Captain Will Wright

Born in Lockhart in 1868 to Little Berry Wright and Ann Elizabeth Tumlinson, Wright worked as a cowboy on the Eckhardt Ranch in DeWitt County and the Rutledge Ranch in Karnes County before he joined the Rangers in 1899 and served in Company E under John H. Rogers. As sheriff he was elected president of the Texas Sheriffs' Association for a term. Talkative and bespectacled, he is counted with Frank Hamer, Manuel "Lone Wolf" Gonzaullas and Tom Hickman among the "Big Four" who carried the Rangers from the horseback era to the Department of Public Safety.

What the plaque says

Captain Will Wright (1868-1942) Founding officer, Co. D, Texas Rangers. Had uncles, brother, sons in Rangers and Border Patrol. Wilson County deputy sheriff, 1896-1900; sheriff, 1902-1917. While in office reared his family in the jailer's quarters. Always was armed. A stern leader, but gentlemanly and kind. (1967)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Mission Espada and the Espada Aqueduct — 22 mi
  The southernmost San Antonio mission and the oldest Spanish aqueduct in the United States, still carrying river water over Sixmile Creek to the fields after nearly three centuries.
• Mission San Juan — 23 mi
  The mission near the river bend where the San Antonio got its name in 1691, with an unfinished church foundation and farm fields still watered by an eighteenth-century acequia.
• San Antonio Missions National Historical Park — 25 mi
  Four working parish churches on the Mission Trail south of downtown, with the visitor center at Mission San Jose, the Queen of the Missions, and the descendants who still worship there.
• Mission Concepción — 27 mi
  A stone church dedicated in 1755 that has never fallen into ruin, its convento ceilings still painted, and the ground where the Texas Revolution's fight for San Antonio began.

More markers nearby

• The Flores de Abrego Family and Floresville — steps away
• Wilson County — steps away
• James Charles Wilson — steps away
• Texas Ranger and Sheriff Capt. Will L. Wright — 0.9 mi