Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1893-1920, 1907-07-01

Seldom has the news of the death OF
i well known man caused so many ex-
pressions of sorrow III Rock Island, as
did the tidings of the sudden demise
of Major l.. NJ Buford appearing in
Saturday evenings Argus. Many as
have been the years that have passed.
since Major BufOrd left Rock Island to
make his home in another country, the
ties of enduring friendship with those
who had known and loved him in the
good old times had not been severed.
and the remembrances of his kindly
face still fingered in the minds oil
many. His cordial greeting. his uni,
form courtesy to rich and poor alike,
his sprghtly step and courtly mien are
familiar to so large Il percentage of thu
people of Rock Island. that it seemed
Impossible to old friends that, despite
the lapse of time since he went away.
he had gone from them forever.
Major BufOrd was a type of the best
blood of American citizenship. A son
of the sunny south. native of Ken
lucky, he was a gallant soldier for the
cause of the union in the civil war 1t
was in this greatest strife III
the worlds history that he won
by mcritOriOus service the rank
of major \ man who knew no
such word as fear, yet who preferred
the grasp of friendship to all else in
the world. who never forgot a friend
of so high sense of honor and of that
rare Chivalrous nature that he would
have resented with the sword the slight
est indignity toward him or his. AMI
Yet the friends he had and their adop-
ton tried, were bucllled to mis- soul win
hooks OF steel. For them he would
have fought as for himself.
As a manufacturer. he. with his
| brother. the late b. d. BufOrd. ranked
| for years among the foremost in the
great west. Under their joint control
| and management the Rock Island PlOw
works became one of the leading agri-
cultural industries of the country. and
| but for the misfortune. or rather the
combination of miSfortunes which no
man can foresce or guard against, he
might have closed his days in the en-
joyment of the riches that his well or
dCred life. his worth and his keen bust
mess judgment deserved.
Major BufOrd was a democrat of til
old sChool-a lifelong democrat of the
IJeffersOnian stock. His name was syn.
lOnymOuS with democracy. tried and
true. Though never seeking favor at
the hands of the party, he was appoint
ed by President Cleveland, United Statet
consul to Cindad Juarez, Mexico. There
he exercised the diplomacy. the high
minded judgment and decision that wa
characteristic of the man. After the
termination of his term of office as rep
lresentative of his native government
lover the Mexican border line. he con
tinUed to make his home in the neigh
boring country, having become inter
ested in mining and other enterprises
Of great promise.
He had come back to his own land tC
seek the counsel of the best medical cX
perts for relief from an organic afTic
ton with which he had suffered fo1
% years, and to enjoy for a season tn,
rest of the seashore that it wa
: hoped would prove beneficial. After
= long and tedious journey, almost within
reach of the relief on which he hat
counted, the death messenger OvertOol
r him even as the train that bore hin
, sped on its way.
Today the body of the kindly gen
tleman reposes in the mansion he love,
in the city with whose history hi
name is interviewer There it avail;
the last honor that the living may Pr
TO the dead.
Tomorrow the requiem will be sal
, for another of natures noblemen.