Fight of Sheriff's Posse with Cattle Rustlers
Junction, Kimble County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(Site marked on Rust Ranch, 21 mi. NW) On Feb. 6, 1897, sheriff John L. Jones and deputies T. C. Taylor, Oscar Latta, John Gardner, T. W. Frazier and Bob Owens found Jim and Jourd Nite (brothers) and J. C. Crane with cattle and horses stolen from James and Peter Paterson and John Gardner. In following fight, Crane and Jourd Nite were killed while Jim was wounded. Crane and Jourd Nite were buried at the scene of the battle. Jim Nite recovered and later at his trial, March 30, 1897, (held in earlier courthouse on this site) was convicted and sentenced as John Underwood. (1968)
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
On February 6, 1897, Kimble County sheriff John L. Jones and five deputies tracked the Nite brothers and J. C. Crane to a remote spot with cattle and horses stolen from local ranchers. In the gunfight that followed, Crane and Jourd Nite were killed and buried where they fell, while a wounded Jim Nite survived to stand trial weeks later under an alias.
Why it matters
The shootout is a vivid slice of frontier justice, when sheriffs and their posses enforced the law at gunpoint across the open ranges of West Texas.
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Related people
- ¡ John L. Jones
- ¡ Jim Nite
- ¡ Jourd Nite
- ¡ J. C. Crane
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
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Kimble County
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This hill country along the Llano was home to Jumano and Apache peoples when Spanish explorers passed through in the 1600s and 1700s, before the Comanche came to dominate the region by the mid-1800s. Frontier forts and the Texas Rangers guarded the area as Anglo settlement pushed westward, and the county was organized in 1876, named for an Alamo defender. Long troubled by outlaws until the Rangers restored order in the 1880s, it settled into a livelihood of sheep and goat ranching for wool and mohair.