Lafayette Augustus Shadley – Lawman

Lafe Shadley

Lafe Shadley

Lafayette “Lafe” Augustus Shadley was the Sheriff of Montgomery County, Kansas, and later was appointed as a U.S. Deputy Marshal in Oklahoma Territory.

Shadley was born on June 6, 1844, to Israel and Liddy Baer Shadley in Licking County, Ohio. The family moved to Soap Creek, Iowa, when Lafe was still a child.

He grew up to serve with the Union Army during the Civil War. He married Malinda Randolph in 1866 in Soap Creek, Iowa, and the couple would eventually have seven children.

By 1879, the family was living in Independence, Kansas, and the following year, Shadley was elected Sheriff of Montgomery County, Kansas.

Later, he was commissioned as a U.S. Deputy Marshal in Oklahoma, serving under Marshal Evett Nix. During the bloody gunfight at Ingalls, Oklahoma, with the Doolin-Dalton Gang on September 1, 1893, Shadley was shot by Bill Dalton and died two days later. Also killed in the gun battle were fellow U.S. Deputy Marshals Thomas Hueston and Dick Speed. Shadley’s body was returned to Independence, Kansas, where he was buried in the Mount Hope Cemetery.

Ingalls, Oklahoma by Kathy Alexander.

Ingalls, Oklahoma, by Kathy Alexander.

© Kathy Alexander/Legends of America, updated November 2022.

Also See:

Doolin-Dalton Gang

Ingalls, Oklahoma Gunfight

Lawmen of the Old West

U.S. Marshals – Two Centuries of Bravery