Adair is a town in Mayes County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 790 at the 2010 census, compared to the figure of 704 recorded in 2000.[6] Named for two prominent Cherokee brothers, the town was established in 1883. It opened a Cherokee school.
History
Adair is named after two Cherokee brothers, William Penn Adair, a politician and jurist, and Dr. Walter Thompson Adair.[7] It was established on March 15, 1883, and incorporated in 1897.[7] William Penn Adair lived in the area off and on for 17 years beginning in the late 1860s.
In the 1880s, a Cherokee school was started here. In 1907, shortly before statehood, the school began to admit white students.
Dalton Gang Train Robbery
In the most daring deed of the Dalton Gang to date, on July 14, 1892, eight members held up the Missouri-Kansas-Texas train at Adair, Indian Territory (IT).
As the train approached, four men approached the night operator at the station and ordered him to "flag down" the train. As the train pulled to a stand-still, two members of the gang boarded the engine while the others covered the conductor and train men. The station operator was taken to the express car, where he ordered the messenger inside to open up. When the messenger refused, the train's fireman was ordered to break open the door with his pick. Once inside, the bandits were quick to rifle the safe of its contents.
The gang did not know that a special detachment of eight railroad guards was on the train, in an effort to prevent such robberies. In command was J. J. Kinney, chief of railroad detectives, and Capt. J. H. LaFlore, chief of the Cherokee Nation police. Realizing the robbery was underway, the guards got off the train opposite the depot, and had a brief gun battle with some of the bandits on that side.
Finished on the train, the bandits made their get-away through the town. Doctors W. L. Goff and Youngblood were sitting on the porch of the drug store near the depot. Both men were hit several times by stray shots; Dr Goff was fatally wounded. Also wounded were captains Kinney and LaFlore, but they recovered.
The railroad and express company offered rewards of $5,000 "for the capture and conviction" for each bandit in the robbery.
The Dalton Gang was a group of outlaws in the American Old West during 1890–1892. It was also known as The Dalton Brothers because four of its members were brothers. The gang specialized in bank and train robberies. During an attempted double bank robbery in Coffeyville, Kansas in 1892, two of the brothers and two other gang members were killed; Emmett survived and was captured, tried, and convicted. He was paroled after serving 14 years in prison.
Bob, Gratton "Grat", and Emmett had first worked as lawmen for the federal court at Fort Smith, Arkansas, and then for the Osage Nation. They started stealing horses to make more money, and then fled the area. They decided to form a gang, and started robbing banks, stagecoaches, and trains. While their middle brother "Bill" Dalton never joined any heists, he served as their spy and informant.
Due to the sensationalism that surrounded the Dalton Gang's exploits, they were accused of several different robberies all over the country, but operated chiefly in Kansas and Oklahoma Territory. Numerous myths were published about the gang.
After Bob and Grat were killed at Coffeyville, Bill Dalton formed another gang with Bill Doolin. It was known as the Wild Bunch, or the Dalton-Doolin Gang.
Coffeyville bank robbery
Bob Dalton had ambitions. He would, he claimed, "beat anything Jesse James ever did—rob two banks at once, in broad daylight." On October 5, 1892, the Dalton gang attempted this feat when they set out to rob the C.M. Condon & Company's Bank and the First National Bank on opposite sides of the street in Coffeyville, Kansas.[8] Bob had planned the entire robbery. Emmett, however, was against the idea. He had gone to school at Robbins Corners near Coffeyville, and knew several hundred people in town. He was afraid some of his friends would be hurt, but Bob assured him there would not be any shooting, and that it would all be over before anyone knew what happened. The plan was that Bob and Emmett were to rob the First National Bank while Grat, Broadwell, and Powers robbed the Condon Bank across the street. Emmett thought Grat would mess things up if he went alone with Powers and Broadwell, and thought they should trade places. This led to a heavy argument between Bob and Emmett and created bitterness between them on the way to the robbery.
Bob had planned for the gang to tie their horses to a post behind the Condon Bank, where it was protected from the center of town by brick walls. They had not been to the town for several years, though, and the hitching post had since been removed during street work. Bob would not allow Emmett to check out the town beforehand in fear that he would be recognized, so this was not factored into their plan. When they arrived, Bob had to think quickly, and decided instead to tie their horses in an alley across from the bank to the west, near the city jail, which offered them little protection. This is now known as Dalton Alley.
