USA > Texas > Indian wars and pioneers of Texas, Vol. I > Part 23
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On the 16th of the following June, five months after the destructive assault on those frontier peo- ple, a once famous resolution was introduced in the reconstruction convention at Austin, among thou- sands of others, specifically and forever disfranchis- ing a large number of the very men exposed to this raid, because during the war, and under the laws of their country at the time, they had belonged to Gen. Wm. Hudson's Brigade of State troops, whose chief duty was the protection of the women and children on the frontier against these barbarian savages, whose mode of warfare " respected neither age, sex nor condition." But from that Bedlam of hate sprang forth a single fact more preciously freighted with faith in the perpetuity of American unity and American liberty than a thousand theories and prophecies by political philosophers. It is the simple fact that the American heart, as soon as time for reflection had passed, disdained to tolerate per- seeution for opinion's sake; that the opposing soldiers in the Civil War are long since friends and reconciled countrymen ; breaking bread together on holy days; voting together as scemeth to them best now, regardless of the past ; sitting together in the same sanctuary ; counseling together for the com- mon weal as their conditions are now; partners in business; their children intermarrying; jointly burying their deceased comrades ; jointly aiding their unfortunate comrades ; and jointly upholding each other when unjustly assailed. Talk not of American liberty failing through faction, when con- fronted with this one ever-present, grand and heaven-blest fact! Leave that bewailing whine to moral dyspepties and intellectual dwarfs.
COMANCHE INDIAN GROUP.
எம்.எஸ்.ஸி. அவர் கண்டோம்.ரம்பிஸ்கி மல்ரஸ்கால்ங்
ஜெய்ஸ்
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INDLIN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
Indian Massacres in Parker County, 1858 to 1873.
The first settlements in the present territory of Parker County were made about 1853-4. The eounty was created by the legislature, December 12, 1855, and organized March 2, 1856. It was long exposed to forays by bands of hostile savages, and while no important battle was ever fought, life and property were insecure as late as 1873. During the existence of the Indian reservation on the Brazos, in Young County, and especially for two years prior to the removal of the Indians to Fort Cobb, north of Red river, in the summer of 1859, it was alleged, and almost universally believed by the border people, that many of the rob- beries and murders were committed by the tribes resident on the ten miles square embracing that reservation. That matter will not be discussed here. The writer was one of five commissioners deputed by the Governor to investigate that matter, in 1859, the board consisting of Richard Coke, John Henry Brown, George B. Erath, Joseph M. Smith and Dr. Josephus M. Steiner. The writer also commanded a company of Texas rangers for some time before and during the removal of the Indians, to prevent their leaving the reservation before their removal or committing depredations on the march. Hence he was well informed on the existing matters in issue, which, for the moment, were more or less distorted for political effect. It is enougli here to say that while many exaggerated or false statements were scattered broadcast over the country, arousing the people to suel a frenzy as to cause the killing of probably two small par- ties of unoffending Indians, still it was unques- tionably true that more or less of the depredations committed along the frontier, from Red river to the Guadalupe, were perpetrated by the Indians be- longing to the one or the other of the two reserva- tions - the second, at Camp Cooper, on the clear fork of the Brazos, being exclusively occupied by a portion of the Comanche tribe - while on the other Brazos reservation were various small tribes, embracing the Wacos, Tehuacanos, Keechis, Ana- darcoes, Towashes, Toncahuas, Ionies, Caddos snsd perhaps one or two others, with a few indi- viduals, or families of Choctaws, Delawares, Shaw- becs and others. It is equally true that those Iulians left the localities named with the most vengeful animosities towards such localities on the frontier as they believed had been active against them, and this feeling especially applied to Parker,
Wise, Jack, Palo Pinto, Erath, Comanche and other outside counties.
It .is proposed in this chapter to briefly narrate the successive massacres in Parker County, in so far as I have the data, for portions of which I am indebted to Mr. II. Smythe's history of that eounty.
In Deeember, 1859, following the removal of the Indians, a party of five assaulted, killed and sealped Mr. John Brown, near his residence about twelve miles from Weatherford, and drove off eighteen of his horses. Two miles away they stole seven horses from Mr. Thompson, and next, with their number increased to fifty, they appeared at the. house of Mr. Sherman, whose family consisted of himself, wife and four children. They ordered the family to leave, promising safety if they did. They obeyed the mandate and hurried away on foot, but in half a mile the savages overtook them, seized Mrs. Sherman, conveyed her back to the house, committed nameless outrages on her person, shot numerous arrows into her body, scalped and left hier as dead; but she survived four days, to detail the horrors she had undergone.
