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. Then he concluded: It seems to have been the determi-nation of Matthews to make the rangers odious so far as hisinfluence extended, and to this end, his vituperations were directedagainst McDonald as the recognized head in this Section.As Igather from all sources, McDonald without a commission, or withit, yielding to Matthews in matters of difference in judgment, therewould have been no difficulty. 16 Captain Bill knew there was oneother way to avoid hostility with the sheriff of Childress County:pack up and move out of the region.17In Ranger chronicles other incidents kept Sheriff Matthews andthe members of Company B at loggerheads.In this saga threeevents stood out:{ }9 2 A GUNFI GHT BETWEEN TWO GUARDI ANS OF THE LAWFirst, years before the current crisis, when Matthews workedon a ranch in the Panhandle, he and others brought a herd of cat-tle to Amarillo to ship on the railroad.In the town they drank andgambled.Matthews and his sidekick tried to take by force somemoney away from the man who they were gambling with. TwoRangers happened to be at the scene.One Ranger got the drop onMatthews and made him leave the establishment.His companiontried to pull his gun and the other Ranger knocked him down witha blow on the head.One historical writer believed that thisencounter was the turning point in the relations betweenMatthews and the Rangers.18Second, Matthews resented McDonald s refusal to enlist adeputy of the Childress County sheriff in the Ranger organizationand allow him to be paid by the state but be stationed in the townof Childress and remain under the control of the sheriff s office.Captain Bill wrote that Matthews made a row about his refusal.19Third, Matthews, who felt that Texas sheriffs suffered at thehands of state officials, tried to discuss the matter with GovernorHogg during the annual sheriff s convention and later on asteamer.Hogg repeatedly attempted to pacify Matthews.McDon-ald, who was present, was ready, according to a newspaperaccount, to protect the governor from insult by taking the fightoff his hands. When Matthews and McDonald exchanged wordsduring the steamer voyage, other lawmen moved in and preventeda tragic encounter.20McDonald s official biographer depicted Matthews as a killerbefore he became a sheriff and as a vengeful, trigger-happy peaceofficer, who spread the word that he would shoot Captain Bill.Decades after the gunfight, a newspaper columnist went so far as tosay, It was McDonald who shot it out with the renegade Matthews,and all but died from the bullet wounds he received in putting thishard-bitten outlaw under the Texas sod. 21In retrospect, Matthews, known in his early years as JohnPearce, had a flawed personality but he still did good deeds.{ }9 3 YOURS TO C OMMANDAlthough admittedly in some type of trouble in Louisiana where hewas born in 1857, the handsome and well-groomed Matthewsbecame a respectable citizen of the Texas Panhandle.Records indi-cate that he resigned as sergeant major of the First Battalion Cav-alry to accept the elective post of second lieutenant of the PanHandle Cavalry in 1892.The following year he rose to the rank ofcaptain of the same military force.22 In addition, Matthews becamethe second sheriff of Childress County at the start of the 1890s.Heeven won reelection to that office by a majority of twenty-two votesin a three-man race in late 1892.23 By the time he had his showdownwith McDonald, Matthews had become a Texan of importance.Matthews carried out his duties as a peace officer in a satisfac-tory way.He went after those who committed assaults and theftsand brought them before the bar of justice, and his manner andconduct won him the respect and admiration of A.J.Fires, a promi-nent Childress County lawyer and judge.24 Matthews also took aninterest in obtaining extradition papers from the governor s officefor criminals who had fled Texas.The sheriff wanted the state topay his expenses in such endeavors, but Governor Hogg wrote backthat he could not honor the request because of the limitedamount of funds for the payment of rewards and expenses in theenforcement of the laws. 25 As Matthews career as a lawman cameto an end, his wife believed that her husband was investigating ille-gal activities on part of some of the Rangers when he was shot.Ithas been argued that Matthews went to Quanah to inform McDon-ald and Coffer about cattle rustling among an unknown group ofRangers and that the rank and file of Company B involved in thecriminal activity had to silence Matthews.26On December 9, 1893, Sheriff Matthews and several compan-ions stepped off a train in Quanah in the morning hours.Matthewsmet Sheriff Coffer three times before late afternoon, twice in hisoffice and once in a saloon.They discussed among other mattersthe Beckham case.Later Sergeant Britton would stress in hisreport to Ranger headquarters that the Matthews party came to{ }9 4 A GUNFI GHT BETWEEN TWO GUARDI ANS OF THE LAWtown drunk and continued to drink during that day
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