The Dalton’s Raid on Coffeyville

This Day in Kansas History - October 5

The Dalton Gang was a notorious outlaw band that ran through Indian Territory (Oklahoma), Kansas and Missouri in the 1880s to early 1890s. The band was made up of brothers Bob, Grat, and Emmett Dalton along with Bill Doolin, Dick Broadwell, and Bill Powers. They had become the most feared outlaws in the west, but the gang wanted to do what no outlaw band had done before: robbing two banks at once. For the Dalton’s this was a way to outdo their outlaw cousins the Youngers who had ridden with Jesse James. However, when they rode into Coffeyville on that fateful day, they didn’t expect the towns citizens to rise up and defend their home but that is exactly what happened on October 5, 1892. The town of Coffeyville, Kansas was forever changed that day and as history remembers it brought an end to the Dalton’s reign of terror.

On October 4, 1892, the Dalton Gang camped outside of the small country town of Coffeyville with the intent of riding into town the following day to make history. They had it all planned out and were ready to strike. In the morning they rode toward Coffeyville and upon arriving realized that the first part of their plan would not work. They had planned to tie up their horses at the corner of 8th and Walnut but the street there had been torn up to make way for cobblestones. Due to this, they headed down an alley between the Mercantile and Slosson & Co. drugstore. There they tied up the horses to a hitching post and then wearing disguises, they made their way towards the C. M. Condon Bank and First National Bank which were directly across from each other. Sweeping the front of his store was Alex Mckenna who recognized one of the men by his well-known stride and the peculiar shape of the back of his head. Mckenna watched the five men split with Grat Dalton, Bill Powers, and Dick Broadwell entering the Condon Bank. Bob and Emmett made their way into First National Bank and Mckenna gave the call that the banks were being robbed. What happened next was nothing short of heroic on the part of the Coffeyville citizens, most of whom were Civil War veterans.

The citizens of Coffeyville were not armed nor was the Marshal, but the owners of Isham Bros & Mansur Hardware store and A.P. Boswell & Co. Hardware willingly gave out rifles and ammo to the citizens of the town. The citizens armed and ready to protect and defend their town waited for the Dalton Gang to leave the banks. Inside the banks the gang had managed to get into the vaults and clear them of cash. When they attempted to leave the first shots rang out and the battle began. When Grat, Dick, and Bill Powers tried to leave the Condon Bank they were ambushed by men at Isham’s hardware where Henry H. Isham the senior member of the store had taken up a Winchester rifle and stationed himself at the front of the store. He had an unobstructed view of the Condon bank and the alley across the plaza. An expert marksman, none of his shots missed their mark as both Grat and Bill Powers received mortal wounds within the first twenty steps out of the Condon bank. Meanwhile, at First National, Bob and Emmett went out the back of the bank. There, they ran into Lucius M. Baldwin who brandished a pistol and attempted to stop the brothers escape but instead Bob Dalton raised his weapon, a shot rang out, and 23-year-old Baldwin fell, becoming the first citizen to die.

Bill Powers attempted to take shelter at a store that adjoined the Condon Bank, but the door was locked. Keeping to his feet and clinging to his Winchester, he had just reached his horse in the alley when he was hit by another bullet in the back. He was the first of the gang to die, falling where he stood. Bob and Emmett had reached 8th Street and moved west to Union Street. It was at this corner that they saw George B. Cubine standing in the doorway of Rammel Bros. Drugstore. His gaze was fixed on the doors of First National Bank and in his hands was a Winchester Rifle. The Dalton’s fired four shots and 36-year-old Cubine fell dead with bullets through the heart, left thigh, and ankle. 59-year-old Charles Brown, a Civil War veteran, was just north of the drugstore and was the first to reach Cubine. When he saw that Cubine was dead he took hold of his rifle and turned to the slayers. Four more shots rang out from the Daltons guns and Mr. Brown fell dying just two feet from his friend.

Back in the alley, Grat had taken cover under an oil tank and made his way to the side of a barn on the south side of the alley. Here he was out of reach of the guns at Isham’s. He fired several wild shots while John J. Kloehr, a liveryman, Carey Seamen, and Marshal C.T. Connelly started up 9th Street to head off the robbers before they could reach their horses. Marshal Connelly had left his revolver at home that morning, but he found a small Winchester at Swisher Bros. machine shop. He made his way across a vacant lot and through an opening in the fence where he jumped into the alley facing the horses, leaving his back exposed to Grat Dalton. Grat raised his Winchester and without taking aim fired into the back of Marshal Connelly who fell just twenty feet from his killer. The 47-year-old Marshal would take his final breath as the battle came to an end. Wounded in the back, Dick Broadwell took cover in the Long-Bell lumber yard and attempted to mount his horse in the lull that occurred after Grat, and Bill fell. A bullet from Kloehr’s rifle and a shotgun blast from Carey Seamen hit him before he could ride 20 feet. He clung to his horse and rode out of town. His body was recovered on the side of the road later.

