Mysterious Dave Mather


David Allen Mather, also known by the nickname "Mysterious Dave", was an American lawman and gunfighter in the Old West. His taciturn personality may have earned him the nickname "Mysterious Dave". He served as a lawman in Dodge City, Kansas and Las Vegas, New Mexico.

Early life

Captain Ulysses W. Mather married Lydia E. Wright on July 16, 1848 in Westbrook, Connecticut. They settled in the neighboring town of Saybrook where their son David Allen was born on August 10, 1851. They had two more sons, Josiah Wright Mather and George Conway Mather. David Mather said he was descended from Cotton Mather, but research on the lineage of Cotton Mather performed by Horace E. Mather indicates that this claim was likely incorrect. Mather's father abandoned the family in 1856, and was later murdered in Shanghai, China aboard his ship the Ellen on September 13, 1864. The news of his death did not reach Connecticut until two months later, when reports were printed in the Hartford press.
By 1860, Mather was living with his maternal grandfather, Josiah Wright. By 1870, he was working as a laborer and living as a boarder with a cousin. That same year, Mather and his brother Josiah went to nearby Clinton, Connecticut and signed on as part of the crew of a cargo ship, eventually making their way to New Orleans.

Dave Mather in the Wild West

Mather's exact whereabouts during his earliest years in the West are uncertain. He was in Dodge City, Kansas in 1872, where he and his brother Josiah may have reunited to become buffalo hunters. He was also reported to have partnered with Wyatt Earp in 1878 in a scheme to sell fake gold bricks in the town of Mobeetie, Texas.

Royal Gorge Railroad War

The first documented evidence of Mather's career occurred in 1879, when he was recruited by Bat Masterson to serve in a posse to enforce the claims of the Atchison, Topeka and Santa Fe Railway during the Royal Gorge Railroad War. The posse was never called to action as the "war" was settled in court.

Lawman in East Las Vegas, New Mexico

Mather relocated to East Las Vegas, New Mexico, where he found work as a U.S. Deputy Marshal for the Territory of New Mexico. In October 1879, he was arraigned and tried for being an accessory to a train robbery, but was acquitted. He also served on the East Las Vegas police force.

Gunfight at Close & Patterson's Variety Hall

Mather's reputation as a gunman originated in East Las Vegas when he got into a gunfight on January 22, 1880, while serving as assistant marshal. He and his boss, Marshal Joe Carson, became involved in a shootout with four men at Close & Patterson's Variety Hall on Main Street. Carson was killed; Mather killed William Randall and gravely injured James West. He also wounded Thomas Jefferson House and John Dorsey, but their wounds were minor and they fled the scene.

Killing of Joseph Castello

On January 25, 1880, three days after the gunfight at Close & Patterson's Variety Hall, Mather, now acting marshal, was summoned to an altercation involving Joseph Castello, who, in the heat of an argument with his employees, drew his revolver on them. When Mather arrived, Castello warned him not to approach or he would shoot. Newspaper reports of the incident report that Mather drew his weapon and fired a single lethal shot before Castello could return fire. The coroner's jury ruled that Mather's "shooting was justifiable and in self protection."
Mather's career as marshal in East Las Vegas was short-lived. In February 1880, the two men who had escaped the January gunfight with minor wounds, House and Dorsey, were captured and returned to the San Miguel County Jail. Under Mather's watch, a lynch mob broke them and their fellow gunman West out of jail and hanged them. During the next month, there were two murders on the same day. The public began to suspect Mather had ties to the town mob boss, and Mather resigned on March 3, 1880. Mysterious Dave did not leave East Las Vegas immediately. He was still there as late as March 19, 1880, when he signed his name to a court document intended to help John Joshua Webb, who had been charged with murder.

Charged with crimes in Texas

Records indicate that Mather spent the next several years drifting around Texas and having various minor skirmishes with the law, including a stint in a Texas jail for counterfeiting, and a three-month stretch in Dallas awaiting trial on charges of stealing a silk dress from a woman named Georgia Morgan with whom he had operated a brothel. In three separate counts, Mather was also charged with the theft of two diamond rings and a watch from Georgia Morgan. Mather was acquitted of all three charges on April 13, 1882.

