Heck Thomas - Biography

Biography

Thomas was born in 1850 in Athens, Georgia, the youngest of five children of Martha Ann Fullwood (née Bedell) and Lovick Pierce Thomas, I.

At the beginning of the American Civil War, at age 12, he accompanied as courier his uncle, Edward Lloyd Thomas, and father who were officers in the 35th Georgia Infantry, to the battlefields in Virginia.

On September 1, 1862, Union General Philip Kearny was killed at the Battle of Chantilly, Young "Heck" was entrusted with the general's horse and equipment and was ordered by Confederate General Robert E. Lee to take them through the lines to General Kearny's widow. He recounted this in a letter to his brother Lovick Pierce Thomas, II:

One evening while the fight was going on or, rather, just before dark, a soldier came to the rear where Uncle Ed's baggage and the darkies and I were, leading a black horse with saddle and bridle. He brought also a sword. Just after this, Stonewall Jackson crossed over into Maryland and captured the city of Frederick; that was after taking Harper's Ferry (now West Virginia) and about 14,000 federal prisoners. These prisoners were held by Uncle Ed's brigade, while the army was fighting the Battle of Sharpsburg. We could see the smoke and hear they cannon from Harper's Ferry. While we were at Harpers Ferry, General Lee sent an order to uncle Ed for the horse and equipments. I carried them forward, and it was one of the proudest minutes of my life when I found myself under the observation of General Robert E. Lee. Then General Lee sent the horse and everything through the lines, under a flag of truce, to General Kearney's widow. I had ridden the horse and cared for him up to that time, and I hated to part with him.

In 1863, Thomas contracted typhoid fever and returned to his family in Athens. As a young man he clerked in the store in Atlanta of his brother, Lovick Pierce Thomas, II, and then worked as an Atlanta policeman. In 1871, he married Isabel Gray.

He and his family migrated to Texas in 1875 and with the help of his cousin, Jim Thomas, obtained a job with the railroad as a guard. Thomas became a railroad detective and later went to work for the Fort Worth Detective Association. He was appointed U.S. Deputy Marshal out of Fort Smith, Arkansas, working under U.S. District Judge Isaac C. Parker.

By 1889, Thomas teamed with two other deputy U.S. marshals, Chris Madsen and Bill Tilghman. They became known as the Three Guardsmen and were credited with bringing law and order to the Indian Territory, in the state that would become Oklahoma in 1907.

The Three Guardsmen were credited with the apprehension of in excess of some 300 outlaws over the next decade, killing several. They were credited with the ultimate demise of the Doolin Gang. Thomas was specifically mentioned by Emmett Dalton, years after his release from prison, as one of the main reasons the Dalton Gang chose to commit two simultaneous bank robberies in Coffeyville, Kansas, stating that Thomas was relentless in his pursuit, and the gang decided to make one big score, and leave the territory for a time. Instead, the gang was wiped out in the Coffeyville robberies, with Emmett Dalton being the only survivor.

In August, 1896, Thomas lead a posse that tracked down and killed outlaw Bill Doolin, who had previously been captured by Tilghman, only to escape from prison on July 5, 1896.

By 1902 much of Oklahoma was settled, but the town of Lawton needed help settling in so that was where Thomas was sent. He was elected Lawton's first chief of police and served in that role for seven years until his health began to fail.

Showing his lighter side, Heck assembled a posse, chased and captured bank robbers in the 1908 film The Bank Robbery. The outlaws were led by Al Jennings, while the one-reel movie was directed by Bill Tilghman, James Bennie Kent was the cinema-photographer, and it was produced by the Oklahoma Natural Mutoscene Company. The film was shot in Cache, Oklahoma and at the Wichita Mountains Wildlife Refuge, with Quanah Parker having a bit part. A bystander thought that the bank was really being robbed and jumped out a window to run for the police.

He died August 15, 1912 of Bright's disease.