Jeff Milton

Jefferson Davis Milton (November 7, 1861 – May 7, 1947) was an American lawman in the Old West and a son of Confederate Governor of Florida John Milton. He was the first officer appointed to the U.S. Immigration Service Border Patrol in 1924.

Family and early life Milton was born on November 7, 1861, and was reared on the "Sylvania" estate, near Marianna, Florida. Jeff Milton was descended from an American "founding family,” with a preponderance of evidence pointing to a descent from Richard Milton (son of Thomas, and, thus, a nephew to the poet Milton), who was a passenger on the ship, Supply, sister ship to the Mayflower, that landed at Berkeley, Virginia, on 29 January 1620/21. Other ancestors were listed on the earliest passenger lists for the Jamestown Settlement. His great-great-grandfather, John Milton, was an officer in the American Revolution, the first Secretary of State of Georgia, and received electoral college votes in the first U.S. presidential election of 1789. His nephew was a U.S. Senator from Florida, William Hall Milton (1864-1942). After a colorful career throughout the South, his father John Milton (1807-1865) was elected the fifth governor of Florida.

Jeff Milton was three years old on Sunday, April 7, 1865, when the American Civil War ended at Appomattox. At about that time, his father, John Milton, died of a self-inflicted gunshot wound and was buried in the Episcopal cemetery at Marianna. Regardless, the traumatic event signaled a different future than had been anticipated for young Jeff.

Reconstruction had a particularly corrosive effect on the surviving former first family of Florida. At age 15 or 16 Jeff Milton considered his prospects and joined his sister in Texas where he worked in her husband's mercantile stores and later as a cowboy. “On July 27, 1880, he appeared at the Texas Rangers headquarters in Austin, armed with a couple of letters of recommendation from prominent citizens. By adding three years to his real age, he became the requisite 21 and was sworn in as a Ranger private.”

Capture and death of Martin M'Rose On June 21, 1895, Milton who was at that time Chief of Police in El Paso, Texas, accompanied his oft partner, Deputy U.S. Marshal George Scarborough, when Scarborough shot and killed Martin M'Rose, a notorious Texas rustler. M'Rose had been captured by the two lawmen on an outstanding warrant and was killed while being brought back from Mexico. Outlaw, gunman and paramour of Mrs. M'Rose, John Wesley Hardin, claimed that he had paid Scarborough and Milton to kill M'Rose. Milton and Scarborough were arrested, but Hardin later withdrew his comments and the two men were released. M'Rose is buried near John Wesley Hardin and Texas Ranger Ernest St. Leon.

In July 1898, working again with Scarborough, the pair tracked down, shot and captured "Bronco Bill" Walters and his gang at the Double Circle Ranch north of Clifton, AZ near after the gang's failed train robbery attempt in Grants New Mexico, the gang scattered from their hideout, and gang member Bill Johnson was shot and killed by Milton in the process. Johnson's Grave remains in the cemetery at the old Double Circle Ranch headquarters on Eagle Creek.

Fairbank train holdup

Although the dates, capacities and length of his tenure(s) are not firmly established, Milton was employed for a period of years with the Southern Pacific Railroad and/or Wells Fargo. Goodfellow cleaned and treated Milton's wound but told him he would never regain use of the arm. Milton's left arm was permanently disabled and shorter than his right arm.

U.S. Bureau of Immigration Milton joined the Bureau of Immigration in 1904 as a Mounted Chinese Inspector charged with enforcement of the Chinese Exclusion Act.

Recognition On August 15, 1936, the Immigration Service dedicated the "Jeff D. Milton", a new patrol boat in San Francisco harbor.

In popular culture Western storyteller Louis L'Amour's autobiography, Education of a Wandering Man: A Memoir, says Milton gave him a ride to Doubtful Canyon in Arizona.