Ranger Jim’s Ramblings for January

This month, we conclude our postings about the El Paso Salt War.

Having allowed himself and his men to be surrounded, Lieutenant Tays did what no Ranger had ever done previously on Texas soil, and has never done since. He surrendered to the enemy. He, his men, and the men they were protecting were disarmed and taken prisoner. John Atkinson, John McBride, and Charles Howard, who had precipitated the entire fiasco by laying claim to the salt lakes and refusing to allow the Mexicans to continue harvesting salt, as they had done for years, were selected to be executed. As was just about everything in the El Paso Salt War, even the executions were botched.

Charles Howard was put to death first, despite his claims of innocence. In his arrogance, it never occurred to him he was the cause of all the trouble he had started. When he was shot, he didn’t die instantly, but fell to the ground, kicking and squirming. A Mexican named Jesus Telles ran up to the dying man and struck at him with a machete, but instead missed the squirming Howard and cut off two of his  own toes. Then Howard was hacked and mutilated.

John McBride was executed without making any statement.

John Atkinson, when brought to face the firing squad, reminded the Mexicans in excellent Spanish that they had promised to let all go free, if Howard’s bond had been paid, which it had. He then asked them if they intended to violate their pledge, which of course they already had with the executions of Howard and McBride. When the Mexicans insisted they were going to execute him also, then Atkinson replied. “Then let me die with honor. I will give the word.” He removed his coat, opened his shirt to bare his breast, and said, “When I give the word, fire at my heart - FIRE!”

Five bullets hit Atkinson in the belly. He staggered, but didn’t fall. “Mas arriba, cabrones!” (Higher up, you ______!) he shouted. Two more shots were fired. Atkinson fell, still not dead. He pointed to his head, and a Mexican named Desidero Apodaca shot him in the head and finally finished him off.

In the meantime, mobs were looting and plundering most of the homes and businesses. Most of them also wanted the rest of the Anglos killed. It was only the intervention of Chico Barela which stopped the mob from killing more men. The Rangers were kept under guard until morning, their fate uncertain.  Several of the Mexican leaders wanted the Rangers put to death, but Chico Barela convinced the mob otherwise. The Rangers were given their horses but not their weapons, and permitted to leave for Franklin.

Of course, the deaths of Anglos at the hands of Mexicans and Mexican Texans would not go unavenged. Within a few days, the Rangers and a posse led by Sheriff Kerber were on their way back. There first stop was at Ysleta, where they took two prisoner, a Mexican and an Indian. The next day, both prisoners were killed, allegedly when trying to escape. An innocent man in Socorro was killed by several Rangers. Jesus Telles, the man who had hacked off his own toes, was also killed there. The Rangers intended to go further, but US Army General Edward Hatch arrived and reported the road to San Elizario was lined with men waiting in ambush. Tays took Hatch’s advice and returned to Yselta with his men.

On December 28th, the entire sorry affair reached its conclusion. Tays and his Rangers recovered the bodies of Howard, Atkinson, and McBride from where they had been tossed into an old well. Atkinson and McBride were buried in San Elizario, Howard in Franklin.

A commission of inquiry was later held, but none of its recommendations were ever carried out. For some reason, Tays was not removed of his command, but remained in charge of the Rangers in El Paso for some time.

The El Paso Salt War was an ignominious affair which brought shame on just about everyone involved in it, Mexican and Anglo alike. Even to this day, over one hundred and fifty years later, people in Texas tend to avoid any discussion of it. The El Paso Salt War was one of the most disgraceful episodes in the history of Texas, and in particular the Texas Rangers.

Next month, back to horses. With luck the weather will have improved around here so I can hit the trails again.

Ranger Jim’s Ramblings for December

First of all, Merry Christmas, a belated Happy Hannukah to those who have already celebrated, and Happy New Year and best wishes to those who don’t observe either. I think that covers just about everyone.

