Captain Adna Romanza Chaffee at the time he led 100 men in pursuit of desperados in North Texas in 1868. While chasing the outlaws, Chaffee found time to join the Masonic Lodge in Sulphur Springs, Texas.
What connection does the military career of A. R. Chaffee (1842-1914) have with the history of North Texas? After all, he was a Union soldier, a highly recognized individual who climbed from the bottom rank of the Union Army to the highest rank.
Ironically, he was a member of the Masonic Lodge in Sulphur Springs, Texas. Chaffee joined in late 1868 and remained a member of that lodge for the rest of his life. That makes for a very interesting tale, one that testifies to the brotherhood of the Masons.
Adna Romanza Chaffee was born in Orwell, Ohio. Barely 19 years old, he joined the 6th U. S. Cavalry on 22 July 1861 at the rank of private. He served in the Peninsular Campaign, at the Battles of Antietam and Fredericksburg, in the Stoneman Raid, was wounded and barely escaped capture by Rebels at Gettysburg before riding with General Phil Sheridan in the Shenandoah Campaign of 1864. At the end of the Civil War he had been promoted several times until he was a First Lieutenant.
When the war was over, Chaffee remained in the U. S. Army. He was sent to Austin as a depot quartermaster in 1865. There he found empty warehouses after homeward bound Confederates helped themselves to the goods. From Austin, Chaffee was transferred early in 1868 to Fort Griffin in Shackleford County. There he skirmished with Quahada Comanche Chief Quanah Parker and his men.
By 1868 outlaws had invaded most of North Texas. (See The Bravest Man in the South? Surely not! on this blog.) By the end of August the desperados had declared war on Union troops occupying the center of disloyalty in Sulphur Springs. Local citizens were notified to take sides. The Second Civil War was definitely a strong possibility.
On September first, Captain A. R. Chaffee received orders from General J. J. Reynolds of the Fifth Military District in Texas to take 100 men, a surgeon, wagons and supplies for sixty days to rescue the troops in Sulphur Springs. Chaffee stopped by Fort Richardson at Jacksboro in Jack County, to get enough men to reach the 100 effectives quota, the doctor, and complete his supplies plus $3,000 to pay for forage for cavalry horses. The money was in $250 checks to assure that the outlaws didn’t take it all if they attacked the company of men and supplies.
They reached Sulphur Springs on the 19th of September. But their assignment was not to sit around and enjoy the hospitality of the good citizens of Hopkins County. Chaffee and his men were ordered to break up the outlaw gangs or drive them from the area. Specifically, they were told to hound, arrest, or kill the lawbreakers. They were not to take any lives unless they met actual armed resistance by the desperado gangs. They were not to take or destroy personal property.
For three months, Chaffee and his men rode more than 1,000 miles throughout North Texas in pursuit of the Unholy Triumvirate of Ben Bickerstaff, Bob Lee, and Cullen Baker along with such ruthless figures as Pomp Duty, Lige Guest, Josiah Thompson, George and Jack English. Their mission was accomplished when the last of the Unholy Triumvirate Bickerstaff along with his friend Thompson were killed at Alvarado, Texas in April 1865 with Chaffee and his men hot on their trail.
Being asked by Masons in Sulphur Spring to join their lodge was surely a testament to his fair, no-nonsense character. But how did Captain A. R. Chaffee have time to study to become a Mason? He continued in the army until 1906, serving along the Mexican border, in Cuba and China, and finally in the Philippines. Throughout his travels, he continued his membership in the Sulphur Springs Masonic Lodge. Amazing, isn’t it?