On Oct. 12, 1916, outlaw Alva Taylor was shot to death by Creek County Sheriff Lew Wilder while attempting to escape the jail at Sapulpa, Okla. 

Sheriff Wilder was seriously wounded during the incident but miraculously survived. Taylor was serving a sentence along with his accomplice Herbert Farmer for the robbery of a drug store three months previous, the last in a long string of robberies across the county, with an origin story rooted in Barry County. 

Alva Taylor was born in Barry County in April 1894 to Will Taylor and Goldie Coles Smith, most likely around the Mineral Springs area. In 1895, Alva’s father was found insane by the county court and ordered sent to the asylum at Nevada, Mo., accompanied there by his brother J. Riley Taylor and Deputy Sheriff Babb. According to newspaper accounts, one reason of his condition was due to “excitement over religion” with his nights “frequently made miserable by visions of hell which causes him to lose sleep.” 

Another reason was due to a head injury from a falling limb. Will Taylor died a few weeks after arriving at the Nevada asylum, with his body being returned to Barry County for burial. 

So, in the nature versus nurture debate, one can assume that Alva was dealt a crummy hand by life before he could even walk. 

Later, in the spring of 1895 an item in the newspaper states that “some miscreant who is meaner than the Devil stole the meat of Mrs. Golden Taylor of Mineral Springs. It will be remembered that last winter Mrs. Taylor’s husband became insane and died in the asylum, leaving her with four small children to the cold charities of the world.” 

In 1908, when he was 14, Alva was arrested for stealing at the Old Soldiers and Settlers Reunion that used to be held annually at Cassville starting about 1880. While serving his sentence in jail, he and cellmate Harrison Ware found time to steal hats from the L.G. Brown and Sons clothing store next to the jail. 

This was a temporary jail located across from the old jail on 8th Street, half a block from the square, that was being constructed at that time. Previously, the jail on the third story of the old courthouse had been condemned as unfit. 

Apparently, due his good behavior, Alva and Ware were allowed to use an area known as “the runabout,” and then proceeded to rob the store next door. The theft wasn’t discovered until the boys had been released and made their way to Joplin, where they were once again arrested and returned to Cassville by Sheriff O’Dwyer. 

It does take some gumption to rob a store while already in jail. 

In March of 1914, we find Alva Taylor being held in Texarkana under the alias Wells, with his home listed as Joplin, for the assault of Frisco detectives at Tulsa. According to a news article, Alva “has escaped more jails in Oklahoma than any other prisoner so far known.” 

By October of 1914, having once again escaped jail in Tulsa, Alva Taylor was arrested in Portland, Oregon on suspicion of robbing a Seattle Hotel while going by the name A.B. Allen. 

In December of 1914, Alva and another man named Frank Wheeler held up 80 men in a pool hall at Muskogee, Okla. They were arrested the next month at Fort Worth, Texas, and sent back to Oklahoma. 

On June 7, 1916, Alva Taylor and Herb Palmer were arrested for robbing the Pioneer Drug Store in Sapulpa, Okla., severely beating a nightwatchman in the process. A jury found them guilty and they were sentenced to 10 years at the Oklahoma state penitentiary. 

However, Alva had other plans, as he made his final attempt to escape the law on that October day in 1916. Even though Sheriff Lew Wilder was shot 4 times, he lived until 1942 when a car crash took his life. 

Alva’s body was shipped back to Joplin, accompanied by his mother, now Mrs. Henderson, having remarried, and buried at Mount Hope Cemetery at Webb City. 

Knowing whether it was life’s hard knocks or something innately born into Alva’s character that drove him to lawlessness can only be left to speculation. 

But, this same rough land that created the outlaw also created the good men who stopped him, and we can only pray that justice will always continue to outlive the outlaw.

Jeremiah Buntin is a historian at the Barry County Museum. He may be reached at [email protected].