Tom T. McGee

Most of the money at the station that night was never there. In the fall of 1894 George Isaacs sent five envelopes from Kansas City to Canadian, said to hold $25,000, and they went into the Wells Fargo safe at the station. Gunfire broke out moments later, and McGee, who had just stepped onto the platform, was hit. The envelopes held $500 in small bills. Isaacs was convicted of the murder at Quanah in 1895 and sentenced to life; three accused accomplices, among them Tulsa Jack of the Doolin Gang, were brought back to Canadian for trial.

What the plaque 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

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• The Citadelle Art Museum — 0.7 mi
  A 1910 Baptist church saved from demolition in 1977, made into a family home filled with art, and given to Canadian in 2009 as one of the Panhandle's few art museums.
• River Valley Pioneer Museum — 0.7 mi
  The Hemphill County museum in Canadian, a Santa Fe division town of 1887 on the river breaks that held one of the first commercial rodeos in Texas and voted itself dry in 1903.
• Canadian River Wagon Bridge — 1.1 mi
  The longest pin-connected bridge in Texas, 3,255 feet of Parker trusses across the Canadian River at Canadian, built for wagons in 1916 and reopened as a footpath in 2000.
• Gene Howe Wildlife Management Area — 4.5 mi
  Five thousand acres of sand sage and cottonwood bottomland along the Canadian River east of Canadian, bought by the state in 1950 for wildlife research and open to walkers with a permit.

More markers nearby

• First Baptist Church of Canadian — 0.5 mi
• First Church Bell — 0.6 mi
• R. Dick Bussell — 0.6 mi
• John Hemphill — 0.6 mi