DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — the story of Col. Homer Garrison, Jr. Now, some men seem like they were born to do exactly one thing.
Homer Garrison, Jr. may have been one of those men. He came into this world in 1901, in a little Anderson County community called Kickapoo — and if that name doesn't set the right tone for a Texas lawman's origin story, I don't know what does. His father was Homer Garrison, Sr., and his mother was Mattie Milam before she became Mattie Garrison.
The family eventually moved to Angelina County, where Homer Sr. served as district clerk. Young Homer Jr. graduated from Lufkin High School and went to work for his father. Safe.
Respectable. Probably not the stuff of legend. But then, against his father's advice — and I want you to hear that: against his father's advice — he took his first law enforcement job at age nineteen.
Deputy sheriff of Angelina County. Whatever Homer Sr. thought about that decision, his son had found his calling. By 1929, Garrison had moved on to become the state license and weight inspector for the Texas Highway Department.
And then, in 1930, when the Texas Highway Patrol organized, Homer Garrison Jr. was one of the very first thirty patrolmen. Not one of the first hundred. Not one of the first fifty.
Thirty. Then 1935 rolls around, and the Texas Legislature does something that would shape law enforcement in this state for generations. They created the Department of Public Safety — the DPS — combining the Highway Patrol with the Texas Rangers, the state's oldest law enforcement group.
Garrison became the first assistant director, and he got straight to work developing training for DPS officers. Three years later, he was elevated to DPS director and chief of the Texas Rangers. Let that sink in a moment.
The boy from Kickapoo who took a job his daddy warned him against was now running the whole operation. And he didn't just hold the seat warm. Under his leadership, the DPS grew to more than thirty-four hundred employees.
Major programs took shape under his watch — crime control, police training and traffic supervision, driver licensing, vehicle inspection, safety education, defense and disaster service. For thirty years, federal and state agencies sought out Garrison's expertise and experience. He also served as head of state defense and disaster relief efforts.
The man was everywhere the state needed him to be. But here's the moment the marker wants you to remember most. Garrison helped secure a headquarters building and a museum for the Texas Rangers, up in Waco.
He was there at the groundbreaking. He stepped up to speak. And what he said that day turned out to be his last public speech.
He spoke of the Rangers — those men he'd led, those men he admired — and he said this: "They are men who cannot be stampeded." Those words now sit at the base of the Texas Ranger statue at that very museum. A final speech. A permanent inscription.
That's a man who knew how to leave a mark. Garrison died in 1968. He and his wife, Mary Nell Kilgo Garrison, are buried together at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin.
From Kickapoo to the Texas State Cemetery, from deputy sheriff at nineteen to thirty years leading the DPS — Homer Garrison, Jr. couldn't be stampeded either.
What the marker says
Born in Kickapoo (Anderson Co.) in 1901, Homer Garrison was the son of Mattie (Milam) and Homer Garrison, Sr. The family moved to Angelina County, where Homer, Sr. served as district clerk. Homer, Jr. graduated from Lufkin High School and worked for his father. Against his father’s advice, he took his first law enforcement job at age 19, as Angelina County deputy sheriff. In 1929, he became the state license and weight inspector for the Texas Highway Department. When the Texas Highway Patrol organized in 1930, Homer, Jr. was one of the first thirty patrolmen. In 1935, the Texas Legislature created the Department of Public Safety (DPS), combining the Highway Patrol with the Texas Rangers, the state’s oldest law enforcement group. Garrison was the first assistant director and developed training for DPS officers. Three years later, Col. Garrison became DPS director and chief of the Texas Rangers. Under his leadership, the DPS grew to more than 3,400 employees and major programs developed, including crime control, police training and traffic supervision, driver licensing, vehicle inspection, safety education, and defense and disaster service. In his thirty years as head of the state law enforcement agency, federal and state agencies sought Garrison’s expertise and experience. He also served as head of state defense and disaster relief efforts. Garrison helped secure a headquarters building and museum for the Texas Rangers in Waco. At the groundbreaking, he gave what was to be his last speech, remarking of the Rangers, “They are men who cannot be stampeded;” these words are at the base of the museum’s Texas Ranger statue. Garrison died in 1968. He and his wife Mary Nell (Kilgo) are buried at the Texas State Cemetery in Austin. 175 Years of Texas Independence * 1836-2011