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Shooting starts bloody feud between ranchers and rangers
On this day in 1902, Texas Ranger Anderson Yancey Baker killed suspected
cattle rustler Ramón de la Cerda, thus touching off a feud that cost the
lives of several more men. Ramón, his brother Alfredo, and their father
owned the Francisco de Asís Ranch, which bordered the famous King Ranch.
Their father was killed in 1900 by a Brownsville policeman. In 1901 the
brothers were arrested and charged with rustling cattle from the King
Ranch and changing the King brand from "W" to "Bar-W." In May 1902 Ramón
was in the process of branding cattle on King's El Saenz pasture when
Baker killed him in an exchange of gunfire. The incident provoked
newspaper charges of abuse on the part of the rangers, and led to a series
of gunfights that left one ranger and two Mexican Americans dead and one
ranger wounded. In the final episode of the feud ranger Baker was
acquitted of the murder of the Cerda brothers in 1903. He went on to
become the political boss of Hidalgo County.
- Links to Related Handbook of Texas Online Articles
- CERDA, ALFREDO DE LA
- BAKER, ANDERSON YANCEY
- KING RANCH
- TEXAS RANGERS
- BOSS RULE
- HIDALGO COUNTY
- Other Texas Day by Day Articles for This Date
- Hispanic students stage historic walkout (1968)
- Austin and Wharton engage the Moctezuma and the Guadaloupe (1843)
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