DUANE
Duane's take
The way the official marker tells it, here's what went down in Longview on a day nobody forgot. May 23, 1894. Bill Dalton — leader of an armed gang — walked into the First National Bank and presented a note for money.
Just like that. Bold as sunrise. Now, Longview had seen its share of rough characters, but this was something else.
Sheriff Jack Howard, City Marshal Mat Muckleroy, and citizens of the town pushed back. They resisted. And when they did, a gunfight erupted right there in early Longview.
When the smoke cleared, three local men were dead of gunshot wounds — J. W. McQueen, Geo.
Buckingham, and Charles Learn. One outlaw died too. Four men gone, just like that, on a single bloody day.
Before the gang made their getaway into Oklahoma, they held two men as hostages — bank president J. R. Clemmons and cashier Tom Clemmons — keeping them close just long enough to buy some distance.
It almost worked. Almost. But here's the thing about desperate men in a hurry — they make mistakes.
The survivors of that gang were brought down not by a posse riding hard across the prairie, but by forged twenty-dollar bank notes. The very paper they'd stolen gave them away. The marker calls it what it was: a bloody day.
And that's exactly right.
What the marker says
A bloody day (May 23, 1894) in early Longview. Bill Dalton, leader of armed gang presented a note for money at First National Bank. A gunfight erupted when Sheriff Jack Howard, City Marshall Mat Muckleroy and citizens resisted. Three local men-- J. W. McQueen, Geo. Buckingham, Charles Learn-- and one outlaw died of gunshot wounds. Bank president J. R. Clemmons and cashier Tom Clemmons were held as hostages for a short time as outlaws made getaway into Oklahoma. Forged $20 bank notes led to capture of survivors.