so said my Aunt Tess
INTRODUCTION
Many books have been written about the Dalton Gang and most of them are just clones of one another and have no basis in fact. I believe that by far the most authoritative volumes ever written on these brothers is one entitled, "Dalton Gang Days" by Frank Latta. Mr. Latta conducted detailed comprehensive research in which he actually interviewed Dalton family members and others who had been personally involved with the boys’ saga. His introduction states the following regarding my grandfather, Laughlin Mc Donald and his brother Michael, “Little by little , here and there, fragments of authentic history were brought to light by the author…some of which came from the Mc Donald Brothers of Estrella, neighbors of the Daltons, when the Alila job was done.”
NEW NEIGHBORS
Various members of the infamous Dalton family visited or resided on the Estrella (San Louis Obispo County, CA.) starting in the latter part of the 19th century. In 1887, William, 26, one of twelve Dalton children, rented the Cotton Ranch, 500 acres owned by Judge Cotton of San Francisco, and directly across the Estrella River from the McDonalds, also a quarter mile from his brother-in-law, Clark Bliven. That same year, William's brother, Littleton, started operating a saloon in San Miguel, a business he had for over a year and a half.
Bill
In his book Badmen of the West Robert Elman summarizes well the predicament that was Bill Dalton’s fate:
“Bill Dalton established a ranch in California, married and entered politics (the Populist Party). He might have remained the sixth respectable male Dalton (five members of this family were law-abiding) if Bob and Grat had not come visiting while Fort Smith deputies (federal marshals) were combing the Nation for them-and if Bill Dalton himself had not become embroiled in a Populist fight with the railroad backed political machine” ( this further collaborates my belief that the Dalton’s Alila train robbery was justified by the local farmers because of their well-known hatred for the S.P. Robber Barons).
Stephen Ambrose, historian,
and best selling writer and author of The Men who Built the Transcontinental Railroad, stated, “ The professors of American history nearly all insisted that the robber barons were exactly what the two word description means. The directors who constructed the Union Pacific and the Central Pacific were thieves who worked directly in collusion with the Republican Party and politicians in Congress. They made obscene profits in building the roads and by overcharging the farmer shipping his grain or the passenger going from Chicago going to California.”
From time to time, and sometimes for weeks at a time, Will's brothers Cole, Grat , Bob , and Emmett , would board with Will. This was as early as 1888. While there, they would make visits to Littleton's Bar and bring back large quantities of liquor. Bob and Emmett's last visit to their brother was on October 15, 1890. This time they stayed. Grat arrived in the middle of January,1891.
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From left to right:Emmet,Grat and Bob Dalton
In a later trial Grat would testify that he came west to warn Bob and Emmett that eastern lawmen were looking for them.
Aunt Tessie's Recollections
Aunt Tessie gave this account of the arrival of the Daltons: “When I was in my teens back in the '90's (actually she was only ten or eleven then) we lived on a large wheat ranch near Paso Robles, We were a big family and all had work to do. There were no close neighbors and few pleasures. One evening Father came in from the field and told us that a family had moved in across the river. We were all excited at this news. ‘I do hope they will be neighborly,’ my mother said. ‘It would be so nice to run over for a starter of yeast, and sit down and chat a bit,’ That was how we came to know the Dalton Gang who later became the famous or infamous Dalton Gang.”
Aunt Kitty's Recollection
Cousin Marcia Linstrum recalls Aunt Kitty telling how grandma used to exchange pies with Mrs. Dalton, Jane Bliven, who originally came from Livingston in the San Joaquin Valley. Will and Jane had two children;, "Chub" and Gracey.
Uncle Allen recalled that Bill Dalton always wore big white chaps. Once Bill scared Allen who was about six at the time by untying his mare colt and pretending to ride off with it. Allen chuckled when he told me this and said he cried plenty when Bill teased him.
In his book, " Dalton Gang Days”, Latta tells of their first criminal act in 1889, followed by the arrest and subsequent acquittal of brother Grat at Fort Smith, Arkansas in the spring of 1890. The writer then describes the gang's disappearance from their usual haunts, only this time, Bob, he and Emmett thought it prudent to make themselves scarce for awhile at the theatre of their recent crimes and, obeying some invitation—perhaps from their brother Bill, settled in California- disappeared suddenly from the east side of the Rocky Mountains and were heard and seen no more around their natural hangouts.
