Indian wars and pioneers of Texas, Vol. I, Part 7

Author: Brown, John Henry, 1820-1895
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Austin : L.E. Daniel]
Number of Pages: 922

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For two days longer she remained in excruciating suspense as to her fate. Mr. Hill neither visited nor sent her anything, while the Mexicans were very kind ( it should be understood that, while at Dolores, she and her two little boys had learned to speak Spanish and this was to her advantage now, as it hvi been among her captors, more or less of whom xjrike that language. )

On the morning of the third day the Indians be- " in preparations for leaving, and when three-fourths of the animals were packed and some had left, a

good-hearted Mexican appeared and offered to buy Mrs. Horn, but was told it was too late. Thie ap- plicant insisted, exhibited four beautiful bridles and invited the Indian owning her to go with her to his house, near by. He consented. In passing Hill's store on the way, her mistress, knowing she pre- ferred passing into American hands, persuaded her to enter it. Mr. Hill offered a worthless old horse for her, and then refused to give some red and blue cloth, which the Indians fancied, for her. They then went to the Mexican's house and he gave for her two fine horses, the four fine bridles, two fine blankets, two looking glasses, two knives, some tobacco, powder and balls, articles then of very great cost. She says: "I subsequently learned that for my ransom I was indebted to the benevo- lent heart of an American gentleman, a trader, then absent, who had anthorized this Mexican to pur- chase us at any cost, and had made himself respon- sible for the same. Had I the name of my bene- factor I would gratefully record it in letters of gold and preserve it as a precious memento of his truly Christian philanthropy."

It will be shown in the sequel that the noble heart, to which the ransomed captive paid homage, pulsated in the manly breast of Mr. William Donolio, then of Santa Fe, but a Missourian, and afterwards of Clarksville, Texas, where his only surviving child, Mr. James B. Donoho, yet resides. His widow died there in 1880, preceded by him in 1845.

The redemption of this danghter of multiplied sorrows occurred, as stated, at Sau Miguel, New Mexico, ou the 19th of September, 1837 - one year, five months and fifteen days after her capture on the 4th of April, 1836, on the Nueces river.

On the 21st, much to her surprise, Mr. Hill sent a servant requesting her to remove to his house. This she refused. The servant came a second time, saying, in the name of his master, that if she did not go he would compel hier to do so. A trial was had and she was awarded to Hill. She re- mained in his service as a servant, fed on mush and milk and denied a seat at the luxurions table of himself and mistress till the 2d of November. A generous-hearted gentlemen named Smith. residing sixty miles distant in the mines, hearing of her situation, sent the necessary means and escort to have her taken to his place for temporary protection. She left on the 2d and arrived at Mr. Smith's on the 4th. The grateful heart thus notes the change: "The contrast between this and the honse I had left exhibited the difference between a servant and a guest, between the cokl heart that would coin the tears of helpless misery into gold

INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.

daughter of Dr. James Dodson, married him in Missouri, in 1831, where their first child was born. From 1833 till the close of 1838, they lived in Santa Fe, where the second daughter, born in 1835, and their first son, born in 1837 (now Mr. J. B. Don- oho, of Clarksville, the only survivor of six chil- dren), were the two first American children born in Santa Fe. Mr. Donoho permanently settled at Clarksville, Texas, late in 1839 and died there in 1845.

In verification of the facts not stated by Mrs. Horn, because, when writing, they were unknown to her, I have the statements of Dr. William Dod- son and Mrs. Lucy Estes, of Camden County, Mis- souri, brother and sister of Mrs. Donoho, who were with all the parties for nearly a year after they reached Missouri.

