Texas Ranger and Sheriff Capt. Will L. Wright

Governor William P. Hobby made Wright captain of Ranger Company K in 1917; he moved to Company D in 1919 and, under Governor Dan Moody, commanded Company A from 1927 to 1933. Called El Capitán Diablo, the Devil Captain, he and his men searched for draft evaders during World War I, intervened in the railroad strikes of 1922, confronted tequileros during Prohibition and policed oil boom towns such as Wink. He rejoined as a private in 1935 and retired in 1939. Three of his sons became Rangers, and he is in the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame.

What the plaque says

Texas Ranger and Sheriff Capt. Will L. Wright (February 10, 1868-March 7, 1942) A fearless, colorful, cultured man whose honesty and diplomacy often prevented bloodshed. An 1890s Wilson County Deputy Sheriff. In Frontier Battalion, Texas Rangers. Sheriff, Wilson County, 1902-1917. At request of Texas Adjutant-General, he organized and commanded Co. D, Texas Rangers, 1918-1939. Gained great fame along Rio Grande. Married Mary Ann Brown. Their seven children included two who became law officers. Recorded, 1967

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Mission Espada and the Espada Aqueduct — 23 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 — 24 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 — 26 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 — 28 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

• Wilson County — 0.9 mi
• James Charles Wilson — 0.9 mi
• The Flores de Abrego Family and Floresville — 0.9 mi
• Captain Will Wright — 0.9 mi