DUANE
Duane's take
Here's my telling of what the official marker says about Tom T. McGee, out in Hemphill County. Now, some men arrive in a place at just the right moment, and the place and the man seem to find each other like they were always supposed to.
Tom T. McGee came to Canadian around 1884, and Canadian was still becoming itself. He went to work as foreman on the PO Ranch — learning the land, learning the people, learning what it meant to hold a thing together.
Then 1887 rolled around, and that was a year that meant two things at once out here. The city of Canadian was founded. And Hemphill County held its first sheriff's election.
Tom McGee won it. First sheriff of Hemphill County, in the very year the county seat was born. You couldn't write a neater origin if you tried.
He wore that badge for years. And then came November 23rd, 1894. A large shipment of money was moving through Wells, Fargo and Company.
Six men came for it. Six. McGee met them.
In the gun fight that followed, he was mortally wounded. He held on through the night — and on November 24th, 1894, Tom T. McGee died.
He had been born September 13th, 1849. That's the shape of a life the marker gives us, and it's enough to carry some weight. But here's where the story refuses to be finished.
His widow — she didn't fold. When World War I came, she went to England as a volunteer civilian worker. Not as a soldier, not as anyone ordered to go.
She went because she chose to. She died there, across the water, far from the Texas Panhandle. And then the people who loved her brought her ashes back.
Back to Canadian. Back to the county where her husband had been the first sheriff, in the year the city was founded, in the year everything began. Some stories don't end where you think they will.
But somehow, they end where they should.
What the marker says
(Sept. 13, 1849 - Nov. 24, 1894) Came to Canadian about 1884. Was foreman on PO Ranch prior to election as first sheriff of Hemphill County, 1887 - year city of Canadian was founded. Nov. 23, 1894, in gun fight with 6 men attacking large shipment of money at Wells, Fargo & Co., he was mortally wounded, and he died the next day. His widow went to England as a volunteer civilian worker in World War I; died there. Ashes were returned here for burial. Recorded - 1967