Texas

The Lone Star State celebrates the bicentennial of the Texas Rangers.

- MIKE COX

Admired by many, denounced by some, the Texas Rangers trace their 200-year history to a 177-word document penned by Texas colonizer Stephen F. Austin on August 5, 1823. In that document, he said he intended to employ 10 men “to act as rangers for the common defense…”

Considered the Ranger “Magna Carta,” the document was written at Sylvanus Castleman’s log cabin about five miles northwest of present La Grange. Castleman’s place served as de facto headquarters for Austin’s fledgling colony and was the birthplace of the Rangers. To learn more about Castleman and his land, visit the Fayette County Heritage Museum and Archives, 855 S. Jefferson St. in La Grange.

Later in 1823, Austin platted a townsite near the Brazos River and named it San Felipe. For 13 years, the village reigned as the capital of his colony and the social, economic and political hub of Anglo settlement in northern Mexico.

As conceived by Austin, paramilitary companies did “range” his colony in the 1820s, but not until 1835 did the ranging concept become formalized in Texas. That happened at San Felipe when a body called the Permanent Council met there to grapple with two critical issues—a dictatorial Mexican government and the threat of hostile Indian tribes.

Daniel Parker offered a resolution on October 17, proposing a three-company, 70-man standing ranger force. By November, a larger group calling itself a “Consultation” further discussed Parker’s idea. On the 24th the body passed an “Ordinance Establishing a Provisional Government.” Article 9 of an appendage labeled “Of the Military” authorized a “corps of rangers.” For the first time the Rangers became an arm of the government.