In June, 1860, Josephus Browning was killed and Frank Browning wounded on the Clear Fork of the Brazos. At that time several citizens of Weatherford were in that section and pursued the murderers. The party consisted of John R. Bay- lor, George W. Baylor (of Weatherford), Elias Hale, Minn Wright and John Dawson. On the 5th day of June, 1860, they overtook the Indians on Paint ereek and boldly attacked them, killing nine and putting the remainder to flight. As attest- ations of their achievment they sealped their victims and carried the evidence thereof into the settlements, along with sundry trophies won on the occasion.
In the spring of 1861 a party of eleven Indians attacked David Stinson, Budd Slover, John Slover, - Boyd and - McMahon, a scout from Capt. M. D. Tackett's Company, a few miles .north of Jacksboro, but they were speedily re- pulsed, with the loss of one Indian killed and one wounded. On the next day, William Youngblood, a citizen, was killed and scalped, near his home. by a party of nine Indians. The five rangers named, reinforced by James Gilleland, Angie Price, - Parmer and others, pursued and attacked the enemy, and killed a warrior and reeovered the
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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
scalp of Youngblood, which was conveyed to his . was killed by a party of these prowling assassins late residence in time to be placed in its natural posi- and scalped. tion before the burial.
In the summer of 1861, a party of Indians on Grindstone ereck attacked two young men named William Washington and John Killen, while stock bunting. They killed Mr. Killen while Washington escaped severely wounded, but recovered after prolonged suffering.
In the same summer Mrs. John Brown, living on Grindstone creek and having twin babies, started to visit a neighbor, stie carrying one and a young girl the other infant. The girl was some distance ahead, when the Indians appeared, and reached the neighbor's house. Mrs. Brown retreated to her own house and entered it, but was closely followed by the murderous wretches, by whom she was killed and scalped. The infant, however, was left unharmed.
Prior to these tragedies, in January, 1861, Mrs. Woods and her two sisters, the Misses Lemley, of Parker County, were ruthlessly assailed by five sav- ages, who murdered and scalped the former lady, and shockingly wounded the young ladies, leaving them as dead, but after great suffering, under the assiduous treatment of Dr. J. P. Volintine they recovered.
In September, 1861, the house of Jas. Brown, on the Jacksboro road, in his temporary absence, was attacked by a small party of Indians, but they were repulsed and driven off by Mrs. Brown, who under- stood the use of fire arms and used them most effectually.
In the beginning of 1865, William and Stewart, sons of Rev. John Hamilton, living in the valley of Patrick's creek, while near their home, were murdered, scalped and otherwise mutilated.
On the same day the house of Mrs. F. C. Brown, in the same neighborhood, was attacked and the lady killed. Her daughter, Sarah, aged sixteen, and another fourteen years of age, on their return home from the house of a neighbor, were both wounded, but escaped - Sarah to die of her wounds - the younger sister to recover.
A Mr. Berry, while at work in his field on Sanchez creek, iu September, 1864, was killed by a squad of Indians.
In those same days of inseenrity and bloodshed, a child was captured and carried into captivity from the home of Hugh O. Blackwell, but was subse- quently recovered at Fort Cobb, in the Indian Territory. But soon after his return home from the disbanded Confederate army in 1865 Mr. Black- well himself, while returning home from Jacksboro,
In the same year Henry Maxwell was murdered by a similar band on his farm near the Brazos river.
In June, 1865, Fuller Milsap was attacked by two savages near his house, seeing which, his heroic daughter, Donnie (subsequently Mrs. Jesse Hitson), ran to him with a supply of ammunition, when her brave father rebuked her temerity, but must have felt an exalted pride in such a daughter, who had on former occasions exhibited similar courage, and was once shot through her clothing. Honored be her name in her mountain home, far away in Colorado! The father triumphed over his foes, and they fled.
In July, 1865, in a fight with a small party of Indians in Meck's prairie, A. J. Gorman was killed, about a month after reaching home from the Confederate army. Charles Rivers and his other companions repulsed the attacking party.
