by Mike Cox
WILLIAM OLIVER CONNELL (1816–1882)
Former ranger, Brown County civic leader. Marker placed in 1997. Connell Family Cemetery, three miles southeast of Brownwood on Farm to Market Road 2525, then turn right on county road just before reaching FM 2126.
GREENLEAF FISK (1807–1888)
Republic of Texas ranger, father of Brown County. Marker placed in 1968, U.S. 67/84, two and a half miles west of Brownwood. Buried in Greenleaf Cemetery, Masonic Addition.
CALLAHAN COUNTY
Belle Plain
JEFF MALTBY (1829–1908)
Frontier Battalion ranger captain. Marker placed in 1992. Eight miles south of Baird on U.S. 283, then east one and a half miles on County Road 470 to Belle Plain Cemetery. Road dead-ends at cemetery.
CASTRO COUNTY
Dimmitt
SHOOT-OUT ON JONES STREET
Former Frontier Battalion ranger Ira Aten had a gunfight with Andrew McClelland on December 23, 1891, in the middle of Jones Street. He was acquitted of assault and soon appointed sheriff. Marker placed in 1983. Jones Street, south of courthouse square.
Visit: Castro County Museum, 404 West Halsell Street.
CLAY COUNTY
Buffalo Springs
Scene of July 12, 1874 encounter between rangers under Captain. George W. Stevens and Indians. Junction of Farm to Market Road 174 and Farm to Market Road 3077.
COKE COUNTY
Robert Lee
SHELVING ROCK
Ancient camp site on Walnut Creek. Rangers rendezvoused here a few days before the January 8, 1865 Dove Creek fight in what became Irion County. Marker placed 1972. Sixteen miles southwest of Robert Lee on Farm to Market Road 2034.
COLEMAN COUNTY
Coleman
CAMP COLORADO
U.S. Army post; Civil War and Frontier Battalion ranger camp. Marker placed in 1936. State Highway 206, 5.3 miles from Coleman, 6 miles east on Farm to Market Road 2301 and then turn south on dirt road and follow 1.6 miles to marker. Private property.
REVEREND HUGH MARTIN CHILDRESS SR. (1800–1886)
Republic of Texas ranger. Marker placed in 1996.Travel three miles west of Novice on Farm to Market Road 1770, then turn north on County Road 441 and continue one mile to Atoka Cemetery, at left fork of the road.
COLLIN COUNTY
STIFF CHAPEL CEMETERY
Ranger James Stiff, killed in 1847. Marker placed in 2003. Farm to Market Road 2933 north from McKinney 7 miles to County Road 412, east 1.3 miles.
Visit: Collin County Historical Society and Museum, 300 East Virginia Street, McKinney.
CORYELL COUNTY
BENJAMIN F. GHOLSON (1842–1932)
Antebellum ranger, active in Texas Ex-Rangers Association. Marker placed in 1967. One mile south of Evant on U.S. 281, turn east on Langford Cove Road. Cemetery one mile from intersection.
CRANE COUNTY
Crane
CHARLES BOOTHE CURRY (1890–1962)
Ranger, 1933–35. Marker placed in 1977. Crane Memorial Gardens Cemetery, south of Crane on U.S. 238.
CROSBY COUNTY
Crosbyton
CAMP ROBERTS
Frontier Battalion camp in Blanco Canyon, 1879–82. Marker placed in 1967. Four miles east of Crosbyton, at U.S. Highway 82/114 and Farm to Market Road 2592.
Museum: Crosby County Pioneer Memorial Museum, 101 West Main Street. Has an exhibit showing artifacts found at the Ranger camp.
DELTA COUNTY
Cooper
LITTLETON RATTAN (1809–1847)
Ranger killed on December 18, 1847, in an Indian fight in Webb County. Marker placed in 2004. West side of Charleston Street at 3288 Farm to Market Road 895.
DEWITT COUNTY
Cuero
JAMES F. BLAIR (1826–1909)
Ranger, later DeWitt County sheriff, 1866–69, during Sutton-Taylor feud. Marker placed in 1968. Clinton Cemetery, three miles south from Cuero on U.S. 183, then a quarter of a mile on Clinton Cemetery Road.
Visit: DeWitt County Historical Museum, 312 East Broadway; Chisholm Trail Heritage Museum, 302 North Esplanade, Cuero Heritage Museum, 124 East Church Street.
DeWitt County has thirty historical markers, but not one of them mentions the bloody Sutton-Taylor Feud that blighted the county in the 1870s.
