Dave Mather, known across the American frontier as “Mysterious Dave,” spent his life walking a thin line between law enforcement and criminal suspicion. He served as a deputy marshal in some of the West’s most dangerous towns, including Dodge City and East Las Vegas, yet his career was repeatedly shadowed by shootings, legal accusations, and unresolved controversies. Born on August 10, 1851, in Deep River, Connecticut, Mather was the eldest son of Captain Ulysses W. Mather and Lydia Mather.
His father abandoned the family in 1856 and returned to a life at sea, dying in Shanghai in September 1864 while serving aboard the merchant vessel Ellen. News of his death did not reach Connecticut until roughly two months later due to the slow pace of international communication. By 1860, young Dave was living with his maternal grandfather, Josiah Wright, as extended family helped stabilize the household. The 1870 federal census listed him as a laborer boarding in a relative’s home.
That same year, he and his brother Josiah signed on as crew members of a cargo vessel in Clinton, Connecticut, a voyage that eventually brought them to New Orleans. Mather’s earliest years in the West remain unclear, but by 1872 he was known to be in Dodge City. Some accounts suggest he and his brother worked as buffalo hunters, and there were later, unverified reports that he joined Wyatt Earp in a counterfeiting scheme involving gold bricks in Texas. The first solid documentation of Mather’s activities dates to 1879, when noted lawman Bat Masterson recruited him for a posse assembled to defend the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railway during the Royal Gorge Railroad War.
The dispute was resolved through negotiations before the posse was ever deployed. Afterward, Mather moved to East Las Vegas in the New Mexico Territory, where he secured a position as a U. S. Deputy Marshal.
In October 1879, he faced legal proceedings on accusations of being connected to a train robbery, but the court cleared him of wrongdoing. Mather’s reputation as a formidable gunman largely stems from an incident on January 22, 1880, while he was serving as assistant marshal in East Las Vegas. He and town marshal Joe Carson became involved in a confrontation at Close and Patterson’s Variety Hall with four men. The exchange resulted in Carson’s death, while Mather was credited with fatally injuring William Randall and seriously wounding James West.
Two other participants sustained minor injuries and left the scene. Just three days later, on January 25, 1880, Mather was serving as acting marshal when he was called to intervene in a dispute involving Joseph Costello, who had reportedly drawn a revolver during an argument with his employees. According to contemporary newspaper accounts, Costello warned Mather not to come closer. Mather responded by drawing his own weapon and firing a single shot before Costello could act.
Costello died from the wound, and a coroner’s jury later determined that Mather’s action was justified self-defense. The surviving participants from the January 22 confrontation were apprehended in February 1880 and placed in the San Miguel County jail. A mob forcibly removed the prisoners, including James West, from custody and executed them without trial. Historical records do not clearly establish the extent of Mather’s responsibility in preventing the incident, but the episode damaged public confidence in local law enforcement.
Within the following month, two additional killings occurred on the same day in East Las Vegas. Rumors circulated suggesting that Mather may have had connections to local criminal interests, though definitive proof of such ties was never established. On March 3, 1880, Mather resigned from his position. He remained in the town at least until March 19, when he signed a court document in support of John Joshua Webb, who was facing a murder charge.
In the years that followed, records show Mather traveled throughout Texas, where he encountered further legal difficulties. He spent time in jail on counterfeiting charges and a three-month stay in Dallas while awaiting trial for allegedly taking a silk dress, two diamond rings, and a watch belonging to Georgia Morgan, a woman with whom he had operated a brothel. On April 13, 1882, he was acquitted of all three counts. On June 1, 1883, Mather returned to Dodge City, where he was appointed assistant city marshal.
His tenure lasted only nine months. On April 10, 1884, he was replaced by Tom Nixon, a change that quickly led to personal and professional tension between the two men. The rivalry intensified after Dodge City passed an ordinance prohibiting dance halls. Enforcement proved uneven: Mather’s Opera House Saloon was prevented from operating as a dance venue, while Nixon’s Lady Gay Saloon, where dancing also occurred, continued without similar restriction.
