Best of Luck - E-book - ePub

Texas Reconstruction Colonel Samuel Harkness M. D. finished his service in the Union Army in 1865. Returning to his home, he finds a fence around his property, with herds of animals and crops growing. The man who rebuilt his farm is a decorated Civil War hero, who he greatly admires. Having unattended wounds repaired helps Sam regain mobility and dexterity. As a child, his uncle took him into Mexico from their home in what became Texas after the battle of San Jacinto.
They brought back boxes of unrefined gold and buried the boxes on his family farm because Indians did not have the freedom to possess gold. Outlaws known to be operating in a certain region in Texas were listed as Wanted Dead or Alive with an amount of reward listed on the poster. Collecting the rewards became a groups daily mission. Freeing Texas of outlaws was a benefit to statehood of Texas being granted.
The process became unsavory when women were listed as Wanted. As the outlaws became fewer, acts of capture were seen to be less desirable as the raids into Texas by the bandits from Mexico dwindled. Fear of unlawful reprisal in the larger cities ended and support for people in smaller communities ended. The process of freeing people from the acts of the lawless by means of a reward ended. Criminal activity expanded and went unchecked in less populated areas of Texas.
Law breakers became targets of men who went beyond the limits of the law to protect what they held dear. Life in Texas changed and the people changed. Best of luck became the verbal exchange by the people to signify vigilante law.