Texas Governors and Their Times
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The Wild West
The Life of John Wesley Hardin: From the Original Manuscript, as Written by Himself. Seguin, Texas: Smith & Moore, 1896.
This sketch by Robert Onderdonk depicts the murder of John Jackson “Jack” Helm by outlaw John Wesley Hardin and Jim Taylor of the infamous Sutton-Taylor feud. Helm blurred the line between vigilante lawman and outlaw when a killing spree of Taylor associates led to his dismissal from the State Police.
Texas governors in office in the 1870s and 1880s faced significant conflicts and challenges with limited resources. The leaders were not always models of good behavior. For several days in 1874, for example, the Texas State Capitol was the site of an armed camp with two rival legislatures as Richard Coke attempted to assume the governorship while Edmund J. Davis refused to give up the office. When U.S. President Grant refused Davis’ request for troops, the former governor finally conceded, easing the way for Coke’s inauguration. Around the state, train robbers like Sam Bass, cattle rustlers, and other thieves created an outlaw environment as Texas Rangers chased them down. Racial strife continued and created tension that at times erupted into violence. At the national level, the federal government was forcibly relocating Native Americans to reservations, and additional U.S. soldiers arrived in Texas to fight the Comanche and their allies who did not want to leave. One chapter of this often violent era in Texas history came to a close with the surrender of Comanche Chief Quanah Parker in 1875.
List of Governors | |
Coke, Richard | January 15, 1874 – December 1, 1876 |
Hubbard, Richard B. | December 1, 1876 – January 21, 1879 |
Roberts, Oran M. | January 21, 1879 – January 16, 1883 |
Ireland, John | January 16, 1883 – January 18, 1887 |
T. B. Rankin, Deputy Sheriff of Madison County,
to Governor Coke, June 28, 1874. Texas
Governor Richard Coke records, Box 2014/123-1. Image 1, Image 2. Click or tap on image to view larger version.
Outlaw gangs disrupted civil order and often overwhelmed local law enforcement. In this letter, Rankin asks the Governor to send 25 men from the frontier force to assist in the arrest of the desperadoes in the area charged with murder and theft and openly resisting arrest. Another letter from J. G. McDonald, District Attorney, tells how Rankin narrowly escaped death by hiding in the woods near his house in anticipation of an “armed band of men” firing into his home.
J. G. McDonald, District Attorney, to Coke,
July 29, 1874. Texas Governor Richard Coke records, Box 2014/123-1. Image 1, Image 2.
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Outlaw gangs disrupted civil order and often overwhelmed local law enforcement. McDonald responded to recent troubles with an outlaw gang in Madison County, stating: “if you will offer suitable rewards I will have every desperado in this district captured or killed.”
Charles Kerber, El Paso County Sheriff to Governor Coke, August 18, 1875. Texas Governor Richard Coke records, Box 2014/123-2. Image 1, Image 2.
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In this letter, Kerber expresses his concern over Louis Cardis’ influence over the local Tejano population. Cardis was a key player in the San Elizario Salt War (1877-1878), a conflict involving San Elizario residents and the attempted privatization of community-held salt deposits near the base of the Guadalupe Mountains.
Brown county officials to Governor Coke, June 30, 1876. Texas Governor Richard Coke records, Box 2014/123-3. Click or tap on images to view larger versions.
Due to rampant lawlessness, the Texas legislature passed an act regulating the carrying of deadly weapons in public. Although frontier counties were exempted from the legislation, Brown County officials declined their exemption, stating that the county had “settled very rapidly” and “law abiding citizens are more liable to commit crime when allowed to carry six shooters.”