Words are not sufficient to describe the man known as Bass
Reeves. He was probably one of the first African Americans to
received a commission as a U.S. Deputy Marshal west of the
Mississippi. Reeves was a man very large in stature, believed to
have been born in Texas. After the Civil War, he came western to
Arkansas, and settled in the town of Van Buren Arkansas, having
taken up farming as a living. In the 1870 census he is married
and working on his farm in Van Buren. By 1880, he was working in
his new profession—as a U.S. Deputy Marshal, under the direction
of Judge Isaac C. Parker in Ft. Smith. His family continued to
reside in Van Buren during these years. Receiving his commission
in 1875 his career began the most colorful, noteworthy, and
successful careers of the western frontier marshals. Full
anecdotal accounts of Reeves are to be found in the work by Art
Burton, Black Red and Deadly. Black and Indian Gunfighters of
Indian Territory. (Eakin Press) As early as 1878, the Reeves
starts appearing in Ft.