Download or read book Taming the Nueces Strip written by George Durham and published by Univ of TX + ORM. This book was released on 2010-03-01 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Durham’s account is modest and straightforward . . . has many lessons for anyone interested in the history of the Old West, leadership or law enforcement.” —American West Review Only an extraordinary Texas Ranger could have cleaned up bandit-plagued Southwest Texas, between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande, in the years following the Civil War. Thousands of raiders on horseback, some of them Anglo-Americans, regularly crossed the river from Mexico to pillage, murder, and rape. Their main objective? To steal cattle, which they herded back across the Rio Grande to sell. Honest citizens found it almost impossible to live in the Nueces Strip. In desperation, the governor of Texas called on an extraordinary man, Captain Leander M. McNelly, to take command of a Ranger company and stop these border bandits. One of McNelly’s recruits for this task was George Durham, a Georgia farm boy in his teens when he joined the “Little McNellys,” as the Captain’s band called themselves. More than half a century later, it was George Durham, the last surviving “McNelly Ranger,” who recounted the exciting tale of taming the Nueces Strip to San Antonio writer Clyde Wantland. In Durham’s account, those long-ago days are brought vividly back to life. Once again the daring McNelly leads his courageous band across Southwest Texas to victories against incredible odds. With a boldness that overcame their dismayingly small number, the McNellys succeeded in bringing law and order to the untamed Nueces Strip—succeeded so well that they antagonized certain “upright” citizens who had been pocketing surreptitious dollars from the bandits’ operations. “The reader seems to smell the acrid gunsmoke and to hear the creak of saddle leather.” —Southwestern Historical Quarterly

Download or read book Taming the Nueces Strip written by George Durham and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 1962 with total page 208 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In the years following the Cival War thousands of mounted raiders, some of them Anglo-Americans, crossed the river from Mexico to pillage, murder and rape.

Download or read book Taming the Nueces Strip written by George Durham and published by University of Texas Press. This book was released on 2010-03-01 with total page 205 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “Durham’s account is modest and straightforward . . . has many lessons for anyone interested in the history of the Old West, leadership or law enforcement.” —American West Review Only an extraordinary Texas Ranger could have cleaned up bandit-plagued Southwest Texas, between the Nueces River and the Rio Grande, in the years following the Civil War. Thousands of raiders on horseback, some of them Anglo-Americans, regularly crossed the river from Mexico to pillage, murder, and rape. Their main objective? To steal cattle, which they herded back across the Rio Grande to sell. Honest citizens found it almost impossible to live in the Nueces Strip. In desperation, the governor of Texas called on an extraordinary man, Captain Leander M. McNelly, to take command of a Ranger company and stop these border bandits. One of McNelly’s recruits for this task was George Durham, a Georgia farm boy in his teens when he joined the “Little McNellys,” as the Captain’s band called themselves. More than half a century later, it was George Durham, the last surviving “McNelly Ranger,” who recounted the exciting tale of taming the Nueces Strip to San Antonio writer Clyde Wantland. In Durham’s account, those long-ago days are brought vividly back to life. Once again the daring McNelly leads his courageous band across Southwest Texas to victories against incredible odds. With a boldness that overcame their dismayingly small number, the McNellys succeeded in bringing law and order to the untamed Nueces Strip—succeeded so well that they antagonized certain “upright” citizens who had been pocketing surreptitious dollars from the bandits’ operations. “The reader seems to smell the acrid gunsmoke and to hear the creak of saddle leather.” —Southwestern Historical Quarterly

Download or read book Taming the Nueces Strip written by George Durham and published by . This book was released on 1990 with total page 178 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A Texas Ranger written by N. A. Jennings and published by Lulu.com. This book was released on 2017-06-23 with total page 136 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In 1874, Napoleon Augustus Jennings moved to Texas to join the Rangers under the command of L. H. McNelly. A year later, Jennings was thrown into the conflict between the native Spanish speaking Americans and the English speaking whites who came to settle the area. In an era of cattle thieving and terror, we follow Jennings through the southern border of Texas and find a vivid portrait of life in the late 19th century in one of the most lawless and hardest places to live in the United States.

Download or read book Captain L H McNelly Texas Ranger written by Chuck Parsons and published by TX A&m-McWhiney Foundation. This book was released on 2001 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first authentic biography of one of the most famous of the nineteenth century Texas Rangers-Capt. Leander H. McNelly. No history of the murderous Sutton-Taylor Feud, or of the Texas State Police, or of the depredations of the Mexican Gen. Juan H. Cortina, or of the rancher Richard King, or of the infamous Nueces Strip can be written without major emphases on the influence of McNelly and the men who followed him so loyally. Chuck Parsons is a native of Iowa, spending most of his life as an educator in Minnesota and Wisconsin. He is the author of seven books and numerous articles, all concerning outlaws and lawmen of Texas and the West. For over six years he wrote a monthly column "The Answer Man" for True West magazine. Parsons currently resides in South Texas. Marianne E. Hall Little is a native Texan and a descendent of three Texas Rangers. She has written sixteen books, mostly stemming from her genealogical research. She has co-authored with Chuck Parsons and James S. Peterson, writing the biography of Mace Bowman Texas Feudist Western Lawman. Little lives in South Texas.

