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19th Century Shining Star:
Major John B. Jones

By Chuck Parsons

If ever the adage "the right man in the right place" was appropriate, it was when Texas looked for someone to lead the Frontier Battalion and found John B. Jones. He was a quiet, unassuming, taciturn man who was the personification of quality leadership. The state of Texas could not have found anyone better for the position of leading six companies of seventy-five men each. Jones’ work area was virtually half the state—from the Red River to the Rio Grande and, for a period of time, as far west as El Paso.

Jones was born December 22, 1834, in the Fairfield District of South Carolina, the son of Henry and Nancy (Robertson) Jones. When he was four years old, the family moved to Texas, settling in Travis County. In 1842, they moved to Matagorda County and, from there, to Navarro County. Jones had an above-average education, receiving his lessons in the Mount Zion Institute in Winnsboro, South Carolina.[1] The proof of his effective schooling is revealed in his reports and letters written as major of the Frontier Battalion.

Jones began farming and stock raising, and he continued this work until the Civil War broke out. He entered as a private in the 8th Texas Cavalry (Terry's Texas Cavalry) and rose to captain. Within months, he was promoted to adjutant of the 15th Texas Infantry of Joseph W. Speight. In 1863, he was appointed adjutant general of a brigade, with the rank of captain. In 1864, he was recommended for promotion to be major, but the war ended prior to his receiving the higher rank.

At the conclusion of the war, Jones believed there was a future in South America, and he traveled there intending to establish a colony for former Confederates. After two years looking for a suitable place to establish such a colony, Jones lost his enthusiasm for the project and returned to Texas.

In 1868, Jones was elected to the Texas state legislature as a representative of Ellis, Hill, Kaufman and Navarro Counties. This was Reconstruction, however, and the Radical Republicans, then in power, prevented Jones from taking his seat. All was not lost, though, as he now established a ranch in Navarro County where he bred and raised horses. At the same time, he became deeply involved in the Masons and was appointed grand high priest of the Grand Chapter of Royal Arch Masons in 1872. Two years later, he was called upon to serve Texas.[2]

In 1874, Richard Coke was the new governor of the Lone Star state, replacing E. J. Davis. Under Davis, the State Police force had accomplished some good work but, at the same time, there were too many bad apples in the organization. As a result, the average Texan found the force unsatisfactory, and many became desperadoes, actually fighting the State Police. Under the Davis regime, such men as John Wesley Hardin, Bill Longley, the Horrells, and the Taylors were branded as outlaws. They continued under the regime of the new governor, Richard Coke.

Coke established a new force to establish law and order in the state. It was termed the Frontier Battalion. Coke's thoughts leading him to ultimately select Jones to head this force is not recorded, but Jones’ oath of office is preserved. On May 19, 1874, he wrote out this oath, witnessed by Samuel P. Frost, notary public of the county of Navarro:

I Jno. B. Jones do solemnly swear that I will bear true allegiance to the State of Texas, and that I will Serve her honestly and faithfully against all enemies or opposers whatsoever, and observe & obey the orders of the Governor of the state, and the orders of the officers appointed over me according to an Act of the Legislature for raising a Battalion for frontier protection approved April 10 1874. [Signed] Jno. B. Jones.[3]

Jones began his Ranger career earning $125.00 per month. His first pay voucher from May 2 through August 31, 1874, came to $495.82.[4]

In the beginning, the Frontier Battalion was to be composed of six companies consisting of a captain, lieutenants, sergeants, corporals, and privates. When mustered to the utmost, there were seventy-five privates in each company. Under Major Jones, this force proved to be so effective that, in less than a year, the numbers were drastically lowered. This was also due to the legislature reducing the amount of monies for the force.

Jones wasted no time in obtaining reliable men to captain the companies, which were designated A, B, C, D, E and F. The captains and their companies were:

Captain John R. Waller - Company A
George W. Stephens - Company B
E. F. Ikard - Company C
Cicero R. Perry - Company D (which ultimately became the most famous of      the companies)
William J. Maltby - Company E
Hiram Mitchel - Company F

The orders to these early Rangers were initially to "proceed at once to [the] organization of their company calling to their aid the Lieutenants assigned to them." Curiously, some adjustments had to be made early as Mitchel was quickly replaced by Neal Coldwell.[5]

The companies were stationed along an imaginary line from near the Red River in the north to the Nueces River in the south. Jones did not set himself up in his office and allow his captains and lieutenants to "run the frontier." Rather, he quickly joined a company and traveled up and down the frontier line, establishing the discipline he expected in the companies as well as learning firsthand the quality of men under his command. Most importantly, for the morale of the force, he shared in the same dangers his men experienced. Like McNelly of the Special State Troops, Jones was a true leader of men; he led them into action where warranted, never ordering them to go where he would not himself go.

