Heroes & Outlaws by Velda Brotherton

INGALLS, KANSAS SEPTEMBER, 1893

THIS TIME AROUND I’M doing something a little different. Perhaps it can be called “Questioning the Validity of History.” Today we’re investigating Rose of Cimarron. Was she a real, flesh-and-blood woman? Or was she a fictional character invented to humor the press of the day? In this examination into the story of Rose Dunn, a player—or not— in what has become known as “The Ingalls, Kansas Battle,” I will question if she existed, and if she did, how was she involved between the remnants of the Wild Bunch and a huge posse of U.S. Marshals and Lighthorsemen from the Cherokee Nation?

Ever wonder where and how historians obtain their information? Often there’s nothing left of an event but stories here and there that disagree with each other. How do we pick the winner, the correct version? Good question. This is what we’re trying to figure out. We’ll see who agrees with what and who has a ripsnorting fit that I’m doing nothing but making it up.

That could be true, too, since my favorite form of nonfiction is creative... which means I’m allowed to create the dialog and internalization, sometimes the clothing, abode, and weather. I’m supposed to get the names, dates, places, and appearances in those places all correct. And then there are all those tales “based on fact or the truth.” Oh, how they wander.

This story is one that has been argued about for over a century now—if anyone cared a hoot about it in the first place. Others just read and enjoy without trying to guess the truth. For what in history can be sworn to as the absolute truth? Not a whole lot. For everyone sees and reports even their own experiences in a wide range of exaggeration.

Even some written records contain misspellings, incorrect dates, and names that are only marked with an X.

In writing the story of the Ingalls, Kansas, gunbattle, Richard S. Graves, author of the book Oklahoma Outlaws that accompanied showings of the 1915 photodrama Passing of the Oklahoma Outlaws, places a young woman by the name of Rose Dunn as present. As an avid Western historian, you’ll recall that the Dalton-Doolin Gang, perhaps better known as The Wild Bunch, suffered great losses earlier in Coffeyville, Kansas, where this clever gang decided to pull off something new and rob two banks at one time. The survivors of that stupid experiment chose Ingalls, Oklahoma, for their next try at becoming famous outlaws and attempted the same thing over again. It was September of 1893 when those left of the gang took to the streets of Ingalls against a huge posse of several U.S. Marshals, Cherokee Lighthorsemen, and various other posse members. Well, back to Oklahombres and the claim that The Rose of Cimarron appeared in the tale under the name of Rose Dunn. She shows up as the fourteen year-old sweetheart of George “Bitter Creek”Newcomb. According to Oklahombres Journal, the book and the movie filmed in 1915 about Ingalls and the Rose of Cimarron were written at the same time.

In this version, on the first day of September 1893, the six Marshals—Tilghman, Hixon, James Masterson, Lafe Shadley, Dick Speed, and A.H. Houston—led a posse to Ingalls for the purpose of capturing the Doolin gang who obviously didn’t keep their plans a big secret. They were caught separated in the two banks already making a mess of things. Again.

Aware of the gang’s plans, the lawmen entered the town in farm wagons so as not to raise suspicion. They located in different places and sent a messenger to Doolin asking that he surrender. He refused. The battle of Ingalls was on, the marshals and posse and outlaws fighting through the streets in the blood, the mud, and the beer.

The story goes that Rose was in Mrs. Pierce’s Hotel when she heard the battle break out. She raced to the room of her lover, grabbed up his Winchester, ran into the adjacent room of Arkansas Tom Jones—which was more holes than walls by this time due to a veritable hail of bullets. Searching all around, Rose ripped a bedsheet off the rumpled bed, tore it into strips, tied them together, and lowered Bitter Creek’s rifle and ammunition belt out the window, then fashioned her own escape and lowered herself out as well. Historians note there were no stairs, and the upstairs rooms could only be accessed via a ladder.

The plucky Rose did the one thing that made it possible for the outlaws to escape. Once on the ground, she carried Bitter Creek’s Winchester to him through a storm of bullets. Only a brave woman in love could have survived the wild race amidst the dead, the dying, the alive, and the shooting of outlaws and lawmen. Bitter Creek was badly wounded when she reached him, but she put the rifle in his bloody arms, and he started firing.

