USA > Texas > Border wars of Texas; being an authentic and popular account, in chronological order, of the long and bitter conflict waged between savage Indian tribes and the pioneer settlers of Texas > Part 14
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Naturally supposing his wife and babies had been cap- tured, and perhaps murdered, McLennan, with his little . son, set out for the settlements many miles below. The re- fugees remained in hiding all night, suffering much from cold, and in the morning a few remnants of clothing were found, also a little corn scattered in the dust, and which was their only sustenance. In this terrible condition, al- most famished and naked, these helpless beings remained for . several days, until the husband and father returned from the settlement, with a small company raised for the purpose " of pursuit and the hope of rescue.
Approaching the camp, Mrs. McLennan was discovered
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scratching in the dust in search of grains of corn, but think- ing the men were Indians she fled, in wild fright, and had to be run down and caught. Poor woman, though overjoy- ed when realizing deliverance, she was almost crazed from exposure and hunger, and so emaciated that her husband could scarcely realize the change. Thus providentially spared worse misfortune, the family were glad to find a home in a less exposed section.
MURDER OF THE LAUGHLIN MCLENNAN FAMILY- "INDIAN JOHN," McLENNAN.
In the winter of 1835-'6, when most of the settlers had retired from this exposed frontier, in consequence of the hostility of Indians, these brave families remained on their little farms. In the spring of '36 their first and saddest misfortune overtook them. While splitting rails, a party of Indians, probably Wacos, surprised and killed Laughlin and his wife and captured their three small children-Laugh- lin's aged and feebled mother, unable to walk being burned alive in the house. Two of the captive children soon died. The other, John, a fine little fellow of seven years, was adopted and remained with the Indians some years till re- covered through treaty stipulations in 1846-Neil McLen- ran attending the council high up on the Brazos, and bringing his nephew back to the village of Nashville. Now a grown young man, unable to speak a word of English, dressed in the Indian garb and with all the propensities of that race, he was indeed "the very picture of a wild war- rior," and it was no ordinary task to win "this young sav- age" to civilization. It was very hard to get him reconciled to his relatives and their modes and manners, "but with the return of his mother tongue he became more civilized and contented." "My mother" says Capt. W. T. Davidson, "made the first garment he would wear, out of red cloth, and besides provided him with a straw hat with a red ribbon band streaming down about a yard, of which he was very proud." During the lifetime of his adopted Indian mother, we are told he often visited her, being al-
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ways loaded with such presents as he knew would gratify her-thus showing his gratitude for her care and attention to him during his boyhood. Eventually he became entirely reconciled, married happily and settled down on Hog Creek, in Bosque county, where he resided till his death in 1866.
Thus admonished by this terrible tragedy, of the dangers to which they were exposed on that then extreme frontier, the McLennans removed.down to the frontier village of Nashville, where they remained till the spring of 1837, when Neil Sr., ventured back to his farm and commenced a crop, and when the Indians again made an attack, the father and his son, John, (afterwards sheriff, first of Milam and then of McLennan county) barely escaped, and a negro man was captured-but soon to effect his escape and return to his master .*
FALL OF PARKER'S FORT-THE HORRIBLE MASSACRE. FATE OF THE CAPTIVES. A THRILLING STORY.
Settlers at Parker's fort participated in the "runaway scrap" in the spring of 1836, and went as far east as the Trinity which they were unable to cross, as the river was so swollen by heavy rains. While encamped on its western bank, they were informed of the victory of San Jacinto, and at once started back to the fort, which they reached without unusal incident.
*"McLennan's faithful old negro servant, Alf for that was his name, in telling of the attack and his capture by Indians," says Capt. W. T. Davidson, "told me the first inti- mation he had that the Indians were anywhere about, he saw them jumping over the field fence where he was at work. He broke for the timber, but a big stalwart fellow pursued him, running up behind and slapped his hand on his shoulder, with the exclamation: 'Whoop!' They carried him off a prisoner and kept him for some time. Alf was a great character and was the only negro fiddler in the town of Nashville, and always played for the young people to dance about once a week. They would pay him in dressed deer skins, old clothes, shoes, and as much corn whisky as he could drink. They danced nothing but the reel or 'break-down' in those days, and Alf would play: 'Give the fiddler a dram, give the fiddler a dram, and let him drink it and be d-ed,' or 'We will dance all night till broad daylight and go home with the gals in the morning,' and always accompanied the music with song. Those were great days-good old times-and were enjoyed by those brave and happy 'folks,'-a great deal more than the present times and (of) modern dances."-Letter 3, 76, 07.
