John Lucius Garrett was born in Mississippi in 1882, but moved, sometime after his tenth birthday, to the newly formed city of Guthrie, Oklahoma.
There, in an island ghetto called the Elbow, either through natural talent, desperation, or some combination thereof, he fell into a criminal life. By the time he entered the newspaper record in the years before the Great War, he was known — as “Lucius Garrett, colored” — for running a “hop-joint” from his home at the corner of 6th Street and Grant Avenue, selling a mix of gin and white-mule whiskey, possibly opium and cocaine. Oklahoma entered the Union dry in 1907, the only state to do so, and Lucius often ran afoul of the prohibitory laws. He pistol-whipped a deputy sheriff. He threatened the life of a witness against him on a bootlegging charge. In a wrestling match over a shotgun, he shot the foot off a seventeen-year old boy.
All of this in a time when the newspapers might cavalierly describe such a man as a “big, bad Negro” in their articles, and offer, as straight news, stories headlined “Fearing End Of World, Darkies Sell Goods.”
In April 1911, the Guthrie Daily Leader reported a raid on Lucius’s home:
“Couldn’t Hide Blushes,” the headline read, “Unexpected Visitors Cause Lucius Garrett Considerable Embarrassment…
“Last night a woman accused of a theft was wanted and the police thought she went to Lucius’ place. Assistant Chif [sic] Kyle and Patrolman [sic] Felton and Galley drove over. Lucius met them with a yell of rage and tried to block their entrance to the house. They tied Lucius and loaded him into a buggy. The house was searched but the woman suspect was not found.”
Lucius died in 1929, and was buried at Summit View Cemetery in Guthrie. Though known in cemetery records, his grave itself is unmarked. The headstones nearby are makeshift, at best, the names and dates of the dead having been carved into the stones by hand, with crude instruments.
John Lucius Garrett — who “met them with a yell of rage.”
I like these snippets of history of the unknowns. Your characterizations are delightful to read.