howeenterprise.com
Monday, December 31, 2018
Texas History Minute (continued from last week's edition)
in San Francisco, whic was the epicenter of the Gold Rush. At the time, it was the only port or city of any importance in Jack Hays, a California, though it began 1849 Tennessee native, with a population of a mere 500 became one of the residents. His sister, Sarah, and most noted of the her husband, Richard Hammond, Dr. Ken early Texas were encouraged by Hays’s Bridges Rangers, serving successes to make the trek with the group westward themselves. Though almost from its beginnings during Hays did not travel into the the Texas Revolution in 1836. The mountains to prospect himself, he actions of the Rangers were widely made a tidy fortune off real known and sometimes estate. controversial. However, Hays helped make it a respected force on In 1850, voters elected Hays to the frontier. As war with Mexico become Sheriff of San Francisco approached after Texas became a County. The city itself had state in 1845, Hays found that the surged past 50,000 residents. A Rangers were needed more than newcomer himself, voters trusted ever. him to tame a county almost out of control at the height of its gold As the United States supported the fever. It would be the only Texas claim on the border at the elective office he ever held. Rio Grande, contrary to Mexico’s claim of the border at the Nueces In 1853, he was appointed the River to the North, a confrontation federal surveyor-general of was inevitable to occur. When the California. As the Gold Rush Mexican War erupted in 1846, faded, more settlers entered Ranger knowledge of the disputed California focused on the riches territory was important in the early of the soil rather than the riches weeks of the fighting. The army of the mines. The position only was still small, so Hays quickly gained more importance as the organized six companies of economy of California volunteers for the fight. Hays and transitioned into agriculture. He his Rangers rode into Monterrey later moved across San Francisco with Gen. Zachary Taylor in the Bay and became one of the September 1846 battle, capturing a earliest residents of Oakland. key strategic point in northern Mexico. Months later, Hays led When the Civil War broke out in Texas Rangers through the 1861, he largely retired from any mountain passes near Veracruz on military activity. He contented the way into Mexico City with Gen. himself to stay at his estate in Winfield Scott, helping defeat the Oakland and concentrate on his last Mexican resistance to American investments and staying involved forces, often against superior in state politics. numbers. In the meantime, his family Hays returned to Texas as a hero. continued to have their own In 1848, the state legislature brushes with history. Younger organized Hays County, just south brother Harry became a noted of Austin, naming it in his honor. It lawyer in New Orleans and a was because of Hays and the Confederate general during the Rangers that even the design of Civil War, noted for his bravery firearms changed dramatically. at the Battle of Gettysburg. Their Hays’s expertise with the Navy Colt sister’s son, John Hays Patterson five-shot revolver Hammond, became an inspired Samuel Walker and ambassador and a mining Samuel Colt to produce the six-shot magnate with interests from Colt-Walker Revolver. Colorado to South Africa in the late 1800s, with their grandson His time with the Texas Rangers becoming the noted inventor of soon came to an end. Not long after the radio-guided torpedo and a the end of the Mexican War, Hays colleague of Thomas Edison. was appointed as the federal agent for tribes in the Gila River Valley Hays spent his last years tending of the New Mexico Territory, which to his investments and staying at that time included most of the active in state politics. He died at modern states of Arizona and New his home in California in 1883. Mexico. He was respected by both Today, Hays County is a growing the tribes and settlers in this suburban county of more than position, but he looked for other 200,000 residents. The Texas opportunities outside the deserts of Rangers he led are now far less of the Southwest. a military body and instead an elite police investigative unit, but As news of the discovery of gold no less a force to be reckoned touched off a massive move to with by outlaws. California for gold seekers, Hays joined the quest. He guided a wagon train through the New Mexico Territory on the way to California, discovering important Dr. Bridges is a Texas native, wagon trails along the way that writer, and history professor. He would take days off the travel time can be reached at for those that followed. He settled drkenbridges@gmail.com. © 2018 The Howe Enterprise
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