Texas Ranger Dispatch - Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum

Transcription

The
Issue 26, Summer 2008
Texas Ranger Dispatch
™
Magazine of the official Museum, Hall of Fame, and Repository of the Texas Rangers Law Enforcement Agency
Murder of Leah Sherwood
Rangers Whitman, Robertson,
and Griffith close the case page 5
29 Reunion 08
13
19
8
Salt Warriors
H.W. Karnes
C olt
Army
16 King Ranch
This issue of the Texas Ranger Dispatch is funded in part by a
grant from the Texas Ranger Association Foundation. Their
generosity makes this publication possible.
http://www.thetexasrangers.org/
Founded in 1964, the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum
is a nonprofit historical center owned by the people of Texas. It
is hosted and professionally operated by the city of Waco, Texas.
It is sanctioned by the Texas Rangers, the Texas Department of
Public Safety, and the legislature of the State of Texas.
website. http://www.texasranger.org/index.htm
Texas Ranger
Dispatch
Production
Team
Robert Nieman - Managing Editor (Volunteer, Museum Board)
Pam S. Baird – Technical Editor, Layout, and Web Design
Byron A. Johnson - Director, Texas Ranger Hall of Fame
Sharon P. Johnson, Volunteer Web Designer, Baylor University
Christina Stopka, Archivist, Texas Ranger Research Center
Tracie Evans, Collections Manager, Collections Division
Texas Ranger
Dispatch
Issue 26, Summer 2008
Contents
Click on title to go directly to article.
Click on Texas Ranger emblem at top of article to return to Contents page.
Articles
4 Ask the Dispatch
5 Leah Sherwood: Now She Can Rest in Peace .....................Hank Whitman
8 Henry Wax Karnes......................................................................Steve Moore
12 Ranger News
13 Guns of the Texas Rangers: The Colt Army Special
13 It’s a Family Tradition ......................................................Robert Nieman
14 The Colt Army Special ....................................................David V. Stroud
16 Navigatin’ with Nancy (& Eddie too): The King Ranch .............Nancy Ray
18 Sic ‘Em! ..................................................................................Robert Nieman
19 My Men Are All Frontiersmen: El Paso’s Tejano Texas Rangers in the 1870s
.............................................................................................................Paul Cool
29 Texas Ranger Reunion
30 Friday night
31 Glenn Elliott Display
32 Gala
34 Memorial Service
Book Reviews
35 Salt Warriors: Insurgency on the Rio Grande
by Paul Cool ..................................................................review by Chuck Parsons
37 A Sweet, Separate Intimacy: Women Writers of the American Frontier, 1800-1922
by Susan Miller ...............................................................review by Linda Hudson
38 One Ranger Returns
by Joaquin Jackson ...........................................................review by Robert Nieman
39 Texas History Stories
by E.G. Littlejohn .......................................................................review by Nancy Ray
40 The Texas Rangers: Wearing the Cinco Peso, 1821-1900
by Mike Cox .................,........................................................review by Robert Nieman
Ask the Dispatch
Ask
the
Dispatch
I just want to say this magazine (Issue 25)
is something to be proud of. It is well put
together and extremely professional looking. Thanks for all of your hard work and
dedication in getting this task completed and
what you do to keep the memories, stories,
and reputation of the Texas Rangers alive!
Captain Barry K. Caver
Texas Rangers, Company E, Retired
I haven’t had a chance to read every article
yet, but I have read several and have perused the whole thing. No doubt, this is the
best yet. You guys are really doing a fantastic job. Thanks for all you do.
Kirby [Dendy]
[Captain, Company F, Waco]
Excellent issue, as usual. That’s an understatement. I think it is the best yet. Congratulations.
I enjoyed Glenn [Elliott]’s personal review
of the Arthur Hill book.
Robert Utley
Author of Lone Star Lawmen
Thanks. You and your staff do an excellent
job in producing the Texas Ranger Dispatch.
I enjoy reading every episode. Keep up the
good work, and God bless the Texas Rangers.
Jim Ryan
Badland Texas Rangers
You folks have built a heck of a library of
Ranger history and the Dispatch should live
forever.
Randy Sillavan
Contents and design of the Texas Ranger Dispatch™ are copyrighted by the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum and other named copyright holders. Permission is granted to
print copies or excerpts for personal use and educational coursework. Commercial use or redistribution requires written permission from the Office of the Director, Texas Ranger
Hall of Fame and Museum, PO Box 2570, Waco, TX 76702.
4
Leah Sherwood: Rest in Peace
Leah Sherwood:
Now She Can
Rest in Peace
Lt. Hank Whitman, Texas Ranger
The story behind the cover page
It is with great pride that the Dispatch presents one of the most moving moments in
the long history of the Texas Rangers. Our selection for the cover for this issue attests to
this.
The Dispatch wants to express our gratitude to Ranger sergeants Ronny Griffith,
Jeff Robertson, and Hank Whitman for a remarkable job we in Texas all too often take for
granted. Since this case was brought to a successful conclusion, Sergeants Robertson
and Whitman have promoted to lieutenant. We especially want to thank Lieutenant
Whitman for allowing us to publish his brief synopsis of this remarkable case solved by
the cold case unit.
On April 23, 1996, Leah Jane Sherwood was murdered in her home near Hallsville,
Texas, and her boyfriend was wounded. The crime was initially investigated by the Harrison
County Sheriff’s Department and aggressively pursued by Investigator Lieutenant Clay
Medrano. Ranger Ronny Griffith (Longview) joined in the investigation and assisted
Medrano with numerous interviews regarding the suspicious case. Sadly, Lieutenant
Medrano lost his life in the line of duty, and the case went cold for over a decade.
During the initial investigation, the sole witness and surviving victim had been
Sherwood’s boyfriend, George Allen Williams. Williams had advised investigators that he
was spending the night with Ms. Sherwood when two unknown male subjects knocked on
the front door at approximately 4:30 a.m. and requested to use the telephone. When he
opened the door, the two men immediately attacked him, rendering him unconscious with
a blow to the head and a stab wound to his abdomen. When Williams regained
consciousness, he discovered Ms. Sherwood dead in the master bedroom.
From the onset, Lieutenant Medrano was suspicious of Williams’s story, which could
not be corroborated by the evidence at the scene. After Medrano’s death, the case reached
Contents and design of the Texas Ranger Dispatch ™ are copyrighted by the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum and other named copyright holders. Permission is granted to
5
Jeff Robertson
Hank Whitman
Ronny Griffith
Texas Rangers in charge of the Leah Sherwood case.
a stalemate until the victim’s parents, Dale and Delana Sherwood, contacted Ranger Griffith for
assistance. Griffith, in turn, consulted with the Harrison County Sheriff’s Department and the
Texas Ranger Unsolved Crimes Investigation Team in San Antonio. The case was forwarded to
the team, and I was subsequently assigned to the case in October 2005. After reviewing the file,
Rangers Griffith and fellow Unsolved Crimes Ranger Jeff Robertson joined me in an aggressive
investigation.
We requested the exhumation of Ms. Sherwood for the purposes of conducting a second
autopsy. In addition, we once again interviewed numerous witnesses and reconstructed the original
crime scene. The second autopsy revealed additional evidence that was not uncovered during
the previous examination: Ms. Sherwood had endured a brutal murder in which she was not only
shot, but strangled as well.
As the investigation culminated, it became apparent that Williams’s account of the alleged
break-in was bogus. It was revealed that, two weeks prior to Sherwood’s death, Williams had
convinced her to place him as sole beneficiary to her life insurance policy. Williams stood to gain
over $200,000 plus other benefits. Moreover, Sherwood’s employment records indicated that
Williams had agreed to be considered her “common-law” husband in order to gain the benefits.
The case was taken before Harrison County Criminal District Attorney Joe Black. He gave a
three-hour presentation of the case to a grand jury, which then returned a true-bill indictment
against George Allen Williams.
In October 2007, Williams was tried in Marshall for the offense of capital murder. Prior to the
trial, District Attorney Black had made the decision that he would not seek the death penalty in
anticipation of Williams agreeing to a plea bargain of twenty years in prison. However, Williams
had quickly dismissed the offer, stating, “I won’t even plea out to ten years probation if it was
offered.” After the two-week trial, Williams was found guilty of capital murder and was sentenced
to life in the Texas Department of Criminal Justice-Institutional Division. He would not be eligible
for parole for forty years.
6
Within a week of his sentencing, Williams requested, through his attorney, to speak with
District Attorney Investigator Hall Reavis and me. During the arraigned interview, Williams confessed
that he had in fact participated in the death of his former common-law wife, Leah Jane Sherwood.
Moreover, he admitted that the wounds he sustained were self-inflicted, something that investigators
had always suspected.
Early on in the investigation, I had noticed that the only marking at Ms. Sherwood’s gravesite
was the traditional aluminum placard provided by the funeral home. When I asked why there was
still no headstone on her daughter’s grave after almost ten years, Ms. Sherwood’s mother
emotionally told me,
Until we find justice for Janie, we’re not going to do it. If and when this case reaches trial, and
no matter what the outcome (win, lose, or draw), then and only then will we place a headstone on
her grave. We plan on ordering her a very special one.
After the Williams verdict and subsequent sentencing, I hugged Ms. Sherwood’s mother and
said, “I think it’s time to buy that baby girl her beautiful headstone.” She quickly agreed.
On April 28, 2008, at the request of the Sherwood family, I joined Rangers Griffith and
Robertson in Hallsville for the unveiling of Leah Jane Sherwood’s headstone. Unknown to the
Texas Rangers, there was a second memorial stone that had been placed at the foot of the grave
by her parents and extended family. On it was inscribed a tribute to all those involved in the
successful prosecution of George Allen Williams.
U Leah’s footstone is a special tribute to all involved
in the successful resolution of her murder.
ULeah loved horses, and her tombstone depicts her riding into the sunset, finally able to rest in peace.
7
Henry Wax Karnes
Kar nes
Henry Wax
Steve Moore
Above is the only known image of Henry Karnes, a great Ranger and hero of the
Texas Revolution. Picture courtesy of Steve Moore and Texas State Archives.
Short on formal education, Henry Wax Karnes was a model frontiersman who was respected
by both his Texas Ranger companions and his Comanche foes alike. He was a short, heavyset
man with bright red hair, and his friends said he never swore and was modest and generous. On
the battlefield, Karnes would consistently be recognized for his bravery.
Raised in Arkansas, Henry Karnes was the son of a hunter and trapper who learned more
about these trades than anything presented in a classroom. Born in 1812, he first visited Texas at
age twenty and returned to settle there in 1835. Soon after reaching the Lone Star State, Henry
joined the Texas War of Independence, enlisting in the volunteer company of Captain John York.
