August 15, 2025
Search
Facebook Instagram X-twitter Youtube
  • Home
  • Business
  • Insider Reports
  • Health & Fitness
  • Lifestyle
    • Culture
    • Texas Family Values
  • Politics
    • Texas Border Crisis
  • Events
  • Opinion
  • Games
  • Podcasts
  • Videos
  • Home
  • Business
  • Insider Reports
  • Health & Fitness
  • Lifestyle
    • Culture
    • Texas Family Values
  • Politics
    • Texas Border Crisis
  • Events
  • Opinion
  • Games
  • Podcasts
  • Videos

John Coffee ‘Jack’ Hays: Famous Texas Ranger

This land surveyor brought law and order to the new Republic of Texas.

Epoch Times Report by Epoch Times Report
August 23, 2024
in Lifestyle, Culture, Texas Family Values
0
John Coffee ‘Jack’ Hays: Famous Texas Ranger

Jack Hays helped to bring law and order to Texas and California territories. Statue of Texas Ranger Capt. John Coffee “Jack” Hays in front of the Hays County Courthouse in San Marcos, Texas. Courtesy of Greater San Marcos Partnership Library

Share on FacebookShare on Twitter
By Trevor Phipps

John Coffee (“Jack”) Hays fought hard in every battle he faced, often surprising his enemies with his quiet demeanor. Many said he looked younger than his age.

Hays survived many near-deadly encounters while serving as a lawman and land surveyor in the Western territories. His battles against foes played a vital role in keeping order in both Texas and California before they became states.

Hays was born in Little Cedar Lick, Tennessee in 1817. When he was 15, he headed west after his parents passed away. In Mississippi he apprenticed to a land surveyor.

or several years, Hays surveyed the lands of Mississippi. He moved on to the newly formed Republic of Texas in 1836, which had just declared independence from Mexico. The Texas Rangers were tasked with defending the Republic, and Hays wanted to join. With a recommendation from his great-uncle Andrew Jackson, Hays asked Texas President Sam Houston to assign him to the Rangers.

Sam Houston, circa 1850. Public Domain

Lawman and Surveyor

During his stint as a Texas Ranger, Hays doubled as a land surveyor. “He was important not only in the Texas Rangers, but in the fact that he set up the base surveys and base maps for a lot of Texas,” the director of the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame & Museum, Byron Johnson, told The Epoch Times. “In fact, you can look at modern property titles and, if you trace them back, you’ll find out that a lot of them are based on original maps that Jack Hays surveyed. He had a lot of significance in Texas.”

By 1840, Hays was promoted to the rank of captain in the Texas Rangers. He led a team that helped protect the Texas border from attackers. Hays proved to be a superb marksman in battles against Native American warriors, Mexican soldiers, and criminals. He knew his firearms. He equipped all of his Rangers with five-shot Colt revolvers at a time when their adversaries carried only single-shot rifles and pistols.

The new firearms came in handy when he and 14 of his men were attacked by 80 Comanche warriors at the Battle of Walker’s Creek in 1844. Knowing he was outnumbered, Hays made the quick decision to have his men charge. Overcome and frightened by the Rangers’ Colt guns, the Comanches quickly withdrew.

An early depiction of a group of Texas Rangers, circa 1845. Public Domain

Growing Fame

In 1846, Hays took command of troops in the Mexican American War. The siege of Monterrey, Mexico succeeded without the loss of a single American soldier. According to Mr. Johnson, since the Mexican-American War was the first war with vetted reporters, Hays’s fame grew across the new state of Texas and the entire country.

“Jack Hays, in terms of early Texas history and the Texas Rangers, is about as well-known as George Washington was, in terms of the Revolutionary War, [for] his military service,” Mr. Johnson said. “There are a lot of people interested in him.”

Hays resigned as a Texas Ranger after the Mexican-American War. In late 1849, he guided a wagon train from Texas to San Diego and took a steamboat to San Francisco to join the gold rush.