The A1i1a (Earlimart), California robbery which Bob and Emmett committed not occurring until February of 1891, would have provided almost a year for the younger Daltons to reside in San Luis Obispo County.
Good Neighbors
Aunt Tessie continued “They were good neighbors, (Bill had never been in trouble. He had always been a respected farmer and politician. He, and much later, Emmett were the only Daltons to marry.) The Daltons farmed on a small scale and often exchanged tools with my father. Their fine team of matched grays could pass any team on the road, and their saddle horses were trained to come at a whistle”.
On Saturday nights all the neighbors would gather for a dance and box supper at the schoolhouse. (The four community centers for dances and "literary societies" were Pozo, Annette, The Pleasant Valley School and Estrella.) We usually danced waltzes to the strains of music from a tinny old piano. The two-step was just coming into vogue. At one of these socials, young Emmett Dalton asked me to dance with him. He was a handsome boy, very polite, and I was delighted to be his partner.
Mrs True's Recollection
Mrs, True, a San Miguel descendant, heard of the Daltons. She said her husband, when reminiscing about his boyhood days, would tell of the time he rode to Paso Robles on his favorite horse. Traveling alone, he met two of the Dalton Brothers. After exchanging greetings with him, the Daltons asked Charles if he wanted to trade horses. Charles answered politely in the negative and rode on without difficulty. The Daltons were rough on horses. They would ride so hard they would almost kill a horse in two hours.
Grat Dalton spent all night one night with Loughlin's cousin Ronald who lived nearby
Another early pioneer recalled his parents' recollections of the Daltons thusly:
“On Saturday nights Bill Dalton and his buddies used to make life pretty miserable for the people who lived on the river road (Estrella). Dalton and his somewhat shady friends would start out for the town of San Miguel for a night of fun and relaxation. On the way to and from town things got pretty loud, shooting, yelling and just plain ornery. One family, the Weirs, moved off the River Road and down Ranchita Canyon to get away from it.”
Yet another pioneer descendant, MyrtleMcCane, told the following tale:
The Local Constable
“My father William Weir (mentioned above) was constable in the Estrella district of the Paso Robles judicial township under judge William R. Cooley during the years 1886-1890. At the time the Daltons had a home on the Estrella River Road across from what would become the site of the Phillips School (adjoining Michael's ranch).
My parents were married in 1889 and lived in the old Platt Place on the river road between Estrella and San Miguel. Many times the Daltons would ride by the place at breakneck speed shooting as they rode. Different times they shot over the house. My father kept a gun inside the door where it was easy to get to because he felt it was uncertain what they might do, One time in San Miguel Bill Dalton was going to make my father ride one of the Dalton horses which were impossible for anyone but a Dalton to ride. My father finally won the argument by not riding the horse.”
Kudos for Emmett and Bros.
Emmett Dalton, according to Mrs. McCane, was the most civilized of them.
“When my father's brother died at home in Estrella, Emmett went with a horse and buggy to the Platt Place for my mother to take her there.
At another time, my mother met Mrs. Dalton, Bill's wife, and considered her to be a very likeable person. When father's mother was sick, my mother and little brother rode on a grain train to Estrella with the brother-in-law of Bill Dalton, Mr. Bliven.”
The Bailey family like most others on the Estrella had kind words to say about the Daltons.
“William Bailey, whose health was failing with advancing age, was too sick one year to plow his fields”, according to an article written by Dorothy Lowe. “It was his friends and neighbors, the Daltons, who finished their own fields one day, took down his fences, drove their own team in and plowed the Bailey fields”.
Mr. Tulley, who had been clerk of the Estrella Adobe Church for 40 years, said he could remember services being interrupted by the sound of the Dalton Brothers practicing their shooting. He also added that they never came to church.
Dance Night on the Estrella
Apparently, another Dalton was a dance buff. According to an account in a local history book, “It was a pouring rain that Christmas Eve in 1889, in San Miguel, but not enough to dampen the spirits of those who gathered at the San Miguel Athletic Club for the first annual grand ball. San Miguel was feeling very chipper in those days. It was the first town in the county to be reached by the railroad, and the editor of the newly established newspaper (the town only had a paper for the previous six months) was suggesting it might be a good idea for San Luis Obispo, north of Cuesta, to form its own new county. with San Miguel as the county seat. One of the newcomers who rode into town that night for the dance was Mr. Dalton (probably would have been Bill or Littleton), He was one of the Dalton Brothers' mid west outlaws. There is a story that Bob and McElhanie Dalton (an alias of Emmett Dalton's) once hid out at the Estrella house of Will's.
