Ranger, Eastland County, Texas

Ninety-five miles west of Fort Worth the historic little town of Ranger stands. Many, many years ago, before the valleys of Eastland had ever felt the thrill and jar of rumbling cars, or her hills had echoed the shrill cry of an engine, the Indians found and utilized a magnificent rendezvous a few miles east of Ranger, where now the Texas and Pacific Railway bridges the deepest canon in Texas. After one of their usual raids the Indians fled to this canon, now so famous for its rugged beauty, and were followed by the Texas Rangers, than whom no class of men have done more for Texas. These poorly fed and poorly paid guardians of life and property on the frontier drove the Indians on this occasion from their lair. On emerging from the deep and ragged gorge the Rangers found themselves in a beautiful, level¹ valley of richest soil and luxuriant grasses, but did not loiter, as they pushed hard on after the Indians, overtaking them at what is known as "One Hundred² Mile Mountain." Here a battle was fought and the victorious Rangers struck tent in the luxurious valley, where the Watson Ranch is now situated. The exact date of this battle could not be learned, but it is thought Captain Whiteside, who lost his life in the cyclone at Cisco, was in command of the Rangers.

The High Bridge

Twenty-five years ago the valley was dotted with tents. One year later A. J. Sims and a Mr. Griffin formed a partnership and carried a stock of general merchandise in a tent store. Mr. Griffin did a thriving hotel business, also in a tent, prior to forming this partnership. There were tent schools and tent churches. Tom Cooper, brother of one of Rangers' most popular teachers, was the first boy born in the town. A little girl made her advent one day before Tom's arrival. In the Ranger valley some two hundred or three hundred people lived in tents until the railroad came, when houses went up as if by magic. Ranger was built a couple of miles west of where the tent town had had its existence. The oldest settler living in Ranger today is John Bryant, who came in 1881.

Ranger has three good church buildings, Methodist, Baptist and Cumberland Presbyterian, with leagues and young people's societies; a High School, which is correlated with the State University, a phone system and water works, bank, five doctors and the usual number of stores, eating houses, etc.

In the tent town there were saloons and gambling dens, in the Ranger of today there are no houses of vice of any kind.

Ranger has a population of about seven hundred and fifty.

The Ranger '03 Club, a woman's literary club, has founded a public library and is gradually increasing the number of volumes.

C. E. Frost, M. D.; A-B.; A. M.

Dr. C. B. Frost, the oldest resident physician of Ranger, was born in Tennessee. His father, J. B. Frost, fell heir to sixty-two Negroes in 1859 and 1860, but set them free at once. As a result of this philanthropy the boy Cyrus had to work out his own destiny. He cut wood for two fireplaces and a stove, fed ten horses, twenty cows, a drove of hogs and a flock of sheep for his board, and worked Saturdays for his clothes. He took his literary degree at the Northern Illinois Normal University.

He attended the Nashville Medical College, where later at the Missouri Medical College, he graduated in 1878 with first honors. Mrs. Frost is a daughter of Dr. O. D. Tankersly of Arkansas.

Dr. Frost located at Ranger in 1892 and has practiced his profession night and day continuously since that time with the most marked success, never having suffered from an accident of any kind, nor had a diagnosis changed. He is a scholarly, scientific, up-to-date physician and surgeon, a consistent. Christian Methodist citizen, and is held in high esteem by the profession and his patrons.

Footnote:

1. It is said that the valley was known among the Indians as the Caddo Indian Ball Ground.

2. "One hundred miles" from where could not be learned, but the mountain stands out clear-cut and runs down into the valley near the railroad.

Source: History of Eastland County, Texas, by Mrs. George Langston, A. D. Aldridge & Company, Dallas, Texas, 1904.