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 15
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If, indeed the entire account given by Rose is not apoch- ryphal, it is certain that Cynthia Ann did not employ,in her reply, the set of words attributed to her, and that she did not speak in her mother tongue.
When recaptured, the veneer of savagery that covered her was so thick that it took time and unremitting, loving care to remove it.
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Young Lawrence Sullivan Ross, then a dashing ranger Captain; in after years to win much renown as a Confederate Brigadier-General; Governor of Texas, and later, President of the A. and M. college of Texas till his untimely death, in com- mand of a company of Texas rangers, a sergeant and twenty United States dragoons, and seventy citizens from Palo Pinto county under Capt. Jack Curington, came upon an Indian village at the head waters of Pease River. Most of his men were some distance in his rear, their horses being much jad- ed by travel and want of food. With him were the dra- goons and twenty of his own men. With these, 'he charged immediately. The Indians, although surprised, fought with more than usual bravery, their women and children and all of their possessions being with them. They could not hold their ground against such an attacking force, however, and, after many had been killed, the survivors tried to escape to the mountains, about six miles distant. Lieut. Thomas Kellihuir pursued one, and Capt. Ross and Lieut. Somerville another. Somerville was a heavy man, and his horse fell be- hind. Ross dashed on and overtook the Indian he was af- ter. A fierce combat followed, resulting in the death of the Indian, who proved to be Peta Nocona, chief of the band.
Kellihuir eaptured the supposed Indian he was after, and who proved to be Cynthia Ann Parker. She had in her arms a girl child about two and a half years of age, Topa- sannah-"Prairie Flower." It was not known at the time who the captured woman was. She spoke no word that tend- ed to clear the mystery. Lieut. Sublett picked up a Coman- che boy. Capt. Ross took charge of him, named him Pease, and reared him at Waco.
On returning to the settlements, Capt. Ross sent for Isaac Parker, thinking it possible that the woman might be Cynthia Ann Parker. Thrall says: "The venerable Isaac Parker, still in hopes of hearing of his long lost niece, went to the camp. Her age and general appearance suited the object of his search, but she had lost every word of her native tongue. Col. Parker was about to give up in de-
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spair, when he turned to the interpreters and said very dis- tinctly 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 emo- tions that had long lain dormant. In a letter to us Col. 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 recol- lection sprang up in her mind, that had been obliterated for twenty-five years. Her very countenance changed, and a pleasant smile took the place of a sullen gloom.'
"Returning with her uncle, she soon regained her na- tive tongue. It was during the war, and she learned to spin and weave and make herself useful about the house." Her uncle took her to his home in Tarrant county. Soon thereafter she was carried to Austin and was there conducted by a party of ladies and gentlemen into the hall where the State Secession Convention was being held in Aus- tin, in 1861. She appeared to be greatly distressed. In- quiry revealed the fact that she thought the assemblage was a meeting of war chiefs, convened for the purpose of de- ciding her fate, and was apprehensive that they would con- demn her to death.
An act of the Texas Legislature, approved April 8, 1861, granted Cynthia Ann Parker a pension of $100 a year for five years, dating from January 1, 1861, and required the county court of Tarrant county to appoint a guardian for her, the guardian to give a bond, "conditioned for the faithful application of the pension, and for the support and education of her child." Another act of the Legislature, in the same year, donated to her a league of land.
An act of the Legislature, approved January 8, 1862, contained the following: "Silas M. Parker, of Van Zandt county, is hereby constituted as agent of Cynthia Ann Parker, formerly of Tarrant and now of Van Zandt coun- ty, and, on his giving bond in the sum of $400 to the Chief Justice of Van Zandt county, for the faithful application of
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said persion to the support of said Cynthia Ann Parker, and for the support and education of her child, Topasan- nah, the State Treasurer shall pay said pension to the said agent, or his order."
The last appropriations to pay the persion were for the years 1864 and 1865, and are contained in the general ap- propriation act passed by the Tenth Legislature, approved December 16, 1863.