DUVAL COUNTY
Freer
John C. Duval (1816–1897), the county’s namesake (along with his two brothers, all Texas pioneers) wrote the first biography of Bigfoot Wallace as well as one of the classics of Texas history, Early Times in Texas. His work inspired other writers, including William Sydney Porter (O. Henry) and J. Frank Dobie. A granite historical marker placed in Freer in 1936 honors this early Texas writer, but the Texas State Historical Commission reports that it is missing.
EASTLAND COUNTY
Eastland
CAMP SALMON
Civil War Ranger camp seventeen miles west of present Eastland. Market placed in 1963. North side of courthouse square, Main Street in Eastland.
EDWARDS COUNTY
Rocksprings
FORT CLARK–FORT MCKAVETT MILITARY ROAD
Frontier Battalion rangers gathered in April 1877 near Paint Rock on South Llano River, adjacent to military road, prior to surprise Junction cleanup. Marker placed in 1968. U.S. Highway 377, 20.5 miles north of Rocksprings.
Barksdale
CAMP DIXIE
Civil War Ranger camp. State Highway 55, a half mile north of the Nueces.
ELLIS COUNTY
Waxahachie
MCKINNEY-ADAY FARM HOUSE
Built in 1913 by former Frontier Battalion ranger Henry McKinney (1863–1936), the structure is considered a rare example of an early twentieth-century Prairie-style farm home. Marker placed 2013. 130 Cunningham Meadows Road.
FANNIN COUNTY
SITE OF FORT LYDAY
Isaac Lyday built private blockhouse 1836 later used by Rangers. Marker placed in 1983. East from Ladonia on Farm to Market 64 to Farm to Market 904, north four miles.
Visit: Fannin County Museum, 1 North Main, Bonham.
FRIO COUNTY
RANGER CAMP
Frontier Battalion camp, 1876–77. Marker placed in 1936. Three miles southwest of Frio Town, ghost town 16 miles northwest of Pearsall. U.S. 57 west from Pearsall to Farm to Market Road 140, then turn west.
GALVESTON COUNTY
JOHN TRUEHART (1801–1874)
Republic of Texas–era ranger. Marker placed in 1986. Evergreen Cemetery, 403rd Street at Avenue K.
GONZALES COUNTY
KING CEMETERY
Grave of Republic of Texas–era ranger Robert Hall (1814–1899). Marker placed in 2012. North side of U.S. 90A, eight and a half miles west of U.S. 183/90A intersection.
GUADALUPE COUNTY
Seguin
KING RANGER CEMETERY
Also known as the King Family Cemetery, dates to 1852, when the infant daughter of former ranger William George King was buried here. King also lies here. Marker placed in 2004. Gonzales Street, between Peach and King.
HAYS COUNTY
San Marcos
JOSEPH W. EARNEST HOUSE
Civil War ranger, 1862–63. Earnest (1844–1920) built house in 1892. Marker placed in 1979 at 833 Belvin Street.
Wimberley
JACOBS WELL CEMETERY, 1853
Graves of Rangers Elisha McCuistion and Foster Massey. Marker placed in 2010. Quarter-mile east of intersection of Farm to Market 2325 and Jacob’s Well Road.
HEMPHILL COUNTY
Canadian
OLD COUNTY JAIL
Built in 1890, the old Hemphill County Jail is the second-oldest surviving lockup in the Panhandle. Rangers booked many prisoners here during the wild Borger oil boom in 1927–29. Erected 1970. Courthouse square, Main and Fifth Streets.
HIDALGO COUNTY
Progresso
BATTLE OF LA BOLSA
Site of February 4, 1860 fight between Captain John S. “Rip” Ford’s rangers and partisans of Juan Cortina.
Marker placed in 1991. Four miles east of Progresso, U.S. 281. Battle occurred at La Bolsa bend of the Rio Grande, one mile south of marker.
San Juan
TOM MAYFIELD
Former ranger Tom Mayfield discovered the Plan of San Diego, part of a Germany-Mexico plot on the eve of World War I to wrest the Southwest from the United States and return it to Mexico. Marker placed in 1993. 125 West Fifth Street (Business U.S. 83).
HUDSPETH COUNTY
Crow Springs
Frontier Battalion rangers camped near the springs in the early 1880s. Marker placed in 1974. U.S. 62/180, four and a half miles east of Salt Flats.
Sierra Blanca
AUGUST FRANSAL (1843–1927)
Frontier Battalion ranger, 1881–83. Marker placed in 1968. Sierra Blanca Cemetery, east of Farm to Market 1111, five blocks north of Business Interstate10, Sierra Blanca.
IRION COUNTY
Mertzon
BATTLE OF DOVE CREEK
Ranger-Kickapoo battle, January 8, 1865. Marker placed in 1936. Dove Creek Ranch, eight miles southeast of Mertzon off County Road 113.
