A Texas Ranger Remembers his Early Days on the Force

Background: As a young man, William Warren Sterling worked on ranches in Hidalgo County. During 1915–1916, he was a posseman and scout for the Third United States Cavalry in Hidalgo and Cameron counties. He later became a captain of Texas Rangers Company D, then he served as adjutant general (commander) of the Texas Rangers. In his memoir, he recounts his early days with the Texas Rangers and some of the Rangers’ attitudes toward Mexicans and Mexican Americans.

In 1913, my father acquired an interest in twenty-four thousand acres of land in Hidalgo County. In the first Valley land boom, an attempt had been made to cut it up into farms. The idea was many years ahead of its time, as it was too high to irrigate from the canals, and too dry for farming. My father took over the management, and I leased the pastures. I added fifteen thousand acres more, and built up a good start of cattle. . . .

No comprehensive account of the so-called Bandit War, that raged in Cameron and Hidalgo Counties, has ever been written. More than forty years have elapsed since the termination of that inter-racial conflict, but to this day, much of it has remained an unpublished mystery. . . 

When the press announced that Captain Ransom was coming in to help put down the bandit trouble, the news was most welcome. Many of his men had been convict guards who were trained to shoot fleeing convicts with buckshot. After I became adjutant general, I would never enlist a man of this background. Captain Ransom held the belief that he was an instrument of justice, and that he had a definite mission to perform. He said, “A bad disease calls for bitter medicine. The Governor sent me down here to stop this trouble, and I am going to carry out his orders . . . ”

… I only went on two scouts with his company. He said that anybody who had guilty knowledge of crimes committed, or anyone who harbored bandits should be killed. We drove up to the Santa Anita Ranch just as the cow outfit was starting out. Ransom said, “Those fellows look like bandits to me, and we ought to get rid of them.” I was only a kid, but said, “No, Cap, that would never do. They are only ranch hands. I know all of them personally.” On several other occasions I made similar pleas, thereby saving the lives of more than one hombre. 

Captain Ransom had a soft side. He earned my mother’s undying friendship by saying, “Miss Mary, I wish I could take the place of your boys in their  trouble.” Many substantial citizens, while decrying his drastic methods, reaped the benefits of his work. They had to admit that he was the right man for the unpleasant job of ridding the country of business-paralyzing bandits. 

Source:

Excerpts from Trails and Trials of a Texas Ranger by William Warren Sterling, University of Oklahoma Press, 1959, 21–48.