The Bridgeport times and evening farmer., 1918-01-29
LIFE OF RANGER
 CAPT AIN WAS ONE OF MANY THRILLS
Captain Bill McD Donald Had Nerve to Charge Hell
 With a Bucket"

Capt. William J. (BilD Mcdonald, noted Texas ranger and personal friend and bodyguard of several Pres 1dents, who died at Wichita Falls re- gently, had been famous in the southwest as a frontier detective for nearly 30 years.
 As an important factor in the main tenance of the law and order in country in which ranged. the lawless men or the Mexican border. the cat tIe thieves of the West and despera- does from the whole country seeking refuge in the opens of the West, his ability was recognized by the state of Texas, which made him head of the famous Texas Rangers, and Pres 1dent Wilson, who twice named him United States Marshal of the North ern District of Texas, in his Presi- dendal campaigns, chose him as his own personal bodyguard.
 His life could furnish the material for a score Of novels of the "Wild Vest type.
 His first notoriety outside of Texas came when he undertook the enforce ment of a state law exacting $1,000
 license fee for each circus perform ance in the state. The circuses un- dertook to defeat the spirit of the law by giving a continuous performance, in whatever cities they showed, thus paying only one fee.
 Mcdonald followed one of the 1arg- nSf and in nonh nifXy if oh oh tain an attachment to some. important feature of it's menagerie, until he had acquired most of it's animals. The circus capitulated and paid: the tax, but the interference with it's amuse- ments irked the Texans and enforce ment of the law became so unpopular it was dropped.
 Mcdonald solved the Conditt mur- der in 1905 when Mrs. J. F. Conditt of Edna, Jackson county, her daugh- ters, Jessie and Mildred, and her two sons, Hershell and, Joseph, Jr., were killed with an ax. For two years he worked apparently no leads until in 1907 three negroes were hanged for the murders.
 He also placed in the state peni- tentiary for life eight men convicted on his evidence of the Humphreys lynchings in 1890. ~t&
 James Humphreys and his two sons George and John, were found hanging to limb of a tree in the thick woods of what is known as the Trans-Cedar country. Mcdonald was then captain of the State Rangers and for, more than year stayed with his pursuit of the lynchers until the eight were convicted, three turning states evil dence. It was the only mob ever convicted of a crime of the kind in the state ! of Texas.
 Mcdonald was chosen United States marshal by the direct desire of President Wilson. Texas politicians say, and, some of them add, against the protest that he had never served the Democratic party in it's cam ! paigns and that he never was a pol itician. He was the-personal choice, it was said, of Col. E. M. House. Me Donald was introduced to President Wilson and his family by Col. House l and was at once chosen as his body guard. --.' ..-s ,..... Whileaeaptain of the rangers, Me- Donald took a leading part in the Brownsville negro raids and his name was carried to Washington at that time. In the United States. Senates l investigation into the Brownsville af- fair McDonald's name was a prom1- nent feature of the testimony.
 "Who is this Bill Mcdonald that l seems to be boss all over Texas?" asked Senator Foraker,- at that time a member of the committee conduct | ing the examination. .. . He's the man who would charge Hell with a bucket of water,'' was the reply of a member of the Texal | delegation who was at hand, and it was as the man who stood ready to charge any task with whatever weapons he had in hand that Capt. Mcdonald of the Texas Rangers was | best known in the Southwest.
 | He was born in Kemper, county, Mississippi. in 1852, graduated from | Soules College in New Orleans in 1872 and in 1876 married Miss Rhoda Isabelle Carter of Wood county, Tex.