William Matthew Tilghman Jr. (July 4, 1854 – November 1, 1924) was a career lawman, gunfighter, and politician in Kansas and Oklahoma during the late 19th century. Tilghman was a Dodge City city marshal in the early 1880s and played a role in the Kansas County Seat Wars. In 1889 he moved to Oklahoma where he acquired several properties during a series of land rushes. While serving as a Deputy U.S. Marshal in Oklahoma, he gained recognition for capturing the notorious outlaw Bill Doolin and helping to track and kill the other members of Doolin's gang, which made him famous as one of Oklahoma's "Three Guardsmen".
Tilghman never achieved the household-word status of his close friends Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson but nevertheless remains a well-known figure of the American Old West. His memoirs were made into a 1915 film that he directed and starred in as himself.
Tilghman died in 1924 at the age of 70 after being shot by a corrupt prohibition agent on the streets of Cromwell, Oklahoma. Much of the fame that he has since achieved has been attributed to the efforts of his second wife, who published his biography in 1949. In 1960, he was inducted into the Hall of Great Westerners of the National Cowboy & Western Heritage Museum.
Early life
William Matthew Tilghman Jr. was born on July 4, 1854, in Fort Dodge, Iowa. He was the third of six children born to William Matthew Tilghman Sr. (1820–1908) and his wife Amanda Shepherd (1830–1915).
In 1857, the Tilghman family relocated to the newly created Kansas Territory and settled on a farm near Atchison. At the age of seventeen, Bill Tilghman won a contract to supply buffalo meat to the men building the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railroad. From September 1, 1871, to April 1, 1872, Tilghman is reputed to have killed 3,300 buffalo. He would claim this was the "all time record" in later years. According to Zoe Tilghman, his second wife, he also killed two Cheyenne braves when they confronted him, as he feared they would torture him.
Dodge City
According to his second wife, Tilghman first became a lawman in September 1874, when he signed on as a deputy under Sheriff Charles E. Bassett (1847–1896) of Ford County, Kansas. Despite this claim, there is no record of Tilghman serving as Bassett's deputy. Sometime during the summer of 1877, the 23-year-old Tilghman married a 16-year-old widow named Flora (Kendall) Jefferson (1861–1900). The marriage was an unhappy one almost from the start, but nonetheless produced four children: Charles, Dorothy, William, and Viona.
Early in 1877, Tilghman and Henry Garris opened the Crystal Palace Saloon in Dodge City. A local paper reported during the summer that "Garris and Tilghman's Crystal Palace is receiving a new front and an awning, which will tend to create a new attraction towards the never ceasing fountains of refreshment flowing within." Barely a year later, during the spring of 1878, Tilghman and Garris sold the Crystal Palace Saloon.
Bill Tilghman's first documented service as a lawman began on January 1, 1878, when he became a deputy under Sheriff Bat Masterson. Within a month of his appointment, Tilghman was charged with being an accessory to an attempted train robbery. On February 12, the charges against him were dropped for lack of evidence. Tilghman was again suspected of a crime two months later, on April 16, when he was arrested by Masterson on a charge of horse theft. Once again the charges were dismissed. Troubles of a different sort came up on March 8, 1879, when Masterson had to sell his deputy's Dodge City house at auction, apparently to satisfy a judgment.
City Marshal
On November 6, 1883, Patrick F. Sughrue (1844–1906) was elected sheriff of Ford County and Bill Tilghman became his deputy. During this period, Tilghman also owned a Dodge City saloon called the Oasis, which he sold to his brother Frank in early April 1884. According to a local paper, "William Tilghman, Esq, proprietor of the 'Oasis,' has sold out to his brother Frank, who will refit and fix up and make everything smooth and harmonious to the visitor."