Now, back to the El Paso Salt War. You’ll recall when we left off that Texas Ranger Major John B. Jones had departed El Paso, leaving the Rangers there under the command of newly appointed Lieutenant Tays, a man who would prove unequal to the task of commanding a contingent of Rangers and other law enforcement personnel facing a mob. When the mob first began to form, Tays requested help from the U.S. Army in El Paso, under the command of Captain Blair. In the meantime, Tays and Charles Howard, the man who had precipitated all the trouble by buying the rights to the Salt Lakes and refusing to allow the Mexicans access to salt they had been harvesting for years, reached the Ranger quarters in San Elizario. They were put under siege by the mob. Captain Blair and fourteen men reached the vicinity of the Rangers about nine o’clock in the evening, where he was intercepted by a mob of, by his estimate, one hundred and twenty men.  The mob leaders accused Blair of coming to protect Howard. Blair denied this, and assured the Mexicans he would not interfere in the affair at all, and marched back to El Paso.

In the first hours of the siege, on a Wednesday night, Lieutenant Hays put out a double guard. Howard and some of his friends went to Ellis’ store nearby to spend the night. They came back saying Ellis had left and not returned. Ellis’ body was brought in two days later, wrapped in  a gunny sack. His scalp, eyebrows, and beard had been cut off and his throat slashed from ear to ear. He had also been stabbed twice in the heart.

On Thursday morning, daylight showed the Rangers’ quarters was surrounded by three picket lines, with squads of horsemen in between. The Rangers’ and the men with them stretched ropes across the openings in the buildings and cut portholes into the adobe walls. John Atkinson, one of Howard’s bondsmen, arrived with eleven thousand dollars. Atkinson, who spoke Spanish, then had a parley with one of the Mexican leaders, Cisto Calciedo. Calciedo told him if Howard wasn’t handed over within three hours the Mexicans would shoot Howard and burn Atkinson’s house. Ranger Sergeant Mortimer was shot and fatally wounded as he crossed from one building to another. Tays, under fire, dragged in the dead Ranger’s body. The firing from the Mexicans became constant and at such close range the Rangers could not even attempt to reach the roofs in order to return fire. About four o’clock in the afternoon, the justice of the peace came with a flag of truce, passing along a request from the Mexicans for a ceasefire for the night. The truce lasted only a short while before Ranger Santiago Cooper went to the roof to get some blankets and had his hat shot off and his coat perforated with a shower of bullets. The Rangers opened more portholes and placed men in each room of the building. During the night firing became merely sporadic.

Next month: The only time a contingent of Texas Rangers surrendered to the enemy on Texas soil.

Ranger Jim’s Ramblings for October - More on The El Paso Salt War

Got to do this fast, because there’s severe thunderstorms about a half hour away rolling in my direction so will probably have to shut my computer down.

When last we left the El Paso Salt War, murder was about to out. On October 10th, Luis Cardis entered the store of E. Schutz and Brother in El Paso. He was sitting with his back to the door when Charles Howard entered, carrying a double-barreled shotgun. A bystander attempted to warn Cardis, who was able to get behind a desk which protected the upper portion of his body. His move was to no avail, as Howard emptied one barrel into Cardis’ lower belly, groin, and legs and as he fell emptied the other barrel into Cardis’ chest, penetrating his heart. Howard calmly left, but realizing discretion would be the better idea took two servants and fled by buggy for Mesilla, New Mexico.

Two days before Cardis was killed, Governor Hubbard asked his adjutant general Steele about sending Rangers to El Paso. Steele told him the nearest Rangers were over five hundred miles away, and it would take a month to get two companies of Rangers to El Paso. Steele also said the Rangers were needed more urgently elsewhere. With Howard gone, nothing much happened until October 24th, at which time Judge A. Blacker wired the governor, from Fort Stockton, that El Paso County was in the hands of a mob which completely controlled the city and county.

On October 24th, Major John B. Jones, famed commander of the Frontier Battalion of the Texas Rangers, left Austin and went to Mesilla, where on November 3rd he met with Howard and his friends, getting only their side of the story. Since Jones was an Anglo, and was meeting only with Anglos, he was hearing all sorts of dire warnings, such as this issued by Sheriff Kerber from Yselta:

“Be on the lookout, Major, these greasers are very treacherous.”

Upon arrival in El Paso, Jones wired the governor that the trouble was indeed serious. He also said: “Think I can control the mob in a few days, in the meantime will organize three months’ minute company.” He later decided to recruit a detachment for Company C, Frontier Battalion, and place it under the command of a local man, John B. Tays, who would have the rank of lieutenant.

For one of the few times in his life and illustrious career, Major John B. Jones, usually a fine judge of character, completely misread a man. His appointment of Tays would lead to disaster.

