DUANE
Duane's take
Here's what the official marker says about William Marion Green, and I'll do my best to do the man justice. Now, some lives announce themselves early. William Marion Green was born January 12, 1854, and by the time he was seven years old, he was an orphan.
Seven years old. Most kids that age are worried about supper and sunshine. Green had to learn something harder — self-reliance.
And from what the record shows, he learned it well. By nineteen, he had joined the Texas Rangers. One year later, at twenty, he enlisted in Company A of the Frontier Battalion.
You want to talk about hitting the ground running. Then came 1874. Green's company found itself squarely in the middle of some serious business — members of John Wesley Hardin's gang were raiding Comanche County, and it fell to Green and his fellow Rangers to do something about it.
They did. The company helped capture those outlaws, and Green personally helped escort seven of them to jail. Seven.
You get the feeling he wasn't a man who left things half-finished. Decades rolled by. The frontier settled down.
The Rangers rode on into legend. And William Marion Green, who'd been there for the real thing, decided that story deserved to be kept alive. He promoted the founding of the Texas Ex-Rangers Association in 1920, and he served as major of that group — right up until his death on December 21, 1930.
An orphan at seven. A Ranger at nineteen. Still standing guard over the memory of it all at the very end.
That's a life that knew what it was for.
What the marker says
(January 12, 1854 - December 21, 1930) An orphan at age 7, Green learned self-reliance early. At 19, he joined the Texas Rangers. And at 20, he enlisted in Co. A of the Frontier Battalion. In 1874, his company helped capture members of John Wesley Hardin's gang who were raiding Comanche County; Green helped escort 7 of the outlaws to jail. He promoted the founding of the Texas Ex-Rangers Association in 1920, serving as major of the group until his death. Recorded - 1968