The Men Who War the Star: The Story of the Texas Rangers (50 page)

These values are evident in the performance of their duties as lawmen, duties that still carry the dangers facing any peace officer. On Thursday, January 22, 1987, Ranger Stan Guffey of Brady died in the rescue of a two-year-old girl held hostage by Brent Albert Beeler, a habitual criminal who had already kidnapped and tortured to death a twenty-two-year-old woman. Beeler himself was killed by Guffey’s partner, Ranger Johnnie Aycock, and the little girl was returned unharmed to her parents. Guffey was the third Texas Ranger to die in the line of duty since the Ranger Division was placed under the Department of Public Safety in 1935. He had been with the department for eighteen years, and left a widow and four children.
¹⁴

RANGERS CONTINUE TO
fascinate the people of Texas. A handwritten letter by a famous Ranger like Leander McNelly or James B. Gillett will fetch hundreds of dollars from collectors. Just as the East has its Civil War reenactment groups, so does Texas have Ranger reenactments, many of whose participants are themselves lawmen and/or are descended from old-time Rangers. There are Ranger trading cards, each carrying the portrait of a famous past or present Ranger with his service record on the back. The Texas Ranger Hall of Fame in Waco, the main center for Ranger preservation and research, records an average of ninety thousand visitors a year. Ranger memorabilia can be found in many of the state’s major museums, and even in smaller towns like Falfurrias on U.S. 281 in deep south Texas, where the local museum has a highly developed and well-presented Texas Ranger Room. Out in Langtry, Judge Roy Bean’s Jersey Lilly Saloon still stands, although the Texas Department of Transportation has completely destroyed the effect by landscaping and other “improvements.” The visitor’s center (which overwhelms and obscures the Jersey Lilly itself) has dioramas and displays of Roy’s life, and Dan Stuart’s Fistic Carnival figures prominently.

The fascination with the Rangers—old and new—shows that Owen White was unduly pessimistic (if not flat-out
wrong
) when he wrote:

The old-time Texas Rangers had almost abolished themselves . . . by being efficient and worthy, and it only remained for the newer representatives of the formerly great organization to complete its demolition by deserting its traditions.
¹⁵

The Texas Rangers have not abolished themselves. They have survived not by deserting their traditions but by reinventing themselves, by adjusting—even if grudgingly—to new eras, new values, and new circumstances. Every time it seems the Rangers have become an anachronism, they prove beyond any doubt that they are still relevant and necessary. As they approached a new century and a new millennium, Texas governor George Bush assessed their role for the future:

The Texas Rangers will continue to be the elite unit of the Department of Public Safety, whose job is to be good investigators. The days of “one-man/one-riot” are over, but “one complicated situation/one Ranger” will still hold true. The Texas Rangers are revered as a wholly unique and efficient law enforcement agency. They are a symbol of what we have been and what we are. One Ranger still covers hundreds of miles of territory. The frontier is shrinking and we are entering a new era, but Texas will always have the Rangers.
¹⁶

Notes

Abbreviations

  Introduction: Are They Still There?

1. Jaime Aron, Associated Press report, McAllen
   Monitor,
   May 11, 1997.
   
2. Sterling,
   Trails and Trials,
   524.
   
3. Texas Legislature,
   General Laws, 11th Legislature,
   10; Department of Public Safety,
   Annual Report, 1994,
   9; Weiss, “The Texas Rangers Revisited,” 622; Cox,
   Silver Stars,
   2. Most sources state the “Texas Rangers” designation did not appear until the creation of the Frontier Battalion in 1874. However, the name appears in the Act to Provide for the Protection of the Frontier of the State of Texas, Section 1, approved September 21, 1866.
   
4. DeShields, “Indian Raid, Pursuit and Fight,” 1.
   
5. Donaly Brice, conversation with the author, August 22, 1996.
   

  1: Life and Death in a Harsh Land

1. Wooten,
   Comprehensive History of Texas,
   2:329
   
2. Gillett,
   Six Years,
   21. Some Rangers joined the army during the Mexican War and Civil War and continued to call themselves Rangers. This was simply a figure of speech or a frame of mind, because, as soldiers, they were no longer Texas Rangers.
   
3. Texas Almanac,
   303.
   
4. Sonnichsen,
   I’ll Die Before I’ll Run,
   14–15; Nackman, “Making of the Texan Citizen Soldier,” 234, 240.
   
5. Weddle,
   San Juan Bautista,
   66–67, 90–91; Bancroft,
   North Mexican States and
   Texas,
   1:609–14.
   
6. Wallace and Hoebel,
   The Comanches,
   26–27; Mooney, “Calendar History,” 163.
   
7. Wallace and Hoebel,
   The Comanches,
   45.
   
8. Newcomb,
   Indians of Texas,
   108, 138.
   
9. Bancroft,
   North Mexican States and Texas,
   1:626–27. The complete story of this ill-fated mission is told by Robert S. Weddle,
   The San Saba Mission.
   