The lightning and thunder are getting close, so… to be continued in November.

        

Ranger Jim’s Ramblings for September

As promised last month, this post will deal with one of the most shameful incidents in the history of the Texas Rangers, The El Paso Salt War. Even boiling the Salt War down to its very basics will take more than one post, so the I will take the next few months to recite the tale, kind of like a serial in the old pulps.

The Salt War involved politics, intrigue, greed, corruption, unscrupulous businessmen, Mexican peons, a corrupt and eventually disgraced Roman Catholic priest, officials from both the United States and Mexico, local law, and the Texas Rangers. It was marked by misunderstanding, miscalculation, and mistakes all around. Even an execution was botched. It also marks the only time a company of Texas Rangers surrendered to the enemy on Texas soil.

While the actual “Salt War” took place in 1877, the history goes back as far as 1862. In 1877, El Paso, Texas was still a very isolated settlement, separated from the settled parts of the Lone Star State by miles of badlands, bad roads, and no railroad. El Paso is over six hundred miles from Austin or San Antonio, and at that time the nearest settlements of any kind were five hundred or so miles away. In between water was scarce at best, sometimes impossible to find at worst.

The city itself was “divided” into Anglo and Mexican factions. There were about twelve thousand Mexican in the area, about five thousand in Texas and seven thousand on the other side of the Rio Grande. The Anglos numbered only about eighty, and they were fragmented further into English, Germans, Jews, even a few Canadians. Clearly the Anglos were far outnumbered. It was under these circumstances that the Salt War occurred.

The Salt Lakes themselves are a good distance from El Paso, near the Guadalupe Mountains, approximately one hundred ten miles east, or ninety miles from San Elizario, Mexico. El Pasoans first took note of them about 1862. By 1863, the Mexican citizens of El Paso opened a road to the Salt Lakes. The salt was free for anyone who wanted it, was bartered in Mexico, and was an important source of cash for the border population. However, it didn’t take long for Texans from outside the area to attempt to acquire legal possession of the Salt Lakes, monopolize the salt, and collect a fee for each wagonload of salt removed. Samuel Maverick, the same rancher who gave us the term “maverick” for unbranded cattle by refusing to brand his herds, made the first attempt in 1866, but his certificate did not include all of the Lakes. The Mexicans and Texas-Mexicans were soon hauling salt again.

In 1867, another attempt was made. Two of the principals in the company were A.J. Fountain and W.W. Mills. When their certificate of location proved defective, the company broke into two factions, one headed by Fountain, the other by Mills. This split eventually fractured the Republican party in El Paso, which by then was the only strong area left for Republicans, most of the state now firmly Democratic. Into all this mix was added an Italian priest named Antonio Borajo. He intended to make a fortune for himself through the salt trade. When Fountain defied him, Borajo turned to another Italian, Don Luis Cardis. To sum up what happened next, Borajo and Cardis played the Mexicans against the Anglos and the Anglos against each other. This provided the opportunity for one Charles H. Howard, a Democrat and unscrupulous businessman, to step into the breach. He made an arrangement with Borajo and Cardis, they would deliver the Mexican vote and in turn they would become partners with him in the salt trade.  Soon there was a falling out, with most of the Mexicans supporting Cardis, who had the money-crazed Borajo with him, and the Americans and some Mexicans supporting Howard. By now, the Church had gotten wind of Borajo’s perfidy, and ordered him recalled, and reassigned into interior Mexico. However, he refused to leave, and even threatened the bishop with murder when he arrived in San Elizario.

In June, 1977, Howard surveyed his property and posted notices he owned the Salt Lakes and ordered that no salt be taken without paying his company a fee. He had two Mexicans arrested merely on the allegation they were planning on taking salt without paying. When the charges against one were dismissed, but the other was held, the first riot broke out. Judge G.N. Garcia, who had ordered the second Mexican held but refused to issue a requested warrant for Howard’s arrest, was seized by a mob. Howard and several of his cohorts were also captured. Howard was only released upon relinquishing all claims to the Salt Lakes and posting a twelve thousand dollar bond, ordering that he leave El Paso County and never return.

Of course, Howard had no intention of leaving El Paso and the potential profits from salt. By October 7th, he was back in El Paso. Murder would soon follow…

To be continued…