Download or read book John B Armstrong Texas Ranger and Pioneer Ranchman written by Chuck Parsons and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2007 with total page 170 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: As Elmer Kelton notes in his afterword to this book, "Chuck Parsons' biography is a long-delayed and much-justified tribute to Armstrong's service to Texas." Parsons fills in the missing details of a Ranger and rancher's life, correcting some common misconceptions and adding to the record of a legendary group of lawmen and pioneers.

Download or read book Petra s Legacy written by Jane Clements Monday and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2007-08-28 with total page 464 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The matriarch of one of the most important families in Texas history, Petra Vela Kenedy has remained a shadowy presence in the annals of South Texas. In this biography of Petra Vela Kenedy, the authors not only tell her story but also relate the history of South Texas through a woman’s perspective. Utilizing previously unpublished letters, journals, photographs, and other primary materials, the authors reveal the intimate stories of the families who for years dominated governments, land acquisition, commerce, and border politics along the Rio Grande and across the Wild Horse Desert. From Petra’s early life in the landed ranchero society of northern Mexico, through her alliance with Luis Vidal—an officer in the Mexican army to whom she bore eight children—until her move to Brownsville after Vidal’s death, Petra lived in Mexico. When she moved to Texas, having taken Vidal’s name, she represented a link to the landed families of the region. Mifflin Kenedy, a steamboat captain who had first come to Texas during the Mexican War, married into her world, acquiring local respectability and stature when he took Petra as his wife. The story of their life together encompasses war, the taming of a frontier, the blending of cultures, the origin of a ranching empire, and the establishment of a foundation and trust that still endure today, giving millions to Texas through charitable gifts. An attractive woman of business acumen, strong religious convictions, and intense family loyalty, Petra Vela Kenedy’s influence through her husband and her children left a legacy whose exploration is long overdue.

Download or read book Border Boss written by Jack Martin and published by TX A&m-McWhiney Foundation. This book was released on 1990 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Capt. John R. Hughes' exploits in tracking down horse thieves led not only to his earning the enmity of the Wild Bunch, the desperados led by Butch Cassidy, but also to his becoming a Texas Ranger. Originally published in 1942 with a new introduction by Mike Cox. Illustrations are by Texas native, Frank Anthony Stanush.

Download or read book River of Contrasts written by Margie Crisp and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2012-03-29 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Writer and artist Margie Crisp has traveled the length of Texas’ Colorado River, which rises in Dawson County, south of Lubbock, and flows 860 miles southeast across the state to its mouth on the Gulf of Mexico at Matagorda Bay. Echoing the truth of Heraclitus’s ancient dictum, the river’s character changes dramatically from its dusty headwaters on the High Plains to its meandering presence on the coastal prairie. The Colorado is the longest river with both its source and its mouth in Texas, and its water, from beginning to end, provides for the state’s agricultural, municipal, and recreational needs. As Crisp notes, the Colorado River is perhaps most frequently associated with its middle reaches in the Hill Country, where it has been dammed to create the six reservoirs known as the Highland Lakes. Following Crisp as she explores the river, sometimes with her fisherman husband, readers meet the river’s denizens—animal, plant, and human—and learn something about the natural history, the politics, and those who influence the fate of the river and the water it carries. Those who live intimately with the natural landscape inevitably formulate emotional responses to their surroundings, and the people living on or near the Colorado River are no exception. Crisp’s own loving tribute to the river and its inhabitants is enhanced by the exquisite art she has created for this book. Her photographs and maps round out the useful and beautiful accompaniments to this thoughtful portrait of one of Texas’ most beloved rivers. Former first lady Laura Bush unveils this year's Texas Book Festival poster designed by artist Margie Crisp, author of River of Contrasts: The Texas Colorado. The poster features cliff swallows flying over the Colorado River. Photo by Grant Miller To learn more about The Meadows Center for Water and the Environment, sponsors of this book's series, please click here.

