Vol. 17: Old Riot, New Ranger: Captain Jack Dean, Texas Ranger and U.S. Marshal

Published: July, 2018  Pages: 544  Features: 104 b&w illus. Notes. Bib. Index.

Award-winning author Bob Alexander presents a biography of 20th-century Ranger Captain Jack Dean, who holds the distinction of being one of only five men to serve in both the Officer’s Corps of the Rangers and also as a President-appointed United States Marshal. more... about Old Riot, New Ranger: Captain Jack Dean, Texas Ranger and U.S. Marshal

Vol. 16: Whiskey River Ranger: The Old West Life of Baz Outlaw

Published: April, 2016  Pages: 448  Features: 100 b&w photos. Notes. Bib. Index.

Captain Frank Jones, a famed nineteenth-century Texas Ranger, said of his company’s top sergeant, Baz Outlaw (1854-1894), “A man of unusual courage and coolness and in a close place is worth two or three ordinary men.” Another old-time Texas Ranger declared that Baz Outlaw “was one of the worst and most dangerous” because “he never knew what fear was.” But not all thought so highly of him. In Whiskey River Ranger, Bob Alexander tells for the first time the full story of this troubled Texas Ranger and his losing battle with alcoholism. more... about Whiskey River Ranger: The Old West Life of Baz Outlaw

Vol. 15: Six-Shooters and Shifting Sands: The Wild West Life of Texas Ranger Captain Frank Jones

Published: March, 2015  Pages: 512  Features: 100 b&w photos. Notes. Bib. Index.

Many well-read students, historians, and loyal aficionados of Texas Ranger lore know the name of Texas Ranger Captain Frank Jones (1856-1893), who died on the Texas-Mexico border in a shootout with Mexican rustlers. In Six-Shooters and Shifting Sands, Bob Alexander has now penned the first full-length biography of this important nineteenth-century Texas Ranger. more... about Six-Shooters and Shifting Sands: The Wild West Life of Texas Ranger Captain Frank Jones

Vol. 14: Texas Ranger N. O. Reynolds, the Intrepid

Published: August, 2014  Pages: 464  Features: 81 b&w photos. Map. Notes. Bib. Index.

Historians Chuck Parsons and Donaly E. Brice present a complete picture of N. O. Reynolds (1846-1922), a Texas Ranger who brought a greater respect for the law in Central Texas. Reynolds began as a sergeant in famed Company D, Frontier Battalion in 1874. He served honorably during the Mason County “Hoo Doo” War and was chosen to be part of Major John B. Jones’s escort, riding the frontier line. In 1877 he arrested the Horrells, who were feuding with their neighbors, the Higgins party, thus ending their Lampasas County feud. Shortly thereafter he was given command of the newly formed Company E of Texas Rangers. more... about Texas Ranger N. O. Reynolds, the Intrepid

Vol. 13: Bad Company and Burnt Powder: Justice and Injustice in the Old Southwest

Published: July, 2014  Pages: 512  Features: 106 b&w photos. Notes. Bib. Index.

Bad Company and Burnt Powder is a collection of twelve stories of when things turned “Western” in the nineteenth-century Southwest. Each chapter deals with a different character or episode in the Wild West involving various lawmen, Texas Rangers, outlaws, feudists, vigilantes, lawyers, and judges. Covered herein are the stories of Cal Aten, John Hittson, the Millican boys, Gid Taylor and Jim and Tom Murphy, Alf Rushing, Bob Meldrum and Noah Wilkerson, P. C. Baird, Gus Chenowth, Jim Dunaway, John Kinney, Elbert Hanks and Boyd White, and Eddie Aten. more... about Bad Company and Burnt Powder: Justice and Injustice in the Old Southwest

Vol. 12: Tracking the Texas Rangers: The Twentieth Century

Published: September, 2013  Pages: 320  Features: 14 b&w photos. Map. Notes. Bib. Index.

Tracking the Texas Rangers: The Twentieth Century is an anthology of fifteen previously published articles and chapter excerpts covering key topics of the Texas Rangers during the twentieth century. The task of determining the role of the Rangers as the state evolved and what they actually accomplished for the benefit of the state is a difficult challenge. The actions of the Rangers fit no easy description. There is a dark side to the story of the Rangers; during the Mexican Revolution, for example, some murdered with impunity. Others sought to restore order in the border communities as well as in the remainder of Texas. It is not lack of interest that complicates the unveiling of the mythical force. With the possible exception of the Alamo, probably more has been written about the Texas Rangers than any other aspect of Texas history. more... about Tracking the Texas Rangers: The Twentieth Century

Vol. 11: Riding Lucifer's Line: Ranger Deaths along the Texas-Mexico Border

Published: May, 2013  Pages: 464  Features: 60 b&w photos. Notes. Bib. Index.

