Milam County Historical Commission
Milam County, Texas
Milam County, Texas
All articles from the Temple Daily Telegram are published with the permission of the
Temple Daily Telegram.
All credit for this article goes to
Jeanne Williams and the Temple Daily Telegram
Temple Daily Telegram.
All credit for this article goes to
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
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
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