The Encyclopedia of Oklahoma History and Culture

GLASS, DICK (?–1885).

Dick Glass, a Creek Freedman, became the most noted outlaw of the Indian Territory during the 1880s. By 1880 Glass led a gang, headquartered at Marshalltown near Muskogee, that operated in bootleg whiskey and stolen horses. In that same year the Cherokee Nation lynched two Creek Freedmen for horse stealing. In retaliation, Glass led a raid into the Cherokee Nation. One Cherokee was killed, and several participants were wounded, including Glass, in the affray. This incident created a diplomatic crisis between the Creek Nation and Cherokee Nation. In September 1882 Glass was captured but broke out of jail in Winfield, Kansas. Later that same year Glass played a role in the Creek Nation civil disturbance known as the Green Peach War. This was primarily a factional, political battle in the Creek Nation between the full bloods, led by Isparhecher, and mixed bloods, led by Pleasant Porter. The Freedmen, including Glass, sided with the full bloods. Glass led a contingent of Freedmen in this clash until U.S. Army troops quelled the disturbance. The Muskogee Phoenix on April 2, 1885, stated that "Dick Glass is getting for himself a name that soon will rival Jesse James." The incident that prompted this notation by the newspaper was Glass's killing of two Cook County, Texas, lawmen while they were in the Chickasaw Nation. In June 1885 lawman Sam Sixkiller ambushed and killed Glass, who was bringing a load of whiskey into the Indian Territory from Texas.

Art T. Burton