Tracking the Texas Rangers: The Twentieth Century

In Pursuit of the Texas Rangers: The Twentieth Century, Bruce A. Glasrud and Harold J. Weiss, Jr.

1 In Pursuit of the Texas Rangers: The Twentieth Century Bruce A. Glasrud and Harold J. Weiss, Jr. Since their inception the Texas Rangers have been shaped by the times in which they lived. In frontier Texas they were schooled by Jack Hays in irregular warfare against the Comanche. Under the leadership of John Jones, commandant of the Frontier Battalion, they gained a reputation as intrepid—and brutal—law enforcement officers. And in contemporary Texas, as amply demonstrated in the career of M. T. “Lone Wolf” Gonzaullas, who chased killers, tamed oil-boom towns, and became a specialist in forensic science, they have earned a reputation as shrewd detectives.1 C oming on the heels of the tumultuous and eventful nineteenth century, Texas Rangers at the beginning of the twentieth century could anticipate less onerous duties. But continuity and change remained the hallmarks of Ranger operations in the twentieth century . Although the Indian wars had come to an end, troubles on the border between Texas and Mexico remained. The conflict between Anglo and Mexican Americans was expressed in economic disparities and the Rangers were often in the forefront of the ethnic discord. At the start of the 1900s, for example, armed skirmishes involving Gregorio Cortez, alleged outlaw and subsequent folk hero, led to his name being placed on a wanted poster by Anglo Texans. Local law 2 ★ Tracking the Texas Rangers: The Twentieth Century enforcement officers and vigilantes pursued Cortez, who was finally taken into custody by Texas Rangers who carted him to various jails in an effort to both protect and harass him. Stories of Cortez’ flight and incarceration appeared in the Texas press on a daily basis. Cortez was viewed as both a hero and a villain. The border and ethnic conflict, and the resultant cultural clash, is well covered in Américo Paredes, “With His Pistol in His Hand”: A Border Ballad and Its Hero. In this perspective the Rangers exacerbated the conflict of cultures between Anglos and Mexican Americans on the border.2 The contemporary ballad, referred to by Paredes, framed the cultural split thusly: Then said Gregorio Cortez, With his pistol in his hand, “Ah, how many mounted rangers Against one lone Mexican!”3 Both the history and folklore of this man’s life and actions continue to reflect tensions along the border. At the same time, the Texas Rangers’ organizational structure underwent significant change. The Frontier Battalion was no more; it was replaced in 1901 by the Ranger Force which lasted from that date, with notable highs and lows, until 1935 when the Rangers became part of the Department of Public Safety (DPS), an arrangement which is still in existence. The twentieth century brought drastic changes: from a horse culture to cars pulling horse trailers, from sixshooter hardware to more high-powered weaponry, and from examining hoofprints and cattle brands to the use of fingerprinting, DNA, and crime labs for identification. At the same time the rough justice of the nineteenth century slowly gave way to Miranda warnings, careful knowledge of the law, and an emphasis on the legal system. Historians, as with the nineteenth century, although at times disagreeing , have captured much of the drama of the Rangers’ twentieth -century existence. Walter Prescott Webb’s classic 1935 study, The Texas Rangers: A Century of Frontier Defense, is the initial study of the force covering a third of the twentieth century.4 His top-down ap- In Pursuit of the Texas Rangers: The Twentieth Century ★ 3 proach, emphasizing prominent Ranger captains, has been pursued by some authors but others have focused on the actions and lives of the Ranger majority and the impact on citizens of Texas. By the beginning of the twenty-first century Webb’s classic study has been supplemented by later histories of the Rangers. Two authors—Robert M. Utley and Mike Cox—published two-volume histories on the Rangers, one covering the nineteenth and one the twentieth century. Prominent western historian Robert Utley’s twentieth-century volume entitled Lone Star Lawmen: The Second Century of the Texas Rangers, extensively used primary source material, as did Webb, and his broad-sweeping study is readable and objective. The other topnotch historical writer on the Rangers is Mike Cox, a storyteller who puts a lot of data into his text and notes. His volume covering the twentieth century is Time of the Rangers: From 1900 to the Present.5 In a...