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A must-read book for those wishing to understand the history of law enforcement in America!
This book looks at the history of constables from medieval England and colonial American to the present. But more than that, it traces the roots of constables in Texas from January of 1823. At that time, a constable, not a sheriff or a ranger, was appointed the first peace office in Stephen F. Austin's colony, making this previously unheralded lawman the oldest law enforcement office established in what would later become the State of Texas. Today there are some 732 elected constables in 254 Texas Counties. In addition, constables still enforce the law in thirty of these United States and former constables include Virgil and Wyatt Earp, "Wild Bill" Hickok, John Selman and many other famous lawmen. This book is a must for those trying to understand the history of law enforcement in America.
The book examines the changing duties of the office of constable, compares the role of urban and rural constables, and documents the position the office has in local government as well as law enforcement.
The careers of a number of constables are highlighted, among them Gus Krempkau, who in 1881 was one of four people killed in that many minutes in a dusty El Paso street; John Selman, a one-time cattle thief and a party to the Lincoln County (New Mexico) Wars, who in 1892 was elected constable in El Paso and went on to become the most active lawman in the area; and Thomas R. Hickman, who began his law enforcement career as a deputy constable and ended it more than fifty years later as Chairman of the Texas Public Safety Commission.
A second appendix provides brief career summaries of a number of well known gunfighters and lawmen outside of Texas, among them James Butler Wild Bill Hickok, Virgil and Wyatt Earp, and Buford Walking Tall Pusser, who served as constables at one time or another in their lives.
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