James Gorden/Gordon (-1878)

GORDEN, GORDON, BAKER

Posted By: Dorian Myhre (email)
Date: 2/28/2012 at 20:59:55

From Nevada Representative March 27, 1878

We publish below the letter received by Mrs. James Gorden in reference to the murder of her husband at Colorado on the 27th of Feb. 1878, which appeared in the Lyons Mirror of the 9th inst. James Gorden was a brother of Mr. R. Gorden of this county, and a brother-in-law of Mr. Wm. Baker who lives but one mile from town.

Mrs. Gorden has received a letter from the West, giving an accountof the death of Mr. Gordon, from which it appears that he was deliberately murdered, and that the perpetrator of the deed is under arrest.

MAGNOLIA, COL. March 3, 1878.

MRS. JAMES GORDEN--Dear Madam--It becomes my sad and painful duty to inform you of the particulars of the death of your husband James Gordon, for the last ten months in my emply, of which I telegraphed you some days since.

On the 27th ultimo, a difficulty occurred between him and one James Landis in which your husband was very little if any to blame. This took place about one P. M. After supper he went to the Post Office, and after remaining there until about nine o'clock stepped across the street, and while standing talking with a friend on the sidewalk, Landis approached him unawares and struck him with a knife, killing him almost instantly. Landis, thinking escape impossible, surrendered himself the authorities of the law, and last night he was fully committed to jail for murder.

The sympathies of the whole community have been aroused by this foul deed, and to-day your husband was decently and respectably buried, followed to his grave by the entire population of our town, with hardly an exception.

Your husband, as I have said, had been in my employ for ten months, and as an honest, faithful, industrious man, stood high in my esteem.

In conclusion, my dear madam, accept my heartfelt sympathy for yourseld and his children, and the assurance of the sympathy of this entire community, that has been brought to know you and them through this sad calamity.

Hoping that you may find consolation form that source from whence all our joys and sorrows come, I am, my dear madam,
Sincerely yours, A. COAN.