Aldrich, Roy Wilkinson
Biographical notes:
At the time of his death in 1955, Roy Wilkinson Aldrich had served in the Texas Rangers longer than any other man, 32 years, from his enlistment in 1915 to retirement in 1947 at the age of 78. From the days of the horseback Ranger of the frontier to the modern era of automobile and airplane, Aldrich built his career upon the major law-enforcement issues of Texas in the early Twentieth Century: The violence along the Mexican border stemming from the Mexican Revolution, from World War I, and from the smuggling of liquor during Prohibition; racist and other mob violence; and the problems associated with the oil boomtowns, the gambling, prostitution, illegal liquor, unethical officials, and general lawlessness, all challenged the abilities of the Texas Rangers through the 1930s.
Born in Quincy, Illinois, September 17, 1869, Aldrich was raised in Golden City, Missouri, the son of a wealthy banker, Joseph Wilkinson Aldrich. Though he attended school only six months, Roy Aldrich was well educated at home by his mother, Georgia Ann Wakeman Aldrich, and he enjoyed a widely varied and highly adventurous life before joining the Texas Rangers.
Leaving home in 1888, Aldrich journeyed first to the Idaho Territory, finding work as a miner and lumberjack. The next year he made his first trip to Mexico, delivering a load of pigs by train from Kansas City. In 1890 he returned to Golden City, where he and his younger brother, Jules Wakeman Aldrich, after the death of their father, took over the bank for three years, becoming the youngest bankers in the state. During this period, Roy Aldrich served as deputy sheriff of Barton County, Missouri.
In 1893 he traveled to Oklahoma (Indian) Territory, trading horses with the Cherokee Indians and participating in the land rush in the Cherokee Strip. The sale of the Aldrich Banking Company in Golden City allowed Aldrich to purchase a coffee plantation in the state of San Luis Potosi, Mexico, where he lived comfortably for several years, until 1896, when he joined the Missouri National Guard as a second lieutenant. In 1898 and 1899, during the Spanish-American War, he served as first lieutenant in Company C of the Second Regiment of Infantry, stationed in Georgia and Kentucky.
After his coffee plantation was ruined by severe frosts, Aldrich traveled in 1899 to Arizona Territory, where he mined for copper in Pima County and drove a stage coach near Tucson, where his grandfather, Mark A. Aldrich, had lived from 1856 to 1874.
Early in 1901 Aldrich contracted to deliver 1100 horses from Kansas City to New Orleans, for the British Cavalry's Remount Service, and then agreed to oversee the difficult transportation of the horses by sea to South Africa for service in the Boer War. Returning to this country late that same year after travels in Europe, Aldrich moved to Hobart, Oklahoma Territory, where he worked as a bank cashier, was elected city treasurer, and served as deputy sheriff.
In 1903 Aldrich married Della Dunlap, the daughter of Andrew Judson Dunlap, president of the Hobart National Bank. The marriage, marked by long periods of separation and Dell's ill health, lasted until 1913 or 1914, when it ended in divorce in San Antonio, Texas. Aldrich seldom mentioned his marriage and allowed numerous articles and a master's thesis ( The Life of Captain R. W. Aldrich, by Virginia Duncan, Sun Ross State Teachers College, Alpine Texas, 1942) to characterize him as a life-long bachelor.
With his brother Jules (called Tod ), Roy Aldrich went into the real estate business in 1907 in Corpus Christi, Texas, building the first pleasure resort there. In 1909 they moved their partnership to San Antonio, Texas, where they were soon joined by their mother.
The violent turmoil in South Texas stemming from the Mexican Revolution drew Roy Aldrich, then past the age of 45, to enlist in the Texas Rangers in March of 1915. After two years in the Rio Grande borderlands with Company A, he was transferred to Austin and promoted to the rank of sergeant. During the First World War, Aldrich served as Chief Inspector for the Selective Service in Texas, and in 1918 he was promoted to captain of Company H of the Texas Rangers and made quartermaster, a position he called the ramrod of the force. His brother Jules also joined the Texas Rangers, serving until his death in 1940. For the last years before his retirement in November of 1947, Roy Aldrich was in charge of drug and narcotic law enforcement.