He fought valiantly at the Battle of Concepción and in the siege of Bexar. During the fighting
within the streets of San Antonio, Karnes led a charge against a key house with a crowbar to pry
his way in––all while under heavy fire.
Karnes was among those men who went to Gonzales in March 1836 to prepare for the march
into San Antonio to aid the Alamo. He rode with Deaf Smith and Robert Handy from Gonzales to
ascertain the Alamo’s condition, and he was the first to return to town with news that it had fallen.
8
Henry Wax Karnes
On March 20, he and a five-man scouting force defeated a party of about twenty Mexican
soldiers on Rocky Creek. Karnes lost his horse while helping to capture one of the Mexican
soldiers, but he took one of his enemy’s horses as a replacement.
Two days later, Karnes took a group of scouts close enough to a Mexican Army campground
to draw fire from them. Throughout the campaign, he and Deaf Smith would be in the thick of
monitoring their enemy’s actions. Smith would remain a scout and recruiter while Henry Karnes
was given formal command of one of the Texas Army’s two cavalry companies.
At the battle of San Jacinto, Captain Karnes was second in command of the cavalry forces.
His unit was the first to swim its horses across Buffalo Bayou and continue scouting ahead for
General Santa Anna’s forces.
On April 20, Karnes and the cavalry joined Colonel Sidney Sherman in a skirmish against
Santa Anna’s men. When young Walter Lane was knocked from his horse during the fight, Karnes
and Mirabeau Lamar were the ones who saved his life.
On April 21, Karnes conducted his company of thirty-five men into the main battle of San
Jacinto. After the rout of the Mexican Army, Karnes led many of the scouts in pursuit of escapees
and helped in their capture.
Karnes was promoted to colonel for his role in the San Jacinto campaign. He was then sent
to Matamoros to effect a prisoner exchange but was taken prisoner himself on June 10, 1836.
Learning of plans for another invasion, Karnes smuggled out a warning letter to Texas scouts, the
secret express becoming known as the “whip-handle dispatch.” The invasion did not happen,
and Karnes was eventually released from prison. He was issued a promissory note on September
26, 1836, for $1,439.16 in expenses. This included four months’ salary, $100 for a lost saddle,
$30 for a gun and shot bag lost, and payment for having served as the guide to Matamoros.
Colonel Karnes continued to lead and direct cavalrymen on the Texas frontiers during the
years following the Texas Revolution. He served as captain of cavalry from March 20-September
22, 1836, when he resigned. He was formally assigned as colonel of the First Regiment of Cavalry
on January 2, 1837, and served as such through March 14, 1838.
The first cavalry company under Colonel Karnes included Captain Deaf Smith, whose men
operated from around the San Antonio area. During 1837, Karnes added companies under
Lysander Wells, James W. Tinsley, and Juan Seguín to cover the central and southern regions of
Texas.
During his time of commanding Texas frontier forces, Karnes became a key negotiator with
the various Indian tribes. He met with Tonkawa Indian leaders in San Antonio during November
1837 and signed a treaty with them on November 22. The Tonkawas promised to “bury the
Tomahawk and live upon terms of peace and amity” with the Texas government and its people.
The Tonkawas would thereafter help serve as scouts and Rangers with the Texas frontiersmen.
In early 1838, Karnes, Albert Sidney Johnston, and Lysander Wells were appointed as
commissioners to deal with the Comanche. Some 150 of the Indians came into San Antonio
during May for peace talks. Afterwards, Henry Karnes left with them and sold a supply of goods to
the Comanche people.
There was no long-standing peace with the Comanches, however. Karnes and twenty-one of
his cavalrymen were attacked by some two hundred Comanches near the Arroyo Seco on August
10, 1838. Suffering at least twenty killed and more wounded after three charges, the Indians
finally collected their dead and moved on. No Texans were killed, although Henry Karnes had
9
Henry Wax Karnes
been shot through with an arrow while standing atop a bank of the river to direct his men. Karnes’s
wound was not fatal, although he would be plagued with illnesses off and on for the rest of his life
as a result of this shot.
Karnes applied for a headright in 1838 and received 1,920 acres for his Texas service. While
he recovered from his injuries in the fall, the state of Indian affairs in Texas continued to deteriorate.
On December 28, 1838, Karnes was authorized to raise eight companies of Texas Rangers for
frontier defense. Assisted by Lieutenant Colonel Jerome D. Woodlief, Colonel Karnes was charged
with recruiting Rangers to operate “against the Comanches and other hostile Indians.”
The Ranger battalion raised by Karnes and Woodlief included the companies of Captains
Mark Lewis, James Ownby, Greenberry Harrison, John Garrett, and John C. Neill. During late
March and early April, Colonel Karnes and some of his Rangers pursued Vicente Cordova’s
rebels as they retreated past San Antonio. Karnes remained stationed in the San Antonio area
through the summer months, sending Lt. Col. Woodlief and two of his Ranger companies to
participate in the Cherokee War of East Texas. During June 1839, Karnes led a hundred-man
expedition with the companies of Captains Louis B. Franks and Juan Seguín. The men returned
to San Antonio on June 23 and were invited by Colonel Karnes to enjoy refreshments at Black
and King’s coffee house. Their Indian encounters had been minor, although squad leader Jack
Hays and others did manage to kill a few Indians.
Leading such a small force of men out on expedition frustrated Henry Karnes to no end. He
had been approved by the Texas government to raise eight Texas Rangers companies, and yet
he often operated with volunteers. He resigned his commission as colonel on July 28, 1839, and
set about raising his own men to lead new Indian offensives from the San Antonio area.
By September 10, Karnes had formed a new company from San Antonio composed of fortysix men under Captain José María Gonzales. He then pulled in a new mounted gunman company
from Galveston County, which was headed by Captain William F. Wilson. Karnes met Wilson’s
company and led the unit back to San Antonio to continue preparations for his Indian expedition.
Along that journey, he had to halt the men for two days while he lay sick with a fever, still haunted
by the effects of his Arroyo Seco arrow wound.
Karnes and his 105-man expedition departed San Antonio on October 20 for the San Saba
hill country. The terrain was rugged, and food was difficult to procure. Karnes, Jack Hays, and
half of the expedition’s men made a surprise attack on a Comanche camp, killing at least ten and
taking one seriously wounded prisoner. Soon after this battle, Karnes fell sick again, and the
expedition was forced to halt for days before returning to San Antonio on November 21.
Henry Karnes’s health never fully returned, but he continued to work on the Indian situation.
Comanche leaders came into San Antonio in January 1840 to meet with him on a potential peace
treaty. Karnes proposed to the Texas secretary of state that a group of Indian commissioners be
appointed to carry out peace negotiations with the Comanches when they returned. He also felt
that sufficient forces should be readied “to justify our seizing and retaining those who may come
in as hostages, for the delivery of such American captives as may at this time be among them.”
Karnes was in New Orleans on business when the Comanches came back to San Antonio.
Negotiations fell apart, and most of the Indians were killed in what became known as the Council
House Fight. When Karnes finally returned, the Comanches were provoked to the point of being
a serious threat to settlers. President Lamar authorized Karnes to raise a volunteer force to
prevent Mexican military forces from operating in the west. Lamar hoped that Karnes could provide
order out to the Rio Grande border while also “chastizing the Indians in that section.”
10
Henry Wax Karnes
Karnes traveled to Houston to meet with Lamar on the issue. He thereafter placed a notice in
the Houston paper on June 24 that he hoped to raise as many as six companies to move toward
Laredo and protect the western Texas border. By late July, Karnes was in San Antonio, preparing
for “a rapid march to Laredo” with his new forces. Days later, however, he fell sick once again with
yellow or typhoid fever. While he lay gravely ill, he allowed the Frontier Regiment troops to cut the
corn on his property to feed the men.
When he finally felt well enough to travel, Colonel Karnes decided it was important to make
one last trip to Houston. He planned to visit with President Lamar about his upcoming military
expedition to Laredo. Against Dr. Edmund Weideman’s advice, Karnes set out in a light wagon.
He suffered a relapse on the first day of the trip, however, and was taken back to San Antonio.
Henry Wax Karnes never recovered, and he died on August 16, 1840. A veteran of the 1835
battle for San Antonio, a hero of the battle of San Jacinto, and a constant cavalry and Ranger
commander in the years following Texas independence, Karnes’s fighting spirit was an inspiration
to future leaders on the Texas frontiers. Karnes County is named in his honor.
Sources
Henry W. Karnes Audited Military Claims, Texas State Library.
“Henry Wax Karnes.” The New Handbook of Texas.
Online: http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/
Moore, Stephen L. Savage Frontier. Rangers, Riflemen, and Indian Wars in Texas.
Volume II: 1838-1839. Denton: University of North Texas Press, 2006.
11
Ranger News
Ranger News
News
Ranger
Company B Lt. Tony Bennie (Tyler) visited the London
Museum in New London, Texas, with Bobby Nieman,
managing editor of the Dispatch. The London school
exploded in 1937, causing the death of approximately
320 people, over 300 of them children.
more info:
New London School Explosion article
New London School Explosion website
X Ranger Lt. Tony
Bennie at the New
London Cenotaph.
Most of the names of
the London School
Explosion victims
are engraved in the
monument.
SBobby Nieman and Lt. Bennie at the London Museum.
Mounted Ranger Statue Dedicated
Two new Rangers
SCompany B Lieutenant Jerry Byrne (Garland) at
the newly dedicated Ranger statue in front of the
Texas Ranger Hall of Fame & Museum in Waco.
Laura Simmons (Greenville) and
Wende Wakeman (Conroe)
12
Family Tradition
It’s a
Family Tradition
Sheriff Frank Brownfield,
Captain Sweaney’s grandfather.
Ranger Captain Richard Sweaney
in his office beside his greatgrandfather’s pistol.
by Robert Nieman
Captain Richard Sweaney’s office is in the headquarters of Company B in Garland (Dallas).
Hanging prominently in a shadow box on the wall is his great-grandfather’s Colt .32-20 pistol.
Law enforcement comes naturally to Captain Sweaney. His grandfather, Frank Brownfield,
was the sheriff of Scurry County (Snyder), Texas, from 1927-1933. During those years, he carried
his Colt in a leather holster––not on a belt, but in his back pocket. During his time as sheriff, he
and the pistol saw more than one close call.