Topasannah (little Prairie Flower) died in. 1864, and dur- ing the same year the soul of the mother winged its way to the spirit land. Cynthia Ann was buried in the Foster grave- yard, Henderson county, Texas where her remains reposed for forty-six years-till late in December, 1910 through the ef- forts of the adoring son, Chief Quanah Parker, they were ex- humed, conveyed to Lawton, Okla .; and, after much cer- emony, re-interred in the Indian family cemetery at Post Oak, in the Wichita mountains. And thus briefly traced, closes the history of this unfortunate woman, far famed in the border annals of Texas
Cynthia Ann Parker had two other children, besides "Prairie Flower"-both sons, and both with the Coman- ches. One of the boys died not long after her own demise; the other, Quanah by name, who long survived and acquired renown as the head chief of all the Comanches. Aged, and beloved by both the red and white man, the famous chief died at his tribal home, on Thursday, February 23, 1911, and was buried as he had so desired to be, by the side of his mother, "Preloch,"-Cynthia Ann Parker.
The death of Quanah Parker marked the passing of the last of the great Indian chiefs-Sitting Bull, Red Cloud, Crazy Horse, Chief Joseph and Geronimo having preceded him some years to the "happy hunting grounds."
John Parker, brother of Cynthia Ann, grew to man- hood among the Comanches, and participated in their fo- rays as a Comanche brave. During a raid into Mexico, a: Mexican girl was captured. Shortly thereafter he was; stricken with small-pox. The tribe fled from him in con-
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sternation, and left him to die without attention. The Mex- ican girl remained with and nursed him back to health. Disgusted with his former comrades, he followed the girl's advice, and went with her to her people beyond the Rio Grande. He served in a Mexican company in the Confed- erate Army during the war between the states, but would not leave the soil of Texas, refusing even to cross the line into Louisiana. The last heard of him, he was living on a ranch in Mexico. He, too, has long since gone to his reward.
DEATH OF MCSHERRY AND STINNETT-KILLING OF HIBBINS AND CREATH AND THE CAPTURE OF MRS. HIBBINS AND CHILDREN - HEROISM OF THE LITTLE SON.
Of the many, very many, pathetic episodes already el.ronicled, and yet to be recounted, the dual-triple; yea, four-fold tragic misfortunes of Mrs. McSherry-Hibbins- Stinnett-Howard, must certainly claim precedence, and in fact, are without a parallel in torder annals. Recording the multiplied incidents of the story. (extending over a pe- ricd of "13", to her, unfortunate years) at this juncture, ard to connect the thread of narrative, we must revert a few years-closing with sad sequels.
"In 1828," says John Henry Brown, "there arrived on the Guadalupe River, a young couple from the vicinity of Brownsville, Jackson county, Illinois-John McSherry and his wife, Sarah, whose maiden name was Creath. They set- tled on the west side of the Guadalupe, in De Witt's colony at a place in what is now the lower edge of De Witt county, near a little creek, which, with a spring, was some two hundred yards in front of the cabin they erected- wild and isolated, but one of the loveliest spots of the Southwest. Their nearest neighbor was Andrew Lockhart, ten miles up the river, and one of a large family of sterling pioneers on the Guadalupe, bearing that name.
"Mrs. McSherry was a beautiful blonde, an excellent type of the country girls of the West in that day, very
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handsome in person, graceful in manner and pure of heart. Mr. McSherry was an honest, industrious man of nerve and will. They were happily devoted to each other.
"Early in 1829 their first child, a son, was born, com- plementing the full measure of their connubial bliss-but alas! soon to be blighted with a most direful calamity."
"Later in the same year," continues Brown, "about noom on a pleasant day, Mr. McSherry went to the spring for a bucket of water. As he arose from the bank, bucket in hand, a party of Indians, with a wild yell, sprang from the bushes, and in a moment he was a lifeless corpse. His wife, hearing the yell, sprang to the door, saw him plainly and realized the peril of herself and infant. In the twink- ling of an eye, she barred the door, seized the gun, and resolved to defend herself and baby unto death. The sav- ages surveyed the situation and maneuvered to and fro, but failed to attack the cabin, and soon disappeared. Thus she was left alone, ten miles from the nearest habitation, and without a road to that, or any other place. But truly, in the belief of every honest person of long frontier expe- rience, the ways of Providence are inscrutable. About dark, John McCrabb, a fearless and excellent man, well armed and mounted, but wholly unaware of the sad condition of matters, rode up to the cabin to pass the night. Hearing the recital, his strong nerves became stronger, and his heart pulsated as became a whole-souled Irishman. Very soon he placed the young mother and babe on his horse, and by the light of the stars, started on foot, through the wilderness, for the house of settler Lockhart, reaching it before daylight, where warm hearts bestowed all possible care and kindness on those so ruthlessly stricken in the wilderness, and so remote from all kindred ties."
