements supporting her account of torture. In addition, her body appeared to be one massive contusion said medical authorities. She was heavily bruised and cut all about her body. Her general appearance was frenzied with sunken eyes, lips drawn back in a look of terror and fear, Worst were the visions and memories of the events that when under their power she would sink back, grow rigid with her hands drawn up as if to protect herself. It took many kind voices to soothe her after these attacks and reassure her she was not in her husband's "loving" hands.
Given the time period there were few census records to verify this story, especially without a name for the girl's family. The name "Ross" was very common all across "Indian Territory" and elsewhere. The bride of this story would have been born about 1882. The "Wiley Ross" could have been twice her age (1867 - 1879 birth range) or even older. Was he a "shell shocked Civil War Veteran," a survivor of some gruesome frontier cavalry battle or attack, or just cunning and devilish as suggested?
As someone very wise one noted, some are mad and some are merely bad. Which is the case may never be known in this, another case, from the files of Mystorical...sharing stories since 2005.
