law enforcement – Texas History Notebook

Richard Clayton Ware, Texas Ranger

Richard Clayton “Dick” Ware was born November 11, 1851 near Rome, Georgia to Benjamin Franklin Lafayette Ware and Mary Jane Price Ware. Ware is the Texas Ranger traditionally credited for giving outlaw Sam Bass his fatal gunshot wound in Round Rock, Texas in July, 1878.

James A. Brooks, Texas Ranger

Ranger James Abijah Brooks was one of the “Four Great” captains in Texas history, along with Captains John R. Hughes, William J. McDonald and John H. Rogers. Brooks was born in Kentucky in 1844 to Dr. John Stroke Brooks (1802 – 1862) and Mary Jane Kerr Brooks (1818 – 1912). His father was a doctor and a farmer. John Stroke Brooks died in 1862. In the 1860 and 1870 census forms, James was living in Kentucky with his family. He left Kentucky for Texas in 1876, settling in Collin County. There, he worked on ranches until he joined the Rangers in 1883, at the age of twenty-seven. Brooks enlisted as a private and over the years was promoted to corporal, sergeant, and lieutenant before being promoted from lieutenant to captain by Governor Sul Ross while serving with Company F in 1889.

“Deacon Jim” Miller, Outlaw

James Brown “Jim” Miller was an outlaw who lived from 1861 to 1909. He was suspected of killing twelve to fifty people during his lifetime. He was born in Van Buren, Arkansas but his parents moved to Franklin, Texas in Robertson County when he was young. Miller’s father Jacob died in 1869 while Miller was still a youth and his mother moved with the family to Evant, Texas.

Dave Rudabaugh

Dave Rudabaugh was known as an outlaw from Dodge City, Kansas to Texas and to the New Mexico Territory. Quite possibly, he was born David Raudebaugh. At least one account says that he was orphaned when his father was killed in the Civil War, but another likely family history is that he came from a very large family who lived mostly in and around Wayne County, Ohio. Indications now are that Dave may have been born in 1854 to John A. Raudebaugh (1826 – 1910) and Susanna Soliday Raudebaugh (1830 – 1910). While the genealogy records on this family are somewhat thin at this time, the 1860 federal census showed a David Raudebaugh of the right age as the second of five children to a farming family by that last name. The 1870 federal census shows this same David as the second oldest of six siblings of what appears to be the same family unit. This particular family is mentioned later in local Ohio newspaper accounts from time to time, usually around Wooster, Ohio. Dave or David is not mentioned in newspaper accounts among the very few than refer to this family. So, the two census records indicate that Dave may have been part of that family unit at one time, but there are no obvious records that tie him as an adult back to the Ohio family.

Rex Cauble and Cutter Bill

Rex Cauble was born August 15, 1913 in the Hill County town of Vaughan, Texas. His parents were Fred C. Cauble and Lou Butts Cauble who were cotton farmers. One of his first jobs was in the oilfield where he worked as a roughneck. He tried his own hand at drilling and was successful at that, as well. Always fond of ranch life, Cauble invested in horses, was a very good competitive rider in the 1960s and came to own a prize stud named Cutter Bill. Settling in North Texas, Cauble founded two western wear stores, named after his cutting horse. The stores were branded Cutter Bill’s Western World with locations in Houston and Dallas in the late 1960s. At the opening of the Houston store, the horse was brought in and his hoof prints were imprinted in the wet cement of the sidewalk.