The only record Dalton left was his name "Dalton" signed on Bell Courier's dance program that night on December 24, 1889.” The dance program was donated to Mrs. Dart, San Luis Obispo County Museum Curator, and can be seen on exhibit there today.
Tough Dudes
Uncle Allen recalls how the Dalton boys would hang a piece of buck hide to a tree, and then they would all ride by shooting at this target. Truman heard the boys would shoot at the tree from their plow when they passed. Allan recalled that there were over one hundred bullet holes in that old oak in the middle of the Dalton ranch.
George Stockdale relates that one of his uncles used to pal around with one of the Daltons, One day, according to George's uncle, the sheriff rode up and asked this fellow whether he wasn't a Dalton. The latter quickly disarmed the sheriff, removed his gun belt and cartridges and threw everything on the ground, He then said, "You didn't see any Daltons, now get out of here," and the sheriff quickly rode off, sans his armament. It should be pointed out that the Dalton family had eight boys and five girls. Mr. Dalton, in Oklahoma, was a confirmed race horse gambler and when the boys were young he used to bring several of them and his rag tail nags to California to travel with him all over the Central Valley. They came in contact with many rogues.
Frank Latta, Dalton Biographer
Frank Latta, author of “Dalton Gang Days”, interviewed Michael’s sons, Ronnie and James Mac Donald, on a couple of occasions. They told Latta that even though their father liked the Daltons, he had become suspicious of some of their behavior. In particular, he felt something was wrong when the Daltons couldn't get enough ammo in San Miguel and Paso Robles, and they would ride all the way into San Luis Obispo and buy large amounts of cartridges. Now wheat ranching wasn't that lucrative in those days and anyone who would have enough money to buy large quantities of 45-60's, which was what they used because of their weight and accuracy, was suspect as this ammo cost $1 a box, even then. Murdock's sons took Latta in the latter’s Model T to the Cotton Ranch where the Daltons farmed and told him how the gang fired thousands of rounds against the Estrella River bank at night. They told him that Bill would roll a can down the gulch into the darkness and kept it going just by the sound. Latta told me that Bill Dalton had the reputation of being one of the finest rifle shots in the San Joaquin Valley. Author Frank Latta possessed the trick Winchester which Bill used. It had a safety which worked in reverse, that is, it shot only when the safety was on. Bill, their brother, and others verified the fact that Bob and Emmett always carried guns, even when driving a plow. Bill claimed it was because they feared arrest. Frank recounted talking to Ronald and James. "They were men who didn't tell you something until they had thought it out. The brothers would take turns answering my questions."
Carousing Around
During their prolonged visit to brother Bill's place and prior to the Alila robbery, the Dalton boys drove mule teams for Blevin, Bill’s partner and brother-in-law, but only for a few days at a time. The rest of the time they spent in poker games in San Miguel, Paso Robles and San Luis Obispo, getting into a dozen or more fist fights. At the Dalton trials in Visalia, Steve Moody said Bob and Emmett were always armed while working on the ranch, Both Bill and Littleton worked with their brothers for a month trying to get them to settle down and go to work.
Late on the afternoon of January 28th Bill borrowed a neighbor, Frank Halter’s, saddle after trying to borrow one from Halter's boss, Mr. Brewster. In doing so, he told Halter he was taking his brothers to Salinas where he had gotten them a job. Emmett and Bob had been driving a plow of Bill’s that day. Gratton, the oldest of the boys, had been doing very little except a little cooking on the ranch. After visiting one of the McDonalds in order to borrow some money, Bob and Emmett took off on horses which had been unhitched from the plow team and Grat and Bill left in a buggy. It was nearly 5:00 p.m. Apparently Bill returned home shortly thereafter.
The Saddle Incident
Harry Wilmar an Estrella pioneer gave me this detailed description of the incident surrounding the Halter saddle incident and how it tied into the train robbery. "I got it from the horses mouth as it were when old pioneer Frank Harter was a guest of the Rotary Club Pioneer dinner around fifty years ago. At that time he was still living on his ranch in the Estrella region. He told of one of the younger Dalton boys borrowing his rather fancy saddle for the weekend. At that time it was customary to fasten fancy ornate pendants called trapaderos on each stirup. Such ornaments were on Halters saddle and he was quite upset when one of them was missing when the saddle was returned a few days later. Such a trapadero was the only clue found at the robbery, as described below, and when it was circulated Halter immediately recognized it as the missing pendant and the arrests followed." Wilmar went on to say, "The Dalton boys were highly respected customers of my Dad's in the grain and lumber business in San Miguel in those days."
