I have spent a lot of time researching the Dalton Gang. My
initial interest was their connection with their sister, Eva, who used to live
in Meade. It is Eva Dalton Whipple’s home that has been preserved as the Dalton
Gang Hideout. She came to Meade when she was about nineteen or twenty, married
John Whipple October 25, 1887, and lived in that house until they left Meade in
the early 1890’s. Their marriage license, deeds, and the Meade County tax rolls
all testify as to her time here.
I never could quite prove that the Dalton brothers
actually “hid out” here, but I have eye-witness accounts of what that tunnel
looked like when it was just a rough rain wash covered with timbers and earth,
and it stands to reason that family would have visited her during her time in
Meade. She was close enough to her brothers to travel to Coffeyville with her
mother when Bob and Grat were killed and Emmett was severely wounded, a fact
that was reported in detail in the Coffeyville newspaper.
What always puzzled me was bits and pieces I had learned
about a train robbery at Cimarron reportedly perpetrated by the Dalton Gang. The
problem was, it happened after the gang was killed and caught at Coffeyville on
October 5, 1892. I was so please this past year to finally put the pieces of
that puzzle together. It all happened because of the book I published for LaDonna Meyers, “Cimarron Chronicles.”
I got an email from Roger Myers (no relation to LaDonna)
telling me how much he had enjoyed the book. We corresponded back a forth a bit
and we came to realize that we had known each other in year’s past. In fact, I
used to be his baby sitter! He was the son of Dan and Thelma Myers who used to
live in my neighborhood growing up in Meade. Roger told me how he was a history
writer also and, long story short, he had written the account of the Cimarron
robbery years before for “True West” magazine.
I bought the rights to the story from Roger and added it
to my book, “The Dalton Gang and Their Family Ties” of which I was in the
process of publishing a new edition. With the story from Roger and new research
I had done I came up with this great addition for my book.
The outlaws who robbed the train at Cimarron were actually
the Dalton-Doolin Gang, with the headliners in that gang being Bill Dalton and
Bill Doolin. Bill Dalton was never mentioned as taking part in any outlaw
activity until after his brothers were killed in Coffeyville. The newspapers
there gave a detailed account of Bill Dalton’s vengeful attitude toward what had
happened to his brothers, and it wasn’t long before he turned to crime.
The Cimarron robbery took place on June 10, 1893. I have
traced the gang’s trail from Beaver where they stayed for a few days before
coming north. They probably rode up the Jones and Plummer Trail because they
showed up at the Sol Zortman place northwest of Fowler a few days before the
robbery. Dean Zortman shared with me the stories that had been handed down by
his grandfather about the event. They stopped around noon and asked to water and
feed their horses and Nancy Zortman asked them to eat with them, which they did.
Later, on their way back through, Sol and also a neighbor saw the gang moving
fast, they didn’t stop this time, nor did they greet the settlers.
A few miles northeast of Meade the gang stopped at the J.
H. Randolph home where they forced the settlers at gunpoint to give them a meal.
Carrie Anshutz wrote in “Cimarron Chronicles” that they came by their place and
when Doc Anshutz and her little brother saw them on the trail the outlaws waved
them on in a gesture that clearly meant, “leave us alone.” When reporting every
encounter along the trail the sentence would end with, “later we learned they
had robbed a train at Cimarron,” thus leaving a trail for history.
Even if you already own a copy of “The Dalton Gang and
Their Family Ties” it’s almost worth getting the third edition just to get the
whole story of the Cimarron robbery. The book can be found at the Dalton Gang
Hideout, Meade Historical Museum, and Back Room Printing, in Meade, Trails
West or Hastings in Dodge City, or on the web at
www.prairiebooks.com.
The following are
newspaper articles from the Meade County Globe about
the Cimarron Robbery:
From the Meade
County Globe, dated June 15, 1893, Meade, Kansas
Four masked robbers
held up the California express on the Santa Fe road half
mile west of Cimarron last Friday night at 1:20. The train
had just pulled out of that town when the engineer saw a
danger signal near the bridge and stopped the train, when
two of the men jumped onto the engine and with revolver
drawn commanded the engineer to go with them to the express
car with a sledge hammer to batter in the door. When they
arrived the messenger refused to open the door and after
firing some shots into the car they blew the door off with
dynamite. They had shot the messenger through the side and
disabled him. The robbers took the contents of the way safe
and commanded Whittlesey to open the through safe but he
could not do so. It is thought they secured about $1000 in
silver, and mounting their horses rode off to the south.
About ten o’clock the
next day Sheriff Byrns received a telegram from Cimarron
informing him of the robbery and for him to be on the
lookout. About this time these same robbers were passing
east of the city along the lane east of Brannon’s, Judge
Hudson saw them as they passed the corner at his place going
south.
Sheriff Byrns and
deputy Givler along with some others got their guns and
started out about one o’clock, going east and south. In the
mean time these robbers were laying in the canyon near
Chilcott’s about ten miles southeast of this city, but the
boys didn’t find them and returned the next day without
getting sight of them. The bandits got their supper at
Chilcott’s and then went in the direction of the territory.
They stopped at Tainter’s ranch the next day for dinner and
this is the last that is known of them. Robberies of this
kind seem to be greatly on the increase and there should be
some way devised that would put a stop to them.
*************
From the Meade
County Globe, dated June 22, 1893, Meade, Kansas
John Randolph has the
proud distinction of entertaining the Cimarron train robbers
for dinner, the next day after the robbery—last Saturday a
week. They stopped at his place about 11 o’clock on that
morning and wanted their dinner. Said they had been after a
horse thief.
They said they were in
a hurry and to get them a bite quick. They unsaddled their
horses and fed them, leaving their Winchesters on their
saddles. Going into the house they sat down a few minutes to
wait for the preparation of the meal and in that many
minutes were all sound asleep in their chairs. When dinner
was ready John awoke them, little thinking he had in his
house four men who were desperate robbers and for whose
capture there was a reward of $10,000. It is safe to say
that had honest John known this he would have bagged them
and by this time had a snug little fortune down in his
jeans—but he did not know it—so there’s the rub. But at any
rate he got a good squint at them, and will know them if he
ever sees them again. They asked him about Whipple, if he
knew him, and all the time seemed just as quiet and serene
as though they had been common farmers who had dropped in to
pass the time a day. John says they were all gentlemanly in
their actions and seemed well bred.
