My primary vocation these days is writing western novels. When I was in Lubbock, Texas last year at the Cowboy Symposium, I found an interesting historical book for sale.
Texas Tech University Press had this new book of a young man’s diary who was enlisted in the rangers as a private. I read some of the entries and thought this might be a good research book to read. This man was out there in west Texas as a private. The book had day by day entries on his life as a ranger.
In 1887 the panhandle of Texas was the last frontier. The Indians were over in Oklahoma, but the criminal element was making their stand in this isolated part of the Lone Star State. There were sheriffs, but they were limited to their respective counties. The rangers could go anywhere in Texas and some times the company went up in the Indian Territory in pursuit of bad guys. Rangers were also known not to let the Rio Grande restrict them from doing their job.
There also were some fierce union strike wars going on and the company was stationed on the new track construction of he Fort Worth-Denver railroad. The captain of the rangers became very jittery over hearing about a large gathering. He and his men rode hard one evening over 30 miles from their camp to check it out. It was past dark and the gruff Captain demanded, “Why the hell are you gathered here for?”
The minister said, “For a revival for the Lord. Will you and your men join us?”
He apologized and the rangers stayed.
The young man had to provide his own horse and six guns. Texas provided food and horse feed, but they had to cook it. Texas owned the mules and wagon they hauled it on and used for prisoner transportation.
The Private would say, we brought in Bill Shaw, Sammy Grove and Eldon Jones. He knew these felons and why they were arrested. In that case the author gave us the arrest reports and what happened to these outlaws. This made the book worth reading. The private had an Indian woman wash his clothes for a small fee. He was always having one pocket watch fixed or trading for a new one. Meeting on time must have been his need for one. They always made arrests at dawn hoping to catch them asleep.
The town of Tascosa was the queen city out there. A tough town which many outlaws used and had several big shoot outs. They wanted the train tracks to run through there. Folks said the railroad missed Tascosa on purpose, but the author said the railroad listed cost of moving the tracks too high for them to pay. So we have Amarillo instead.
I guess I got enough neat ideas out of that book for two books of my own. Research is kind of fun and that’s where my books come from.
Till next edition…
Western novelist Dusty Richards and his wife Pat live on Beaver Lake in northwest Arkansas. For more information about his books you can email Dusty by visiting ozarksfn.com and clicking on ‘Contact Us’ or call 1-866-532-1960.
