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27 An O.K. Corral Obituary From the upheaval of the previous few years in Belle Plaine, it would seem that a move of 60 miles or so was a bid for Robert McClaury and his family to start anew. What was the effect of the tumultuous Belle Plaine years on the younger McLaurys? For approximately three years, instead of farming, their father worked from an office, often in court and constantly in and out of debt. The escapade with the Wickhams might be interpreted as a determined effort to assist a friend, or to prevent a perceived injustice. It might have been an aberrant acting out of stressful times. Or it might have been a window into Robert’s wild side. Some years later, Robert would be described as a man of “indomitable will.” Willfulness, obstinacy, stubbornness—call it what you will—his children were also known by this family trait. At all events, those times would have made a strong impression on them all.1 Robert McClaury had purchased land in Buchanan County when he first arrived in Iowa in 1855. If he had been leasing the land, the missing piece of information may be that his tenants abandoned their farms. If, on the other hand, he had taken a mortgage with the men whose names were also on the deed, he was ready to take possession of the land outright. At the purchase price of 16¢ per acre, his 800 acres had cost $128. It was to those three lots in the unincorporated township of “Buffalo,” sometimes called “Buffalo Grove,” that the family moved.2 Their first year of living in Buffalo, Robert McClaury sold to the township an acre of land for 10¢. The purpose was for the establishment of a school. It was perhaps a distant echo of the land Robert’s grandfather donated for the establishment of a school in Kortright and his high regard for educating the children of the community. His sons, Robert and Thomas, were with him to manage the farm. At 17, Tom was still in school. But Rob was twenty-one years old, and would soon be seeking his own fortunes. According to family sources, Rob tried his hand at “reading law,” which might explain why he was still living at or close to home at the time. There is no evidence to support Buchanan County, Iowa Five 28 The McLaurys in Tombstone, Arizona this story, however. If Rob left home, Tom alone would remain to manage the farm with his father, which would end his ongoing education. Carrie certainly attended the school which was being taught by her sister Ana in the schoolhouse at the edge of the McClaury property.3 The new schoolhouse benefited other families in the community such as the family of Philip Miller and his wife, Elizabeth. In a move similar to the McClaurys in the 1850s, they had come from Darke County, Ohio, to Iowa following their son, George, and daughter, Ann. Ten years later, their children were grown, but their sons and daughters were at marrying age and that soon brought grandchildren. Their oldest, Ann Lovina Miller moved to Aurora, Illinois, to marry John Leigh. Leigh (sometimes pronounced “Lee” and sometimes “Lay”) joined the Union Army and re-enlisted at the end of the war. After his discharge, he worked as a mechanic. In 1872, he died suddenly in an accident. Ann returned to the Buffalo area with her five children to live with her brother, George. Naturally her eligible children attended the school near McClaury’s farm. Around this time, she met Robert McClaury and agreed to keep house for him, just as she was doing for her parents and her brother, George. Shortly after Robert McClaury settled in, some unfinished business came calling. An old nemesis lawsuit caught up to him in Buchanan County. The complaint by William H. McClaughry brought Robert back into court on his sixtieth birthday, August 3, 1870. The unpaid debt extended back over 15 years, including three court appearances in three different counties in two states. Whether it was sheer bull-headedness or that “indomitable will” of McClaury’s, he refused to pay the debt and had to be hauled in again by another brother, John Harsha McLaury who pursued the case through three terms of district court. At last, some part of the debt must have been paid or it may have been “taken over” by the second brother. By December term, 1872, the...

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