Sergeant Ira Aten, Texas Ranger
Sergeant Ira Aten Cabinet Card, circa 1889. Aten is posed standing armed with a Winchester rifle and Colt single action revolver. Aten (1862-1953) joined the Texas Rangers in 1883 at the age of twenty and was assigned to Company "D." He quickly became sergeant under Frank Jones. He gained notoriety for his participation in the "Fence Cutting Wars" of the mid- to late-1880s. In a controversial, yet ruthless, approach to the fence cutting problem, Aten placed dynamite bombs under many of the more vulnerable fences, a method which proved very effective, although the adjutant general ordered him to remove the devices. Word had spread like wildfire, however, and few outlaws risked fence cutting going forward, as the possibility of dynamite was real. He went on to serve as sheriff of Fort Bend County, Texas, and later sheriff of Castro County. He left Texas for California in 1904, dying there in 1953 at the age of ninety-one.
Size: 2400px × 3362px
Location: USA
Photo credit: © The Protected Art Archive / Alamy / Afripics
License: Licensed
Model Released: No
Keywords: law, police, ranger, texas
