Person Record

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1 of 1977 Roy Aldrich

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Name

Aldrich, Roy W.

Othernames

R.W.
Roy Wilkinson

Born

09/17/1869

Birthplace

Quincy, Illinois

Father

Joseph Wilkinson Aldrich

Mother

Georgia Ann Wakemen Aldrich

Notes

Enlisted Co. "A" March 1915
Promoted Sergeant, Co. "A", 1917
Transferred Co. "D" 1917
Transferred Co. "H" 1917, promoted Captain
Promoted Quartermaster, Headquarter Co. 1919
Retired November 1947

Roy Wilkinson Aldrich, of the Texas Rangers, was born in Quincy, Illinois, on September 17, 1869. He spent his early childhood in Golden City, Missouri, and as a youth lived in Arizona, Idaho, and Oklahoma Territory. When the Spanish-American War began he was commissioned a second lieutenant in the Second Missouri Volunteer Regiment; he saw service on the island of Mindanao during the Philippine Insurrection. He served with the British army's remount service in South Africa during the Boer War. From 1903 to 1907 he was sheriff of Kiowa County, Oklahoma Territory, and from 1907 to 1915 he was in the real estate business in Corpus Christi and San Antonio.

In 1915 he enlisted in Company A, Texas Rangers. He was promoted to captain and quartermaster in 1918 and retired from that post in 1947; his term of service at the time of his retirement was longer than that of any other ranger. During his years on the force Aldrich became known in Texas academic circles for his interest in history and natural history. He aided Walter Prescott Webb while Webb was doing research in South Texas for his book The Texas Rangers (1935); Aldrich's collections of flora and Indian artifacts provided specimens for botanists and anthropologists at the University of Texas. The woods and pond of his home near Austin were the source of an important collection of fruit flies used by the university's Genetics Foundation. Aldrich married Della Dunlap in 1903, but after their divorce in 1913/1914, he encouraged the idea that he was a bachelor. He died on January 29, 1955, and was buried in Oakwood Cemetery, Austin. In 1958 Sul Ross State College (now Sul Ross State University) acquired his 10,000-volume library.