Alila Train Robbery
Nine days later, a Southern Pacific train robbery was committed in Tulare County.
The following is the manner in which the San Luis Obispo Tribune reported the Alila train robbery in a February 1891 edition: “Reports reached San Francisco Tuesday about the attack of a gang of train robbers upon the Southern Pacific train the other day in Tulare County which was so bravely repelled by the express messenger but which resulted in the death of the fireman . , . What became of the suspects seems to be a profound mystery. The parties were identified and tracked down and the officers were on the trail when suddenly in the vicinity of Chalome, (west of Alila and sixteen miles east of Estrella), traces of the men utterly disappeared. They had vanished as if the earth swallowed them. It is thought that they must be in hiding in the immediate vicinity and their arrest wil1 probably occur in a few days.”
Later that month the same paper reported, "The chances are that they have made their escape for good and by this time are rusticating in the wilds of Mexico. Either Loughlin or Michael, Latta doesn't specify which, became intimately involved in the boys' escape from California. The boys had apparently been in hiding for several days. Emmett Dalton in “How the Daltons Rode” tells how Bob and he were concealed in Bill's home when the Southern Pacific detective came to arrest them for the Alila (today called Earlimart) train robbery. Emmett wrote; “McDonald, another of Bill's neighbors, came jogging over. He spoke with tactful concern. ‘You boys know Ed O’Neil, the Sheriff (Bill Dalton had managed O'Neil's campaign for office), Well, I just passed him and another fellow down the road heading this way. Kinda figured you boys would tike to know that. Them two didn’t look like they was riding around for their health,’ McDonald looked at Bob and Emmett curiously. More he would not permit himself to say, but he managed to make his circumspect warning clear. In such fashion Bob and Emmett got the first alarming inkling they might be suspected of the Alila train robbery. Soon all Central California was awash with the cry, "The Daltons did it," (It's important in terms of accuracy to mention here that Littleton Dalton in his interview with Frank Latta denied this account.) The man riding up the road with Sheriff O'Neil was Bill Smith, an express company detective with a huge reputation. They were heading for Bill's ranch house, The two came into the house. Bob and Emmett had quickly climbed up into a garret through a trap door they had rigged earlier before they left for Alila, They had a bed to lay on in the attic as they realized they must be perfectly quiet. They immediately lay down on the bed with their six shooters in hand and their feet toward the trap door. Bob told Littleton later, ‘If Smith had put his head up through the trap he would have stopped two 44's.’ “
Emmett continued: “Questioned, Bill Dalton insisted that his brothers had left the state, and then, with impish humor invited the two officers to remain all night. Frank Latta described Bill as a guy who would tell you a lie and then tell you ten more to prove the first one. But Frank, like most others, including Loughlin McDonald, defended Bill as a good man, a guy who enjoyed kidding but was turned bad by circumstances. Henry Twisselman heard it said that the sheriff saw extra plates at the dinner table but said nothing about them. Henry was told that the sheriff knew the Daltons had been good to everyone in the area and he wasn't too interested or maybe he was afraid to confront them. Henry lived on property adjoining Lauchlin Mc Doanald’s cousin Jon Mac Isaac’s ranch in Cholame. Henry was a pall bearer for three of Murdock’s children, Bell, Ron and James.
“O'Neil was rated one of the best guitar players in the county, and Bill ran him a close second. After supper, they eased off for a little music—Smith paraded across the room nervously, interrupting with leading inquiries about Bob. The gist of these, incorporated into his answers, Bill Dalton spoke so loudly that the boys in the bedroom could surmise what was going on and from time to time Bill contrived certain phrases in his carefully selected tunes in such a way as to warn the boys ... of fireworks. Finally the lawmen went to bed and Smith snored, keeping Bob and Emmett awake in the attic all night.”
