Capt. John R. Hughes

Hughes lived four years among the Choctaw and Osage in Indian Territory, then from 1874 in the Comanche Nation, trading near Fort Sill and befriending Quanah Parker. He bought a horse farm near Liberty Hill, and in 1886 he trailed a band of horse thieves for months into New Mexico and brought his neighbors' horses home. Sworn in on August 10, 1887, he became captain of Company D in 1893. Known as the "Border Boss," he guarded President William Howard Taft and Porfirio Diaz at their 1909 El Paso meeting. Zane Grey dedicated The Lone Star Ranger to him.

What the plaque says

Capt. John R. Hughes (Feb. 11, 1855 - June 3, 1947) Texas Ranger, 1887-1915. Noted for ability, courage, firmness. Born in Kansas. Came to Texas in 1870s. Upon retirement, went into ranching and banking. Erected 1970

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Texas State Cemetery — steps away
  A hill east of the Capitol that began with one general's grave in 1851 and now holds Stephen F. Austin, governors, Barbara Jordan and more than 2,000 Confederate veterans and widows.
• French Legation State Historic Site — 0.3 mi
  A raised pine house built in 1840 and 1841 for France's envoy to the Republic of Texas, who left Austin in a rage over a neighbor's pigs before it was finished.
• George Washington Carver Museum — 0.4 mi
  East Austin's museum of Black history and culture, grown from a segregated branch library moved across town in 1933, with a permanent exhibit on Juneteenth at its core.
• Texas State Capitol — 1.0 mi
  Austin's fourth statehouse, a Renaissance Revival capitol of 1888 that stands 311 feet to its Goddess of Liberty and was restored after the 1983 fire.

More markers nearby

• Thomas Pliney Plaster — steps away
• Robert Potter — steps away
• James Wales Jones — steps away
• Dr. Gideon Lincecum — steps away