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Parker's Fort was located near the headwaters of the Navasota, one half miles northwest of the site of the town of Groesbeck, in Limstone county, in the heart of what was then a wilderness, but now a fruited and thickly populated region divided into farmsteads and dotted with vlilages and towns.
Fort Houston, situated a mile or two west of the site of Palestine, on land now included in the John H. Reagan farm two miles west of Palestine, in Anderson county, was the nearest white settlement. Others were distant sixty miles or more.
Parker's fort consisted of cabins surrounded by a stock- ade. A large double gate afforded access to the enclosure. The outer walls of the log cabins formed part of the walls of the stockade. Their roofs sloped inward. At one or more corners of the stockade were block houses. The walls around the entire quadrangle were perforated with loop holes. The fortification was bullet proof, and, like others of the kind, could not be taken by Indians if defend- ed by a few well-armed and determined men. It was built for the purpose of being occupied by the families living in the vicinity, when there was danger of attack by Indians. Most of the farms-some of them near-by and others a mile or so away-were provided with cabins where the tired colo- nists occasionally spent the night.
The patriarch of the settlement was Elder John Parker, seventy nine years of age. His aged wife ,"Granny" Parker, was, perhaps, a few years younger. He was a Virginian by birth; resided for a time in Elbert county, Ga .; chiefly reared his family in Bedford county, Tenn .; afterwards lived for several years in Cole county, Ill .; and then moved, in 1833, to Texas where Parker's fort was erected in the follow- ing year. Some of the family came to Texas prior, and.others subsequent, to that time.
The little group consisted of the following persons: El- der John Parker and wife (Granny Parker) ; James W. Parker (son of Elder Joihm), wife, four single children, married daughter, Mrs. Rachel Plummer, and her husband,
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L. T. M. Plummer, and fifteen months old son, James Pratt Plummer, and one daughter, Mrs. Sarah Nixon, and her hus- band, L. D. Nixon; Silas M. Parker (son of Elder John) and his wife, and four children; Benjamin F. Parker (an un- married son of Elder John) ; Mrs. Nixon, Sr., (mother of Mrs. James. W. Parker); Mrs. Elizabeth Kellogg (daughter of Mrs. Nixon, Sr.) ; Mrs. Duty; Samuel M. Frost and his wife and children; Robert Frost; G. E. Dwight and his wife and children; David Faulkenberry and his son, Evan; Seth Bates and his son, Silas H .; Elisha Anglin and his nineteen year old som, Abram, and old man Lunn-in all thirty-eight persons.
On returning to Parker's fort from the Trinity, the lit- tle band busied itself with gathering together its scattered stock and in preparing the fields for putting in crops, all unsconscious of the fearful massacre that was to extinguish, so soon, the bright hopes they entertained of the fu- ture, and the lives of many of their number; and an unspeakable mental anguish and physical sufferings upon others of the survivors.
Early on the morning of May 19, 1836, James W. Parker, Nixon and Plummer left the fort, and repaired to a farm a mile from there, and David Faulkenberry and his son Evan, Silas H. Bates and Abram Anglin went from the fort to their fields a mile farther away.
Seth Bates, Elisha Anglin, and old man Lunn either slept at their cabins the night before, or left the fort prior to 9 o'clock the morning of the 19th.
At that hour from five hundred to seven hundred In- dians (Comanches and Kiowas) appeared on the prairie two or three hundred yards from the fort, displayed a white flag, and sent forward one of their number, who said that they had no hostile intentions, and merely wanted some one to come out from the fort and direct them to a spring which they understood was near-by, and to be furnished a beef.
Subsequent events justify the belief that this Indian . 1
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acted as a spy, noticed that nearly all the men were absent, and reported the practically defenseless condition of the oc- cupants of the fort. Benjamin F. Parker went out to the In- dians and, after returning, stated that it was his belief they were hostile and intended to attack the fort. He said that he would go to them again and try to dissuade them. His brother, Silas M. Parker, urged him nct to go, but he went, nevertheless, and was immediately surrounded and killed.
While this tragedy was in progress, Elder John Park- er, "Granny" Parker and Mrs. Kellogg, fled from the fort in ore party, and Mrs. James W. Parker and children by themselves; Silas M. Parker and Mrs. Plummer ran out- side the stockade. Everyone tried to escape.