Once, a local farmer reported that someone had hidden 300 gallons of 200-proof, moonshine
alcohol on his farm along Brushy Creek. With one of his deputies, Sheriff Brownfield set up
surveillance near the location of the moonshine. They waited all night but got no results. As they
were getting up from their bedrolls, two armed men arrived at the stash. Not sure whether the
men were the moonshiners they wanted, the sheriff and his deputy did not move. They did hear
one of the men say, “It is still there,” before they left the scene.
After another deputy arrived, the three lawmen settled back into the surveillance. They had
barely gotten situated before the two moonshiners returned with a wagon and a team of mules.
After watching the bootleggers load some of the whiskey, the sheriff ordered them to throw up
their hands. Instead, the moonshiners opened fire on the sheriff and his deputies. In the gunfight,
none of the lawmen was injured, but one of the moonshiners was hurt, and Sheriff Brownfield
killed the other with the pistol that now hangs on Captain Sweaney’s wall.
Sheriff Brownfield had many other close calls before he finally hung up his gun for the last
time. After his passing in 1965, the pistol remained in the family, but it was not passed down to
any particular family member.
13
Family Tradition/Colt Army Special
In March 1985, Richard Sweaney
was promoted to Texas Ranger. That
spring day was made even more
special when his family presented him
the Colt .32-20 that his greatgrandfather had carried so proudly.
They had met earlier and decided that
he should have the family heirloom.
Sheriff Frank Brownfield handed
down more than just his pistol to his
grandson. He also provided valuable
advice that Sweaney has used
throughout his career: “Have plenty of
nerve and always be a gentleman.”1
Good advice for any career.
At the still: Deputy Horace Leath (left)
From 1985 to 1992, when Ranger
and Sheriff Frank Brownfield.
Sweaney promoted to lieutenant and
transferred to Dallas, he served as a field Ranger in the Rio Grande Valley. During those
years, he occasionally and very proudly carried his great-grandfather’s Colt .32-20 pistol.
1 The Snyder Dailey News. March 29, 1953, 12.
The
Colt Army Special
by David V. Stroud
Sheriff Frank Brownfield’s pistol and
handcuffs hang proudly in grandson
Richard Sweaney’s office.
The revolver of Captain Sweaney’s grandfather
is a Colt Army Special with a serial number that
places the date of manufacture sometime during
1920.1 Colt Firearms introduced this weapon to the
gun-purchasing public in 1908 as the successor to
the double-action New Army and Navy models with
swing-out cylinder, which had begun in 1889.2
1 R.L. Wilson, Colt’s Dates of Manufacture (NY: Simon & Schuster, 1985, 21.
2 R.L. Wilson, Colt: an American Legend (NY: Abberville Press, 1985), 204, 207. The New Army
and New Navy Models replaced were 1892, 94-95-96-1901.
14
Colt Army Special
The Army Special cylinders rotate clockwise, as opposed to the counter-clockwise
movement of the older ones. The Special retains the side plate and has a blue- or nickelplated finish with serial numbers skipping from 291,000 to 300,000 (first models) and
continuing though 540000.3 The left side of the barrel is roll-marked COLT ARMY SPECIAL,
followed by the caliber: .38 Special, .38 Colt, 32-20 WCF, or .41 Colt. The barrels are 4”,
4¼”, 4½ “, 5”, and 6”.4 The Army Special had several “new features” to offer:
• a “removable plate” on the frame’s right side
• a “modernized frame profile” with a rounded thumb latch on the left side to
release the cylinder with its stop-slots simplified in one row instead of two
• a “positive lock system” on which a majority had hard-runner grips with a
“stylized C around the stock screw and a fleur-de-lis and checkered pattern.”5
Beginning in 1905, the Verified proof VP triangle stamp was applied on all Colt revolvers
ahead of the trigger guard on the frame’s left side, including the Army Special.6
The Army Special proved popular with the Army, Navy, and law enforcement
departments. Colt received large orders from their respective procuring agents, usually
requesting the .38 Special or .41 Colt.7 Because the procured weapons were issued, many
variations of ownership were
inscribed on the back strap, often
with initials indicating the New
Jersey State Prison, New Orleans
Police Department, and Wells
Fargo Express Company. 8
Collectors should be aware that
many of the inscriptions found
today are fakes.
If Captain Sweaney ever
carries his grandfather’s old Colt
again, he will be armed with one in
a long line of historical revolvers
that began their history during the
Roaring Twenties. They can still
hold their own today.
3 Burns, Zane Sr. “Some Secrets of Collection Colt Double Action Models,” The Rampant Colt,
Spring 2007, 10; Wilson, Colt: American Legend, 204; Wilson, Colt’s Dates of Manufacture, 21.
4 Ibid “Colt Single Action Army,” Wikipedia. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Colt_Single_Action_Army.
5 Wilson, Colt: An American Legend, 208.
6 Wilson, Colt: An American Legend, 209.
7 Wilson, Colt: An American Legend, 209. (Wikipedia states that no US military orders were
received.)
8 Wilson, Colt: an American Legend, 209; Collector’s Firearms.
15
Navigatin’: King Ranch
Navigatin’ with Nancy (& Eddie, too)
The
King Ranch
by Nancy Ray
George Durham
In addition to being the youngest
“Little McNelly,” Durham rode with
Captain Leander McNelly for
three years (1875 – 1878). He
later married King Ranch owner
Richard King’s niece and was the
foreman of the ranch until 1934.
Photo on file in Texas Ranger Research Library.
George Durham in his later years
Photo courtesy of
Levoyger Durham
I admit it: I have a case of the wanderlust. I’m always
curious about what is down a country road or what is just
around a bend. In January, Eddie and I left the Pineywoods
of East Texas to explore a very different part of the state
near Kingsville. My curiosity had gone into overload after
reading two books about the King Ranch and life in South
Texas. They are Henrietta King: Rancher and Philanthropist
by Judy Alter and Taming the Nueces Strip: The Story of
McNelly’s Rangers by George Durham as told to Clyde
Wantland. I had to visit this expansive operation that
provided such historical and economic impact to the Lone
Star State.
In Taming of the Nueces Strip, George Durham tells of
his life as a young Texas Ranger riding with Captain Leander
McNelly during 1875 and 1876. The experiences in the book
reveal the strong relationship between ranch owner Richard
King and the Rangers. The King family believed in their
state and supported the efforts to bring law and order to
this untamed land. Many of the Rangers rode horses bearing
King’s Running W brand, and they used the ranch to recover
after long periods in the Texas wilderness. The taming of
this rugged land was partly due to the positive relationship
between Captain McNelly, Rangers such as George
Durham, and the King Ranch.
There are three different tours on the ranch. Besides
the general exploration, there are also two separate
excursions covering wildlife and birds. Since our schedule
only allowed for one choice, we signed up for the general
16
Navigatin’: King Ranch
one-and-a-half hour bus tour. Milton was our guide, and he very capably shared historical
information about the ranch as well as facts about current operations. The complex is huge! At
825,000 acres, the ranch is larger than the state of Rhode Island. If placed in a straight line, the
fences would stretch 2,000 miles from Kingsville to Boston. As we toured the peaceful rangeland,
I admired the beautiful horses and sleek cattle. Then my thoughts ran wild as I imagined rustlers
of the 1870s running these herds toward Mexico with Ranger Captain McNelly in pursuit of the
bandits.
The King Ranch is a working establishment and realizes about half of its income from hunting.
That is understandable, based on our glimpses whitetail bucks with impressive racks. In addition
to ranching, other revenue is from farming, oil, and gas.
Richard King and his family made an enormous economic impact on this South Texas area.
The family helped bring the railroad to the area and donated land where the city of Kingsville is
located. The Santa Gertrudis breed of cattle was developed at the King Ranch, and experiments
continue today to develop new breeds with less fat.
There are so many more things to tell you about the King Ranch, but you should visit to learn
more. When you go, be sure to visit the museum in Kingsville after completing the tour. The
museum is located in the old ice house and is worth your time.
Oh––one more thing about the tour! There were several ranch roads just begging me to
check them out, but Milton would not leave the designated route. Bummer.
more info: King Ranch
Glimpses of the King Ranch
Photos by Nancy Ray
Carriage house
Range land
Zach Taylor Bridge
Grinder
17
Sic ‘Em!
!
E
i
‘
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by Robert Nieman
Ever since Stephen F. Austin formed the Texas Rangers in
1823, they have found themselves in just about every situation
imaginable. One such incident was encountered by Ranger Al Cuellar.
Mark White served as the governor of Texas from 1983 to 1987. Very few, if any, governor
has appreciated and loved the Rangers as did Governor White. He was escorted by Rangers,
preferring them over a security detail.
Governor White was in San Antonio to attend an official function a short time after being
elected, and Ranger Al Cuellar was assigned to drive him to his meeting. En route, Cuellar stopped
at a traffic light in an unsavory part of the city. (Unless it is an emergency, Rangers do not run red
lights, even when they are driving the governor.) Ranger Bob Steele was following in a separate
vehicle, but he had become momentarily separated.
Sitting at the stoplight, Cuellar glanced across the street and saw two males whipping up on
a third man. Cuellar was a highly specialized lawman, but a lawman just the same. As such, it was
his job to stop such an overt act of violence. However, it was also his job to protect the governor
of the state of Texas at all costs. Ranger Cuellar was definitely in a quandary—or so he reasoned.
Cuellar looked over at the governor. Mark White quickly uttered two words that have taken
on legendary status in Ranger lore—“Sic ‘em!”
Cuellar jumped from the car and charged the fighters. Quickly
putting one of the combatants on the ground, he turned to the other
man and swiftly overpowered him, too. When he turned to check on
the first man, he was in for a shock. There stood the governor of the
great and sovereign state of Texas with his foot firmly planted on
the neck of the first combatant!
To the immense relief of Cuellar, Ranger Steele soon arrived
and took possession of the fighters. Cuellar continued on his way
and delivered the governor to his meeting with time to spare.
As hard as it is to comprehend today, there was a time before
cell phones. Ranger Cuellar was unable to contact his captain, Jack
Dean, until after he dropped off the governor. When he did call,
Governor Mark White
Captain Dean almost wished he hadn’t because he could almost
feel a few more gray hairs appearing in his head. All he could think
to say was, “With the governor!” He also added “a few words I probably should not have.” But
everything worked out well.
At the 2006 Texas Ranger Reunion at the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum in Waco,
former Governor White was the keystone speaker. Captain Dean introduced him, and he included
the “Sic ‘Em” story in his remarks. No one laughed harder than Mark White.
