Wm. T. McKay and Louis Obashaw Biographies, Charles Mix County, SD

	This biography is taken from the "Standard Atlas of Charles Mix 
	County (1906)", published by Geo. A. Ogle & Co. Page 54

	Transcribed by Joy Fisher, sdgenweb@yahoo.com and may be copied for 
	non-profit purposes. All other rights reserved.


Wm. T. McKay and Louis Obashaw established their "ranch" about three miles above Wheeler,
opposite the Whetstone Agency, soon after the agency was established. They could not 
agree ahd Obashaw soon left. McKay's ranch, as it was called, became a famous gambling and
whiskey resort. McKay was a shrewd, intelligent man with a fair education conscienceless 
and unscrupulous. He was elected to the legislature three times, but his most enduring
monument is the history of his whiskey joint and gambling hell. He remained four or
five years and left. It is related that General Wilson, then stationed at Whetstone
agency, crossed the river on thin ice for whiskey. He started back with a heavy internal 
load as well as a well filled bottle in his coat pocket. He broke through the ice and
was in imminent peril of drowning, but had left enough presence of mind to get the 
bottle out of his pocket and by a dextrous throw and slide propelled it to a place of
safety, saying, "There, you are safe anyway." The general, too, was rescued by timely
assistance.