As soon as the Indians appeared, Mrs. Sarah Nixon left for the farm where her father, husband and Plummer were at work, to tell them of the imminent peril the occupants of the fort were in.
The savages kept up terrific shouting and yelling while they were murdering Benjamin F. Parker-the peculiar blood-curdling Comanche scream (once heard, never forgot- ten) rising above the less distinctive cries of the Kiowas. Most of them rushed upon the fort, the gate of which was open; the remainder went in pursuit of the parties of ref- ugees that were still in sight.
The main body of Indians first encountered and killed Silas M. Parker just outside the fort, where he fought to the last, trying to protect Mrs. Plummer. This opposition necessitated the attention of some of the Indians, who kill- ed and scalped Silas M. Parker, knocked unconscious with a hoe and captured Mrs. Plummer, after fierce resistance on her part, and then poured into the fort, where they joined their companion fiends, and helped to murder Samuel M. and Robert Frost, who fought and fell as true men should. Mrs. Nixon, Sr., Mrs. Duty and all the other women and children, managed to get out of the fort before and during the melee.
Shrieks of victims rent the air. Hundreds of brazen
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throated savages shouted and screamed war-whoops, curses, and taunts. The thud of blows delivered with war-clubs and tomahawks, and the sharp reports of firearms resound- ed. Blood and death were everywhere. Murder, with bat- like wings, brooded over the scene infernal, and drank in the babel of piteous and fierce sounds that rose from it.
Elder John Parker, "Granny" Parker, and Mrs. Kellogg were captured when they had gone three-fourths of a mile. They were brought back to a spot near the fort, where El- der John Parker was stripped, speared and killed, and "Gran- ny" Parker was stripped of everything except her under- clothing, speared, outraged, and left for dead. The In- dians kept Mrs. Kellogg as a prisoner.
When Mrs. Sarah Nixon reached the field to tell of the coming of the Indians, she found her father, James W. Par- ker, and Plummer. Her husband had gone down to the other farm. Plummer at once hastened to the latter place to convey information of the danger. James W. Parker started immediately for the fort. Enroute he met his wife and children, and others.
Plummer reached Nixon first and told him that the fort was surrounded by Indians. Without waiting for the oth- er men to come up, Nixon, though unarmed, ran toward the fort. In a few moments he met Mrs. Lucy Parker (wife of Silas M. Parker) and her four children, just as they were overtaken by Indians. They compelled her to lift be- hind two mounted warriors, her nine-year-old daughter Cynthia Ann, and little boy, John. The foot Indians then took her and her two younger children back to the fort, Nix- on following. She passed around, and Nixon through the fort.
At the moment the Indians were about to kill Nixon, David Faulkenberry appeared with his rifle and leveling it, caused them to fall back. Thereupon Nixon left in search of his wife and overtook Dwight and family, and Frost's family, and with them, met James W. Parker and family
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1. JOHN NEELY BRYAN. FATHER OF DALLAS. 2. CAPT GEO B. ERATH
3. CAPT. RANDAL JONES.
4. CAPT. ROBT. M. COLEMAN
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1. CAPT. SHAPLEY P. ROSS 3 CAPT. HENRY STOUT
2. CAPT. HENRY S. BROWN 4. CAPT. SAM HIGHSMITH
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and his own wife, Mrs. Sarah Nixon. This group hastened to the Navasota bottom and hid in a thicket.
Faulkenberry ordered Mrs. Lucy Parker to follow him, which she did, carrying her infant in her arms and holding her other child by the hand. The Indians made several dashes toward them, but were brought up standing each time by Faulkenberry turning upon them and presenting his rifle. One warrior, bolder than the rest, rode up so close that Mrs. Parker's faithful dog seized his horse by the nose, whereupon horse and rider somersaulted into a gully. At this time Silas H. Bates, Abram Anglin and Evan Faul- kenberry, armed with rifles, and Plummer, unarmed, came up, and the pursuing Indians, after making further hostile demonstrations, retired. While this party of refugees were passing through Silas M. Parker's field, Plummer, as if awakened from a dream, asked where his wife and child were, and taking the butcher knife of Abram Anglin, went in search of them. Seth Bates and old man Lunn were met a little farther on, and the party proceeded to a hiding place in the creek bottom.
