THE FIRST TEXAS RANGER: JACK HAYS

by Curtis Bishop ‧ RELEASE DATE: Sept. 1, 1959

Jack Hays, nephew to Andrew Jackson and son of the noted soldier, Harmon Hays, despite his slight build, is determined from boyhood to pursue a military career. In spite of family objections, he joins in 1836 a group of men who are engaged in protecting the republic of Texas against the Mexicans and becomes the first Texas Ranger and the leader of that group of men. When in 1842, after acquitting himself valorously in the battle against Santa Ana, Jack Hays, noted for his skill and his intimate knowledge of the terrain, is elected sheriff of the new State of Texas. Moving later to San Francisco, he serves there in the capacity of sheriff wiping out the hoodlum element from that booming city and, for his service, earning the then huge salary of twenty thousand dollars a year. A man who, doubtless, lived an exciting and fruitful life, Jack Hays does not emerge here with any real vitality but promenades through the pages of the text in a sustained pose of rigid heroics. A lost opportunity in a catalogue of historical events with little human interest.

Pub Date: Sept. 1, 1959

ISBN: N/A

Page Count: -

Publisher: Messner

Review Posted Online: N/A

Kirkus Reviews Issue: Sept. 1, 1959

Categories: NONFICTION