Notes on the Committee Report
Banditry, Theft & Murder on the Texas Frontier
“The Comanches, the wandering Arabs of this Hemisphere, considered themselves as the only lords of those plains, where they hunted elk in the summer, spending the winter upon the banks of the Brazos and Colorado rivers of Texas.”
Reports of the Committee of Investigation sent in 1873 by the Mexican Government to the Frontier of Texas. pg. 246.
Scott rubbed his hands and watched puffy cloud of his breath float off the cold thin air. A shiver went through him. It was cold high up on the mesa in the early morning. Drew took them up there early, so they could see further in the early morning air before waves of heat and mirage took spell under the midday sun.
“There”, Drew pointed to another mesa way off in the distance. It looked like a burnt umber smudge in the mist of blue grey. “That’s two days from here. The Bravo is just a click past that. It’s cake.”
“Huh”, Scott considered. It seemed too good to be true. Drew explained all Scott had to do was be at Rio four days from now. There he would take possession of a small herd horses coming in from Mexico and ride them north, to a holding ranch. For this Scott would be paid $1 a head and there were north of fifty head.
“What about the Lipans?”, Scott quivered.
“There won’t be any Lipans. I promise.” Drew grimaced as he said it.
“How in the hell can you promise that?”, Scott scoffed, “you some kind of half-breed chief?”
Drew cursed.
“Look, I might be in. But don’t bullspit me. I ain’t been this far south but I was a captain in the army. I know whose in what territory. Unless you can speak to something to make me feel ok otherwise I doubt everything.”
Drew laughed. “Trust me. The Lipan won’t be there.”
“How can you back that?”
Drew shook his head and spat in disgust, “Who the hell do you think is bringing the horses up to the Rio?”
Scott let out a shrill whistle.
“All you gotta do is be there in four days, you don’t even have to cross into Mexico to do it. Are you in or out, tenderfoot?”
Scott bit down hard and rubbed his hands. Two months wages for three or four days of work sounded too good to be true. What could he do?
In 1872 Texas complains about raids originating from Mexico. The Mexican government forms a committee to investigate the situation. The committee paints a picture of a lawless frontier teaming with organized crime to theft, murder and rampant smuggling through the frontier settlements.
The total number of reported thefts in Texas dwarfed the total numbers of all animals by tax records and slaughterhouse records throughout the territory, indicating the Texans were exaggerating their losses a bit.
“Owners say they do not know the exact amount of their property for taxes and report it approximately. Yet they report their losses with precision. Richard King & Co. report their direct losses between 1866-1869 108,336 head; Henderson Williams to 4,436; Dimas Tores Valesquez to 7,893. … 18 breeders of Nueces county and 11 in Cameron state they lost a number, which compared with the total number in these counties, would have produced the annihilation of the breed of horses; nevertheless, statistics show there was a considerable increase in their line. - Report pg. 169
The Committee nonetheless describes organized criminal operations of cattle and horse thieving, smuggling, theft and murder and robbery. The Committee describes sensational banditry such as Texans posing as Indian raiders -
In Missouri settlers captured and lynched five of the raiding Indians who had many horses in their possession. They turned out to be bogus Indians, painted white horse thieves and murderers, and they admitted at the time of execution that they had just come over from Texas, where they stole all the stock with them. - Report pg. 366. The Herald. March 16, 1867
- as well as hiring actual Indian raiders and buying their raided goods at black market prices.
“Bands of Americans, Texans, Mexicans and Indians, in a few years, exhausted the wealth of district north of the Rio Bravo to Nueces.” - Report. page 12.
“Thirst for wealth became such a passion that any means of procuring it seemed fair and legal. The district from Rio Bravo to Nueces had been cleared of its livestock. Only the land remained. The land was seized through force of arms and feigned legal power. The frontier district, extending along the Rio Bravo, abounded in droves of horses. The horse thieves of Mexico commenced operations there. The traffic in Texas of horses stolen from Mexico became a commonplace merchandise.” Report page 12.
[1] Cattle thieves operate from Texas, organizing raids across the border. The thieves who carried out operations would meet middlemen at the river, who then drove the stolen stock to clandestine rancherias where the animals could be re-branded or driven further on for sale. Prominent ranchers owned and operated these rancherias, including some like Richard King who cried loudest about being stolen from.
Persons who dwell in Texas and buy animals at unscrupulously low (obviously stolen) prices. Buyers.
Persons who well in Texas who collect the horses from the thieves returning from Mexico at the river shore. Middlemen.
Persons who dwell in Texas, and employ gangs of thieves, organizing thieving operations into Mexico. Headmen.
Leon and Jose Estapa, the latter was sheriff until last year, and the second a county collector of Hidalgo. Both employ a band of thieves, including the Tijerinas brothers. They own the ranch Grangeno, Texas. The ranch is an enclosure by the name Sabinito, bounded on one side by the river, on the other by an inlet. They take stolen horses from Mexico here until they are ready to be driven into the interior of Texas. - Report pg. 33
[2] Texans often blamed depredations on Indian tribes allegedly living in Mexico. This gave the pretext for invasions or seizure of Mexican territory on the grounds that the Mexican authorities were unable to stop Indian outlaws. The Commission took great pains to debunk some of the worst culprits claimed like the Cheyenne (a plains tribe that operated in Colorado, Kansas and parts north, no where near south Texas. The Americans drove tribes like the Seminole into southeast Texas, including Cherokee, Choctaw, Chickasaw, Creek, Potawattomies and others.
