36 Facts About Bill Tilghman

Bill 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.

Bill Tilghman's memoirs were made into a 1915 film that he directed and starred in as himself.

Bill Tilghman died in 1924 at the age of 70 after being shot and killed by a corrupt prohibition agent on the streets of Cromwell, Oklahoma.

Bill Tilghman was the third of six children born to William Matthew Tilghman Sr.

In 1857, the Bill 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, Bill Tilghman is reputed to have killed 3,300 buffalo.

Sometime during the summer of 1877, the 23-year-old Bill Tilghman married a 16-year-old widow named Flora Jefferson.

Bill Tilghman's first documented service as a lawman began on January 1,1878, when he became a deputy under Sheriff Bat Masterson.

On November 6,1883, Patrick F Sughrue was elected sheriff of Ford County and Bill Tilghman became his deputy.

Bill Tilghman gained his first important position as a lawman on April 10,1884, when he was appointed city marshal of Dodge City.

On March 9,1886, Bill Tilghman resigned as city marshal to tend to his ranch.

Mr T ordered him three times to take his hand off his gun, and would have disarmed him if he had been near enough; but Prather sought a better position, but Tilghman pulled the trigger and Prather was a dead man.

In January 1889, Bill Tilghman was one of several Dodge City gunfighters involved in the Gray County War, a county seat war fought between the rival Kansas towns of Ingalls and Cimarron.

Bill Tilghman escaped with nothing more serious than a sprained ankle.

One member of that population was Bill Tilghman, who built a commercial structure on his Oklahoma Avenue lot and used the rent from it to help re-establish himself as a rancher.

In May 1892, Bill Tilghman was appointed a Deputy US Marshal in Oklahoma.

Bill Tilghman joined forces with fellow deputy marshals such as Heck Thomas, Chris Madsen, Frank Canton, and Bud Ledbetter to wage total war on the outlaws active in the territory.

Once law and order was established in Perry, Bill Tilghman went back on the trail of the Doolin gang.

Bill Tilghman supposedly detected the tips of several rifles pointed at him from hidden positions in the dugout.

Bill Tilghman trailed Doolin to the health resort in Eureka Springs, Arkansas.

Bill Tilghman never received the reward money for Doolin's capture, which the state of Oklahoma refused to pay after Doolin escaped.

In 1899, Bill Tilghman established the Oakland Stock Farm, which bred thoroughbred horses.

Prosperous and popular, Bill Tilghman easily won election as sheriff of Lincoln County, Oklahoma in 1900.

Flora Kendall Bill Tilghman died at the age of 39 on October 12,1900.

Bill and Flora Tilghman had had an unhappy marriage and were living apart at the time of her death.

On July 15,1903, the 49-year-old Bill Tilghman married for a second time.

Bill and Zoe Tilghman had three sons named Tench, Richard, and Woodrow.

Bill Tilghman was part of the Oklahoma delegation, and was part of a group of Democrats who journeyed to Parker's home to inform him of his nomination.

President Roosevelt remained fond of Bill Tilghman and invited him to be his special guest at the inauguration of William Howard Taft as president on March 4,1909.

Bill Tilghman served two years and helped rid Oklahoma City of much of its criminal element.

Nix had the title of president, Bill Tilghman was vice-president and treasurer, and Chris Madsen was designated as secretary.

Bill Tilghman took the film on the road for several years, during which he appeared on stage and gave lectures.

In 1924, at the age of 70, Bill Tilghman entered Cromwell, Oklahoma, as a special investigator.

Bill Tilghman attempted to take Lynn into custody without using his own pistol, and, with the help of a bystander, disarmed Lynn.

Bill Tilghman was the third person ever and first police officer to have received such honors.