The next morning the two officers saddled up and rode away. Mom told Phyllis of posses coming around their ranch for several days looking for the Daltons. Undoubtedly, among these were the Tulare County sheriff Eugene Kay and Ford, his deputy, the two lawmen who eventually chased Bob and Emmett for thousands of miles all over the Southwest. A September 1893 article in the Paso Robles Moon verified the oft told story about the Dalton Brothers hiding in Will's attic while the police slept below. It was obvious this author took great glee in chiding the constabulary for the way they were hoaxed. The San Luis Obispo Tribune meanwhile continued to trace the boys' adventures and said, "William Dalton, it will be remembered, was quite a politician and cut a large swath in the last Democratic County Convention." Bill Dalton, Grand Uncle Murdock, and another gent were Estrella's delegates to the Biennial County Democratic (or perhaps, Populist) Convention in September of 1890, Aunt Tessie gave this account of the boys' departure: “A few days later (following the dance she mentioned above), the Southern Pacific Express was robbed at Alila (February 6, 1891) in Tulare County, many miles east of our ranch. Father told us he had been talking to the sheriff in town and learned that the Dalton boys were under suspicion as they had been in some saloon brawls in Fresno and Bakersfield. Sheriff O'Neil was fat and slow, By the time he had gathered a posse and arrived at the Dalton ranch, the boys were gone. Later we heard of their involvement in many holdups. Actually, the gang's trail was picked up by the police when they found spurs at a camp were three strangers had been loitering before the holdup, As the authorities pressed their inquiry, it was learned that the stirrups had been borrowed by Bill from a neighbor with the explanation that his brothers needed them.” Helen heard that the Daltons borrowed horses from Laughlin and Michael and returned them later by rail.
Dalton Gulch
Belle told Truman that Belle told Truman that Michael hid horses in what was called Dalton Gulch up behind the pump on Michael’s ranch until the sheriff left. (This may have been the same gulch, on the back of Michael's property where the gang practiced their sharp shooting.) Dalton Gulch is located about 300 yards to the left of the cluster of trees above which was the location of Michael’s homestead before PG and E put in the power lines.
Loughlin and Michael gave them horses and the children brought them food while they hid up the gulch, “My grandmother, Florence Mc Donald told me about her taking meals in a bucket to the Daltons when they were hiding in Dalton Gulch,” said John Wapple , great grandson of Michael. “She also said that her father, Michael, told the sheriff that he hadn’t seen the Daltons while the Daltons were actually hiding in Dalton Gulch.
Grandma's Bro
“Later the boys rode to Parkfield where they left the horses in the stockyard where Michael picked them up later” according to my late cousin Truman Mc Donald. Frank Latta claims the Daltons later got fresh horses and a saddle from Mary's brother, Frank McAdam. According to Latta, Bob and Emmett hid out by Bill's place for two weeks before they could escape on Frank McAdam's horses. They cut through the hills over a back road and reached the McAdam place before morning, bedding themselves down in the barn. They borrowed three horses and two saddles. John McAdam was my grandma's younger brother who had 160 acres he homesteaded in Cholame, 16 miles east of Estrella. It is possible that it was John who loaned the horses rather than Frank. Julia Murphy, Johnny's daughter, recalls hearing her dad talk about this. Leah Rowe, Tom McAdam's granddaughter remembers her grandmother telling her that two Daltons rode up and asked her to feed them, which she did, even though frightened. This was probably when she and Tom lived in Hanford. She said they were friendly, polite and thanked her. Could it be that brother Frank (or John) sent them there after they left his house and before they headed out of state? Here is how Latta related the visit with the the Mc Adams,” Finally Mason(Bill) got the loan of some horses that were on pasture at Frank Mc Adams place in Bitterwater Valley, almost on the line between San Luis Obispo and Kern Counties. He hitched his driving mare to the buggy and took Bob with him. Starting shortly after dark. Emmett rode the new saddle on a mule. They cut through the hills over a back road and reached Mc Adam’s place before morning, bedding themselves down in the barn. Mason and Bob told the man in charge of the stock they were going to the Carizo Plains to look for farming land and wanted to borrow three horses and two saddles. The story satisfied the man so he let them have the stock, also one saddle which belonged to Frank (John?) Mc Adam. Well the boys were all fixed except for a third saddle. They told the man at the Mc Adam’s ranch that they would borrow a saddle from a neighbor and left, Emmett riding one of the horses with blanket and surcingle (whatever that might be)”
Hideout
Several years back a friend of the late Don McMillan ran across a cave on the banks of the Estrella. He claimed it had words written on the walls. By the, time he took Don and his wife there to explore it, a big storm had come and caused slides. The cave wasn't to be found. Don and Frank Latta believe this might have been where the Daltons had hidden. Uncle Allen partly confirmed this by recalling that the boys hid up a canyon for three days. (this is probably Dalton Gulch described above). In March of '91, during a grand jury investigation in Tulare County. Bill Dalton acknowledged having taken his two brothers to a mountain hiding place. This event does coincide with what the record shows for Bob and Emmett after leaving Cholame headed for Hanford, according to Frank Latta and stayed with a man named Joe Middleton. They stayed until late afternoon and then headed for a friend's place in Fresno. While in Hanford, I suspect they visited Tom McAdam's place. Finally, they left Fresno for the Oklahoma Territory. Later while Will was hiding out, prior to his trial in Visalia, his mother sent a check to a "woman" resident of Hanford to get to Bill in his hideout. Could this too have been Mary Mc Adam? Their last crime was robbing two banks simultaneously in their hometown of Coffeyville, Kansas. The community's citizens became aroused and cornered the gang. Two of the brothers were killed; Emmett was felled with sixteen buckshot but survived, was arrested and served a fourteen year prison term. On October 6, the San Luis Obispo Tribune carried the following headline: "The Dalton Gang is no more!"