The Texas-Mexico border is trouble. Haphazardly splashing across the meandering Rio Grande into Mexico is—or at least can be—risky business, hazardous to one’s health and well-being. Kirby W. Dendy, the Chief of Texas Rangers, corroborates the sobering reality: “As their predecessors for over one hundred forty years before them did, today’s Texas Rangers continue to battle violence and transnational criminals along the Texas-Mexico border.” more... about Riding Lucifer's Line: Ranger Deaths along the Texas-Mexico Border

Vol. 10: Tracking the Texas Rangers: The Nineteenth Century

Published: September, 2012  Pages: 384  Features: 9 b&w photos. Map. Notes. Bib. Index.

Tracking the Texas Rangers is an anthology of sixteen previously published articles and chapter excerpts, arranged in chronological history, covering key topics of the intrepid and sometimes controversial law officers named the Texas Rangers. Determining the role of the Rangers as the state evolved and what they actually accomplished for the benefit of the state is a difficult challenge—the actions of the Rangers fit no easy description. There is a dark side to the story of the Rangers; during the war with Mexico, for example, some murdered, pillaged, and raped. Yet these same Rangers eased the resultant United States victory. Even their beginning and the first use of the term “Texas Ranger” have mixed and complex origins. more... about Tracking the Texas Rangers: The Nineteenth Century

Vol. 9: Texas Ranger John B. Jones and the Frontier Battalion, 1874-1881

Published: August, 2012  Pages: 432  Features: 38 b&w photos. Notes. Bib. Index.

In 1874, the Texas legislature created the Frontier Battalion, the first formal, budgeted organization as an arm of state government of what historically had been periodic groups loosely referred to as Texas Rangers. Initially created to combat the menace of repeated raids of Indians from the north and from Mexico into frontier counties, the Battalion was led by an unusual choice: a frail, humorless Confederate veteran from Navarro County, John B. Jones. Under Jones’s leadership, the Battalion grew in sophistication, moving from Indian fighting to capturing Texas’s bad men, such as John Wesley Hardin and Sam Bass. Established during the unsettled time of Reconstruction, the Rangers effectively filled a local law enforcement void until competency was returned to local sheriffs’ and marshals’ offices. more... about Texas Ranger John B. Jones and the Frontier Battalion, 1874-1881

• Best Book Award from the Wild West History Association, 2013

Vol. 8: Rawhide Ranger, Ira Aten: Enforcing Law on the Texas Frontier

Published: July, 2011  Pages: 528  Features: 100 b&w photos. Notes. Bib. Index.

Ira Aten (1862-1953) was the epitome of a frontier lawman. When as a youth he heard of the killing by Rangers of the notorious outlaw Sam Bass at Round Rock, Aten’s neighborhood, he altered his plans of being a cowboy and instead set his sights on becoming a Texas Ranger. At age twenty he enrolled in Company D during the transition of the Rangers from Indian fighters to topnotch peace officers. This unit—and Aten—would have a lively time making their mark in nineteenth-century Texas. more... about Rawhide Ranger, Ira Aten: Enforcing Law on the Texas Frontier

• Best Book Award from the Wild West History Association, 2012

Vol. 7: Captain John R. Hughes, Lone Star Ranger

Published: February, 2011  Pages: 416  Features: 50 b&w photos. Notes. Bib. Index.

Captain John R. Hughes, Lone Star Ranger is the first full and complete modern biography of a man who served as a Texas Ranger from 1887 until early 1915. In his early years he lived in Indian Territory among the Choctaw, Osage, and Comanche Indians, becoming friends with Quanah Parker. Once in Texas, he bought a farm and raised horses on a ranch in Travis County. When horse thieves made off with several horses from his farm and his neighbors, Hughes was determined to hunt them down. He doggedly trailed the thieves for nearly a year, killed several of them in New Mexico, and returned home with the horses, earning the admiration of his neighbors and the Texas Rangers. more... about Captain John R. Hughes, Lone Star Ranger

• Best Book Award from the Wild West History Association, 2012
• Co-Founders Best Book Award from Westerners International, 2012

Vol. 6: Winchester Warriors: Texas Rangers of Company D, 1874-1901

Published: February, 2011  Pages: 416  Features: 100 b&w illus. Notes. Bib. Index.

