Yours to Command: The Life and Legend of Texas Ranger Captain Bill McDonald

Romanticizing McDonald and the Rangers: A Pictorial Essay

ROMANTICIZING McDONALD AND THE RANGERS A Pictorial Essay We fought [the Indians] for full nine hours before the fight wis o’er; The sight of dead and woundit I nivir saw before; Five thousan’ gallant rangers that ivir left the West Lay buriet by their comrades, and peace shall be their rest. —Kenneth S. Goldstein, “‘The Texas Rangers’ in Aberdeenshire.” His is a tale unended. Still riding down the years Come the hoofbeats of the Ranger and his stalwart form appears . . . Though dark may be the danger, he has no care for that, Riding on into the future in his tall—white— hat. —“The Ranger” in William B. Ruggles, Trails of Texas. Captain Bill McDonald is a wild and wily Ranger, Kind enough to folks at home but stern to any stranger. Down upon the pampas plains of wide and woozy Texas, Captain Bill kerswats the azure in its solar plexus. Nary such another man from Galveston to Dallas; Wears a bent Damascus blade where most men wear a gallus; Wears a bucket on his head—for thats his chief kerswatter; Bill would charge all hell, they say, with a single pail o’ water! —“The Texas Terror” in Washington Post, Jan. 18, 1907. A Texas Ranger in the popular press. This illustration has become the classic image of the Texas Ranger in fact and fiction in antebellum Texas. The caption for this sketch quoted a “gentleman” thus: “Ben McCullough’s Texas Rangers [sic] are described as a desperate set of fellows. They number one thousand half savages, each of whom is mounted upon a mustang horse. Each is armed with a pair of Colt’s navy revolvers, a rifle, a tomahawk, a Texan bowie-knife, and a lasso.” In their military struggles with American Indians and Mexican nationals, soldier-Rangers gained a national reputation for ragtag appearances and fierce-fighting abilities. Yet this oft-reproduced drawing rooted in western and Texan folklore resembles too much the way people envisioned mountain men in the wilds of the American West. The illustrator had taken into account the colorful stories about pioneers moving westward that appeared in the national media in the middle of the 1800s. The legendary fighter-Ranger had surfaced in the world of print. (HARPER’S WEEKLY, VOL. 5, 1861, P. 430.) In the late 1800s the soldier-Ranger passed into history. A new Ranger emerged who carried badges to investigate crimes and chase outlaws. In the above illustration the artist gave his version of Ranger Captain McDonald as a riot buster. An outnumbered Ranger making a stand against an angry mob has been one of the recurring themes in the McDonald saga in the popular press. These real-life Rangers embellished in song and story even had their counterparts in the world of fiction. The foremost made-up lawman-Ranger thrilled audiences for decades: the adventures of the Lone Ranger. As developed by George Trendle and Fran Striker for radio in the 1930s, the masked man and Tonto, his faithful companion, fought for justice in the Wild West through duty, fair-play, and courage. Yet Captain Bill, whether in reality or fictionalized formats, was no model for the Lone Ranger. (ALBERT BIGELOW PAINE, CAPTAIN BILL MCDONALD, TEXAS RANGER: A STORY OF FRONTIER REFORM, 211.) During his lifetime Bill McDonald made friends with Edward M. House, a political advisor to Democrats in Texas and the nation. House was instrumental in obtaining the services of Albert Bigelow Paine to write a biography of Captain Bill, published in 1909. Before this happened excerpts of Paine’s work appeared in Pearson’s Magazine. With these stories McDonald’s image changed from regional hero to national icon. Decades later House also got Tyler Mason to write a wild-and-woolly book about McDonald that was published in 1936. Some of these tales appeared the year before in the popular magazine Liberty. In addition, House sent for Captain Bill to be a bodyguard to Woodrow Wilson in the presidential election of 1912. By the time McDonald passed away, he had gained a reputation as an action-oriented lawman inside and outside the Lone Star State. This fact differentiated him from the other Ranger captains of his generation. For further analysis of these events, see Chapter 15. (COLORADO CITIZEN, AUG. 27, 1908.) The Fitzsimmons-Maher prizefight (1896) and the hybrid...