USA > Texas > A pictorial history of Texas, from the earliest visits of European adventurers, to A.D. 1879. Embracing the periods of missions, colonization, the revolution the republic, and the state; also, a topographical description of the country together with its Indian tribes and their wars, and biographical sketches of hundreds of its leading historical characters. Also, a list of the countries, with historical and topical notes, and descriptions of the public institutions of the state > Part 29
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CHAPTER II.
BATTLES IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER-ON GALVESTON ISLAND, 1818-1821-ON THE COLORADO, 1822-23-CARANCHUAS BANISHED, 1825-FIGHTS FROM 1826 TO 1829- BOWIE'S FIGHT IN 1831-WILBARGER SCALPED IN 1833-ON RED RIVER IN 1834- PARKER'S FORT MASSACRE 1836-MRS. PLUMMER'S CAPTIVITY-CYNTHIA ANN PARKER RECLAIMED, AFTER A CAPTIVITY OF TWENTY-FIVE YEARS.
NDIAN BATTLES, ETC., IN CHRONOLOGICAL ORDER .- 1818 .- While Galves- ton Island was occupied by Lafitte, some of his men stole a Caranchua squaw. To revenge this injury, about 300 of the Indians landed on the island, near the Three Trees. The pirates, to the number of 200, with two cannon, immediately proceeded down the island to meet them. After a severe fight and the loss of about thirty, the Indians were glad to withdraw to the main land.
1831 .- After Lafitte had left the island, a company, under Dr. Parnell, visited it to hunt for treasures supposed to have been buried by the free- booters. Parnell found some Indians on the island, and attacked and drove them off. Mr. Yoakum suggests that it was these attacks that made the Caranchuas so hostile towards Austin's colonists.
1822 .- Two vessels arrived at the mouth of the Colorado with immi- grants. While the main party went up the river by land, the goods were left in charge of four young men at the landing. These young men were killed by the Indians, and the goods destroyed. Two of them were sons of Mr. Clopper, who afterwards settled on Buffalo bayou.
1823 .- The next year, three young men were hunting on the Colorado, below Eagle lake, when they were surprised by the Caranchuas, and Messrs. Loy and Alley were killed. John Clark, though badly wounded, plunged into the stream and escaped by swimming. He lived until I861. His large estate is still in litigation.
1824 .- While surveying, Captain Chriesman had several skirmishes with the Caranchuas on the San Bernard river and Gulf Prairie. The severest encounter was with a company under Captain Randall Jones. This was on a creek in Brazoria county, since called Jones' creek. Fifteen Indians were killed. The whites lost three: Messrs. Bailey, Singer and Spencer.
1825 .- The colonists were now sufficiently strong to rid themselves of this small band; and Colonel Austin requested Captain Abner Kuykendall to collect about one hundred militia and expel them from the colony. While pursuing them, Colonel Austin was met at the Menawhila creek, a few miles east of Goliad, by the priest of the Mission, who went security for the good behavior of the Indians. It was agreed that the latter should not.
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come east of the San Antonio river; an agreement to which they all adhered. This was strictly in accordance with American policy ; first extin- guish the Indian's title to the land and then expel him from it, either by banishment or extermination.
1826 .- A new settlement had been formed on the Guadalupe river, near Gonzales, in Dewitt's colony. While a number of men were on the Colo- rado to celebrate the Fourth of July, the settlement was attacked by the Indians. John Wightman was killed, and Basil Durbin badly wounded. The houses were burned and the settlement for a time broken up. Deaf Smith went to San Antonio, Henry S. Brown to Brazoria, James Kerr to the Lavaca river, and others scattered to different parts of Texas.
1829 .- Captains A. Kuykendall and Henry S. Brown conducted a scout- ing party up the Colorado. Near the mouth of the San Saba they found an encampment of the Waco and Tehuacana Indians. The Indians were defeated and their camp destroyed.
