Prior to 1880, construction of a bridge known as the "High Tressel" had attracted many families to the area because of grading and filling necessary to its completion- and because of wages paid by the railroad. This bridge was 89 feet high and just under 580 feet long. After the completion of the bridge the railroad house mushroomed into existence. The tent town was no more. A little town of 200 to 400 people began to suffer with growing pains.
On February 4, 1919, Ranger was incorporated and M. H. Hagaman became its first mayor.
The new city government was confronted with many problems -- sanitation, paving and sewage and a need for new and expanded schools. Eight hundred students couldnot attend classes because of lack of space.
Lawlessness grew to organized vice and hoodlumism developed into a crime wave. It was fitting that the Texas Rangers under Captain R. W. Aldrich, a the citizen's call, broke up the vice ring. In 1922, aroused citizens liquidated some of that crime wave by pouring $16,000 worth of liquor seized on raids on illicit bars and gambling dens into the streets as the Rangers closed up assignation houses and ran most of the undesirables out of town.
For the first 75 years of the life of the city of Ranger the postoffice, established on December 27, 1880, eighteen postmasters served the department.