The first Texas Rangers: Famous frontier crime fighters celebrate 200 years

It may cause some to pause when they see that the Texas Rangers are involved in an investigation.

What, are they sending the second baseman and catcher?

The name of one of the state's two baseball teams has become so familiar, many may forget the first Texas Rangers were in law enforcement, and still are. The team was named for them.

The original Texas Rangers are celebrating their bicentennial.

Back 200 years

According to the Bullock Museum in Austin, Stephen F. Austin on Aug. 4, 1823, chose 10 men to help Mexico's militia to patrol what would become Texas after independence from Mexico was declared in 1836. The Rangers are the nation's oldest law enforcement body, according to Texas Rangers historian Mike Cox.

Early day enforcement was much different than it is today. The biggest problem for Texas residents, in Austin's words, were "errant thieves united with Indians."

After Texas became a republic, the Rangers patrolled a land that attracted a growing number of settlers. Rangers such as Jack Coffee Hays became famous. Rangers rode the Texas-Mexico border, looking for cattle rustlers and robbers.

The Rangers were white, Hispanic and even of native heritage, and they represented many countries.

According to the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum in Waco, a writer once stated that a Ranger could: "Ride like a Mexican, trail like an Indian, shoot like a Tennessean, and fight like the devil."

These men often were volunteers early on but in 1835, pay was set at ... $1.25 a day. Still, they had to provide their own horse, weapons and other necessities.

When Texas became the 28th state in the Union, Rangers fought against Mexico in a war that lasted from 1846-48. They were nicknamed "los diablos Tejanos" by Mexicans - the devil Texans.

Rangers then were charged with protecting the frontier during the Civil War, when many Texans fought for the Confederacy. Three companies of Rangers were formed. Pay still was an issue.

The first permanent Rangers force was established in 1874. With the U.S. Army, they drove the last Comanches and Kiowas from Texas.

Not always the good guys

The Rangers' history is not free of controversy.

Some thieves were killed without a trial back in the day, and in the war against Mexico, some Rangers killed Mexican civilians and stole property, including whiskey and livestock.

In 1915, Gov. James Ferguson sent Rangers to the border to restore order but many broke the law there. Regular and "Special Rangers" were found guilty and the ranks were thinned. More stringent qualifications to be a Ranger were instituted.

A highlight came in 1909, when a Ranger was credited with stopping the assassinations of U.S. President William Howard Taft and Mexican President Porfirio Diaz in El Paso.

Rangers were tasked with hunting bootleggers during Prohibition, and also patrolling the border for spies during World War I.

The Rangers' reputation was on the rise again but hit a snag in 1932. They supported Ross Sterling, the incumbent, for governor. He lost to Ma Ferguson, who fired all the Rangers who supported her opponent.

The new Rangers weren't up to snuff but rebuilding the ranks began again.

In 1936, the Rangers were placed under the Texas Department of Public Safety. They previously had reported to the governor. Some governors had misused the Rangers for personal gain.

Homer Garrison Jr. set the Rangers back on track.

The Rangers became more of a investigative agency. Highway Patrol officers had the task of enforcement.

In 1988, Lee Roy Young, a 14-year DPS trooper, was named the first Black member of the Rangers. It would be a few more years before women became Rangers. Gov. Ann Richards in 1993 ordered the change.

In the 1990s, there were charges of sexual discrimination and harassment as the transition was under way. The Public Safety Commission investigated and changes were made.

In 2014, Wende Wakeman, with the DPS since 1998 and a Ranger since 2008, became the highest-ranking female in Rangers history when she was promoted to lieutenant.

Wakeman at the time called her advancement "no big deal."

She commanded the Rangers detachment based in Laredo.

Rangers on the Rhine?

Even as time marched on, the Rangers' frontier fighting legend remained.

Who didn't grow up watching "The Lone Ranger" - he was a former Ranger who worked, you guessed it, mostly alone - or movies that depicted these fearless, justice-serving men riding the range?

More recently, anyone messing with "Walker, Texas Ranger" was picking the wrong guy. Chuck Norris made the bad buys pay.

