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    AFFAIR OF HONOR.--It is whispered around our streets that a hostile encounter will occur at some convenient place, between two of our well-known citizens, on Wednesday next. Hoping that the matter will yet be compromised, we refrain from giving names and particulars at this time.

Source:

Unknown, "Affair of Honor," Daily Rocky Mountain News, Denver, Colorado, Monday, 31 December, 1860, page 3.

    I've been sitting on this article for some time now, because I wasn't entirely sure that it referred to the duel set to take place between Ned Wynkoop and Park McClure in December of 1860. The follow-up newspaper article promised by the Rocky Mountain News which might have actually named the participants, does not.

    That said, however, it certainly fits in with all of the other problems that Ned had to deal with that extremely difficult month in Denver, and as such I present it to you.

    Dr. Thomas Isern, in his article, "The Controversial Career of Edward W. Wynkoop," describes the situation like this:

"...Wynkoop himself nearly became a duelist in De-

Edward W. Wynkoop 5

cember 1860 following a dispute with his friend McClure, then postmaster of Denver. Wynkoop entered the post office and requested his mail, but McClure refused to release it because Wynkoop had not paid the rent on his postbox. Wynkoop promptly wrote out a challenge, and McClure reluctantly accepted. The terms specified were rifles at sixty paces, and the duel was to occur ten days later on Stout Street. Target practice occupied Wynkoop's time for the next few days, and at sixty paces he became deadly accurate. A lady friend of McClure reportedly said, "Mackey, you're a dead duck if you face that Kansas Jayhawker!" Both antagonists came to Stout Street at the appointed time, as an expectant crowd gathered. On reaching the field of honor, McClure had second thoughts and apologized to Wynkoop. The two left together, friends again.¹

    1. Isern, Thomas D., "The Controversial Career of Edward W. Wynkoop," The Colorado Magazine, 56 (Winter-Spring 1979): pp. 4-5.

    Chris.