THE TEXAS RANGERS AND THEIR SERVICE ON THE LOWER RIO GRANDE The Texas rangers consist of various groups of what might be called CONSTABULARY. As rangers they have been known since Texas became a Republic, and tradition attributes to them the credit for having, during the early days, procured better results for the peace and security of the State than has any man or body of men. During Taylor's march to Fort Brown and before and during the battles of Palo Alto and Resaca de la Palma, as scouts they rendered valuable service under Walker and McCulloch. Afterwards, under the same leaders they led the American army into Monterrey, Saltillo, and Buena Vista, obtaining the only reliable data upon which Taylor might base his operations. At Monterrey, while the battle raged, they worked their way from house to house, crossed from house-top to housetop, and silenced the characteristic snipers who, more than all others, impeded the American advance. It was McCulloch's Ranger scouts who, far south of Buena Vista, discovered the hordes of Santa Anna approaching, and notified Taylor so that he might pick out his own battle ground. From the time of the American invasion of Mexico to the days of our Civil War, they have suffered many encounters and hair-breadth escapes at the hands of the most desperate characters. Among the Rangers were such men as Col. John S. (RIP) Ford; Capt. Sul Ross, afterwards governor of Texas, who single-handed killed a noted Comanche Chief; Capts. Bill McDonald, Hughes, McNelley, McMurry, Rudd, Oglesby, Hall, Shelby, Bill Scott, J. R. Jones, Frank Jones, Brooks, Ira Aten and, not the least, John B. Armstrong, who from 1878 to 1914, the day of his death, resided at Armstrong Station, Cameron County. While their battles and victories have been many, we must limit their recitals to those most intimately relating to the Lower Border. Mexican and American outlaws have always found an aslyum along the Rio Grande border, where they might escape to either side, according to necessity. Their living has depended chiefly on illegal foraging and marauding. Due to the depredations of these disreputable men, stock raising along the lower border, and even as far north as Corpus Christi, was dealt a severe blow during the period from 1867 to 1876. Several instances of their lawless activities are cited here: During the month of November, 1874, Billy McMahan, a very popular inoffensive American school teacher whose school was several miles North of Brownsville, was waylaid by desperadoes led by one, AGUJO (the needle). These men tortured McMahan by cutting off his fingers, toes, wrists, and ears. They finally severed his legs from his body and left him lifeless. During May, 1875, seven armed Mexicans appeared at what Iwas then known as "Fulton's Store" situated on the Los Torritos grant, about a mile east of the San Juan Sugar Plantation and 48 miles west from the city of Brownsville, in the military or river road. They attacked and killed the owner, George W. Fulton, and his Mexican clerk, Mauricio Leal, and mortally wounded another clerk. Fulton put up a good fight killing three of his assailants. About the same time a noted desperado from Matamoros, without provocation, fired into a carriage as it was traveling west on the military road, about 9 miles from Brownsville. The bullet struck a prominent Brownsville citizen, a Mr. Alexander, in the heart. The assailant escaped into Mexico and later was killed in the streets of Matamoros by another character equally as desperate. Travel along the roads leading into Brownsville became so dangerous, and cow-thieving reached such a stage, that the governor dispatched rangers to the Valley. On June 12, 1875, Capt. J. F. McNelley and his company of twenty-two rangers, guided by H. S. Rock, Lino Saldana, Casimiro Tamayo, and Timoteo Solis of Brownsville, overtook a band of 16 cow-thieves running 300 head of cattle. Fighting commenced just as the thieves emerged from the Reparo thicket, 4 miles north from the present target range on Loma Alta, and 14 miles from Brownsville. Fifteen cowthieves were killed and their bodies brought to Brownsville and displayed on the market square. One ranger, Berry Smith, was killed by the cow-thieves. During the 19th, 20th, and 21st of November, 1875, U. S. Customs officers, Albert Dean and John Mix, while patrolling the Rio Grande, near a place called "Los Ebanos,” 84 miles west from Brownsville, and 2 miles west from Samfordyce, encountered a band of thieves who were at that time engaged in crossing some stolen cattle from the Texas to the Mexican side of the Rio Grande. An engagement took place and Dean fell, feigning death. Mix hurried to Rio Grande, 20 miles distant, and soon returned with McNelley's rangers accompanied by a troop of the 7th U. S. Cavalry, Capt. John F. Randlett commanding. The Americans crossed into Mexico and attacked the town of San Miguel de las Cuevas, killing several Mexicans who resisted the invasion of Mexican soil. George More, a Brownsville boy, was the first person to reach the Mexican side. He swam the river with his clothing tied around his neck and his pistol scabbard clenched in his teeth, the other rangers and U. S. Cavalry protecting his crossing. The Commandante (chief officer of the town) of Las Cuevas refused to deliver the cattle which had been crossed, claiming that they should first be released by the Mexican customs officials, without whose consent they had been imported into Mexico. However, the Americans drove On May 17, 1876, 5 miles from Edinburg, now called Hidalgo, 58 miles west from Brownsville, McNelley's men had a similar encounter with a party of 4 Mexican cattle thieves. Two of the thieves were killed and one badly wounded. The rangers recovered 7 head of cattle and 6 horses with their equipments. On March 12, 1887, Capt. Bill Scott, while searching in the early dawn, for a band of American criminals known as the "Conner Gang," was fired upon. Scott's party of rangers consisted of four men in addition to two others in the near vicinity. In the engagement which took place, Captain Scott fell with a bullet in his lungs; Sergeant Briggs was severely wounded; Private Rogers was dangerously wounded, and Private Moore was instantly killed, there being but one of the rangers unhurt. Scott, with his one unhurt and two wounded comrades, succeeded in killing one and wounding another of the Conners, besides slaying four large ferocious dogs which were kept by them as camp guards. Two months later Scott and Briggs, in a running fight, killed old man Conner, two of his sons, and one grandson, a mere youth, thus breaking up the band of most desperate criminals. On May 17, 1885, Sergt. B. D. Lindsay and six men from Company D frontier battalion of rangers, while scouting near the Rio Grande for escaped Mexican convicts, saw two Mexicans riding along leading a horse, moving towards the Rio Grande. As the horses suited the description of those alleged to be in the possession of the convicts, and under the impression that these two were the men he was after, Lindsay called to them to halt, and at once opened fire on them. The elder Mexican fell to the ground with his horse, but the younger, firing from behind the dead animal, shot Private Sieker through the heart, killing him instantly. B. C. Reilly was shot through both thighs and badly wounded. The Mexicans stood their ground until the arrival of men from the ranch of a deputy-sheriff named Prudencio Herrera, who had heard the firing. Herrera insisted that the two Mexicans were well known and highly respected citizens and refused to turn them over to the rangers, but in person, with an escort, conducted them to Laredo. Ira Aten, Private Baker and Private Grant accompanied the party. At Laredo, after a preliminary hearing the Mexicans were released and the rangers arrested. The citizens of Laredo, Webb County, were indignant over the act of the rangers in shooting on Gonzales, claiming that he was a well-known citizen of good repute, and alleging that the rangers would have killed them at the outset but for the fact that they defended themselves. The rangers, on the other hand, claimed that unless they would have proceeded as they did, should the Mexicans have been the criminals they were really after, they, the rangers, would have been fired on first. Afterwards both Mexicans and rangers were acquitted. During the month of November, 1906, the District Judge of the district, which includes Cameron County, was murdered as he lay asleep in his room at Rio Grande City. Politics were hot and the campaign was bitter. Word was falsely published broadcast that the Republicans had murdered the Judge, Stanley Welch, and that they were endeavoring to take control of the affairs of Starr County. |