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The Centennial Series of the Association of Former Students, Texas A&M University Frontier The Saga of the Parker Family Blood Jo Ella Powell Exley Copyright © by Jo Ella Powell Exley Manufactured in the United States of America All rights reserved First edition The paper used in this book meets the minimum requirements of the American National Standard for Permanence of Paper for Printed Library Materials, .-. Binding materials have been chosen for durability. -- Exley, Jo Ella Powell, – Frontier blood : the saga of the Parker family / Jo Ella Powell Exley.—st ed. p. cm.—(The centennial series of the Association of Former Students, Texas A&M University ; no. ) Includes bibliographical references and index. --- (alk. paper) . Pioneers—Texas—Biography. Parker family. Frontier and pioneer life—Texas. Parker, Cynthia Ann, ?‒. Parker, Quanah, ?–. Comanche Indians—Texas— History—th century. Indian captivities—Texas. Texas— History—th century—Biography. Pioneers—Southern States—Biography. Frontier and pioneer life—Southern States. I. Title. II. Series. .'' To Jim & Emily, my ever-faithful helpers CONTENTS List of Illustrations Preface . . A Poor Sinner . The Wrong Road . Plain and Unpolished—The Diamond in the Rough State . . Father, Forgive Them . Vengeance Is Mine . How Checkered Are the Ways of Providence . . The Tongue of Slander . The House of God . Sundry Charges . Called Home . . Miss Parker . The Hand of Savage Invasion . The Long-Lost Relative . . Thirsting for Glory . It Was Quanah . So Many Soldiers . Blood upon the Land . I Lived Free Notes Bibliography Index ILLUSTRATIONS Replica of Fort Parker page Sam Houston Lawrence Sullivan Ross Isaac Parker Cynthia Ann Parker and Prairie Flower Cynthia Ann Parker Mowway, Comanche chief Ranald Slidell Mackenzie Mowway’s village in – Isatai, Quahada medicine man Quanah Parker in his war regalia Quanah Parker and Andrew Jackson Houston Genealogy . John Parker family following page Genealogy . James W. Parker family following page Genealogy . Silas M. Parker family following page PREFACE Quanah Parker, the last chief of the Comanches, was half white. He led his people in both war and peace. Although several books have been written about Quanah and his mother Cynthia Ann Parker, no biography has pre- viously been published on the Parker clan, a sometimes strange and often brilliant people. Their obsession with religion and their desire for land brought them into contact with American Indians on the frontier in Vir- ginia, Georgia, Tennessee, Illinois, and finally Texas and affected not only their lives but also the course of American history. The cast of characters is fantastic. Elder John, the patriarch, was a footwashing Predestinarian Baptist preacher also known as “Squealing Johnny” because of his preaching style. Elder John’s first son was Daniel, religious fanatic, disseminator of the strange Two-Seed doctrine, and hated perpetra- tor of the anti-missionary movement that tore the Baptist Church apart during the eighteenth century. Elder John’s granddaughter, Rachel, was a young wife and mother held captive by Comanche Indians for thirteen months. Rachel’s father, James, was a sometime Baptist preacher accused of counter- feiting, theft, and worse. He spent years searching for Rachel and three other relatives captured in the Fort Parker massacre. James’s nephew John was res- cued after four years but ran away and returned to the Indians. And finally, the most famous Parkers of all were Cynthia Ann and Quanah. Cynthia Ann, captured at the age of nine, was adopted by a band of Comanches, married a chief, and bore three children. One of them was Quanah. When most of the Comanche bands had gone to the reservation, he led his band until there was no more hope for freedom. Then on the reservation in Oklahoma he became the greatest peace leader of the Comanches. The Parkers were quintessential pioneers—tough, wily, brave, even fool- hardy, willing to risk everything for their religion, for personal freedom, and for rich, virgin land. Their coexistence with the Indians lasted for at least one hundred years, and their spilled blood mingled with that of their Indian foes. But at last the pioneer and Indian blood was mixed in one man, and the tragedy, misery, and hatred were expiated as he led his people to successful lives near the Wichita Mountains in Oklahoma. Parts of this story have been told but never before with such scope and depth. Included in Frontier Blood are excerpts from the short autobiography of Daniel Parker, from Rachel’s two narratives of her Indian captivity, from James Parker’s account of his search for Rachel and the other captives, and from several autobiographical accounts that Quanah dictated to his friends. I have included lengthy quotations from these people and others who lived during this period because their actual words give a true feeling of what it was like to live on the frontier in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries. They give interesting