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Intoduction: David Allen Mather, better known as Mysterious Dave, was born August 10, 1851, to Ulysses and Lycia Mather. He was born in Massachusetts from a seafaring family. There is an unsubstantiated story that he was a descendant of the legendary fire and brimestone preacher, "Cotton" Mather. There is little known of his youth, and life before Dodge City. A small man who looked frail, he grew to have longish hair, and a moustache. Certainly however his actions in Dodge cemented him a place in western lore forever.
I. Early Dodge Days: Dave Mather came to Dodge at the height of the trail drive period. He could often be seen sunning himself along the board walk in front of the Sheriff's office, where he worked as a deputy sheriff.
The so-called gunmen of Dodge watched Mather with uneasiness. There was an aura of trouble about him. His legend began on the night Marshal Tom Carson walked into an ambush from the band of outlaw gunmen known as the "Henry Bunch." Mather was with the Marshall when he was shot both in the legs and arms and lay crippled on the dance floor. As the Marshall died, Mather assured him he would kill every man who had been in on the ambush. He then got to his feet and left the dancehall and out in the street -- a pistol in each hand -- he shot seven men to death on the front stoop of the Long Branch Saloon. Unlike what you see on TV, Mather did not ask anyone to surrender, or read them any rights. He simply shot them all.
II. Becoming Mysterious Dave Mather: Mather's habit of appearing out of the night with his guns blazing gave rise to the nickname "Mysterious Dave" Mather.
Mather had become known as a killer lawman, and his reputation rose higher when he ran a preacher out of town who had given a sermon promsing hellfire to Mather. The quiet little killer literally drove the preacher from the pulpit with gunfire, and ran him out of the city by promising to kill him the next time he preached.
Mather's next exploit had him kill a fellow lawman for the first time. Marshal T. C. Nixon of Dodge tried to stop Mather from opening his own saloon and gambling hell. Mather and Nixon quarelled in the street, in which Mather got shot or grazed in the shoulder. He said nothing but told the marshal he'd better get out of Dodge. That night they met again on the street and a gunfight ensued in which Dave out drew him and killed him on the spot. As he had witnesses, it was merely a case of self-defense.
Although Mather was acquitted of Nixon’s murder, he killed another man the following year and was run out of town by Marshal Bill Tilghman. After serving as city marshal in a couple small towns in Kansas and Nebraska, Mysterious Dave moved on San Francisco, where he took a ship to Vancouver.
III. Move North: In Canada, Mather enlisted in the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, proving to marveling canadians his prowess with gun and horse. He was still seen in the royal blue and red as late as 1920. Sometime that year he apparantly died, as mysteriously as he had lived. Though he is relatively unknown, "Mysterious Dave" Mather was one of the true gunmen of the Old West.