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The left side of the trigger guard is marked “45 CAL”. The assembly number
“3096” is on the loading gate, and serial number “80118” is marked on the frame,
trigger guard, and back strap. The revolver is accompanied by a rare unmarked
single loop brown leather holster appropriately sized for a Single Action Army
with a 4 inch barrel.
The included notarized statement from May D. Finn, widow of Benjamin F.
Finn, states that this revolver was owned by her husband who joined the Texas
Rangers when he was 15 in 1879. He served in Captain George W. Baylor’s “A”
Company in the Frontier Battalion and was discharged on February 28, 1882.
She writes, “Capt. Geo. W. Baylor obtained this SA Colt #80118 during the
capture of a desperado, and held a contest with his men to see who would win
it. Mr. Finn fired 5 shots at a bell in a bell tower across the street, and hit it 5
times. He won the above mentioned Colt SA. Mr. Finn, with this gun, went on
several trips with the Rangers in search of Geronimo, the famous Indian warrior.”
She sold the revolver to Robert E. Townsend of Townsend Trading Post on May
12, 1960.
Finn’s discharge signed by Baylor is included in the documentation file and a
copy is framed. It states that he was discharged “by reason of his own request,
and I take pleasure in testifying to his uniform good conduct whilst a member of
my Co.” Some period records give conflicting dates in regards to his exact period
of service in the Texas Rangers. His included obituary indicates that he served
in the rangers in 1882-1883. His Veteran Administration card lists an enlistment
date of September 9, 1881, and a discharge date of July 3, 1882. These same
dates are also given in an included letter from State Archivist Dorman H. Winfrey
to R.E. Townsend in 1960. The Texas Ranger Hall of Fame and Museum has Finn’s
compass in their collection (Catalog #: 2000.049.001.1).
The famous Frontier Battalion was organized in 1874 by Governor Richard
Coke and contained six 75-man companies of Texas Rangers. As the name
indicates, the battalion was designed to defend the Texan frontier which was
rife with outlaws and a target for Indian raids. These brave men were spread
thin across a long frontier line to fight against Indian attacks and outlaws
during Reconstruction and were often heavily outnumbered, as was the case
when their commander, Major John B. Jones, led 27-40 rangers in an attack
against a party of most than 125 Comanche, Kiowa, and Apache led by Lone
Wolf at Lost Valley. The Texas State Historical Association notes: “The work of the
Frontier Battalion in making Texas ‘a fairly safe place in which to live’ was largely
responsible for the tradition which came to surround the term, ‘Texas Ranger.’”
George W. Baylor (1832-1916) was a former Confederate, and, in 1879, he served
as a lieutenant in Company C of the Frontier Battalion of Texas Rangers in El Paso
and worked with Mexican authorities and the U.S. military to fight against raids
by a band of Apaches led by Victorio during Victorio’s War. Victorio was killed by
the Mexican Army at the Battle of Tres Castillos in October 1880, but some of
the Apache continued to raid in both Mexico and the U.S. After an attack on a
stagecoach in Quitman Canyon in early 1881 by a band of Mescalero Apaches,
Captain Baylor’s men followed their trail and launched a surprise attack.
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