William Matthew "Bill" Tilghman is one of the most celebrated lawmen of the Old West. Having done a stint as a farmer, buffalo hunter, army scout, rancher, saloonkeeper, state senator and officer of the law, Tilghman's resume is impressive even by today's standards (we don't have as many saloon shootouts these days).
Tilghman was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa, on July 4, 1854. His father served as a sharpshooter in Mr. Lincoln's army during the War Between the States, was born in 1823 on the eastern shore of Maryland, and is descended from Richard Tilghman, who came from County Kent, England, along with Lord Baltimore, the founder of the Maryland Colony. A number of the Tilghman family can still be found along the Chesapeake Bay in Maryland. Bill left home at the tender age of fifteen to become a buffalo hunter and over the period of five years claimed to have killed 12,000 bison. During this time Bill's older brother, Richard, was hunting with him and was killed during an attack by Indians.
While making his living as a buffalo hunter, Tilghman became friends with several historic figures; the Earp brothers, Bill Hickock and Bat Masterson all called Bill their friend. In fact, Masterson referred to Tilghman as "... the greatest of us all." Most of what we know of Tilghman's escapades of the time came from accounts written by Masterson who was to become a sports editor for a New York City Newspaper.
Masterson told of Bill Tilghman's frequent and violent run-ins with Indians near the Oklahoma Territory. The Indian reservation was located to the west (in what is now Oklahoma) and white men were forbidden to enter the reservation as much as the Indians were prohibited from venturing east. The Indians would frequently cross into Kansas and attack buffalo hunters or raid their camps and steal the provisions. Bill had no issues with shooting any of them that posed a threat. After one particular skirmish where Tilghman shot and killed 4 of the 7 raiders, he proclaimed, "Don't get frightened... and remember that we are in Kansas and that those dead Indians were nothing more than thieving outlaws who had no right off their reservation and if any more of them come around before we are ready to leave, we will start right in killing them."
In 1878, Bill Tilghman was arrested twice for theft but his wild ways would take a turn when he married Miss Flora Kendall and settled near Dodge City to raise their children (Charles A., William, Jr., Dottie and Vonnie). Late 1878 saw Masterson approached Tilghman about a deputy sheriff position and Bill accepted. This was the beginning of a long line of law enforcement positions for Tilghman. Having been good with his money and seeing it as a great business venture, Tilghman decided to try his hand as a saloonkeeper in Dodge. It is worth noting that Tilghman was a lifelong "teetotaler" and was never known to drink. After operating two saloons in Dodge, Tilghman was appointed the Dodge City Marshall in 1884.
On January 15, 1894, he single handedly captured Bill Doolin in a bathhouse in Eureka Springs, Arkansas, transporting Doolin back to Guthrie, Oklahoma without shackles. Doolin was a notorious killer with links to the Dalton gang and a five thousand dollar price on his head. Doolin would later escape from the Guthrie jail and be gunned down by another marshal. In 1900 Tilghman would add another skill to his resume: politician, when he ran and was elected Sheriff of Lincoln County Oklahoma. Tilghman served as Sheriff for four years and according to Masterson, "... 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."
Having retired as marshal in 1910, Tilghman was elected to the State Senate for the Thirteenth Senatorial District. In 1911, missing life as a lawman he became chief of police of Oklahoma City. He was also instrumental to the motion picture, The Passing of Oklahoma City Outlaws (1915), although conflicting accounts have him doing many things from writing the story to being an advisor. The movie depicts many of the conflicts that Tilghman and his fellow lawmen who were notorious for during the taming of the west.
In 1924, Tilghman aged 70, was appointed marshal of Cromwell. On November 1, 1924 Bill Tilghman was killed while trying to arrest Wiley Lynn, a corrupt prohibition officer. Lynn was later acquitted of the shooting due to his intoxication. The jury found that he was not sober enough to understand what he was doing. It is truly ironic that William Matthew Tilghman would be gunned down by a fellow law enforcement officer after having survived countless battles with Indians and gunmen throughout his life without having suffered so much as a scratch.
