James B. Gillett, Texas Ranger

http://www.texasranger.org/halloffame/Gillette_James.htm

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/James_B._Gillett

James B. Gillett (November 4, 1856 - June 11, 1937) was a lawman of the Old West, mostly well known due to his service as a Texas Ranger, and is a member of the Texas Rangers Hall of Fame.

Early life and career

Born James Buchanan Gillett in Austin, Texas, Gillett was raised working as a cowboy on local ranches. He joined the Texas Rangers in 1875, in Menard, Texas. Gillett initially served under Captain D. W. Roberts with "Company D", and later served with Captain N. O. Reynolds and Captain G. W. Baylor, whose daughter Helen would later marry Gillett. Mostly assigned to the West Texas border regions, Gillett found himself involved in numerous skirmishes with Kiowa, Apache, and Comanche Indians. He was involved in the July 21, 1878 killing of outlaw Sam Bass in Round Rock, Texas, when Bass was shot by Texas Ranger George Herold, and Gillett later took part in putting down both the Mason County War and the Horrell-Higgins feud.

He first came to notice when, in January, 1881, while under the command of Captain Baylor, his company pursued a hostile band of Apache which had attacked a stagecoach. The Rangers surprised the band, killing six of the Apache, scattering the rest of the band. Gillett also pursued outlaw Dick Dublin that same year, killing Dublin in a gunfight. His fights with Indians and several little known outlaws made him a legend in the Ranger organization.

Capture of the Baca brothers, resignation

On New Years Eve, 1881, Gillett's friend, A. M. Conklin, was murdered in El Paso by the Baca brothers, after Conkiln was involved in a fight with Onefre Baca. Gillett and fellow Ranger George Lloyd set out in pursuit of the brothers immediately after the killing. Tracking the brothers to their uncles home, Gillett made it known they were their to bring the brothers in. The Uncle, Jose Baca, was a local Judge, and offered Gillett a $1,000 bribe to allow his nephews to go free, which Gillett refused. Gillett and Lloyd captured all of the brothers at Jose Baca's house with the exception of Onefre Baca.

Onefre Baca had fled to Mexico, and upon learning this, but receiving no authorization to enter Mexico, Gillett crossed the border into Mexico illegally to arrest Onefre Baca, and then took him to Socorro, Texas to be held until he could be taken back to El Paso. Shortly afterward, Onefre Baca was lynched by an angry mob. After only six years service, under protests that he illegally arrested Baca by entering Mexico and under pressure from Texas Governor Oran M. Roberts, Gillett resigned from the Rangers at the rank of sergeant, accepting a position as Deputy Marshal for El Paso, Texas, in June, 1882, working briefly under famed gunman Dallas Stoudenmire.

Gillett held the marshals position until 1885, when he left to accept a job managing the Estado Land and Cattle Company, a position he held for another six years. He started his own ranch after that, in Alpine, Texas, then moved he and his family to Roswell, New Mexico in 1907. Purchasing the Barrell Spring Ranch, Gillett then began raising a premium herd of Hereford cattle. Gillett retired from ranching in 1923, leasing his ranch to his son Milton, and moved to Marfa, Texas. In 1921, Gillett had written his memoirs, Six years with the Texas Rangers, which has remained in print since. He died of heart failure on June 11, 1937, and is buried in the Marfa cemetery.

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James Buchanan Gillett, Texas Ranger, author, and rancher, was born in Austin on November 4, 1856, the son of James S. and Elizabeth (Harper) Gillett. He had two sisters. The children were sent to private schools since there were no public schools in Austin at that time. Jim found them irksome, and in 1868 he quit school for a life in the outdoors. Because of his mother's ill health, the family moved to Lampasas in 1872. This was cattle country, and in 1873 he left home to work for nearby cattlemen. After his father's death in April 1874, he left for Menardville (later Menard). There, on June 1, 1875, Gillett joined the Texas Rangers, Daniel Webster Roberts's Company D, Frontier Battalion. He spent six years with the rangers on the frontier, including service with companies A, E, and C. This was the bloodiest period of the Texas Indian wars. Gillett fought Kiowa, Comanche, and Lipan Apache indians, as well as cattle thieves and outlaws. He was stationed in El Paso County in 1881, when, accompanied by ranger George Lloyd, he went to Zaragoza, Chihuahua, without extradition papers to capture Eunofrio Baca, who had murdered the newspaper editor A. M. Conklin in Socorro, New Mexico. Gillett grabbed the killer and galloped to the Rio Grande, four miles away, with men from the town chasing and shooting at them. Though Gillett turned Baca over to the sheriff in Socorro, Baca was lynched by a mob. There were international rumblings, and the Mexican government sent a complaint to Washington, but after a short time the furor diminished.

On February 10, 1881, Gillett married Helen Baylor, daughter of Capt. George W. Baylor, his company commander. They had two sons, one of whom, James Harper Gillett, became the first American bullfighter in Mexico (under the name Harper Lee). The marriage ended in divorce. In December 1881 Gillett resigned from the Texas Rangers and was appointed assistant city marshal of El Paso. In June 1882 he was appointed marshal. El Paso at that time was a town of many saloons and gambling houses, a gathering place for outlaws, gunmen, and desperadoes. Gillett, still in his twenties, was known as a man without fear. He reportedly did not swear or drink, but claimed that "no man will ever kill me drunk." On April 1, 1885, after having clubbed a city councilman with a six-shooter, he left the El Paso marshal's office and became manager of the Estado Land and Cattle Company. He held this position for almost six years, then resigned to ranch for himself. On May 1, 1889, Gillett married Lou Chastain in San Marcos. They had seven children.

Gillett ranched south of Alpine on the O6 and Altuda ranches. In May 1904 he sold the Altuda, acquired an alfalfa farm near Roswell, New Mexico, and moved his family there. A year later he sold the O6 Ranch. After farming for three years Gillett decided he was not suited for it. He sold the farm in April 1907 and moved his family back to Texas. He bought the Barrell Springs Ranch, made improvements, and began building a herd of registered Hereford cattle, which became well known for quality and brought premium prices. He wrote Six Years with The Texas Rangers (1921); it was republished in 1926 by Yale Press and in 1976 by the University of Nebraska Press. In 1928 it was condensed under the title The Texas Rangers and was used as a textbook in the public schools of seventeen states. Gillett retired at age sixty-seven, leased the ranch, sold his cattle to his son Milton, and moved to Marfa. He was a member of the Alpine Masonic lodge, a thirty-second-degree Scottish Rite Mason, director of the Marfa National Bank, and for many years the president of the Bloys Camp Meeting. He helped organize the West Texas Historical Association, was instrumental in organizing the Highland Hereford Breeders Association, and was a member of the First Christian Church. He died at Temple of heart failure on June 11, 1937, and was buried in the Marfa Cemetery. There is a Texas historical marker at his gravesite.