The Highsmith Men, Texas Rangers
THE HIGHSMITH MEN, TEXAS RANGERS Cody Edwards, B.A. Thesis Prepared for the Degree of MASTER OF ARTS UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS December 2012 APPROVED: Richard B. McCaslin, Major Professor and Chair of the Department of History Gustav Seligmann, Committee Member F. Todd Smith, Committee Member Mark Wardell, Dean of the Toulouse Graduate School Edwards, Cody. The Highsmith Men, Texas Rangers. Master of Arts (History), December 2012, 140 pages, bibliography, 84 titles. The Highsmith Men is a general historical narrative of four prominent men who happened to be Texas Rangers. The story begins in Texas in 1830 and traces the lives of Samuel Highsmith, his nephew, Benjamin Franklin Highsmith, and Samuels’s sons, Malcijah and Henry Albert Highsmith, who was the last of the four to pass away, in 1930. During this century the four Highsmiths participated in nearly every landmark event significant to the history of Texas. The Highsmith men also participated in numerous other engagements as well. Within this framework the intent of The Highsmith Men is to scrutinize the contemporary scholarly conceptions of the early Texas Rangers as an institution by following the lives of these four men, who can largely be considered common folk settlers. This thesis takes a bottom up approach to the history of Texas, which already maintains innumerable accounts of the sometimes true and, sometimes not, larger than life figures that Texas boasts. For students pursuing studies in the Texas, the American West, the Mexican American War, or Civil War history, this regional history may be of some use. The early Texas Rangers were generally referred to as “Minute Men” or “Volunteer Militia” until 1874.
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