SEPTEMBER 1859

The "Devil" Texan
by Michael Quebec
based upon characters created by Ella Davis
The Lone Ranger and related characters were created
by Fran Striker and George W. Trendle

Various locations, including the border area between Texas
and Northern Mexico, near the Rio Grande and
Palo Duro Canyon, near Amarillo, Texas,

The ‘Tejanos’, the Mexican inhabitants of Texas, had slowly seen their power, their prestige, and their very dignity taken away from them by the newly arrived Americans, ever since the founding of the Texas Republic from Mexico in 1836. By 1845, with Texas' admittance into the Union, Anglo settlers increased in number, squatting on prominent Tejano haciendas and often forcing the proud Mexicans to leave their homes at gunpoint. So it was with Juan Nepomucino Cortinas. He had come from a prominent and wealthy Tejano family in Brownsville, Texas, but his family had lost their lands to white squatters. 

In July of 1859, Cortinas witnessed the beating of a former employee of his at the hands of the Brownsville sheriff while white citizens looked on. Some of them were laughing, others simply moved on, ‘minding their business.’ None lifted a hand to save the man.  Mexican onlookers watched with horror and fear, but among them was Juan Cortinas.  Cortinas could stand no more.  In a rage, Cortinas injured the sheriff, then rescued his former employee. The white citizens were shocked, looking upon this as an act of ‘rebellion’ from the Mexican ‘greasers.’ Mexican witnesses who were unable to help the beaten man, were now emboldened...and found a new sense of pride in the heroic act of the former haciendero, Cortinas.

However, also among the witnesses to this act of proud defiance was a recently discharged Union Army officer, a veteran of The Mexican American War who had gained his notoriety for brutality at Churubusco. He was ‘the butcher’ Bartholemew ‘Butch’ Cavendish.

Cavendish, a graduate of West Point, and a megalomaniac with delusions of grandeur, had grown jealous of his friend's Sam Houston's prestige when Houston became president of the Texas Republic in the 1830's. Since that time, Cavendish had entertained the idea of establishing his own republic somewhere in the West, with himself as military dictator.  He thought he had his chance during the Mexican War ten years later, but those plans fell through. It wasn't yet time. However, he had been able to assemble a personal army of loyal officers under his command during the Battle of Churubusco. Cavendish waited for his time to come and Cortinas, unwittingly, provided the opportunity.

The legendary Texas Rangers, a unit of volunteer lawmen founded in San Felipe de Austin on 1835, originally to protect the white settlers from Comanche raids were the thorn in Cavendish's side. Various illegal operations in Texas, under Cavendish's directions, were thwarted by the Rangers. Dan Reid, a prot�g� of legend Ranger Captain W.C. Tobin, had led daring raids against Cavendish's operations. With six-guns blazing, Reid broke up weapons smuggling rings and fencing operations that he knew, but couldn't prove, were under the orders of ‘the butcher.’ By the same token, Dan Reid had proven an extremely formidable opponent. Only a cunning plan would eliminate this singular threat to Butch Cavendish's plans..

Dan Reid's younger brother, John, had recently arrived in Texas from the East, where he had graduated from college. Both Reid’s were orphans, their parents murdered by bandits on their homestead after these same road agents lost their first quarry, a Kiowa Indian boy. The Kiowa boy was pursued by these men for the bounty on Indian scalps, but the young John Reid had saved the Kiowa by hiding him. Unfortunately, these men then picked up the trail to Reid's isolated home and decided to get their ‘easy money’ at the expense of Reid's parents.

Taken in by the Kiowas and given a special amulet as a gift from his newfound

Kiowa ‘brother’, whom he had hidden from the bandits, John was later reunited with his elder brother Dan. Before John left the Kiowa encampment with Dan, the Kiowa boy gave John a name, ‘adopting’ John into the tribe and his family.  He called John Reid ‘kemosabe’, a name that meant ‘trusted scout’.

