DUANE
Duane's take
Now, I'm tellin' this one straight from the official marker — this is the story as the Texas Historical Commission recorded it, right there in Quanah. December 9, 1893. The kind of date that gets carved into things.
And this one got carved into a depot platform in Hardeman County in a way nobody who was standing there would ever forget. But to understand that December morning, you've got to go back a little further — because bad blood doesn't boil overnight. It started, of all places, at a sheriffs' convention in Houston.
Childress County Sheriff Jonathan Pearce Matthews — a man born in 1837 and not accustomed to being corrected — had disrespected then-Governor James Hogg in front of witnesses. One of those witnesses was Texas Ranger Captain William Jesse McDonald, known to just about everyone as Bill. McDonald, who was not a man famous for holding his tongue, verbally reprimanded Matthews then and there.
Matthews took great offense. And he let that offense fester. He started making comments to others — the kind of comments a man makes when he's working himself toward something ugly — that one day he would kill McDonald.
Then came a second wound to Matthews' pride. Texas Ranger Bob McClure, an associate of McDonald's, refused to hand over a prisoner to Matthews. Instead, McClure escorted that prisoner to a different county where he could face stronger charges.
Now, whether Matthews had a rightful claim to that prisoner, the marker doesn't say. But what it does say is that Matthews' resentment grew. So there it sat — two grievances, stacked one on top of the other, and a man with a stated intention.
On December 9, 1893, Matthews and three men boarded a train in Childress, bound for Quanah. Quanah, where McDonald headquartered. And the marker doesn't dance around their purpose.
It says plainly: they were going to kill the ranger. Now here's where you have to appreciate the particular character of Bill McDonald. His usual men were out of town that day — off on that very prisoner escort, as it happened.
McDonald was, for all practical purposes, alone. And the marker notes this, almost as a kind of quiet understatement, before telling you what McDonald did. He went to the depot.
Never one to back down from a fight, the marker says, and it means it. Matthews and his gang arrived. McDonald met them south of the train platform — halfway between the depot and the opera house — and he called Matthews out, right there, for making threats.
Matthews looked at him and said, "No. I didn't say that, but I'll tell you what I did say —" And then a hail of bullets erupted from both sides. Who shot first?
The marker calls it a mystery, and so we'll leave it a mystery. In a matter of minutes, the whole affair ended. Matthews had been shot three times.
McDonald twice. Matthews did not survive. On December 30 — three weeks after the gunfight — he succumbed to his wounds, leaving behind a wife and a one-year-old child.
That detail lands quietly, doesn't it. The men from both parties were arrested. They were tried.
None were convicted. And Bill McDonald — shot twice at a train depot by a man who had ridden through the night to kill him — lived on. He became, the marker tells us, one of the four great captains of the Texas Rangers.
He died in 1918, from natural causes. Some men, it seems, are just not easy to finish.
What the marker says
An infamous gunfight between law enforcement officers occurred on December 9, 1893. Bad blood had been boiling between the two for months. At a sheriffs" convention in Houston, Childress County Sheriff Jonathan Pearce Matthews (1837-1893) had disrespected then-Governor James Hogg. A witness, Texas Ranger Captain William Jesse "Bill" McDonald (1852-1918), verbally reprimanded Matthews. Matthews took great offense to this and began making comments to others that one day he would kill McDonald. Later, Matthews" resentment grew over an instance in which Texas Ranger Bob McClure, an associate of McDonald, refused to turn over a prisoner to Matthews and instead escorted the prisoner to a different county where he could face stronger charges. With McDonald's usual men out of town on the prisoner escort, Matthews and three men rode the train from Childress to Quanah, where McDonald headquartered. Their purpose was clear: they were going to kill the ranger. McDonald, never one to back down from a fight, was at the depot when Matthews and his gang arrived. He met them south of the train platform, halfway between the depot and the opera house. McDonald called out Matthews for making threats. Matthews responded, "No. I didn't say that, but I'll tell you what I did say," and then a hail of bullets erupted from both sides. Who shot first is a mystery. In a matter of minutes, the whole affair ended, with Matthews being shot three times and McDonald twice. Matthews ultimately succumbed to his wounds on December 30, leaving behind a wife and one-year-old child. Men of both parties were arrested and tried, but none were convicted. Ranger McDonald lived on to become one of the "four great captains" of the Texas Rangers, dying in 1918 from natural causes. (2022)