120 YEARS AGO: December 23, 1904

PAPER GOES DEAD

And Editor Attempts Suicide.

The Bakersfield Republican, a newspaper published at Bakersfield, this County, the past year or two, went dead last week.

The editor, Wm. McNair, attempted to commit suicide Friday evening about 5 o’clock by taking an overdose of morphine, but the timely assistance of physicians save the man’s life.

Family troubles seem to be the source of the editor’s ills. Prosecuting attorney, Luna, was at Bakersfield attending legal business at the time, and about dark, he was called upon to go with Justin Reynolds to the McNair residence to ascertain the cause of some trouble between McNair and his wife. When they entered the room, Mrs. McNair, who is an invalid, was in bed, and the editor was sitting on the floor writing a note to his father. When the officers entered, McNair remarked: “I have best you all.” The officers not understanding what he said, interrogated when he repeated: “I have taken 12 grams of morphine,” after he finished his note, he handed it to a boy and requested him to mail it, and taking Justice Reynolds by the arm, he told the officers he wanted to see them down to his office. Reynolds went with him, and Luna remained to question the wife as to the trouble, now minutes later Luna was sent for, the messenger stating that McNair was locked up in his office and swore he would kill anyone who attempted to come in. In a few minutes longer he lay down on a table helpless as a child when the door was forced open, and physicians were summoned. Proper emetirs were given to expel the poison and after plenty of fresh air and ice water had been freely used, the man recovered all right. Saturday noon he left Bakersfield on the stage for parts unknown. Perhaps a better idea of the trouble may be ascertained by the reader, from the following notes which the editor had written to his father. The first one was wrote at his residence and the last one was found in his office: “Father I have been arrested for abusing Frances. I have took 12 grams of morphine. Good by, forgive me.

Mack.”

Ira McNair

    Box 182

        West Plains, Mo.

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Dec. 16, 1904

“Ira McNair, West Plains, Mo.

Dear Father: This evening I was arrested charged with threatening Frances’s life. I AM INNOCENT. I took 3 grams of morphine. I have lived in hell for the last 8 or 9 months. May heaven be with her as it should, God knows I am innocent. Joe Carrico is the cause of it all. May God have pity on their poor souls, the neighbor women put Frances up to do this. My death is up to their door, I don’t think she would have done as she did if she hadn’t been put up to it. Good by Father, Mother, Rea. may God bless you and keep you. 

Will.

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Will McNair’s people, and wife’s people, live in Howell county, and both families are well to do and highly respected people. McNair and his wife have been married about three years. They have no family.