DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it — and it's worth every word. There's a spot out here in Midland County where the ground remembers something. A man fell on this very patch of earth on July 1, 1879, and they buried him right where he landed.
That's the kind of story the Texas frontier doesn't let you forget. The man's name was W. B.
Anglin. He was a Ranger — Company B, Frontier Battalion of Texas Rangers — and he was trailing a Comanche Indian raiding party when his ride through this world came to its end. He joined the Rangers back in 1875, at about twenty-five years of age, which tells you he was still a young man when he pinned on that responsibility.
He was a native of Virginia, came from one of its first families — old blood, good stock — and somehow he ended up out here on the raw edge of central west Texas, doing the hardest kind of work there was. Now, the marker remembers him a particular way. Not just as a Ranger, not just as a man who died in the line of duty, but as someone known for his bravery, his kindness, his good humor, and what the marker calls his unceasing devotion to duty.
That's four things. Most men are lucky if history hands them one. Anglin got four, and the people who knew him apparently felt every single one of them was worth carving into the record.
Here's the part that settles over you quiet and heavy, the way West Texas evenings do — W. B. Anglin was the last man to be killed by Indians in central west Texas.
The last one. After July 1, 1879, that particular kind of violence on that particular frontier was over. And the man who marks that ending is buried right here, on the spot where he fell, just as the ground received him.
Some men close a chapter without ever knowing they're the ones holding the pen.
What the marker says
A member, Company B, Frontier Battalion of Texas Rangers. Killed near here while trailing Comanche Indian raiding party on July 1, 1879. He was buried on the spot where he fell. A native of Virginia, member of one of its first families, he joined rangers in 1875 at about age 25. Anglin was last man to be killed by Indians in central west Texas. He was known for his bravery, kindness, good humor and unceasing devotion to duty. Recorded - 1967