On the morning of October 5, the gang emerged from the alley onto the plaza of Coffeyville. A storekeeper who was sweeping the sidewalk a few feet away noticed Bob, Emmett, and even Grat, who was wearing a fake mustache, and ran inside his store. In close order, the five crossed Walnut Street from the alley to the Condon Bank, holding Winchester rifles close along their legs. Grat, Broadwell, and Powers entered the Condon Bank and Emmett and Bob hurried across Union Street to the First National Bank. Street work was being done at the time, and one of the workers noticed the men dog-trotting across the alley with rifles, and began to yell, "The Daltons are robbing the bank!" Very soon, half the businessmen around the plaza knew what was going on, and the message quickly passed throughout the town.
Grat entered the Condon Bank and pointed his Winchester at the cashier, ordering his hands up, while Powers and Broadwell took positions at the door. Grat went to the back office and ordered the manager into the front, he then handed the cashier a sack bag and ordered him to fill it with cash from the money drawer. Then, noticing the vault door was open, Grat ordered both of them into the vault, where the safe with the gold was. When told to open the safe, the manager lied, telling Grat it was a time lock and that it would not open for another 10 minutes. Grat believed him and decided he would wait until it opened. He then ordered the bags of silver on the vault floor into his bag, containing $1000 and weighing about 200 lb.
Meanwhile, Emmett and Bob had entered the First National Bank, covered the officers and two customers, and ordered the cashier, Thomas Ayres, to open the safe with gold and cash. They put the gold into the sack, forced Ayres in front of them as cover, and went out the front door. They had planned to meet with Grat and cross the plaza to the alley, where they could make their escape, but word of the robbery had spread through town. As they exited the door, an American Express agent opened fire with his revolver. Bob and Emmett returned fire and left Ayres on the sidewalk. They turned around, and went through the back door, carrying both rifles and sack bags, while taking two other bank employees as cover.
Grat heard the revolver shots from the Express agent. He then decided the sack bag was too heavy to carry, and ordered the silver taken out, then stashed what cash he could fit into his coat pockets. Two hardware stores in the town had, meanwhile, begun passing out guns to the local citizens, who began firing through the windows at the Condon Bank. The three returned fire and held out, waiting for the time lock to open. Several citizens were wounded in the fighting.
When Emmett and Bob went out the back door of the First National Bank, they were met by Lucius Baldwin, who had been watching the door with his pistol. Bob ordered him to drop the gun, and when he failed to answer, shot him with his Winchester, killing him. Bob and Emmett then made their way to the end of the back alley onto Eighth Street, where they could hear the townspeople shooting at the Condon Bank. Outside of a drug store across from the First National, George Cubine was standing with his Winchester aimed at the front door of the bank, awaiting the exit of Bob and Emmett. Bob shot him in the head. Cubine's partner, Charles Brown, was standing unarmed next to him and went to pick up his Winchester. As he lifted the rifle up, Bob shot and killed him.
After being left on the sidewalk by Bob and Emmett, Thomas Ayres had run into one of the hardware stores and grabbed a rifle. He spotted Bob just as he had killed Brown and aimed his rifle at him from behind the store window. Bob saw Ayres from about 200 ft away and quickly shot him in the head. Ayres was not killed, but he remained paralyzed for life.
As bullets were showering into the Condon Bank, Powers told Grat he had been hit in the arm. Grat ordered the employees to lay on the floor in the back office, and after receiving the signal from Bob, told Powers and Broadwell that it was time to leave. The three went out the side door crouching and dashing across Walnut Street to the alley where they had hitched their horses. Bob and Emmett met Grat and the others in the alley, the sacks of money still over their arms.
As the Daltons made their way west down the alley towards the horses, Town Marshal Charles T. Connelly came through the livery stable into the alley and ran east towards the plaza without noticing the bandits behind him. Grat then shot him in the head and killed him. Following behind Marshal Connelly was John Kloehr, still in the stable. Grat noticed him, but before he could aim, Kloehr shot him in the throat.
Taking fire from the hardware store, Bob was hit in the head and the heart, killing him instantly. Powers tried to mount his horse, but shots from the store also killed him. Emmett was able to mount his horse unwounded, and began riding away, but after noticing Bob was hit, turned around and attempted to lift Bob onto his horse. Emmett was then hit in the back with a load of buckshot. Broadwell was hit several times, but managed to ride away. He was found 2 miles away, dead.