A copy of Mrs. Horn's memoir came into my possession in 1839, when it had just been issued and so remained till accidentally lost many years later, believed to have been the only copy ever in Texas. The events described by her were never otherwise known in Texas and have never been be- fore published in the State. This is not strange. Beales' Colony was neither in Texas at that date, nor in anywise connected with the American col- onies or settlements in Texas. It was in Coahuila, though now in the limits of Texas. When its short life terminated in dispersion and the butchery of the retreating party on the Nueces, the Mexican army covered every roadway leading to the in- habited part of Texas, before whom the entire population had fled east. None were left to re- count the closing tragedy excepting the two unfortunate and (as attested by all who subse- quently knew them), refined Christian ladies whose travails and sorrows. have been chronicled, both of whom, as shown, died soon after liberation, and neither of whom ever after saw Texas.

Fortunately, through the efforts of Mr. James B. Donoho, of Clarksville. and his uncle, Dr. Dod- son, and aunt, Mrs. Estes, of Missouri, I have been placed in possession of a manuscript copy of

Mrs. Horn's narrative, made by a little school girl in Missouri in 1839 - afterwards Mrs. D. B. Dod- son, and now long deceased. Accompanying its . transmission, on the 5th of February, 1887, Mr. James B. Donoho says :-

" As it had always been a desire with me to some time visit the place of my birth, in the summer of 1885, with my wife and children, I visited Santa Fe, finding no little pleasure in identifying land- marks of which I had heard my mother so often speak, being myself an infant when we left there. I had no trouble in identifying the house in which my second sister and self were born, as it cornered on the plaza and is now known as the Exchange Hotel. While there it was settled that my sister, born in 1835, and myself, born in 1837, were the first Americans born in Santa Fe, a distinction (if snch it can be called) previously claimed for one born there in 1838."

The novelty of this history, unknown to the peo- ple of Texas at the time of its occurrence, has moved me to extra diligence in search of the TRUTH and the WHOLE TRUTH in its elucidation. As a deli- cate and patriotic duty it has been faithfully per- formed in justice to the memory of the strangely united daughters of England and America, and of those lion-hearted yet noble-breasted American gentlemen, Messrs. Donoho, Workman, Rowland and Smith, by no means omitting Mrs. Donoho, Mrs. Dodson and children, nor yet the poor old Comanche woman - a pearl among swine - who looked in pity upon the stricken widow, mother and captive.

Lamenting my inability to state the fate of little John and Joseph, and trusting that those to come after us may realize the cost in blood through which Texas was won to civilization, to enlightened freedom and to a knowledge of that religion by which it is taught that -" Charity suffereth long and is kind - * * bearetli all things, believeth * all things, hopeth all things, and endureth all things," I do not regret the labor it has cost me to collect the materials for this sketch.

INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.

to swell a miser's store, and the generous bestowal of heavenly friendship which, in its zeal to relieve the woes of suffering humanity, gives sacred attestation that it springs from the bosom of 'Him who, though He was rich, yet for our sakes became poor that we, through His poverty, might become rich.' ?'

Her stay at the home of Mr. Smith was a daily repetition of kindnesses, and she enjoyed all that was possible in view of the ever present grief over her slaughtered husband and captive children.

In February, 1838, she received a sympathetic letter from Texas, accompanied with presents in clothing, from Messrs. Workman and Rowland, Missourians, so long honorably known as Santa Fc traders and merchants, whose families were then residing in Taos. They advised her to defer leav- ing for Independence till they could make another effort to recover her children and invited her to re- pair, as their guest, to Taos, to await events, pro- vided the means for her doing so, placing her under the protection of Mr. Kinkindall (probably Kuy- kendall, but I follow her spelling of the name).

" But," she records, " friends were multiplying around me, who seemed to vie with each other in their endeavors to meet my wants. Other means presented themselves, and I was favored with the company of a lady and Dr. Waldo."

She left Mr. Smith and the mines on the 4th of March, 1838, and after traveling in snow and over rocks and mountains part of the way, arrived at Taos on the 10th. From that time till the 22d of August, her time was about equally divided between the families of Messrs. Workman and Rowland, who bestowed upon her every kindness.