JACK COUNTY
JAMES B. DOSHER (1820–1901)
Ranger in 1847–48, variously in 1850s, during the Civil War and in 1874. Received Medal of Honor for role as civilian army scout in Bluff Creek Indian fight, October 5, 1870. Marker placed in 1997. Fort Richardson State Park Interpretive Center, 228 Park Road 61, Jacksboro.
G.D. CROSS (1855–1941)
Frontier Battalion, 1873–74. Former ranger Cross built concrete picnic table where rangers once camped on Lost Creek. Marker placed in 1969. Sewell Park, beneath bridge, U.S. 281 and Lost Creek, Jacksboro. Old table still in use.
SQUAW MOUNTAIN COMMUNITY
Named for nearby mountain where rangers supposedly buried an Indian woman killed in a skirmish, 1875. Marker placed in 1998. Seventeen miles north of Jacksboro on U.S. 281, two miles east on Farm to Market Road 2190.
Visit: Jack County Museum, 241 West Belknap Street, Jacksboro.
JASPER COUNTY
Bevilport
Republic of Texas–era cotton-shipping port on the Angelina River, named for former ranger John Bevil. Now a ghost town. Marker placed in 1967. Four miles west of Jasper, junction Farm to Market 2799 and State Highway 63.
JOHNSON COUNTY
Rio Vista
HENRY BRIDEN CABIN
Built in 1849 by Henry Briden (1825–1908), who served two years as a ranger and was the county’s first settler. The one-room log cabin was moved from its original location on the east bank of Nolan’s River to Rio Vista and restored in 1974. Marker placed 1975. First State Bank grounds, State Highway 174.
MEREDITH HART HOUSE
Two-story frame house built with slave labor in 1856 by former ranger Meredith Hart (1811–1864). Marker placed 1965. Take Farm to Market Road 916 a half-mile east from Rio Vista to private road.
KENEDY COUNTY
Sarita
Armstrong Ranch, established by noted Ranger John B. Armstrong, who captured outlaw John Wesley Hardin. Ranch is still operated by the Armstrong family. Marker placed 1983. South of Sarita on U.S. 77. Private property.
KIMBLE COUNTY
Junction
BEAR CREEK RANGER CAMP
Frontier Battalion ranger camp. Marker placed in 1966. Four miles northwest of Junction on Farm to Market 1674. Camp site on private property, three hundred yards east.
DOOM OF THE OUTLAWS OF PEGLEG STATION
Rangers broke up a stage-robbing gang, killing robber Dick Dublin at this site on January 18, 1878. U.S. 377, nine and a half miles southwest of Junction.
WILLIAM WALTER TAYLOR (1868–1945)
Ranger, 1917–27. Marker placed in 1967. Junction City Cemetery.
LA SALLE COUNTY
Millett
WILLIAM A. WAUGH (1832–1901)
Antebellum ranger, served in Cortina War. Marker placed in 1978. Exit Interstate 35 in Millett, go west on Farm to Market 469 0.2 miles to cemetery on north side of road.
LEON COUNTY
Centerville
FORT BOGGY
Site of Republic of Texas Ranger blockhouse. Marker placed in 1936. Now Fort Boggy State Park, five miles south of Centerville on State Highway 75 South.
LIMESTONE COUNTY
Mexia
ALBERT R. MACE (1872–1938)
Frontier Battalion ranger, 1893, and town tamer who served in Rangers again in 1930. Mexia Municipal Cemetery, U.S. 84.
LIVE OAK COUNTY
Latham
JESSIE ROBINSON (1800–1882)
Republic of Texas ranger, buried in Latham Cemetery. Marker placed in 1973. From George West, take U.S. 281 fourteen and a half miles to County Road 164 Anna Rose Road and turn right. At County Road 107, turn right. Cemetery is south of County Road 107 on unpaved road.
MCCULLOCH COUNTY
Brady
CALF CREEK INDIAN FIGHT
James Coryell, later Republic of Texas ranger, had close brush with Indians along with future Alamo co-commandant James Bowie and other treasure hunters, November 2, 1831. Marker placed in 1936. West of Brady on U.S. 190 for 10.9 miles to Farm to Market 1311. Turn south and drive 3.3 miles to marker.
CAMP SAN SABA
Civil War Ranger camp. Marker placed 1936. In Camp San Saba community, ten miles south of Brady on Farm to Market Road 1955.
Visit: Heart of Texas Museum, 117 North High Street.
MCLENNAN COUNTY
Waco
JOHN SILAS EDENS (1820–1892)
Republic of Texas ranger. Marker placed in 1994. White Rock Cemetery, Ross Road, one mile west of Ross.
