THURSDAY---MARCH 28, 1907
A TRAGEDY AND THE RESULTS.
Last Friday evening County Attorney Jeff D. McLean one of the bravest and best officers Tarrant County has ever had was shot and killed by a one armed gambler named Bill Thomason, in front of the palatial Stag Saloon, over which the gambler had been plying his nefarious avocation.
After shooting McLean down the gambler fled through the saloon and out into an alley where he concealed himself behind some boxes, and desperately, perhaps fatally, wounded officer Hamil Scott who was pursuing him.
After shooting Scott down he took Scott's pistol and fled west one block to Roe's lumber yard where he again secreted himself. An immense crowd surrounded yard, and when the desperate wretch was found by officer Denny Lloyd, began firing again. Lloyd returned the fire wounding Thomason, who then ran out into the open driveway, meeting officer Ben U. Bell face to face. Bell and Thomason exchanged several shots at close range and at last the gambler fell mortally wounded.
He was at once hurried to the city jail and Saturday morning removed to the county jail before day, to avoid a possible lynching. Saturday evening he died. Both he and McLean were buried Sunday afternoon. Hamil Scott still lingers between life and death, the sixth dorsal vertebrae being shattered producing complete paralysis from the breast down.
For seven days the daily papers have been full of the details of the horrible and abhorrent tragedy and its after effects.
They have told in minutest detail time and again, of the shooting, the bulletins from the beds of the wounded, the details of the funerals, telegrams from all over the state, and have dwelt with even painful detail on the horribleness of gambling and the great popular uprising of an angered and outraged citizenship to forever wipe the gambler from the face of God's creation.
The Ft. Worth papers have been specially severe on this class of criminals.
But they have entirely overlooked one important matter--the popular uprising of the people of Tarrant county against the saloons of Ft. Worth. For a week we have noticed closely the three great dailies of Ft. Worth to see if under the pressure of this great and horrible tragedy they could be provoked to open their cowardly mouths and speak out against saloons. But we have waited in vain. For while they have poured in unstinted measure their vials of wrath on the coattails of fleeing gamblers, they have nothing to say against saloons, and barely speak of the great local option gatherings, and the steps that are so rapidly being taken to bring on a local option election for Tarrant County.
For five years the Journal has urged prohibition for Tarrant county. Had the Ft. Worth papers assisted us saloons and gambling halls would long since have been voted out of Ft. Worth and Jeff McLean and hundreds of other saloon victims now cold in their grave, would have been living. And to that extent the Ft. Worth newspapers and all others who have stood for saloons, are parties to Bill Thomason's crime, and to the thousands of other crimes committed by the saloons and gamblers.
A party to it whether they aimed to be, and wanted to be or not. It's an awful charge, but it is an awful responsibility and we feel justified in speaking so plain.
And in the last seven days thousands and thousands have come to look at it in this light and it now looks like all the devils in and out of hell assisted the press of Ft. Worth can no longer save the saloons and gambling houses of Ft. Worth. It looks like the people are going to drive them out just as fast as the wheels of law can turn.
Commissioner John A. Heitt said Monday in Arlington that if the question could be voted on that day, he believed prohibition would carry two to one. And while we do not take so hopeful a view of the situation as that we do believe prohibition will carry by a handsome majority.
And this should be the monument built to the memory of Jeff McLean, "Prohibition for Tarrant county." Such a monument will stand when the one we shall build of choicest marble shall crumble and fall to dust.
If this monument is built, and if these conditions can be brought about, unborn generations will rise up to call him blessed, and he will not have died for us in vain.
The Journal hopes to see Arlington act practically unanimous on this great question. Let us not quibble, let us not stumble at straws and strain at gnats. We have come to be looked to in this county as leaders in civic pride and moral reform. Let us sustain our reputation, and let us give the saloons of Ft. Worth a blacker eye than they have so often given our sons and fathers, and let each contribute his mite to the monument that we shall build to the memory of Jeff D. McLean.
In closing we want to dissent in a way from the general expression of
feeling over Jeff McLean's death. The prevalent idea is that his death is
a great calamity, something greatly to be deplored and mourned over. This
is one view of the fact, but when I see the beautiful tribute the people
pay to his life and death, when I know that thousands have wept in secret,
when I read of the sorrow at his old home at Mt. Pleasant, at the former
home of his beautiful young wife at Granbury, and all over the state, and
when I see flowers brought to the funeral in such profusion that the house
couldn't contain them and they had to be stacked in the yard, when I see
men weep who seldom weep, when I read the eulogies passed on his life and
services, and when I see a quickener public arousing itself and swearing
to continue his goods fight for a purer and better state of affairs, and
when I hear people by the hundreds say henceforth I am done with saloons
and gambling halls, and the thousands of testimonials of love and admiration
seen and heard on every hand, I feel that it is almost a death to be coveted
for one's self or their loved ones. A death around which the holiest of memories
will linger, a life and death that will be an inspiration to better life.
