Did the Dalton Gang Come to Sanger

Did The Dalton Gang Come to Sanger?

Submitted by the Sanger Area Historical Society Article written by Idaleen Scheu Fuqua

In the autumn of 1919, the United States had just emerged from World War I and the edge of the “Roaring Twenties” was looming. Sanger was enjoying the post-war boom as three banks spied on one another from the intersection of Bolivar and Third Streets. The E.L. Berry bank to become the First National Bank (now offices for the City of Sanger operations), would become the oldest financial institution in town. The bank originally operated as the Farmers and Merchants Bank and was located on 4th Street in the Dunn Building and faced westward toward the Sanger city park. E.L. Berry and partners bought this bank and in 1905 it was chartered with the name of First National Bank and was then located at the Bolivar and Third Street location. The other two banks in that section of downtown were not to exist after several years.

Gary Rooming House

Fred Scheu, Santa Fe Station Agent in Sanger, working the “third trick” (shifts with the Santa Fe were called “tricks”). The railroad station depot was open twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week; they never closed and were very busy. Fred was well-known around town and always walked to work as there were few automobiles around.

On this particular day in 1919, Scheu and his wife were rooming at the Gary Rooming and Boarding House at the corner of Bolivar and Fifth Streets (home was originally owned by Dr. Ervin Howard, and his son and wife operated

as a boarding house for many years after Dr. Howard’s death. The two-story home was located just behind the current Sanger Museum but no longer exists.) As Harry Rucker, the station agent for the midnight trick arrived to relieve Scheu at the depot, he advised he thought something strange was going on “uptown” and to be careful walking home. He said he thought he saw some men go behind the Berry First National Bank building.

Scheu began his walk on the north side of Bolivar Street toward the boarding house westward from the railroad station passing the twostory wooden hotel known as the Burchard Hotel located next to Wilson’s Lumber Yard (now a vacant building at the northeast corner of Bolivar and Second Streets). As he crossed Second Street to the Sartin Store, the wagon yard was next to the Jones Picture Show (now known as Bolivar Street BBQ. Yes, this building was originally a movie theater.), and passed the bank building on the northeast corner (now where the attorney office is located). Across this intersection of Bolivar and Third Streets, there was an electrical wire strung across the intersection with a single lightbulb glowing in the night. Scheu saw someone standing just in front of the bank and as Scheu crossed the street, the man in the shadows lit a cigarette and attempted to act as normal as possible.

Fred had never seen the fellow in front of the

Burchard Hotel

As they entered the bank building, the vault inside the bank was still intact and the floor littered with cigarette butts and the smell of whiskey lingered.

First National Bank Building

bank building before, and as he crossed the intersection, he tipped his hat and passed by the man, kept on walking past the Dunn Building later to be the Gentle Hardware Store (burned in later years and now a vacant lot). Scheu crossed over to the front of the Wilfong Building and began running on the south side of Bolivar Street to the rooming house; just one short block away. He knocked on the door of Buck and Eula Gary’s room; Buck dressed in a hurry, grabbed his gun, and gave one to Scheu. There was no phone service in this year of 1919 which would not happen until the mid-1920s, so the two men made their plans; they would walk a block north on Fifth Street to the corner where the Berry family resided (which is now called the Pink House just across from the Sanger Park and now a residential home). Mr. Berry retrieved his gun and the gang of three crossed over the park and ran south behind the Wilfong Building to George Hughes’ home to get more support. And away they went, headed north up 4th Street.

These four men crossed Bolivar Street on Fourth Street and past Sullivan’s Furniture Store and Funeral Parlor, and ran down the alley off Fourth Street behind the building that would lead to the back of the bank building. What they found upon arrival in the alley were “warm calling cards” left behind by several horses, and in the still night, the air was strongly odorous.

No one ever saw who came to town that night except for Fred Scheu and Harry Rucker. They only saw the one man in front of the bank in dim light, but became apparent an attempted bank robbery had been in place at the time. The men must have realized they had been

Several days later an elderly lady living one block north at the corner of Third and Elm in a two-story home (no longer standing), went to her cellar to retrieve some of her canned goods and found several of the jars broken and parts of the contents had been eaten, and the rest littered the dirt floor with cigarette butts and empty liquor bottles. Her cow barn was littered with horse manure and bales of hay scattered as proof someone had been in town, but for what reason no one knows other than perhaps the attempted robbery of the bank. Rumors persisted this was the Dalton Gang who was famously known as bank robbers, but no one will ever know exactly who made this failed attempt to rob the Sanger bank.