At twilight Abram Anglin and Evan Faulkenberry started back to the fort. On reaching Seth Anglin's cabin, three-fourths of a mile from their destination, they found "Granny" Parker. She had feigned death until the Indians left and then crawled there, more dead than alive. When An- glin beheld her, he thought he was looking at a ghost. In his account of the incident he says, "It was dressed in white, with long white hair streaming down its back. I ad- mit that I was worse scared at this moment than when the Indians were yelling, and charging us. Seeing me hesitate, my ghost now beckoned me to come on. Approaching the object, it proved to be old 'Granny' Parker.
"I took some bed clothing and carrying her some dis- tarce from the house, made her a bed, covered her up, and left her until we should return from the fort. On arriv- ing at the fort we could not see a single individual alive, or hear a human sound. But the dogs were barking, the cat-
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tle lowing, the horses neighing, and the hogs squealing.
"Mrs. Parker had told me where she had left some sil- ver, $106.50. This I found under a hickory bush, by moon- light. Finding no one at the fort, we returned to where I bad hidden 'Granny' Parker. On taking her up behind me, we made our way back to our hiding place in the bottom, where we found Nixon."
Next morning Silas H. Bates, Abram Anglin and Evan Faulkenberry went back to the fort, where they secured five or six horses, a few saddles and bridles and some meal, bacon and honey; but, fearing that the Indians might return, did not tarry to bring the dead.
With the aid of the horses and provisions, the party with David Faulkenberry made its way to Fort Houston. They did not then know what had become of James W. Par- ker and those with him.
The people with James W. Parker, consisting of G. E. Dwight and nineteen women and children, reached, after traveling six days, Tinnin's, at the old San Antonio and Nacogdoches crossing of the Navasota, emaciated by star- vation, with nearly all their clothing torn off of them by thorns, and that which remained reduced to shreds, their bodies and limbs lacerated and their feet swollen and bleed- ing. Messrs. Carter and Courting learned of their approach, went out to meet them with five horses, and brought them in.
The settlers at Tinnin's, themselves but recently returned from the "runaway scrape" and poorly supplied with necessa- ries, divided their little all of food and clothing with the suf- ferers, and cheered and comforted them as best they could.
There were hearts of gold in Texas in those days- of the kind of gold that is in the heavenly city, and not in the fated fane of Mammon.
A party of twelve men went up from Fort Houston and buried the dead "Granny" Parker did not live long after reaching Fort Houston. Most of the Parker's Fort set- tlers later returned to that location.
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Upon leaving Parker's fort after the massacre, the Comanches and Kiowas traveled together until midnight, when they halted, went into camp, tied their prisoners so tightly hand and foot that blocd welled up from beneath the cruel cords, threw the prisoners on their faces, built fires, erected a pole, and engaged in a scalp dance around it that lasted until morning. The savages seemed drunk with the horrors they had perpetrated, and aband- oned themselves without restraint to the frenzy of the dance.
They chanted and shouted themselves hoarse, leaped into the air, contorted their bodies, and re-enacted the mur- ders they had committed until even the limit of their phys- ical endurance was exceeded.
The maddened demons tramped upon the prisoners and beat them with bows, until they were covered with blood and bruises.
The orgie ended at last, leaving Mrs. Kellogg, Mrs. Plummer and the children more dead than alive.
When the Indians parted they divided the prisoners among them. Mrs. Plummer was separated from her little son, James Pratt Plummer, he being taken by one band and she by another.
Mrs. Kellogg was sold to the Keechies and by them to the Delawares, who, about six months after her capture, car- ried her into Nacogdoches and surrendered her to Gen. Sam Houston, who paid them $150.00, the amount they had paid the Keechies, and all they demanded.
While she was being conveyed from Nacogdoches to Fort Houston by James W. Parker and others, a Mr. Smith wounded and disabled an Indian, whom she recognized as the savage who scalped Elder John Parker. As soon as she made known the fact, Parker, Smith and others of the party killed the man-riddling his carcass with bullets, and leav- ing it where it fell for wolves and buzzards to dispose of.