10. weddle, san saba mission
    
11. Bancroft,
    North Mexican States and Texas,
    2:54–55.
    
12. Ibid., 2:55.
    
13. Most of this material on Moses Austin comes from the first two chapters of Eugene C. Barker,
    The Life of Stephen F. Austin;
    Bancroft,
    North Mexican States
    and Texas,
    2:56–57; and Mary Austin Holley,
    Texas,
    282–83.
    
14. Fehrenbach,
    Lone Star,
    134–35; Barker,
    Stephen F. Austin,
    23–25.
    
15. Moore, “Bastrop,” 1:410.
    
16. Ibid., 1:410; Kuykendall, “Reminiscences,” 6:3:248; Fehrenbach,
    Lone Star,
    135; Bancroft,
    North Mexican States and Texas,
    2:57n–58n.
    
17. Fehrenbach,
    Lone Star,
    135; Barkar,
    stephen F. Austin
    , 25.
    
18. Barker,
    Stephen F. Austin,
    25-28; Holley,
    Texas,
    281–82, 284.
    
19. Smithwick,
    Evolution of a State,
    42.
    
20. Ibid., 42; Kuykendall, “Reminiscences,” 7:1:49–50.
    
21. Barker,
    Stephen F. Austin,
    12, 31–32; Martinez to Austin, August 24, 1821, quoted in Barker, “The Government of Austin’s Colony,” 225.
    
22. Holley,
    Texas,
    285.
    
23. Newcomb,
    Indians of Texas,
    59; Jenkins,
    Recollections,
    158–59; Kuykendall, “Carankawa Indians,” 178-79; Smithwick,
    Evolution of a State,
    3.
    
24. Newcomb,
    Indians of Texas,
    78; Smithwick,
    Evolution of a State,
    3; Jenkins,
    Recollections,
    159.
    
25. Barker,
    Stephen F. Austin,
    91; Wilbarger,
    Indian Depredations,
    198.
    
26. Barton, “The Anglo-American Colonists Under Mexican Militia Laws,” 61–62.
    
27. Kuykendall, “Reminiscences,” 6:3:248; Barker,
    Stephen F. Austin,
    88. Barker and Kuykendall spell the name “Morrison,” but his signature is “Morrisson.”
    
28. Kuykendall, “Reminiscences,” 7:1:31. Barker,
    Stephen F. Austin,
    88–89, says the ranger/militia commander was Andrew Robinson. This version is from J. H. Kuykendall, who was there at the time. Barker and Kuykendall agree that Bell was named
    alcalde.
    
29. Barker,
    Stephen F. Austine,
    91; Austine to Guerra, secretary to the commanding general, undated (about November 1823), in Barker,
    Austin Papers,
    1:672; Kilgore,
    A Ranger Legacy,
    21–22.
    
30. “A List of American Settlersinthe Colorado (District), March 4th,1823,” facsimilein Winkler,
    Manuscript Letters,
    18–22; Kilgore,
    A Ranger Legacy,
    21–22; Morrisson to Col. José Felix Trespalacios, June 5, 1823, facsimile in Winkler,
    Manuscript Letters,
    23.“Dollar” no doubt refers to the Spanish-Mexican eight real, or “piece of eight,” a large silver coin that circulated on par with the U.S. dollar and was legal tender in the United States until 1857. Oddly enough, although only ten men were enlisted, Austin’s subsequent correspondence with thegovernment continued to list the number of men at the fourteen authorized by Trespalacios.
    
31. Early correspondence variously refers to San Antonio by that name, or as “St. Antonio” or “Bexar.”
    
32. Morrisson to Trespalacios, July 5, 1823, facsimile in Winkler,
    Manuscript Letters,
    26–27.
    
33. Kilgore,
    A Ranger Legacy,
    26.
    
34. Garcia to Bastrop, July 16, 1823, in Barker,
    Austin Papers,
    1:672–73 (my translation).
    
35. Jenkins,
    Recollections,
    160; Wilbarger,
    Indian Depredations,
    200–1; Kuykendall, “Reminiscences,” 6:3:247–48, 7:1:30. Most accounts give the name “Brotherton,” although he probably was Robert Brotherington, a member of Austin’s Old Three Hundred. See Burnam, “Reminiscences,” 16n.
    