Will was shot to death later as part of another gang and was buried in Turlock, When Emmett first returned to California, and before he moved to Los Angeles, he accidentally met Loughlin in Oakland on 14th St. in front of Montgomery Ward’s department store. They recognized each other immediately and had dinner together.
Emmett Returns
Aunt Tessie continued; "When I saw Emmett Dalton again it was in 1937; he was 67 at the time. He was living in Los Angeles, a respected contractor and realtor. He gave me an autographed copy of his book, “When the Daltons Rode." One old-time pioneer claims Emmett came back to Paso Robles as a realtor and told someone, "I'm as big a robber as ever, but now it's legal."
Biographers of the Daltons state that Emmett became quite a bore in Hollywood circles where he produced two low-budget films on the boys' exploits. He irritated everyone by trying to exploit his past. Frank Latta interviewed Emmett after his prison term. Emmett wanted Frank to write a book falsifying many actual details in order to make Emmett took good, Frank refused. Truman McDonald related an interesting aspect of Bob Dalton's personality. He didn't like to talk to anyone until he could sit on a fence and look down on them. Apparently, he had an advanced case of inferiority complex. It is important in recording this section on the Daltons to relate what Frank Latta, their biographer, told me: “Loughlin and Michael didn't hold anything back about the Daltons—Loughlin and his bro were not ashamed of anything they had done for them.”
Uncles Allen says, "The Daltons farmed an adjoining ranch and got along pretty well with my dad. They traded lots of tools." It's no wonder that most of the neighbors liked the Daltons. At this time farmers hated the railroads for their excessive freight rates and probably relished any act, such as a train robbery, which hurt the railroad and particularly Leland Stanford.”
Michael Magliari in his Dissertation entitled, “The Farmer’s Alliance and People’s Party in San Luis Obispo County” articulated this hatred for the railroads, “ The great railroad companies and the banks and the gold standard became for the Populists their chief symbols of corporate plutocracy and the main targets of their ‘moral outrage’.” Uncle Allen remembers Laughlin hooking up his spring wagon and driving one hundred and fifty miles to Grat and Will's trials in Visalia where Loughlin served as a witness. Latta had a long talk with Loughlin at the trial. Loughlin told him about the rifle and pistol practice at night. "It didn't look good to McDonald and he said he was glad when Bob and Emmett were gone." Most people who knew him felt that Bill Dalton was basically a good man. He might have been somewhat naive as he worked hard at trying to convert Grat, Bob and Emmett. But Will, too, turned bad eventually, most probably due to his brothers’ influence. Robert Elman in his book, “Badmen of the West” iterated: “Many of the areas ranchers hated the Southern Pacific for its enormous land grabs.”
Belle told Truman thatGrat was tried and found guilty of assisting his brothers, who by this time were back east; before he could be sentenced, he broke out and joined the others. Ulman stated,” Grat decided that railroad politics and his past record made his chances of being acquitted poor, so he broke out of the county jail with two other prisoners. Until spring he lived in a cave with other escapees subsisting on game and on food brought by ranchers” (It may be the author confused Grat’s place of shelter with that used earlier by his brothers, but yet again, perhaps both groups used Dalton Gulch).
