Doc. Middleton - Horse Thief

JIM CHERRY, or JIM SHEPHERD or GOLD TOOTH JACK or TEXAS JACK LYONS WERE ALL ALIAS’S FOR ONE HORSE THIEF...THE KING OF HORSE THIEVES

DOC MIDDLETON...THE FAMED NEBRASKA OUTLAW.

Carson, John. DOC MIDDLETON...THE UNWICKEDEST OUTLAW. The Press of the Territorian. Number 9 of a Series of Western Americana. 1st. 1966. 39 pgs. Wraps, frontis. Vg cond.

He stole his first horse at the age of 14 in 1865. A crime spree had begun and by the years of 1877-1879 Doc Middleton and his band of horse thieves known as “pony-boys” “stole perhaps thousands of horses, transporting them south as far as Texas where ‘contact’ men were waiting to take the stolen stock off their hands, a good profit to both…”

In 1877 David V. Middleton (Doc) stole thirty-five horses from William Henry Harrison Llewellyn of Cheyenne, Wyoming. By May of 1879 Llewellyn was commissioned a Special Agent of the Department of Justice whose sole purpose in life was to arrest Doc Middleton. “Doc’s livestock business had become so profitable that no less than three hundred ranchers in Wyoming and Nebraska declared him a predatory animal. Ten of the richest put up a total one thousand dollars, no small amount in those days. It was not until then that a small army of officers began to rid the back trails trying to smoke out the elusive doctor.” Doc liked horse better than trains and “owned” thousands of them during his brief career as a “livestock dealer.” llewellyn said there were ranchers and businessmen all over Nebraska and northern Kansas who had no objections to turning a fast buck by handling Doc’s hot horses. He had to have an outlet… no range in the country was large enough to pasture all the horseflesh that passed through his busy loop.” Between 1879 – 1883 Middleton did do prison time for grand larceny.

In 1884 Doc was operating a saloon in Gordon, Nebraska where he was briefly the deputy sheriff. This was followed in 1897 when he became the city marshal of Edgemont, South Dakota. Then in 1900 Doc turns up operating a saloon in Gordon, Nebraska and Ardmore, South Dakota where he was also the town marshal.

In 1913 he moved to Orin Junction, Wyoming where he opened a saloon and was arrested for dispensing liquor illegally. He plead guilty and was ordered to “pay a fine of one hundred fifty dollars and the costs of the prosecution.” Doc. “the man who had had thousands of dollars worth of stolen horses pass through his hands, was “remanded to the custody of the sheriff until said fine is fully paid or until he is otherwise legally discharged.” “Sheriff Peyton laconically reported that ‘ after his arrest and while he was in jail there, he took erysipelas and died in the pest house.” He was 62 when he died on December 27, 1913.

With this comes a typed letter from the arresting sheriff, A.W. Peyton, on the stationary of the Office of Sheriff Converse County, Douglas, Wyoming . It states:

Office of Sheriff Converse County

Douglas, Wyoming

A.W. Peyton, Sheriff

Douglas, Wyo, May 12th, 28

A.E. Sheldon

Lincoln, Neb.

Dear Sirs,

Your letter received, and am sorry I have been slow answering but I was called out of town and have just gotten back.

I happened to be sheriff here at the time of Doc Middletons death, on the 29th of November, 1913.

On the fifth day of Nov. I arrested him in Orin Junction Wyo.. For operating a blind pig. After his arrest and while he was still in jail here, he took erysipelas and died at the pest house. His two closest sons were with him at the time and allowed him to be buried in the Potters field.

I have no idea where you could get a picture of him unless it would be around Ardmore S.D. but I think it very doubtful that he ever had one taken

I am afraid that my information is very meager, but I hope it will be of some use to you.

Yours very truly

(signed) A.W. Peyton

Douglas Wyo.