Evening Star Newspaper, January 17, 1932, Page 75

Traditions of a Century Conjuring Pictures of Davy Crockett and the Alamo Days Pile Up to Prevent Passing of All Import;mt'I,;l\v—linf()rcc— ment Group in the Wide OpenSpaces of the North Am (‘I‘i(‘;lll S()llt]l\\'(‘b‘t. BY ROY BUCKINGHAM. HEN Gov. Ross Sterling of Texas and Gov. “Alfalfa Bill” Murray of Oklahoma several months ago engaged in their exchange of threats over the opening of the free bridge across the Red River at Durant, Okla., readers of newspapers learned that on the Texas side was a detachment of Rangers. Had they been familiar with the Sputhwest section of the Upited States and its traditions of men who shoot straight, quickly and the second and third time if necessary, they would have gambled that the Rangers would win. In the Southwest the Texas Ranger is legatee of the bravery of the Alamo and enough county- seat feuds to dwarf the exploits of Sergt. York. If there is a synonym for bravery in the great North American plains country it is Texas Ranger or deputy United States marshal. Ac- cording to the many stories in the Southwest, the man who stood in the boots of either had to be good, and in plains parlance “good” means several degrees above proficient. Go into Austin, Tex., with a story of law violation, Or if you can't make the trip, tele- phone the adjutant general he had better send a few Rangers to quell a disturbance. Maybe the five or six Rangers did not resemble the A. E. P, but if they zipped in by airplane or shot over the prairie roads in a high-powered car, somebody was arriving some place. It usually requires a Ranger 10 minutes to get the lay of the land—so the story goes down by the Rio—and if he isn’t through in five minutes more he’s ashamed of himself and the tradi- tions of his calling. The visitor in Texas who supposes for one minute that our modern methods of expensive lawyers, numercus coutts, plenitude of United States marshals, former service men irked by monotony and desiring a scrap have made the Texas Ranger obsolete or even started him down the gravity alley toward the discard doesn’t know his Texas. HE Texas Ranger—seventy of him—is the most important law-enforcement group in the Southwest. It is true he isn’t the dramatic figure of the day when a 75-mile ride on cow ponies made plenty of conversation on the Pecos. Neither is he required to drop his .45- caliber revolver over his pony's neck and pick off a bandit at 100 yards. He could do it if he had to today, but with airplanes and motor cars he can cover Texas in a week. The Ranger thinks Texas is the best State in the Union. A few of them would be willing to take odds that Texas could lick the rest of the United States if pressed. Not that he is cocky or boastful He is just reassuring. He impresses the person who first meets him as the Rio Grande variety of the Canadian Mounted. He is steeped in Texas history, imbued with the bravery of Davy Crockett, who 1s the patron saint of the Texas Rangers, and loyal to the last cartridge. Historians say the Texas Ranger dates from Texas' break with Mexico in 1835, and the nucleus of this band of armed men were Texans detailed to patrol the Rio Grande. They performed so well that when Gen. Sam Houston in 1836 decided that sharpshooters of the Davy Crockett type could probably lick any foreign country that wanted to get in, the 1,600 riflemen were placed on Ranger duty. At the close of the war this large group was not necessary and the Rangers disbanded. With this new State to be protected from Indians and bandits, the United States Army sent its companies from Forts Dodge, Larned and other Southwest posts. There were hun- dreds of miles of border to be protected, and, in spite of experienced plains soldiers, the Texas assignment was difficuit. Although 100 soldiers were expected to patrol the same area a Ranger formerly had been responsible for, the soldiers fared badly at the hands of In- dians and renegade whites, who lured them into impossible positions and then cut them down. So heavy were casualties along the border that the settlers who had been at- tracted to the rich soil in Texas called on Gov. Houston to mobilize the Rangers. In the early days of Texas, cattle and sheep raising were great industries, and owners of herds were continually beset by bands of rustlers. It was during this period that the rangers did good work in ridding the State of these outlmws. N this black era of of Texas' reconstruction