Aldrich, Roy Wilkinson

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)