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Civil WarReconstruction & Gilded Age

James B. Dosher

Jacksboro, Jack County, Texas

Marker Inscription

James B. Dosher moved to Texas in 1847 and served in Cureton's Company of the Texas Rangers. Discharged in 1848, he married Velma Eddings in 1851. They settled in Jack County in early 1855 and worked their farm south of Jacksboro. Dosher also served with Captain Tackett's Company of Texas Rangers. During the Civil War he was active in the Texas State Troops and the Confederate Army. In 1870 as a civilian guide for the U.S. Army, he received the Medal of Honor for gallantry in action during an engagement at Bluff Creek, Texas. (1997)

Erected by Texas Historical Commission

The Story

James B. Dosher came to Texas in 1847 and rode with the Texas Rangers on the unsettled northern frontier before farming in Jack County. His life traced the arc of a hard border era, from Ranger companies to service with Confederate and Texas State forces during the Civil War. In 1870 he was scouting for the U.S. Army as a civilian guide when his gallantry at Bluff Creek earned him the Medal of Honor.

Why it matters

Dosher's story ties together the overlapping struggles that shaped frontier Texas — Ranger patrols, the Civil War, and the Indian-wars campaigns — in the life of a single settler recognized with the nation's highest award for valor.

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Related people

  • · James B. Dosher
  • · Velma Eddings

Related events

  • · Engagement at Bluff Creek, Texas (1870)

Themes & tags

Nearby & related markers

Reuben Vaughan

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Alabama-born Reuben Vaughan migrated to Texas in 1852 and in 1854 brought his family to this area as the first permanent settlers in present Palo Pinto County, raising a cabin of cedar and stone. A farmer and stock raiser who kept friendly relations with the region's Indian tribes, he served in a frontier battalion protecting settlements during the Civil War and lies buried in this family cemetery.

Alfred Lane

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Tennessee-born Alfred Lane came to Texas with his family in 1836 and settled in Robertson's colony before moving to the Black Springs area of Palo Pinto County in 1856, where he raised horses on the open range after marrying Elizabeth Goodnight. Brother-in-law to the famed cattleman Charles Goodnight, who called him "a splendid brave man," Lane scouted for the Texas Rangers during the Civil War and helped drive Goodnight's cattle west of Fort Belknap. He was killed by Indians while returning home and lies buried in nearby Crawford Cemetery.

Jonathan Hamilton Baker

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Virginia-born Jonathan Hamilton "Ham" Baker reached Texas in 1858 and settled in Palo Pinto County, where he opened what is believed to be its first organized school and helped found its first Methodist church. On the exposed frontier he led local defenders against Comanche raids, rode with Lawrence Sullivan Ross in the 1860 recovery of Cynthia Ann Parker, and captained the home guard during the Civil War. He was also a trail-driving cattleman and tireless local officeholder whose decades-long diary preserves a vivid record of frontier Texas.

Officers' Quarters

Jacksboro, TX

Built in 1867 from cottonwood cut in nearby river bottoms, this is one of five original officers' quarters at the Jacksboro army post and reputedly one of the last such structures standing in the country. Its style was typical of 19th-century western army posts. Among the officers quartered here was General Ranald S. MacKenzie, who led the campaigns that forced Native peoples onto reservations between 1871 and 1874.