1831 .- BOWIE'S FIGHT .- In 1830 the celebrated James Bowie became a citizen of San Antonio and married the daughter of Don Veramendi, the Vice-Governor. On the 2d of November, 1831, he and his brother Rezin P. Bowie, and seven other Americans and two negro servants, started to hunt for the San Saba silver mines. When in the neighborhood of the old mission, on the San Saba river, they were attacked by 164 Tehuacana and Caddo Indians. The Bowies threw up temporary breastworks, which the Indians repeatedly and vigorously attacked. Falling in these assaults, the Indians next attempted to burn them out by setting fire to the long prairie grass. The Americans, however, sternly held their ground. The fight lasted from sunrise in the morning until dark, when the savages sullenly retired, having lost nearly one-half their number. One of Bowie's men was killed and three wounded.
The citizens of Bexar. in a memorial to the General Government, state that from 1822 to 1832, ninety-seven citizens, besides the soldiers killed in battle, had been murdered by hostile Indians.
1833 .- Josiah Wilbarger and two companions were out hunting on Wal- nut creek, east of the city of Austin, when they were surprised by Indians and one of their number instantly killed. Wilbarger was shot and scalped and left for dead. Young Hornsby escaped upon a fleet horse to the settle- ment. A party went out the next day and buried the one who was killed. Wilbarger was still living, and though weak with the loss of blood, he had . crawled to a water-hole. He lived twelve years and married; but finally died from the effects of the scalping .*
1834 .- The Kiowas killed Judge Gabriel N. Martin, on Red river, and took Matthew N. Martin, his son, prisoner. Mr. Martin's brother-in-law, Travis G. Wright, with three companions, started to recover the lost boy.
*The night young Hornsby reached home, his mother had a singular dream; she dreamed that she saw Wilbarger lying at a water-hole, faint and bleeding, but still alive. This dream was twice r. prated, and made so strong an impression upon her that she persuaded the party going out to prepare a litter, which they did; and the suffering man was conveyed in on that litter.
....
A CHIEF OF THE KIOWAS.
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PARKER'S FORT MASSACRE.
They fortunately fell in with a company of United States soldiers, under Colonel Dodge, who found the Indians and recovered young Martin, and several other prisoners. The same year, Colonel John H. Moore, with Captains R. M. Williamson, Phil. Coe, and G. W. Bennett, went on a long and somewhat fatiguing scout againt the Wacoes and Tehuacanies. It was during this year that Colonel Almonte visited the country to inquire into its condition. He reports the total Indian population at that time at 15,300; of whom 10,800 are regarded as hostile and 4,500 as friendly. Of the hostile Indians, Almonte assigns 9,900 to the department of Bexar, and 600 to the department of the Brazos. This does not include the civilized Indians about Nacogdoches, . i whom Almonte speaks as citizens of Mexico, and loyal to that government.
1836 .- It was fortunate for Texas, that, during the early part of this year, so eventful in our history, Colonel Ellis P. Bean, a warm personal friend of Gen. Houston, was the agent for the Indians in East Texas. The survey and location of lands claimed by these Indians had already produced an unpleasant feeling between the two races. But Bean kept the Indians quiet until after the decisive battle of San Jacinto, when the victory of the Texans gave them such a prestige that the civilized tribes remained peace- able, though fears were then entertained that, if the Texans were defeated the whites in East Texas would have been either killed or driven from their homes.
