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271 An O.K. Corral Obituary Will McLaury traveled north to visit his father and sisters in Iowa. He may have wanted to make up for being absent from the wedding of his youngest sister. One of his duties as executor of his brothers’ affairs was to report to the man most directly affected by the settlement of the estates, their father, Robert H. McClaury. So, with what progress was made while he was in Tombstone, Will made his report to the sole heir in person. The recent letter from J. R. Adams to Charles Appelgate surely cast doubts on any future collections. As Will McLaury traveled north, he encountered what had become a national phenomenon: an outbreak of small pox. Starting in the northeast in the fall of 1881, the disease was spreading west. Having faced one crisis after another—the death of his wife, the death of his brothers, the loss in court, the constant background of threats, and knowledge of plots against the lives of men in Tombstone—McLaury was not prepared to encounter the impersonal threat of a contagious disease. He described his adventure in a letter to the editor of the Fort Worth Democrat-Advance. What is the Matter With the Mails? Des Moines, Iowa, Feb. 7, 1882. Editor Democrat-Advance. When I return home I will collect from you that dollar I paid you to send me your paper at Toledo, Iowa from January 26th to February 26th. Slick talk won’t, on my return, supply the want of the paper during all this time. Hoard up your nickels to meet the demand. Don’t wish for a collision of trains to settle the score. If brave men are never afraid, then I am not brave. I have found small-pox on this entire trip; there is hardly a town but has had from one to three cases. On my way up I met on the cars three gentlemen who had had it, and only one knew where and when he contracted the disease. They were all from different localities. A boy about sixteen came from Chicago to Toledo, Iowa, by rail, and on his arrival at Toledo Habeas Corpus Thirty 272 The McLaurys in Tombstone, Arizona he was pretty well broke out and had then had fever three days. He was a poor, half-clad tramp, and a number of the ladies undertook to care for him. Finally, a doctor was called who said it was small-pox. Then there was a scattering. The little chap is dead, but before his demise he took steps to secure more devoted, vigorous praying than is usually done at our camp meetings. The ladies manifested the most interest —they have been praying and getting vaccinated. The doctors are the only ones who seem to like it. I took some stock—I got vaccinated and know it— I could have sworn it for the past two days. They are having a warm, pleasant winter. No snow, and the ground thawed on top. Toledo was my home in my boyhood. The country has improved; few of my old schoolmasters are there. As to business, the whole country seems to be having a succession of Sundays. Business seems to be dead, and the people move about as if going to church. At Toledo they have a graded school and Western College is there located, and there you can see more prime school marms, schoolmasters and school girls than one wants to, and one will wish occasionally that the ground was covered with ice as they go along the street, so they would limber up (down, perhaps,) or break their necks. SomeofthesepeoplearegoodRepublicans—theywantthewarfought over again. The Republicans came out best in that fight, and these chaps didn’t get killed nor powder-burned. They say to me that I am a Democrat, that I have been converted. Some of my old friends are here in the Legislature. The pay is not large. The house is moderate, but they have an elegant opportunity to get cussed, and I suppose they prize that. It is the next best thing to being the editor at a newspaper. I could write some more, but I have option to stop or walk to Oskaloosa , or wait for another train. Save up that $1.00 W.R. McLaury [We can only say to friend McL. that his paper goes into the mails, and he will have to look to Uncle Sam for his $.—Ed. D.-A...

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