Bill Tilghman - A Tale by Bat Masterson

Bill Tilghman - Thirty Years a Lawman

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A Scout for the Government

During the fall and winter of 1873-4, there was practically no cessation of hostilities between the Indians and hunters along the Indian border, finally culminating in an uprising among the four big southern tribes, namely the Cheyennes, Arapahos, Kiowas and Comanches, which required almost a year for the government to put down. In this Indian war of 1874, Tilghman acted as a scout for the government and several times while carrying dispatches from one commander to another, had to fight his way out of mighty tight places with the Indians in order to save himself from being taken alive.

Dodge City, Kansas in 1876.

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After the Indian uprising had been put down, Tilghman went up on the Arkansas River and took up a ranch close to Dodge City, where he lived for several years. In 1884 he was appointed City Marshal of Dodge City, and made one of the most efficient marshals the city every had. He was just the sort of a man to run a town such as Dodge City was in those days, being cool-headed, courageous and possessing excellent executive ability.

In the summer of 1888, a County-seat war broke out in one of the northern tier of counties in the state of Kansas, and Tilghman was sent for by one of the interested parties to come up there and try and straighten the matter out. Tilghman went and took with him a young fellow by the name of Ed Prather, whom he had every reason to believe he could rely upon in case of an emergency, Prather, however, proved to be a traitor, and one day attempted to assassinate Tilghman, but the latter was too quick for him, and Prather was buried the next day. After straightening out the County-seat trouble, Billy returned to Dodge and continued to live there until the opening up of Oklahoma Territory, fifteen years ago.

He was among the first to reach the territory, and took up a claim at Chandler, Lincoln County, where he still resides. Tilghman acted as a U.S. Deputy Marshal when he first went to Oklahoma and did as much if not more to stamp out outlawry in the territory as any other man who ever held office in that country.

The Capture of Bill Doolin

Tilghman has served four years as Sheriff of Lincoln County, and during that time has killed, captured and driven from the country a greater number of criminals than any other official in Oklahoma or the Indian Territory. His capture of Bill Doolin in a bath-house at Eureka Springs, Arkansas, single handed,was perhaps the nerviest act of his official career. Doolin was known to be the most desperate criminal ever domiciled in the Indian Territory and had succeeded for several years in eluding capture. A large reward was offered for his apprehension and a number of U.S. Marshals, with their deputies, had several times attempted to arrest him, dead or alive, but in every instance Doolin either eluded them or, when too closely pressed, stood them off with his Winchester

Bill Doolin Doolin was credited with the killing of several Deputy Marshals. Tilghman got after him and trailed him to Eureka Springs, where he found him in a bath-house, and without calling on the local officials for assistance, affected his capture single-handed. Doolin was seated on a lounge in the bath-house when Tilghman entered, and before the desperado realized what was happening, he was covered by a 45-caliber Colt's pistol and ordered to throw up his hands. Doolin hesitated about obeying the order and Tilghman was forced to walk right up to him and threaten to shoot his head off unless he instantly surrendered. Doolin had his pistol inside his vest and directly under his armpit, and made several attempts to get it before he was finally disarmed. It was certainly a daring piece of work on the part of Tilghman, and he was lucky to get away with the job without being killed.

Bill Raidler Bill Raidler was another notorious outlaw whom Tilghman got after, but in this case the Marshal was forced to kill his man before he could take him. Tilghman and Raidler met in the road in the Osage Indian Country, and Tilghman ordered the outlaw to throw up his hands, but instead of obeying he opened fire on the Marshal, who instantly poured a fistful of buckshot into the desperado's breast, killing him in his tracks. Raidler had been a pal of Doolin's and had been mixed up in several train robberies and had sent word to the U.S. Marshals that if they wanted him to come and get him, but to be sure and come shooting. Tilghman was too good a shot for him at the critical moment and Bill Raidler's life paid the penalty for his many crimes. [Most sources say that Raidler was injured, tried, and sent to prison - see Here.]

