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	Texas Ranger Division is a former featured article. Please see the links under Article milestones below for its original nomination page (for older articles, check the nomination archive) and why it was removed.
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Vandalism

The section about the Ranger unforms appears to have been hacked to display the phrase "Chuck Norris owns you all". Amusing but needs to be removed. Tried but it is hidden in "edit page".

The section also had a section encouraging readers to join a plot to vandalise wikipedia using perl scrips. It has now been removed.

Removed the reference to Rangers as homosexuals: "employ ten homosexual men" --> "employ ten men". (Austin could never have said this anyways, since the word "homosexual" didn't exist until the late 19th century).

Anecdotes

Has anyone checked out the Texas Rangers' biographies at the Texas State Cemetery Honored Texans section? Many are just vital information, but a few have entertaining anecdotes. For instance:

• A ranger forced to walk to El Paso, stops at the first house he finds, eats 27 eggs in one go before going into town for a full meal
• A man whose vigilantism earned him an invitation to join the rangers and incurred the wrath of the Wild Bunch --Laura Scudder | Talk 22:16, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)
• ...officer's rank meant little to the rangers, for "They were all `generals.' When we detailed a man to go anywhere to make an arrest or do any particular work, we didn't need to send another man with him to tell him what to do." This one includes many quotes, and I'm tempted to look for the mentioned autobiographies.

--Laura Scudder | Talk 22:16, 21 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Badge.

Took the liberty to clean it up, hope you don't mind, Kate. Shem 00:00, 23 Jun 2005 (UTC)

Not at all, it looks great! · Katefan0 00:22, Jun 23, 2005 (UTC)

History

Texas Ranger lore dates the first rangers to 1823, when Stephen F. Austin employed ten men to act as rangers to protect 600 to 700 newly settled families who arrived in Texas following the Mexican War of Independence. The Texas Rangers were formally constituted in 1835, and in November Robert McAlpin Williamson was chosen to be the first Major of the Texas Rangers. Within two years the Rangers comprised more than 300 men. Following the Texas Revolution and the creation of the Republic of Texas, newly elected president Mirabeau B. Lamar raised a force of 56 Rangers to fight the Cherokee and the Comanche, partly in retaliation for the support they had given the Mexicans at the Cordova Rebellion against the Republic. The size of the Rangers was increased to 150 by Sam Houston, President of the Republic, in 1841. The Rangers continued to participate in skirmishes with Indians through 1846, when the annexation of Texas within the United States and the Mexican–American War in 1846 saw several companies of Rangers were mustered into federal service. They played important roles at various battles, acting as guides and participating in guerrilla warfare, soon establishing a fearsome reputation amongst both Mexicans and Americans. Following the end of the war in 1848 the Rangers were largey disbanded, but the election of Hardin Richard Runnels as governor in 1857 meant that $70,000 was allocated to fund the Rangers under John Salmon "Rip" Ford, a veteran of the Mexican war. The now 100-strong Rangers participated in campaigns against the Comanche and other tribes, whose raids against the settlers and their properties had become common.

The success of a series of campaigns in the 1860s marked a turning point in Rangers' history. The U.S. Army could provide only limited and thinly stretched protection in the enormous territory of Texas. In contrast, the Rangers' effectiveness when dealing with these threats convinced both the people of the state and the political leaders that a well-funded and organized local Ranger force was essential. Such a force could use the deep familiarity with the territory and the proximity with the theater of operations as major advantages in its favor. This option was not pursued in the light of the emerging national political problems, and the Rangers were again dissolved.

Many Rangers enlisted to fight for the Confederacy following the secession of Texas from the United States in 1861 during the American Civil War. During Reconstruction, the Rangers were replaced by the Union-controlled Texas State Police who soon fell into disrepute, and were disbanded only three years later in 1873. The state election of 1873 saw newly elected Governor Richard Coke and the state legislature recommission the Rangers. It was at these times that many of the Rangers' myths were born, such as their success in capturing or killing notorious criminals and desperados (including bank robber Sam Bass and gunfighter John Wesley Hardin) and their decisive role in the defeat of the Comanche, the Kiowa and the Apache peoples. It was also during these years that the Rangers suffered the only defeat in their history when they surrendered at the Salinero Revolt in 1877. Despite the fame of their deeds, the conduct of the Rangers during this period was questionable. In particular, McNelly and his men used ruthless methods that often rivaled the brutality of their opponents, such as taking part in summary executions and confessions induced by torture and intimidation.

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The Rangers next saw serious action during the Mexican Revolution that began in 1910 against President Porfirio Díaz. The breakdown of law and order on the Mexican side of the Border, coupled with the lack of federal military forces meant that the Rangers were once again called upon to restore and maintain law and order, by any necessary means. However, the situation necessitated the appointment of hundreds of new special Rangers by the state, which neglected to carefully screen aspiring members. The Rangers were responsible for several incidents, ending in the 1918 massacre of the male population (fifteen Mexican men and boys ranging in age from 16 to 72 years) of the tiny community of Porvenir, Texas on the Mexican border in western Presidio County. Before the decade was over, thousands of lives were lost, Texans and Mexicans alike. In January 1919 an investigation by the Texas Legislature found that from 300 to 5,000 people, mostly of Hispanic descent, had been killed by Rangers from 1910 to 1919, and that members of the Rangers had been involved in many acts of brutality and injustice. The Rangers were reformed by a resolution of the Legislature in 1919, which saw the special Ranger groups disbanded and a complaints system instituted.

