Frank Hamer’s First Gunfight

Legendary Texas Ranger Frank Hamer was in more than 50 gunfights.  His first was memorable. It was 1900, and 16-year-old Frank and his younger brother Harrison were sharecropping for Dan McSwain.  The rancher tried to hire Frank to kill a man; when the teenager refused, McSwain fired a shotgun blast into his back.  But Harrison helped his brother escape. After recuperating, Hamer went back to see the farmer.  McSwain said, “I thought I’d finished you.”  Frank replied, “I’ve come t