Thomas Calhoun, a negro, was another notorious outlaw and murderer whom Marshal Marshal Tilghman captured in the Territory, but not until after he had shot and broken the desperado's leg did he succeed in making him a prisoner. Calhoun was charged with the murder of a colored woman and a warrant for his arrest placed in Marshal Tilghman's hands. The Marshal came upon Calhoun and ordered him to throw up his hands, which he refused to do, and promptly opened fire on Tilghman, who, as he had so often done before, returned it with such good effect that the negro's leg was broken and he then surrendered, but died soon afterwards.

Dick West, known as "Little Dick," was perhaps the worst criminal in the entire territory outside of Bill Doolin. "Little Dick" was a member of the Doolin Gang of train robbers, and the hardest outlaw in the Territory to trap. He never slept in the house, winter or summer, and kept continually changing about from one place to another. Tilghman finally got track of him and ran him to cover, when a fight ensued. Tilghman, though shot at several times, escaped without injury and finally succeeded in killing his quarry.

"Little Dick," like his chief. Bill Doolin, had for several years made a specialty of ambushing and murdering U.S. Deputy Marshals in Oklahoma and the Indian Territory, and when the announcement of his death at the hands of Deputy Marshal Tilghman was made, there was universal rejoicing among the law-abiding citizens of that country. Space forbids that I go further into the career of William M. Tilghman at this time. It would take a volume the size of an encyclopedia to record the many and daring exploits and adventures of this remarkable man. His life's history has been aptly stated by a magazine writer as almost a continuation of the memoirs of Davy Crockett or the story of Kit Carson, as far as it relates to his adventures on the frontier of Kansas in the early seventies. After a career covering a period of thirty-seven years, spent mostly on the firing-line along civilization's lurid edge and after being shot at perhaps a hundred different times by the most desperate outlaws in the land, men whose unerring aim with either gun or pistol seldom failed to bring down their victims, this man Tilghman comes through it all without as much as a scratch from a bullet.

Sheriff for More than Thirty Years

Billy Tilghman was born in Iowa in 1854, and moved to Atchison, Kansas, in 1856, and as a boy, passed through the reign of terror known in that country in those days as the Kansas and Missouri border war, which existed for a number of years along the frontier of those two states. It was a fierce and bitter contest between the pro-slavery influence of Missouri on the one side and the abolitionists of Kansas on the other, which finally culminated in the Civil War.

At the time Alton B. Parker received the democratic nomination for the presidency in 1904, Billy Tilghman was selected by the Democratic National Convention as one of the delegates to notify Mr. Parker of his nomination, and was last in New York at that time. He is still a resident of Chandler, Lincoln County, Oklahoma and will in all probability be elected Sheriff again there this fall. He is perhaps the only frontiersman living who has been almost constantly on the job for more than a generation, and who still lives on to tell the story.

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Note: Bat Masterson could not have guessed, when he wrote this article in 1907, that Bill Tilghman would, in fact, die from a bullet. At the age of 70, Tilghman was still acting as a lawman when he was appointed as the marshal of Cromwell, Oklahoma. After surviving decades of tough outlaws, he was shot and killed on November 1, 1924 while he attempted to arrest a corrupt Prohibition Officer by the name of Wiley Lynn.

Added February, 2007

*About the Author and Articles Notes:

Though most of us know that W.B. "Bat" Masterson was famous as a gunfighter and friend of such characters as Wyatt Earp, Doc Holliday, and Luke Short, many may not know that he was also a writer. After his many escapades in the American West, he accepted a post of U.S. Marshal in New York state. However, by 1891 he was working as a sports editor for a New York City newspaper. In 1907 and 1908 he wrote a series of articles for the short-lived Boston magazine, Human Life. This tale of Luke Short, was just one of several of those articles. Masterson died in 1921 of a heart attack.

The article that appears on these pages is not verbatim, as it has been very briefly edited, primarily for spelling and grammatical corrections.

Bat Masterson

This image available for photographic prints and downloads HERE!

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