18
Salt Warriors: My Men Are All Frontiersmen
My Men Are All Frontiersmen
El Paso’s Tejano Texas Rangers
in the 1870s
Paul Cool
Adapted from Salt Warriors: Insurgency on the Rio Grande
Republished by permission of the author and Texas A&M University Press (2008)1
During the 1870s, El Paso County was marked by wholesale political
corruption and vicious, even violent, political rivalries. But while politicians
and capitalists concentrated on schemes of riches and ruination, other El
Pasoans contended with a land of lawlessness and barbarity that lay in all
directions beyond the Pass. Texas Rangers like Gregorio Garcia, Telesforo
Montes, Francisco Barela, and Sisto Salcido knew little of luxury and a great
deal about searing heat, bitter cold, the taste of dust, the lack of water, and
the precariousness of life. The grassy bolsons, shrub-pocked limestone
mountains, and dry heat of the Chihuahuan Desert shaped and toughened
such men. Keeping their eyes open, their wits sharp, their horses fed and watered, their
canteens filled, and their guns clean, loaded, and within easy reach, they learned how to
stay alive and, on occasion, dish out death. For these “knights” of the Trans-Pecos, the land
beyond the valley was a training ground, a military academy turning out the soldiers who
answered the selfish personal squabbles of El Paso’s politicians with a full scale war. These
Tejano Rangers were inheritors of a nearly century-long line of citizen soldiers.
1 Manuela Cárdenas-Oellermann translated the correspondence of Telesforo Montes and Miguel
Garcia from the original Spanish.
19
In The Magnificent Seven, John Sturges’s translation of Akiro Kurasawa’s Seven Samurai to
the Western film genre, peaceful Mexican farmers rise up to save their village from a small army
of bandits. Roused from instinctive and comfortable docility, they hire professional gunmen from
north of the border who teach them which end of a gun to shoot and how to find their courage.
Unlike these movie farmers, the Mexican Americans of El Paso County, called Paseños, were
anything but docile. Whereas Sturges’s cinematic village had but one old man who knew how to
fight, the real villages of San Elizario, Socorro, and Ysleta, Texas counted hundreds. It is the old
man of The Magnificent Seven, not his frightened neighbors, who reflect the reality of the Paseño
towns.
What Mexican revolutionary historian Rubén Osorio writes about the State of Chihuahua
applies specifically to the Pass of the North: “The peasant class had come into being under very
special conditions during the colonial period, as settler-soldiers, or literally as an armed peasantry
living in presidios constructed by the Spanish government against the ‘barbarous Indians.’” Ysleta
and Socorro were organized around missions, but San Elizario began in 1789 as such a presidio,
or fort, the town growing up around it. Presidio soldiers campaigned against Indians and regularly
escorted caravans to the provincial capital in Santa Fe. Its troops also contributed to the wider
defense of the Mexican Republic. After the garrison was permanently reassigned to Santa Fe in
1843, San Elizario became a farming center. Its residents tore down the old presidio’s adobe
walls and buildings to construct their own homes and pens. But since Apache depredations
continued, these farmers, ex-soldiers and descendants of settler-soldiers, became citizen warriors
frequently defending their homes against Apaches or taking the fight to their enemy’s lair.2
In the years between the Mexican-American War and the coming of the railroad in 1881, El
Pasoans were entirely dependent on grass-and grain-fed animals for travel and trade. Travelers,
animals, and vehicles made attractive targets. Anything could happen during the long journey
along the long miles from San Antonio or the stretch south from Santa Fe. The Federal
Government’s unwillingness to adequately fund either its Indian reservations or its Army encouraged
renegade bands and whole tribes to periodically strike out in search of adequate food, the dignity
of independence, and blood revenge. According to W.W. Mills, in 1858 “The Americans and
Mexicans were secure only near the military posts, or villages, or large settlements, and when
they traveled from place to place, they traveled in companies strong enough for defense, or at
night and by stealth, trusting to Providence, or luck, each according to his faith.” The garrison at
Fort Bliss seldom included sufficient mounted troops to effectively counter the Indians. To bolster
them, Paseños willingly joined the soldiers as guides and auxiliaries.
Not even the large towns were safe havens. The people and livestock of la Isla, the occasional
island on the Rio Grande holding El Paso County’s ethnic Mexican towns, presented prime targets
for the Mescalero Apache. On one occasion in early 1859, word reached Fort Bliss that Apaches
2 For a history of Mexican-Apache relations in Chihuahua, see William B. Griffen, Utmost Good
Faith (University of New Mexico Press, Albuquerque, 1988). See also Rubén Osorio, “Villismo:
Nationalism and Popular Mobilization in Northern Mexico,” Rural Revolt in Mexico (Duke University
Press, 1998), 97; Rick Hendricks and W.H. Timmons, San Elizario: Spanish Presidio to Texas County
Seat (Texas Western Press, 1998), 51-61; C. L. Sonnichsen, Mescalero Apaches (University of
Oklahoma Press, 1958, 1973 reprint), 62; Frank Louis Halla Jr., “El Paso, Texas and Juarez, Mexico:
A Study of a Bi-ethnic Community 1846-1881” (Ph.D. dissertation, UT Austin, 1978), 47.
20
had stolen cattle, horses, and mules from San Elizario. First Lieutenant Henry M. Lazelle and
thirty mounted rifleman pursued. They first stopped at San Elizario, where the officer added
several citizens to augment and guide his command. Among these was Gregorio Nacianceno
Garcia I. The chase stretched for 160 winding miles to New Mexico’s Sacramento Mountains. On
February 8, Lazelle’s thirsty men passed through towering cliffs into rock strewn and cactuschoked Dog Cañon. Here thirty Apaches greeted the soldiers under a white flag. After a fruitless
discussion, the shooting began. The soldiers were soon flanked, prompting their withdrawal. In a
fighting retreat to the canyon’s mouth, the pursuit party lost three men killed and six wounded,
including Lazelle, shot twice through the lungs. The army’s official report of the action failed to
mention the Paseño role, but George Baylor later wrote that, “Garcia, with some citizens of San
Elizario, prevented the massacre of the United States troops in Dog Cañon by his skill and courage.”
The survivors returned without the stolen livestock. The defeat illustrated both the difficulty of
waging war on Apaches and the martial qualities of Paseño citizen soldiers.3
***
Raiders struck the valley nearly every month in the years immediately following the American
Civil War. March 1866 was the worst month. In two days, the citizens of la Isla, most of whom
lived their lives on a thin margin, lost over $5,000 in livestock and other property and twenty-three
relatives and neighbors killed. Between March 1865 and January 1867, the people of la Isla
reported the loss of more than 1,200 animals, plus wagons and equipment, a staggering loss.
Even worse, thirty-five Paseños were reported to have lost their lives in Indian depredations in
that time.4
To counter continuing Indian depredations, in the spring of 1870, Governor Edmund J. Davis
signed the Frontier Force bill. El Paso County was allotted a sixty-man Ranger company (soon
reduced to fifty). Its payroll promised $3,000 per month in wages to a poor county (worth more
than 100 times that amount in unskilled wages for 2006). El Paso’s Company N was mustered
into service on August 12. Its captain was an obvious choice, Gregorio N. Garcia I. The veteran
Indian campaigner was trained in the soldier’s craft by Captain Jose Ignacio Ronquillo, commandant
of the Presidio after 1830 and the foremost Paseño soldier of the Mexican era. That officer
ranged over large tracts of land in pursuit of Comanche, Kiowa and Apache war parties. He
scored several notable victories, earning promotion and a sizeable land grant in what is now west
Texas. Garcia, drafted for military service in his fifteenth year, learned from Ronquillo how to track
and fight Indians. Garcia served in Mexico’s army against the Americans, probably in the debacle
at Brazitos on Christmas Day, 1846. In the 1850s he solidified his reputation as an Indian fighter.
In 1862, Union Brigadier General James Carleton chose Garcia to command twenty Paseño
scouts who would guide a column of cavalry deep into Mescalero territory. Fifty-eight Paseños
plus Civil War veterans Caleb Miller and Charles Kerber (company clerk) completed the ranger
roster. Though many in Garcia’s company were related by blood and marriage, the presence of
3 W[illiam] W[allace] Mills, Forty Years in El Paso (Carl Hertzog, 1962), 22; Brooklyn Daily Eagle,
March 3, 1859; Richard Wadsworth, Forgotten Fortress (Yucca Tree Press, 1962), 261-262; George
W. Baylor, Into the Far Wild Country, Jerry Thompson, ed. (Texas Western Press, 1996), p. 276.
4 Dorman H. Winfrey and James M. Day, eds., Indian Papers of Texas and the Southwest 18251916 (Texas State Historical Association, 1995), 4:169-172.
21
forty-two Mexicano surnames on the rolls testified to a community-wide response to the needs for
soldiers and income. 5
Putting Texas Rangers into the field, armed, equipped, and mounted required money. When
the Army reneged on its agreement to provide the Rangers with weapons and supplies, Garcia
was forced to campaign with “borought [sic] carbines and shoulder guns.” Garcia stressed his
need for arms, ammunition and equipment “so I am able to chastise Indians,” but did not wait to
take the field. On December 6, he received word that Apaches had stolen cattle at a ranch some
twenty miles southeast of San Elizario. A sergeant and ten men pursued, but the Indians escaped.
An unexpected call for help came from El Paso on the night of December 7. Albert French, at that
time the local State Police chief, requested the Rangers’ help to ensure order following the killings
of Judge Gaylord Clarke and disgruntled office seeker Benjamin Franklin Williams. Garcia and
his men saddled up at once, riding “25 miles in 2 hours and 15 minutes” from San Elizario to El
Paso. The town remained quiet, and Garcia’s men returned to camp two days later.6
In February 1871, Garcia’s command cooperated in a winter campaign with four companies
of the Ninth Cavalry under Major Albert P. Morrow. The Rangers still lacked arms, ammunition,
and sufficient pack mules, but the experienced Garcia still hoped to “make good record for myself
and Company.” The formations linked at Independence Spring, near the Guadalupe Pass. Here
Morrow lent the Rangers mules and armed them with Springfield needle guns. Though the
ammunition was “quite unserviceable, not over half of them giving fire,” at least the men were on
campaign. While the cavalry scouted the center and east side of the Guadalupe and Sacramento
Mountains, the Rangers scouted the west side. Garcia spotted the trail of a dozen or so Indians
estimated to be eight days old. The Rangers followed the tracks as far as Dog Cañon. Here the
trail split in two, some Indians going to San Andres, and others headed to the safety of Fort
Stanton. Finding no more signs, the Rangers returned to Independence Spring, “having marched
an average of 26 miles per day over rocky and steep mountains, with scarcity of water, being 78
full hours without a drop of water for man or beast, also under very cold weather.” Another sevenday patrol east to the Pecos river country also failed to turn up Indians. Garcia made the best of
his obvious disappointment. “The reports of the murdering of 8 Americans & one white lady about
90 miles west of the Rio Grande, also of the many murders in New Mexico and Arizona makes all
believe that the Indians are aware of our large command or fled to other parts.”7
5 The captain was to be paid $100 per month, the lieutenant $80, the three sergeants $54, the
four corporals $52, and the fifty privates $50 each. Frederick Wilkins, The Law Comes to Texas
(State House Press, 1999), 6. See “How Much Is That?” website for the inflation in unskilled wages.
http://www.measuringworth.com/uscompare/. Bill Lockhart, “San Elizario Presidio History,” San Elizario
Plaza, John A. Peterson, Timothy B. Graves, and David V. Hill, eds., (UT El Paso, 2002), 58; Hendricks/
Timmons, San Elizario, 84, 115; Griffen, Utmost Good Faith, 30-32, 56-57; “Ronquillo Land Grant,”
Handbook of Texas Online (hereinafter “HTO”), http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/
RR/mnr1.html.