Download or read book The Texas Rangers written by Walter Prescott Webb and published by Univ of TX + ORM. This book was released on 2010-07-22 with total page 1110 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The renowned historian’s classic study of the Texas Ranger Division, presented with its original illustrations and a foreword by Lyndon B. Johnson. Texas Rangers tells the story of this unique law enforcement agency from its origin in 1823, when it was formed by “Father of Texas” Stephen F. Austin, to the 1930s, when legendary lawman Frank Hamer tracked down the infamous outlaws Bonnie and Clyde. Both colorful and authoritative, it presents the evolution and exploits of the Texas Rangers through Comanche raids, the Mexican War, annexation, secession, and on into the 20th century. Written in 1935 by Walter Prescott Webb, the pioneering historian of the American West, Texas Rangers is a true classic of Texas history.

Download or read book Strip written by Hannah Sward and published by Tortoise Books. This book was released on 2022-09-06 with total page 223 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Born in the bohemian seventies, Hannah Sward was abandoned by her mother, and lived with her poet father on an island with no stores or cars. Kidnapped and molested by a stranger at age six, she grew up to be a stripper and a prostitute with a taste for crystal meth—which seemed to be a sure-fire way to lose weight —with stops along the way for silent gurus, sugar daddies, and drinking in the CVS bathroom before therapy sessions. Painstakingly honest, often humorous, Strip is a heartfelt memoir revealing a woman’s journey from innocence to a dark existence, and beyond it to a world of empowerment.

Download or read book Texas Market Hunting written by R. K. Sawyer and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2013-08-23 with total page 202 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From its earliest days of human habitation, the Texas coast was home to seemingly endless clouds of ducks, geese, swans, and shorebirds. By the 1880s Texas huntsmen, or market hunters, as they came to be called, began providing meat and plumage for the restaurant tables and millinery salons of a rapidly growing nation. A network of suppliers, packers, distribution centers, and shipping hubs efficiently handled their immense harvest. At the peak of Texas market hunting in the late 1890s, Rockport merchants shipped an average of 600 ducks a day in a five-month shooting season, and in the last year of legal market hunting, an estimated 60,000 ducks and geese were shipped from Corpus Christi alone. Market men employed efficient methods to harvest nature’s bounty. They commonly hunted at night, often using bait to concentrate large numbers of waterfowl. The effectiveness of the hunt was improved when side-by-side double barrel shotguns and large-gauge swivel guns gave way to repeating firearms, with some capable of discharging as many as eleven shells in a single volley. Their methods were so efficient that, by the late 1800s, Texas sportsmen and others blamed the alarming decline of coastal waterfowl populations on the market hunter’s occupation. In 1903, after a long fight and many failures, the first migratory bird game law passed the Texas legislature. Though the fight would continue, it was the beginning of the end of the year-round slaughter. Most market hunters quit, and those who didn’t became outlaws. In this book, R. K. Sawyer chronicles the days of market hunting along the Texas coast and the showdown between the early game wardens and those who persisted in commercial waterfowl hunting. Containing an abundance of rare historical photographs and oral history, Texas Market Hunting: Stories of Waterfowl, Game Laws, and Outlaws provides a comprehensive and colorful account of this bygone period.

Download or read book What s So Great About America written by Dinesh D'Souza and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2012-11-20 with total page 200 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: With What's So Great About America, Dinesh D'Souza is not asking a question, but making a statement. The former White House policy analyst and bestselling author argues that in the aftermath of September 11, 2001, American ideals and patriotism should not be things we shy away from. Instead he offers the grounds for a solid, well-considered pride in the Western pillars of "science, democracy and capitalism," while deconstructing arguments from both the political Left and political Right. As an "outsider" from India who has had amazing success in the United States, D'Souza defends not an idealized America, but America as it really is, and measures America not against an utopian ideal, but against the rest of the world in a provocative, challenging, and personal book.

Download or read book The Headless Horseman written by Mayne Reid and published by . This book was released on 1866 with total page 530 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book A Breed Apart written by Eddie Michel and published by . This book was released on 2012-09 with total page 260 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Texas Rangers are an iconic symbol of both Texas and the American West. As citizen soldiers and lawmen the Rangers have left an indelible mark in the annals of history and American culture. This book offers a balanced and informative history of the Ranger corps. The author integrates both the traditionalist view of the Rangers as heroic defenders of Texan liberty and justice with the revisionist scholarship of more recent historians which has exposed a darker side to the corps including instances of brutality, corruption, racism and on occasion exceptionally high levels of violence. A Breed Apart: The History of the Texas Rangers explores the history, character and development of the Texas Rangers from their creation as an irregular frontier force to their current status as highly trained and well respected agents of law enforcement. The book provides an excellent resource for any reader wishing to understand why the Texas Rangers remain such powerful historical symbols and continue to exert such fascination in the public imagination.

Download or read book Rivers of Texas written by Verne Huser and published by Texas A&M University Press. This book was released on 2004-03-31 with total page 268 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores the landscape, history, geology, and recreational opportunities afforded by the rivers of Texas, presenting information about each river's size, location, tributaries, discharge, and special sites.