Jim Putman, Texas Ranger

Jim Putman (standing, third from left) and other Texas Rangers Bob Speaks, Lon Oden, and John Hughes at the Shafter Mine in Texas, 1890.

James Mitchell "Jim" Putman (1859-1923) served as a Texas Ranger from 1890-1893 and afterwards continued to serve as a lawman.

Putman captured and killed murderer Fine Gilliland. He was there when Lon Oden killed Florencio Carrasco, who was wanted for murder and horse stealing. Oden and Putman arrested William D. Barbee, alias "Pecos Bill", for murder of two men.

In the last year of his life, Putman lived with his sister Angeline Putman and her husband H.C. Williams on their farm at Thelma, Texas. After getting cancer and suffering partial paralysis of one leg, Putman committed suicide by shooting himself in the head with a .32 pistol.

Texas Rangers on Patrol:
John Hughes, Jim Putman, and Lon Oden.

The Steer Branded "MURDER"

In 1891 near Leoncita Springs in Texas, there was a dispute over a steer, and a man named Fine Gilliland shot and killed Henry Powe. In Tales of the Big Bend, Elton Miles writes:

"Sheriff John B. Gillett of Brewster County started a search and notified lawmen in nearby counties. In a snowfall on January 31, Deputy Sheriff Thalis Cook and Texas Ranger Jim Putman rode into the mountains. As they walked their horses up a canyon, they met a stranger, also on horseback. Cook asked him if he was Fine Gilliland. The stranger responded with two shots, one shattering Cook's kneecap, the other killing his horse. Gilliland spurred his horse in an escape run; Putman dismounted and with his rifle shot Gilliland's horse from under him. Putman ordered Gilliland to surrender only to be shot at from behind the fallen horse. The next time Putman saw enough hat to suit him rise from behind the horse, he blew off the top of Fine Gilliland's head. Somehow Putman got the wounded Cook into Marathon."

The canyon where Gilliland was killed was later named Gilliland Canyon.

The story did not end there, however. The disputed steer was branded "MURDER" and set free to roam the countryside. For years, there were sightings of the steer branded "MURDER". It became a ghost story told around campfires.... If you saw the ghost of the steer branded "MURDER", that was an omen that someone was going to be killed. The tale of The Steer Branded "Murder" has been told in numerous books, comics, Western magazines, and even in an episode of the TV show Rawhide.

JAMES MITCHELL PUTNAM

Bio by Marguerite Williams Blackwelder

Jim Putnam was the son of William Putnam and Adeline Dulcena Gipson.  She was the daughter of James Gipson and Sarah Sharpe of Gonzales, later living in Kendall County where William had a drug store in Kendalia and a farm.  Jim was the brother in law of Texas Ranger Jerry Jones, the husband of his sister, Elizabeth Rebecca Putnam.  Five Jones brothers, the sons of Keziah Rector and William E Jones served as Texas Rangers and then became noted citizens in Kendall County

After his service as a Ranger, he lived with his sister Angeline Frances Putnam and her husband Henry Clinton Williams on their farm south of San Antonio at Thelma, Texas.  After suffering a stroke that left him with some paralysis,  apparently not one to suffer and be a burden to others, he committed suicide on Wednesday, December 19th and was buried on Friday the 21st at Oak Island United Methodist Church Cemetery.  His grave is  near those of Angeline and Henry Williams.

Jennie Marie Collins Williams, wife of Waymon Putnam Williams, the nephew of Jim, told of his spending two nights with them when they lived on San Francisco Street in San Antonio.  He said he preferred to sleep on a pallet on the porch.   She wondered whether his years of sleeping on bed rolls in the country was really his preference or if he did not want there to be bother of providing a bed.

Thanks to his great niece, Scottie Irene Williams Thomas and the Texas Ranger Association, there is a Ranger marker at his grave in the Oak Island United Methodist Church Cemetery where he was buried close to his sister, Angeline and brother in law Henry Clinton Williams.  He died On Wednesday, 19 December 1925 and was buried on Friday, December 21 1925.