6 Wilkins, 7; Garcia to Adjutant General (AG), December 3, 1870; Garcia to A.G., December 6,
1870; Return of Company N, Texas Frontier Forces, December 1870, AG Records, Texas State
Archives and Library Commission (All correspondence and other records related to the El Paso
Texas Ranger companies of 1870-71 and 1874-76 are from the AG Correspondence or other AG
Records, TSALC, unless otherwise noted).
7 “Needle guns” were cartridge conversions of the muzzle loading Springfield musket. Garcia to
AG, January 7, 1871; Return of Company N, February, 1871; Garcia to AG, March 31, 1871.
22
In April, nearly eight months after they were mustered in, Company D finally received arms,
Winchester carbines instead of the promised rifles. Garcia also received 15,000 rounds of
Winchester ammunition and 5,000 rounds of ammunition for pistols, but no pistols. Unfortunately,
the Frontier Force was disbanded in June 1871. Captain Garcia’s final report eloquently expressed
his pride in the company’s service as well as his many frustrations. Though his men had not met
the Indians in battle, Garcia was confident the unit had performed a great service to Texas.
“[T]housands of miles have been traveled by my Company under great wants of water and great
cold so we could make drive [sic] the Indians for Arizona and Mexico. We succeeded in that.” His
boast was not idle. As Texas Ranger historian Frederick Wilkins noted, “Indians tended to avoid
regions in which they observed the tracks of shod horses, and there is little doubt that Indian raids
decreased in the districts patrolled by the Rangers.” Indeed, the Apaches resumed their raids
along the river once his unit disbanded.8
The company was discharged without having received any pay. Garcia advised the Adjutant
General, “the majority of the Company are poor men and heads of families; for most their horses
and pistols I myself had to go security with the promise to pay them at the first payday.” Garcia’s
warning that the Democratic Party would make hay with this non-payment of sixty Paseños at the
next election had its effect. The Rangers finally received their full back pay, a small fortune for
some. For others, perhaps even more valuable was the military experience gained.9
***
In the spring of 1874, the state government raised special companies of Texas Rangers
called “Frontier Men” or “Minute Men” to meet emergencies on the frontier. El Paso’s company
included one officer and twenty-four enlisted men, all but one of them a Paseno. In the years
since Garcia’s company was disbanded, local politicians had learned the value of controlling an
armed force on election day. In 1872 they had battled for control of El Paso’s State Police unit.
Now, local politician Louis Cardis endorsed the appointment of Albert French as Captain of the
company. Instead, the commanding officer, a lieutenant this time, was selected by vote of the
new recruits. The election went to Telesforo Montes, a leader in the community’s opposition to a
recent Texas school law, an experienced Apache fighter, and one of Captain Garcia’s sergeants
in 1870-1871. Rangers who later figured prominently in the Salt War included Sergeant Tomas
Garcia, Corporal Francisco Barela, and Private Sisto Salcido, another veteran of Garcia’s company.
The outfit was something of a family affair. In addition to Tomas Garcia, Montes commanded sonin-law Carlos Garcia, their brother Secundio, and the lieutenant’s own sons, Jesus and Severo, a
fact that later caused complaint.10
Again, the El Paso Rangers lacked sufficient arms and ammunition. Echoing Garcia’s earlier
pleas, Montes prodded Adjutant General William Steele, “The Company are all anxious to go on
a scout to prevent depredations from these marauding Indians, & to drive them from the Country
8 Garcia to AG to April 17, 1871; AG’s Abstract of Articles transferred to Frontier Force, May 31,
1871; Garcia to AG, June 16, 1871; Wilkins, Law Comes to Texas, 16; Montes to AG, September 1314, 1871; Indian Papers, 4:384.
9 Garcia to A.G. March 31, 1871; Garcia to A.G., June 16, 1871; Garcia and Montes Payment
Vouchers.
10 Cardis to AG Steele, March 30, 1874, endorsing Letter of A.H. French, March 7, 1874, State
Police Corr., AG Corr.; Mesilla News, March 7, 1874; Muster and Pay Roll of Company of Frontier
Men, El Paso County, May 27, 1874.
23
or secure their capture….” Montes’s Frontier Men did not wait long. In July the Rangers received
twenty Sharps rifles. Texas was stingier with ammunition, furnishing only two boxes of a thousand
rounds each. Supply snafus were repeated. The pistol cartridges were unsuitable for the Rangers’
old Colt revolvers. Promised cartridge belts and boxes never arrived, prompting Montes to hire a
local saddler to make them.11
In mid-September the Montes company rescued an eight-year-old boy. The Rangers first
scouted to the Guadalupe Mountains, then struck a trail headed back toward the river. The Rangers
came upon their quarry on the third day out, camped in a canyon inaccessible to horses. It was a
party of seven, one of whom was the captive boy. Montes dismounted his men, left half with the
horses, and took twelve with him into the canyon. The Rangers attacked, killing two men, scalping
one. The boy, unharmed in the action, had been stolen from his parents near Presidio del Norte
eight months earlier. The Rangers also captured five horses, gunpowder, lead, saddles, and
“camp paraphernalia,” all “divided among the men.” Evidence of the Apache band’s recent success
was found in a pile of “dry goods, such as muslin, calico & evidently recently acquired which had
not been unfolded.” The captured horses were in poor condition, but one was in better shape
than Montes’s “exhausted” mount. With General Steele’s permission, Montes later exchanged
his horse for the captured animal.12
Just as it proved its worth, the El Paso company was ordered to disband. Montes warned
that Indian raids would increase, leaving citizens defenseless. Opting to reinforce success, Steele
kept the company in force for two more months. Unfortunately, the Rangers failed to catch the
Indian parties they tracked to the Sierra Blanca Mountains in late October and to the Guadalupe
Mountains in November.13
Budget cutbacks forced the disbandment of the emergency Ranger companies that winter.
The Apaches thereupon resumed their attacks upon travelers and ranchers, raiding as far as la
Isla in relative safety and with some success. The renewed depredations prompted Judge Charles
Howard, a Democratic Party leader, to beg the governor in July 1875 to call the company back
into service. But the judge had another motive: laying low his political rival, Louis Cardis, who had
promised Ranger slots to political allies. As Howard laid bare to Governor Richard Coke, “As to
matters political, both this and the San Antonio Senatorial Dist seem to have gone for the enemy.
I can reclaim El Paso County if I can have the filling of the company that we talked of…. If you will
let us have a company, and let me name men and officers (italics added), it will do more to break
down Cardis, than any other one thing. The people will then see that he has lied to them.”14
While the judge looked for political advantage, Sheriff Charles Kerber was motivated by a
palpable dread of armed “Mexicans.” The sheriff warned Coke that Cardis was already organizing
11 In 1862, Steele led the Confederate rear guard in its retreat through El Paso following the debacle
at Glorieta Pass. During their passage, his men engaged in several skirmishes with Paseños angry over
“contraband” stolen from the population. See Paul Cool, Salt Warriors: Insurgency on the Rio Grande
(Texas A&M University Press, 2008), 29-30; Montes to A.G. William Steele, May 31, 1874; S. Schutz &
Bro. voucher, June 15, 1874, Frontier Force records; Montes to Steele, August 5, 1874.
12 Montes to Steele, September 27, 1874.
13 Montes to Steele, September 27, October 20, October 28, and November 27, 1874.
14 Howard to Coke, July 2, 1875, August 16, 1875, August 19, 1875, Register of Letters Received,
Governor Richard Coke Corr., TSALC (hereinafter Coke Corr.)
24
a company of rangers “among his Mexican friends” in fulfillment of a campaign pledge. This was,
against the peace — & dangerous for all white men of this County, which he threatens to punish
personally for not voting for him. Even in his speeches to the Mexican population he… advises
the latter to drive all Americans from this country or make use of the Lynch Law. Four years ago
Cardis in company with a fanatic catholic priest had organized a company to drive all Americans,
not his friends, from the Country or to kill them…. The same priest though now removed to
Mexico still supports Cardis & helps him at every election by having nightly meetings on this side
of the river. That’s where Cardis’ influence amongst the ignorant Mexican population lays! …
every white man, not Cardis’ friends, has to expect to be assassinated.15
The governor assured Kerber that “no authority has been granted anybody to raise a military
company in El Paso Co.” The sheriff’s fear that Cardis would use the unit to kill “Americans” was
baseless, but he was not entirely mistaken in the danger posed by a military unit composed of
Pasenos. A number of Montes’s Rangers joined the insurrection of 1877, including two of its
leaders, Corporal Francisco Barela and Private Sisto Salcido. It cannot be discounted that the
Rangers’ organized forays against the Apache enemy gave them a chance to develop and
demonstrate martial qualities to their countrymen and to themselves.16
***
Meanwhile, the citizens of la Isla were hit in mid-September 1875 by Indians who ran off four
horses from San Elizario and then attacked a salt train, capturing six mules. Alerting General
Steele to the newest depredations, Montes asserted, “The U.S. troops don’t understand the
character of these Indians, nor are they acquainted with the character of the country. My men are
all frontiersmen, thoroughly acquainted [with] this whole country and we [are] well versed in
Apache tricks and tactics.”17
In response to the pleas from El Paso, the Rangers were mustered back in on September
27, 1875. Again, they were indifferently armed (apparently at least some of the Sharps rifles used
in 1874 were no longer available, though the correspondence is silent on this fact), and ammunition
was again a problem. A raiding party hit Socorro on November 11, taking nine horses. The Rangers
followed the tracks southeast until they reached the Eagle Mountains, where they came upon a
campsite with the fires still burning. Montes followed a new trail south, though the Ranger horses
“were jaded for want of water.” Six hours later, the Frontier Men spotted three Indians on horseback
fleeing up canyon walls. The Rangers wounded one warrior, but his comrades carried him to
safety. The Indians left behind most of the stolen horses and three ponies. Montes felt that “Great
praise is due to the men under my command, in the manner they behaved, being without food or
water for 36 hours.”18
The State’s tight budget forced the company to again cease campaigning at the end of 1875.
