Texas Ranger document deducting for Winchester Carbine.

[rangerider7]

A few weeks ago I posted a thread about a Badge I traded for that belonged to Sheriff John Edgar of Pecos County, Texas that had also been a Texas Ranger in Co. D Frontier Forces. I found this pay voucher document in the Texas State Archives that shows he had been loaned a Winchester carbine for 1870-1871 and he decided to keep it; so the Adjutant General deducted it from his pay. It was probably understood that he would pay for it whenever they paid him. I thought y'all might like to see it, kinda neat. P.S. By the way, he did not not get paid for his service at this time until 1884.

[Griff]

Ok, that is cool. Now get out there and find the carbine!

[gak]

How cool! It's great to see
these old documents. We (rhetorically speaking) forget - and think we in "modern times" have the corner on all the "advances" and sophistication of civilization...Look at the typeface just like it was done on a 70s Smith Corona, and fancy accounting words like "comptroller" and such! (My father was comptroller of the Western Pacific Air Forces of the USAF - in the early 60s...main reason I even knew that word!)
+1 Find that carbine!

[Tycer]

Oh my. Look at the percentage of salary.

[AJMD429]

Oh my. Look at the percentage of salary.

Yep. Always fun to see how much people these days whine about how expensive everything is, when a generation or two ago, things were far worse.

[RIHMFIRE]

very cool...
and
30 bucks for a winchester....

[Griff]

Oh my. Look at the percentage of salary.

Yep. Always fun to see how much people these days whine about how expensive everything is, when a generation or two ago, things were far worse.

1870... that'd been about 3-4 generations ago. And you have to remember, the '66 had been out for just over 3 years, and the '73 was still 3 years from introduction!

[pokey]

very cool...
and
30 bucks for a winchester....

+1, and some awful nice penmanship.

[piller]

Very neat. The penmanship was actually a response to what they had to work with. When a Fountain pen is all you have to work with, then you either develop good handwriting or you smear everything. Nothing in between the extremes could be done at the time. My Father learned on a Fountain pen and he still has better handwriting than most om the people that I have ever seen.

[kragluver]

I have a copy of my GG grandfather's discharge paper from the Rangers and it looks identical to that one. They deducted $30 for a "Winchester Carbine" (presumably a Model 1866 as he served in the 1870-1872 time frame) and one horse.

[J Miller]

kragluver,

How about scanning it in and posting it for us. And, what did they charge him for the horse?

Joe

[kimwcook]

That stuff is just to cool.

[J Miller]

Actually that invoice wasn't written with a fountain pen. It was written with a dip pen. Fountain pens weren't invented till just before or just after the turn of the century. Self filling fountain pens didn't come about until the very late teens.

Handwriting like that on the invoice is more art than writing.

Joe

[piller]

Joe, you are undoubtedly right, but the same thing still applies. For that type of pen, it takes penmanship or you just get smears.

[J Miller]

Joe, you are undoubtedly right, but the same thing still applies. For that type of pen, it takes penmanship or you just get smears.

It takes penmanship, finite finger control and much practice to write like that.
I use a fountain pen most of the time and I can do pretty well. But no matter how good I am, I have never been any where near that good.

[kragluver]

How about scanning it in and posting it for us. And, what did they charge him for the horse?

Will do. I'll need to dig it out of the box that is with my other family history papers. I was trying to recall what they charged him for the horse when I wrote that post but I can't recall. It turns out this man's father (i.e., my GGG grandfather) also served in the same Ranger company at the same time. He was company surgeon and as a result received the same pay as a Captain. His name was James Odiorne and he was one of the first pharmacists/doctors in Blanco Co. See link:

http://www.txgenweb2.org/txblanco/odiorne.htm

Note the bio in the link doesn't mention his Ranger service. We only stumbled across his service record when researching his son - James L. Odiorne through the Ranger Museum in Waco.