'Milam County lawman who turned outlaw was lynched for bank robbery' by Jeanne Williams, Temple Daily Telegram

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Jeanne Williams and the Temple Daily Telegram

Milam County lawman who turned outlaw was lynched for bank robbery

by Jeanne Williams

Temple Daily Telegram - July 12, 2010

Texas lawman turned desperado William Sherod Robinson has remained a lesser known but

one of the most unusual characters of the American West.

Robinson, who terrorized Central Texans as an armed robber, was wearing the tin star

in Caldwell, Kan., when he willingly backslid into crime. The noose of an angry lynch

mob took his life as he begged for mercy.

Ironically, eight years earlier in Milam County, Robinson breached the public’s trust

when as a deputy sheriff he readily surrendered the jail to angry vigilantes seeking

to accelerate justice against a gallows-bound black man convicted of a heinous murder,

as told in a new book “William Sherod Robinson, Alias Ben Wheeler,” written by Len

Gratteri of Sisters, Ore., Rod Cook of Caldwell, Kan., and James Williams of Milano.

Consistent with Wheeler’s lack of fame is the scarcity of information written about

his early years. Brief references to Wheeler in Old West publications usually contain

recurring errors about his background. Following his lynching for involvement in the

botched bank robbery April 30, 1884, at Medicine Lodge, Kan., Wheeler’s Texas

connections were brought to light by various newspapers and the National Police

Gazette. Articles revealed that Wheeler had a wife and children in Texas.

Further mention was made of two brothers and a sister living in Milam County, and a

third brother who had worked for the Texas General Land Office in Austin. Robinson was

the crooked offshoot of the respected family.

Orphaned at age 16, William lived in the San Andres community near Rockdale with his

brother and sister-in-law, working as a farm laborer, and later becoming a deputy in

the 1870s for Milam County Sheriff William E. Mitchusson.

During Robinson’s tenure, outlaws John Wesley Hardin, Bill Longley and Sam Bass roamed

through Central Texas. While serving as a deputy, William Robinson met Longley at

least once when the outlaw was in jail.

Robinson’s brief job as a Milam County deputy sheriff was mostly uneventful. There is

no record of him killing anyone, shooting anyone or participating in a gunfight. His

career was distinguished by a cowardly act that led to one of the darkest chapters in

Milam County history — vigilante justice at its most terrifying degree.

An escaped convict, Anthony Smith, alias Anthony Williams, was convicted in a Milam

County District Court for the Jan. 11, 1876, eye-witnessed brutal murder and robbery

of Bell County farmer John M. Baker near Rockdale. Multitudes converged on the Milam

County courthouse to see the trial.

A jury found Smith guilty and sentenced the black man to death by hanging in 30 days.

Spectators praised the verdict, but not the delayed execution. As Smith remained

locked up in the new Milam County Jail, crowds were demanding immediate justice.

Entrusted with the keys, Robinson opened the jail door shortly after midnight when the

mob surrounded the building and demanded the prisoner. Leaders rushed inside, taking

Robinson’s firearm and jail cell keys, according to the book.

Smith was placed on a horse and escorted to a mesquite thicket about two miles north

of Cameron, where he was tied to trees and burned alive. The mob’s act of vengeance

raged throughout the night. The incident received nationwide publicity and was

condemned by most, but the perpetrators were never identified.

Some believed the mob consisted of Baker’s friends and relatives from Bell County who

wanted reprisal for the brutal shotgun killing. Mitchusson was voted out of office the

following month, and the new sheriff, Mitt Livingston, apparently did not retain

Robinson as a deputy.

Yet in late 1877, Robinson was documented as serving as Livingston’s deputy, but seems

to have resigned sometime during the next year.

After an unsuccessful attempt at farming, Robinson turned to a life of crime. By the

summer of 1879, Robinson had organized a small gang of outlaws electing himself as

leader. The gang started as horse thieves before targeting general stores in other

counties.

Although the gang was definitely involved in two robberies and possibly two more,

court records and newspaper accounts may not attest to the number of holdups

perpetrated by the Robinson gang.

However, Robinson proved to be a better lawman than outlaw. The gang was soon caught,

and Robinson was faced with the reality of a long prison term. Released on bail, he

fled Texas, deserting his wife and four young children who lived near Rockdale.

Robinson drifted to Wyoming and then Nebraska, where he changed his name to Benjamin

F. Burton and married again. He soon abandoned his new wife and moved to Caldwell,

Kan., where he was known as Ben Wheeler.

In Kansas, Robinson, alias Wheeler, became deputy marshal serving with city marshal

Henry Newton Brown, a former desperado who had ridden with Billy the Kid in New

Mexico.

These reformed outlaws cleaned up Caldwell, Kan. — a city described as one of the

rowdiest cattle towns in the west. Therefore, residents were stunned when their law

officers returned to their criminal ways. On April 30, 1884, Brown and “Wheeler”

joined up with two cowboys, William Smith and John Wesley, and attempted to rob the

bank in nearby Medicine Lodge, Kan.

A cashier was killed and the bank president mortally wounded during the attempted

holdup. The gang then fled without getting any money, only to be cornered in a box

canyon a few miles from the town.

They were brought back to Medicine Lodge and locked up in the city jail. A few hours

later, a mob raided the jail and hanged three of the robbers from an elm tree. Henry

Brown was shot and killed trying to escape. Suffering from bullet wounds, Wheeler

begged for his life but he was unmercifully lynched, dying as an outlaw.

jwilliams@tdtnews.com

Milam County, TX lawman William Robinson lynched

Former Milam County lawman William Robinson turned his sights on crime after serving as a sheriff’s deputy in the late 1800s. His days as an outlaw ended after a botched bank robbery in Kansas. This photograph of the four bank robbers was taken in front of the Medicine Lodge, Kan., jail a few hours before the lynching occurred. Left to right: John Wesley, Henry Brown, Billy Smith and William Robinson, alias Ben Wheeler (tall man on the end). Courtesy Photo

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