PARKER'S FORT MASSACRE .- The Parker family came from Missouri, in 1833, and settled in Limestone county, near the present town of Groesbeck, where they built a fort. On the 19th of May, 1836, this fort was visited by several hundred Comanche and Caddo Indians. At first the Indians pre- sented a white flag, and pretended friendship. At the time, of the thirty- five persons in the fort, only five were able to bear arms. The Indians inquired for a water-hole at which to camp; and also wanted a beef. Mr. Benjamin Parker stepped ont to point them to water, when he was instant- ly killed. The savages then rushed into the fort, killing Benjamin Parker, senior, aged seventy-nine, Silas Parker, and Samuel and Robert Frost. Mrs. Sarah Parker was wounded. Mrs. Elizabeth Kellogg, Mrs. Rachel Plummer, (daughter of James Parker), her son, James Platt Plummer, two years old; Cynthia Ann Parker, eight years old, and her brother, John Par- ker, six years old, all children of Silas Parker, were taken prisoners. Those that escaped were six days in the wilderness without food, before they reached the settlements on the Brazos, in what is now Grimes county. Mrs. Kellogg was a prisoner about six months ; Mrs. Plummer a little over a year. She had not been long a prisoner when she was delivered of a child. The crying of her infant annoyed the Indians, and it was killed in a most cruel manner before her eyes. With an old knife she dug a grave and buried it. She was given as a servant to a cruel old squaw, who treated her in a most brutal manner. Another party had taken off her son, and she supposed her husband and father had been killed at the fort, though being at a distance in the field at work, they had escaped the massacre. IIer infant was dead, and her life was a burden. She resolved she would no longer submit to the brutal old squaw. One day when the two were some
26
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HISTORY OF TEXAS.
distance from the camp, though still in sight, when her mistress attempted to beat her with a club, she wrenched the club out of her hands and knock- ed the squaw down. The Indians, who had seen the whole proceeding, came running up, and she fully expected to be killed, but they patted her on the shoulder, crying, bueno ! bueno ! (well done !). After this she fared much better. She was eventually sold to a Santa Fe trader, who took her to Missouri, and she soon found her way back to her friends.in Texas. She died about nine months after reaching home. Her son, after six years of captivity, was restored to his family. Both he and his father are now dead. Cynthia Ann Parker was a quarter of a century among the savages, and became the wife of a chief. In 1860, Captain Ross, of Waco, was out on the frontier, and in a fight with the Indians, captured a prisoner. Though the prisoner was in male attire, they suspected her sex. She was very much bronzed, and in habit a perfect Indian, but they were satisfied that she was a white woman. She was brought to Camp Cooper, forty miles west of Belknap, and word sent to the settlements. The venerable Isaac Parker still in hopes of hearing of his long-lost niece, went to the camp. Her age and general appearace suited the object of his search, but she had lost every word of her native tongue. Colonel P. was about to give up in despair when he turned to the interpreters and said very distinctly that the woman he was seeking was named Cynthia Ann. The sound of the name by which her mother had called her awakened in the bosom of the poor captive emotions that had long lain dormant. In a letter to us, Colonel Parker says: "The moment I mentioned the name, she straightened herself in her seat, and patting herself on the breast, said, ' Cynthia Ann, Cynthia Ann.' A ray of recollection sprung up in her mind, that had been obliterated for twenty-five years. Her very counternance changed, and a pleasant smile took the place of a sullen gloom." She had one child with her, having left two others with the tribe. Returning with her uncle, she soon recovered her native tongue. It was during the war, and she learned to spin and weave, and to make herself useful generally about the house. She hoped when the war was over to get her other children, but both she and her child died. One of her sons was left with the Indians, and her husband is dead. The other son visited Texas in 1875. It is reported that her brother John had a romantic adventure, while a prisoner. The Indians, when raiding on the Rio Grande, captured a Mexican girl. The two became enamored of each other, though they had not married. John took the small- pox, and the Indians left him to die. The girl insisted on remaining and taking care of him. He recovered, and it is said is living, with his devoted wife, on a stock ranch in the far West.
In August of this year, the Indians went down the Yegua creek, by the neighborhood of Burton, and on Cumming's creek killed Hon. J. G. Robin- son and his brother. The same party, in leaving the settlement, killed the Gotier family, a few miles from the present town of Giddings. A little later, a party attacked the house of Mr. Taylor, near the three forks of Little River, but was repulsed. In November, Mr. Harvey and his wife were killed near Wheelock, and their daughter taken prisoner. She was subsequently recovered from the Mexicans, to whom the Indians had sold her.
