The Texas Rangers were organized in 1835 and given legal status while Texas was in the midst of revolution against Mexico, and have been in almost continuous service to this time, except that now they are mechanized, and no longer ride forth on fiery little mustangs in keeping the bad people under control. There never was a set of men banded together to protect society that had more brains and more guts than them rangers have proved themselves to possess.
Walter Prescott Webb, former head of the history department of the University of Texas, in his book, “The Texas Rangers, Century of Frontier Defense,” describes the ranger as follows, to wit. Quote: “It was Eugene Manlove Rhodes who suggested that the western man—he was speaking of cowboys—can be understood only when studied in relation to his work. And so it is with the ranger.
“When we see him at his daily task of maintaining the law, restoring order, and promoting peace, even though his methods be vigorous, we see him in his proper setting, a man standing alone between a society and its enemies. When we remember that it was his duty to deal with the criminal in the dangerous nexus between the crime and the capture, when the criminal was in his most desperate mood, we must realize that neither the rules nor the weapons were of the ranger’s choosing.
“It has been his duty to meet the outlaw breed of three races, the Indian warrior, Mexican bandit, and the American desperado, on the enemy’s ground and deliver each safely within the jail door or the cemetery gate. It is recorded that he has sent many patrons to both places. As strange as it may seem in some quarters, the Texas Ranger has been throughout the century a human being, and never a mere automaton animating a pair of swaggering boots, a big hat, and a six-shooter, all moving across the prairies under a cloud of pistol smoke.
“Surely enough has been written about men who swagger, fan hammers, and make hip shots. No Texas Ranger ever fanned a hammer when he was serious, or made a hip shot. The real Ranger has been a very quiet, deliberate, gentle person who could gaze calmly into the eye of a murderer, divine his thoughts, and anticipate his action, a man who could ride straight up to death. In fatal encounter, the last resort of a good officer, the Ranger has had the unhurried courage to take the extra fraction of a second essential to the accuracy which was at a premium in the art and the science of western pistology. The smoke from such a man’s hand was a vagrant wisp and never the clouds read of in books written for those who love to smell powder vicariously.” Unquote.
Prof. W. P. Webb has described the Ranger better than I could hope to do, though I have known personally a heap of Rangers and have seen some of them in action.
Of the early day Rangers I have met, here are only a few of them: the late Capt. J. B. Gillett, who wrote the book of his six years’ experience as a Ranger, and titled “Six Years With the Texas Rangers, 1875 to 1881.” He was one of the best in service. When he passed on, he owned the Barrell Ranch near Marfa that his son still runs. I prize highly his book, autographed to me in 1935.
I saw Capt. June Peak in 1878, but never met him on account he and his men were shooting it out with Sam Bass May 12, 1878, on Salt Creek in Wise County, Tex., as we passed along, and as it wasn’t our fight we didn’t stop to ask why they were shootin’ at each other, but we learned later, and found out that Arkansas John of the Bass side was killed, and the Bass hosses were either killed or broke away, but the Bass bunch in a few hours was mounted and equipped and rode back towards Denton, where Sam Bass was killed that fall by Major Jones and a company of his Rangers. I have known Col. Jeff D. Milton ever since 1884, just after he had left the Texas Ranger service.
We have been close friends ever since. He is now retired but has been a peace officer ever since he joined the Rangers at the age of about 17. His life story would make a book more exciting and stranger than fiction, but up to now he has not permitted it to be written. I have met others of that great service, but have not space here to mention them on account this is to really be a story of Capt. S. A. McMurray, who was a friend of my old pal W. L. (Billy) Amonett, who sent me the story, so here is what Billy wrote me, as follows, to wit.
Quote: “In compliance with my promise some months ago I hand you herewith same data and the personnel of the Texas Rangers in the Panhandle of Texas that I became acquainted with during my short stay in that section. When I went into Jack, Clay and Wichita Counties in 1887, Capt. Lee Hall was the much talked of, and universally loved Ranger Captain of that section. I am positive, however, that he had left that section when I arrived there. In later years, subsequent to his Philippine service, I had the pleasure of a personal acquaintance with Lee Hall in El Paso, Tex., and found him to be a very fine gentleman.