LOUIS MOORE (1817–1894)
Republic of Texas ranger. Marker placed in 1989. Moore Cemetery, 2.1 miles north of intersection of Farm to Market Road 3501 and Farm to Market Road 933.
ROSS OAK
Ranger Shapley Prince Ross (1811–1889), father of ranger captain Sul Ross, camped beneath this tree in 1839 and bought the land around it in 1849 as Waco was being settled. Marker placed in 1975 at 613 South Ninth Street.
MEDINA COUNTY
Castroville
CHARLES DE MONTEL RANCH HOUSE
Ranger captain, 1862. De Montel (1812–1882) built house 1848–50. Marker placed in 1970. North of Castroville 1.6 miles off De Montel Lane, private road.
Hondo
BATTLE OF ARROYO HONDO
Following the Battle of Salado three days earlier, rangers, regular soldiers and volunteers fought again with General Adrian Wool’s retreating invasion force on September 21, 1842. Marker placed in 1992. Six and a half miles north of Hondo on Farm to Market Road 462.
Visit: Medina County Museum, 2208 Eighteenth Street, Hondo.
MILAM COUNTY
Cameron
Boyhood home of former ranger, governor and Texas A&M University president Lawrence Sullivan Ross, built by his father circa 1841. Family later moved to Waco. Marker place 1969. City park, Fourth and Lamar Avenue North.
MITCHELL COUNTY
Colorado City
Y.D. MCMURRY (1858–1923)
Frontier Battalion ranger captain. Marker placed in 1970. Colorado City Cemetery, east section.
WILLIAM MARION GREEN (1854–1930)
Frontier Battalion ranger, later active in the Texas Ex-Rangers Association. Marker placed in 1968. Colorado City Cemetery.
MONTAGUE COUNTY
Nacona
RED RIVER STATION
Civil War ranger post. Marker placed in 1963. Six miles west of Nacona on U.S. 82. Camp site nine miles southwest of marker.
Visit: Tales ‘N’ Trails Museum, 1522 East U.S. 82, Nacona.
NUECES COUNTY
Corpus Christi
THOMAS S. PARKER (1817–1886)
Ranger, 1849, first Nueces County sheriff, 1845–47. Marker placed in 1983. Old Bayview Cemetery, Waco and Ramirez Streets.
PALO PINTO COUNTY
SIMPSON CRAWFORD (1824–1908)
Antebellum ranger. Marker placed i
n 1980. Three miles east of Grafford on State Highway 254. Grave in Crawford Cemetery, one and a half miles north of marker.
ALFRED LANE (1827–1864)
Civil War ranger, brother-in-law of Charles Goodnight. Killed by Indians in Young County on his way home from a cattle drive, July 15, 1864. Marker placed in 2009. Crawford Cemetery, off State Highway 254, two miles east of Crawford.
REEVES COUNTY
Pecos
Long before settlers came to what is now Reeves County, ranger captain John S. “Rip” Ford and Robert S. Neighbors traversed the area leading an expedition in 1849 to map a wagon road from Austin to El Paso. Marker placed in 1966. Roadside Park off U.S. 285, just north of Pecos.
ROBERTSON COUNTY
Wheelock
Community founded in 1833 by Republic of Texas ranger captain E.L.R. Wheelock (1793–1847). Marker placed in 1936. Farm to Market Road 391 and Farm to Market Road 46. Wheelock is buried in the Texas State Cemetery.
RUNNELS COUNTY
Ballinger
Former Frontier Battalion ranger William H. Brown killed by Indians. Grave nineteen miles west of Ballinger on Farm to Market Road 158 to County Road 297 and then a quarter mile south.
Winters
RANGER CAMPSITE
Frontier Battalion ranger campsite, 1874. Marker placed in 1970. Sixteen miles northeast of Winters, on Farm to Market Road 381, 0.3 miles north of County Road 89. Marker 0.5 miles east of site.
CAMPSITE WATER WELL
Take Farm to Market Road 1770 east from Winters twelve miles, then north three and a half miles on Farm to Market Road 382. Marker placed in 1980. Well in field half mile east.
RANGER PEAK
Frontier Battalion ranger lookout point. Marker same location as above.
SAN SABA COUNTY
Cherokee
JOHN WILLIAMS (1798–1862)
Antebellum ranger, killed by Indians in 1862, Llano County. Friends and relatives later placed a granite marker on his grave. Hanna Cemetery, Cherokee.
San Saba
CAMP MCMILLAN
Civil War ranger camp. Marker placed in 1964. U.S. 190 at county courthouse, San Saba.
TAYLOR COUNTY
Buffalo Gap
