The Blind Hog Strikes!

Good News, Ranger badge seekers. I finally proved to myself that a person could walk into a Texas antique mall and still find a genuine ranger badge in the showcase- staring up with no one to love it... and priced as if it was a cheap toy.

I found this authentic oreite badge half an hour from my residence in Bell County. It had been messed with, as the finding appears to have been broken off and somebody prepared the back for soldering. Thankfully, they chickened out, probably because they were afraid the badge might melt while attaching the new pin... so it has some shiny buff marks on the back, but for less than $50.00, I did not ask them any questions.

I recognized the design in this old relic, as there was a die sold at one of the Burley Auctions in New Braunfels years ago which was almost identical. Artist Donald Yena was liquidating his awesome Texas Ranger collection, which included dozens of authentic, historic ranger badges. It was the Ranger collector event of the century. There were several Simmang artifacts sold, including some clamps, sample badges and a die used to make ranger badges in the 1920's and '30's.

The design was common then, first made popular in the late Nineteenth Century, when lawmen desired to get past the negative associations of the “tin star,” when many outlaws and disreputable gunmen were hired to “keep the peace.” The new modern, official-looking design was made with hundreds of variations, but basically formed a round shield, sometimes with a star in the center, and mounted by an American eagle with her wings spread. The “spread eagle” mounting a Union shield was a popular motif going back to the Civil War, and suggested a new, united, better America, where law & order could and would prevail. By the 1920's, the design was used for many government badges, including those sported by the IRS and other “Prohibition” men.

It would be years before the Texas Rangers would distribute an official badge to rangers. Each ranger had to order his own, creating the wonderful variations you see in this website. That was why the poor Mexican Peso got so abused during that time, being a cheap silver substrate for a jeweler to use to carve a custom lawman's badge. But some more style-conscious rangers could order a badge from a catalog, and in a few months receive a brassy, “oreite” badge, pressed by machine and beautifully sculpted into a classic lawman's shield, like this one. Many Rangers had similar, miniature badges pressed by the same manufacturers to pin inside their wallets. The truth was, Rangers preferred not to wear a badge which could be easily observed. In fact they hated badges and uniforms as well. Badges were targets for the lawless in those wild days on the border. The element of surprise was about the only advantage a ranger had, and badges were a “dead give-away.”

Charles Simmang of San Antonio was an official Texas Ranger badge maker, and produced different designs over the years, including the traditional star within a circle. The wear and miscellaneous imprints on the die above tell a story of many years of service, as this design was probably used for all kinds of law enforcement agencies. My badge shows hasty stamping of the letters. Or at least the lack of care usually associated with Simmang or any ranger badge maker. But that does not disprove its authenticity...

The relatively soft, oreite badge was unforgiving. Oreite was basically like bronze, containing brass, zinc and tin, and looking like gold when polished. It was easily engraved and stamped, but also easily scarred or bent. And in 1925, or thereabouts, a special order badge blank for this badge was not so easily replaced. A slight flaw in the stamping was tolerable compared to a lawman waiting another week or two for another badge to be obtained for custom stamping. So my guess is, for the time it was being used, it was “good enough.” Mr. Simmang probably gave him a discount on it, and sent him on into “harm's way.”

So, "even a blind hog finds an acorn," every once in awhile. My wife asked me where I was going to display my new find. Surely it needed to be in a suitable, worthy place. And somewhere where I could take it out and look at it! You can imagine that I have picked up some good badges, in all the hunting and gathering, and I have my better badges where I can show them off. But none of them are this old or have a Texas Ranger's initials carved in them like this one. I'm going to have to keep this one handy... so I can let it tell me its story. We need to find out who “T.E.H.” was, and maybe then the badge will be able to rest with the others.