Here in this hospitable home the bereaved lady re- mained, till she met, was wooed, and married John Hibbins, a worthy man, who settled on the east side of the Guadalupe, in the vicinity of where the town of Concrete, in DeWitt county, now stands. 1
1
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Again happy and prosperous, in the summer of 1835, with her little boy, John McSherry, and an infant by Mr. Hibbins, she visited her kindred in Illinois-returning in company with a single brother, George Creath, in boat, via New Orleans, and thence to Columbia, on the Brazos, "where, early in February, 1836, Mr. Hibbins met them with an ox-cart, on which they began the journey home." From Beason's Crossing on the Colorado, they proceeded to the Navidad, and thence along the old La Bahia road, reaching their last camp on Rock Creek, six miles above the subsequent village of Sweet Home, in Lavaca county, and within about fifteen miles of their home, where they were suddenly attacked by thirteen Comanche Indian warriors, who immediately killed Hibbins and Creath, made captives of Mrs. Hibbins and her two children, took possession of the effects, and leisurely moved off, passing up through the Peach Creek timbered region, between the Guadalupe and the Colorado. At their second camp, Mrs. Hibbins' suf -. fering little babe, crying from pain, was seized by one of the fierds and its brains dashed out against a tree, before the eyes of its shrieking, frantic, but helpless mother.
For an account of this lady's further sufferings, prov- idential escape, and rescue of her little son, on this occa- sion, we quote from the Reminiscences of the octogenarian pioneer, Noah Smithwick, who wrote from personal knowl- edge-prefacing with the providential, or at least fortunate fact that, on account of the numerous and alarming depre- dations of the Indians all along that frontier, Capt. John J. Tomlinson had been commissioned with a small company of rangers-the first ever raised under the revolutionary government of Texas-for protection, and was at that time in close proximity to this band of marauders. Says Smith- wick, one of the company: "We were assigned to duty on the headwaters of Brushy Creek, some thirty miles north- west of the site of the present capital, that city not hav- ing been even projected then. The appointed rendezvous was Hornsby's station, ten miles below Austin, on the Col-
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orade, from which place we were to proceed at once to our post, taking such materials as were necessary to aid us in the construction of a block house. * * Just as we were preparing for our supper, a young white woman, an en- tire stranger, her clothing hanging in shreds about her torn ard bleeding body, dragged herself into camp and sank exhausted on the ground. The feeling of rest and re- lief on finding herself among friends able and willing to help her, so overcame her overtaxed strength that it was some little time before she could give a coherent explana- tion of her situation, name, and sad misfortunes. * * *
"The scene of the attack being a lonely spot on a lone- ly road, the cunning redskins knew there was little risk of the cutrage being discovered till they were beyond the reach of pursuit; so when a cold norther met them at the cross- ing of the Colorado, about where the city of Austin now stands, they sought the shelter of a cedar brake on Walnut Creek, and encamped. Confident that Mrs. Hibbins could not es- cape with her child, and trusting to her mother's love to prevent her leaving it, the Indians allowed her to lie un- bound, not even putting out guards. It was bitterly cold, and wrapping themselves in their buffalo robes, they were soon sound asleep. But there was no sleep for Mrs. Hib- bins-heroic woman, she resolved to escape and to rescue her child. There was no time to lose, as another day's travel would take her far beyond the settlements and the possibility of successful escape and procuring help before the savages reached their stronghold. Assured by their breathing that her captors were asleep, and summoning all her courage, she careful'y tucked the robe about her sleep- ing boy-her first-born, and now her only child-and stole away, leaving him to the mercy of the brutal barbarians.
"She felt sure the river they had crossed was the Col- orado, and knew there were settlements below; how far down she had no idea, but that seeming to offer the only means of escape, she made straight for the river, hiding her tracks in the icy waters, and hurried away as fast as
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the darkness would permit. Once she thought she heard her child call, 'Mamma! Mamma!' and her heart stood still with fear that the Indians would be awakened and miss her. She momentarily expected to hear a yell of alarm, and not daring to leave the shelter of the bottom timber, she meandered the winding stream, sometimes wading in the shallow water along the edge, and again working her way through the brush and briars, tearing her clothing and lacerating her flesh, never pausing in her painful journey till late in the afternoon, when she came upon the first sign of civilization-some gentle milk cows feeding along the river bottom, and felt that she must be near a white settlement, but dared not call for assistance, lest the Indians be in pursuit. Surmising the cows would soon be going home, she secreted herself nearby and waited till they had finished their browsing, and followed them in to the station-hav- ing spent nearly twenty-four hours in traveling a distance of only ten miles.
