Six Years with the Texas Rangers, 1875 to 1881

The greatest shaping force in human life is heredity, and from my father I inherited my love of the open frontier and its life of danger and excitement. This inheritance was fur...

The Texas Rangers, as an organization, dates from the spring of 1836. When the Alamo had fallen before the onslaught of the Mexican troops and the frightful massacre had occurre...

The fame of the Texas Rangers had, of course, become common knowledge among all Texans. Their deeds of adventure and their open, attractive life along the frontier, had always a...

The latter part of August, 1875, Private L.P. Seiker was sent on detached service to Fort Mason, about fifty miles due east of our camp. While there a runner came in from Honey...

Soon after our return from our first brush with Indians we were introduced to yet another phase of ranger activity--the quieting of feuds, for not only were the rangers employed...

Despite their usefulness in protecting the frontiers and in maintaining law and order, the Texas Rangers have always had to fight more or less strenuously to obtain the necessar...

By the end of the year 1876 the Indians had been pretty well pushed back off the frontier, so that there were very few fights with the redskins after 1877. From the spring of 18...

As soon as Sergeant Reynolds was commissioned first lieutenant he was placed in command of Company "E," then stationed in Coleman County, but immediately ordered to Lampasas. At...

Sam Bass, the noted train robber, was born in Indiana, July 21, 1851. He came to Texas while quite a youth and worked for Sheriff Everhart of Denton County until he reached manh...

In the fall of 1878 a man named Dowdy moved from South Texas and settled on the headwaters of the Johnson Fork of the Guadalupe River in Kerr County. His family consisted of him...

At the foot of the Guadalupe Mountains, one hundred miles east of El Paso, Texas, are situated several large salt deposits known as the Salt Lakes. These deposits were on public...

On October 5, 1879, at midnight, Pablo Mejia brought Lieutenant Baylor, from Captain Gregorio Garcia of San Elizario, a note stating that a band of Apaches had charged a camp of...

About a month after our first brush with Apaches, during November, 1879, Chief Victorio quit the Mescalero Reservation and with a party of one hundred and twenty-five warriors a...

During the latter part of January, 1880, two mining engineers named Andrews and Wiswall from Denver, Colorado, appeared at the ranger camp in Ysleta. They had a new ambulance pu...

As soon as the summer rains had begun in 1880 and green grass and water were plentiful, old Victorio again began his raids. He appeared at Lake Guzman, Old Mexico, then traveled...

In the early fall of 1880 two well mounted and well armed men appeared at the ranger camp at Ysleta and applied to Captain Baylor for enlistment in his company. After questionin...

Despite General Terrasas' great victory at Tres Castilos as recorded in a preceding chapter, he did not entirely destroy all the Apaches that had been with old Victorio. Nana an...

The American citizens of Socorro, New Mexico, during Christmas week of 1881, held a church festival, and Mr. A.M. Conklin, editor of the "Socorro Sun," was conducting the exerci...

During the summer of 1881 Captain Baylor's company made several scouts out to the Sacramento and Guadalupe Mountains. These were reported to the Adjutant-General as scouts after...

Early in the spring of 1881 the old town of El Paso awoke out of her Rip Van Winkle sleep to find that four grand trunk railroad lines,--the Santa Fe, Southern Pacific, G., H &...