The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 78, July 1974 - April, 1975 Page: 275
562 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Notes and Documents
danger here was immediate and great." Langford gathered up his family
and what belongings he could carry. The Big Bend was left to the mercy
of the bandits.s
The raiders were not long in coming. Chico Cano, with his brothers
Jose and Manuel, had terrorized the Big Bend for several years. In January,
1913, United States Customs Inspectors Joe Sitters and J. S. Howard and
cattle association inspector J. W. Harwick arrested Chico Cano in western
Presidio County for smuggling and horse stealing. Headed toward jail, they
were ambushed by the Cano band and Chico escaped. Sitters and Howard
were wounded in the shooting, Howard fatally. "They were not Carran-
zistas, they were not Villistas, they were not anything," claimed rancher
E. W. Nevill of the Canos. "Whoever is in charge on the border . . . they
are with." The following month a band of robbers crossed the Rio Grande
and raided the Lee Hancock ranch, fourteen miles northeast of Alpine, and
the Lawrence Haley ranch, taking guns, ammunition, five good horses,
saddles, bridles, and several other items. A posse, organized by Sheriff J.
Allen Walton, gave chase, but the bandits escaped. "The lower part of
Brewster County is a desolate and broken mountain country," reported the
Alpine Avalanche, "and . . . it would be a hard matter to locate any one
familia[r] with that section who was trying to avoid detection. As the
Mexicans are known to be bad men and are armed to the teeth, there has
been much uneasiness felt about those who are pursuing them."9
Such incidents provoked citizen demands that the soldiers be returned to
the Big Bend. J. R. Landrum, postmaster at Boquillas, appealed to Texas
Senator Morris Sheppard for help, pointing out that Boquillas, Ioo miles
from the railroad, was "scarcely settled," And provided an inviting target
for raiders. The situation had been calm until the troops withdrew, he
wrote, but now the citizens were apprehensive. He asked Senator Sheppard
to use his influence with the War Department to have the troops returned.
The Alpine Avalanche also called attention to the necessity that troops
be assigned to the border. Texas Governor Oscar B. Colquitt wired Presi-
dent William H. Taft that troops were still needed along the border, then
authorized Sheriff Walton to deputize as many men as he felt necessary to
8Langford, Big Bend, 150 (quotation), 151.
9A few years after Howard's death, Chico Cano and several others rode by Sitter's
camp, purposely leaving a trail. At daybreak when the officers took up the trail, Cano
and his gang staged another ambush, killing Sitters and a companion. See Alpine Ava-
lanche, February 20, 1913; [W. D. Smithers], "Bandit Raids in the Big Bend Coun-
try," Pancho Villa's Last Hangout-On Both Sides of the Rio Grande in the Big Bend
Country (Alpine, n.d.), 65, 67; Walter Prescott Webb, The Texas Rangers: A Century
of Frontier Defense (Boston, r935), 498 (first and second quotations), 501.275
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 78, July 1974 - April, 1975, periodical, 1974/1975; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth117149/m1/322/: accessed April 27, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.