Early in this portion of his career, Jones proved his ability as a leader and a fighter. It was on July 12 in Jack County that Jones and a group of some three dozen Rangers—mostly young men totally inexperienced in fighting—survived the charges of some 150 Kiowa and Comanche warriors led by Lone Wolf. The Indians were armed mainly with breech-loading rifles, and all were well mounted. Major Jones stood on the line throughout the engagement, showing no fear. How many warriors were killed or wounded by the Rangers is unknown, but the loss suffered by the Rangers was two killed: Privates D. W. H. Bailey and William A. Glass, and two wounded: Lee Corn and George Moore. Thirteen of the Ranger horses were either killed or wounded. This engagement proved to all Texans that Major Jones was an effective leader and was not afraid to share the same hardships and dangers as his men.[6]

As the Indian menace was gradually reduced—due to the effectiveness of the Frontier Battalion—more and more energy was spent in ridding the state of private wars or "family feuds." In 1875, the troubles in Mason County reached an intolerable point. This conflict was essentially an ethnic feud between German and American settlers, mingled with rustlers from both sides. Jones reached Mason on September 29, the day following the murder of county brand inspector, Daniel Hoerster. Jones found it "impossible to get consistent or reliable account of the troubles and [have] to report that very few of the Americans whom I have met yet manifest any disposition to assist in the arrest of the perpetrators of yesterdays deed [of killing Hoerster]."[7] At least fifteen men were killed during the feud, and the situation was not settled until Captain Ira Long and his men were brought in. Even then, the dying embers occasionally flared up again.

The busiest year for Major Jones was certainly that of 1877. In April, he engineered the Kimble County Roundup, during which some forty men were arrested when Rangers of several companies invaded the county and took into custody every man who could not give a good account of himself. All the men that Jones had papers for were arrested, with the exception of only a handful. The good citizens had been overpowered by outlaws, but after Jones' work, they lived in a peaceful county.[8]

Another feud of the Hill Country which demanded Jones' energies was a cattle-rustling war. This conflict had the Horrell brothers and their associates on one side and John P. C. "Pink" Higgins and his cronies on the opposite position. The primary violence took place in Lampasas County, a mere hundred miles from the state capital itself. It began with the accusation by Higgins that the Horrells were stealing his cattle. Several men were killed by an ambush and also during a street fight in Lampasas on the courthouse square. Major Jones managed to convince members of both parties that peace was preferable to continuing the feud. On the night of July 28, 1877, Jones ordered Sergeant N. O. Reynolds out to arrest the Horrells, which he did in spite of a driving rainstorm and being outnumbered. Reynolds took the Horrells into custody while Major Jones brought in Pink Higgins and several of his followers. For all practical purposes, this feud was stopped, with both parties signing a document promising to respect the other.[9]

The only real disappointment for Major Jones involved his detachment of Rangers in far West Texas. This occurred in the 1877 conflict over the salt beds, a dispute which has become known as the El Paso Salt War. A number of men had been killed, and a detachment of Rangers had actually surrendered. Major Jones was ordered there to bring peace to the troubled area before further blood was shed.[10]

Perhaps the most glorious experience for Major Jones was his breaking up of the Sam Bass gang of train and bank robbers. This group, then composed of Bass, Sebe Barnes, Jim Murphy (a traitor to the gang), and Frank Jackson, intended to rob the bank at Round Rock, Williamson County, on July 19, 1878. Murphy managed to get word to Major Jones of the plan. Although Jones was then in Austin, he and several Rangers hurried to Round Rock just when gunfire erupted on the street. This altercation was thanks to two deputies attempting to arrest two "strangers" for wearing pistols within the town's limits. The strangers were Bass and Barnes. Major Jones, along with Rangers Richard C. Ware and George Herold, turned out in the street to fight the outlaws. Ware killed Barnes with a shot in the head, and Bass was severely wounded by a bullet from George Herold. Jones' bullets certainly added to the smoke, noise, and confusion, but apparently his shots went wide of their mark. Frank Jackson managed to get Bass out of town, where his trail was temporarily lost due to the incoming darkness. The next day, a squad under Sergeant Charles L. Nevill found the dying Bass and brought him back to Round Rock. There he died on his birthday, July 21, 1878. He was twenty-seven years old.[11]