The Texas Rangers were institutionally birthed in 1874 with the formation of the Frontier Battalion. Prior to that time the “Rangers” were more or less citizen soldiers serving as circumstances demanded, but thereafter returning to the comforts of hearth and home when service in the field was no longer deemed necessary. After Reconstruction, establishment of a permanent force was the Democratic controlled legislature’s answer for how to prevent Indian incursions into the frontier settlements and deal with the lawlessness running rampant throughout Texas. The Frontier Battalion’s life spanned a period of twenty-five years to 1901, when it was officially disbanded and formally replaced by the Ranger Force. more... about Winchester Warriors: Texas Rangers of Company D, 1874-1901

Vol. 5: Yours to Command: The Life and Legend of Texas Ranger Captain Bill McDonald

Published: June, 2009  Pages: 480  Features: 34 b&w illus. 7 maps. Notes. Bib. Index.

Captain Bill McDonald (1852-1918) is the most prominent of the “Four Great Captains” of Texas Ranger history. His career straddled the changing scene from the nineteenth to the twentieth centuries. In 1891 McDonald became captain of Company B of the Frontier Battalion of the Texas Rangers. “Captain Bill” and the Rangers under his command took part in a number of incidents from the Panhandle region to South Texas: the Fitzsimmons-Maher prizefight in El Paso, the Wichita Falls bank robbery, the murders by the San Saba Mob, the Reese-Townsend feud at Columbus, the lynching of the Humphries clan, the Conditt family murders near Edna, the Brownsville Raid of 1906, and the shootout with Mexican Americans near Rio Grande City. In all these endeavors, only one Ranger lost his life under McDonald’s command. more... about Yours to Command: The Life and Legend of Texas Ranger Captain Bill McDonald

Vol. 4: Captain J. A. Brooks, Texas Ranger

Published: March, 2007  Pages: 288  Features: 29 b&w illus. Notes. Bib. Index.

James Abijah Brooks (1855-1944) was one of the four Great Captains in Texas Ranger history, others including Bill McDonald, John Hughes, and John Rogers. Over the years historians have referred to the captain as “John” Brooks, because he tended to sign with his initials, but also because W. W. Sterling’s classic Trails and Trials of a Texas Ranger mistakenly named him as Captain John Brooks. more... about Captain J. A. Brooks, Texas Ranger

Vol. 3: Prairie Gothic: The Story of a West Texas Family

Published: September, 2005  Pages: 224  Features: 48 illus. Notes. Bib. Index.

Prairie Gothic is rich in Texas history. It is the story of Erickson’s family, ordinary people who, through strength of character, found dignity in the challenges presented by nature and human nature. It is also the story of the place instrumental in shaping their lives the flatland prairie of northwestern Texas that has gone by various names (High Plains, South Plains, Staked Plains, and Llano Estacado), as well as the rugged country on its eastern boundary, often referred to as the caprock canyonlands. more... about Prairie Gothic: The Story of a West Texas Family

Vol. 2: The Alamo

Published: March, 2005  Pages: 128  Features: 71 color and 65 b&w illus and maps. Notes. Bib. Index.

Millions of people each year visit the 4.2-acre complex known worldwide as “The Alamo.” According to Richard Bruce Winders, Historian and Curator at the Alamo, they come to see the old mission in San Antonio, Texas, where a small band of Texan revolutionaries and other heroes fought to the death, holding out for thirteen days against the Mexican army of General Antonio López de Santa Anna. Although the Alamo fell in the early morning hours of March 6, 1836, the death of the Alamo defenders has come to symbolize courage and sacrifice for the cause of liberty. The memories of Jim Bowie, Davy Crockett, and William B. Travis are as powerful today as when the Texan Army under Sam Houston shouted “Remember the Alamo!” less than two months later when it routed Santa Anna at the Battle of San Jacinto. more... about The Alamo

Vol. 1: Captain John H. Rogers, Texas Ranger

Published: February, 2008  Pages: 320  Features: 18 b&w photos. Notes. Bib. Index.

John Harris Rogers (1863-1930) served in Texas law enforcement for more than four decades, as a Texas Ranger, Deputy and U.S. Marshal, city police chief, and in the private sector as a security agent. He is recognized in history as one of the legendary “Four Captains” of the Ranger force that helped make the transition from the Frontier Battalion days into the twentieth century, yet no one has fully researched and written about his life. Paul N. Spellman now presents the first full-length biography of this enigmatic man. more... about Captain John H. Rogers, Texas Ranger