William M. "Bill" Tilghman, Jr., was born July 4, 1854, in Fort Dodge, Iowa. Two years later the family moved to a Kansas farm. By age sixteen he hunted buffalo, due to the lucrative market for buffalo hides. Operating from Fort Dodge, Kansas, Tilghman scouted for the army until 1877, when he was appointed deputy sheriff of Ford County, Kansas. That same year he married a widow, Flora Kendall, and began a small ranch on a homestead near Dodge City. Through the years he operated two saloons in Dodge, and in 1884 he was appointed city marshal, ably serving the famous cattle town for two years. In 1888 Tilghman became involved with the Wichita County, Kansas, seat war, killing Ed Prather on the Fourth of July in a saloon fight. The following year Tilghman was hired by one of the factions in the Gray County, Kansas, seat war.
Attracted to the Land Run of 1889, Tilghman located a claim near Guthrie, Oklahoma Territory. After the Cherokee Outlet Opening in 1893, while he was working as a peace officer in the boomtown of Perry, he killed a troublemaker called Crescent Sam on September 17, 1893. During this period Tilghman moved his wife and four children to a stud farm near Chandler.
