Doc Middleton, the notorious brand doctor, was a man of many names: James M. Riley, David C. Middleton, ‘Texas’ Jack Lyons, ‘Gold-Tooth’ Charley and John D. Shepherd among others.  None however, gained the notoriety of the outlaw Doc Middleton.  Born February 9, 1851 in Mississippi, his early life is mostly speculation.  While working as a cowhand for outfits on the Chisholm Trail, Doc was involved in an altercation in a Newton Kansas saloon that ended in bloodshed.  Officially an outlaw, Doc soon landed in the Niobrara River Valley of Northern Nebraska where he killed a soldier in self-defense in a Sydney dance hall. 

With the law on his trail, one of which would soon be the famous Rough Rider W. Henry Harrison Llewellyn, Doc found it impossible to find honest work.  He soon turned to what he knew best, stealing horses.  He formed a gang called the Ponyboys and reportedly stole over 2,000 head of horses from ranchers and Sioux over a two-year period.  His success along with his notoriety soon christened the Nebraska Territory “Doc Middleton Country.”  Most people who knew him spoke kindly, saying that he had Robin Hood-like discretion when “hoss-thieving.”

Llewellyn soon grew tired of the chase and offered Doc a fake pardon planning to assassinate him out on the prairie.  Doc learned of the plan and was injured in a ferocious gun battle that left him wounded and soon imprisoned.  While in prison the rest of the Ponyboys were hunted down and hung, most without trial.  In 1893, he rode in the great Chadron - Chicago horse race with ‘Buffalo’ Bill Cody.  At the end of his life, a white moustache replaced Doc’s long, wavy beard.  By this time he came to make his living running tent saloons in railroad boomtowns and remembering a time when the west was free.

As a notorious figure he was different from many of the folk heroes of the American West.  Unlike Jesse James, Doc Holiday, Wyatt Earp and Calamity Jane, Doc didn’t want gold, glory, justice or vengeance.  He just wanted to survive, and survival for a man like Doc was a constant struggle.  James Middleton Riley died December 13, 1913 at the age of 63 in Douglas Wyoming; his story has been untold--until now.