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8. Ranger Law
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:: 73 :: 8 :: Ranger Law The forks of the Llano was a rough place, even by 1877 standards. An objective measure of just how unsettled and violent it was can be gained simply by reading the Ranger accounts of their patrols and arrests in Kimble and adjoining counties for the eighteen-month period from May 1877 to October 1878. Names of the Kimble County confederation are conspicuous by their frequency in the Ranger records, involved in a variety of offences. Cross-border raids by Indians from Mexico were also more frequent in and around Kimble County during 1878 than in previous years. Following the Kimble County Roundup, Company D operated out of its Bear Creek headquarters for the next four months. Lieutenant Frank Moore’s Rangers kept up a continuous series of ever-widening patrols, with occasional arrests of wanted men in addition to routine apprehension of horse thieves and cattle rustlers. Moore’s men maintained a steady lookout for the Dublin boys and their associates, aware of Major Jones’s frustration that they had escaped his net during the roundup. On May 20, Moore and nine Rangers sighted two of the Dublins (wanted for the April 16 murder of their neighbor, Jim Williams) near their home but lost them in adjacent dense cedar brakes. The Rangers remained camped nearby for three days without again sighting their quarry.1 On May 28, Corporal Merrill’s seven-man detachment stumbled onto J. A. “Black” Burt, the notorious cattle thief, at the head of Bear Creek, and took him to the Menardville jail, from which he promptly escaped and was again at large.2 On July 10, Sergeant Lane and seven Rangers went to Dublin’s ranch on the South Llano, attempting to capture one or more of the Dublin boys: “[We] remained encamped nearby for four days, keeping a close lookout for lawless parties that have been in the habit of stopping at this place (especially his two [three] sons) when in the country.” The Rangers returned to their Bear Creek camp on July 15 without encountering the fugitives.3 On August 10, Sheriff Gorman asked for a Ranger squad to help him corral “a party of ruffians [who] came into Junction City, got on a drunk, and set the Sheriff at defiance.” Corporal Merrill and seven men arrested “Black” Burt and delivered him to the sheriff; Burt paid his fine and was released.4 Reynolds Arrives Lieutenant Frank Moore resigned his commission on August 31, 1877, and Company D was sent to South Texas to address unrest along the border involving Mexican raiders.5 But before the end of November, newly reorganized Company E reoccupied Moore’s previous camp at the mouth of Bear Creek on the North Llano. Commanding Company E was the newly promoted but already legendary Lieutenant Nelson O. Reynolds, recognized by his peers and subordinates alike as “Reynolds, the Intrepid.”6 Under his relentless leadership, the Kimble County confederation would be dealt a further series of heavy blows over the next seven months. Departing Austin on October 23, 1877, Lieutenant Reynolds and Company E escorted Bill Allison and Wes Johnson to Junction City for their trials, continued from the May 1877 district court.7 This time Judge Blackburn convened the court in a blacksmith shop in Junction City. As reported on November 5, 1877, by a correspondent for the Mason, Texas, News-Item, there were twenty-five cases on the criminal docket, to wit: three for murder, one for theft of a wagon, nine for theft of cattle, one for threat to take life, one for permitting prisoners to escape, two for horse stealing , and eight [for which] no arrests had been made. Only one case [was tried], the State vs. Wm. Allison, who was charged with a little killing scrape [accessory to the murder of Jim Williams], and the defendant acquitted. Four cases were dismissed and the balance continued. Figure 15. Lieutenant Nelson O. Reynolds, commander, Company E, Frontier Battalion, Texas Rangers, about 1875. Courtesy of Western History Collections, University of Oklahoma. [44.200.240.205] Project MUSE (2024-03-29 12:34 GMT) 75 :: Ranger Law On Friday night the Indians paid us a visit and confiscated fourteen horses belonging to natives of the county seat, besides Amos Coyote Grey, a gallant steed belonging to Judge Cooley of Fredericksburg.8 After district court adjourned, Company E took station at the old Ranger headquarters on Bear Creek, vacant since Moore’s departure in...