CHAPTER III.
INDIAN AFFAIRS DURING THE REPUBLIC-FIGHTING IN ROBERTSON'S COLONY IN 1837 -NEAR SAN ANTONIO, 1833-BATTLE CREEK, NAVARRO COUNTY-ATTACK ON MOR- GAN'S AND MARLIN'S FAMILIES, IN FALLS COUNTY, IN 1839-EXPULSION OF THE CHEROKEES-BLOODY WORK IN THE COUNCIL HOUSE IN SAN ANTONIO, 1840-CO- MANCHES BURN VICTORIA AND LINNVILLE, AND ARE DEFEATED AT PLUM CREEK- MOORE'S EXPEDITION TO THE UPPER COLORADO-FROM 1841 TO 1847-RECOVERY OF MISS PUTNAM, AFTER A LONG SEPARATION FROM HER PARENTS.
1837 .- On the 7th of January, Captain George B. Erath, of the Rangers, had a fight with a band of Indians in Robertson's colony. The Indians were driven off, but two of the Rangers, Frank Childress and David Clarke, were killed. About the first of February, some men were out hunting hogs in the Trinity bottom, near old Fort Houston, Anderson county, when they were attacked by Indians. David and Evans Faulkenbury were killed, and Abram Anglin and Anderson wounded. In May of this year, a num- of colonists were killed near Nashville, on the Brazos; and James Coryell near Marlin. Later in the year, Lieutenant Van Benthuysen went with a scouting party towards the head waters of the Trinity river. He encoun- tered a body of Indians and had a severe fight, in which he lost Lieutenant Miles and eight privates killed, and three others wounded.
1838 .- In April, Colonel Sparks F. Holland and a Mr. Berry were killed while out surveying on the Richland creek. In September, a large number of Comanches visited the neighborhood of San Antonio. They surprised a party of surveyors on the Leon creek, a few miles from the city. Moses Lapham and a Mr. Jones were killed and scalped. A Mexican named Padre Goaner was scalped, but succeeded in reaching the city, where he still lives. On the same day Francisco A. Ruiz and Nicolas Flores Ruiz were taken prisoners. Francisco Ruiz was well known to the Indians, and that night, one of the chiefs untied him, and told him to escape. He now lives on the Medina river. Flores was probably killed, as he was never heard of afterward. When the news of this raid reached the city, Captain Frank Cage raised a company of thirteen men for pursuit. He had no idea of the number of the Indians. When out on the Castroville road, near where Colonel Means now lives, they suddenly found themselves surrounded by a hundred or more warriors. Mr. James Campbell became separated from his companions, and made his way safely into the city. Captain Cage, W. D. Lee, Dr. M'Clung, O'Boyle, King and two others, were killed; and General Richard Dunlap and Major Patton badly wounded. Besides Campbell, Spears and Hood escaped unhurt. A party of citizens the next
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day brought in the bodies of the dead, and buried them in the Protestant burying ground, in San Antonio. On the 16th of October, General Rusk had a fight near Kickapoo town, in which eleven Indians were killed, and some of Rusk's men wounded. On the 25th of the same month, General John C. Nail gained a victory over a party of Comanches, found near Fort Graham.