Feeling that the frontier was no place for a young boy to be raised properly, Dan reluctantly sent John to live with their aunt in Detroit, Michigan, following their parents' deaths. Now, after all these years, the Reid brothers were reunited. John had hoped to make his living in the West as a writer for a fledgling newspaper in Texas, under the auspices of Texas' foremost publisher, Francis Striker. When John began working for the Strikers, he soon caught the eye of Striker's daughter, Amy. The attraction was mutual. It seemed that John would soon have everything a man could possibly want in life; love, a thriving career, and a new home where he could make a difference. But all of that changed with the coming of the Cortinas raids . . . and of Butch Cavendish.

Cortinas gathered a large force of ‘rebels’ or ‘bandits’ depending upon who was describing him. He led daring raids across the border, making the Texas/Mexican borderlands unsafe for American travel of any sort.   In need of any allies he could find, Cortinas, reluctantly, accepted the ‘assistance’ of Butch Cavendish and his personal ‘army.’  Years later, as an official in Mexico, Cortinas would reflect upon his days as a rebel/bandit leader and his association with Cavendish. He would say, “I was so determined to fight, I would have made a deal with the Devil himself. And I did.”

Two months after the incident in Brownsville, Cortinas and his men, under the ‘encouragement’ of Cavendish, led a brutal raid into that same town. Heavy casualties on both sides were the result, with women and children suffering in the crossfire. John Reid and Amy Striker were there.

Initially pursued by Captain Tobin's Rangers, Cortina's men were aided by

Cavendish falsified trails so that it would appear that the raiders were hiding somewhere in Palo Duro Canyon.

Tobin, following his ‘instinct’, decided to lead his men across the Rio Grande. Dan Reid and his men would pick up the trail to Palo Duro.

Due to the brutality of the attack, Dan Reid, though sympathetic to Cortina's cause, felt that he had to put a stop to the raids. He also knew, through his ‘gut feeling’, that somehow, Cavendish was involved. With his company of Rangers, he was set on tracking Cortina to Palo Duro. However, John had also witnessed the brutality committed by both sides. He insisted he accompany his older brother. Reluctantly, Dan had to agree. They were brothers and they had been separated before. This time, they would be together again no matter what. Saying goodbye to Amy, whom he hoped would one day become his wife, John accompanied his brother and their detachment of volunteers. John was made an honorary Ranger.

Cavendish's men were positioned on the high ground of the Canyon. They were entrenched in such a way that a force three times their size would be at their mercy. All they had to do was shoot down on them when they arrived and the canyon walls would be their trap.

Dan Reid's Rangers never knew what hit them. A rain of lead showered upon them, cutting the force down. John Reid and his elder brother tried to spur their men on valiantly, but the surprise attack was well sprung. Men who had seen action against Comanches, Mexican raiders, and the worst outlaws in Texas history were now helpless before the brutal onslaught of Butch Cavendish's private ‘army.’ While the slaughter of the Rangers went on, a lone Kiowa warrior, originally out on a ‘vision quest’ after his family had died from a cholera epidemic brought on by the white settlers, now bore witness to the deed.

Dan Reid's final act before dying was to shield his younger brother John, who was still fighting fiercely, from the fire from above. When the last shots rang out, Dan took most of the impact for John, and the two brothers lay amongst the rest of their comrades, the older brother dead, the younger brother near death.

Cavendish and his men departed, satisfied that the Reid’s would no longer stand in the way of his plans for a new Western ‘republic’ under his name. When they left, the Kiowa warrior rode down to the foot of the canyon to check for survivors. Though the whites had proven to be enemies of the Kiowas, this warrior remembered that one white had saved his life when they were both boys and that white boy lost his parents because of it.

Searching among the dead, the Kiowa warrior found the two brothers. He recognized that one had shielded the other, and upon removing Dan Reid's body, the warrior saw something he hadn't seen in years. The younger brother underneath was wearing the amulet he had given to his protector when they were boys. This young white man was his adopted ‘brother’, and he was still alive.

Using herbs to treat the wounds, the Kiowa warrior hid John Reid, tending his injuries, while making prayers to the Great Spirit for his recovery. A week later, John Reid awoke from his unconscious state. Still weak, he was addressed by his Kiowa benefactor as ‘kemosabe’, a word that meant ‘trusted scout.’ He recognized that as the Kiowa name given to him years ago as a boy. Slowly, John Reid whispered with recognition, “Tonto.”