D.T.A. Walton

D.T.A. Walton was born in Alabama on August 13, 1837 and died on June 14, 1915 in Alpine, Texas. At age 16 in 1853, he joined the Callahan’s Company of Texas Rangers, making him the youngest known Ranger.

After four years with the Texas Rangers, Walton acquired ranching properties in Atascosa County, Texas and married Amanda McAde Lee in 1860. He joined the ranks of Captain McKinney’s cavalry as a Lieutenant in the Civil War and was commissioned to Captain for meritorious service while in combat. Captain Walton returned to Texas after the war to continue ranching and was appointed Sheriff of Bee County, Texas in 1876, where he served until 1895.

Captain Walton moved to Brewster County in 1900, “looking for a slightly less dangerous life than that of a sheriff in a frontier county.” By 1902 Doc Gourley convinced him to accept the post as Deputy Sheriff, and a few months later Doc Gourley resigned and the Brewster County Commissioners Court named Walton to the post of Sheriff of Brewster County.

Sheriff Walton served as a peace officer in Texas for 26 years. His record for that 26 years was for “never wounding by shooting a single prisoner or law breaker.” (Ref: Alpine, Texas, Then and Now, 1981, by Clifford B. Casey) Captain Walton was considered a dead shot.

Walton was influential in Alpine’s early growth. He was an original stockholder in the First National Bank of Alpine which formed in 1904, and he was the head of the Finance Committee of the West Texas Dry Farm Congress, an organization whose purpose was to teach the people how to farm in an arid region.

Sheriff Walton resigned in 1908 and his son J. Allen Walton, who had been serving as Deputy Sheriff, was appointed to the post of Sheriff of Brewster County.

D.T.A. Walton photo courtesy of Carl C. Williams collection