De Lancy - A nice place to live?

The North West Texas town of De Lancy was founded in the aftermath of the Texican- Mexican War of 1836 by a returning veteran, the New Orleans born Major Joshua De Lancy.  He saw the potential in what was an isolated trading post on one of the western bound trails, and decided to expand it into a ranching community.  

He had seen money being made by supplying beef to the army and by dint of connections to Sam Houston gathered some small contracts to provide beef on the hoof to settlers, and military outposts.  However it wasn't until the US-Mexican War of 1846 that business really picked up and the town really started to grow.  The next decade saw steady growth in De Lancy's business but it wasn't until the outbreak of hostilities between North and South that the town really found it's feet.  Contracts to deliver beef to Confederate forces were paid in gold, at least to start with and times were good.   However, by 1862 the Confederate States had switched to paying in paper money.  De Lancy wasn't concerned though the money was good and the South was going to win, wasn't it.  This all came crashing down in 1865 when following the Southern defeat Confederate dollars became worthless and the small stock of gold De Lancy had left was dwindling fast.

Old De Lancy now styling himself Colonel (he had held a militia commission in that rank) looked around for a way out of his and the town's problems.  Most of the decent folk had moved on and the town was becoming a haven for the worse sorts.  These were a mix ex-confederate soldiers, Yankee draft dodgers and Tejano rustlers who made a living by rounding up wild longhorns and driving them North, when not committing more traditional crimes.  So De Lancy simply joined in, turning a blind eye to the sourcing of the cattle they sold north.  

The town became an assembly point for herds from the region as well as some stolen from farther afield ready for the drive north.  The town gained a kind of prosperity from gambling and prostitution as well as the income from cattle.  It also gained a reputation as a wide open town despite US occupation forces and carpet baggers attempts to impose a basic level of law and order.  The sad fact was that there were simply too few Federal troops available and they were only occasional visitors to town. 

By 1869 the Colonel had a decent herd and good grazing land but the lawless element are not above rustling his cattle which bit into his profits.  He owned the main mercantile store in town but is facing competition from a new saloon and store financed by a pair of Yankee Carpet Baggers.  What is worse is the cattle herders were no longer all working for him, some had set up in business against him.  A citizen's committee was starting to make noises about electing a sheriff  to clean up the town.  Colonel De Lancy was broadly in favour of this so long as it was on his terms.  Records show that the Colonel tried to bypass the citizens and and those damned Yankees by bringing in some independent contractors to impose his version of law and order.  This is the town that Doc Travis rode into in the spring of '69.

Why 1869?

Historically during reconstruction Texas was wide open with no real federal occupation force as the occupying Federal army was being stripped back.  The old agrarian economy dependant on slaves was being reshaped by the Freedmen's Bureau.  Old Confederate politicians were precluded from running for office until Texas was readmitted to the Union in 1870.  There was no state police until 1870 ,and even then they only numbered about 200 men, and were dissolved a couple of years later. The only other state law enforcement body was the Texas Rangers but until 1874 they effectively did not exist as there was no funding made available.  That leaves local law officers who were a mixed bag.  Some were effective others more interested in lining their own pockets and some were no better than those they were meant to protect their jurisdictions from.  In short in the period 1869 to the late 1870's there is a lot of scope for scenarios.

I also have an eye on the situation in New Mexico and Arizona from around 1870 onwards so the location of games (assuming there is more than one) may well drift west.