Early Settlers and Indian Fighters of Southwest Texas

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can usually download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1900 edition. Excerpt: ... son of the captain, and Joe Riff, both rangers, were killed on the Blanco by Indians. When the bodies were found, the signs of battle showed with what desperate valor the young rangers had sold their lives. This was about the last of Indian raids on this part of the frontier. After Captain Richarz left the frontier service heserved as justice and attended to his stock and farm. Served one term as representative of the Fifty-second district in the Legislature. His hearing becoming defective, he was incapacitated from further public service, and he spends a quiet life on the west bank of the Seco, in a romantic spot near the foot of the hills, where he attends to his irrigated garden and orchard. He reads the finest print without glasses, and never misses a rabbit or turkey at the distance of eighty yards with a rifle. He has a kind and friendly disposition, and has many friends. His judgment of men and things is astute, and he h^s a blunt way of talking and expressing himself, but his judgment is seldom at fault. He is a devoted Texan, and liberal in his views. GIDEON THOMPSON. Came to Texas in 1852. Among the first settlers who came to Sabinal Canyon, but few have had a more varied or interesting experience than Mr. Gideon Thompson, who still survives at this date (1899) to tell the tale of frontier days. Mr. Thompson was born in Hawkins County, eastern Tennessee, on the 3d day of November, 1822. In 1842 we find him in the State of Arkansas, where the same year he married Miss Margarette O'Bryant. He came to Texas in 1852, and in the fall of the same year wended his way to Sabinal Canyon, the extreme limit at that time of civilization in southwest Texas. Mr. Thompson made a short stop in San Antonio on his way out, and says at that time...