The unit entered the State’s service one last time on March 25, 1876. By now there was bitter
dissension between Montes and one private. The first flare up occurred during a nine-day, 215mile scout launched on April 1. The company marched from San Elizario to the Guadalupe Salt
15 Kerber to Coke, August 18, 1875, Coke Corr.
16 Coke to Kerber, September 4, 1875, Coke Corr.
17 Montes to Steele, September 18, 1875.
18 Montes to Steele, October 21, November 1, and November 20, 1875; Montes to Steele,
January 11, 1876.
25
Lakes, where they found the first water in two days. From there they rode eighty miles to the Rio
Grande and then back to camp, without having spotted Indians. Private Miguel Garcia (a cousin
of the Captain’s family) sent his own report to General Steele, complaining that men and horses
had been mistreated by Montes’s manner of marching them for hours on end without food or
water. “All of us knew that the expedition was bad, but none of us could say anything.” Garcia was
particularly critical of one militarily useless excursion. At one point Montes “ordered the soldiers to
climb a hill and cut Sabina (a Juniper bush), which was loaded on the pack mules and brought
down, to help celebrate Palm Sunday at church.” Finally, Garcia noted, “most” of the company
were members of Montes’s family, “and that’s why he has lasted this long as a Lieutenant.”19
The next patrol caused an even greater tempest. On the night of April 16, Indians stole some
mares from San Elizario and cattle from the tableland above Socorro. Montes had the company
on the road at dawn on the 17th. Upon reaching the Hueco Tanks, the Rangers discovered the
remains of two butchered steers. Montes watered the horses, filled the canteens, and pushed on
in pursuit of the Apaches, only two of whom were mounted. Miguel Garcia told a different and
troubling story. Having reached the Hueco Mountains, where the tinaja [i.e. natural basin] was “so
big the water lasts all year long,” Montes took the company in search of another pool, “but he did
not find any, got lost, and finally found his way back to the same tinaja in Cerro Hueco. We were
unable to overtake the Indians that day.” Garcia complained that the Rangers did not leave the
Tanks until the following day “at mid-day.”20
The pursuit resumed. Following the first night, the men found “a little bit of water” by digging
for it. Garcia charged that Montes’ horse was given “six big glasses of water and after that, water
was also given to the horses of the two sergeants who are his sons in-laws. Water was also
given to the horses of the corporals, the water was [then] gone and none was left, not even to fill
one canteen.” Nevertheless, the chase continued until the men reached a small gorge, where
they again found a small amount of water. The command then rode on to the familiar Dog Cañon.
The Rangers moved into the steep gorge to water the horses and rest. According to Montes,
within moments they were struck by a ragged volley from above. The Rangers “looked up and
saw the mountains thick with Indians shooting from all sides.” Garcia said they camped “without
any precautions,” an assessment implicit in Montes’ own report. Garcia obtained permission to
scout the canyon. He, a corporal (possibly Francisco Barela), and five others scouted deep into
the canyon, when they were met by the report of a dozen guns. According to Garcia, “they were
coming towards us and I told them to stop, but they did not pay me heed. They took some of my
companions. [Montes mentions no casualties.] One was coming after me, but could not get me
because I give him a terrible blow.” Garcia reached the main party, where he found the Rangers
had saddled their horses under fire. Montes judged that two hundred or more Indians were shooting
at them, armed with needle guns and pistols. Collecting the horses as quickly as possible, the
Rangers raced out of the canyon. From the opening they challenged the Apaches “to come out
where we was and fight and they said for us to come in there and get the horses if we wanted
them.”21
At dark, Montes and his Rangers retraced their steps and then cut toward the San Augustine
19 Montes to Steele, April 21, 1876; Miguel Garcia to Steele, April 9, 1876.
20 Montes to Steele, April 21, 1876; Miguel Garcia to Steele, April 21, 1876.
21 Miguel Garcia to Steele, April 21, 1876; Montes to Steele, April 21, 1876.
26
Pass over the Organ Mountains. The bedraggled column—they had not eaten in twenty-four
hours and some men had not had time to fill their canteens—reached the Shedd Ranch, notorious
as “a known and welcoming haven for every horse and cattle thief in southern New Mexico….”
There Montes bought a cow for his men to eat. They may have paid Warren Shedd’s standard
rate of one dollar for a bucket of water, a bargain for thirsty men. After four days on the trail, the
company reached home on the morning of April 21.22
A month later, Juan N. Garcia wrote his own letter to General Steele in support of Miguel
(who may have been his older brother). Miguel’s reports, said Juan, were “the unvarnished truth.”
Juan Garcia gibed, “The battalion of Senor Montes is not solely made of his family because he
does not have enough sons to… make 25 that are needed.” Montes, he added, was motivated by
his “vile interest” in making money off the government. As to Montes’ soldiering, “one can say that
he does not know even one military tactic to guide his soldiers. Pure favoritism alone has made
him lieutenant.”23
Perhaps coming to his point, Garcia added, “There are men here that are more skilled in
every way than he.” Who were these men? Garcia noted that both former police captain French
and local politician Louis Cardis would back up his charges. (Cardis had previously lobbied to
secure the lieutenancy for French.) Juan Garcia claimed not to want the job for himself, but he
coyly begged Steele “to permit me become one of your servants. Obediently fighting… under
your orders.”24
Montes’s report of the last patrol, though vague on details, appears to support the conclusion
that his company failed to exercise ordinary caution entering Dog Cañon. While they could not
have known that scores, even hundreds of Apaches were lying in wait for them along the canyon
walls, the lieutenant should have anticipated some trap might be set in this place. While the
charges leveled by the Garcias indict Montes as inept (on this occasion), they may simply provide
evidence that the Paseño community was divided internally by party politics, personal jealousies,
and strong opinions about how things should be done.
Indian raids increased after the Rangers stood down. People were murdered, cattle stolen,
wagon trains attacked. The army could do nothing. The only troops close to the settlements were
a few companies of the slow-moving Twenty-Fifth Infantry posted to Fort Bliss. Even their regimental
history described their ten year record in Texas as largely devoid of contact with Indians, except
for “a few unimportant skirmishes.”25
The Texas Rangers of the El Paso Salt War are often described as a motley crew led by an
officer, John B. Tays, who was no better than a handyman. The unit’s surrender to a howling
“mob” is regarded as a black day in Ranger history. In truth, the Tays’s Texas Rangers, although
22 Montes to Steele, April 21, 1876; Frederick Nolan, “San Augustine Ranch,” True West, June
1999, 44.
23 Juan N. Garcia to Steele, May 22, 1876.
24 Juan N. Garcia to Steele, May 22, 1876.
25 Relations of the United States with Mexico, including Texas Frontier Troubles (House of
Representatives Executive Document No. 701, 45th Congress, 1878), 105; Letters of Ernst Kohlberg
(Texas Western Press, 1973), 40, 44; Theo F. Rodenbough and William L. Haskin, The Army of the
United States: Historical Sketches… (Maynard, Merrill & Co., 1896), 697.
27
hastily thrown together and lacking esprit de corps, included a number of brave and stalwart
frontiersmen. When they surrendered, through subterfuge and an error by Tays, it was not to a
mob but to a small, organized, and well-led army, one that included at least ten veterans of
Garcia’s and Montes’s Texas Ranger companies—and probably many more.
The insurgent army’s commanders included ex-Texas Rangers Sisto Salcido and Corporal
Francisco “Chico” Barela. The latter, the insurgents’ chief general, displayed considerable innate
military skill in the Salt War. About 50 years old in 1877, a family man with property, Barela had
much to defend and to lose, as others did when they chose to campaign against Apaches. His
enemies later made a great deal of his illiteracy, but he nonetheless was considered “a leader of
great fire and talent.”26 We can be certain Barela valued military intelligence and would have used
it. When campaigning against Apaches, he learned that knowledge of that enemy’s whereabouts,
strength, and intentions was all the more precious for its rarity. In the Salt War, on more than one
occasion he used misinformation to mislead, divide and weaken his opponents. Barela’s successful
effort to divert Captain Thomas Blair from San Elizario is evidence that he knew the importance of
keeping the U.S. Army out of the fight. His stratagem of tricking the Salt War Rangers into
surrendering might be seen as perfidy, but was simply one more effective military deception.
Paseño campaigns against Apaches had also taught Barela, Salcido, and their companions the
value of organization, discipline, and tactics, among other facets of war.
It would be two years following the dissolution of the Montes company before Texas Rangers
based in El Paso would again take the field against hostile Indians. When that happened, they
would be different Rangers. Instead of Paseños, who provided 78 of the 81 men identified in
Captain Garcia’s and Lieutenant Montes’s units, the El Paso Rangers of 1877 and for years
afterward would be almost entirely Anglos. The Salt War served as the dividing line, the event
that made it impossible for the county’s Anglo power structure to trust its fate, or its guns, to
“Mexicans.” But if the Salt War interrupted the tradition of Paseño Rangers in the service of
Texas, it also added a new chapter in the history of Paseño military service. As Barela, Salcido
and others assaulted Texas Ranger positions over four days in 1877, Miguel Garcia, once more
a Texas Ranger, defended them, as did private citizen Gregorio Garcia and his sons, again
defending their community against a perceived threat to its present and future.27
Oddly enough, the last chapter of El Paso’s Tejano Rangers may have been written in Mexico.
In December 1879, Lieutenant George W. Baylor’s Texas Rangers joined a hundred Mexican
citizens in pursuit of Victorio south of the border. Among the Mexican citizen-soldiers, the Rangers
discovered another veteran Apache fighter in their midst, “Old Chico Barela,” as well as “many
others” wanted for murder in the Salt War. Baylor “gave the old fellow to understand we were now
fighting a common enemy and should act in harmony together,” an arrangement he was glad to
make in view of Barela’s personally saving the Rangers from execution two years before.28
26 Francisco Barela, 1870 U.S. Census, Ysleta, El Paso County, Texas, 2; Sonnichsen, Pass of
the North (Texas Western Press, 1968), 206.