The Ingalls fight lasted more than an hour, and at the end dead men lay stacked in the street and in hiding. Marshals Houston and Speed were killed during that hour. Marshal Shadley met death later. According to this version of the story, those outlaws though wounded—Bill Doolin, Bill Dalton, Bitter Creek, Tulsa Jack, Dynamite Dick, and Little Bill— hid out in a cave, and Rose carried them medicines and bandages.

Coincidentally, Bitter Creek was killed in July 1895, by the Dunn brothers for the price on his head. Just for the money or Rose’s kin taking revenge? Another of those history mysteries. No further mention was made of Rose in connection with her so-called lover.

This shorter version might suit you better, though.

A beautiful young lady, known as the Rose of Cimarron, was in love with Bitter Creek Newcomb. On September 1, 1893, she was visiting with Mrs. Pierce, who operated the hotel at Ingalls, when a posse of law officers opened fire on the Doolin gang. She saw her sweetheart fall from the saddle when Deputy Marshal Dick Speed shot him. Seeing her wounded, unarmed lover lying helpless in the street in the blood, the mud, and the beer, she acted without hesitation or fear. She ran to an upstairs room to obtain Bitter Creek’s Winchester—remember the ladder? Then realizing that the doors of the hotel were covered by the lawmen, tied sheets together and let herself, with the rifle, out the window to the ground.

As she expected, the deputies held their fire while she raced across the street to aid and protect her fallen lover. Without fear, she turned her back on the paused gun battle to help Bitter Creek into the saddle, and he escaped. Rose had saved her paramour from sure death and nursed him back to health. How she reached him or if she stole a horse during the gunfight pause and rode after him, we’ll never know. Or we could create the ending, as goes creative nonfiction, since nothing can be proven anyway. In this version, the Rose of Cimarron’s identity remained anonymous, as the deputies would not reveal her name out of admiration for her bravery.

While making the movie, Graves, the author of Oklahoma Outlaws, stated in 1915, that Rose was a respected Christian woman, beloved as a wife and mother. As the script was enlarged to include these scenes, the cast was being gathered. Several cowboys from the Miller Brothers 101 Ranch Wild West Show acted in the movie. Marshal Tilghman took the role of the leading Deputy Marshal with Nix, Madsen, and Bud Ledbetter performing their true parts. Roy Daugherty (Arkansas Tom) had obtained a parole in 1910 with the help of relatives and friends (including Nix and Tilghman). Daugherty played his own role, the main scene being his marksmanship and surrender at the Ingalls hotel. That tells us that he did not ride away from the battle but was captured in his hotel room. Another of the versions I found did show him being left behind by his gang members when they split. Since the Jennings and O’Malley brothers were not invited to participate, Arkansas Tom was the only one of the old outlaws in the movie.

They started shooting the film in January 1915, going to several of the actual locations to duplicate the original action. The production progressed without any major problems, and in late March, they returned to Tilghman’s ranch near Chandler to record the final scenes. On March 27, 1915, as they neared the completion of the movie, they received word that Henry Starr had just been captured at Stroud (15 miles from Chandler). Henry Starr and his gang were making their getaway, after robbing two banks at Stroud, when Henry had been shot and captured. You’d think the Starrs would’ve seen how this didn’t work too well for the Wild Bunch, but it doesn’t take much intelligence to rob banks.

The Eagle Film Company immediately decided to use the Starr’s double bank robbery as the conclusion of their motion picture. Most claim that the Rose of Cimarron was created for the movie version of this fight and that she never existed at all. Did she or didn’t she? Does it really matter? Historians say yes but can’t prove her identity. Romantics say no—it’s the story that counts.

As to the bank robbery by Henry Starr at Stroud— said to appear in the movie—well, there’s a story for another day.

—VELDA BROTHERTON is an award-winning nonfiction author, novelist, and a founding partner of Saddlebag Dispatches. She lives on a mountainside in Winslow, Arkansas, where she writes everyday and talks at length with her cat.