sentences:  A number of these appointees refused to serve; from 1865 to 1869, over one-third of the county offices in Texas were vacant.Many counties had no appointed or elected constables during this period.Austin, DeWitt, Fayette, McLennan, and Navarro counties had but a single constable each, appointed by Gen. Edward R. S. Canby, head of the Fifth Military District, in 1868-69.