This successful mission resulted in Jones being appointed adjutant general by Governor O. M. Roberts. It was certainly a worthy honor for him. Jones had personally faced the Kiowa and Comanche at Lost Valley, trailed outlaws in Mason County, and arranged peace treaties in Lampasas County. He was sent to El Paso to settle the troubles there, and then exchanged shots with the Bass gang in the dusty street of Round Rock. No man could have done more for the state unless he gave his life in the line of duty.

When he was well past middle age, Major John B. Jones allowed himself to be captured by a lady, Mrs. Annie Henderson Anderson. The wedding took place at the bride's home on the evening of Tuesday, February 25, 1879, with the Reverend Charles C. Chaplin, pastor of Austin's First Baptist Church, officiating. Jones inherited a ready-made family. Annie’s children by her first marriage included seven sons and daughters ranging in age from eight to twenty-one years of age. The 1880 Travis County census reveals Adjutant General of the State Troops Major Jones was forty-five years old; his wife, forty-one. The nine-member family had four servants to care for the household.[12]

This marriage was short-lived, however. On Tuesday, July 19, 1881, Major John B. Jones "departed this life after a long and painful illness." One obituary stated Jones "was distinguished for his gentlemanly, unassuming address, and he possessed to a marked degree all the attributes that ennoble and ornament the life of a true man."[13]

Grave of John B. Jones

No other figure of the Frontier Battalion ever managed to attain the high respect and near reverence that Major Jones did. He was indeed the right man in the right place.

Notes

1. "General John B. Jones." Austin Daily Statesman, July 20, 1881. A lengthy obituary providing a succinct biography of Jones.

2. Ibid. and Biographical Souvenir of the State of Texas. No author given. Chicago: F. A. Battey & Company, 1889, 469-70. and Galveston Daily News, July 20, 1881.

3. Original, hand-written oath preserved in Jones' service record file. Texas State Archives, Austin.

4. Ibid.

5. Details of the beginnings of the Frontier Battalion are found in the Adjutant General Papers, Texas State Archives.

6. The best overall account of the Lost Valley engagement remains The Buffalo War: The History of the Red River Indian Uprising of 1874 by James L. Haley, reprint by State House Press, Austin, 1998.

7. Major Jones’ correspondence to Adjutant General William Steele, September 30, 1874. Original in Texas State Archives.

8. The Kimble County roundup is described in Robert M. Utley's Lone Star Justice: The First Century of the Texas Rangers. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002, 179-80.

9. See The Bloody Legacy of Pink Higgins by Bill O'Neal. Austin: Eakin Press, 1999.

10. The best history of this episode remains the “El Paso Salt War” chapter in Ten Texas Feuds by C. L. Sonnichsen. Albuquerque: University of New Mexico Press, 1971, 108-56. Reprint of 1957 edition.

11. See Rick Miller's Sam Bass and Gang. Austin: State House Press, 1999.

12. Travis County, Texas, census, enumerated June 3, 1880, by Thomas A. Taylor. pp. 253 A & B.

13. Austin Daily Statesman, July 20, 1881.

For Further Reading

Hatley, Allen G. Bringing the Law to Texas: Crime and Violence in Nineteenth Century Texas. LaGrange: Centex Press, 2002.

Jones, Billy Mac. "John B. Jones" in Rangers of Texas by Roger Conger et al. Waco: Texian Press, 1969.

Morris, John Miller. A Private in the Texas Rangers: A. T. Miller of Company B, Frontier Battalion. College Station: Texas A & M University Press, 2001.

Robinson, Charles M. III. The Men Who Wear the Star: The Story of the Texas Rangers. New York: Random House, 2000.

Utley, Robert M. Lone Star Justice: The First Century of the Texas Rangers. New York: Oxford University Press, 2002.

Wilkins, Frederick. The Law Comes to Texas: The Texas Rangers, 1870-1901. Austin: State House Press, 1999.