“Thadeus Rhodes, AKA ‘Teodoro’, was a resident of Rasario and a magistrate, in the county of Hidalgo, Texas. A band of robbers dwelt under his authority and protection. They pillaged the farms of Reynosa, Nuevo Leon. Rhodes gang members includes Jose Maria Zamora, Jose Maria Mora, Juan de Leon, Desiderio Perales, Marcelino Ramirez, Francisco Lopez, Ildefonso Cano. - Report pg. 30
[3] Native tribes in the area were active, such as the Comanche, Kiowa, Lipan, Kickapoo, Carrizo and Caigua tribes factoring most prominently in raids on Mexican and Texas settlements. A black market arose for raided goods - with Texans buying stolen goods from warriors and offering safe passage from the border.
“Raiding on both banks of the river goes on with the encouragement given to the Indians for plunder by the traffic carried on with them since 1835, tolerated and consented by the American authorities, with whom the Indians exchange their booty.” - Report Preface.
The Americans accuse the Kickapoos, Lipans, Seminoles, Carrizos and other Indians, who, having haunts in Mexico, Chihuahua and Coahuila, of attacking American settlements… With the exception of the Kickapoos, none of the tribes mentioned live in Mexico; and many of them exist only in name, the tribe having died out. - Report pg. 242.
The black trade was initiated by an officer of the United States army, Colonel Mason, who, in sight of his soldiers, knew the articles given in exchange by the Indians were the spoils of raiding. The Comanche learned the advantages of this lucrative traffic; for the first time they found sellers of arms and ammunition, and purchasers of their booty; and henceforth they thought only of invasions and raids on Mexican settlements then abounding in riches…American officials tolerated, permitted and protected the Comanche. The Comanche and Apache never showed so much enthusiasm for raiding as from 1836 onward. - Report pg. 258-259
In 1840 I witnessed the departure from Santa Fe a large trading party freighted with engines of war and a great quantity of whiskey, intended for the Apaches, in exchange for mules and other articles of plunder they had stolen from Mexico. This traffic was not only tolerated, but openly encouraged by the civil authorities, as the highest public functionaries had interests in its success, the governor himself not excepted. - Josiah Gregg. The Commerce of the Prairies. 1844
[4] Mexico allowed escaped slaves to live free. Slavers would raid into Mexico to re-capture these slaves. The civil war only brought more hostility and lawlessness.
[5] Rangers, or volunteer militias operating in Texas, led many raids into Mexico. Sometimes these were for pure banditry.
“When the war was over and the forces disbanded, a large number of people were left without occupation, and the bands who used to bring stolen cattle to the banks of the river increased. The Wrights had the largest force under them. William D. Thomas AKA Thomas Colorado, Billy Mann, Patrick Quinn and others would sometimes act with them or on their own. The Wrights operated until 1866. - Report. pg. 70
One of the most infamous crimes on the frontier was the murder of Juan Chapa Guerra, a resident at Ranchito. In January 1850, some goods were stolen from Charles Stillman, residing at Browsville. Stillman rallied a posse of Americans, and left in search of the stolen goods. They arrived at the Palmito ranche, and ordered all the people there tied up and whipped until they confessed the thieves. None had any information. Stillman was informed that Juan Chapa Guerra, a resident of Mexico, was the guilty party. Stillman took his party to Ranchito, in Mexico. They siezed Guerra and brought him to Texas. Chapa was then whipped and killed. It was afterwards found out that there had been a mistake in the name; the guilty party was not Juan Chapa Guerra, but Juan Chapa Garcia. Charles Stillman was a person of wealth, who exercised controlling influence in Brownsville. The victim’s family tried to find a lawyer, but none in the city would act against Stillman. The murder was never punished. - Report pg. 179
Upon both banks of the Bravo river there are several ranches noted as the hiding places of robbers. Report pg. 125.
Adolpho Glaevecke employed a band or robbers on his ranch for the purpose of stealing horses from Mexico, and who speculated in cattle stolen in Texas…. Adolpho Glaeveke was a member of the Legislature, and with the lawyers has made the people believe Mexicans would soon hang on any pretext… Glaeveke is the same individual who employs a band of robbers steal horses in Mexico, and is now an alderman in Brownsville…. Operate a high-walled ranch for rebranding stolen cattle without anyone being able to see inside. Report pg. 160, 133, 91
After General Juan N. Cortina took refuge in the mountains of Burgos, nothing was heard of him until after the confederate war broke out. The Confederates attacked the Clareno ranch in Texas, killing several Mexicans. Cortina then came down to the edge of the river, and aided by the refugees and some Mexicans from Guerrero, he invaded Texas by way of the Carrizo in May of 1861. Cortina was defeated on the 23rd of the same month, and quit Texas to live a wandering life in Tamaulipas. - Report on General Cortina. pg. 148
[6]
March 26, 1856. Colonel Zuazua and Lt. Colonel Daniel Ruggles destroy the Lipan tribe at Rio Sabinas.
[7] Ranald Slidell Mackenzie invades Mexico to attack Kickapoos living at Remolino in 1873.
“His force estimated at 500 men. Crossing the Rio Grande with secrecy and advancing rapidly, he reached the Kickapoo village of Remolino, between 8 and 9 AM, on the 18th of May, surrounded and burned it without resistance, killing 19 Indians, capturing many more. Report pg. 426.
Related
For more excerpts from the committee report -
Reference
Official reports of the committee of investigation sent in 1873 by the Mexican government to the frontier of Texas. 1873