Great Plains
Mather's life through most of the 1870s is poorly documented. He seems to have operated as a cattle rustler and outlaw in Arkansas along with Dave Rudabaugh and Milton J. Yarberry. A warrant was issued for the three after a prominent rancher was murdered and his home robbed. They fled to Decatur, Texas, in 1873.
Sy reported that he and Dave tried to work as buffalo hunters on the Llano Estacado around 1874. The venture did not last long, but it is possible that Mather may have met future associates such as Wyatt Earp, Bat Masterson, and Bill Tilghman, who also tried their hand at hunting.
Dave was a resident of Dodge City, Kansas, in the early 1870s, where he befriended Dr. Thomas L. McCarty. When Dave was badly wounded in a knife fight, McCarty was able to save his life. In 1878, Mather and Wyatt Earp traveled to Mobeetie, Texas, with a scheme to sell phony gold bricks. The two claimed that the bricks were from a lost mine dating back to the days of the conquistadores. Before they could get far with their scam they were run out of town by a lawman named Jim McIntire.
Mather was one of the Kansas gunslingers assembled by Bat Masterson for the Railroad Wars of 1879-80. The Atcheson, Topeka, and Santa Fe Railroad was competing with the Denver and Rio Grande for the rights to build a track through two disputed areas. Other gunfighters working with Mather for the Santa Fe line included Dave Rudabaugh, John Joshua Webb, Doc Holliday, and Ben Thompson.
Read more about this topic: Mysterious Dave Mather
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—Jackson Pollock (1912–1956)
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—Kathleen Norris (b. 1947)