The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1898-09-16
A Formerly Well Known Citi-
zen of lola and Allen
County
DIES In DEADLY COMBAT.
1t Was a Duel to Death and
Macs Gun Failed
to Fire.
DETAILS OF THE TRAGEDY.

Last Sundays Wichita Eagle con-
tanned dispatch saying that w. q.
Mcdonald had been shot and killed
near his home at Taloga, q. r., on the
Wednesday preceding. The REGIS
TER could hardly believe it to be true,
and waited for confirmation before
reprinting the bad news. That con-
firmation has now come, greatly to
our regret and the facts are given as
| follows:
On Wednesday. August 81, Mcdonald started
for Taloga In a spring wagon and had his Win
chester by his side. when in about two miles
OF here. McHafie and man by the name of
Robinson rode up behind him. McHafie asked
him II he was ready to fight it out and was in
formed that he was. McHafiie got Off his horse
and went to tie 1t to tree where he saw Nc.
Donald draw his Winchester. McHafie then
drew his revolver and the shooting began
McDonald's gumfailed to fire the first time the
second time it was discharged, but failed to
strike McHaffie
McHafie then shot Mcdonald FIVE times and
came to Taloga and gave himself up to the
sheriff The coroners inquest was held this
Mcdonald came to his death by a shot fired by
McHafie. The preliminary examination will
not take place for several days.
1t must have been nearly if not
quite thirty years ago that the editor
of this paper first saw w. G.. McDon-
aid. He was lying on his back in the
grass about mile north Of the old
Carlyle school house, with his hat
over his eyes, apparently asleep. His
pony was grazing near him, and j.
w. Christians cattle. which he was
supposed to be herding, were scatter
ed over the adjacent hills. He must
have been in the early twenties then,
and as we were in the early tens the
resulting acquaintance was not very
intimate. But we remember that Mac.
was around the neigh borhood, work.
some time. Long enough to win and
wed Alice Noble. Afterwards he
taught school and studied law, being
admitted to the practice, we believe,
sometime in the seventies. 1t was slow
work in the law and there was more
school teaching and afterwards a job
of come kind at the San Carlos Indian
Agency, in Arizona. From there
came series of the most interesting
letters to the REGISTER. Probably
the writing of these letters and the
success they met with suggested the
newspaper business to him. At any
rate the next thing we remember of
him Is of getting paper from New
Kiowa marked please XII on the
wrapper, and with Macs name on
the editorial page. That lasted few
months, and then came paper from
somewhere in the Panhandle similar
ly marked and with the same name
at the mast. Soon after the grand
rush to Oklahoma, we began to see in
Oklahoma papers the name of W. G.
Mcdonald, of ID. county. The men"
tion became more and more frequently
until the long name was no longer
spelled ont in full, but became simply
"Mc. of d." And by that name he
was known all over the new Territory.
Ofhis life there and the reputation
and standing he achieved, and of his
personality as it impressed itself upon
those who knew him only in these la
ter years, the Wichita Eagle speaks
as follows:
No greater man Of his kind ever lived than
Nc of d, (McDonald of d county, well-read,