The Texas Rangers and the San Saba Mob

San Saba's mob was the worst case of something common on the Texas frontier. Where courts were weak or officials untrusted, citizens formed committees of vigilance, and Wayne Gard notes that some degenerated into mob rule or private vengeance. They were most active in the two decades after the Civil War. In 1857 seven horse thieves were reported hanged along the San Antonio River. In 1869 a prisoner was taken from the Richmond jail and hanged from the Brazos bridge then being built, and at Denison vigilantes hanged a horse thief in January 1874.

What the plaque says

The Texas Rangers and the San Saba Mob Removed from major roads and railways, early San Saba County residents had limited access to law enforcement and government. Beginning in the mid-1850s, citizens in and around the county formed vigilante mobs to dispatch justice. Although initially formed to protect residents, these mobs often evolved into organized gangs, terrorizing the residents they had initially formed to protect. By the 1880s, a group unofficially called the San Saba Mob, or The Assembly, had killed numerous area settlers. Believed to have included religious leaders and elected officials, the Mob operated under strict ritual and secrecy, meeting clandestinely at places like Buzzards' Water Hole and Cottonwood Pond. Organized similarly to a fraternal lodge, the group used secret signs and gestures to identify membership. After meeting and deciding who to eliminate, the regulators would ride wearing black masks or hoods, and ambush their victims with a telling nine bullet holes. In 1896, in order to stop the violence, the state sent Texas Rangers led by Sgt. W. John L. Sullivan to investigate, and San Saba County News editor Uluth M. Sanderson began running editorials against the Mob. Sullivan was later replaced by Ranger Capt. William J. "Bill Jess" McDonald, who worked effectively with District Attorney W.C. Linden to expose as many Mob members as possible. To avoid interference from local officials believed to have ties to the group, they moved key trials to Austin and Llano. By 1900, the Rangers and Linden succeeded in breaking the Mob's control over county residents, although few members ever paid for their crimes. (2005)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Colorado Bend State Park — 17 mi
  Old ranch country on the Colorado above Lake Buchanan, where a spring-fed creek drops 70 feet over fern-covered travertine at Gorman Falls.

More markers nearby

• Edmond E. Risien, Pecan Pioneer — steps away
• Camp McMillan, C.S.A., Texas Civil War Frontier Defense — steps away
• United Confederate Veterans William P. Rogers Camp No. 322 — steps away
• American Legion Wiley B. Murray Post No. 27 — steps away