Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1877-07-17
MAJOR wmOLEGAS KILLED.
A Noted western weII
knows In Memphfs-He Games 10
q Tragic End In Tcxns-Skefeh OF
his Antecedcnts and Peculiarfffes

The Kansas City correspondent Of the
St. Louis Times says:
In the absence of local and other news
from the country tributary, l cannot do
better than TO give some personal remi-
niscences OF a man whose death in south
western Texas has been recently an
nounced. j. W. Wholegan, or, as he
was better known, Major W~holegan, was
a character. He was a man whom one
meets with but seldom, and when one
does meet such a man he is not soon for
gotten. Well, Wbolegan was killed neal
Eairview, Wilson county, Texas, on the
Fourth of July, under circumstances
which may probably cause his murderer
to expiate his crime on the gallows. |
will first give the particulars of what
caused his death, and then close with his
career IN Kansas City and Texas from
wnat l know Of my personal knowl-
edge. Wholegan, at the time OF his
death, wac in partnership with a man
named Sam Anderson on a ranch. 1t
appears that Anderson was in Whole
gan 8 debt, and in order to secure him
gave him q chattel mortgage on cattlc,
which Anderson undertook to sell. not
outstanding Wholegan stoutly protested
and declared that he would have the deed
recorded. Anderson told WhoIegan that
if be recorded that deed he should die.
and he kept his word. On the Fourth of
July Anderson and Wholegan met near
Falrvlew, the former being on horseback.
Anderson drew his revolver, and after
taking deliberate aim pulled the trigger,
but there was no discharge. Three
times was this repeated, until finally the
nth time he pulled the trigger Whole
gan received the ball in his heart and
Tell a corpse. He had a chance to get
away while the revolver was being snap.
ped, but instead Of taking unto himself
wings and fleeing he stood still and
begged for his life. There ended a re-
m%arkable career, remarkable from the
fact that the man was pos, essed Of in
domnitable energy, cheek" and u most
vivid Imagination twas almost impos-
slt To- to get from him any correct state
ment OF what had been his previous
course Of life | first mct him in 1869.
when ne had charge Of the city %circula-
ton of the Times. He wax then in the
heyday Of bis life. He dressed we'll,
drank considerably, not to that ex.
tent 80 as to be classed as a
drunkard, but always kept comfortably
foil so as to amuse the boys" by
his Mnnchausen tales. | have seen
him cit down and heard him calmly
tell OF the visits he paid to Queen Vic.
torla, when in England, of the cordial
manner in which he had been enter
tanned. of how he danced with the
Princess Louise, and of his ~carousals
with the Prince Of Wales. He would
tell oil of this with not q smile on his
face And when he would be interrupted
BY a smile Of incredulity he considered
himself deeply offended. | remember
hearing him tell once Of the very pleas
ant time he had had when in France.
with Louis Napoleon at the Tuilleries.
He got Louis Napoleon very much in.
t0xicated, and was put to the necessity
OF taking him to bed. He had travelled
all over Europe, and knew more of the
interior of Africa than Stanley, when
the fact of the matter vas he had never
been across the water" He had, as |
have already stated, q most vivid i'm
agination.
When city circulAtor of the Times here
he moved in the best Of society in this
city and the n%eighboring towns in Kan.
sas and Missouri, and was looked upon
as the editor of the paper, his represen-
%tstiens always being to that effect to
those who did not know him better. He
would negotiate for the purchase of pro-
perry valued at thousands of dollars,
when, in reality, he hao not one-thou.
sandth part OF the money he proposed
to pay. But his downward career com
menced in February, 1870, when be was
discharged from the Times. He next
took the circulation of the Evening News
but did not keep it long, and after pass
ing several months here, living off free
lunches and sleeping in saloons, he all
OF a sudden vanished, and next turned
up in Denison, Texas, which at that time,
1872, was just springiug into life.
ln December, 1874, | was in Galveston,
Texas, and who should | meet there but
Wholegan. | had not seen him for sew
eral years, and he was calmer and more
digniGed than in former times, but still
he had not lost that propensity for Mum
chausenism, il | may be allowed to coin
that WORD. Upon asking him where he
had been, he told me he had Just come
IN from Fort Yuma, California, and so he
had registered himself at The hotel, when
in reality do not suppose he had been
outside OF the State OF Texas since 1872,
when he had come into it. He told that
be had a couple Of trunks filled with sill
yer dollars at the express Office,
when in reality he did not have
hardly enough money to pay his
board. But Wholegan was not a bad
man, be was not vicious. His worse
hult was his iondness for that which
not only cheers but inebriates, and
telling yarns which he himself knew
did not contain an iota Of truth. He
claimed to have lived in Arkansas, which
he always said was his native Stats. In
Memphis he was well kGown, and this
sketch will be recognized by his large
circle of acquaintance throughout the
West and Southwest, who in days zone
by have derived temporary pleasure from
listening to the majors accounts OF his
travels. Wholegan was indeed a char
a%cter," and we ne'er shall look upon his
like again."
Rubenstein, the pianist, has been dec
GRATED with the cross OF the Legion of
Honor by Marshal MaeMahon.
There are enough melons in Florida
and blackberries in Georgia to reyiciual
Niksiki for an indefinite period.
Fifty thousand acres of land in Ar