| Texas Ranger Commander
George Wythe Baylor (1832-1916)
Texas Ranger Commander
Ysleta Post
By Nicholas P. Houser, 2002, Copyright Reserved
George Wythe Baylor was born on August 23, 1832 at Fort Gibson in Indian Territory (Oklahoma) (Thrapp 1991:74). His father was a surgeon in the U.S. Army (Webb 1965:395-346). In 1845, the family moved to Fayette County. George Baylor lived in California for a four-year period (1854-59) and later returned to Weatherford, Texas. He served in the Confederate forces during the Civil War where he fought at the Battle of Shiloh and the Red River campaign. He served under his older brother, Lt. Col. John Robert Baylor in the Mesilla area during the war (Shipman Papers, El Paso Public Library, “The Bold Brave Baylors”, by Lee and Jack Shipman, no date, 3 typed pages).
In 1879, just following the Salt War in the El Paso area, George Baylor replaced Lieutenant John Tays as captain of the Texas Ranger post at Ysleta. Tays had been in charge of Company A of the Frontier Battalion. Baylor traveled with his two daughters from San Antonio to El Paso under an escort of six rangers (Webb 1935:395-406). After a 42-day journey, they arrived in Ysleta.
The Texas Ranger post in Ysleta was the regional headquarters of Company A of the Frontier Battalion (Baylor, 1949:127; Thirty-Four, 1879, Jan. 22, 189:3:1). The Baylor home and adjacent adobe buildings served as the Texas Ranger post and frequently boarded Texas Rangers. The latter, located near present-day Ysleta Station Post Office near the intersection of Zaragoza and Pueblo roads, was razed in about 1974. |
