Lake County Oregon Irish Sheepherders John Sagaarday Found Dead in Camp

Irish Sheepherders of Lake County Oregon
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SHEEPHERDER FOUND DEAD IN CAMP June 1, 1911 John Sagarday Was Thought To Have Been Murdered But Autopsy Shows He Died a Natural Death
Quite a little excitement resigned here Sunday morning when Manuel Sanders, the stockman received a telephone message from Paisley stating that one of his sheep herders had been found dead. Rumors immediately became rife to the effect that the herder, John Sagarday, had been murdered and that sheep had become scattered and were wandering about the Wagontire country, east of Albert Lake. On receipt of the message here Coroner Wallace, accompanied by Manuel Sanders and William Duncan, immediately left by auto and proceeded as far as the E. D. Smith residence. It was impossible to go further with the machine and in company of with Mr. Smith they started in a rig for for the scene of the affair, which is somewhat over one hundred miles from Lakeview. Arriving at the camp late Sunday afternoon they found Sagarday lying on his bed in the tent, with his shoes, watch, purse and suspenders laid to one side. It was his usual custom to remove these before retiring. The body was first discovered early Friday Morning by Bill Thorn, the camp tender. Thorn had just returned after an absence of seven days, and he is of the opinion that Sagaday probably came to his death on the night of the 19th, as it was his usual custom to salt the sheep punctually on the twenth of each month and on investigation, it was found that this had not been done. The sacks of salt had not been opened. Thorn, after finding Sagarday, immediately proceeded to look for the sheep, expecting to find them scattered all over, the surrounding country. When he did finally locate them it was found that a shepherded dog had faithfully watched and kept them bunched during the entire with a loss of but a very small number. another, surprising feature of the affair is that the dog had a litter of small pups, which she had entirely neglected in order to watch the sheep, and which were found in a starving condition when Coroner Wallace and his men arrived on the scene. An autopsy made over the body of the dead man resulted in the decision that he had come to his death through natural causes, probably on or about the nineteenth day of May. The body was claimed by Pete Sagarday, a brother, who is thought to be the only relative in this country.

   Quite a little excitement resigned here Sunday morning when Manuel Sanders, the stockman received a telephone message from Paisley stating that one of his sheep herders had been found dead. Rumors immediately became rife to the effect that the herder, John Sagarday, had been murdered and that sheep had become scattered and were wandering about the Wagontire country, east of Albert Lake.
   On receipt of the message here Coroner Wallace, accompanied by Manuel Sanders and William Duncan, immediately left by auto and proceeded as far as the E. D. Smith residence. It was impossible to go further with the machine and in company of with Mr. Smith they started in a rig for for the scene of the affair, which is somewhat over one hundred miles from Lakeview.
Arriving at the camp late Sunday afternoon they found Sagarday lying on his bed in the tent, with his shoes, watch, purse and suspenders laid to one side. It was his usual custom to remove these before retiring.
The body was first discovered early Friday Morning by Bill Thorn, the camp tender. Thorn had just returned after an absence of seven days, and he is of the opinion that Sagaday probably came to his death on the night of the 19th, as it was his usual custom to salt the sheep punctually on the twenth of each month and on investigation, it was found that this had not been done. The sacks of salt had not been opened.
   Thorn, after finding Sagarday, immediately proceeded to look for the sheep, expecting to find them scattered all over, the surrounding country. When he did finally locate them it was found that a shepherded dog had faithfully watched and kept them bunched during the entire with a loss of but a very small number. another, surprising feature of the affair is that the dog had a litter of small pups, which she had entirely neglected in order to watch the sheep, and which were found in a starving condition when Coroner Wallace and his men arrived on the scene.
   An autopsy made over the body of the dead man resulted in the decision that he had come to his death through natural causes, probably on or about the nineteenth day of May.
   The body was claimed by Pete Sagarday, a brother, who is thought to be the only relative in this country.