Frontier Feuds: Brooks and McFarland

Key Takeaways

• The Brooks family moved to Indian Territory with a taste for revenge after losing two relatives to vigilante violence back in Alabama.
• A land rush in 1902 nearly erupted into a shootout between the Brooks and McFarland factions in downtown Spokogee.
• The feud’s final gunfight left three men dead in one day, including both patriarchs, on a single September morning.

A Feud Takes Root

In the final years of the 19th century, two families settled just miles apart in what’s now eastern Oklahoma. One would become known for their grit and hard living, and the other for cattle rustling and violent run-ins. Together, the Brooks and McFarland families would ignite one of the last true blood feuds of the Old West—a conflict that left at least five men dead and a frontier town on edge.

It all played out between 1896 and 1902, in and around the town of Spokogee. There were no courtroom showdowns or formal declarations—just suspicion, revenge, and a slow, steady escalation that reached its violent peak on a muddy September morning.

Meet the Brooks and the McFarlands

The Brooks family, led by Willis B. Brooks Jr., came to Indian Territory after losing two family members to a vigilante killing in Alabama. The matriarch, Louisa “Old Jenny” Brooks, reportedly vowed revenge, and the family brought that edge with them when they arrived near Dogtown—a community that would later become Spokogee.

The McFarlands arrived soon after. Jim McFarland, a former Kentucky cattleman with a reputation for fighting and theft, established himself just a few miles away, along with his brothers and a loose alliance of local families. From the beginning, there was tension between the two groups, some personal, some territorial.

The Fuse is Lit

The Brooks–McFarland feud didn’t start with a declaration or a property line—it started with a death. On April 24, 1896, 19-year-old Thomas Brooks was shot and killed during what was reported as a robbery gone wrong. The man he tried to rob was a former Texas Ranger, and the story spread fast: Thomas had walked into a trap.

To the Brooks family, the facts didn’t add up. They believed Jim McFarland had lured Thomas into the robbery as part of a setup. Though McFarland denied it—and authorities never charged him—tensions quietly surged. The loss of Thomas, the youngest of the Brooks sons at the time, reopened wounds from earlier violence the family had endured back in Alabama. The Brookses had already buried two men to gunfire. Now they buried a third.

While the McFarlands publicly dismissed the rumors, word traveled fast in small communities. The sense of betrayal hardened into silence, and that silence into suspicion. Neither side took another shot—for now. But both knew the feud had started.

A Town Divided

By the turn of the century, the land around Dogtown was undergoing significant changes. The railroad was coming through, and speculators had plans to build a new town, to be called Spokogee. With land for sale and tracks under construction, new tensions surfaced. The Brooks family saw the growth as an opportunity; the McFarlands saw it as a threat. Both families wanted a stake in what was to come, and neither wanted the other nearby.

Tensions simmered in daily life. Tempers flared at church picnics and town meetings, and more than one argument turned into a fistfight. The Brookses and McFarlands stopped speaking, and neighbors started choosing sides. Some stood with the Brooks family. Others backed the McFarlands and their close allies, the Riddles. What began as a family dispute was quickly becoming a town-wide divide.

Then came the land sale on July 1, 1902. Hundreds gathered in Spokogee’s square to stake their claims and buy lots. As the crowd jostled and tempers rose, a scuffle broke out between young men tied to both families. Rifles were drawn. Had it not been for cooler heads stepping in—including local land agents and townspeople—the first major shootout might have happened then and there. Instead, both families left that day with their claims intact, but their fury unresolved.

Gunfight at Spokogee

On Sept. 22, 1902, that time came. Willis Brooks, along with his sons Clifton and John, rode into town for mail. They crossed paths with George Riddle, a McFarland ally. An argument broke out, and shots followed. When the smoke cleared, George Riddle was dead, Willis Brooks had been fatally wounded, Clifton Brooks was killed, and John Brooks was barely hanging on.

Jim McFarland and several others were arrested but soon released on bond. Days later, on October 10, McFarland was ambushed and shot dead near his home. No one was ever charged with the killing.

Why the Feud Endures

The Brooks–McFarland feud never reached the scale of the Hatfields and McCoys, but it carried the same warning. Resentment, once planted, can grow wild on the frontier. Rumors spread quickly, and justice was often handled privately. By the time the railroad came through and the town of Spokogee was renamed Dustin, the damage was done. Five men were dead. One town was changed forever. And the last breath of the Old West had passed through eastern Oklahoma.