DUANE
Duane's take
The marker in Maverick County tells it this way, and I'm just the one passing it along. Now, some men come to a place and pass through it like a cloud across the sun. Jesse Sumpter was not that kind of man.
Jesse Sumpter was the kind who arrived, looked around, and decided this was exactly where he intended to stay. Let me tell you how that went. He served in D Company, 1st Infantry, on the Texas Frontier from 1848 to 1852 — and he was among the first troops stationed at Fort Duncan.
That puts him out on the raw edge of things, where the frontier was still figuring out what it wanted to be. Then came 1852, and with it his discharge. Most men, you discharge them, they head somewhere else.
Not Jesse. Eagle Pass was his home now, and that was that. What did he do with himself?
Well, that is where the story gets interesting, because Jesse Sumpter did not limit his options. He kept saloon. He hunted mustangs — wild horses running free across that brushy country.
He ranched. He worked as deputy sheriff. The man had range, in every sense of the word.
When the Civil War came through and rearranged everybody's circumstances, Jesse served as deputy customs collector for the Confederacy. And then, when the smoke cleared and Maverick County was newly organized in 1871, the county needed a sheriff. They looked around at the men available, men who knew this land, who had worked its saloons and chased its mustangs and pinned on a deputy's badge, and the answer was not hard to find.
Jesse Sumpter became the first sheriff of Maverick County. He married twice and had two children, and he left behind a county that knew his name because he had helped build the whole thing from scratch. Pioneer, soldier, lawman — Eagle Pass kept him, and he kept Eagle Pass.
What the marker says
Pioneer citizen, soldier, and law officer. Served in D Co., 1st infantry on Texas Frontier, 1848-1852. Among first troops to be stationed at Fort Duncan. Stayed in Eagle Pass after discharge in 1852. Worked as saloon keeper, mustang hunter, rancher, and as deputy sheriff. In Civil War, he was a deputy customs collector for the confederacy. In 1871 he became first sheriff on newly organized Maverick county. Married twice; had 2 children. Recorded -- 1969