Tilghman was born on July 4, 1854 in Fort Dodge, Iowa. He was the son of William Matthew and Amanda (Shepherd) Tilghman, and a descendant of the Richard Tilghman, of England, who settled in Maryland in 1661. In 1856 the family moved to a farm near Atchison, Kan. His father and elder brother served in the Civil War, leaving the boy as the main support of the mother and four children. He early became an expert in the use of firearms.
He was a student and possessed an exceptional knowledge of Western history and a fluent command of the Spanish language.
At the age of sixteen, with three other boys, he made a successful trip to the buffalo country, then thronging with hostile Indians, and in the following year adopted the Fort Dodge (Kan. ) region as his home. He became a noted buffalo hunter, was at times a scout operating from Fort Dodge, and at a later time a cattleman.
In 1877 he served as a deputy sheriff of Ford County under "Bat" (William B. ) Masterson, and was for a time marshal of Dodge City.
He was one of the participants in the spectacular settlers' race that marked the opening of Oklahoma, on April 22, 1889, and obtained a good location in the present Guthrie. In 1891 he took up a claim at Chandler, which he developed into a fine farm. In the same year he was appointed a deputy United States marshal, and though a Democrat, continued to hold the office for about twenty years. The region was for a number of years overrun by outlaw gangs, and it was largely through Tilghman's efforts that they were broken up or exterminated.
In 1910 he was elected to the state Senate, but in the following year he resigned to become chief of police of Oklahoma City, a post he retained for two years.
In 1915 he superintended the making of a moving picture, "The Passing of the Oklahoma Outlaws, " which for several years he exhibited. He had retired from active business when, in August 1924, the citizens of Cromwell, a "boom" oil town, asked him to become marshal. He accepted, and three months later was assassinated on the street. His body was taken to Oklahoma City, where it lay in state in the capitol, and his funeral was largely attended.
William Matthew "Bill" Tilghman Jr. was city marshal in Dodge City, participated in the Kansas County Seat Wars, and moved on to Oklahoma where he participated in the land rushes, including the Cherokee Strip Land Rush. He served as a Deputy U. S. Marshal in Oklahoma and was celebrated for capturing the outlaw Bill Doolin. Tilghman never achieved the household-word status of his close friends Wyatt Earp and Bat Masterson but released his memoirs in a film that he directed and starred in as himself. The fame that Bill Tilghman did achieve was largely due to the efforts of his second wife, who wrote his biography in 1949.
Tilghman was of powerful build, five feet eleven inches in height. His manner was gentle, he was generous, kindly, and notably fond of children. He had many devoted friends. In personal habits he was abstemious. His reputation for courage is not exceeded by that of any other frontiersman of his time, and his skill with a revolver was uncanny.
In 1878 he was married to Flora Kendal and started a stock ranch on the Arkansas River.
After the death of his first wife, by whom he had four children, he was married on July 15, 1903, to Zoe Agnes Stratton, of an old pioneer family. By the second marriage he had three children.
(1820–1908)
(1830–1915)
(1881–1973)
(1912–1981)
(1886–1953)
(1890–1927)
(1878–1972)
(1907–1929)
(1905–1970)
(1856–1929)
(1861–1905)
(1880–1964)
(1861–1900 (m. 1878))