The Rangers next saw serious action during the Mexican Revolution that began in 1910 against President Porfirio Díaz. The breakdown of law and order on the Mexican side of the Border, coupled with the lack of federal military forces meant that the Rangers were once again called upon to restore and maintain law and order, by any necessary means. However, the situation necessitated the appointment of hundreds of new special Rangers by the state, which neglected to carefully screen aspiring members. The Rangers were responsible for several incidents, ending in the 1918 massacre of the male population (fifteen Mexican men and boys ranging in age from 16 to 72 years) of the tiny community of Porvenir, Texas on the Mexican border in western Presidio County. Before the decade was over, thousands of lives were lost, Texans and Mexicans alike. In January 1919 an investigation by the Texas Legislature found that from 300 to 5,000 people, mostly of Hispanic descent, had been killed by Rangers from 1910 to 1919, and that members of the Rangers had been involved in many acts of brutality and injustice. The Rangers were reformed by a resolution of the Legislature in 1919, which saw the special Ranger groups disbanded and a complaints system instituted.

The Great Depression forced both the federal and state governments to cut down on personnel and funding of their organizations, and the number of commissioned officers was reduced to 45 and the only means of transportation afforded to Rangers were free railroad passes, or using their personal horses. The agency was again damaged after supporting Governor Ross Sterling in his re-election campaign - but after his opponent Miriam Amanda "Ma" Ferguson won, she proceeded to discharge all serving Rangers in 1933.

The ensuing disorganization of law enforcement in the state caused the Legislature to engaged a firm of consultants to reorganize the state security agencies; they recommended merging the Rangers with the Texas Highway Patrol under a new agency called the Texas Department of Public Safety (DPS), which took place in 1935 with an initial budget of $450,000. With minor rearrangements over the years, the 1935 reforms have ruled the Texas Rangers' organization until present day. Hiring new members, which had been largely a political decision, was achieved through a series of examinations and merit evaluations. Promotion relied on seniority and performance in the line of duty. Today, the historical importance and symbolism of the Texas Rangers is such that they are protected by statute from being disbanded.

References

1. Cox, Mike, The Texas Rangers.
2. Webb, Walter Prescott, The Texas Rangers: A Century of Frontier Defense.
3. Wilkins, Frederick, Defending the Borders: The Texas Rangers, 1848–1861.
4. Webb, Walter Prescott, The Texas Rangers: A Century of Frontier Justice, University of Texas Press, 1965, second edition, pp. 219-229.
5. Utley, Robert M., Lone Star Justice: The First Century of the Texas Rangers, Berkley Books, 2003, p. 144.
6. Parsons, Chuck & Hall Little, Marianne E., Captain L. H. McNelly, Texas Ranger: The Life and Times of a Fighting Man.
7. Harris, Charles H. III & Sadler, Louis R., ibid.
8. Harris, Charles H. III & Sadler, Louis R., ibid.
9. "The division relating to the Texas Rangers may not be abolished" - Acts 1987, 70th Leg., ch. 147, Sec. 1, September 1, 1987.

Los Diablos Tejanos

Can we please remove this? The sourced link is an old very biased Texas Monthly article and from there leads to another article that claims "some Mexicans say..." Which Mexicans? I've tried tracking this down and in most Spanish sources the term for the Rangers is Los Rinches, usually with a pejorative attached. We don't have to put Los Rinches but its got a whole lot more sources than "Diablos Tejanos." I thought I'd ask as the "old guard" seems to still be lurking around. Mosquito 02 (talk) 23:09, 19 October 2020 (UTC)

Literally the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum website uses this term. Now, they don't have a citation for where they got it from, but it's also on the Bullock Texas State History Website as well as the website for the Texas Department of Public Safety on the history of the Texas Rangers. So, I don't know about Mexicans but according to the Texas Rangers, that's what people called the Texas Rangers.

https://www.dps.texas.gov/section/texas-rangers/history-texas-rangers Attack.Iguana (talk) 22:59, 7 May 2022 (UTC)

Henry Lee Lucas

Nothing in the "High-Profile Cases" section about notorious serial killer Henry Lee Lucas and how the Rangers used him as a scapegoat to close hundreds of cold cases they failed?172.87.33.194 (talk) 19:56, 27 May 2022 (UTC)

Illegal fight

The "one riot, one Ranger" section talks about the "illegal heavyweight prize fight between Pete Maher and Bob Fitzsimmons". The article on that fight points out that boxing was illegal in Langtry, but this article lists that as one of the later venues. Why was the fight illegal? The internet is frustratingly vague. Was boxing illegal in all of Texas? -Ashley Pomeroy (talk) 12:00, 29 August 2022 (UTC)

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