Dodge City

On June 1, 1883, Mather was hired as an Assistant City Marshal in Dodge City. He served only nine months and was replaced on April 10, 1884 by Tom Nixon, sparking a feud between the two. The feud was further stoked when the city passed "Ordinance No. 83", outlawing dance halls within Dodge City. The ordinance was enforced against Mather's Opera House Saloon, preventing it from operating as a dance hall, but not against Nixon's Lady Gay Saloon, which also featured dancing. In retaliation, Mather began a price war on beer. He charged only five cents a glass—half the price of his competitors. Nixon and the other Dodge City saloon owners pressured the beer wholesalers to cut off Mather's supply. The feud resulted in gunfire on July 18, 1884, when Nixon shot Mather, but only wounded him slightly. Nixon posted bond on charges of attempted murder.

Killing of Tom Nixon

Three days later on July 21, Mather and Nixon got into another confrontation and Mather shot and killed Nixon. Despite supporting testimony from Bat Masterson and Dodge City Sheriff Patrick Shugrue, Mather's case was sent to trial. His attorney obtained a change of venue to Ford County and the trial began on December 29, 1884. It lasted only three days and on December 31, 1884 the jury deliberated only seven minutes before declaring Mather not guilty. The Kinsley Mercury wrote that "the verdict was a proper one, as the weight of the testimony showed that Nixon was the aggressor in the affray and that Mather was justified in the shooting." The Dodge City Times noted that "the reading of the verdict, by the court, was interrupted by demonstrations of approval from the audience."

Killing of David Barnes

Mather's brother, Josiah, rejoined Dave in Dodge City in early 1885. On May 10, 1885 both Mathers were in the Junction Saloon in Dodge City, where Dave was playing cards with a man named David Barnes. An argument and gunfire broke out and Barnes was killed.
Sheriff Pat Sughrue arrested both brothers. During testimony before a coroner's jury, Sughrue testified that Dave Mather's pistol "was loaded and had no empty shells in it." Nonetheless, the jury ruled that "the deceased D. Barnes came to his death... from a gun shot wound received at the hands of David Mathers and Josiah Mathers by means of revolvers by them fired, and that the said shooting was feloniously done."
A preliminary examination for the brothers was held in Dodge City 12 days later, on May 22. Both brothers were bound over for trial without bail. They immediately petitioned for a writ of habeas corpus. On June 2, 1885, Judge Strang allowed the defendants to post a bond of $3,000 and they were released. Their attorneys got their cases postponed until the December, 1885 court term. The two defendants jumped bail and were never tried.

Reports of his death

Mather's late life was the subject of much rumor and speculation. Because of his notoriety, newspapers often reported rumors of his appearances, often unsubstantiated. On August 14, 1885 it was reported that Mather became the Town Marshal of New Kiowa, Kansas. The last substantiated knowledge of Mather's whereabouts occurred in New Kiowa, Kansas, in September 1885, where he is known to have raised a $300 legal defense fund for his longtime friend and partner Dave Black, accused of a murdering a soldier. Black had shot and mortally wounded Bugler Julius Schmitz of Co K 18th Infantry Regiment August 27, 1885 Mather fled New Kiowa on September 6, 1885 when he heard rumors that the soldier's company might come after him for defending the murderer of their comrade.
In November 1887, Mather's bail bondsmen were called before the court to make restitution for Mather's failure to appear for trial in the case of the Dave Barnes murder. At that time, the bondsmen filed a petition to set aside the bail, claiming that Mather was dead, although they were unable to produce the body. The County Attorney agreed with the petition and moved to dismiss the charges against the bondsmen, which the trial judge approved on November 9, 1887.
No other record of Mather's death exists, and rumors abound as to his possible fate. In an article in the November 1902 issue of Everybody's Magazine, author Edward Campbell Little claimed that Mather had gone to the Northwest Territories where he "enlisted as one of the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, looted the stage he was sent to guard, and escaped with twenty thousand pounds. His brother Cy reports that he was killed by moonshiners in the mountains of Tennessee." This report contradicts Josiah Mather's own version of events, as told to his children, that he never saw nor heard from David after they parted company at Dodge City following the Barnes incident.
Writing later in 1954, author William Waters wrote that Mather was employed with the RCMP as late as 1922, a claim that was refuted by the RCMP.

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