Texas Ranger John B. Jones and the Frontier Battalion, 1874-1881

15. Scared on Our Arrival

238 SCARED ON OUR ARRIVAL 15 PEGLEG CROSSING SAT ON the San Saba River about twelve miles east of Menard in Menard County for many decades. A relay station was constructed there to accommodate a stage line running between Fort McKavett, Fort Mason, and San Antonio.1 The fact that horses pulling coaches had to slow a mile west of the station to climb a steep hill made it a convenient stopping point for robbers. As early as January 1877, the stage was robbed there and $300 taken from passengers.2 On December 14, 1877, the stage was again held up. Among the passengers were Judge Allen Blacker and Army Lieutenant Harry Kirby, fresh out of West Point. The young lieutenant had purchased a large revolver upon commencing the journey to Fort McKavett from the Academy after hearing about violence in Texas. When the stage was suddenly stopped, the judge had to talk Kirby out of opening fire on the bandits lest all of them would be killed. The lieutenant instead hid his money in his boot. After the robbers had taken what loot they could find, Judge Blacker said that the “boss” of the gang identified himself as Dick Dublin, who claimed he “has come back to stay a while.”3 On July 5 of the following year, three men once more held up the stage at Pegleg Crossing, rifling the mail sacks.4 Scared on Our Arrival 239 Captain Dan Roberts of Company D, in September 1878, had even sent new Ranger C. H. Elliott to mingle among suspected robbers, representing himself as a stockbuyer. He carried a letter that had been prepared indicating that a “brother” would leave San Antonio for Menard on September 30, supposedly carrying $1,500 with which to buy stock. Roberts planned to have men in the vicinity lay in wait for the robbers, but the bandits didn’t bite.5 Another stage robbery occurred at Pegleg on November 23, 1878, when two men again took the mail sack.6 A fifth robbery occurred there four months later, on February 26, 1879, when two men took some thirty dollars off the four passengers and again went through the mail sacks.7 Efforts to track the robbers each time were stymied by the mountainous countryside, and the trail was always quickly lost. Roberts even sneaked a Ranger with a double-barreled shotgun aboard the stage, but the man was called off under the assumption that the robbers had heard about the scheme.8 Lawmen were frustrated by their inability to even identify the culprits, although the Dublin brothers were high on their list. It was even suspected that one of the robbers might be a woman because of “exceedingly small footprints” found at the site of each robbery. While out on a scout in May of 1878, Sergeant Charles L. Nevill had arrested Bill Allison, a member of the Dublin gang and deposited him in the Travis County jail, where he languished for over a year without being able to be released on bond. His resentment toward his former colleagues festered because of the gang’s failure to get him out, and he determined to get even, maybe even helping himself at the same time. Rangers Jim Gillett and Dick Ware were delivering some prisoners to the jail in June of 1879 when Allison called out to them and offered to give up the Dublins as the Pegleg robbers. Arrangements were made for Allison to be taken to Jones’ office where the general talked to him alone for over an hour.9 Allison told Jones that the Dublins had “gone back” on him and claimed that they had wanted him to join them in robbing the stage at Pegleg, afterwards showing him the loot. He offered, if he could be released, to find another witness who could corroborate what he said. Jones entertained the idea of posting Allison’s bond himself and releasing 240 TEXAS RANGER JOHN B. JONES AND THE FRONTIER BATTALION, 1874–1881 him to find the witness and convince that person to come forward. It would also be arranged that if Allison ran off, the bond would not have to be paid. “If he runs away we will miss a mere chance to convict a petty thief. If he does what he says he can and will do, we have a pretty good chance to catch or break up...