TexasEscapes.comHistoric Texas: The Past As It Is Today
Columns: Historical, Humor and Opinion
Over 1000 Texas Towns & Ghost Towns
NEW : : RESERVATIONS : : TEXAS TOWNS A-Z : : FEATURES : : COLUMNS : : ARCHITECTURE : : IMAGES : : SITE MAP
HOME
SEARCH SITE
FORUM
RESERVATIONS
Hotels
Cars
Air
USA
World
Cruises
TEXAS TRAVEL
TOWNS A to Z
Towns by Region
GHOST TOWNS
TRIPS :
State Parks
Rivers
Lakes
Drives
Maps
LODGING
TEXAS
COLUMNS
FEATURES :
Ghosts
People
Historic Trees
Cemeteries
ARCHITECTURE :
Courthouses
Jails
Bridges
Theaters
Churches
Gas Stations
Water Towers
Monuments
Statues

Schoolhouses
Post Offices
Depots
IMAGES :
Old Neon
Murals
Signs
BOOKS
Links
TE
Site Information
Recommend Us
Newsletter
About Us
Contact TE
 
 Texas : Features : Columns : "Texas Tales"
Missing Coat
by Mike Cox
Mike Cox
Third-term Sterling County Sheriff S.T. Wood twisted a little more wax on his handlebar mustache and leaned back comfortably in his captain’s chair.

That hot afternoon in June 1906 he might have been thinking about catching a short nap. Nothing much had been going on of late, and seldom did anything go on in the sparsely populated West Texas county.

Then the telephone rang.

Picking up the earpiece, the lawman heard one of his constituents shout into the receiver of his ranch phone:

“Sheriff, somebody’s made off with my Sunday coat.”

Like any good peace officer, Wood made note of what the complainant reported missing. Then, again like most good lawmen, the sheriff promised to see what he could do. Forgetting his nap, Wood walked over to the livery stable to saddle his horse.

The following saga of the Old West could have been lost to history, crowded out by Billy the Kid, John Wesley Hardin, Sam Bass and others, had it not been for an enterprising reporter in Garden City, the county’s second community. Like most journalists, he sometimes could have been correctly accused of making something big out of something little – especially on a slow news day.

The story that appeared concerning the Case of the Missing Coat made page-one news in volume one, number one of the Garden City Gazette, a weekly then published and edited by J. Marvin Hunter.

Four decks of type touted the tale:
A Sterling County Chase

Sheriff Has a Merry Race
After Two Young Men Wanted for Theft of Clothing

Dropped Their Booty

Made Good Their Escape –
Fences No Obstacle to Their Flight. Closely Pursued.
The story, with true names omitted, begins:

“[John Doe], who lives near Garden City, had missed his Sunday coat and vest from the ranch house, and [name omitted], who lives on [Blank] Ranch, had also missed a hat and a pair of valuable spurs from the ranch house, and having suspicion that [names omitted] had gotten them, he phoned Sheriff Wood to look out for them.”

The story continues, reporting that “the gents came to town” and that the sheriff “requested an interview with them to which they consented, but made some excuse and rode off toward the river, where they were followed by the sheriff who saw them emerging from under a bluff.”

Wood caught them, searched them and found nothing of the missing articles. Having no reason to further detain them, the lawman allowed them to go on their way.

But Wood believed in putting in a day’s work for the taxpayers, so long as there was work to do. Not satisfied with their story, Wood returned to where he had first seen the suspected garment heisters. There, much to his consternation, he saw a vest floating in the river.

Looking around along the river bank, he discovered a coat with a hat wrapped up in it.

Leather creaked as the lawman mounted his horse and galloped off in the cloud of clods and dust, the late frontier equivalent of Code 3.

According to the Gazette story, the coat culprits could be seen in the distance “making tracks for San Angelo.”

They rode down a lane at a fast pace, passing through a gate into another ranch pasture.

“All this time the sheriff was pressing them hard,” the story continued.

As Wood gained on them, the pair crossed a stream and disappeared into thick brush.

By this time, several ranchers had come to the aid of the sheriff. The posse stayed on the trail, cutting their quarry off at the proverbial pass, the pursuers surprising the thieves when they rode into a clearing. That’s when the real chase began, spurs pressing into horseflesh in an early 20th century version of “World’s Scariest Police Chases.”

“No one threw off,” the newspaper account continued. “For more than a mile it was nip and tuck as to who would win, but [the suspects] having about 300 yards the start, won out and made their escape in the brush, and they have not been seen since.”

Even so, all was not lost. The crime victims got most of their property back (whether the missing spurs turned up went unmentioned) and Wood could count on at least two votes for the rest of his tenure as Sterling County’s sheriff.
© Mike Cox
"Texas Tales" - September 15, 2005 column
HOME
Privacy Statement | Disclaimer
Website Content Copyright ©1998-2005. Texas Escapes - Blueprints For Travel, LLC. All Rights Reserved
This page last modified: September 15, 2005