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44 The McLaurys in Tombstone, Arizona If Frank McLaury was kept out of the Fort Worth jail by his brother, it could have only been during a narrow band of time between the arrival of Will McLaury and the departure of Frank (and Tom). In May 1876, Will and Malona McLaury with their son, John, and new daughter, Katherine, left the Dakotas. Their reasons for leaving were, in all probability, for Lona’s health. They reached Fort Worth, Texas, in June of 1876, as the Fort Worth Daily Democrat of July 7, 1876, proclaimed, “W. R. McLaury, recently of Iowa, a young lawyer of more that [sic] ordinary ability, has arrived with his household gods [sic] and taken up abode in our city.”1 Not all the news was so benign. It was the same newspaper issue that brought the news of Custer’s disaster at the Little Big Horn. Nationally, the news about Custer created a backlash against the Grant Administration’s pacification policies under the Secretary of the Interior, Carl Schurz. The aim of the policies was to contain (on reservations) and “civilize” the tribes—that is, convert them—either religiously or culturally, mostly both. There were even activists among the Radical Republicans who sought to extend citizenship to the Indian. Custer’s disaster also had the effect of briefly distracting people from the most intractable domestic problem the government had to deal with: Reconstruction. The Radical Republicans were a formidable force in Congress at the end of the Civil War. Beyond emancipation of the slaves, they constructed amendments to the Constitution intended to guarantee equal rights to the former slaves. But to accomplish this, they had to occupy state houses in the South with their own appointees, and back them up with Federal troops. Draconian measures taken in order that good may result made Radical Republicanism far more popular in places like Sioux Falls, Dakota Territory, or Toledo, Iowa, than it ever could be in Fort Worth. Another issue looming up in a presidential election year was the nature of the Civil Service. Should it be an extension of the political process, or should W. R. McLaury, Attorney-at-Law Seven 45 An O.K. Corral Obituary government officials be “professionals,” unbeholden to the political tide that carried elected officials in and out of office? Patronage was still very much a part of the political “coin of the realm,” and would play its part in the lives of the three McLaury brothers. Lona and Will proceeded to make a home in Fort Worth. Their residence was a house in the “Daggett Addition” on Fifteenth St. between Pecan and Grove streets, owned by Lona McLaury. Will McLaury’s office was listed at 7 Main St., on the public square, over a mile from his home. While they were making a new life for themselves, the McLaurys added Margaret (“Maggie”), their third child in 1878.2 Getting started as a new, young lawyer in Fort Worth was unexpectedly difficult. Will made a brief partnership with B. G. Johnson in 1877 that lasted less than a year.3 The scrappy nature of the frontier afflicted McLaury in his business affairs as well. The local newspaper ran a story about various fisticuffs around town under the headline “Free Fights.” In the second paragraph they reported “Mr. J. C. Scott, a prominent attorney of the city was approached in his office last evening by a brother attorney lawyer. Mr. McLaury, who engaged with Scott in a dispute about a law case in which Scott had claimed that Mc. had been the cause of his losing a fee. McLaury retaliated by calling Scott a liar. Result—two knockdowns for Scott, none for McLaury. Both were put under bonds by deputy sheriff Crozier to answer in court today.” And the result? The next day’s paper said simply: “The trial of J. C. Scott and W. R. McLaury for fighting will be called this morning at 10 o’clock.” Later, it recorded in the case of “State vs. J. C. Scott, assault & battery; $3 and costs.” No fine was imposed on McLaury.4 Will McLaury strove to emulate the success of his brother-in-law, David Appelgate, who had a successful practice in Iowa. So, McLaury ran for the office of County Attorney. During a gathering to hear the candidates’ views, the newspaper reported: “Next in turn came the divers and sundry applicants to the office of … county attorney, led off by that inexplicable...

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