Since crime was high in San Francisco, Hays worked with a group of citizens called the “Committee of Vigilance” to fight lawlessness. But the Committee took the law into their own hands too frequently. As time went on, Hays did not support their methods, yet the Committee supported his bid for sheriff. In 1850, he was elected as San Francisco’s first sheriff. Soon after, he built a permanent jail to replace the floating brig that the city was using.

John Coffee Hays, 1857, by Mathew Benjamin Brady. Library of Congress. Public Domain

In 1853, Hays resigned as sheriff to become California’s surveyor general. During that time, he helped found and plat the city of Oakland, California.

After the Comstock Lode of silver was found in 1859 near Virginia City, Nevada, Native Americans from the Paiute tribe started killing and robbing miners and settlers. Hays led a group of soldiers against the attackers. These skirmishes were known as the Paiute War.

The Paiute War was Hays’s last foray into battle. He refused to fight for the North or the South during the Civil War. Hays stayed in California throughout the the war, and he was active in politics until his death from rheumatism in 1883.

Hays’s legacy, and those of other famous Texas Rangers, live on at the Texas Ranger Hall of Fame & Museum in Waco, Texas. According to Mr. Johnson, the museum is the first law enforcement historical institution in the country, as it memorializes the mounted lawmen of the great state of Texas.

Tags: historyTexas Ranger
Epoch Times Report

Epoch Times Report

The Epoch Times' primary goal is to bring our readers accurate information and to be responsible to the public. We are not influenced by any government, corporation, or political party, thus we are non-partisan. The Epoch Times is the fastest-growing independent media in America. And our mission of Truth and Tradition resonates with people of various backgrounds who are tired of the growing bias of the mainstream media and who recognize the danger humanity faces under the systematic destruction of traditional values by the forces behind Communism and Socialism.

Related Posts

Get Your Hands Dirty with 16mm Film: Austin’s Film Strip Club Workshop
Culture

Get Your Hands Dirty with 16mm Film: Austin’s Film Strip Club Workshop

August 14, 2025
Texas Takes on Big Pharma: Ken Paxton Sues Eli Lilly Over Alleged Kickback Scheme
Texas Family Values

Your Morning Cereal Just Got a Lot Healthier (Thanks to Ken Paxton)

August 14, 2025
Pizza & Purpose: Why This Weekend’s Volunteer Fair is Your Perfect Match
Uncategorized

Pizza & Purpose: Why This Weekend’s Volunteer Fair is Your Perfect Match

August 14, 2025

Latest

  • Get Your Hands Dirty with 16mm Film: Austin’s Film Strip Club Workshop August 14, 2025
  • Your Morning Cereal Just Got a Lot Healthier (Thanks to Ken Paxton) August 14, 2025
  • Pizza & Purpose: Why This Weekend’s Volunteer Fair is Your Perfect Match August 14, 2025
  • Houston’s Theater Week is Back – And It’s About to Make Your Cultural Dreams Come True! August 14, 2025
  • USDA Reminds Families to Pack Food Safety with Back-to-School Lunches August 13, 2025

Trending Now

  • E4 Texas RoundUP: Exclusive Interview: Rob Scott, IT Attorney & Chief Innovator at Monjur

    E4 Texas RoundUP: Exclusive Interview: Rob Scott, IT Attorney & Chief Innovator at Monjur

    290 shares
    Share 116 Tweet 73
  • Texas Dad Advocates for Legal Changes to the Family Court System

    285 shares
    Share 114 Tweet 71
  • Texas Warrior Moms: Perla Muñoz Hopkins

    158 shares
    Share 63 Tweet 40
  • “Memo to Texas Moms: Be the ‘Flashlight’ that protects your children in our world”

    154 shares
    Share 62 Tweet 39
  • E41. Texas RoundUP: Interview With Jim Camp Jr., Owner And Coach At Camp Negotiations

    133 shares
    Share 53 Tweet 33
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Careers
  • Contact
  • About
  • Advertise
  • Careers
  • Contact

© 2024 All rights Reserved. The Texas Insider.
The Texas Insider is a part of Epoch Media Group.

Facebook Instagram X-twitter Youtube