Richard A. Pauley
Valera, Coleman County, Texas
Marker Inscription
(March 20, 1882-May 16, 1925) A man who achieved boyhood wish to become a law officer, Pauley was a rancher before his election in 1923 to office of Coleman County sheriff. He was widely respected as a true gentleman. Often he did not carry a gun, preferring to convince fugitives that the law would protect, not hurt, them. He was shot by 2 stowaways while investigating a train car. His wife Kate Dancer Pauley and son Russell survived him. Recorded - 1968
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Richard A. Pauley fulfilled a boyhood dream when he was elected sheriff of Coleman County in 1923 after years as a rancher. Widely respected as a true gentleman, he often went unarmed, preferring to persuade fugitives that the law was there to protect rather than harm them. His life ended in 1925 when he was shot by two stowaways while investigating a railroad car, leaving his wife Kate and son Russell.
Why it matters
Pauley represents the everyday rural lawmen of early-20th-century Texas, whose work—and dangers—shaped order on a still-rough frontier landscape.
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Related people
- · Richard A. Pauley
- · Kate Dancer Pauley
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Cleveland-Anson House
Valera, TX
Sheep rancher George P. Cleveland built the first fine house in this part of Coleman County in 1880, using native stone and lumber hauled from Fort Worth by ox-wagon, giving it walls two feet thick. Its second owner was Billy Anson, an Englishman and son of the Earl of Litchfield who ranched in West Texas. The house was recorded as a Texas Historic Landmark in 1970.
Blair House
Coleman, TX
Georgia native J. T. Blair came to Coleman County in 1897, married into a pioneer local family, and made his living as foreman of the Overall Ranch while running his own spread. In 1914 he built this Classical Revival house in town—designed by architect J. P. Caldwell—so his five children could attend Coleman's schools. The Blair family kept the home for sixty years.
Western Trail Marker
Coleman, TX
This tablet, placed by a local Daughters of the American Revolution chapter, honors the Western Trail that funneled vast herds of longhorns north through Coleman in the decades after the Civil War. For nearly thirty years, cowboys drove cattle "up the trail" along this route, part of the great open-range cattle drives that defined the postwar Texas economy.
Robert M. Coleman
Coleman, TX
Kentucky-born Robert M. Coleman came to Texas in 1832 and threw himself into the revolution, commanding volunteers at the Siege of Bexar in December 1835. As a delegate he signed the Texas Declaration of Independence in 1836 and then served as aide-de-camp to General Sam Houston at the decisive Battle of San Jacinto. He later took up arms as a Texas Ranger on the frontier before his death in 1837.