details of their daily lives, which would be lost in paraphrasing. We also have the rare opportunity to hear the voices of backwoodsmen, the flowery presentation of the educated, the incomparable rhetoric of frontier preachers and politicians, and the poetic words of the Indians. More important, the speakers characterize themselves and others as they speak. In addition, I have included many letters and documents in the text because in the past their contents have sometimes been misrepresented. Readers can judge firsthand what is the truth. In the sixteen years that I researched and wrote this fascinating story, I was greatly aided by my husband Jim and my daughter Emily; both en- couraged me and patiently bore with my endless reading, typing, and visits to the library as well as accompanying me on research trips to places such as Tennessee, Oklahoma, New Mexico, East Texas, and the Panhandle and Big Bend of Texas. I would also like to thank the people who helped me on these research trips. My husband and I spent a wonderful day with Ruth Parker Carter, driv- ing through the countryside in Tennessee looking for creeks and old churches. Clark Hitt and Judge Charlie Bell took me to Mule Creek and the Pease River battle site. Mac Conaway and Gary B. Sanders escorted Emily, Jim, and me to the Adobe Walls battle site in the Texas Panhandle and entertained us for the day. Marilyn and Jerry Palmer took me to Cynthia Ann Parker’s original burial plot and to the location of Fort Houston in Palestine, Texas. In West Texas my family and I spent a wonderful day with Dr. David Murrah exploring the breaks and Staked Plains as we toured the site of the battle at Blanco Canyon and then viewed Mesquite Creek, thought to have been the camping place of Quanah and his band when they finally agreed to surrender. A special thank-you goes to Jerry McClung, who gave me immense help with research. My family and I spent a wonderful day with Jerry and her husband Paul in the Wichita Mountains, haunts of the Comanches. Then they introduced us to Dr. Jacquetta Parker McClung, Quanah’s great-great granddaughter, who shared with us her family photo- graph album. Many librarians and archivists have given their time and assistance, and I can never properly thank them, but I would like to mention some by name. My friends the late Bill Richter and Ralph Elder have provided in- valuable help through the years. In Katy, Texas, Myrtle Ross, Kathy Green, and Terry Dingley have ordered hundreds of books for me through inter- library loan as well as giving me continual encouragement. At the Fort Sill Museum Judy Crowder and Towana Spivey located primary material. My friends also provided encouragement and help. Bobbie and Bill Peace researched archives in Santa Fe. My dear cousin David Lewis Barkin, now deceased, provided a sketch of the location of Isaac Parker’s cabin in Birdville, Texas, and did research for me in the Haltom City Library. Others who have helped me are Elvis Allen, Jim Barnhart, Ellen Brown, Scott Burgan, Gilbert Cuthbertson, Ted Davidson, Pauline Dollar, T. R. Fehrenbach, the late J. Evetts Haley, Max Harper, Paula Marks, Marian Meyer, Jerry Melcher, Robin Montgomery, Burney Parker, the late Joe Bailey Parker, R. E. ( Jack) Plummer, Myldred Stebbins, Tera Stubblefield, Donald Stubblefield, Vyrtes Thomas, Robert Weddle, and Vera Wimberly. Many friends and acquaintances have read all or part of the manuscript and offered helpful advice: my husband Jim Exley, Charles Bennett, Mike Goins, the late Marj Gurasich, Nelda Hammett, the late Margaret Henson, and Steve Hudson. To all the others who have helped me through the years, I express my sincere gratitude. PART I CHAPTER 1 A Poor Sinner N THE VALLEY of Elk Creek in the Wichita Mountains, a young woman gave birth. Her husband, who was a Comanche war chief, was far to the west leading his men in battle against the Navajos. The woman I had cropped hair and skin tanned by the sun, but out of the dark face smiled the clear blue eyes of a white woman, Cynthia Ann Parker. The son in her arms was Quanah, who would become the last principal chief of the Comanches. The last chapter in the story of the Parker family and their quest for freedom was about to begin.1 The events that culminated in this unusual birth began on the East Coast when the Parker clan became inextricably linked with the Baptists in the colonial United States. The story of the Parkers is centered around a quest for freedom, civil as well as religious. The patriarch of the Parker clan was John Parker, who was a Predestinarian Baptist minister. John was born in Baltimore County, Maryland, on September , , and according to family tradition was the descendant of Puritans who had fled from England because of religious persecution.2 Sometime before John and his family moved to Culpeper County, Virginia, in the foothills of the Blue Ridge Mountains.3 Baptist congregations had existed in Virginia as early as , but they had been scattered and insignificant.

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