Seminole County, Oklahoma Historical Data   Officially, Seminole County was formed when Oklahoma became a state in November of 1907, prior to that time it was part of the Seminole Nation, Indian Territory. William Matthew Tilghman was serving as a  peace officer at the new old town of Cromwell, in Seminole County, on Saturday evening November 1, 1924. "Bill" Tilghman, as familiarly known throughout that part of the state which had been included in old Oklahoma Territory, was one of the most noted peace officers of the Southwest. Born in Fort Dodge, Iowa on July 4, 1854, he made his way out to the frontier of western Kansas while he was still a youth. There he drove cattle, hunted buffalo, went through a brief Indian war campaign and saw service as a peace officer at Dodge City, when that celebrated market for range cattle was reputed to be "wide open, wild and wooly," and served several years as marshal or chief of police. He came thence to Oklahoma in 1889, when the first lands of the Territory were thrown open to settlement, entering the service as a deputy United States marshal, at the time there was no other form of civil government yet established. His service in this capacity was continuous and arduous most of the time during the territorial period. He also served as sheriff of Lincoln County and subsequently represented his district in the State Senate. Still later, he filled the office of chief of police of Oklahoma City. In 1915 he and some of his friends became enraged over the Hollywood aspect of a glamorous west and they made a film depicting the times as they really were.  They starred in the film, Passing of the Oklahoma Outlaws (1915), as themselves and arranged to have a member of the Dalton gang named Arkansas Tom released from prison to act as a technical consultant. They met with some difficulty in getting the film shown--theater owners didn't want to show it because there were no name actors in it. Hollywood told them to put Tom Mix in it if they wanted it to sell, but Tilghman refused.  As a peace officer, his reputation for fidelity and fearlessness was untarnished. He traced his descent straight back in the direct male line to one of the founders of the colony of Maryland and he proved to be a worthy cion of the stock from which he sprang.  In 1924, some businessmen from the town of Cromwell, Oklahoma, contacted Tilghman, hoping to persuade him to accept the position of town sheriff. Cromwell was a virtual cesspool of crime: bootlegging, gambling and prostitution (many of the prostitutes being underage) were among the illegal activities going on, all under the protection of a corrupt federal Prohibition agent named Wiley Lynn. Cromwell was a booming oil town, and its citizens wanted Tilghman to run the "bad element" out of town in order to preserve its future; they didn't want the town to dry up when the oil did. Tilghman was reluctant at first, but finally took the job and promised to clean up the town. He made good on his promises, closing down gambling houses, arresting bootleggers and moonshiners and sending the prostitutes home to their families. This upset those in town who were running the various crime rings, including Wiley Lynn. One night as Tilghman was having dinner with friends at Ma Murphy's restaurant, Lynn showed up. He claimed he had a warrant, and was coming in to clear out the underage girls who worked there, dancing with lonely men. He was brandishing a pistol, and according to witnesses was either drunk or high on cocaine. As Tilghman and his deputy attempted to disarm Lynn, he pulled out a .22-caliber pistol and shot Tilghman in the mid-section. He escaped, while Tilghman lay dying on the boardwalk. A doctor was summoned, and a friend fetched Tilghman's young wife and children. The doctor was unable to save him, and Tilghman died on a table in Ma Murphy's, surrounded by his friends and family on November 1, 1924 (in 1925 Wiley Lynn was tried for and acquitted of Tilghman's murder, but was dismissed from federal service. In 1932 he was shot and killed by an agent of the Oklahoma Bureau of Investigation). BACK ©2007 Genealogy Trails