Mather responded by lowering the cost of beer to five cents per glass, half the prevailing rate, disrupting the local saloon economy. Nixon and several fellow owners reportedly persuaded beer wholesalers to refuse supplies to Mather. Tensions culminated on July 18, 1884, when Nixon confronted Mather and fired at him, causing a minor injury. Nixon was arrested and released on bond while facing charges.
Three days later, another confrontation occurred between the two men, during which Nixon lost his life. Despite testimony in Mather’s favor from prominent figures such as Bat Masterson and Dodge City Sheriff Patrick Sugrue, the case proceeded to trial. The trial began on December 29, 1884, and concluded after only three days. On December 31, the jury returned a verdict of not guilty.
Contemporary newspapers reflected public approval, with the Kinsley Mercury suggesting the evidence indicated Nixon had initiated the altercation, and the Dodge City Times reporting that applause broke out in the courtroom upon the announcement of the verdict. In early 1885, Mather’s brother Josiah rejoined him in Dodge City. On May 10, the brothers were present at the Junction Saloon, where Dave Mather was playing cards with a man named David Barnes. A disagreement escalated into an exchange of gunfire, and Barnes was fatally wounded.
Sheriff Sugrue arrested both brothers. During testimony before a coroner’s jury, Sugrue stated that Dave Mather’s revolver was fully loaded and contained no spent cartridges. Despite this detail, the jury concluded that Barnes’s death resulted from shots fired by both brothers and described the act as unlawful. A preliminary hearing was held on May 22, 1885, and both men were ordered to stand trial without bail.
They promptly filed a petition for a writ of habeas corpus. On June 2, Judge Strang permitted their release on a $3,000 bond. Their attorneys succeeded in postponing the trial until the December court term of 1885. Before the trial could proceed, however, both brothers left the jurisdiction and forfeited their bond.
They were never formally tried in connection with the Barnes case. After the events in Dodge City during the mid-1880s, the historical record grows increasingly thin. Because of his controversial reputation, newspapers frequently published reports claiming sightings of him in various parts of the country, but many of these accounts were never verified. The last confirmed record of Mather’s whereabouts places him in Kiowa, then known as New Kiowa, in September 1885.
There he reportedly helped raise a $300 legal defense fund for his longtime associate Dave Black, who had been accused of killing bugler Julius Schmitz of the 18th Infantry Regiment. On September 6, 1885, Mather departed Kiowa amid concerns that soldiers connected to Schmitz’s regiment might seek retribution. His abrupt departure marks the final reliably documented moment of his life. In November 1887, Mather’s bail bondsmen were summoned in Dodge City because he had failed to appear for trial in the Barnes case.
The bondsmen petitioned the court to void the bond, asserting that Mather had died, but they were unable to provide physical proof of his death. The county attorney supported their request, and on November 9, 1887, the court released the bondsmen from liability. No official death certificate or burial record for Mather has ever been located. In the absence of documentation, speculation flourished.
A November 1902 article in Everybody’s Magazine claimed that Mather had traveled to Canada, joined the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, later misused his authority, and disappeared with a substantial sum of money. There is no official record from the RCMP confirming such service. Another version, attributed to Mather’s brother Josiah, alleged that Dave met his end in the mountains of Tennessee at the hands of illicit distillers. Yet this account contradicts Josiah’s own earlier statements to his children, in which he reportedly said that he never saw or heard from Dave again after their separation in Dodge City following the Barnes incident.
Author William Waters wrote in 1954 that Mather remained associated with the Royal Canadian Mounted Police as late as 1922. The RCMP formally denied this claim, reinforcing the absence of credible documentation linking Mather to the organization. The disappearance of Dave Mather illustrates how easily frontier figures could vanish from the record in the late 19th century. Record keeping in remote regions was inconsistent, interstate travel required little documentation, and name changes were not uncommon.
For men seeking to escape legal trouble, reinvention was often possible. After September 1885, the historical trail grows cold. Whether Mather lived quietly under another name, left the country, or died soon after fleeing Kansas remains unknown.
His uncertain ending only reinforces the paradox that defined his life: a man who repeatedly stood in the public spotlight, yet ultimately slipped into obscurity without a trace.