Heck Thomas
Encyclopedia
American frontier, most notably in Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
.
Biography
Thomas was born in 1850 in Athens, GeorgiaAthens, Georgia
Athens-Clarke County is a consolidated city–county in U.S. state of Georgia, in the northeastern part of the state, comprising the former City of Athens proper and Clarke County. The University of Georgia is located in this college town and is responsible for the initial growth of the city...
, the youngest of five children of Lovick Pierce Thomas, I
Lovick Pierce Thomas, I
Lovick P. Thomas was a quartermaster in the Confederate Army of the Confederate States of America, 1861–1863 and the father of famed American Old West Deputy U.S. Marshal Heck Thomas. His brother was Confederate Army Brigadier General Edward Lloyd Thomas....
and Martha Fulwood Bedell.
At the beginning of the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, at age 12, he accompanied as courier his uncle Edward Lloyd Thomas
Edward Lloyd Thomas
Edward Lloyd Thomas was a Confederate infantry general during the American Civil War from the state of Georgia. He was an uncle to famed American Old West lawman Heck Thomas who helped bring down the Doolin Dalton Gang....
and father, who were officers in the 35th Georgia Infantry, to the battlefields in Virginia
Virginia
The Commonwealth of Virginia , is a U.S. state on the Atlantic Coast of the Southern United States. Virginia is nicknamed the "Old Dominion" and sometimes the "Mother of Presidents" after the eight U.S. presidents born there...
. On September 1, 1862 Federal General Philip Kearny
Philip Kearny
Philip Kearny, Jr., was a United States Army officer, notable for his leadership in the Mexican-American War and American Civil War. He was killed in action in the 1862 Battle of Chantilly.-Early life and career:...
was killed at the Battle of Chantilly
Battle of Chantilly
The Battle of Chantilly took place on September 1, 1862, in Fairfax County, Virginia, as the concluding battle of the Northern Virginia Campaign of the American Civil War. Thomas J...
, Young "Heck" was entrusted with the general's horse and equipment and was ordered by General Robert E. Lee
Robert E. Lee
Robert Edward Lee was a career military officer who is best known for having commanded the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia in the American Civil War....
to take them through the lines to General Kearny's widow. He recounted this in a letter:
In 1863 Thomas contracted typhoid fever and returned to his family in Athens. As a young man he clerked in his brother Lovick Pierce Thomas II's store in Atlanta
Atlanta, Georgia
Atlanta is the capital and most populous city in the U.S. state of Georgia. According to the 2010 census, Atlanta's population is 420,003. Atlanta is the cultural and economic center of the Atlanta metropolitan area, which is home to 5,268,860 people and is the ninth largest metropolitan area in...
and worked as an Atlanta policeman. In 1871 he married Isabel Gray.
He and his family migrated to Texas in 1875 and with the help of his cousin Jim Thomas obtained a job with the railroad as a guard. Heck eventually became a railroad detective. Heck Thomas left the Texas Express job in 1885 and went to work for the Fort Worth Detective Association. A year later, he was appointed U.S. Deputy Marshal out of Fort Smith, Arkansas
Fort Smith, Arkansas
Fort Smith is the second-largest city in Arkansas and one of the two county seats of Sebastian County. With a population of 86,209 in 2010, it is the principal city of the Fort Smith, Arkansas-Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area, a region of 298,592 residents which encompasses the Arkansas...
working under Judge Isaac Parker.
By 1889, Thomas teamed with two other Deputy US Marshals, Chris Madsen
Chris Madsen
Chris Madsen was a lawman of the Old West who is best known as being one of The Three Guardsmen, the name given to Madsen and two other Deputy US Marshals who were responsible for the apprehension and/or killing of several outlaws of that era...
and Bill Tilghman
Bill Tilghman
William Matthew "Bill" Tilghman was a lawman in the American Old West.-Early life :Bill Tilghman was born in Fort Dodge, Iowa, on July 4, 1854. He became a buffalo hunter at age 15 and claimed he killed over 1000 bison over his five years of activity...
. They became known as the Three Guardsmen
Three Guardsmen
The Three Guardsmen is the name popularized in Old West literature describing three lawmen who became legendary in their pursuit of many outlaws of the late 19th century. Deputy U.S. Marshals Bill Tilghman , Chris Madsen , and Heck Thomas were The Three Guardsmen, working under U.S...
and were credited with bringing law and order to the Indian Territory
Indian Territory
The Indian Territory, also known as the Indian Territories and the Indian Country, was land set aside within the United States for the settlement of American Indians...
, in the state that would become Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
(1906).
The Three Guardsmen were credited with the apprehension of in excess of some 300 outlaws over the next decade, killing several. They were credited with the ultimate demise of the Doolin Gang
Wild Bunch
The Wild Bunch, also known as the Doolin–Dalton Gang or the Oklahombres, was a gang of outlaws based in the Indian Territory that terrorized Kansas, Missouri, Arkansas, and Oklahoma Territory during the 1890s—robbing banks and stores, holding up trains, and killing lawmen. They were...
. Thomas was specifically mentioned by Emmett Dalton
Emmett Dalton
Emmett Dalton was an American outlaw, train robber and member of the Dalton Gang in the American Old West. Part of the ill-fated Dalton raid on two banks in Coffeyville, Kansas, he survived despite receiving 23 gunshot wounds...
, years after his release from prison, as one of the main reasons the Dalton Gang
Dalton Gang
The Dalton Gang, also known as The Dalton Brothers, was a family of both lawmen and outlaws in the American Old West during 1890-1892. They specialized in bank and train robberies. They were related to the Younger brothers, who rode with Jesse James, though they acted later and independently of...
chose to commit two simultaneous bank robberies
Bank robbery
Bank robbery is the crime of stealing from a bank during opening hours. According to the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting Program, robbery is "the taking or attempting to take anything of value from the care, custody, or control of a person or persons by force or threat of...
in Coffeyville, Kansas
Coffeyville, Kansas
Coffeyville is a city situated along the Verdigris River in the southeastern part of Montgomery County, located in Southeast Kansas, in the Central United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 10,295...
, stating that Thomas was relentless in his pursuit, and the gang decided to make one big score, and leave the territory for a time. Instead, the gang was wiped out in the Coffeyville robberies, with Emmett being the only survivor.
In August, 1896, Thomas lead a posse that tracked down and killed outlaw Bill Doolin
Bill Doolin
William "Bill" Doolin was an American bandit and founder of the Wild Bunch, an outlaw gang that specialized in robbing banks, trains and stagecoaches in Arkansas, Oklahoma, and Kansas during the 1890s.- Early life :...
, who had previously been captured by Tilghman, only to escape from prison on July 5, 1896.
By 1902 much of Oklahoma was settled, but the town of Lawton, Oklahoma
Lawton, Oklahoma
The city of Lawton is the county seat of Comanche County, in the U.S. state of Oklahoma. Located in the southwestern region of Oklahoma approximately southwest of Oklahoma City, it is the principal city of the Lawton Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area...
needed help settling in so that was where Thomas was sent. He was elected Lawton's first chief of police and served in that role for seven years until his health began to fail.
Showing his lighter side, Heck assembled a posse, chased and captured bank robbers in the 1908 movie A Bank Robbery.
He died August 15, 1912 of Bright's disease
Bright's disease
Bright's disease is a historical classification of kidney diseases that would be described in modern medicine as acute or chronic nephritis. The term is no longer used, as diseases are now classified according to their more fully understood causes....
.