She now learned that these gentlemen had for- merly sent out a company to recover herself and Mrs. Harris, who had fallen in with a different tribe of Indians and lost several of their number in a fight. Her friend, Mr. Smith, had performed a similar service and when far out his guide faltered, causing such suffering as to cause several deaths from hunger, while some survived by drinking the blood of their mules. While Mrs. Horn remained with them thesc gentlemen endeavored through two trading parties, to recover her children, but failed. A report came in that little John had frozen to death, holding horses at night: but it was not believed by many. Mrs. Harris and Mrs. Plummer reached Missouri under the protection of Mrs. Donoho. On the 2d of August, all efforts to recover her children having failed, leaving only the hope that others might succeed, Mrs. Horn left in the train and under the protection of Messrs. Workman and Rowland. She was the only lady in the party.

Nothing unusual transpired on the journey of 700 or 800 miles, and on the last day of September, 1838, they arrived at Independence, Missouri. On the 6th of October, she reached the hospitable home of Mr. David Workman at " New " Franklin.

This closes the narrative as written by Mrs. Horn soon after she reached Missouri and before she met Mr. Donoho. Her facts have been faithfully followed, omitting the repetition of her sufferings and correcting her dates in two cases where her memory was at fault. She sailed from New York on the 11th of November, 1833, a year earlier than stated by her, hence arrived at Dolores a year earlier, and consequently remained there two years instead of one, for it is absolutely certain that she arrived there in March, 1834, and left there in March, 1836. . I have been able also, from her notes, to approximate localities and routes men- tioned by hier, from long acquaintance with much. of the country over which she traveled.

Mr. Donoho, in company with his wife -- a lady of precious memory in Clarksville, Texas, from the close of 1839 till her death in 1880 - conveyed Mrs. Plummer (one of the captives taken at Parker's Fort, May 19, 1836), and Mrs. Harris, from Santa Fe to Missouri in the autumn of 1837. He escorted Mrs. Plummer to her people iu Texas, left his wife and Mrs. Harris with his mother-in-law, Mrs. Lucy Dodson in Pulaski County, Missouri, and then hastened back to Santa Fe to look after his property and business, for he had hurried away because of a sudden outbreak of hostilities between the New Mexicans and Indians formerly friendly, and this is the reason he was not present to take personal charge of Mrs. Horn on her recovery at San Miguel. When he reached Santa Fe Mrs. Horn had left Taos for Independence. Closing his business in Santa Fe, he left the place permanently and rejoined his family at Mrs. Dodson's. Mrs. Horn then, for the first time, met him and remained several months with his family. Prior to this her narrative had been written, and she still saw little of him, be being much absent on business. Mrs. Harris had relatives in Texas but shrunk from the idea of going there ; and hearing of other kindred near Boonville, Missouri, joined them and soon died from the expos- ures and abuse undergone while a prisoner. Mrs. Horn soon died from the same causes, while on a visit, though her home was with Mrs. Dodson. Both ladies were covered with barbaric scars -- their vital organs were impaired - and they fell the victims of the accursed cruelty known only to savage brutes.

Mr. William Donoho was a son of Kentucky, born in 1798. His wife, a Tennesseean, and

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INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.

The Heroic Taylor Family of the Three Forks of Little River - 1835.