almost every crime on the calendar was committed. Texas became the no-man’s land of the Western half of the United States. White adventurers poured into Texas. Stories of fabulous wealth attracted the gold seekers. Bandits in Oklahoma, Kansas and Nebraska found easy access into the canyons of Texas, where they covld hide. The marauding bands of Indians would swoop over the Southwest plains, steal settlers’ livestock and sometimes their women, then head for Texas. These Indians were formidable and had little trouble in outwitting the soldiers. It seemed as if the master minds of crime had moved to Texas, where a repfttedly easy State government would make their operations less difficuit. Perhaps Texas didn't drive out this spawn of the white race as effectively as she should have done, but Texas had her own problems of State government, and there was some discon- tent that she had not continued as a sovereign nation. To meet this mounting trouble, more Rangers were called to the colors. Grand- sons of early settlers may be found in Texas now who say the Rangers saved Texas from a worse fate. Almost every border town in Texas has stories of Ranger activity at this trying time it cherishes, and to this day bandit lookouts are careful to note that a Ranger is not within riding distance. One of the famous Ranger scouts of Texas was Capt. Ben McCulloch. In the Battle of San Jacinto, McCulloch commanded a cannon, “Remember the Alamo” still rings out in 1 exas. g The picture is from Harper's Weekly. and so hot did he make it for the Mexicans that the dead were piled high in front of the field piece. McCulloch was a Tennessee friend of David Crockett, the scout who fell at the Alamo after 12 days’ fighting. Crockett had gone to Texas ahead of his friend, or Mc- Culloch might have met the same fate. At the Battle of Sen Jacinto, McCulloch’s bravery was so cutstancding that he was commissioned captain on the field. McCulloch and his men, who were plains scouts, were the groundwork of the present Rangers. They performed valiantly in the Mexican War. Their knowledge of the terrain was invaluable to their generals. They pos- sessed accurate shooting ability, and the long rifle is no idle phrase in Texas. These scouts could perform long-range shooting that outdoes Buffalo Bill. FTER the war McCulloch was captain of a company on the West frontier. In 1855 President Buchanan *sent McCulloch to com- mand a company of soldiers in the Utah re- bellicn. McCulloch died fighting as a brigadier general in the Confederate Army at the Battle of Pea Ridge, Ark. When the settlement of the vast stretches of the Southwest began and the great herds began to move north to Kansas City, Abilene and Dodge City over the Chisholm and Ogallah trails, the Texas Rangers were called on for new duty. Cattle rustling became the racket of the day. Whole herds were cut out. A I¢ was there that the famous scout, David Crockett, dicd after fighting for 12 days. Capt. Ben McCulloch so efficiently commanded a band of scouts in the battle of San Jacinto that he was later, placed at the head of the Texas Rang- ers. He later died fighting as a briga- dier general in the Confederate Army, journey from the Pecos to Kansas City was & continuous battle. The cattle barons had their own feudal wars. The cattle kings employed herd riders who could fight as well as cut out calves. The blood feuds between the famous cattle kings of the Southwest were almost as sanguinary as war. The Rangers didn’t bother with the private wars of the cattlemen, but they did make cattle rustling a risky business. HE most notorious thief of his day was Sam Bass, and he fared well until he ran into the Texas Rangers’ mode of enforcing law and order. At Big Springs, Neb., Sam and four confederates robbed a Union Pacific train of $65,000. The news of this robbery made the trails hot. Deputy marshals appeared on every cattle thoroughfare. Sam's pals went to Eu- rope, but Bass hit out for Texas. Bass engineered train robberies near Ford Worth and Dallas. Although 20 posses werq on the trail of the Bass gang, Bass got away, Bass learned nothing from experience and robe bed a bank near Round Rock, Tex. Deciding to look the situation over well, San{ arrived in the little town a day earlier with hig party. It was unfortunate for him that three Rangers had established themselves in Round Rock, unfortunate that they could so easily recognize him and sad that one of his eld Continued on Eleventh Puage