Few indeed of us, will be so fortunate in our death as has our martyred county
attorney. We may live a few fleeting years longer, but after all what is
a few more or less of short years. The only thing to consider is, "Did he
live well?" "Was he a blessing in his day and time, and did he leave behind
a spotless heritage?" Peace to the memory of Jeff McLean, great in life,
and greater in death.
NINETY YEARS OLD
On last Friday S.B. Glazner passed the 90th mile post on life's road, and in commemoration of the day was presented by his brother masons with a magnificent gold headed cane.
At an early hour Hon. F. R. Wallace drove up after father Glazner, and carried him down to the Citizens National Bank, where the members were assembled. Prof. H. Tarpley presented the cane accompanied by a short address, to which the aged father responded most feelingly in a few words.
S.B. Glazner is the oldest person in Arlington and one of the oldest in the county. He is in fairly good health and reasonable active for one of his age.
He was born in Pickens County S.C. March 22, 1817. When 12 months old he was carried by his parents to western N.C. where he lived on the beautiful and historic French Broad river till 1843, when he removed to Ala.
In 1882 he came to Texas where he has since lived.
He has been married twice and has had born to him 9 children, 39 grandchildren, and 7 great-grandchildren.
He has been a member of the Baptist church 69 years, and of the Masonic order 40 years.
Seven of his children are still living.
During the civil war he was barred from active service because of age, however he belonged to the reserved force and served under Gen. N.B. Forest.
He has at all times been active and unswerving where duty calls, and even yet he takes an active part in public affairs, especially his church, and his counsel is always worth listening to.
For 20 years he was clerk and a leading member of his church in Alabama.
The Journal, in common with a host of friends wishes for him many years
in which to use the token of esteem presented by his brother masons on this
occasion.
ATTORNEY JEFF D. MCLEAN IS SLAIN
MOST HORRIBLE TRAGEDY IN TARRANT'S CAPITAL.
THREE ARE FATALLY SHOT
GAMBLING SEES AN END THROUGH TRAGEDY MOST TERRIBLE AND HEARTRENDING.
Ft. Worth, Tex., March 23--County Attorney Jefferson D. McLean, one of the most prominent prosecuting officers in the state, was shot and almost instantly killed at 5 o'clock yesterday afternoon.
Former Deputy Sheriff Hamil P. Scott, now claim agent of the Denver Railway, was mortally wounded, and William Thomason, who has but one hand, and that his left, was riddled with bullets by the police, who surrounded him in a lumber yard, whither he had fled after the shooting, and has little chance of recovery.
All this came about as the result of a raid made on a gambling hall over a saloon yesterday afternoon by County Attorney McLean, Sheriff Wood and a large force of deputies.
Five men, it is charged, were found playing poker and faro. They were arrested and the paraphernalia hauled off in a wagon. The deputies departed to raid another suspected place, and Mr. McLean crossed the street to request his wife, who was seated in her buggy, to remain there until his return. He retraced his steps to follow the officers, and as he reached the front of the Stag Saloon Thomason stepped from the interior and accosted him, uttering an oath. Thomason had been running the games in the rooms above, but was not present when the raid was made.
McLean paused when at the foot of the stairway leading to the gambling hall, and as he did so Thomason fired, the heavy bullet striking the County Attorney in the Adam's apple, passing through his neck, and producing death in ten minutes. He was picked up and carried into Anderson's drug store, where he expired in the presence of his wife, physicians and friends. As he was being moved he spoke to those who were carrying him, saying: "Handle me carefully boys, I am choking." These were the last words he uttered.
Immediately after Mr. McLean had fallen Thomason made his escape through the saloon into an alley, and thence toward Throckmorton street. He hid behind a bill board and among a pile of dry goods boxes in the alley. Hamil P. Scott, who had joined in the chase, was the first to locate him there. Thomason opened fire from behind cover and Scott fell face downward after the third shot, and was unable to rise, the blood spurting from two severe wounds. His pistol now being nearly empty, Thomason rushed forward and seized Scott's weapon, from which no shot had been fired. He then cut across the vacant lot, crossed Throckmorton Street and ran into a lumber yard. In ten minutes 5,000 people and 20 policemen and Sheriffs had surrounded the lumber yard. A detachment of police, with revolvers drawn entered and began the search for the fugitive. Among the tall piles of lumber Officer Denny Lloyd discovered Thomason crouching close behind the two stacks of boards. He opened fire and drove him out.
The pistol taken from the wounded deputy failed to work rapidly, and the fugitive found himself at the mercy of the policemen. He continued to fight, however, and a fusillade of shots were fired. One penetrated his bladder and lodged in his back against a rib, another shattered his leg above the knee and a third broke his shoulder. He tumbled to the ground, still clutching the pistol taken from Hamil Scott, and which had failed to work properly at the critical moment.
