"That’s
the last of the Archer trees,” Marie Hawkins tells me as we stand before the
1876 former Martin County Courthouse, now the home of the Martin County
Historical Society and Museum in Shoals Indiana, where a tall spindly tree
rises toward the sky.
No,
it’s not a new variety of tree I quickly learn. Instead, it’s the one surviving trees where the Archer Gang were hanged back in the 1880s.
The
Archers were a bad lot indeed, rampaging through Orange, Martin and Dubois
Counties in Southern Indiana. But they made their home in what is now the Lost River Township in Martin County next to the county line. A family gang,
members including Thomas Sr., Sam, John, Martin and young Martin Jr., along
with relatives like first cousin Sam Marley, nephew Kinder Smith and John Lynch who
married into this enterprising criminal family.
They
were not only thieves but they were mean as well.
According
to an article in the Olean
Democrat (Olean, New York) Dec 31, 1885 posted on the Website http://yesteryearsnews.wordpress.com/2009/03/23/the-archer-gang-and-the-archer-stanfield-feud/,
Sheriff John A. Padgett of Martin County arrived in Vincennes seeking John B. Archer, wanted for the murder of John Bunch, a farmer of that
county, who disappeared four years ago.
“The crime was fastened upon Archer by the recent confession of
his deserted wife,” the article continued, “who said that Archer murdered Bunch
for his money, boiled the flesh of the body in a boiler and buried the bones.
Padgett found Archer on a farm five miles south of here. Archer and two
companions barricaded themselves in a house and threatened to shoot the
officer. Padgett thereupon returned here for re-enforcements and has got a
posse of fifteen men to go out with him and capture Archer dead or alive.”
The case garnered such attention that even the New York Times
wrote about it in 1886. By then, a mob
had broken into the Martin County Jail and lynched three of the Martin gang.
Samuel Archer was sentenced to be hanged for his crimes and
before dying, according to the Times, he confessed, blaming his family’s evil
on his Uncle Martin Archer who, Sam said, seemed
to enjoy killing people.
But
there’s not only hangings to this story but a generational family feud. Charles
Archer was acquitted of killing Miss Annabel Stanfield in Martin County. He
claimed she stole his revolver and then shot herself the next day because he
had ruined her and would not marry her. Physicians testified that it would have
been impossible for her to have done this in the way Archer explained and a
feud broke out between the Standfields and Archers that would result in more
deaths over the years and in 1922 the Olean Evening Times reported that the
families still didn’t get along.
And
though we haven’t heard of a ghost haunting this old tree where Sam Archer met
his end in 1886, it’s not hard to imagine his spirit might linger on a cold
Halloween night.
The museum is open on Monday, Wednesday and Friday
from 10:00 AM until 4:00 PM, the museum is closed in the winter months.
For more information: 812-247-1133 or http://www.martincountyhistoricalsociety.com
Is there any record of what ever happened to Sam Marley?
ReplyDeleteMy understanding from another source is that Sam Marley went to Missouri and was seen in Orange County once about 10 years after the government hanging of the last of the gang to be hung. He was there a very short time and left quickly, it said.
ReplyDeleteCan anyone tell me in what way Sam Marley was first cousin to the Archers? One source says that he was, but I have found no aunts or uncles named Archer. Thanks
ReplyDeleteI am not aware of a connection to Sam Marley. He was one of Sam Bunch's gang and when Martin Archer took over the gang he was a part of it. He was still loyal to Bunch, so I do not see a connection of Marley to the Archers
ReplyDelete