How The Most Famous Texas Ranger Got His Start. Part 4

Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!

We're on a short series introducing Frank Hamer, who was one of the best Texas Rangers who ever wore the badge, perhaps THE best Ranger.

In yesterday's post we talked about how he went through a training period in the Big Bend, TX region learning from the great Captain John H. Rogers, who was a phenomenal lawman himself.

This is a little hard to see but that's Captain Rogers on the left and Frank Hamer on the right in Big Bend country:

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Criminals had a big advantage

Yeah, well with vast areas and small populations there was not much security in the way of law enforcement. The Rangers were stretched thin.

A citizen's best bet was to be good with a gun and stay alert for robbers, thieves, kidnappers, smugglers, killers, and any other form of bandits along the border. The level of crime was high back then.

The role of the Texas Rangers in early 1900's Southwest Texas

There weren't enough Sheriff's and deputies to cover the huge border areas and their counties next to Mexico so the Rangers helped and supported the local town Sheriff's whenever they needed it, in addition to trying to stop cross border criminal activity.

Oh, I found a photo of Captain Rogers on horseback, it's obviously a cover photo for a book about him written by a history professor named Paul Spellman:

(He still looks like a banker)

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Side note:

Not a typical bridle he used, I never used one like that and never saw it used, it's a Spanish or Vaquero style. Here's our typical style:

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Anyway, in 1906 the Sheriff of Del Rio, Texas contacted Captain Rogers about a wealthy local rancher named Blake Cauthorn who'd gone missing. Del Rio was a dusty little border town along the Rio Grande.

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Tons of smuggling across the river. Some things never change.

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Well, Captain Rogers, with Frank Hamer and a couple other Rangers, went to investigate. Turns out that Mr. Cauthorn had met a man named Putnam at the town bank and gave him $4,500 for a flock of sheep.

Putnam was seen heading out of town so the Rangers followed his trail and found the buggy he was using abandoned on the side of the road 12 miles out. They searched all night but couldn't find him or any sign of him.

The next day the Sheriff informed Captain Rogers that Mr. Cauthorn had been found, shot dead in his buggy. Then came word that another local rancher who had paid Putnam for sheep was also missing.

Well this don't look good at all. Not only a scumbag thief but a serial murderer on the loose. We'll see how the Rangers handle the situation in the next post.

Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy
Texas