In November, 1866, while working in his field on Sanchez creek, Bohlen Savage was butchered and scalped. His child, eight years old, ran to him on seeing the assault, and was carried off, to be recovered two years later at Fort Sill. The wretches then passed over to Patrick's creek, where James Savage, a brother of Bohlen, lived, and where they murdered him with equal brutality.
In August, 1866, William, son of Hiram Wil- son, of Spring creek, twelve years of age, and Diana Fulton, aged nine years, were captured. On the fourth day afterwards, in Palo Pinto County, Captain Maxwell's Company attacked the same Indians, killed several, routed the band, and recovered the two children.
On Rock creek, in April, 1869, Edward Rippey was attacked a short distance from his home. He fled towards the house, calling to his wife to bring the gun. She ran toward him with the weapon, but before meeting ber he was killed, when the demons slew the devoted wife. In the house was their only daughter and a boy named Eli Hancock. This heroic lad quickly barred the door, and with the arms still in the house, defied and beat off the blood-stained vandals. On a prior occasion, Mrs. Rippey, ritle in hand, had successfully held at bay one of these roving bands.
On the 4th of July, 1869, while returning from a visit to a neighbor, Mr. and Mrs. Light were murdered near their home on Grindstone creek. Both were scalped, but Mr. Light survived two days. Their children were at home and thus escaped a similar fate.
On the 16th of December, 1870, on Turkey creek,
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George and Richard Joel repulsed an attack by twelve Indians. Two hours later the savages fell in with three gentlemen returning to their home on the Brazos, from a business trip to Kansas. They were Marcus L. Dalton (who had nearly $12,000 with him), James Redfield and James McAster. They were evidently taken by surprise, speedily slain and scalped. The freebooters secured five horses and other effects, but failed to find the money. They fell in Loving's valley, and their mutilated bodies were discovered next day by Green Lassiter, destined himself soon to share a similar fate. He was horribly butchered in the Keechi valley a few months later. .
On the 23d of April, 1871, in sight of his father's house, twelve miles west of Weatherford, Lion Boyd Cranfill, aged fifteen, and son of Isoin Cran- fill, was mortally wounded by a fleeing party of savages, in full view of his sister, who gave the alarm and caused the assassins to flee without scalping him.
On the 14th of March, 1872, in front of the house of Fuller Milsap, on Rock creek, Thomas Landrum was murdered by a party of red demons. Mr. Milsap and Joseph B. Loving attacked and pursued the murderers, killing one. It was on this occasion that the heroic girl, Donnie Milsap, fol- lowed her father with ammunition and received a shot through her clothing.
On the 14th of July, 1872, two lads from the Brazos, en route to mill in Weatherford, viz., Jack-
son, aged thirteen, a son of Jesse Hale, and Martin Cathey, aged eighteen (the boys being cousins) were murdered by another of those bands, so often appearing on the frontier.
In August, 1873, while standing in his yard, in the northwest part of Parker County, Geo. W. McClusky was instantly killed by an Indian con- cealed behind an oat stack, and armed, as were many of these marauders in the years succeeding the Civil War, with Winchester or other improved rifles.
These recitals may embrace inaccuracies in dates and otherwise, but are believed to be substantially correct; but they by no means embrace all the bloody tragedies enaeted in the years named.
Bear in mind that this is only a brief and very incomplete recital of a portion of the fiendish murders in Parker County alone for the fourteen years from 1859 to 1873. In several other countics, as Palo Pinto, Wise, Jack, Comanche Brown and San Saba, the catalogue would be, in a general average, full as bloody -in some much more so, in others possibly less. The same calamities fell upon the southwestern frontier from the San Saba to the Rio Grande, and also upon the counties of Cooke, Montague and Clay on Red river.
They are sad memorials of the trials, sufferings and indomitable courage of those fearless and lion- hearted men and women, by whom those portions of Texas were won to peace, to civilization and to Christianity.
The Heroism of the Dillard Boys in 1873.
On the 7th day of August, 1873, Henry Dillard, aged about twenty, and his brother Willie, aged thirteen, made one of those heroic fights and escapes which approach the marvelous even in the hazards of frontier life. They lived on the Brazos ; had been to Fort Griffin with a two-horse wagon load of produce for sale ; had sold their commodi- ties and, after sitting up late the previous night, in attendance upon a ball at the fort, were quietly returning home through an open prairie country. llenry was armed with a six-shooter and a Win- chester rifle - Willie with a six-shooting revolver only.
