Bullard Family

Submitted by: Leila Evett

The Bullard family had previously lived in Old Greer County as neighbors to the George Lacey family. In November 1896, Andrew Jackson Bullard and his wife, the former Minnie Cozart, filed on SE 1/4 of Section 18, Twp 13 North, Range 21 West of the Indian Meridian.

The following year 1897, his father and mother, Ephram W. and Eliva Austin Bullard, filed on adjoining quarter section south (NE1/4 of Sec 19) and his brother James Lee Bullard filed just south on SE 1/4 of Sec 19 with his sister Eliza and her husband, David D. Sullivan, homesteading immediately to the east in Section 20.

Andrew Jackson Bullard was serving his second term as sheriff of Roger Mills county, Oklahoma Territory when he and his deputy John Cogburn were killed on the head of Dead Indian Creek on 2 July 1902. Coverage in The Cheyenne Sunbeam of 4 July 1902, states:

"Sheriff Bullard was lying dead with 11 bullet wounds in his body and holding his sixshooter in his hand, from which two shots had been fired. Four of the wounds entered from the back, six from the front and one ranging downward from the head. His deputy received one shot only and that from the back. He was evidently sitting on the wagon tongue when he received this shot which proved immediately fatal, he not having time to use his gun before expiring."

The sheriff was interred in the Cheyenne Cemetery.