Franklin Walter Goss, Constable
City of Chouteau
About 11 A.M. on Thursday, MAY 9, 1957, Constable Goss had Justice of the
Peace Will C. Rector riding with him in his patrol unit when they were involved
in a traffic accident with a south-bound MK&T Railroad train. Both men died from
their injuries.
Lew Wilder, Special
Officer
Chouteau – Former
Sheriff Creek County
In 1914 Lew
Wilder was elected Sheriff of Creek County and served two terms. He was injured
in a shooting on October 12, 1916, when an armed robber named Alva Taylor was
attempted a jailbreak. Sheriff Wilder single-handedly stopped the jailbreak in a
gun battle with Taylor. Taylor was killed and Sheriff Wilder was shot four
times, once in the bowels, one lung, the hip and kidney. The Sapulpa Herald
predicted that Wilder was fatally wounded, but they underestimated the Sheriff.
He recovered and served until 1918. After working as a special agent for the
Sinclair, Prairie and Texas oil companies for 16 years, he reentered politics
and was again elected Sheriff of Creek County for three more terms in that
office. Early in 1942, Wilder was appointed as a special officer in Chouteau.
On Monday, January 26, 1942, Wilder was returning from Chouteau to Kiefer, where
he resided, when he was involved in a traffic accident eleven miles east of
Tulsa. An ambulance was called to the scene at an abandoned filing station where
Wilder had evidently lost control of his car, run off the road and ran into the
station. He died from his injuries before reaching the hospital. He was
survived by his wife, an adopted son and a granddaughter.