Sgt. Marc Couch, DPS safety education and media communication spokesman for the DPS' Northwest Region, said he shares a story about the Rangers that crosses the Atlantic Ocean. When the Germans in World War II heard that battalions of Rangers were being organized, they imagined a group of Texas boys coming to Europe to fight. In reality, these were six elite fighting units of the Army.

Still, it showed just how far the Rangers' reputation extended.

Garrison, who directed the DPS for many years, described Rangers as “men who could not be stampeded."

The Rangers still are around. They wear a star, if not arriving on horseback.

In late June, the DPS announced that Rangers had ID'd a victim in a 22-year-old unsolved homicide. A woman's body had been found along Interstate 40 near McLean, which is east of Amarillo. Evidence gathered then, including DNA, was kept and more recently subjected to advanced DNA testing. The result was identifying a woman who had lived in the Phoenix area.

Most often, "Texas Rangers" comes up when an investigation is needed - for example, an officer-involved shooting. The Rangers serve as a neutral investigation unit to ensure there is a fair and above-board review of the incident.

They also are tasked in corruption cases.

Time to celebrate

On July 21-22, in Lubbock, the Rangers will celebrate their bicentennial while also showcasing the Department of Public Safety.

Open to the public at no charge is the Community and Ranger/DPS Day, from 10 a.m.-2 p.m. July 21 at the Lubbock Memorial Civic Center. It will feature historians and lectures and a chance to meet Rangers and Troopers (without putting your hands up or being cited for speeding).

To be a Ranger, a person must be a DPS trooper first, Couch said.

They are using this event, too, as a recruiting event. Tech know-how is needed today to operate drones, helicopters and tactical vehicles. Horse and motorcycle units from Austin will participate.

"We are also using this day to highlight the Texas Highway Patrol," Couch said. "It'll be a day for people to get up close to people in our organization."

That night, the "Badges, Boots & Bling" gala is scheduled from 6 to 11, also at the Civic Center. Tickets and information can be found at TexasRanger2023.org.

A clay shoot is scheduled at Hub City Clays. Four-person teams are sought, with prizes awarded.

Right here in the Big Country

Abilene recently added a second Ranger. Josh Burson and Zachary Johnson now are stationed here.

There are two in Eastland and another in Brownwood.

The Rangers' Big Country region is called Company C, Couch said. Still, Rangers have jurisdiction across the state, and have been tasked with returning prisoners to Texas from Mexico.

Did you know that nearby Ranger was named it had been settled near a former Texas Rangers camp? When oil was discovered and Ranger boomed, Texas Rangers were called in to provide law and order.

It was about then that Rangers segued from horses to cars, Faster to catch the bad guys, who also were on four wheels instead of hooves.

Those bad guys eventually included a bad girl - Bonnie, who teamed with beau Clyde on a infamous crime spree.

Jason Shea, who is stationed in Brownwood, said his "cinco pesos badge" pins the history of the Rangers on his chest.

"There is a sense of history that goes along with the job," he said in an email to the Reporter-News "Everything we do comes on the shoulders of the people who came before us.

"When we walk into an interview room with a suspect, a victim or a witness and they not only see the Ranger but they see the history of the Rangers from the stories their grandparents told them to the shows on television."

Every day on the job can't be exciting, like the TV shows and movies. But, Shea said, the job can be demanding.

"I don’t think there is ever a routine day in the Rangers.  I can not count the times when I went to the office to write reports and be called out to a homicide or officer-involved shooting," he said. "Sometimes, those cases go on for days before you can get to a stopping point to catch your breath.

"Going 36-48 hours straight is not out of the ordinary. You have the crime scene, interviewing witnesses and tracking the suspect. If a suspect gets across the border into another country, it makes things a lot harder. There are many times that I have a week planned and everything changes with one phone call."

Back in the day, a Ranger had a Colt revolver and a Bowie knife. Today, technology provides more tools.

"I believe the biggest change has been technology," Shea said. "Every case we are involved in has some form of technology attached:  From cellphones, computers and social media to advances in DNA testing such as genealogy. We have to keep up with all changes or we get left behind."

Which also is a good plan for the Texas Rangers baseball team.

This article originally appeared on Abilene Reporter-News: The first Texas Rangers: Famous frontier crime fighters at 200 years