BATTLE CREEK FIGHT-NAVARRO COUNTY-In the fall of this year, a party of twenty-four men started from the old town of Franklin, in Robertson county, on a land-locating expedition, under the leadership of Captain William M. Love, now living on Richland creek, in Navarro county. When they reached the neighborhood of what is now known as Spring Hill, they met a large number of Indians, many of whom could speak our language. It always irritated Indians to see the white man survey his lands, and they informed the white men, if they did not desist, they would kill them. It so happened that one compass would not work, and it was necessary to send an express back for another instrument. Love and a man named Jackson volunteered to go; but before going he enjoined upon the remaining twenty- two men not to commence work until his return, but to hunt buffalo with the Indians, and drive all the buffalo out of the vicinity, thinking by driving off the buffalo the Indians would follow. This prudent advice they did not follow, but in a day or two commenced work, and the Indians, true to their promise, commenced an attack upon them The whites took shelter in a ravine, and fought as bravely as men could fight, during an entire day, killing, as it has since been learned, more than three times their own number of the savage foe ; but when night came, after more than half their number had fallen, and they were nearly famished for the want of water, they made a break for the nearest timber. At this crisis all but three were killed or wounded. One man, whose name I do not remember, with another named Smith, and Colonel W. F. Henderson, escaped unhurt after much suffering. One of the men wandered off alone, and made his way to the settlements, while a man named Violet, with a broken leg, crawled eighteen miles to the Tywockany Springs, and was found there nearly a week after the sad disaster, almost famished, but was rescued. Two of the party who escaped took with them General Walter P. Lane, severely wounded, with one leg broken. Although a few had thus escaped the wily foe, their danger was not over. The Indians well knew the trail leading to the nearest settlement, and were ahead of Henderson, Smith, and the wounded Lane, waylaying the route they were to pass. In those troublous times, both white and red man lay by in the daytime, and did most of their traveling by night. Captain Love and Jackson were returning from Franklin, and surprised the party of Indians while they were waylaying Lane and his friends, who were assist- ing him to hobble along. After disposing of the Indians, Love and Jackson had not proceeded far until, at dawn of day, they met what they supposed to be more Indians, and were upon the point of discharging their rifles, when they discovered it was Lane, Henderson, and Smith, who were march- ing into the trap set for them by their wily foe. Then Captain Love learned of the defeat of his party. After taking Lane to the settlement, a burial party was made up and repaired to the battle-ground, where the seventeen
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THE MORGAN MASSACRE.
dead men were buried. This affair gave name to Battle creek, one of the tributaries of Richland.
1839-THE MORGAN MASSACRE-ATTACK ON MARLIN'S DEFEAT.
HOUSE-BRYANT'S
On the east side of the Brazos, near the Falls, the Morgans and Marlins, somewhat intermarried, constituted several families, residing a few miles apart, some above and some a little below the site of the present village of Marlin. There was a considerable settlement along the river for some twenty miles, but the country beyond or above them was open to the Indians. The period to which reference is made was the winter of 1838-9.
On Sunday night, the 1st day of January, 1839, a part of the families of James Marlin and Mrs. Jones and the family of Jackson Morgan, were together passing the night with the family of George Morgan, at what is now called Morgan's Point, six miles above the town of Marlin. The remainder of the divided families were at the house of John Marlin, seven miles below, that is, Fort Milam. John and James Marlin were brothers; the others of that name were their children.
A little after dark, the house of George Morgan was suddenly surrounded and attacked by Indians, who instantly rushed in and gave the inmates no time for defense. Old Mr. George Morgan and wife, their grandson, Jack- son Jones, Jackson Morgan's wife, and Miss Adeline Marlin, aged fifteen or sixteen years, were all tomahawked and scalped in the same room in the space of a few moments. Miss Stacy Ann Marlin (the wife of William Morgan) was severely wounded and left as dead. Three children were in the yard when the attack commenced. Of these Isaac Marlin, a child of ten years, secreted himself under the fence, and there remained until the tragedy was over. Wesley Jones. quite a child, first ran into the house, but, secing the Indians entering and tomahawking the inmates, ran out, unobserved by the murderous wretches, and was followed by Mary Marlin, another child. They escaped together. The wounded lady, retaining consciousness, feigned death; but was not scalped, while all the others were. The Indians robbed the house of its contents and left. When they had done so and silence again reigned, the heroic child, Isaac Marlin-his name should be immortalized-re-entered the house, and, by feeling the lifeless bodies, ascertained to his satisfaction who were killed. His wounded sister, supposing him to be an Indian, still remained motionless till he left, when she crawled out. Little Isaac then took the path for John Marlin's, and ran the seven miles very quickly- a swift child-messenger of death to his kindred there assembled. Wesley Jones and Mary Marlin did not get in till daylight, and the wounded Mrs. Morgan not till noon next day.
