THE BLOODY PORUM RANGE WAR
The exact origins of the Porum Range War, which swept over east central Oklahoma during the early years of the Progressive Era, may never be determined with any certainty. What is certain is that by 1905 the lawlessness was out of control. The bloodletting had its origins in a struggle between the region’s small farmers and ranchers and the cattle kings, notably the wealthy Davis brothers, who continued to graze their large herds on what had been open range. The aggrieved small operators banded together in lodges of the Anti–Horse Thief Association (AHTA) and became avowed enemies of the “Davis Gang.” Their vigilante justice frequently verged on lynch law and reflected the lack of effective law enforcement in the area.
The four Davis brothers—Cicero, Sam, Jack and Bob—were among the biggest ranchers in eastern Oklahoma. They were mixed blood Eastern Cherokees, proud of their Indian heritage, who had come to what was then Indian Territory in the 1880s looking for land and a new life. Although the Dawes Act of 1887 had parceled out the land in Indian Territory, the Davises continued to graze and gather cattle from what they perceived as open range into the 20th century. Many small operators lost livestock in the resulting cull. What the Davis boys saw as a way of life, the farmers and ranchers considered larceny, and so the trouble began.
A flash point in the brewing war came on Sept. 11, 1906, when Cicero Davis, widely known as the “Cherokee Cowman,” was ambushed and killed near his Circle Bar Ranch northwest of the village of Porum. Authorities arrested and held without bail neighbor Mack Alford, who had repeatedly vowed to kill Davis. Though evidence presented at Alford’s subsequent trial clearly pointed to him as the murderer, a jury acquitted him. When he walked free, the Davises quietly swore revenge. Realizing his life was in danger in Muskogee County, Alford was preparing to leave for Mexico when someone shot and killed him from ambush less than a half-mile from where Cicero Davis had been killed 10 months earlier.
For several years the rustling, violence
