The Dalton Gang
Killed at Coffeyville, Kansas, on
October 5, 1892
Bill Power, Bob Dalton, Grat Dalton, and Dick Broadwell
L-R: Robert Rennick "Bob" Dalton (1869 - 5 October 1892) / Emmett Dalton (3 May 1871 - 13 July 1937) / Gratton Hanley "Grat" Dalton (1861 - 5 October 1892) / Bill Power (? - 5 October 1892) / Emmett Dalton after his release from prison
James Lewis Dalton (16 Feb 1826 - 16 Jul 1890) and his wife Adeline Lee Younger Dalton (15 Sep 1835 - 24 Jan 1925) raised their large family on the border of Indian Territory, moving several times between Missouri, Kansas, and Oklahoma.. They had 15 children, 10 boys and 5 girls, and all of them lived to maturity except 2 of the girls and 1 of the boys, who died in infancy. By the time the family settled on a farm 8 miles north of Coffeyville, Kansas, in 1886, the oldest children had already married and moved away. The family was not well-do-do, and many of the children had to hire out to the neighboring farms to help with the expenses. By all accounts, the family was peaceful, law-abiding, and well-respected in the community.
Lewis Dalton, as he preferred to be called, was from Kentucky. He served one year as a fifer with the Kentucky Volunteers under General Zachary Taylor in the Mexican War and then headed into Missouri, where he eventually operated a saloon in the town of Westport, now known as Kansas City. He met Adeline Younger in Independence, Missouri, and they were married in 1851 when she was just 15-years-old.
Adeline came from a very large family. Her father, Charles Lee "Cole" Younger, fathered 2 children in his first marriage to Nancy Toney, 6 children in his second marriage to Sarah Sullivan Purcell, 9 children in his common-law marriage to Parmelia Dorcas Wilson, and 2 children born to slave Elizabeth Simpson. Adeline was the oldest of the children in the Younger-Wilson common-law marriage, and her half-brother Henry Washington Younger was the 3rd child born in the Younger-Purcell marriage. It was Henry Younger who became the father of the infamous Younger Brothers (Thomas Coleman "Cole", James "Jim", Robert Ewing "Bob", and John), all of whom rode with the Jesse James Gang.
It was Frank Dalton (8 June 1859 - 27 November 1887) who became the chief supporter of the family. He became a U. S. Deputy Marshal for the Federal Court of Fort Smith, Arkansas, and his theater of operation included all of Indian Territory. Back then, every miscreant fleeing the law in any state headed into Indian Territory, and it was a terrible strain to maintain law and order. The only way for a deputy to get paid was to serve writs, and most of the writs were for whiskey running or stock theft. Usually, Frank could count on his brothers to help form his posse, but he was with a different posse when he was ambushed by the Smith-Dixon Gang of whiskey runners over near the Arkansas border, and his family suffered a terribly blow when he died in the resultant gun battle. The citizens of Coffeyville brought their favorite son home for burial, and Frank's mother scraped together enough money for a tombstone.
Frank was the strong arm of the Dalton family. He kept his younger brothers in line by offering them work, which paid better than working a neighbor's farm. When he died, his brother Gratton Hanley "Grat" (30 Mar 1861 - 5 Oct 1892) managed to become a U.S. Deputy Marshal for the Muskogee court, and brother Robert Rennick "Bob" (13 May 1869 - 5 Oct 1892) managed to secure a position as a U. S. Deputy Marshal for the Federal Court in Wichita, Kansas, working in and out of the Osage Nation. Younger brother Emmett (3 May 1871 - 13 Jul 1937), although he was only 16 at the time, often rode with either brother as a member of the posse.
Emmett eventually found work as a cowboy on the Bar X Bar Ranch near the Pawnee Agency on the Cimarron River near present-day Drumright, Oklahoma. At the ranch, he met Bill Doolin and William St. Power, alias Bill Power, alias Tom Evans. Not much is know about Bill Power, other than he drifted into the Twin Territories of Oklahoma and the Indian Nation from Texas with a trail herd from the Pecos. Emmett also met future Gang members Charlie Pierce, George "Bitter Creek" Newcomb, Charlie "Black-Faced Charlie" Bryant, and Richard "Dick" Broadwell, alias Texas Jack, alias John Moore, working on the ranches nearby.
Dick Broadwell was from a prominent family near Hutchinson, Kansas. He bought a parcel of land next to a young lady, and they married to pool their wealth, but the marriage lasted only long enough for her to abscond with all his life's savings. Disillusioned and without funds, he moved to the Territories of Oklahoma and began working on the ranches. Charlie Pierce was from the Blue River country in Missouri, fleeing to the Indian Nation to avoid jail for whiskey peddling. Bitter Creek Newcomb came from Fort Scott, Kansas, where he started his career as a cowboy at the early age of twelve by working for C. C. Slaughter on the Long S Ranch in Texas. Black-Faced Charlie hailed from Wise County, Texas, and got his nickname from a powder burn on his cheek.
