Dalton Cabin

In 1889, the parents of the Dalton gang – Adaline Younger Dalton and James Lewis Dalton – planned to move to Oklahoma. Mr. Dalton died on the way, leaving Adaline with three young children to raise: Nancy, Leona, and Simon. An older, feeble-minded son named Charles Benjamin accompanied them.

They first lived in a dugout on the bank of Kingfisher Creek, a few miles north of Kingfisher. In 1892, Adaline or Ben exercised their homestead right and received land ten miles west of their original home. Ben lived on this farm, and Adaline remained on their original land.

In 1909 Adaline traded the improvements and leasing rights to this first farm and assumed a mortgage on land just north of the Gould Bridge, some seven miles east of Dover. Adaline and Simon moved to this location. Nannie and Eva May had already married, and Leona moved to Kingfisher about this time. This third homeplace for Mrs. Dalton is the one preserved on the grounds of the Chisholm Trail Museum.

Adaline lived here by herself until she moved to Kingfisher in 1919, where she lived with Leona until her death in 1925.

Leona made her living as a seamstress until her death in 1964. She was the last of the Dalton brothers and sisters to die. Today, seven Daltons are buried in the Kingfisher Cemetery, though only one, Emmet, was a member of the Dalton gang.

The Dalton Gang

The Dalton Brothers – Robert (Bob), Grafton (Graf), and Emmet Dalton – made a name for themselves in the west in only two short years. Their first robbery was in February, 1891, in Alila, California, and their last was in Coffeyville, Kansas, on October 5, 1892. In Coffeyville they tried to rob two banks at once, resulting in bob’s and Graf’s death. Emmet was severely wounded and later jailed. The three brothers never lived in this cabin.