In the autumn of 1835 the outermost habitation

mounted with a gun and instructed to shoot on the waters of Little river was that of the Taylor . through the space over the door whenever an family. It stood about three miles southeast of where Belton is, a mile or so east of the Leon river and three miles or more above the mouth of that stream. The junetion of the Leon, Lampasas and Salado constitutes the locality known as the " Three Forks of Little River," the latter stream being the San Andres of the Mexicans as well as of the early settlers of Texas. This change of name is not the only one wrought in that locality, for the names " Lampasas " ( water lily) and " Sal- ado " (saltish ) were also most inappropriately exchanged, the originals being characteristic of the two streams, while the swap makes descriptive nonsense. At an earlier period the same incon- gruous change occurred in the names of the " Brazos " and " Colorado " rivers. Indian appeared. There were not many bullets on hand, and the girls supplied that want by moulding more. Taylor, his wife and larger son, watched through craeks in the walls to shoot as opportunity might oceur. Very soon a warrior entered the passageway to assault the door, when the twelve years' " kid," to use a cant phrase in use to-day, shot him unto death. A second warrior rushed in to drag his dead comrade away, but Mr. Taylor shot lim, so that he fell, not dead but helpless, across his red brother. These two admonitions rendered the assailants more cautious. They resolved to effect by fire that which seemed too hazardons by direct attack. They set the now vacated room on fire at the further end and amid their demoniac yells the flames aseended to the roof and made The home of the Taylors consisted of two long cabins with a covered passage between. The family consisted of Mr. and Mrs. Taylor, two youthful sons and two daughters. One of the latter, Miss Frazier, was a daughter of Mrs. Tay- lor by a former husband, and afterwards the wife of George W. Chapman, of Bell County. rapid progress along the board-, soon igniting those covering the hallway. Suspended to beams was a large amount of fat bear meat. The burning roof soon began to cook the meat, and blazing sheets of the oil fell upon the wounded savage, who writhed and hideonsly yelled, but was powerless to extri- cate himself from the tortune. Mrs. Taylor had no sympathy for the wretch, but, peeping through a crack. expressed her feelings by exclaiming : " How !! you yellow brute! Your meat is not fit for hogs, but we'll roast you for the wolves ! "

In the night of November 12th. 1835, eleven Indians attacked the house. The parents and girls were in one room - the boys in the other. The door to the family room, made of riven boards. was a foot too short, leaving an open space at the top. The first indication of the presence of the enemy was the warning of a faithful dog, which was speedily killed in the yard. This was followed by a burly warrior trying to force the door, at the same time in English demanding to know how many men were in the house, a supply of tobacco and the surrender of the family. By the bright moonlight they could be distinctly seen. Mrs. Taylor defiantly answered, " No tobacco, no sur- render," and Mr. Taylor answered there were ten men in the house. The assailant pronounced the latter statement false, when Taylor, through a craek, gave him a severe thrust in the stomach with a board, which caused his hasty retreat, whereupon Mrs. Taylor threw open the door, commanding the boys to hasten in across the hall, which they did, escaping a flight of balls and arrows. The door was then fastened, a table set against it, and on it the smallest boy, a child of only twelve years, was

As the fire was reaching the roof of the besieged room, Mr. Taylor was greatly dispirited, seeming to regard their fate as sealed ; but his heroic wife, thinking not of herself. Unt of her children, rose equal to the occasion, declaring that they would whip the enemy and all be saved. From a table she was enabled to reach the boards forming the roof. Throwing down the weight poles, there being no nails in the boards, she threw down enough boards in advance of the fire to create an empty space. There was a large quantity of milk in the house and a small barrel of home-made vinegar. These fluids were passed up to her by her daughters, and with them she extinguished the fire. In doing so her head and chest formed a target for the enemy ; but while several arrows and balls rent her clothing, she was in nowise wounded.

While these matters were transpiring, Mr. Taylor and the ekler son each wounded a savage in the

QUANALI PARKER.

INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS. -

yard. Having accomplished her hazardous mission, Mrs. Taylor resumed the floor, and soon discovered an Indian in the outer chimney corner, endeavoring to start a fire and peering through a considerable hole burnt through the " dirt and wooden " jam. Seizing a wooden shovel, she threw into his face and bosom a shovelful of live coals and embers, causing him to retreat, uttering the most agonizing sereams, to which she responded " Take that, you yellow scoundrel!" It was said afterwards that her warm and hasty application destroyed his eye- sight.

