b'The Old West Lawman WhoKNEW NO FEARPART 1 By Alan RockmanIn 1884 he was appointedCity Marshal of Dodge City and made one of the most effective Marshals the city ever had. He was just the sort of man to run a town such as Dodge City was in those days, being cool-headed. courageous, and possessing excellent executive ability!Bat Masterson on Bill TilghmanH e was a scout, a buffalo hunter, a deputy sheriff inall the complexities of this Old West lawman in their Dodge City during it\'s wildest years, then it was townrespective movies, The Doolins of Oklahoma, The Cimarron marshal after Bat and Wyatt left for a new miningKid, You Know My Name, and the latest one -Bill Tilghman town in Arizona called Tombstone. He (paraphrasing theand the Oklahoma Outlaws).words former Gunsmoke star and Cowboy artist Buckshooting as soon as the gun was leveled, aiming, in fact, Taylor wrote of Matt Dillon) "kept the lid on Dodge" forAnd I guess another reason I\'m partial to Bill Tilghman isin the very motion of drawing it, by judgment rather than five years, and then when the Indian Territory (soon to bethat we share the same birthday - July 4th. actual sighting was a refinement of skill that sometimes named Oklahoma) to the south opened up for settlement,seemed quite impossible. But he kept determinedly at it, he went south and became a Deputy United States Marshal,This is his story. and the practice of a thousand shots told. The time came working with Chris Madsen, Heck Thomas, Frank Cantonwhen he could hit a rabbit or a prairie chicken sitting in the and Bud Ledbetter in the suppression of the Doolin- William Matthew Tilghman was born on July 4, 1854, ingrass 30 feet away, with a quick pop-shot" (Samuel Carter Dalton gang. He was the only one of the "Oklahoma RoyalFort Dodge, Iowa, and one can say he was born in battle,III, Cowboy Capital of the World: The Saga of Dodge City, Guardsman" to ever capture Doolin, albeit temporary. for just weeks after his birth, vengeful Sioux on the warpathDoubleday, pp.74-75, 1973).attacked his settlement. A Sioux arrow passed through the He would be elected to the state senate while Oklahomasleeve of Tilghman\'s mother\'s dress, the sleeve of the armEven though Bill Tilghman had settled on what he wanted was still a territory, then served as police chief of Oklahomathat cradled the little infant (United States Postal Service,to do for the rest of his life and he did possess the gun City. Although the man was a Democrat, TheodoreLegends of the West, p. 68, 1993). Shortly thereafter, theskills to do the job right, he just couldn\'t become a lawman Roosevelt, who knew of his exploits - one of the DodgeTilghman family, undeterred by the Indian attack, crossedovernight, especially considering the fact that he was still in City deputies who served under this man was Roughthe Mississippi and settled in Atchison, Kansas. There thehis teens. So, there were plenty of buffalo to be hunted down Rider, Benjamin Franklin Daniels, whom Teddy was quiteyoung Tilghman grew up quite fast and by pre-adolescencebefore Tilghman would work upon his ultimate dream of fond of - named him a special envoy to Mexico. About thehad quite a reputation as a crack shot, not only bringing tobecoming a lawman. At age 17, in 1871, Tilghman secured a same time he took an interest in silent films and became athe table of his own family the bounty of hunting but to allcontract to hunt buffalo for the Atchison, Topeka and Santa "Hollywood star" in his own role in the film The Passing ofthe neighbors as well. Fe Railroad. His first claim to fame came from these early the Oklahoma Outlaws. Retired, he raised Thoroughbredbuffalo hunts where not only his skill as a marksman was horses until he was called to bring law and order to theIt was at the age of 12 that Bill, walking down a street infast noted, he was also reported to have killed 3,300 buffalo corrupted oil boom town of Cromwell, Oklahoma. AtAtchison, met a man riding into town, a man who wouldfrom September 1, 1871, to April 1, 1872. age 70 and in ill health, he strapped on his guns and formake the most singular impact on his life. That man he met a few months did exactly that, bringing law and order towas arguably the greatest and most notorious of all of theTilghman also got into a bit of "hot water" during his Cromwell, until a crooked revenue agent with a hidden gungunfighters in the Old West. It was none other than Jamestime as a buffalo hunter when Cheyenne warriors raided laid him low for good. Butler "Wild Bill Hickok, and while their meeting was ahis camp. Fearing they would capture and torture him, brief one as Wild Bill was chasing an outlaw at the time,Tilghman got the draw first and killed two of them. Even The man\'s name was William Matthew Tilghman, betterit was an enduring one for the young teen. Not only wasworse, during a subsequent raid Tilghman\'s older brother known as Bill, or Big Bill Tilghman. In many ways, heTillman quite impressed with the legendary gunfighter, butRichard, who had accompanied him on the hunts, was is my favorite lawman of the Old West, for although hisin fact, one could say it changed his life forever.killed. The rewards of buffalo hunting just didn\'t seem contemporaries and bosses Bat and Wyatt may haveworthwhile after his brother\'s death, so Tilghman, newly overshadowed him and are better known, this silent, modestTillman would later write: "(Hickok) was atop amarried, ventured to Dodge City where he worked for man did so much more to tame the cities, territories, andgovernment mule .and rode with the easy grace of aa spell in a saloon. Being a lifelong teetotaler, it was counties he worked in than those much more famous menplainsman.tall, he was over six-feet, splendidly built, andcomparatively easy work for Tilghman, who would soon did. It may have been his misfortune not to be in somehis face as handsome as his form, with strong, clear-cutend up co-owning a drinking establishment called the of the more famous gun battles, such as Tombstone orfeatures and keen blue eyes, long drooping mustache andCrystal Palace (Clavin, Dodge City, p.132).Ingalls, because he went after the Doolin-Daltons afterhair curling upon his shoulders" (Tom Clavin, Wild Bill, St. that September 1, 1893 fracas in that Oklahoma outlawMartin\'s Press, p. 118, 2019). But Tilghman had never given up on his dream to become town, but he was steady, determined, and he usually got hisa lawman. While buffalo hunting on the plains (remember man. I wouldn\'t be too surprised if John Russell\'s superbTilghman\'s widow Zoe would also recollect the impactthe plains weren\'t major cities, the settlements were few role in that 1959 Warner Brothers series "Lawman" wasof Wild Bill on her husband: "Wild Bill became the heroand scarce, so the good and bad, the soon-to-be-famous modeled on Tilghman - he came across with that sameand pattern of adventure for young Billy. For weeks hegot to know each other fast) he had made the fortuitous steady, determined, man of steel but kindly personality thattalked of Wild Bill, even dreamed of him. He (Tilghman)acquaintance of two young men slightly older than he was. Tilghman had. had a pair of cap-and-ball pistols, and all of the moneyThe first was a fellow Iowa native named Wyatt Berry Stapp he could get hold of he spent for caps, powder, and lead.Earp and the other buffalo hunter was a Canadian from a (John Russell might have been modeled after Bill Tilghman,He practiced shooting pop shots from the hip, with bothworking-class family that had emigrated to the United States but it was George Macready, High Chaparral\'s Leifhands, in emulation of Wild Bill. The lefthand shootingby the name of William Barclay Masterson. Much more Erickson, Sam Elliott, and now Ken Arnold who portrayedwas extremely hard at first, and the quick draw, andoutgoing than Earp, at least in Tilghman\'s eyes, the two men 30 August 2019'