Bill Dalton and Bill Doolin had been waiting several miles away with extra horses to aid the gang's escape. After getting tired of waiting, they left, only to learn later the fate of the gang.[9]
Grat and Bob Dalton, Dick Broadwell, and Bill Powers were all killed. Emmett Dalton received 23 gunshot wounds and survived (he was shot through the right arm, below the shoulder, through the left – right, in some accounts – hip and groin, and received 18-23 buckshot in his back).[10] He was given a life sentence in the Kansas State Penitentiary in Lansing, Kansas, of which he served 14 years before being pardoned. He moved to Hollywood, California, and became a real estate agent, author, and actor, and died in 1937 at age 66. Bill Doolin, "Bitter Creek" Newcomb, and Charlie Pierce, none of whom was at Coffeyville, were the only members left of the original Dalton Gang.
Years after the robberies and his release from prison, Emmett Dalton said that the relentless pressure put on them by Deputy US Marshal Heck Thomas as he hunted for them was a key factor in his gang's decision to commit the robberies. They hoped that a big haul from the banks would allow them to leave the territory and escape Thomas' heat.
For a time, Bill Doolin and his partners operated under outlaw Henry Starr (Cherokee), hiding out about 75 miles northeast of Kingfisher, from where they made several raids. Doolin, Newcomb, and Pierce visited the Daltons' mother in Kingfisher to console her after her sons' deaths. Brothers Lit and Bill Dalton were also visiting their mother, and Doolin proposed that they join his group to avenge their brothers. Bill Dalton agreed to join them and soon took part in several robberies, but Lit refused in disgust. Henry Starr was arrested in 1893 and held for trial at Fort Smith.
As Doolin and Dalton were accepted as leaders of the gang, it became known as the Doolin-Dalton Gang, and also as the Wild Bunch. Dalton took part in several robberies with the Wild Bunch, including a gun battle on September 1, 1893, at Ingalls, Oklahoma Territory, where three deputy U. S. marshals were killed. Eventually, Dalton left Doolin to form his own Dalton Gang. On May 23, 1894, Dalton and his new gang robbed the First National Bank at Longview, Texas. During the robbery, one member of the gang and four citizens were killed in a shootout. This was the gang's only job. After the gang separated with their share of the loot, Bill hid out with his family in a cabin near near Elk, Indian Territory. A posse assembled by U.S. Marshal S.T. Lindsey in Ardmore, Oklahoma, tracked Bill to the cabin and surrounded it on June 8, 1894. Dalton escaped through a window at the back of the house, but as he ran through a patch of corn, was shot and killed by the deputy marshals.[11]
Lit, the last surviving Dalton brother, responded to a book written by his brother Emmett after the latter's death. Lit said that Emmett's book, When the Daltons Rode (1931), was largely fabrication. Emmett had denied accompanying Bob to California. On his death bed, Emmett told Frank Forrest Latta that he had robbed a train in California, and had used the alias William McElhanie. He asked Latta not to publish the information until after his death.[12]
In her unpublished novella, Grat Dalton's Ride, Eva Evans, the daughter of the infamous California outlaw Chris Evans, tells the story of Grat Dalton's escape from California after the Alila robbery. In it she implied that her father was the one who helped Grat Dalton escape from the Visalia Jail, lending credibility to an earlier claim made by Sheriff Gene Kay of this being true.
Dalton, Bill
Dalton Gang, memento, mori 1892
Bill Dalton
Dalton gang following the 1892 Coffeyville, Kansas raid. Left to right: Bill Powers; Bob Dalton; Grat Dalton, Dick Broadwell
Dalton, Emmett
Dalton, Frank
Emmett Dalton
Frank Dalton
Dalton, Grat
Bill Doolin body
Grat Dalton
Bill Doolin
Grat Dalton, Tulare County Jail Mugshot, 1891
James Lewis Dalton with sons Bob and Emmett 1876
Grat Dalton's mugshot, taken in the Tulare County Jail 1891
James Lewis Dalton with sons Bob (left) and Emmett (right), 1876
Law enforcement officers hold up the bodies of Bob and Grat Dalton
Littleton Dalton
Law enforcement officers hold up the bodies of Bob (23) and Grat (31) Dalton after the attempted bank robbery in Coffeyville, Kansas
Littleton "Lit" Dalton taken about 1888
Robert Bob Dalton c. 1889
Emmet at Dr. Wells After Coffeyville aid
Photo of Robert "Bob" Dalton circa 1889
Emmett (21) at the office of Dr. Walter Wells after the attempted bank robbery in Coffeyville
