Dac Crossley's Western Blog

Ranger, Texas?

In the 1880s the Texas Rangers set up a camp near Palo Duro creek in Eastland County, a base for operations against Comanches. The camp soon grew into a tent city called Ranger Camp Valley. When the Texas and Pacific railway laid tracks nearby, the inhabitants moved the tent city to the nearby railroad and established the town of Ranger. It became an important trade center for wheat crops grown nearby.

Comes the drought of 1917 and economic hard times. Citizens urged the Texas Pacific Coal and Oil Company to drill some test wells. The second try struck a major oil field that led to an oil boom in Ranger. Drilling rigs sat all over town. Population swelled to 30,000 and included the usual assortment of gamblers, murderers, saloons, dance hall girls. Not everything went well, however. The drought broke with torrential rains, and typhoid fever followed. Reportedly, a mule fell and drowned on main street.

Two years later the boom was spent. No more oil flowed. Economic collapse followed, fertile ground for the Ku Klux Klan with its racial and religious biases. The Klan promised to “defend American values.”

It’s easy to draw a comparison with Appalachia and the unemployed coal miners, and the way some of our leaders blame their poor economic times on “outsiders.”

The Klan didn’t last in Ranger, Texas. Opposition groups formed immediately. The Klan lost out in the 1924 local elections, and disappeared from Ranger after that. Today Ranger has a population of some 2,500, an economy supported by sheep ranching and crop cultivation. The Roaring Ranger Museum tells the story of boom times.

The Texas Rangers didn’t impact the town named for them.

Dac Crossley
October 25, 2017

“To talk well and eloquently is a very great art, but that an equally great one is to know the right moment to stop.” – Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.

Am I In Trouble?

On this date, October 6, 1862, in Bell County, Texas, vigilantes whipped Dr. Levi James Russell for being a freethinker.

Some German immigrants brought the Freethinker Movement (Freidenker) to Texas. The term suggested a liberal attitude, but was also taken to endorse agnosticism, or even atheism. The Freethinkers valued democracy and free speech over religious or political authoritarianism. Dr. Levi, well-known as a Freethinker, was expelled from the Masons and the Knight of Pythias. Evidently that wasn’t enough for some residents of Bell County, who sought their own solution.

Dr. Levi, a well-respected botanist and medic, served as chairman of Texas State Medical Association. He remained in Bell County in medical practice, and maintained a natural science collection until his death in 1908.

And I wonder – has Bell County, Texas, changed all that much?

Dac Crossley
October 6, 2017

“If a dog will not come to you after looked you in the face, you should go home and examine your conscience.” – Woodrow Wilson.

Come And Take It

On October 2, 1835, the battle of Gonzales became the first conflict in the War for Texas Independence. And it was all about a little bronze cannon.

Back in 1831, Green DeWitt wrote to the Alcalde of Bexar (now San Antonio) and asked for a cannon for protection against hostile Indians. Soon a little bronze cannon was delivered to the citizens of Gonzales. It wasn’t carriage mounted and likely served as a swivel gun on the blockhouse. It may have intimidated some Indians.

By 1835, Col. Ugartechea was the military commander at Bexar. He’d already had trouble with upstart colonists at Velasco. He sent a small squad to Gonzales to confiscate the cannon. The Gonzales colonists took the soldiers prisoner. The next time Ugartechea sent 100 troops under Lt. Castaneda do the job.

On October 2, Lt. Castaneda requested the cannon. The Texans pointed to the gun some 200 yards to the rear and said, “There it is. Come and take it.” The Mexican troops were soon repulsed. The ladies of Gonzales made a white flag with a cannon in black and the words “Come and Take it.”

The fate of the bronze cannon is unknown. It was probably melted down by Santa Anna’s army, along with several others.

At the Alamo Gift Shop in San Antonio you may buy a bumper sticker replica of the cannon and the motto.

Dac Crossley
October 2, 2017

“Sloganeering does not help you. It is a steady diet of junk food.” – Poet Rita Dove.