36. Kuykendall, “Reminiscences,” 7:1:30–31, says nine or ten were killed, while Moore (Burnam, “Reminiscences,” 15n) recalled twenty-three. Wilbarger (
    Indian
    Depredations,
    201), who was not present for the fight, claimed the settlers killed nineteen of the twenty-one warriors in the camp. All agree that there were no white losses.
    
37. Burnam, “Reminiscences,” 16n; Jenkins,
    Recollections,
    160.
    
38. Moore in Burnam, “Reminiscences,” 16n.
    
39. Morrisson to Kuykendall, August 3, 1823, in Barker,
    Austin Papers,
    1:676.
    
40. Barker,
    Stephen F. Austin,
    40–41; Yoakum,
    History of Texas,
    1:227.
    
41. Decree of the Commanding General, May 28, 1823, in Barker,
    Austin Papers,
    1:597 (my translation); Barker, “Government of Austin’s Colony,” 226.
    
42. Barker,
    Stephen F. Austin,
    89; Austin, Address to the Colonists, August 5, 1823, in Barker,
    Austin Papers,
    1:678–79.
    
43. Wilkins,
    The Legend Begins,
    7.
    
44. Austin to Guerra, November 1823, in Barker,
    Austin Papers,
    1:711 (my translation; in Spanish, the double negative is the emphatic form). The powder most likely came from government stores and would have been intended for the .75-caliber smoothbore muskets that were then standard issue in the Mexican army. These weapons required a coarse-grained, slow-burning powder, while the light .45 or .50-caliber rifles of the Texans needed a fine-grained, fast-burning powder. The annual catalogs published by Dixie Gun Works, Union City, Tennessee, contain many pages of technical information on black powder.
    
45. Austin to Guerra, November 1823, in Barker,
    Austin Papers,
    1:711 (my translation).
    

  2: Indian Raids and Revolution

1. Barker,
   Stephen F. Austin,
   94; Webb,
   Texas Rangers,
   20. The Tonkawa attitude toward the Karankawas is described in Kuykendall, “Reminiscences,” 6:3:252.
   
2. Barker,
   Stephen F. Austin,
   94; Kuykendall, “Reminiscences,” 7:1:35.
   
3. Kuykendall, “Reminiscences,” 7:1:35.
   
4. Ibid., 7:1:35–36; Barker,
   Stephen F. Austin,
   94–95; Holley,
   Texas,
   159–60.
   
5. Austin to Militiamen, about May 1, 1826, in Barker,
   Austin Papers,
   2:2:1317–18.
   
6. Barker,
   Stephen F. Austin,
   144–45.
   
7. Kuykendall, “Reminiscences,” 7:1:32–33.
   
8. Austin, “To the Settlers in what is called ‘Austin’s Colony,’ in Texas,” November 1, 1829, reprinted in Gammel,
   Laws of Texas,
   1:21.
   
9. De Leon,
   They Called Them Greasers,
   1–5.
   
10. In the spring of 1998, I translated between a Puerto Rican who did not speak English and a McAllen, Texas, postal clerk who did not speak Spanish. When I was finished, the Puerto Rican told me,
    “Usted habla bien cristiano,”
    which is to say, “You speak the Christian language [i.e., Spanish] very well.”
    
11. Bancroft,
    North Mexican States and Texas,
    2:84–87.
    
12. Henson,
    Juan Davis Bradburn,
    126.
    
13. De Leon,
    They Called Them Greasers,
    5–7.
    
14. Bancroft,
    North Mexican States and Texas,
    2:87–90; Wilkins,
    The Legend Begins,
    8–9; Morton, “Mier y Teran,” 47:1:30; Ramsey,
    The Other Side,
    9–11.
    
15. The Fredonia Rebellion appears in many histories of Texas and is thoroughly examined in Bancroft,
    North Mexican States and Texas,
    2:98ff., and Barker,
    Stephen F. Austin,
    148ff. See also “Document Relating to Mexican Land Grant to Cherokee Indians [Undated],” Winfrey and Day,
    Texas Indian Papers,
    1:9.
    
16. Kuykendall, “Reminiscences,” 7:1:38–39.
    
17. Barker,
    Stephen F. Austin,
    163; Morton, “Mier y Teran,” 47:1:33–34.
    
18. This period is discussed in Howren, “Causes and Origin,” 415–17; Bancroft,
    North Mexican States and Texas,
    2:114–15.
    
