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LOL Ok, but before you go, here is my answer...realizing ahead of time it will very likely not be the "correct" one. All I can come up with is that, in vague Texas History recollection, it had something to do (as you confirmed) with salt and was it about property rights (mineral rights) between Mexicans and Texas residents out in far West Texas?
Ok. That is all I have to say! LOL
Impressive memory TexasReb, I did the web search for you and came up with this San Elizario Salt War - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia The San Elizaro Salt War, 1877-1878. A couple of corrupt anglo's tried to steal the rights to the salt lakes from the hispanic community in the area who had rights to them dating back to grants from the King of Spain and grandfathered in by the Republic of Mexico.
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On December 12, 1877, Howard returned to San Elizario with a company of 20 Texas Rangers led by John B. Tays. Once again, a mob descended upon them. Howard and the Rangers took cover in the buildings, eventually taking refuge in the town's church. After a two-day siege, Tays surrendered the company of Rangers marking the only time in history a Texas Ranger unit ever surrendered to a mob. Howard, Ranger Sergeant John McBride, and merchant and ex-police Lieutenant John G. Atkinson were immediately executed and their bodies hacked and dumped into a well. The Rangers were disarmed and sent out of town. The civic leaders of San Elizario fled to Mexico, and the people of the town looted the buildings. In all, twelve people were killed and fifty wounded.
I too have read quite a bit about the Ranger's history. Isn't it interesting how the Texas Rangers history website doesn't mention this? While searching for an answer to this question I found a few other accounts of shameful events in the Ranger's history, which are also not mentioned in the official Texas Ranger's website.
TexasReb, I think you deserve the honor of asking the next question.
TexasReb, I think you deserve the honor of asking the next question.
Well, thanks CptnR...and I will follow your earlier admonishion to refrain from lame sports questions! LOL
Anyway, ok, how about this one..and speaking of Texas Rangers!:
The famed Texas "Depression Era" outlaws, known as "Bonnie and Clyde" were killed near Gibsland, Louisiana in an "ambush", by six lawmen from both Texas and Louisiana.
The head of the group was famed Texas Ranger Frank Hamer. Two of the other six were the local (Louisiana) county sheriff and his deputy. That left three who were from Texas. What were their names and what were their official capacity within the state?
Bonus to anyone who can name the Texas governor in office at the time, who authorized it all.
Just as a personal aside here, related to the above question, my (deceaced) grandfather used to run a small gas station in Bowie, Texas. He sometimes told the story of how he once had an encounter with "Bonnie and Clyde". This was shortly after the 1967 movie starring Warren Beatty and Faye Dunnaway, came out.
He said they pulled into the station and Clyde asked for "a dollars worth of 'good Gulf' regular." And that Bonnie had a quilt over her lap and hands underneath the said quilt. They were in Ford V-8, as I remember his tale.
My grandfather said he pumped the gas and Clyde paid, and said "thank you."
I remember when I first heard this story, I was facinated, and asked my grandfather the very stupid question of "why didn't you pull out your gun and try and capture them?"
"Son, you don't fool with those type people," he replied.
I am sure that his response was sort of abbreviated given that I was only 10 years old at the time.
Had I asked such a damfool question as an adult, he would have probably replied "Son, are you a hammerhead or what?" LOL
Anyway, though, I DO remember, after the movie came out (and I don't doubt it in the least), that many of those older folks who actually lived during the day, said it was infuriating that the movie made them out like some kind of folk heroes in the Dust Bowl South part of the country. That, in reality, they were, in general, a pair who would just as soon kill you as look at you if you got in their way or interferred with a robbery attempt.
The war had far-reaching political consequences at the time and involved some well-known historical figures.
This was a very interesting question and Texas historical event. As mentioned above, it was even more interesting to see this war not listed in most of the sites about the history of Texas Rangers. Anyhow, the others already did the leg work but I figured I'll post this anyhow.
The War in question was the San Elizario Salt War which took place around 1877. This war had a political ripple effect still felt to this day.
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The American Civil War created great changes in the political landscape of West Texas. The end of the war and Reconstruction brought many entrepreneurs to the area. The families of San Elizario had deep roots and were loathe to accept the newcomers. Many Republicans settled in the small trading community of Franklin, Texas, a trading village across the Rio Grande from the Chihuahua city of El Paso del Norte (present-day Ciudad Juárez).
By the beginning of the 1870s the Democratic Party had begun to reclaim political influence in the state. The Democratic operatives, with their ties to Southern United States, were not accepted by the people of San Elizario either, as they retained generational ties to Mexico. Alliances shifted and rivalries developed between the Hispanic, Republican, and Democratic factions residing in West Texas.
This also started a semi war over the salt deposits found in the area which also caused political ripples.
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[edit]Salt Ring and Anti-Salt Ring
In 1870, a group of influential Republican leaders from Franklin, Texas claimed the land on which the salt deposits were found. They were unsuccessful in gaining sole title to the land, and a feud over ownership and control of the land began. William Wallace Mills favored individual ownership, Louis Cardis favored the Hispanic community concept of commonwealth, and Albert Jennings Fountain favored county government ownership with community access. This led to Cardis and Fountain to join together as the "Anti-Salt ring" while Mills became the leader of the "Salt ring."
Fountain was elected to the Texas State Senate and began pushing for his plan of county government ownership with community access. San Elizario's Spanish priest, Father Antonio Borrajo, opposed the plan and gained the support of Cardis. On December 7, 1870, Judge Gaylord J. Clarke, a supporter of Mills, was killed. Fountain and Cardis sparred with every political and legal tool at their command. The Republican's loss of state government control in 1873 prompted Fountain to leave El Paso for New Mexico his wife's home.