After these disasters the enemy held a brief con- sultation and realized the fact that of their group of eleven, two were dead and partially barbecued, two were severely wounded, and one was at least temporarily blind under the " heroic " oculistical treatment of Mrs Taylor. What was said by them, one to another, is not known; but they retired

without further obtrusion upon the peace and dignity of that outpost in the missionary field of civilization.

An hour later the family deemed it prudent to retire to the river bottom, and next morning fol- lowed it down to the fort. A small party of men then repaired to the scene of conflict and found the preceding narrative verified in every essential. The dead Indians were there, and everything remained as left by the family. Excepting Mrs. . Chapman, all of that family long since passed away. Before the Civil . War I personally knew Brown Taylor, one of the sons, then a quiet, modest young . man, carrying in his breast the disease destined to cut short his days - consumption.

This all happened more than fifty years ago. To-day two large towns, Belton and Temple, and half a dozen small ones, and two trunk line rail- roads are almost in sight of the spot.

Fall of Parker's Fort in 1836-The Killed, Wounded and Cap- tured - Van Dorn's Victory in 1858 - Recovery of Cynthia Ann Parker - Quanah Parker, the Comanche Chief.

In the fall of 1833 the Parker family came from Cole County, Illinois, to East Texas - one or two came a little earlier and some a little later. The elder Parker, was a native of Virginia, resided for a time in Georgia, but chiefly reared his family in Bedford County, Tennessee, whenee, in 1818, he removed to Illinois. The family, with perhaps one exception, belonged to one branch of the primitive Baptist Church, commonly designated as Two Seed Baptists.

Parker's Fort, or block-house, a mile west of the Navasota creek and two and a half northwesterly froin the present town of Groesbeck, in Limestone County, was established in 1834, with accessions afterwards up to the revolution in the fall of 1835. At the time of the attack upon it, May 19, 1836, it was oceupied by Elder John Parker, patriarch of the family, and his wife, his son, James W. Parker, wife, four single children and his daughter, Mrs. Rachel Plummer, her husband, L. T. M. Plummer, and infant son, 15 months old ; Mrs. Sarah Nixon, another daughter, and her husband, L. D. Nixon ;

Silas M. Parker (another son of Elder John), his . wife and four children ; Benjamin F. Parker, an unmarried son of the Elder; Mrs. Nixon, Sr., mother of Mrs. James W. Parker ; Mrs. Elizabeth Kellogg, daughter of Mrs. Nixon; Mrs. Duty ; Samuel M. Frost, wife and children ; G. E. Dwight, wife and children; David Faulkenberry, his son Evan, Silas H. Bates and Abram Anglin, a youth of nineteen years. The latter four sometimes slept in the fort and sometimes in their eabins on their farms, perhaps two miles distant. They, however, were in the fort on the night of May 18th.

On the morning of May 19th, James W. Parker and Nixon repaired to their field, a mile dis- tant, on the Navasota. The two Faulkenberrys, Bates and Anglin went to their fields, a mile further and a little below. About 9 a. m. several hundred Indians appeared in the prairie, about three hundred yards, halted, and hoisted a white flag. Benjamin F. Parker went over to them, had a talk and returned, expressing the opinion that the Indians intended to fight ; but added that he would

INDIAN WARS AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.

go baek and try to avert it. His brother Silas remonstrated, but he persisted in going, and was immediately surrounded and killed; whereupon the whole force sent forth terrific yells, and charged upon the works, the occupants numbering but three men, wholly unprepared for defense. Cries and confusion reigned. They killed Silas M. Parker on the outside of the fort, while he was bravely fight- ing to save Mrs. Plummer. They knocked Mrs. Plummer down with a hoe and made her eaptive. Elder John Parker, wife and Mrs. Kellogg attempted to escape, and got about three-fourths of a mile, when they were overtaken, and driven back near to the fort, where the old gentleman was stripped, murdered and sealped. They stripped and speared Mrs. Parker, leaving her as dead - but she revived, as will be seen further on. Mrs. Kellogg remained captive.

