Arriving at Kimble County the Company "E" detail arrested Role and Dell Dublin, Mack Potter and Rube Boyce. In the running fight that resulted in their capture Role received a bad wound in the hip. The two Dublin brothers and Mack Potter when arraigned in Federal court plead guilty to stage robbery and were sentenced to fifteen years at hard labor. During their trial the mystery of the Peg Leg robberies was finally cleared up. The Dublin boys were the guiding spirits in the hold-ups and worked with great cleverness. Old man Jimmie Dublin's ranch on the South Llano was their headquarters. From the ranch to Peg Leg Station on the San Saba was not more than sixty miles across a rough, mountainous country. As there were no wire fences in those days the robbers would ride over to the station, rob the stage and in one night's ride regain their home. Traveling at night they were never observed. Dick Dublin, whose death while resisting capture has already been described, was the leader of the bandit gang. Even the mystery of the tiny footprints was disclosed; they were made by Mack Potter, who had an unusually small foot for a man.
While Rube Boyce was confined in the Travis County jail he made one of the most sensational jail escapes in the criminal annals of Texas. Mrs. Boyce called at the prison with a suit of clean underclothes for her husband. The basket in which she carried them was examined and she was admitted into the cell of her husband. However, she had hidden a big .45 Colt's revolver about her person and smuggled it in. Rube changed his underwear, put the soiled garments in the basket and hid the pistol under them.
At the end of her visit Mrs. Boyce started out and Rube accompanied her down the corridor to the door. Mr. Albert Nichols, the jailer, opened the door with his left hand to let the woman pass out, at the same time holding his pistol in his right hand. As the door swung open Rube reached into the basket he was carrying for his wife, whipped out the hidden pistol, thrust it into the jailer's face and ordered him to drop his .45 and step within the jail. Realizing that a second's hesitation would mean his death, Nichols complied and was locked in by the outlaw.
Boyce then ran out of the back yard of the jail, mounted a pony that had been hitched there for him and galloped out of Austin, firing his pistol as he ran. He made a complete get-away. Three or four years later he was arrested at Socorro, New Mexico, and returned to Austin. At his trial for participation in the Peg Leg stage robberies he was acquitted, and perhaps justly so, for Bill Alison declared to me that Dick Dublin with his brothers Dell and Role and Mack Potter were the real robbers.
The arrest and conviction of the Dublins, together with the other men Lieutenant Reynolds had captured or killed completely cleaned out the stage robbers, cattle and horse thieves and murderers that had made Kimble County their rendezvous. Today Kimble County is one of the most prosperous and picturesque counties in the state. Its citizens are law-abiding and energetic. Junction City, the county seat, is a splendid little city of probably twenty-five hundred inhabitants.
Forty years ago, the time of which I write, there were no courthouses in Kimble County. The first district courts were held under the spreading boughs of a large oak tree. The rangers, of which I was frequently one, guarded the prisoners under another tree at a convenient distance from the judge and his attendants.
Late in the spring or early summer of 1878 at a session of the County Court of San Saba County, Billy Brown was being prosecuted by County Attorney Brooks for a violation of the prohibition laws. Brown took offense at a remark of the prosecuting attorney and attempted to draw his six-shooter on him. T.J.T. Kendall, a law partner of Brooks, saw Brown's move and quickly whipping out his own pistol, he killed Brown in the courtroom. Then, fearing a mob if captured, Kendall fortified himself in a second story of the courthouse and refused to surrender. He held the whole town at bay while his wife administered to his wants. Meantime, he sent a hurry call to the nearest rangers asking for protection against mob violence. Captain Arrington received the message and sent a detachment from Coleman to San Saba to preserve order.
General Jones was notified and ordered Lieutenant Reynolds at Junction City to march to San Saba with his company, take charge of Kendall and relieve Captain Arrington's men. It was probably two weeks after the killing before Company "E" reached San Saba, but Mr. Kendall was still holding fort in the upper story of the courthouse.
On the arrival of Reynolds' company, Kendall asked the court for a preliminary examination. When court convened, the prisoner waived examination and asked for transference to the Travis County jail at Austin. The court, realizing the feeling against Kendall, ordered his removal thither.
When the time came for Kendall's removal a hack was driven up to the courthouse door, where a great crowd had assembled to see the prisoner. Jim Brown, sheriff of Lee County, Texas, and brother of Bill Brown, heavily armed, had taken his station within ten feet of the prison door. Just before Mr. Kendall descended the courthouse steps Lieutenant Reynolds ordered the crowd to fall back fifty feet from the hack. The people immediately obeyed with the exception of Jim Brown, who sat perfectly still on his horse. The lieutenant looked at Brown for a minute, then turned to his rangers and ordered them to draw their guns and move everyone fifty yards from the courthouse. Like a flash every ranger drew his gun, dismounted and waved the crowd back.