When about fifteen miles from the fort, Henry, who had fallen into a partial slumber, was aroused
by loud voices and the tramping of horses. Arous- ing, he instantly realized that he had driven into a band of thirty mounted Indians. Each brother seized his arms and stood on the defensive. The foremost Indian, abreast of and very near the wagon, fired at Henry, cutting away one of his temporal locks and powder-burning his head. Henry fired twice, but discovering that his balls failed to penetrate the Indian shields, fired a third ball lower down, breaking the thigh of an Indian and the backbone of his horsc.
Instructing Willie to follow and be with him, Henry then sprang from the wagon and determined, if possible, to reach a branch about a quarter of a mile distant. The Indians at once formed a circle,
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galloping around and firing upon them. Walking, running, halting by alternation, the boys fired with great precision, rarely failing to strike an Indian or his horse, or both. Very soon the cylinder of Willie's pistol was knocked out by a ball, and thenceforward he could only carry cartridges for his brother. At one time Henry tripped and fell on his face. An Indian dashed up and dismounted to scalp him, but while yet on the ground the brave boy drove a pistol ball through his heart. At another time Willie called out: "Henry! look here! " On looking lie found the little fellow run- ning around a mesquite bush, pursued by an Indian clutching at his clothes, but shot him dead, and the boys, as before, continued their retreat, the enemy charging, yelling and firing. The brothers con- tinued firing, loading, dodging, turning, trotting or running as opportunity offered, all the while realiz- ing that to halt was death, and the only haveu of hope was in the thickets on the branch. As they neared the covert the enemy beeame more furious, but the boys, encouraged by their seeming miracu- lons immunity from death or wounds, and thus buoyed in the hope of safety, maintained perfeet self-possession, and finally reached the hoped for refuge. But one savage had preceded them, dis- mounted, and confronted their entrance. Henry tried to fire his Winchesterat him, but it was empty. The Indian, seeing this, remounted and charged upon him, but Henry sent a pistol ball through his body. The astounded red men, seeing their prey escape from such fearful odds, seemed awe-stricken. After a short parley they returned to the wagon, took the horses and its contents and retired, bear- ing their dead and wounded, and leaving five horses dead on the ground. The day - August 7th, be it remembered - was very hot, and the boys, following such a contest, came near dying for water.
When night came the brothers sought the nearest
raneb, some miles away. Mounting horses there they hurried back to Fort Griffin and reported the facts to Gen. Bnell, U. S. A., commanding that post. That gentleman promptly dispatched a party of dragoons in pursuit. The pursuers discovered that the Indians, bearing northwesterly, had divided into twoparties, the left hand gang carrying off the killed and wounded. In two or three days they came upon a newly deserted camp in which were three beds of grass gorged with blood. Discovering buz- zards sailing round a mountain near by, some of the party ascended it and found three dead Indians, partially buried on its summit. They also found in this camp Henry Dillard's memorandum book. The gallant boy, let it be understood, was among the pursuers. From this locality, which was about the head of the Big Wichita, hopeless of over taking the Indians, the dragoons returned to the fort.
This is among the extraordinary episodes in our frontier history. It seems almost incredible. The officer commanding the pursuit, after all his dis- coveries, asserted that the brothers had killed and wounded eleven Indians, besides the five horses left on the field.
The gentleman to whom I am chiefly indebted for these details, says that Henry Dillard is a Ken- tuckian, who came to Texas a boy five or six years before this occurrence. He is about five feet nine inches high, slender, ercet and quiek in movement, with brown hair, handsome features and clear, penetrating gray eyes. He afterwards set- tled on the Clear Fork of the Brazos, near the scene of this remarkable conflict, and stood as a good citizen, enjoying the confidence and estecm of the surrounding country - an acknowledged hero of modest nature, void of all self-adulation and averse to recounting his decds of daring to others. It is ever pleasant to record the merits of such men.
Don Lorenzo De Zavala.
For one who loves truth and admires purity in the character of public men and benefactors to the unl- titude in the land of their birth or adoption, the career of Don Lorenzo de Zavala possesses peculiar interest. Only the oldest and best informed citi- zens of Texas have any intelligent knowledge of his character and services in the cause of human
liberty. But every school boy and school girl in our State should be familiar with his history.
