The Dalton brothers were part of a large family headed by parents Adaline Younger Dalton and James Lewis Dalton. Lewis Dalton came west from Kentucky to Missouri during the late 1840's and in the 1850's, he was trading horses and running a saloon in Westport, Missouri (now Kansas City) when he married Adeline. Adeline's brother was the father of Bob Younger, Cole Younger and James Younger.
Most of their 15 children were born in Missouri before the family migrated to Indian Territory (now Oklahoma) in 1882.
In 1886, they moved again to a place near Coffeyville, Kansas. In this rough and wild area, the Dalton brothers inherited a tradition of violence on the bloody ground of the Missouri-Kansas border, where Quantrill's Raiders and other guerilla bands operated before and during the Civil War.
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