Outside the Texas Rangers, Aldrich was known for his interests in Texas history, botany, and natural history. After the death of Georgia Aldrich in 1920, he purchased a 20-acre farm on Manor Road, near Austin, at the site of the present Robert Mueller Municipal Airport. His gardens of desert plants, menagerie of native animals, collections of Indian artifacts and other objects from the Old West, and his 10,000-volume library of rare books were famous throughout the state. After his death in 1955, his books and many of his manuscript materials were purchased by Sul Ross State University in Alpine, Texas, and the artifact collections went to the Big Bend Museum there.
From the guide to the ALDRICH (ROY WILKINSON) PAPERS, AR 83-10., 1858-1955, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)
Links to collections
Comparison
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Subjects:
- Travel
- Adobe buildings
- Adobe buildings
- Aldrich Banking Company
- Alpine, Texas
- American flag on top of globe floating in waves: Our Country
- Amusements
- Antiquarian booksellers
- United States. Army
- United States. Army
- Arts
- Austin, Texas
- Bandits see Outlaws
- Banks and banking
- Soldiers, Black
- Book collecting see also Antiquarian booksellers
- Boom towns
- Bootleggers and bootlegging
- Border affairs
- Border raids see Border affairs
- Buildings and towns:
- Cactus
- Military camps
- Military camps
- Canoes and canoeing
- Cartes de visite
- Cattle Raisers' Association of Texas, 1915-3P157, Folder #2
- Cattle stealing
- Cherokee Indians
- Cherokee Strip land rush
- Church controversies see also Disputations, Religious
- Church controversies see also Disputations, Religious
- Coffee plantations see also Plantations
- Compulsory military service
- Crime and criminals
- Crime and criminals see also Outlaws
- Customs administration
- Dallas, Texas
- Dalton, Frank, 1948-3P155, Folder #11
- Desert flora
- Deserts
- Deserts
- Detective and mystery stories
- Diaries
- Domestic relations
- Draft resistors see Military service, Compulsory
- Drawings
- Eagle clutching shield, arrows, flag of liberty, Constitution
- Eagle on rock
- Eagle on stars-and-stripes shield: The U. S. Army and Navy
- Eagle Pass, Texas
- Eagle with American flag: Remember the Maine
- Firearms
- Fishermen
- Floriculture see also Gardens
- Floriculture see also Gardens
- Forts and fortifications
- Fort Worth, Texas
- Gambling and gambling halls
- Gammel's Book Store
- Gardens and gardening
- German propaganda see Propaganda, German
- Hillcrest Dairy
- Houses and housing
- Houston, Texas
- Houston, Texas
- Houston, Texas
- Hunting
- Indians of North America
- Indians of North America
- Indians of North America
- Indians of North America see names of individual Indian tribes
- James, Jesse, 1948-3P155, Folder #11
- King, Richard, 1915, 1916, 1919-3P157, Folder #2; 3P159, Folder #1
- King's Ranche [sic], Kingsville, Texas, 1915, 1916, 1919-3P157, Folder #2; 3P159, Folder #1
- Kiowa Apache Indians see also Kiowa Indians
- Kiowa Apache Indians see also Kiowa Indians
- Kiowa Indians
- Land rushes
- Letterheads
- Private libraries
- Log cabins
- Man climbing flag pole with American flag: Freedom for All
- Martial law
- Menageries see also Zoological gardens, Private
- Menstruation disorders
- Mescal button see Peyote
- Mexico
- Military men grouped around flags
- Military posts
- Military propaganda, War of 1898-3P154, Folder #3:
- Military service
- Mines and mining
- Missouri. National guard
- Mountains
- Mountains
- National Guard
- Nudism
- Oil fields
- Oil fields and wells
- Organizations
- Our Three War Presidents: Liberty, Unity, Humanity
- Outlaws
- Outlaws see Criminals and crime