27 Besides Barela and Salcido, the Texas Rangers indicted for murder in the Salt War were
Gabino Arias, Sisto Castillo, Lino Guerra, and Pedro Sierra (all Garcia’s company), plus Dionisio
Guerra, José Hernandes, Pomposo Paz, and Ysidro Sierra (all Montes’s company). See Muster
Rolls for Company N, 1870-1871, and El Paso Company, Frontier Men, 1874; El Paso County Criminal
Case No. 282, El Paso County Archives (UT El Paso).
28 Baylor, Into the Far Wild Country, 287.
28
Reunion 08
2008
Texas Ranger
Reunion
Waco, Texas
Everyone had a great time at this year’s
annual Texas Ranger Reunion in Waco.
Sponsored by the Texas Ranger Association
Foundation, more than $150,000 was raised
through the sale of raffle tickets, a golf
tournament, and a silent auction. Besides
hosting all retired Rangers’ meals and hotel
rooms, the Foundation presented the child
of EVERY active Texas Ranger a $3,500-peryear scholarship (five-year maximum) to any
accredited college or university of their choice,
as long as that student is taking a full-course
curriculum. The scholarships of those
students attending part-time are adjusted
accordingly.
Strikeout king Nolan Ryan
(left), a member of the Baseball Hall of Fame and president
of baseball’s Texas Rangers,
entertained Rangers and Foundation members with stories
from his legendary career. He
was introduced by Chuck Morgan (right), the 25-year voice
of the Texas Rangers baseball
team.
29
Reunion 08: Friday Night
Reunion 08 - Friday night
The captain of each company presented a wristwatch to each Ranger present who
retired in his company. The watch had a Texas Ranger embelm serving as the front piece
and Texas Rangers engraved on the back. (Space prevents us posting every retiree.)
Assistant Senior Texas Ranger Captain Jim Miller served as master of ceremonies
for the Friday night festivities.
W Company F
Captain Kirby
Dendy and
r e t i r e d
Ranger John
Dendy (Captain Dendy’s
father).
X Company D
Captain Gary De
Los Santos and
retired Ranger
captain John
Wood. At 93
years young,
Captain Wood is
the oldest living
Ranger.
W Company C
C a p t a i n
Randy Prince
and retired
Ranger Phil
Ryan.
X Company
B Captain
Richard
Sweaney
and retired
Ranger Max
Womack.
W New Company E Captain L
C Wilson and retired Ranger
Sid Merchant.
XCompany A Captain Tony
Leal and retired Ranger
Haskell Taylor.
S Headquarters Captain Dino
Henderson and retired Senior
Ranger Captain Earl Pearson.
30
Reunion 08: Glenn Elliott Display
W Retired
Ranger Glenn
Elliott looks on
as Texas Ranger
Hall of Fame &
Museum Director
Byron
Johnson presenting display
case to Glenn
and his admiring
friends.
S Retired Captain Jack Dean joins his
longtime friend Glenn at the dedication.
2008
Texas Ranger Reunion
Glenn Elliott Display
S Glenn is
joined by his
children and
t h e i r
spouses, his
grandchildren, and his
great grandchildren.
Friends of retired Ranger
Glenn Elliott donated a display
case at the Texas Ranger Hall
of Fame and Museum in Waco
honoring the
“Ranger’s Ranger.”
S Glenn with son
Dennis and daughter Diane.
X Glenn
with
Bobby Nieman,
Dispatch managing editor and coauthor of Ranger
Elliott’s books.
S Foundation directors Gary Crawford and
Steve Sikes with Glenn.
31
Reunion 08: Gala
2008 Texas Ranger Reunion
Gala
S Texas Ranger
Association Foundation Chairman
Ed Hudson welcomes guests.
X Constance
White, Foundation
board member
and scholarship
chairperson, presents scholarship
report.
SLieutenant Al Alexis (Austin) gives a report on
the annual Captain Bill Wilson Golf Tournament.
S Texas Ranger
Foundation
Board members
Tom Sloan, Joe
Kay, & Charlie
Rankin.
W
John Wood,
retired Co. D
captain.
SRetired Rangers Lloyd Johnson
& Ralph Wadsworth
32
Reunion 08: Gala
Gala 2008
SAsst. Senior Ranger Captain Jim Miller &
SCompany G Lieutenant Dewayne Dockery (McAllen),
Headquarters Captain Dino Henderson.
Ranger Foundation Secretary Kathy Wood, & retired
Ranger Keith Denning.
SLaura Simmons,
Company B Ranger
(Greenville)
SRetired Ranger Captain Bobby
& Betty Prince
SCompany B
Ranger Richard
Shing
& retired Ranger
John Martin
X
Retired Ranger
Bobby & Etta
Connell
SRetired Ranger Ray & VerNell Martinez
33
Reunion 08: Memorial Service
Memorial Service
Each year, there is a hope that a memorial service honoring Rangers who
have passed since the last reunion will not be needed. Unfortunately, this was
not the case for the past year, as three Rangers left us: Art Rodriguez, Bill
Quinn, and Captain Bob Mitchell. Many spoke to eulogize these great men.
Haskell Taylor, retired Ranger
Ann Mize, longtime Co. F secretary
Max Womack, retired Ranger
James Wright, retired Ranger
Ray Martinez, retired Ranger
Brantley Foster, retired Ranger
Clayton Smith, retired Ranger
and co-chaplain to the Texas
Rangers.
Captain Bobby Prince succeeded
Captain Mitchell as commander
of Company F.
George Frasier, retired Ranger
and co-chaplain to the Texas
Rangers.
34
Book Review: Salt Warriors
Book Reviews
Salt Warriors
Insurgency on the Rio Grande
by Paul Cool
Texas A&M University Press, College Station.
www.tamu.edu/press
Extensive endnotes. Bibliography. Index. 2 maps.
21 illustrations. $24.95. Hard cover only.
xviii + 360 pages. ISBN 978-1-60344-016-5.
Review by Chuck Parsons
Should Captain Tays’s Texas Rangers have surrendered to a mob? Did highly
respected Major John B. Jones simply make a poor choice in selecting Tays to represent
the state in that crisis? Paul Cool answers these questions and many others in this highly
researched history of the war over salt in 1877.
Few historians have given any real attention to this event, a border-war situation that
could have led to another declared conflict with Mexico. C. L. Douglas devoted a chapter to
it in his Famous Texas Feuds (1936). Two decades later, C. L. Sonnichsen gave his
interpretation of the event in Ten Texas Feuds, but since his 1957 chapter, the only attention
from historians appears in articles of little depth or circulation. From this, one might believe
that the conflict over the mineral salt was of relatively short duration and that its only
significance was that a group of Texas Rangers actually surrendered to a mob of Mexicans–
–the only time a Ranger force actually conceded to anyone.
Thanks to the solid research of Paul Cool, we now have a much broader understanding
of the questions surrounding the Salt War:
1. Why there was an insurgency on the Rio Grande, similar in many respects over the
colonists’ revolt over the tea tax.
2. Why the war erupted.
3. How the lynch mob manipulated certain individuals to obtain their victims.
4. Why desperadoes from New Mexico Territory became important figures in the conflict.
5. Why the Ranger group surrendered.
6. The aftermath of the conflict.
35
Book Review: Salt Warriors
Book Reviews
Through Cool’s writing, the development of the Salt War’s history is expertly expressed
in easily read prose. The book contains all the elements that would attract a Hollywood
producer: plenty of action, violent sexual encounters, and internal conflicts to match the
man vs. man external conflicts. In addition, there are a sheriff with very loose ethics, a mob
executing prisoners, and plenty of gun-wielding outlaws.
Cool details the controversy from the early 1800s, when explorers first began recording
their observations of the area. Included in their writings are accounts of the salineros, or
“salt gatherers,” who traveled to and from the salt and loaded it in their squeaky carrettas.
The heat, thirst, and Apaches were their only potential enemies.
Charles H. Howard, the son-in-law of Travis County Sheriff George B. Zimpelman,
eventually decided that the salt would be better used if it had to be bought rather than
merely gathered by salineros. For centuries, it had been taken for free, this salt from the
Guadalupe Mountains, but now he would hold the purse strings. This single act was the
spark that caused understandable resentment, much violence, Howard’s own death, and
the demise of many others.
Frontier Battalion Major John B. Jones sent in a force to quell the violence, but he had
to admit failure in this instance. His choice was disastrous, but due to Cool’s in-depth
research, we must accept that no other reasonable solution to the problem would have
worked. From hindsight, one cannot help but believe that if Jones had been there himself,
along with perhaps several other Ranger captains and at least one full company, the conflict
would have been less violent. After all, four captains, the adjutant general, and nearly the
entire Frontier Battalion were sent to El Paso four decades later merely to prevent a prizefight!
Possibly, the Salt War was a lesson learned through experience.
One cannot help but wonder if a similar conflict is occurring now. In the past, men were
fighting and dying over salt, which seems like such a simple matter today. Now, men are
fighting and dying over a vast array of illegal drugs. The differences between the two
conflicts are in the numbers involved and the facts that salt was legal then and drugs are
not today. Also, the Salt War of 1877 was relatively brief, but the 21st century drug war has
been on going for years, and there is no end in sight.
In some aspects, little seems to have changed. Racial and ethnic tensions along the
border occur now as then. There were no heroic icons among the “salt warriors,” and there
will probably be no heroes emerging from the battles of the drug war of today.
36
Book Review: Sweet, Separate Intimacy
Book Reviews
A Sweet, Separate Intimacy
Women Writers of the American Frontier,
1800-1922
Susan Cummins Miller, editor
Lubbock, Texas 79409: Texas Tech University Press, 2007.
contents, text sources, references, index.
447 pp. Paperback $26.95.
Review by Linda Sybert Hudson, PhD
In 2000, Susan Cummins Miller first published this anthology
featuring thirty-four women’s impressions of local scenes and topics of the
American frontier. The time period of the book ranges from 1800 to 1922. A concise biography
and description of the significance of each author is given as Miller introduces snippets of
poems, essays, fiction, and recollections that together paint a broad view of the West.
Using the poignant words of the women participants gives insight into their thoughts and
feelings, and their frontier impressions and experiences add a sense of time, place, and
social commentary to the history of their time. For the most part, these women wrote
professionally and published for an audience of avid readers enamored of the frontier.
Cummins includes women travelers, but the primary authors are Anglo and European women
settlers and Chinese, Hispanic, and Native American writers. Hers is a multicultural, multisocial and multi-racial frontier that is spread from Michigan and Texas to the Pacific Coast.