"Fortunate beyond hope, in finding the rangers there, she implored us to save her child, describing the mule he rode, the band of Indians and the direction they were trav- eling. Hastily dispatching our supper, we were soon in the Baddle, and, with a trusty guide, Reuben Hornsby, trav- eled on till we judged we must be near the trail, and fear- ful of crossing it in the darkness, we halted and waited for daylight. As soon as it was light enough, our scouts were out, and soon found the trail, fresh and well defined. Cautiously following, we came upon the Indians about 10 o'clock in the morning, just as they were preparing to break camp. Taken completely by surprise, they broke for the shelter of a cedar brake, leaving everything except such weapons as they hastily snatched as they started."
In the quick charge and pursuit, four warriors were killed before they could reach the almost impenetrable ce- dar brakes. Two of the rangers, Elijah Ingram and Hugh M. Childress, were wounded, while a number of thrilling, and some narrow, escapes occurred - Captain Tomlinson
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having his horse shot and killed, himself narrowly escap- ing death.
"But," continues Smithwick, "we got all their horses and other plunder, and, to crown our success, we achieved the main object of the expedition, which was the rescue of the little boy, though the herdlessness of one of our men came near robbing us of our prize in a shocking manner. The Indians, careful of the preservation of their little cap- tive-they intended to make a good Comanche of him-had wrapped him up warmly in a buffalo robe and tied him on his mule, preparatory to resuming their journey. When we rushed upon them, they had no time to remove him, and the mule, being startled by our charge, started to run, when one of our men, not seeing that the rider was a child, gave chase, and, putting his gun against the back of the boy, pulled the trigger. Fortunately the gun missed fire. He tried again with like result. The third time his fin- ger was on the trigger, when one of the other boys, perceiv- ing with horror the tragedy about to be enacted, knocked the gun up. It fired clear, sending a ball whistling over the head of the rescucd child. Providence seemed to have interposed to save him."
Gathering up the spoils, and with their precious charge, the rangers now returned in triumph to their camp. Of the affecting scene, the joyous meeting here, we let Captain Tomlinson tell: "Lieut. Rogers* presented the child to its mother, and the scene which here ensued beggars descrip- tion. A mother meeting with her child released from In- dian captivity, rescued, as it were, from the very jaws of death! Not an eye was dry. She called us brothers, and every other endearing name, and would have fallen on her knees to worship us. She hugged the child-her only re- maining treasure-to her bosom as if fearful that she would again lose him. And-but 'tis useless to say more."
Near the same time-perhaps by the same tribe, if not
*Lieut. Joseph Rogers was a brother of Mrs. Gen. Edward Burleson, and was killed in a surprise attack by Indians near Hornsby's on the Colorado the following year.
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'same party, of Indians-and only about ten miles distant from the spot where Hibbins and Creath were killed, and Mrs. Hibbing and children were captured, occurred the mur- der of the Douglas and Daugherty families, already related.
But other tribulations were yet in store for this seeming- ly fated woman; who, however, survived forty or more years afterward-passing through other horrors-finally to meet a peaceful death, mourned by her fourth husband, Phillip Howard, in Bosque county. Gleaning the further facts of her extraordinary career we quote from Brown's de- tailed narrative, who, as neighbor to Mr. Howard in 1846, received the main facts from her own lips :- "Thus the mother and child, bereft of husband and father, and left without a relative nearer than Southern Illinois, found them- selves in the families of Messrs. Harrell and Hornsby, the outside settlers on the then feeble frontier of the Colorado- large hearted and sympathizing avant-couriers in the ad- vancing civilization of Texas. The coincident fall of the Alamo came to them as a summons to pack up their effects and hasten eastward, as their fellow citizens below were al- ready doing.