The War in question was the San Elizario Salt War which took place around 1877.
I have always heard it referred to as the EL PASO SALT WAR. One of the most prestigious historians/authors on Southwestern history, C.L. Sonnichsen, titled one of his books, The El Paso Salt War. It's considered the best historic source on that "war" today. (C. L. Sonnichsen, The El Paso Salt War of 1877, Carl Hertzog and the Texas Western Press, 1961)
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Sonnichsen moved to El Paso, Texas, in 1931 as associate professor of English at the Texas College of Mines and Metallurgy (now UTEP). He rose through teaching and administrative ranks to professor, chairman of the English Department (a post he held for twenty-seven years), dean of the graduate school, and H. Y. Benedict Professor of English. He retired from UTEP in 1972 after a forty-one-year career there and moved to Tucson, Arizona, where he was editor of the Journal of Arizona History from 1972 to 1977 and continued to write and edit books.
As for the history of the Texas Rangers, considered the most comprehensive book written to date about them is still Walter Prescott Web's. In all, he wrote or edited more than twenty books. One of those works was The Texas Rangers.
From 1939 to 1946 he served as president of the Texas State Historical Association. During his tenure as president, he launched a project to produce an encyclopedia of Texas, which was subsequently published in 1952 as the Handbook of Texas.
Well, thanks CptnR...and I will follow your earlier admonishion to refrain from lame sports questions! LOL
Anyway, ok, how about this one..and speaking of Texas Rangers!:
The famed Texas "Depression Era" outlaws, known as "Bonnie and Clyde" were killed near Gibsland, Louisiana in an "ambush", by six lawmen from both Texas and Louisiana.
The head of the group was famed Texas Ranger Frank Hamer. Two of the other six were the local (Louisiana) county sheriff and his deputy. That left three who were from Texas. What were their names and what were their official capacity within the state?
Bonus to anyone who can name the Texas governor in office at the time, who authorized it all.
Thank you TexasReb!
Quote:
Barrow and Parker were ambushed and killed on May 23, 1934 on a rural road in Bienville Parish, Louisiana The couple appeared in daylight in an automobile and were shot by a posse of four Texas officers (Frank Hamer, B.M. "Manny" Gault, Bob Alcorn and Ted Hinton) and two Louisiana officers (Henderson Jordan and Prentiss Morel Oakley).[106]
The posse was led by Hamer, who had begun tracking the pair on February 10, 1934. He studied the gang's movements and found they swung in a circle skirting the edges of five midwest states, exploiting the "state line" rule that prevented officers from one jurisdiction from pursuing a fugitive into another. Barrow was a master of that pre-FBI rule, but he was consistent in his movements, so an experienced manhunter like Hamer could chart his path and predict where he would go. The gang's itinerary centered on family visits, and they were due to see Henry Methvin's family in Louisiana, which explained Hamer's meeting with them over the course of the hunt. Hamer obtained a quantity of civilian Browning Automatic Rifles (manufactured by Colt as the "Monitor") and 20 round magazines with armor piercing rounds.[107]
Questions following the ambush were helped along by the tripartite composition of the posse itself: Hamer and Gault were both former Texas Rangers now working for the Texas Department of Corrections, Hinton and Alcorn were employees of the Dallas Sheriff's office, and Jordan and Oakley were Sheriff and Deputy of Bienville Parish. The three duos distrusted each other, kept to themselves, and indeed did not even much like each other.They each carried differing agendas into the operation and brought differing narratives out of it. Historian Guinn puts it this way: Hamer's, Simmons's, Jordan's and Hinton's "various testimonies combine into one of the most dazzling displays of deliberate obfuscation in modern history. Such widely varied accounts can't be dismissed as different people honestly recalling the same events different ways. Motive becomes an issue, and they all had reason to lie. Hamer was fanatical about protecting sources. Simmons was interested in resurrecting his own public image.... Jordan wanted to present himself as the critical dealmaker. Nobody can account for Ted Hinton's improbable reminiscences...."[128]Because their self-serving accounts vary so widely, and because all six men are long deceased, the exact details of the ambush are unknown and unknowable
Gibsland posse. Top: Hinton, Oakley, Gault; seated: Alcorn, Jordan and Hamer.
I thought those underlined parts were interesting. Hamer did some cleaver sluthing to figure out their route.
The Texas Governor, Ma Furgusen put a $500 reward on both Bonnie and Clyde. Other then that I'm wondering why she is relevant to this trivia question. I suspect TexasReb knows something about it.
I'm pretty sure I answered the last question correctly, and since I will be logging off soon for the evening. I'm going to go ahead and ask the next question.
Following prohibition the first beer license in Texas was issued to a tavern that is still in operation. What is it called and where is it located?
I'm pretty sure I answered the last question correctly, and since I will be logging off soon for the evening. I'm going to go ahead and ask the next question.
Following prohibition the first beer license in Texas was issued to a tavern that is still in operation. What is it called and where is it located?
The first alcohol lience Izard in Texas after prohibition was to a man named J. C. (James Curtis) Riley. He was the first person staring in line waitinfpg for a license. His establishment is Riely's Tavern. The probably is the place closed down back in 1991?
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While searching for an answer to this question I found a few other accounts of shameful events in the Ranger's history, which are also not mentioned in the official Texas Ranger's website.
Just as an aside here...
