Captain Bill McDonald, Texas Ranger: A Story of Frontier Reform

Austin, TX: State House Press, 1986. LImited Edition #41 of 50 copies. 8vo. 454 pp. Index. Half brown leather spine over cream linen covered boards in publisher's cream linen slipcase. A fine copy, as new. First published in 1909, here is the biography of William Jesse McDonald (1852 - 1918); beginning in the 1880s he began his career as a peace officer in Wood County, TX. In 1891 McDonald was selected to replace S. A. McMurry as Captain of Company B, Frontier Battalion. He served as a Ranger captain until 1907. Capt. McDonald and his company took part in a number of celebrated cases including the Fitzsimmons-Maher prize fight, the Wichita Falls bank robbery, the Reese-Townsend feud, and the Brownsville Raid of 1906. His handling of the troops of the 25th U.S. Infantry during this last incident made him known as "a man who would charge hell with a bucket of water." He had a reputation as a gunman that rested upon his his marksmanship, and his ability to use his weapons to intimidate his opponents. McDonald is known as one of the "Four Great Captains." The others being John H. Rogers, John R. Hughes and John A. Brooks. In 1905, McDonald served as bodyguard to President Theodore Roosevelt. On his tombstone is carved the following motto: "No man in the wrong can stand up against a fellow that's in the right and keeps on a-comin'.