Winchester Warriors by Alexander Bob;

Author:Alexander, Bob;
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: University of North Texas Press
Published: 2009-09-15T00:00:00+00:00

Georg Heinrich “George” Schmitt eagerly sought a Texas Ranger captaincy, but missed out when Josephus “Joe” Shely (standing with watch chain over sixshooter), landed command of Company F. Schmitt was made a Company D lieutenant, a job he held—for awhile—until political machinations moved him down the line and up the ladder. Courtesy Texas Ranger Research Center, Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum.

Likewise it is fuzzy as to what Private S. J. Robb actually pulled off “working on the outside,” but according to Captain Sieker, “he accomplished the work I wanted him for. . . . ” The ex-sheriff was honorably discharged from the Company D Muster Roll. Also cut loose were Privates T. A. Simms and J. E. Vignos. Both had pressing personal business at home, they said. Captain Sieker was happy with their departure, hopeful of “getting men that would suit me better.”38 Company D’s headman wasn’t a dithering martinet. Lam Sieker knew the makeup of a “good” Texas Ranger, the only sort he wanted for Company D. Private W. H. Elliott didn’t have what it took: He was discharged for “worthlessness.”39

Something many Texas cattlemen, at least when first introduced, thought was worthless was barbed wire. Joseph Farwell Glidden, Jacob Haish and Isaac Leonard Ellwood had been issued patents on the newfangled way to corral and control livestock, an advancement lastingly shaping America’s cattle industry as much as organized stock raisers’ associations and refrigerated railroad cars.40 In the early stages there were many hiccups and heartaches associated with stringing barbed wire besides the blisters and inevitable scratches. Whether cows and people were fenced in, or fenced out, was only a matter of perspective—wholly depending on just who did or did not own the pasture, roadway, or water hole being encircled. Statewide, blood was being spilled between big ranchers and small, cowmen and sheepmen, and everyday folks sick and tired of having to go the long way around for their necessary visits to courthouses, all because of barbed wire. Many of the local sheriffs were overwhelmed; several were malfeasant.41 Irritated citizens and upset cowmen were perturbed. Scores agreed with ranchman J. L Vaughn who had plenty to say, wishing that “. . . . the man who invented barbed wire had it all wound around him in a ball and the ball rolled into Hell.”42 Frontier Battalion involvement in the so-called Fence Cutting Wars would culminate in gunplay and death for the Texas Rangers as well as Knights of the Nippers, as nighttime fence cutters were sometimes called.

Particularly from a law enforcement outlook the erection of a four-strand wire fence bristling with barbs was an abhorrence to those “goddamn cow thieves.” Not at all surprising to the honest folks was the hard reality that “brand burners, skinners and those who had lived off of the drift cattle often became fence cutters.”43 There were more reasons of course, but for a nonaligned lawman motive is not an excuse. For reviewing Company D’s frontier period history it is not vital to enumerate the ubiquitous examples of downed fences and threatened killings throughout Texas.

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