Howdy folks and greetings from the Great Plains of North Texas!
A couple months ago I saw the movie The Highwaymen starring Kevin Costner and Woody Harrelson.
It's about two famous retired Texas Rangers who were asked to come out of retirement to track down and kill the psycho serial killers Bonnie and Clyde.
Costner played Frank Hamer brilliantly:
It's a great movie, especially if you're a history buff because it's accurately done. But anyway, in the movie they referred to Kevin Costner's character, Frank Hamer, as a legendary lawman.
That kind of surprised me because I didn't know his story, probably because he worked at the very end of the Cowboy era and into modern times.
Well, it depends on what you call "modern" but the time of cars, telephones, and the end of the Wild West.
So I started researching to find out what he was about and WOW, his story is incredible! He was one of our greatest lawmen and most assuredly our most successful Texas Ranger.
And is shockingly unsung. I was blown away by his record and his exploits.
I think I'll do a series about him but for now I just wanted to share how he got his start in the Rangers. But I'll start from the beginning.
His upbringin
Frank was born in the Texas Hill Country in 1884, that's pretty close to the center of the state. He had 7 brothers and sisters and his dad was a blacksmith. Naturally, from an early age he worked with his dad.
We even have a photo of his family shop and home. The blacksmith shop and home sat beside each other.
Looks sorta like shacks don't they? They were poor.
That meant he spent long hours toiling away with a sledgehammer and anvil in his father’s shop. It helped him to grow up big and strong..6 ft 2 and all muscle.
His life was basically all work and no play. I can relate. No formal schooling after the sixth grade.
Frank said, “The only education I got was on the hurricane end of a Mexican pony.” lol.
He spent tons of time outdoors and became and expert hunter, rifleman, tracker, and rider(horses). He left home and worked in West Texas as a cowboy.
Here's a typical cowboy scene from that time period showing the herd of cattle and horses and the Chuck Wagon with the cook:
In the next post we'll talk about how he got in with the Rangers and how he earned their respect with the first case he was on.
Thanks for reading folks, God bless you all!
-jonboy
Texas