Bob and Emmett entered the alley at 8th Street almost at the same time that Marshal Connelly fell. When they reached the alley, they saw F.D. Benson climbing down through a rear window with a gun in his hand. They fired but missed Benson and Bob stepped into the alley looking to the top of the buildings. The men at Isham’s took deliberate aim at him and fired. Bob received severe if not fatal wounds but true to his nature he kept his gun and fired several times. His aim was unsteady, and the bullets went wild. He saw Kloehr and tried to shoot him, however he could not raise his Winchester to do so, and his shot missed. Bob then rose to his feet and took shelter alongside an old barn just west of the city jail. Bob fired two shots at his pursuers—both missed. Mr. Kloehr fired, and his aim was true as his bullet struck Bob Dalton square in the breast. Grat made a second attempt to reach his horse, but he made it only twenty feet when he made a fatal mistake. He stopped and turned to his pursuers to use his Winchester again, but John Kloehr’s rifle spoke its unmistakable tones again and Grat, the oldest member of the gang, fell with a bullet in his throat and a broken neck.

Emmet, who up until this time had remained uninjured, tried to mount his horse but then a half dozen riflemen fired their contents into him. He was able to make it into his saddle but instead of riding off he turned back to his dying brother Bob and tried to lift him up, but Bob whispered, “It’s no use.” Carey Seamen fired his shotgun and the contents of both barrels hit Emmett in the back. He fell from his horse and with him fell the $20,000 dollars that he and Bob had taken from First National Bank. He surrendered to the citizen who at first wanted to lynch him, but older and wiser men won out and Emmett was taken to the surgeon’s office with 23 wounds. Marshal Connelly was tenderly carried from the alley to an adjoining drug store. Unfortunately, he passed before they reached the place. The battle lasted just twelve minutes from the first shot to the last which resounded a victory for the town and its citizens.

The bodies of the dead bandits were picked up and carried to the city jail where a guard was placed over them. However, this did not stop people from taking trophies from the bodies such as the disguises that they wore, and pieces torn from their clothing. Emmett would survive his wounds and was sentenced to life in Kansas State Prison. He was released 15 and a half years later, after he married his childhood sweetheart and moved to California. He became a successful contractor and before his death at the age of 66 in 1937 he returned to Coffeyville and shook hands with the aging men who had tried to kill him on that October day. The bodies of Grat and Bob Dalton, and Bill powers were buried in Coffeyville. Dick Broadwell’s body was returned to Hutchinson, KS, where he is buried in an unmarked plot in Eastside Cemetery. Bill Doolin’s role in the raid has been lost to history but there are two theories. One is that his horse came up lame the morning of the raid and he went to steal another, telling his fellow bandits that he would meet them in town. However, as he rode toward Coffeyville, he caught word of the gun fight and turned riding back to Indian Territory. The second theory is that there was a sixth bandit in Coffeyville that day and that it was Bill Doolin. This theory says that Bill held on to the horses while the others went to rob the banks and when the gun fire started, he mounted his horse and escaped. What really happened that day to Bill Doolin may never be known but what happened to him after is well known. He started the Wild Bunch less than a month after the raid in Coffeyville. Bill Dalton rode with Doolin and the Wild Bunch from the end of 1892 until his death in 1894. Doolin was eventually killed in 1896 by the Marshal who for years had hunted the Dalton Gang. The four-citizen slain by the Daltons were given proper burials and mourned by the whole town. Marshal Connelly was buried at Mount Hope Cemetery in Independence, KS, Charles Brown was buried at Coffeyville’s Elmwood Cemetery on October 7. Lucius Baldwin was returned home to his mother in Burlington, KS where he was interred at Graceland Cemetery. George Cubine was buried in Coffeyville’s Elmwood Cemetery just like his friend Charles Brown.

Today, Coffeyville still honors her defenders with the Dalton Defender’s Museum and the original Condon Bank that still stands across from Isham’s Hardware. Visitors can tour the bank that appears just as it did on that October day. Isham’s Hardware store is the only other original store front on the square from 1892. Its current owners, only the second in the history of the store, will tell you the story of Isham’s and its role on that fateful day. The alley where the Dalton gang was brought down is now known as Death Alley and you can walk down it and see the story of that day in murals painted in old west comic style along with the original city jail and hitching post. Also in the alley is a stone plaque that rests where Marshal Connelly fell. Every October on the first full weekend they hold the Dalton Defenders Days to honor and remember the fallen. This year marks the 130th anniversary of that fateful October day when the Daltons rode into Coffeyville and this small, quiet, Midwest town went down in history as the town that brought down the Dalton Gang.