Six months after she was captured Mrs. Plummer gave birth to a boy baby. She begged an Indian woman to tell
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her how to save the child, but the squaw turned a deaf ear to her pleadings. One day, while she was nursing the in- fant, several Indians came to her ard one of them tore the child from her, strangled it with his hards, tossed it in the air and let it fall on the ground until life seemed ex- tinct, and then threw it at her feet, while the others held her, despite frantic struggling. The bucks then left her. In her printed narrative she says, "I had been weep- ing incessantly whilst they were murdering my child, but now my grief was so great that the fountain of my tears was dried up. As I gazed on the bruised cheeks of my dar- ling infant, I discovered some symptoms of returning life. I hoped that if it could be resuscitated, they would allow me to keep it. I washed the blood from its face, and after a time it began to breathe again. But a more heart-rending scene ensued. As soon as the Indians ascertained that the child was still alive, they tore it from my arms and knocked me down. They then tied a plaited rope around its neck and threw it into a bunch of prickly pears, and then pulled it backward and forward until its tender flesh was liter- ally. torn from its body. One of the Indians, who was mounted on a horse, then tied the end of the rope to his saddle and galloped around in a circle until my little inno- cent was not only dead, but torn to pieces. One of them then untied the rope and threw the remains of. the child into my lap, and I dug a hole in the earth and buried them."
The Indians killed the child because they thought that caring for it interferred with the mother's work. After- wards she was given to a squaw as servant. The squaw, after much cruel treatment, attempted to beat her with a club. Mrs. Plummer wrenched the club from the Indian woman's hands and knocked her down with it. The Indian men, who were at some distance, ran, yelling, to the scene. Mrs. Plummer expected nothing less than to be killed by them. Instead, they patted her on the back, exclaiming "bueno ! bueno !"-good ! good!
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After that she was called the "fighting squaw," and was much better treated. After a captivity of one and a half years, she was ransomed by Mr. William Donoho, a Santa Fe merchant-trader-the same generous, tender- hearted and noble gentleman through whose efforts the un- fortunate Mns. Horn and Mrs. Harris were rescued from savage captivity, as previously related.
The Indian camp in which she was found was so far north of Santa Fe that it took seventeen days travel to reach that place. Mr. and Mrs. Dencho took her with them to Independence, Missouri. There she met her brother-in- law, L. D. Nixon, who brought her to Texas, where she crossed the door sill of her father's home February 19, 1838. She wrote, or had written, an account of her Indian captiv- ity. Her death occurred February 19, 1839. The 19th day of months seems to have had an occult significance for her. She was born on the 19th, was married on the 19th, was captured on the 19th, was ransomed on the 19th, reached Independence on the 19th, arrived at home on the 19th and died on the 19th.
She died without knowing what had become of her son, James Pratt Plummer. He was ransomed late in 1842 and taken to Fort Gibson, and reached home in February, 1843, in charge of his grandfather, and became a highly es- teemed citizen of Anderson County.
CYNTHIA ANN PARKER-JOHN PARKER - CHIEF QUANAH PARKER.
Many efforts were made by their relatives to trace and recover Cynthia Ann and John Parker, and Texan and United States government expeditions kept a sharp look- out for them; but without avail, until Cynthia Ann was un- expectedly captured at the battle of Pease River, in 1860.
There is a fairly anthenticated story to the following effect: In 1840 (four years after her capture at Parker's fort) Col. Len Williams, - - Stoal (a trader) and a Dela- ware Indian guide, named "Jack Henry" found her with
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Pa-ha-u-ka's band of Comanche Irdians on the Canadian River. Col. Williams offered to ransom her, but the Indian into whose family she had been adopted said that all the goods the Colonel had were not sufficient to get her, that she would not be surrendered for any consideration. Col. Williams requested the privilege of talking with her, and she was permitted to come into his presence. She walked quietly to him and seated herself at the foot of a tree, but could not be induced to utter a word, cr make a gesture that showed whether she did cr did not understand what he said to her. She was then thirteen years old. Some years later she became the squaw of the noted Comanche chief, Peta Nocona, and bore him several children.
Victor M. Rose says: "Fifteen years after her capture a party of white hunters, including some friends of her fam- ily, visited the Comanche encampment on the upper Cana- dian, and recognizing Cynthia Ann, probably through the medium of her name alone, sounded her in a secret manner as to the desirableness of a return to her people and the haunts of civilization. She shock her head in a sorrowful negative, and pointed to her little naked barbarians sport- ing at her feet, and to the great, lazy buck sleeping in the shade near at hand, the locks of a score of scalps dangling at his belt, and whose first utterance upon arousing would be a stern command to his meek, pale faced wife. Though, in truth, exposure to sun and air had browned the com- plexion of Cynthia Ann almost as intensely as that of the native daughters of the plain and forest. She said, 'I am happily wedded. I love my husband, who is good and kind, and my little ones, too, are his, and I cannot forsake them.' "
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