A few years after his brother Frank's death, Bob Dalton decided he could make an easier living if he became an outlaw himself. Gathering a couple of friends, he began stealing horses. He was accused of selling whiskey to the Osage Nation about the same time that Grat Dalton was dismissed as deputy marshal for conduct unbecoming an officer of the law. In 1890, the two brothers, along with brother Emmett, were accused of stealing horses near Claremore, Indian Territory, and selling them in Kansas. They all headed to California, where they joined brother William Marion "Bill" Dalton (1863 - 8 June 1894). Bill Dalton had plans of attaining a position on the Governor's council, if not aspirations of becoming Governor himself one day, but on the night of 6 February 1891, everything fell apart. He blamed everything that happened from that point onward on his brothers. That night, the Southern Pacific Railroad train was robbed at Alila, California, and Grat and Bill were arrested. Bob and Emmett fled the state with a posse on their heels.
While hiding out in the Indian Nation, the two Dalton brothers hooked up with Charlie Bryant and Bitter Creek Newcomb and robbed another train. Right on the heels of this robbery, Bryant became ill and was taken to a doctor in Hennessey, Indian Territory, where he was recognized by U. S. Deputy Marshal Ed Short. With no jail in Hennessey, they marshal took his prisoner by train to the Federal jail in Wichita. During the trip, Bryant seized a pistol, and in a blazing shootout with the marshal, both men died in a hail of bullets from each other.
Bob and Emmett Dalton, along with Bitter Creek, Bill Power, Dick Broadwell, Charlie Pierce, and Bill Doolin then robbed the Katy train on 15 September 1891. Three days later, Grat Dalton, still in custody in California, managed to escape his captors and made his way back to Oklahoma, promptly joining up with the other members of the gang, where they commenced a train-robbing spree. The last train robbery was 14 July 1892, after which the gang split up and went their own ways.
Deciding they needed one last robbery to get enough money to flee the country, the Dalton boys devised a plan to rob two banks in the same town at the same time, thus accomplishing something no other outlaw gang had ever attempted. It would be a way to assure them their place in history. Bob Dalton had always been jealous of his infamous Younger cousins, and he was determined to top Jesse James' nefarious activities. The choice of banks to rob was to be a colossal mistake, however, as they chose their own home town of Coffeyville, Kansas, as the target. Not only were they easily recognized when they rode into town early in the morning of 5 October 1892, they were ambushed by the local citizens who determined to stop the Dalton Gang once and for all. In a fierce gun battle which left four members of the gang dead, as well as four citizens of the town dead, the Dalton Gang came to an end. Emmett Dalton was the sole surviving member, but he was wounded so seriously that the doctor told the townsfolk that he would die that night. Emmett eventually recovered from his wounds, but he was sentenced to life in prison. He was later pardoned by the governor and spent the rest of his days in California. He returned to Coffeyville to erect the marker over the graves of his brothers and Bill Power, using the old iron horse rail where they had tied up their horses in Blood Alley during the infamous robbery attempt.
Henry Andrew "Heck" Thomas
Emmett would later say that U.S. Deputy Marshal Heck Thomas was their sole nemesis. After each holdup, Thomas was in the field chasing the gang. He had worked with Bob and Grat Dalton when they were riding as deputy marshals, and he also knew and admired their late brother Frank Dalton. Heck Thomas was one of the most respected deputy marshals that ever rode for the Fort Smith Court in the Territories. He never let the Dalton Gang stay or rest in any one place for very long. Just north of Tulsa, he picked up the Gang's trail and began following. For four days (some accounts claim it was five days), he followed the trail of six riders from campsite to campsite, always getting to the camps just after the riders had vacated it. The direction was always north. He knew he was on the trail of the Dalton Gang, and he determined to bring them to justice. He was just outside Coffeyville at the last campsite when a rider rode up to tell him the Gang had been killed robbing the banks. He immediately rode into town and identified all the gang members, but one rider was still missing...the rider holding the horses in Blood Alley. This man has never been identified. When the shooting started down Blood Alley, which is a narrow passage between buildings where both Grat Dalton died, and which is where the gang tied their horses, this unidentified sixth man grabbed his horse and rode into legend.
Coffeyville was not the end of the Dalton Gang. Three members of the old gang remained at large; Bill Doolin, Bitter Creek Newcomb, and Charlie Pierce. It is Bill Doolin that many historians believe to be the sixth member of the gang which hit Coffeyville, the one which held the horses in the alley, and the only member to have escaped. The fourth Dalton brother, Bill Dalton, hooked up with the former members of the gang, and they would terrorize the Territories for two more years as the infamous Doolin-Dalton Gang. He would die in a gunfight in 1894. The leader of the gang, Bill Doolin, was to become known as "King of the Oklahoma Bandits," and on his heels went U. S. Marshal Heck Thomas in pursuit. Be sure to read the story of Bill Doolin and his Wild Bunch on this web site.