Five thousand men surrounded the officers and the wounded man, and it was only by threatening the crowd with drawn revolvers that the police were enabled to load the bleeding body into the patrol wagon and haul it away. The horses were lashed into a run and several thousand people followed to the police station, where, after Thomason had been placed in the hospital every available Deputy Sheriff and policeman was thrown about the building to guard it and prevent possible mob violence, for by this time the excitement ran high and the people were in an ugly frame of mind.
At midnight last night Scott was dying, and physicians said the Thomason
would die unless removed, and operated on. The officers fear to undertake
this removal, because it is thought the sight of the man would start a movement
to lynch him that could not be stopped without a more terrible tragedy and
untold bloodshed.
Ft. Worth, Tx., March 25--Hamil P. Scott, who was desperately wounded while endeavoring to arrest Bill Thomason Friday evening, was removed to his residence to St. Joseph's Hospital between 4 and 5 o'clock Sunday afternoon, and at 10 o'clock that night was reported to be resting easy, with chances favorable for his recovery.
Bill Thomason died Saturday and was buried Sunday afternoon.
THURSDAY---APRIL 11, 1907
Journal has been apprised of the death of
Mrs. T.F. Burton in Arkansas. The
Burtons lived in and around Arlington several years, and were known to many
of our readers.
THURSDAY---APRIL 18, 1907
Frances Elnor, the little 3 months
old daughter of Mr. and Mrs. J.F.
Irvin, died yesterday at 10 o'clock a.m., after several days
of suffering. The remains were carried to Dangerfield for interment. The
Journal extends its sympathies to the bereaved parents.
THURSDAY---APRIL 25, 1907
LOOKOUT POINT (used to be interurban stop 16)
Since our last letter the death angel has visited our home and taken from
us our precious little babe only 3 months old. The little one was sick but
a short time and died of acute indigestion. It was laid to rest in Rehoboth
cemetery Friday a week ago. And so it is that our joys here below are
interspersed with sorrow but in the death of little babes there is consolation
in the fact that they are safe with God. (L.
Kase)?
The baby of Mr. and Mrs. D.D.
Ray died yesterday after a brief illness.
THURSDAY---MAY 2, 1907
MISS LAURA WEATHERFORD
Miss Laura Weatherford a young lady who has long suffered from pulmonary troubles passed into rest Tuesday night about 1 o'clock.
Miss Weatherford was a comparative stranger here, but those who did know her will ever remember her as one of God's most gentle, loving, patient children. Through all her long suffering she was always cheerful and even hopeful.
Both parents preceded her to the grave several years ago, victims of the same deadly disease, since which time she has been the mother of the household, performing her duties well.
Three brothers and two sisters survive her, all of whom were present at the burial Wednesday evening at 5 o'clock.
Interment was made in Arlington cemetery, and was conducted by
Rev. A.S. Hall pastor of the Baptist
church of which she has long been a devout member.
Hamil Scott the brave officer who was
shot by a saloon gambler at the time county attorney
Jeff D. McLean was assassinated
over a month ago, died yesterday from the effects of the wound. All Tarrant
County; the country especially, regrets to see brave officers shot down while
in the discharge of their official duty, but such is the inevitable results
of saloons and gambling halls.
THURSDAY---MAY 9, 1907
Word was received here Friday of the death of
Capt. J.W. Wynne, at Memphis Tenn.,
Thursday night. Capt. Wynne was a brother of
Mrs. Burney of this city, and related
to all the McKnights. Mrs. Burney
was with her brother at the time of his death. Many friends and relatives
here learned of Captain Wynne's death with profound sorrow.
Mrs. W.H. Thomason, wife of the gambler
who killed county attorney Jeff D.
McLean and officer Hamil
Scott, and who was himself killed, in the street duel at Ft.
Worth 6 weeks ago, died at Ballinger last Saturday morning, after an operation
for appendicitis.
THURSDAY---MAY 16, 1907
J.K.P. Jordan, an old resident of Grand
Prairie, died Monday evening and was buried Tuesday. Several citizens of
Arlington attended the funeral.
THURSDAY---MAY 30, 1907
Mrs. William McKinley widow of the
late president McKinley died at
her home at Canton Ohio, last Saturday at 1 o'clock p.m.
Joe Calloway born and raised at Calloway
lake north of the river, died last night at the home of his brother-in-law,
Dr. L.F. Rhodes at Tarrant. Interment
under auspices of the W.O.W. takes place this afternoon at Calloway cemetery
4 miles north of town. Quite a number of Woodmen from here are attending
the funeral and burial.
THURSDAY---JUNE 6, 1907
The Journal regrets to chronicle the death of
Mrs. A.M. Petty, which event took
place at Graham last Friday afternoon. The Pettys formerly lived at Johnson
Station near here, going to Graham less than a year ago, and held in high
esteem by their neighbors, all of whom sympathize with the surviving members
of the family in this their great bereavement.
Mrs. Joe Hinton, a sister of
Rev. P.F. Morgan died at her home
4 miles northwest of Arlington Sunday at 7:30 p.m. The remains were interred
at Handley Monday afternoon. A husband and 4 children survive her.
This page was last modified 29 Nov 1998.