"The mother and child accompanied these two families in flight from the advancing Mexicans, till they halted east of the Trinity, where, in a few weeks, couriers bore the glorious news of victory and redemption from the field of San Jacin- to. Soon they resumed their weary march, but this time for their homes. In Washington county Mrs. Hibbins halted, under the friendly roof of a sympathizing pioneer. There she also met a former neighbor, in the person of Mr. Clai- borne Stinnett, an intelligent and estimable man, who, with Captain Henry S. Brown (father of the writer of this) rep- resented DeWitt's Colony in the first deliberative body ever .assembled at San Felipe, October 1, 1832.
After a widowhood of twelve months, Mrs. Hibbins mar- ried Mr. Stinnett and they at once (in the spring of 1837) re- turned to their former home on the Guadalupe. In the organ- ization of Gonzales county, a little later, Mr. Stinnett was
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elected sheriff. Late in the fall with a pack-horse, he went to Linnville one day, to buy needed supplies. Loading this extra horse with sugar, coffee, etc., and with $700.00 in cash, he started home. But instead of following the road by Victoria, he traveled a more direct route through the prairie. When about night, near the Arenosa creek, some twenty miles northeast of Victoria, he discovered a smoke in a grove of timber, and supposing it to be a camp of hunters, went to it. Instead, it was the camp of two "runaway" negro men, seeking their way to Mexico. They murdered Mr. Stinnett, took his horses, provis- ions and money, and, undiscovered, reached Mexico. The fate of the murdered man remained a mystery. No trace of him was found for five years until, in the fall of 1842, one of the negroes revealed all the facts to an American prisoner in Mexico (the late Col. Andrew Neill) and so described the locality that the remains of Mr. Stinnett were found and interred.
Thus this estimable lady lost her third husband-two by red savages and one by black fiends-and was again alone without ties of kinship, except her child, in all the land. Yet she was still young, attractive in person and pure of heart, so that, two years later, she was wooed and won by Phillip Howard. Unwisely, in June, 1840, soon after their marriage, they abandoned their home on the Gaudalupe and removed to the ancient Mission of San Juan, eight miles below San Antonio. It was a trip of 100 miles through a wilderness often traversed by hostile savages. Hence they were escorted by seven young men of the vicinity, consisting of Byrd Lock- part, Jr., (of that well known pioneer family) young Mc- Gary, two brothers named Powers (one of whom was a boy of thirteen, and both the sons of a widow) and three others whose names are forgotten. On arriving at the mission in the fore- noon, their horses were "hobbled" out near by and little John McSherry, (the child of Mrs. Howard, recovered from the In- dians in 1836, and at this time in his eleventh year) was left on a pony to watch them; but within half an hour a body of
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Indians suddenly charged upon them, captured some of the horses and little John barely escaped by dashing into the camp, a vivid reminder to the mother that her cup of afflic- tion was not yet full. In a day or two the seven young men started on their return home. About noon next day, a heavy shower fell, wetting their fire-arms, but was soon followed by sunshine, when they all fired off their guns to clean and dry them. Most imprudently they all did so at the same time, leaving no loaded piece. This volley attracted the keen ear of seventy hostile Comanches who otherwise might not have discovered them. In a moment or two they ap- peared and cried out that they were friendly Tonkawas. The ruse succeeded and they were allowed to approach and encir- cle the now helpless young men. Six of them were instantly slain, scalped and their horses and effects, with the boy Pow- ers, carried off. During the second night afterwards, in passing through a cedar brake at the foot of the Cibolo mountains, he slid quietly off his horse and escaped. In three or four days he reached the upper settlements on the Guadalupe, and gave the first information of these harrow- ing facts.
Thus again admonished, Mr. and Mrs. Howard removed down on the San Antonio River, below the old Mexican ranch of Don Carlos de la Garza, in the lower edge of Goliad coun- ty, confident that no hostile Indians would ever visit that secluded and far down locality. But they were mistaken. Early in the spring of 1842 marauding savages made a raid in that vicinity, stole a number of horses, killed stock, mur- dered settler Gilleland and wife in a most brutal manner and carried off their little son and daughter, but a party of vol- unteers, among whom were the late Maj. Alfred S. Thur- mond of Aransas, and the late Col. Andrew Neill of Austin, over-hauled and defeated the Indians and recaptured the chil- dren, the boy Wm. M. Gilleland long a prominent citizen of Austin and the little girl, Mrs. Rebecca Fisher, still surviving, and a prominent member and leader of the Daughters of the
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