The only Texas woman featured is Mary Maverick. She gives her recollections of the
scientific quest for the bones of the Comanche by a Dr. Weideman, who boiled flesh from
dead Indians killed in a local battle. Instead of being concerned about his callous treatment
of the remains of another human being, townspeople and mavericks were more alarmed at
his dumping the leftover broth into the aqueduct that furnished drinking water to the citizens
of San Antonio.
Other sections of the book illustrate the caring, tender feelings, and emotions of
frontiersmen about their fellow inhabitants. As Cummins transmits the strength and courage
of people who lived there, she provides views of the landscape and descriptions of the
harshness and beauty of the land.
Susan Cummins Miller is a geologist and a poet who is best known as the author of four
mystery novels set in the Southwest and featuring the female sleuth, Frankie MacFarlane.
Miller was born and reared in California but now lives and writes in Arizona.
37
Book Review: Joaquin Jackson-One Ranger Returns
Book Reviews
One Ranger Returns
by Joaquin Jackson and James L. Haley
Austin: University of Texas Press, 2008.
Review by Robert Nieman
One Ranger Returns is more than a continuation of Joaquin
Jackson’s first book, One Ranger. No one volume could have held
all the stories of a twenty-seven-year veteran Ranger who liked to
work––and Joaquin Jackson liked to work. Furthermore, Jackson
shows a personal side of himself and his family in this biography
that is seldom seen in memoirs.
Throughout the book, Jackson makes you feel that you are with him as he works every kind of
felony imaginable. There were very few criticisms of the first book, One Ranger, but one major
disparagement was Jackson’s omission of the 1966-1967 farm labor dispute in the Rio Grande
Valley by the United Farm Workers. In One Ranger Returns, Jackson meets this issue head on.
In the years following this clash, Rangers were painted with a broad brush as being little more
than strikebreakers and thugs at the beck and call of the farm owners. Jackson challenges these
indictments in the strongest of terms. It is not easy to find many historians willing to defy this
common perception, but Jackson presents a compelling and reasonable case in defense of the
Rangers.
Unlike TV and movie characters, no Ranger can claim that he solved every case he worked.
Experienced police detectives and Rangers would never “promise” to solve a case; only a rank
amateur would make such a foolish statement. All any veteran police officer will ever swear to do
is the very best he or she can–and no more.
Jackson steps to plate and writes openly of the frustration that comes with an unsolved double
homicide. The 1938 murders of a mother and her daughter was a thirty-two-year-old case when
Jackson took over the investigation, and he did everything in his power to solve it. From its start
in California to the tragic end in the desert near Van Horn, Texas, Jackson brings the crime to life.
In light of the popularity of cold-case files on television, this would be an ideal case for
presentation—except that, in real life, the case has never been solved.
As in One Ranger, Jackson again attempts to put to rest the myth that he retired from the
Rangers in 1992 because of the admittance of women into the elite law enforcement group.
Regretfully, once a myth starts, it takes on a life of its own. No matter has many times Jackson
denies it, many will continue to believe that Jackson quit the Rangers rather than serve with
women.
The book ends with one of its strongest points: the clear and undying love this burly, six-footthree, tough-as-nails Ranger has for his wife and two sons. They, in turn, write moving tributes of
their love for their husband and father.
Throughout this book, there is one overriding theme: pride. Joaquin Jackson is extraordinarily
proud of the Rangers with whom he served, and he is proudest of all that he was a Texas Ranger.
38
Book Review: Texas History Stories
Book Reviews
Texas History Stories
by E. G. Littlejohn
New Forward by Robert W. Sledge
State House Press, McMurry Univ., 2005.
ISBN 093834907-4. Original copyright 1901.
Bk. I: Cabeza de Vaca; La Salle (56p)
Bk. II: Ellis P. Bean; Stephen F. Austin (48p)
Bk. III: Sam Houston; David Crockett (47p)
Bk. IV: The Alamo; Remember Goliad; Story of San Jacinto (47p)
Bk. V: Drawing the Black Beans; Castle Perote (46p)
Bk. VI: Brave Dick Dowling; Robert E. Lee (46p)
Review by Nancy Ray
Texas History Stories by E. G. Littlejohn (1862-1935) is not a new book. Written more than a
hundred years ago and originally published in 1901, this reproduction is about the early days of
Texas and the people of that era. It is divided into six short sections containing two or more
stories, mostly biographies intended for juvenile readers.
This new edition is introduced in a foreword by Dr. Robert W. Sledge, historian at the McWhiney
Research Foundation at McMurry University in Abilene. He writes, “A fun thing about history is the
stories.” I agree––now. In school, I do not remember history as a “fun thing.” I learned facts and
I passed the tests, but history was not an entertaining subject. In this book, the author uses a
storytelling format to bring the characters alive. This style definitely makes the people and events
more interesting than in my school textbook accounts, where information such as the young ages
of these heroes was rarely mentioned. (Davy Crockett was only twelve years old when he left
home). Also in this work are adequate descriptions of the hardships and dangers these brave
men faced and the patience, perseverance, and determination it took to survive.
Mr. Littlejohn’s writing style makes the individuals become real. For instance, I learned about
Ellis P. Bean, who left home as a sixteen-year-old boy because he wanted “to see other countries.”
He experienced bad luck in his adventures and spent the next twenty years in a vicious cycle:
captured, imprisoned, escaped, and captured again. However, the cruel treatment he experienced
and the long years in captivity did not break his spirit. He once told his imprisoned companions,
“There is no use in fretting over what cannot be helped.” What an attitude!
This book is educational, and I enjoyed learning about people such as Sam Houston, Stephen
F. Austin, Robert E. Lee, and Davy Crockett (probably my favorite). I also learned that the concept
of “drawing the black bean” began with Santa Anna. Read the story and decide the real winners
for yourselves––the ones drawing black beans or the ones drawing the white ones?
The target audiences for Texas History Stories are students in grades 4-7, but I also
recommend it for adults and as a supplement to textbooks for students. As stated by Dr. Sledge
in the forward, “Read the book the way Littlejohn meant it––celebrating the heroes of the early
days of Texas, and learning life lessons in the process.” That worked for me. I now have a much
better understanding about the hardships of the early Texans, and I have a higher appreciation
for the sacrifices they made.
39
Book Review: Wearing the Cinco Peso
Book Reviews
The Texas Rangers:
Wearing the Cinco Peso,
1821-1900
by Mike Cox
New York: Forge, 2008. ISBN 0-312-87386-7, $25.95.
Review by Robert Nieman
It is not surprising that books concerning popular historical subjects are published in conjunction
with anniversaries. Numerous works pertaining to the American Revolution appeared around the
nation’s 1876 centennial, and the Texas Centennial in 1936 generated dozens of new titles about
Texas and its revolution. Throughout the 1950s and 1960s, publishers offered an overabundance
of new books regarding every aspect of the Civil War, and the recent 50th anniversary of World
War II has generated hundreds of new titles and reprints.
Some of these anniversary books contribute new scholarship or spark a rise of the interest in
history; others simply restate and retell the same stories. This was also the case in 1998 as the
Texas Rangers passed their 175th anniversary (the 200th will be in 2023). Prominent among the
personal reminiscences, special studies, novels, and even cookbooks that have appeared are
several general surveys and reprints of Texas Ranger history.
In evaluating these publications, two questions must constantly be answered: why and what.
Why has a book been written, and what new facts or insights are being presented that works
already in print do not offer?
With The Texas Rangers: Wearing the Cinco Peso, 1821-1900, Mike Cox expands upon his
other books on the subject, Texas Ranger Tales: Stories That Need Telling and Texas Ranger
Tales II. His writing evokes a spirit of Ranger history and will not turn off readers looking for an
entertaining, easy-to-read, and popular style. However, given that there are five other surveys of
40
Book Review: Wearing the Cinco Peso
Book Reviews
general Texas Ranger history on the market, the question is––what warrants another survey
either of their first century or their entire history?
Walter Webb’s 1935 classic, The Texas Rangers: A Century of Frontier Defense, has never
been out of print and remains the most successful book in the history of the University of Texas
Press. Although in need of correction and revision, sometimes criticized as difficult to read, and
tedious because of its length, it has remained the cornerstone of modern Texas Ranger scholarship
since it was introduced during the Texas Centennial.
In 1990, Frederick Wilkins, who wrote into his eighties, embarked on a project to create a
more readable and updated survey of Texas Ranger history. Using extensive primary material,
Wilkins produced the exhaustive four-volume series: The Legend Begins (1996), The Highly
Irregular Irregulars (1990), Defending the Borders (2001), and The Law Comes to Texas (1999).
Wilkins was not alone in commemorating the Texas Rangers during the 175th anniversary of
the Texas Revolution. Thomas L. Knowles produced a short, illustrated survey of the first hundred
years with They Rode for the Lone Star (1999). In 2000, Charles M. Robinson III contributed a
general survey, The Men Who Wear the Star. In addition, celebrated historian Robert Utley recently
completed Lone Star Justice: The First Century of the Texas Rangers (2002) and Lone Star
Lawmen: The Second Century of the Texas Rangers (2007).
Clearly, an abundance of general histories of the Texas Rangers is available, and the subject
seems to be covered unless a historian presents new and important information or perspectives.
In Wearing the Cinco Peso, Cox uses predominantly secondary sources to retell the legendary
Ranger stories in an engaging, narrative style. Yet these tales have been told over and over by
many authors, including Cox in his previous books. Readers having little familiarity with the Texas
Rangers beyond the television series Walker: Texas Ranger will be interested. However, Ranger
history aficionados or those who have read one or more books on the subject will search hard for
unfamiliar material.
New early primary research material is available. The Texas Ranger Research Library at the
Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum, the Texas State Library and Archives, and the Eugene
C. Barker Texas History Collection at the University of Texas remain rich sources of pre-1935
Texas Ranger history. Also included in this list are numerous libraries and universities around the
state holding the papers of various governors.
There are recent Ranger histories demonstrating that new information is out there, though it
is sometimes difficult to find and painstaking to analyze. Stephen L. Moore’s massive, threevolume Savage Frontier series, which covers the years 1835-1841, is one fine example. Robert
Utley researched the Texas State Archives, the Barker History Library at the University of Texas,
and the archives of the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame Museum in Waco while writing Lone Star
Lawmen, the groundbreaking post-1935 history of the Texas Rangers.
Forge Press states that Mike Cox is also working on a second volume that will bring the
history of the Texas Rangers up to the present. Cox himself lived through some of this history
while serving as the public information officer for the Texas Department of Public Safety. Readers
will hope for a history of the modern era that will explore new ground.
41

Texas Ranger Dispatch - Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum

Transcription

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