19. Yoakum,
    History of Texas,
    1:260–61.
    
20. Kuykendall (“Reminiscences,” 6:3:250) spells the name “Cavanagh.” “Cavina” is probably a corrupted spelling.
    
21. Wilbarger,
    Indian Depredations,
    209–10; Jenkins,
    Recollections,
    160–61. Wilbarger dated the Cavina massacre in 1830, while John Holmes Jenkins, who edited his great-great-grandfather’s memoirs, placed it in 1831. The Jenkins date is used because it is based on research while Wilbarger was relying on memory.
    
22. Barker,
    Stephen F. Austin,
    342, 345.
    
23. Austin’s view of his life and work and his financial problems are discussed in Barker,
    Stephen F. Austin,
    Chapter 9. His work with the convention is in ibid., 348–49.
    
24. In Mexico one still occasionally hears the expression
    como vendió Santa Anna,
    which roughly translates as “sold out like Santa Anna.”
    
25. Santoni,
    Mexicans at Arms,
    50.
    
26. Santa Anna is the subject of many works. Bancroft (
    History of Mexico,
    5:138–41) gives a good capsuled description. Also notable are his own autobiography,
    The
    Eagle,
    edited and extensively annotated by Ann Fears Crawford, and Wilfrid Hardy Callcott’s
    Santa Anna: The Story of an Enigma Who Once Was Mexico.
    
27. Richardson,
    Texas,
    79–80; Bancroft,
    History of Mexico,
    5:139–42.
    
28. Bancroft,
    History of Mexico,
    5:140; Linn,
    Reminiscences,
    40.
    
29. Richardson,
    Texas,
    79–85; Wilkins,
    The Legend Begins,
    11–12; “The Govr. of the State . . . ,” Lamar Papers No. 2438,
    Papers of Mirabeau Buonaparte Lamar,
    4:1:242.
    
30. Barker, “Journal of the Permanent Council,” 260–62; Gammel,
    Laws of Texas,
    1:527; Wilkins,
    The Legend Begins,
    12.
    
31. Wilkins,
    The Legend Begins,
    14.
    
32. “Journals of the Consultation Held at San Felipe de Austin,” Gammel,
    Laws of
    Texas,
    1:543.
    
33. Ibid., 1:600; Wilkins,
    The Legend Begins,
    18.
    
34. Smithwick,
    Evolution of a State,
    82; Wallace and Hoebel,
    Comanches,
    63.
    
35. Brown,
    Indian Wars and Pioneers,
    25–26.
    
36. Ibid., 26.
    
37. Kilgore,
    A Ranger Legacy,
    34.
    
38. Smithwick,
    Evolution of a State,
    1.
    
39. Wilkins,
    The Legend Begins,
    16. Smithwick’s life is told in his memoir,
    Evolution
    of a State,
    from which most of this sketch is drawn.
    
40. The Alamo was formerly the Mission of San Antonio de Valero, and was commonly called “Valero.” The term “Alamo” probably came into use in the late eighteenth century, when a company of Spanish frontier troops from Alamo de Parras, Chihuahua, was posted there.
    
41. Travis to “Andrew Ponton, Judge, and the Citizens of Gonzales,” February 23, 1836, quoted in Brown,
    History of Texas,
    1:550.
    
42. Williamson “To the Governor and Council of Texas,” February 25, 1836, quoted in ibid., 1:537.
    
43. Ibid., 1:438–39; Lord,
    A Time to Stand,
    97, 125.
    
44. Travis’s letter, which was carried in relays to all the settlements, is in such demand that the Texas State Archives keeps facsimile copies stacked on the front desk. This version is taken from the facsimile of Travis’s own hand. The letter has also been reprinted in virtually every book about the Alamo.
    
45. Lord,
    A Time to Stand,
    126–28; Bancroft,
    North Mexican States and Texas,
    2:209. It is generally believed the mysterious rider was a British officer in Mexican service. The only other potential candidate, Juan Davis Bradburn, a Virginia-born Mexican officer, was in Copano on the Gulf Coast at the time. See Margaret Swett Henson,
    Juan Davis Bradburn,
    120–21. John W. Smith, who guided the Gonzales Rangers into the Alamo, left the fort for the last time on March 3, three days before the final assault, carrying Travis’s final plea for help.
    
46. Filisola,
    Representación,
    175; Crawford,
    The Eagle,
    50–51. Ironically, Filisola himself was from the Italian peninsula.
    
47. Smithwick,
    Evolution of a State,
    82.
    
48. Ibid., 82–86.
    
49. Ibid., 87; Wilkins,
    The Legend Begins,
    18.
    
50. Yoakum,
    History of Texas,
    2:179–81.