When little Isaac got into John Marlin's house, that gentleman, his brother James, William N. P. and Wilson Marlin, Jackson and George W. Morgan, and Albert G. Gholson immediately hastened to the scene, and found the facts identical with the child's narration. Other relief arrived next day, and the dead were consigned to their graves amid the wailings of their grief-stricken relatives and friends.
Ten days later, being the 10th of January, 1839, the Indians, seventy in number, attacked the house of John Marlin and his son Benjamin, whose
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surviving family still reside in Milam county, and Jarett Menefee and his son Thomas, who killed seven Indians and wounded others, without receiv- ing any injury themselves. Tired of that kind of reception, the enemy withdrew. When the attack was made, Menefee's negro man, "Hinchey," was at work a short distance from the house; but, failing to reach it, he left in double-quick time for the settlements below, and made twenty-five miles in pretty fair saddle-horse time. "Hinchey" duly reported the attack, and a company was quickly gathered together to relieve the besieged. They lost no time in reaching Marlin's, but found the Indians had retreated as before stated.
It was determined, however, upon a discussion of the matter by those present, that they must pursue and fight the Indians, or abandon their homes and fall back into the more settled parts of the country. They chose the former alternative, and made their dispositions accordingly. The effective force available for pursuit was forty-eight men. Benjamin Bryant (of Bryant's Station, whose surviving family still reside in Milam county) was called to the command. The names of the company were as follows: A. J. Powers, Washington McGrew, - Ward, Armstrong Barton, - Plummer, Alfred Eaton, Hugh A. Henry, William Fullerton, A. J. Webb, -Doss, Charles Solls (or Sawls), William N. P. Marlin, - Bryant, G. W. Morgan, Enoch M. Jones, John R. Henry, Lewis B. and William C. Powers, Henry Haigwood, Eli Chandler, Ethan Stroud, Joseph Boren, William McGrew, Andrew McMillan, Clay and David Cobb, Richard Teel, Albert G. Gholson, Michacl Castleman, Wilson Reed, Wily Carter, John Welsh, Britton Dawson, R. H. Matthews, David W. Campbell, Nathan Campbell, John D. B. Smith, Jeremiah McDanel, Walter Campbell, Wil- liam Henry, Hugh Henry, Jolin Marlin, Wilson Marlin, Joseph P. McCan- less, John Tucker, and Thomas Duncan, then a boy and now of Bell county, and one other whose name could not be remembered.
On the next morning, Bryant took the trail of the enemy and pursued it; crossed the Brazos near Morgan's Point; on the west side found a deserted camp, with fresh sign; about a mile out came upon a fresh trail bearing into the river, and followed it. At the river, counted sixty-four fresh horse-tracks and a large trail of foot Indians which crossed the river. Seeing the prairie on fire below, they supposed it to be Marlin's house and hastened back, without finding the enemy, and halted for the night. Next morning, January 16th, they started up again, and found that the Indians had been at the deserted houses two miles above and plundered them. Thence they traveled up six miles to Morgan's Point, and suddenly discov- ered the enemy in the open post-oak near a dry brauch. The noted chief, Jose Maria, who was riding in front, in perfect nonchalance halted, slipped off his gloves, and, taking deliberate aim, fired at Boren, cutting his coat- sleeve. Jose Maria gave the signal to call on his men, and the action commenced. Bryant ordered a charge, which was gallantly made, though the captain received a wound at the time, which called Ethan Stroud to the command. The Indians fired, and fell back into the ravine. Simulta- neous with the charge, David W. Campbell fired at Jose Maria, the ball striking him on the breast-bone, but failing to dismount him. Albert G. Gholson then shot his horse, which died in the ravine. Our men then
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