Bill Tilghman

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Bill Tilghman was born on the 4th day of July in 1854. His father

served as a sharpshooter in Mr. Lincoln’s army during the War between the

States and came back partially blinded. As time passed, the elder

Tilghman’s vision improved and the family moved from one frontier outpost

to another as he plied his trade as a sutler for the army.

As a teenager, bill Tilghman, armed with his father’s army-issues

Sharps rifle, partnered with another young man named Jim Elder and left

Dodge City to become a buffalo hunter. Over the next several years, his

group grew to one of the largest on the frontier. Tilghman killed over seven

thousand buffalo, almost doubling Buffalo Bill Cody’s record. In the mid-

1870’s Tilghman’s older brother Richard joined the team and was

subsequently killed by a passing war party.

Tilghman met and fell in love with Flora Kendall. He went off to

scout for the army and she married another man. Her husband was killed in

a horse-related accident and the pregnant Flora moved back to Dodge with

her family. Tilghman found out about this and returned and married her.

They partnered with Neal Brown and bought a ranch on Bluff Creek, outside

Dodge City. The baby, James, was born and he was sickly. He died as an

infant.

Many of Tilghman’s buffalo hunting friends became famous in their

own right, once the buffalo hunting had ceased. They all headquartered

around Dodge City and the group influenced one another as they all drifted

towards law enforcement. One was a Canadian who had to use a cane due to

having been caught in flagrant delicto with another man’s wife. In the

bedroom gunfight, the former buffalo hunter killed the husband, but only

after the man had shot through the woman (killing her and hitting the hunter

in the rear end.

Bat Masterson became Sheriff of Ford County, Kansas in 1878. He
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