- Papago Indians
- Peyote
- Pictographs see Indians of North America
- Plantations
- Plantations, Coffee see Coffee plantations
- Politics and politicians
- Portraits
- Portraits of George Washington, William McKinley, Abraham Lincoln:
- Post, Texas
- Prohibition
- Prohibition see also Stills, Smuggling
- Raymondville, Texas
- Real estate business
- Rivers and streams
- Rivers and streams
- San Antonio, Texas
- San Antonio, Texas
- Selective service see Military service, Compulsory
- Smuggling
- Smuggling see also Prohibition
- Soldiers see also Black soldiers
- Soldier under American flag, standing on Spanish flag
- Spanish
- Stills see also Prohibition
- Sul Ross State Teachers College
- Tents
- Texas Centennial Exposition
- Texas Company
- Texas. Department of Public Safety
- Texas history
- Texas Rangers
- Theology, Protestant
- Two American flags, with stanza of The Star
- Uncle Sam chasing Cuban with bayonet: Get off the Earth
- Uncle Sam looking at a Cuban? through a magnifying glass
- Uncle Sam with bayonet: Halt! Freedom and Humanity is the Pass Word
- United States Army see Army, United States
- War of 1898
- Western art see Art
- Wichita Falls, Texas
- Woodcutters and woodcutting
- World War I, 1914-1918 - Draft resistors
- Yaqui Indians
- Young Men's Christian Association, 1898 (with American flag) - 3P154, Folder #3
- Zoological gardens, Private
Occupations:
Places:
- Brewster County, Texas (as recorded)
- Tucson, Arizona (as recorded)
- South Texas (as recorded)
- Davis Mountains, Texas (as recorded)
- Brownsville, Texas (as recorded)
- McCamey, Texas (as recorded)
- Presidio County, Texas (as recorded)
- Rio Grande City, Texas (as recorded)
- Hobart, Oklahoma (as recorded)
- Fort Davis, Texas (as recorded)
- Wichita Falls, Texas (as recorded)
- Ruidosa, Texas (as recorded)
- *Camp Thomas, Georgia (as recorded)
- Desdemona, Texas (as recorded)
- Mexia, Texas (as recorded)
- Jilitla, San Luis Potosi, Mexico (as recorded)
- Golden City, Missouri (as recorded)
- Africa (as recorded)
- Indian Territory --see also --Oklahoma Territory (as recorded)
- Oklahoma Territory --see also --Indian Territory (as recorded)
- Lewis Peak, Texas (as recorded)
- Southwest Texas (as recorded)
- Cherokee Strip, Oklahoma (as recorded)
- *Camp Chicamauga, Georgia (as recorded)
- Idaho Territory (as recorded)
- Boquillas, Mexico (as recorded)
- Ranger, Texas (as recorded)
- Big Bend of the Rio Grande, Texas (as recorded)
- Alpine, Texas (as recorded)
- San Antonio, Texas (as recorded)
- Camp Mabry, Texas (as recorded)
- Pima County, Arizona (as recorded)
- Big Bend National Park, Texas (as recorded)
- Lajitas, Texas (as recorded)
- Carrizo Springs, Texas (as recorded)
- *Camp Hamilton, Kentucky (as recorded)
- Columbus, New Mexico (as recorded)
- *Davis Mountains State Park, Texas (as recorded)
- Glen Rose, Texas (as recorded)
- Lexington, Kentucky (as recorded)
- Glen Spring, Texas (as recorded)
- Webb County, Texas (as recorded)
- Marfa, Texas (as recorded)
- Santa Elena Canyon, Texas (as recorded)
- Norias, Texas (as recorded)
- Palafox, Texas (as recorded)
- Duval County, Texas (as recorded)
- Dimmit County, Texas (as recorded)
- Borger, Texas (as recorded)
- Arizona Territory (as recorded)
- Fort Ringgold, Texas (as recorded)
- Austin, Texas (as recorded)
- Veracruz, Mexico (as recorded)
- Valles, Mexico (as recorded)
- Zavala County, Texas (as recorded)
- Chisos Mountains, Texas (as recorded)
- Longview, Texas (as recorded)
- Asherton, Texas (as recorded)
- Breckenridge, Texas (as recorded)
- Rio Grande (river) (as recorded)
- Helvetia Mining Camp, Pima County, Arizona (as recorded)
- *Lower Rio Grande Valley, Texas (as recorded)
- Mexico (as recorded)