Visalia Trial
In October of 1891, Will Dalton was brought to trial in Visalia. One of those testifying for William was his wife. During her testimony she related that before the brothers left Will's house on their fateful journey, they had gone to "McDonalds" to borrow some money. She never indicated whether they got it. In addition to Loughlin, who rode over to testify on his neighbor's behalf, several other Estrellians showed up. One of these friends was Steve Moody who related that he had taken a band of fifteen horses over to Frank McAdams place in Bitterwater for pasturing purposes. He told how while he was there the Daltons borrowed some of the horses. Bob Dalton was the first to ask for the livestock. Steve admitted he had given one of Frank's saddles to Bob (it should be noted that Steve himself would serve a term in San Quentin in 1894). William Root from Estrella stated at the trial: “I saw the defendant (Bill) and Bob and Emmett at McAdams place where they came to get the horses. I saw them in the barn and they were in the act of getting up. Will was armed, he had on a six shooter. They remained in the barn about a quarter of an hour. I left before they did. After they had their dinner (at McAdams) they went back in the barn. Bob had two pistols and Emmett had only one. Steve Moody was talking to them. I took dinner at McAdams that day. Bill was at the first table and I at the second. Bill said he was dodging the law and had been there two days.”
Oliver Perry, who a couple of years later would be one of the founders of Phillips School along with the Mc Donald Bros. testified regarding the Daltons' evasion of the lawmen at Bill’s place. “Will showed me a trap door in a closet through which the brothers escaped to a garret when the officers were after them. He asked if I didn't think it was well arranged. He said his brothers slept above in the garret while the officers were down below.”
One of the last to testify at the trial was Loughlin: “I live in San Luis Obispo County and am a farmer. I know the defendant and know the place where he lived. The ranch adjoins mine on the south. I met the defendant in the fall of "89". From the time he came there I knew him up to the time of the attempted train robbery at Alila; during that time his reputation for honesty and integrity was good.” (Will was a Democrat and an active member of the Farmer’s Alliance. He and Laughlin both belonged to the local Key’s sub alliance in the Key’s School district just East of San Miguel)
On cross-examination he further clarified their relationship: “Myself and my brothers own almost five thousand acres and the defendant and Mr. Blevins farmed about 2,000 acres. The county is sparsely settled until you get back in the hills where there is quite a large settlement. We discussed his (Bill's) reputation in the Farmers Alliance and also in a political convention and we sent him as a delegate from both sides.”
Because of the popularity of the Populists Party and Loughlin’s and Michael's membership in this movement in 1891, it is believed Will was probably a delegate to the convention with Michael. The Populists despised the railroaders and this may have been part of the motivation for the railroad robbery.
Neighbor W. F. Snead testified, as did H, W. Thyne, The latter's testimony was succinct and illustrated the fundamentalist philosophy of these farmers. "The only bad thing I heard about him was he a bottle of whiskey when teamin.
Bill's neighbors must have made the difference for, unlike his brother, Grat, Bill was acquitted on October 10. However, later he was arraigned in San Luis Obispo for stealing a saddle from a Paso Robles farmer and deputy constable Huston (John?). Bail was set at $500, Almost immediately, Grandma’s brother, John Mc Adam, and a gentleman by the name of M. B, Jackson came forth with the bail money, being loyal Dalton supporters (perhaps naively so!). Arraignment was set for October 30th and when the day came, Bill had skipped town so his loyal supporters lost their $500. According to John Wapple, “The Daltons also gave a saddle to either Ronald or James but Michael made his son give it back as the saddle had been stolen.” Undoubtedly the saddle referred to in the trial.
Will Dalton was quoted as saying he was fed up with California lawmen so he gave up his lease in Estrella, returned his wife and two children to her home in Livingston and he joined his brothers in the East. A few years later he was shot and killed at the scene of a crime and brought back to be buried in his wife's home town. As a final note, not everyone shared his neighbors’ respect for Bill. The Paso Robles Moon stated, "He was a noisy politician and a gambler of the variety we call a 'chump' in California."
In later years, Emmett gave a talk in a Paso Robles theatre telling about his early day adventures. The program was well-attended from around the county
.
Edith Wapple believed that an old barn which still stands on Estrella Road, west of the entrance to Michael's ranch was that of the Daltons.
Emmett visited his old friend and neighbor, Laughlin, in Oakland in later years and they exchanged memories of what it was like when the Daltons rode on the Estrella.
Biography
