Dan LaFayette McDuffie
New Boston, Bowie County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(February 16, 1883 - July 7, 1931) Last Ranger killed on duty in East Texas oil boom of 1930's. A third generation enforcement officer; learned methods, skills from an uncle, Texarkana police chief. Held first office at 18. Won fame in 1923 amnesty, when 82 liquor stills were turned in. Spent 30 years as county peace officer, railroad special agent, and Texas Ranger. Known for his fearless courage, integrity. Met death on duty in a kidnapping case, when caught in gunfire. Recorded, 1967
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Dan LaFayette McDuffie came from a line of lawmen and pinned on his first badge at eighteen, learning the trade from an uncle who was Texarkana's police chief. Over three decades he served as county officer, railroad special agent, and Texas Ranger, winning fame in a 1923 amnesty that brought in 82 liquor stills. In 1931 he was cut down by gunfire in a kidnapping case — the last Ranger killed on duty during East Texas's lawless oil-boom years.
Why it matters
McDuffie's death marks the violent frontier of the Texas oil boom, when the legendary Rangers still policed a region whose sudden wealth outran its law.
Own a business near here? Add it to the map.
Related people
- · Dan LaFayette McDuffie
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
De Kalb
DeKalb, TX
De Kalb was named for Revolutionary War hero Maj. Gen. Johann de Kalb at the 1836 suggestion of David Crockett, who passed through on his way to fight in the Texas Revolution, as did James Fannin and William B. Travis. Settled by 1831, the town claimed the first college in Bowie County (1839), an early Masonic lodge, and a brief turn as county seat, and it sat on early stage lines and, later, the Texas & Pacific Railroad. Sawmills and, legend says, the nearby hideouts of outlaws like Sam Bass and Jesse James all figure in its lively frontier story.
The French in Texas
Texarkana, TX
For roughly a century after La Salle planted his ill-fated Fort Saint Louis on the Texas coast in 1685, French explorers and traders pressed into a land Spain claimed but barely held. In 1719 the French captain Bénard de La Harpe came up the Red River and built a second Fort Saint Louis among the Nassonite Indians, turning this stretch of northeast Texas into a busy trading crossroads with the Caddo, Wichita, Tawakoni, Tonkawa and other nations. The French traded freely — guns included — which made them more welcome than the silver-hunting Spanish, until Louisiana passed to Spain in 1762. Tens of thousands of French and Caddo artifacts recovered nearby, down to millstones from a frontier flour mill, still testify to that vanished commerce.
Rocky Branch
Daingerfield, TX
Drawn by an abundance of creeks, settlers reached this corner of Northeast Texas as early as the 1820s and named the community for the rocky beds of its streams. Through the nineteenth century Rocky Branch grew into a full rural settlement with grist, lumber, and syrup mills, a cotton gin, a broom factory, and a general store, plus a rodeo arena and a baseball team. Its school served families for more than sixty years before consolidating with neighboring districts.
Chalybeate Springs
Hughes Springs, TX
In 1839 brothers Reece and Robert Hughes, hunting for rumored pirate gold, instead found mineral springs whose iron salts gave them the name 'chalybeate.' Reece Hughes, a planter who later built an iron foundry, started the first town of Hughes Springs at the site in 1847. The springs and the early iron works anchored settlement in this corner of East Texas.