The Texas Ranger was founded in 1823 by Stephen F. Austin. Austin, originally from Virginia, is a famous pioneer and statesman in American history, known as the "Father of Texas". After Texas gained independence from Mexico, Austin's father was given a piece of land, which was bequeathed to him after his father's death in 1821, and Austin inherited his father's colonial plan. In order to protect the Mexican border and the territory of the Indians, and to attract more people to settle in the Republic of Texas, the Texas Ranger was formed.
Like many Western legends, the Ranger earned legendary status in the Old West. In the early years of Texas independence, conflicts broke out frequently between the Rangers and various Native tribes due to land grabbings, retaliation, and concerns about border security. In the Stone House Conflict that broke out in 1837, about 10 rangers were killed south of Windersos, Texas. In 1838, a Cordoba rebellion was initiated by a number of Mexican residents, Americans, and Cherokees, who were dissatisfied with Texas independence, and the second president of the Republic of Texas, Mirabo B. Lamar, gathered 56 members of the Ranger to suppress it. In 1841, the second Sam Houston increased the number of the Rangers to 150. The Rangers continued to clash with Native Americans until 1846, when Texas joined the United States as the country's 28th state.
From 1848 onwards, the group's membership began to dwindle, and in 1857 the Rangers were led by John Salmon Ford, a veteran of the Mexican War, and the Rangers received $70,000 in funding after Hardin Richard Lennel was elected governor. The infusion of this money gave a new lease of life to the rangers, who began to launch a crusade-like operation against the Indians who regularly attacked the settlements.
In 1858, the Rangers repelled the Comanche at the Battle of the Little Pao River, and defeated Juan Cortina who occupied Brownsville, Texas a year later, in the War of Cortina. With the outbreak of the Civil War in 1861, Texas joined the Confederate Confederates, and the Rangers went their separate ways, with many volunteering to join the Confederate Army.
In 1874, the Texas Rangers were reconstituted on the initiative of Governor Richard Cocker. He authorized the formation of six wings of 75 men each, to be deployed in key towns in Texas. Their authority was expanded to include statewide jurisdiction, according to the Texas Department of Public Safety's report.
Around 1900, "A Riot, A Ranger" became the motto of the Rangers, and the book "Captain of the Texas Rangers, Bill MacDonald", published in 1909, described ** in detail. In 1896, William Bill MacDonald, then captain of the Rangers, traveled to Dallas to stop an illegal heavyweight boxing match between Bob Fitzsimmons and Pete Maher. It is said that the mayor met MacDonald and asked about the whereabouts of the other rangers. MacDonald replied, "Hell, isn't it enough for me alone? There's just one boxing match here! "In fact, the captain, the lieutenant general, almost all the rangers, were there at the game, it was just McDonald's heroism. The governor later declared the tournament illegal and forced it to be cancelled, and subsequently changed the venue to Lantree, near the Mexican border.
In 1909, at a summit between Tuft in the United States and Diaz in Mexico in El Paso, the Rangers were in charge of security and successfully prevented an assassination and became famous. Due to the chaos in the Mexican border area, the relevant authorities put the Rangers in charge of maintaining order, however, due to the lax vetting of the state** in recruiting members, there were incidents of abuse of power and abuse of Mexicans. On January 13, 1918, the Ranger killed 15 Mexican men between the ages of 16 and 72 in Porvenier. Later investigations in Texas found that between 1910 and 1919, the Rangers were responsible for the deaths of between 3,000 and 5,000 people, mostly Hispanic Americans.
During the Great Depression, the Rangers shrank to 45 members. In 1934, when Texas prison inmates Clyde Barrow and Bonnie Parker escaped after killing a guard on the prison farm, former Ranger captain Frank Hammer was invited by the prison to pursue the fugitive and successfully killed the fugitive. In 1933, the Rangers were disbanded and merged with the Texas Highway Patrol to form the Texas Department of Public Safety, which remains in use today.
Today, the Texas Rangers, despite being disbanded and reorganized into the Department of Public Safety, are the oldest statewide law enforcement agency in North America due to their deep historical significance.