The Ouachita Telegraph - Assassination of W. B. McDonald Remains a Mystery Date: May 2000 Submitted by: Lora Peppers ********************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm http://usgwarchives.net/la/lafiles.htm ********************************************** *********************************************** The Ouachita Telegraph Saturday, April 5, 1873 Page 2, Column 2 ASSASSINATION OF AN OLD CITIZEN. Hon. W.B. McDonald, of the southwestern portion of Jackson parish, while undressing to go to bed at the hotel in Vernon, on Sunday night, was shot through the window of his room, six buck-shot taking effect in his abdomen, from which death ensued in about one hour. The room is in the lower story of the house, with the window, through which the charge passed, at the end of the room and some thirty paces from the street. Different persons, arriving from Vernon, agree in stating that no satisfactory clue to the identity of the assassin, or to the cause of this bloody deed, has suggested itself, or been discovered, by the citizens of Vernon. Mr. McDonald had resided in Jackson some twenty-six years, and was a planter in good circumstances. He had several times been in the Police Jury of the parish, and in the first legislature after the war represented his parish in part in the lower house. Up to 1869, we believe it was, he acted with the Democrats, and then by degrees veered around to the Republican party, and in the last campaign was a warm supporter of the Grant and Kellogg ticket. Personally, he was a man of great energy, devoted to his family, with strong convictions, a vigorous mind and a bearing natural to such a temperament. He had taken an active part in organizing the new parish of Lincoln, with the view, it appears, of adding to the southern portion of Jackson from adjoining parishes on that border and thus necessitating a change of the parish site. We state all these points fully and frankly, — adding that Mr. McDonald, strong in his opposition to those whom he had reason to dislike, — in order to answer, as far as one's history can, the very natural question which every reader will ask, in a case like this, What cause could there be for his assassination? We are, ourself, wholly at a loss to conjecture what affront to any one Mr. McDonald could offer, that would warrant such a dastardly act, or to account for his death thus, in any way, except that the perpetrator is a man who would take life without any cause at all. A most respectable family — wife, sons and daughters — has been cruelly and brutally brought to woe, and a prominent citizen hurried, without warning, into the grave, in a manner revolting to even savage nature. The people of Jackson are not the people to permit this red-handed act to pass without their earnest scrutiny and rebuke. The Ouachita Telegraph Saturday, April 12, 1873 Page 2, Column 2 Assassination of Mr. McDonald. Nothing has been developed at Vernon to satisfy the inquiry as to the cause of Mr. McDonald's assassination, or the individual who did it. Mr. John Barnard, whom Mr. McDonald appears to have suspected as the guilty party, proved an alibi before the Coroner's inquest, and now demands an investigation by the courts. The Vernon Standard, commenting on the horrible affair in a well-written article, is unable to furnish any clue to a solution of the bloody mystery. It notices the fact that the deceased had strong personal enemies, and was at times bitter in expressing his views of politics, and says, as we know was true, that his family were apprehensive that , at some time, he would be killed. The Standard condemns the horrible deed in language not to be mistaken, and in this reflects the sentiments of the good people of Jackson. We do not believe that politics had anything to do with this affair. The deceased was our preceptor long years ago, and we would do him full justice, as then he did us; but the reputation of a whole parish is something of surpassing value. Mr. John Ray has entered the list of letter- writers, and, in the Republican, has a letter written to his colored friend and recent traveling companion, Mr. DeS. Tucker, from which we extract the following: You know Mr. McDonald was one of the most prominent and worthy citizens of North Louisiana, and thus far I have not heard that he had any personal difficulty with any one. It is suspected that the fact that he had earnestly espoused the Republican party — his son having been appointed tax collector of Jackson parish — and he being an out-spoken and earnest friend of Colonel Green and his sons, was the offence which caused his assassination. I most sincerely hope that some other solution of the matter will be had for this most foul deed. If Mr. Ray really hoped that some other solution than being the father of Kellogg's tax collector, the outspoken friend of Col. Green and his sons, and a Republican, could be found for Mr. McDonald's assassination, why did he not suggest all the solutions which might be given? Is he of opinion that when a Republican is assassinated, that the best reason to be given is that he was a Republican? Is that a rational reason in Mr. Ray's opinion? If not, why should he offer that alone as the prime and only cause in this sad case? Mr. Ray, while well posted in much of the lamented, deceased's history, is altogether ignorant, it appears, that he was a man of very strong prejudices and bitter animosities. The intimacy which existed between the two and the well-known strong personal hatreds of Mr. McDonald (which, as we know, in some instances, at least, were just) utterly refute the idea that Mr. Ray, as deceased's friend and otherwise well-informed as to his life, did not know that there were other solutions which might be given for the assassination. Why did not Mr. Ray, give, frankly, as we did, all the points in the deceased's character, when one as likely as the other might have offered a solution for the assassin's act? The motive is too clear not to be called in question. We have conversed with the brother-in-law of Mr. McDonald, Dr. McCreight, of Bastrop, who had just visited the afflicted family, and that gentleman has assured us that the family are left in doubt as to the person who committed the horrible deed, or the cause which led to it. They are, of course, stricken with the deepest grief, a feeling which all must appreciate and respect. # # #