Lorenzo de Zavala was born in Madrid, Spain, on the 3d of October, 1789. His father was a man of education and refinement and belonged to that class of men in Europe who had glimmerings of human rights and yearnings to possess them. In
مقاسة
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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
other words, he was a Castilian of noble aspirations and possessed of love for his fellow-beings. When his child, Lorenzo, was but eighteen months old he determined to quit Spain and seek a home where he hoped for more liberty. Instead of going to the United States and among a different race, where liberty was a birthright, he went to Yucatan, which was then not a part of Mexico, as now, but a dis- tinct Captain-Generalcy under the Spanish crown. He settled, in the infancy of his child, Lorenzo, in the beautiful city of Merida, and hence it is that the impression became general (including among its believers not only enlightened Mexicans, but also his first-born son, Lorenzo de Zavala, Jr. ), that he was born in that place ; and such was my own impression till recently furnished with data having the sanction of his own name. The father gave Lorenzo every possible advantage to gain an education, and kept him from his earliest boyhood at a fine school in Merida. The son advanced beyond the liberal ideas of the father and began to grasp the Jeffersonian idea of the rights of man. He acquired a knowledge of the English language and eagerly read everything he could reach to enlighten his mind. While a student, he became an intense Jeffersonian Republican. Passing on the street one day the Governor, he failed to lift his hat as an obeisance, whereupon his Excellency struck him with his riding whip. The young Jef- fersonian thercupon jerked the Governor from his calesa (a sort of buggy ) and gave him a pounding. For this outrage on dignity (by a compromise) he was banished to Europe to complete his education. He went, and studied with assiduity.
Returning in the year 1809, and in his twentieth year, on board the good ship which bore him he fell in love with a Castilian maiden, the daughter of a family on board. This maiden bore the name of Toresa Correa. Soon after arriving in Yucatan, Lorenzo and Toresa became husband and wife. It was a happy union of pure hearts, and three children were born to them.
The young Democrat arrived in Merida sur- charged with a sense of political rights, and a reformer against the outrageous oppressions borne by the people of Spain, and more especially by those of Spanish America. He became, by the inspiration of his own sense of true manhood, a missionary among a down-trodden people. Newspapers did not exist. He found a substitute. He organized a sort of political institute, to which, al its regular weekly meetings, he read his own productions, the grand, all-pervading idea of which was that, under the providence of God, all men site born free and equal and were entitled to a
fair and equal participation in the blessings of government. He rejected in toto the idea that the accident of birth should confer upon a particular family - regardless of sense, honesty or merit - the power to rule over a multitude, a common- wealth or a nation of men. On this point, without, perhaps knowing it, he was an assimilated disciple of Thomas Jefferson. He exerted vast influence in Yucatan, and became, for one so young, the idol of the people, a fact of which I . had abundant cvidence during iny four months tour in Yucatan in the winter of 1865-6, for, when it became known in Campeachy that an American gentleman of Texas, who was a friend of Lorenzo de Zavala was a guest of the son of the celebrated John McGregor, the house was visited by many, and an old lady of benevolent face, when introduced, said to my host : " Will the gentleman permit one who loved Lorenzo de Zavala to embrace him?" Without waiting for interpretation, as I perfectly understood her, I said: " Yes, dear madam, with keenest pleasure ; " and the embrace was mutual, a la Mexicana. My heart yet warms to the dear old lady. I recall the whole scene, too long to be described here, with a pleasure which whispers to my heart that truth, virtue, manhood, womanhood, patriotism, and all the attributes pertaining to the highest developed humanity, are not the peculiar and exclusive char- acteristics of my own countrymen, but exist, in some form or other, wherever the children of men are found. "The wind bloweth where it listeth but thou canst not tell whence it cometh nor whither it goeth ; such is the kingdom of God." So it is in virtue, in honor, in love, in manhood and in womanhood.
Returning to Merida with an education finished in Europe, young Lorenzo was made secretary of the city council of Merida (then a city of about sixty thousand inhabitants), and he filled that office through 1812-13, and until July, 1814, when, in consequence of his liberal doctrines, he was seized and imprisoned in the castle of San Juan de Ulloa, in front of Vera Cruz. Ile was heldl in that prison till 1817, covering three years of the Mexi- can revolution (1810 to 1821). While in prison his library and property were confiscated. Liber- ated in the last half of 1817, and going forth bank- rupt, he rallied on a previous study in medicine and became a physician in Merida from the latter part of 1817 to about the close of 1819.
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