“In 1888 I went into the town of Quanah, Hardeman County, with a broken leg acquired on the headquarters of the Big Wichita River at what was known as the ‘J. L.’ Ranch. Ranger Capt. S. A. McMurray had some men stationed at Quanah, Childers, Clarendon and, in fact, all over the Panhandle. Their duties were to lend assistance to the town and county officials of the organized counties, but to police and protect the unorganized counties in the sparcely settled sections.
“The personnel of Captain McMurray’s command at that time consisted of about the following men: J. M. (Gude) Brittian from Parker County, Tex., second in command to Captain McMurray and a very outstanding peace officer, one who could command the respect and confidence of his men under him, but also of the citizens with whom he came in contact; the Platt boys, Tom, Johnnie and Sam, from Austin, Tex., all outstanding officers of the law; George Adamson, a southern Texas product; John Bishop, from around Austin; John Brittian from Parker County (no relation to Knude Brittian); Johnnie Brackin and Frank Martin, both from Austin, and while small in stature, both were very efficient officers; Tom O’Dare (Red Tom), from the southwest part of Texas, a very courageous officer.
“Capt. Samuel A. McMurray was born and raised at Memphis, Tenn., but went to Texas while quite young and evidently joined the Rangers in Southwest Texas, as in my very long years of acquaintance with him, I never heard him mention any other occupation than the Ranger service. He often mentioned the names of Ranger Captains under whom he had served.
“He often related to me his experience as a Ranger Captain on the Texas & Pacific Railway during its construction in the early ’70s, while visiting me at Sierra Blanca, Tex., of his hardships and trials there when the T. & P. and S.P. Railroads were vieing with each other to get across the line first and secure the large land bonus offered by Texas for the first railroad to cross the state. They had their Chinese and other laborers fighting pitched battles on the part of each railroad to retard the progress of the other.
“Captain McMurray was a fearless peace officer, never hesitating to perform any duties, regardless of what the conditions and surroundings might be. If he wanted to arrest a man, he faced him square and took him prisoner. He died, however, with the happy thought in mind that he had never killed a man knowingly.
“He had participated in battles where men were killed on both sides, but he did not know for sure if his bullets had actually killed a man. One of the battles was at Herald, Tex., when Herald was the terminus of Fort Worth & Denver Railway, with a crowd of Palo Pinto County cowmen, who did not consider a Ranger should exist. There were several men killed on each side.
“Captain McMurray resigned as Captain of the Ranger company in 1891.
“Capt. Wm. J. (Bill) McDonald succeeded Captain McMurray. Captain “Bill” as he was familiarly called. He retained some of Captain McMurray’s men, such as Sandy, J. M. (Gude) Brittian as his second in command, Tom O’Hare (Red Tom), and some others. The major portion of his men, however, were brought in from Southern and Southwestern Texas.
“Quite a few were gathered in the Panhandle. W. J. (Billie) McCaully, a nephew of Captain Bill, became his sergeant when J. M. Brittian resigned. McCaully in later years made an enviable record for himself as a peace officer. Captain McDonald served until he resigned to become bodyguard for the late President Teddy Roosevelt.
“There was another outstanding Ranger Captain in the Panhandle I didn’t mention in the foregoing. He was Capt. J. C. Arrington, who served in the early days of the country and, of course, long before I was in the Panhandle. However, it was my pleasure to have had a long acquaintance and friendship with him in his later life. When Captain Arrington passed away in the early 1920’s, D. J. Young, then president of the First National Bank of Canadian, Tex., as he knew I was very fond of Arrington, wired me announcing the death of the famous old Ranger Captain.
“I, in turn, relayed the message to your and my mutual friend, the famous Jas. H. East, at Douglas, Ariz. Jim answered me by letter in longhand, deploring the death of Captain Arrington, and went on to say that Captain Arrington was not only one of the finest southern gentlemen it had ever been his pleasure to know, but was conceded to be one of the outstanding peace officers in the Southwest. East added.
Quote: ‘I had a long acquaintance with Captain Arrington. We were elected sheriff at the same time, he of Wheeler County and I of Oldham County at Tascosa. I had known him for several years prior thereto, while in the Ranger service.’ Unquote. I loaned Jim East’s letter to a pencil pusher and never did get it back. I wish I had it now to enclose to you for publication. Your friend, W. L. Amonett.”
Unquote. I also thought a heap of Jim East. Pat Garrett once said of Jim, “He is a great and safe man to send out after an outlaw, because he never gets scared and shoots out of turn.” One of my younger Ranger friends is Adjutant General W. W. Sterling. — Frank M. King