When the Indians first appeared, Mrs. Sarah Nixon hastened to the field to advise her father, husband and Plummer. Plummer hastened down to inform the Faulkenberrys, Bates and Anglin. David Faulkenberry was first met and started im- mediately to the fort. The others followed as soon as found by Plummer. J. W. Parker and Nixon started to the fort, but the former met his family on the way, and took them to the Navasota bottom. Nixon, though unarmed, continued on to- ward the fort, and met Mrs. Lney, wife of the dead Silas Parker, with her four children, just as she was overtaken by the Indians. They compelled her to lift behind two mounted warriors her nine- year-old daughter, Cynthia Ann, and her little boy, Jolin. The foot Indians took her and her two younger ehildren back to the fort, Nixon following .. On arriving, she passed around and Nixon through the fort. Just as the Indians were about to kill Nixon, David Faulkenberry appeared with his rifle, and caused them to fall back. Nixon then hurried away to find his wife, and soon overtook Dwight, with his own and Frost's family. Dwight met J. W. Parker and went with him to his hiding-place in the bottom.

Faulkenberry, thus left with Mrs. Silas Parker and her two children, bade her follow him. With the infant in her arms and the other child held by the hand, she obeyed. The Indians made several feints, but were held in eheck by the brave man's rifle. One warrior dashed up so near that Mrs. Parker's faithful dog siezed his pony by the nose, whereupon both horse and rider somersaulted, alighting on their backs in a ditch.

At this time Silas Bates, Abram Anglin and Evan Faulkenberry, armed, and Plummer, un- armed, eame up. They passed through Silas

Parker's field, when Plummer, as if aroused from a dream, demanded to know what had beeome of bis wife and child. Armed only with the buteher knife of Abram Anglin, he left the party in search of his wife, and was seen no more for six days. The Indians made no further assault.

During the assault on the fort, Samuel M. Frost and his son Robert fell while heroieally defending the women and children inside the stockade.

The result so far was :-

Killed - Elder John Parker, Benjamin F. Parker, Silas M. Parker, Samuel M. Frost and his son Robert.

Wounded dangerously - Mrs. John Parker and Mrs. Duty.

Captured - Mrs. Elizabeth Kellogg, Cynthia Ann and John, children of Silas M. Parker, Mrs. Rachel Plummer and infant James Pratt Plummer.

The Faulkenberrys, Bates and Anglin, with Mrs. Parker and children, secreted themselves in a small creek bottom. On the way they were met and joined by Seth Bates, father of Silas, and Mr. Lunn, also an old man. Whether they had slept in the fort or in the cabins during the previous night all accounts fail to say. Elisha Anglin was the father of Abram, but his whereabouts do not appear in any of the accounts. At twilight Abram Anglin and Evan Faulkenberry started back to the fort. On reaching Elisha Anglin's cabin, they found old mother Parker covered with blood and nearly naked. They secreted her and went on to the fort, where they found no one alive, but found $106.50 where the old lady had secreted the money under a book. They returned and conducted her to those in the bottom, where they also found Nixon, who had failed to find his wife, for, as he ought to have known, she was with her father. On the next morning, Bates, Anglin and E. Faulkenberry went back to the fort, secured five horses and provisions and the party in the bottom were thus enabled to reach Fort Houston without material suffering. Fort Houston, an asylum on this as on many other occasions, stood on what has been for many years the field of a wisc statesman, a chivalrous soldier and an incorruptible patriot -John H. Reagan - two miles west of Palestine.

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Indian wars and pioneers of Texas, Vol. I, Part 7

Author: Brown, John Henry, 1820-1895 Publication date: 1890 Publisher: Austin : L.E. Daniel] Number of Pages: 922

Author: Brown, John Henry, 1820-1895
Publication date: 1890
Publisher: Austin : L.E. Daniel]
Number of Pages: 922