The man who caught the man who shot the sheriff

One of Lucas County's most oft-told stories involves the gunning down of Sheriff Gaylord Lyman just off the southeast corner of the square on July 6, 1870, and the subsequent lynching of his killer, a young horse thief from Missouri named Hiram Wilson. The deeds were done, respectively, on the morning and evening of that date.

We don't have photographs of Sheriff Lyman, or of his killer --- but we do have (in the Lucas County Historical Society collection) this small tintype of the young man --- Thomas Martin --- who caught the man who shot the sheriff.

Here's how the capture was described in The Chariton Democrat of July 12, 1870: "About four o'clock (on July 6, 1870), however, organization was secured and the company (searching for Wilson) started through the brush (in the hills east of Chariton) from south to north, in regular picket line, men being also stationed at regular distances to watch for the game. Mr. Copeland, the banker, was the first man to discover him, and while he started to find assistance and direct others how to proceed, two young men --- mere boys --- named Thomas Martin and Solomon Dawson, came upon him --- neither party seeing the other until they had come within five or six feet of each other. The thief and murderer was coming toward them in a stooping attitude, with his pistol pointed at Martin, and demanded of him in a sharp whisper to 'keep still.' Martin made for him, and when the man saw there could be no escape without a fight, he fired at Martin, the shot passing over his shoulder. With that, Martin struck him over the head with his gun, partially stunning him and almost knocking him down. He then sprang upon the desperado, threw him down, and in a moment more assistance had come, when the villain surrendered."

You know the rest of the story. Taken to the small house near the current location of Fielding Funeral Home where Sheriff Lyman was dying, Wilson expressed remorse and Lyman forgave him. That night, a mob entered the 1858 courthouse, where Wilson was being held, climbed to the second-floor room where he was imprisoned, "liberated" him, put a rope around his neck and threw him out a south-facing window. Sheriff Lyman is buried just inside the Chariton Cemetery's main gates; Wilson, in an unmarked pauper's grave at Old Douglass.

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Tom Martin, 19 when the capture occurred, was a Ragtown boy --- son of Samuel and Elizabeth (Henry) Martin, who had settled near that pioneer village in 1851, just before his birth. I'm guessing this tintype was taken at about the time of the capture.

He went on to marry Nancy Jane Murphy during 1874 and they became the parents of nine children, one of whom died young, while farming near Chariton.

About 1914, the Martins and a majority of their children moved to the vicinity of Absarokee in south central Montana, Billings to the northeast, Bozeman to the northwest. Nancy died here during 1917 and Tom, during 1925. Their remains were returned to Chariton for burial.

The tintype was given to the historical society during 1970 by Tom's granddaughter, Miss Martha Anderson (1903-1996), a long-time teacher in the Chariton schools.