ms^ ®l|p ^l^org of |pr (JajiturF. ^AMBS ©. DbSHIBIjDS. CYNTHIA ANN PAI ->?^ ^W^ '^. >ii«rt|f^^ iS^v ^-iO %;;'^i ''-,K s y ^-^: *5?. ' l-^i -^ t-. '^„^' ,'^" "^.^v « > iT' ; /. "^ "^^1^^ 'fi-t^'^' ^r;."' ^ /^ >"' '» :^^f "'•1. • . «»"'i !«•. 7 .^ .iiS;- ^^"•• ".^x' „x\-. 'XL Iix V^:'' : 0^'^ "^•^, ' % ^u3|tt!„ ' -r i^^^' -^^'4P; -.A' CYNTHIA ANN PARKER GRANDSON went across the line from Indian Teiritory into Texas to pick aplum- likc fruit in Ford county. Grandma V .IS with them with her little girl» Piairie Flower. Sul Ross and his ha igers surprised my grandma and tuok her captive. They killed some of the Indians. When they found ' gi'andma was Cynthia Ann they )k her to Austin and then to An- ison county. She begged to re- in to her two little boys and her lb isband. "Never Found Grave" I "Prairie Flower died and I have pinver been able to find where she nas buried.- I have talked with I andreds of the older people but nnne knows where she lies. She ir\ed only a year after she and her \\..s cip- n Paiker Riandson of Cynthia Ann Parker who .not her were captured by Sul Ross. xurea ty <^orr.nr,cn-.» „!,„.. „.... .-—.._. .,^5 — .._ Suit ja-irmKuig arrows It was a tragic thing that i'ney in the old Indian \\a>' at the South Texas Exposition in the Indian would not permit my grandma to go back tp her sons. "After Prairie Flower died, grand- ma pined away and in 1866 in An- WHITE WIFE DIED YEARNING FOR derson county she died of a broken heart longing for her boys and INDIAN LIFE; OFFSPRING SNUB IT friends. My grandpa, Pete Nocona, never saw her after her capture by Descendant of Cynthia Ann Parker, Here Ross. "My father, Quanah Parker, died for Exposition, Tells of Famous Capture Feb. 23, 1911. I am the second son. I teach my children the dances and Time does queer things to peoples Ann's great-granddaughter is an dress of the and races. attractive maiden, dressed for the Comanches but they do not want to the Indian A white woman pined away and show in a soft white deerskin dress, go ways. They attend the public schools, died 73 years ago because she was but on the street she is as modern learn modern living not permitted to return to Indian and chic as a fashion model. ways of and the Indian ways are forgotten. It ways and to her husband and chil- Taken by Siil Boss is just as well, for they must cope dren—Comanche Indians. Her Baldwin Parker is 53 years old with a modern world. grandchildren refuse to live the In- and has lived his entire life in Co- dian way and are typical American manche county, Oklahoma. His wife Keeps Scrap Book men and women, boys and girls. is with him at the exposition. He "I ranch some and have a few When Cynthia Ann Parker was 9 is the son of Quanah Parker, cattle. We go to fairs and exposi- years old she was captured by Co- Cynthia Ann's son. tions where we exhibit the Indian manches. She quickly adapted her- "Grandma (Cynthia Ann Parker) ways of the long ago. My wife and self to Indian ways and t)ecame a was born in Edgar county, Illinois, I both attended Chilicco institute.* great favorite with the tribe. That in 1826," Chief Parker said. "She Parker keeps scrap books o( was May 19, 1836. was captured in Limestone county. stories which have been written Cynthia Ann's grandson, Baldwin May 19, 1836, by Comanches who about him, but in the honored place Parker, who is at the Indipn vil- carried her home with them. From the iiook he has with him at lage Exposition at the South Texas then until 1860, grandma lived with the South Texas Exposition is a pic- with his troupe of entertainers, the Indians and was so loved by ture of his grandma and little {finds it is impossible to raise his them that she married Pete Nocona, Prairie Flower, who faded and died children in the Indian ways—they a chief. in the white man's world of almost are as modern as today. Cynthia "A group of women and children tliree-quarters of a century ago. /.^-%*" • '«siiiR^%;^ :-; s^^^Bgisi.. $:' *: ,>^ ..A 81^< ^,>:.% W.% :>,fiP ^^^^ •:"^!T-^ I' I Hir"^ a-o.^ V. /ijr.^' ••'"f>f fliSpi'';,-- ^<^ '":^- >t^ ''^S&f^M i^'^) ,; v«»- 'YW^ Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2012 with funding from LYRASIS IVIembers and Sloan Foundation http://www.archive.org/details/cynthiaannparkerOOdesh I* r" I 'r'liiiMuMluiiimilj ('ymhia Ann Parker. CTITHIA AM PARKER. THE STOET OF HEE CAPTIIEE At the Massacre of the Inmates of Parker's Fort; of her Quarter of a Century Spent Among the Comanches, as the Wife of the War Chief, Peta No- cona; and of her Recapture at the Battle of Pease River, by Captain L. S. Ross, of the Texian Rangers. <^lA — BY- JAMES T. DeSHIELDS, Author of "Frontier Sketches," Etc. 'TrvLtli is StrarLgrer tlism iFiction." ILLUSTRATED. ST. LOUTS; Printed fop the Author, '" ' J886. Copyright 1886 by JAMES T. DeSHIELDS. All Rights Reserved. CHAS. B. WOODWARD Printing and Book Manufacturing Co. 8T. L0CI8. DEDICATED (By Permission) — TO — GENL. L. S. ROSS, — OF WACO, TEXAS. 5 V. PREFACE. In the month of June, 1884, there appeared in the :olumns of the Forth Worth Gazette an advertisement signed by the Comanche chief, Quanah Parker, and dated from the reservation near Fort Sill, in the In- dian Territory, enquiring for a photograph of his late mother, Cynthia Ann Parker, which served to revive interest in a tragedy which has always been enveloped in a greater degree of mournful romance and pathos than any of the soul-stirring episodes of our pioneer life, so fruitful of incidents of an adventurous nature. From the valued narratives kindly furnished us by Victor M. Ross, Major John Henry Brown and Gen. L. S. Ross, supplemented by the Jas. W. Parker book and copious notes from Hon. Ben. F. Parker, together with most of the numerous partial accounts of the fall of Parker's Fort and subsequent relative events, pub- lished during the past fifty years ; and after a careful investigation and study of the whole, we have laborious- ly and with much pains-taking, sifted out and evolved the foregoing narrative of plain, unvarnished facts, which form a part of the romantic history of Texas. In the preparation of our little volume the thanks of the youthful author are due to Gen. L. S. Ross, of VI. Waco; Major John Henry Brown of Dallas; Gen. Walter P. Lane of Marshall; Col. John S. Ford of San Antonio; Rev. Homer S. Thrall—the eminent historian of Texas ; Mr. A. F. Corning of Waco ; Capt. Lee Hall, Indian Agent, L T., and Mrs. C. A. West- brook of Lorena, for valuable assistance rendered. To Victor M. Ross of Laredo, Texas, the author has been placed under many and lasting obligations for valuable data so generously placed at his disposal, and that too at considerable sacrifice to the donor. From this source we have obtained much of the matter for our narrative. In submitting our little work—the first efforts of the youthful author—we assure the reader that while there are, doubtless, many defects and imperfections, he is not reading fiction, but facts which form only a part of the tragic and romantic history of the Lone Star State. JAMES T. DeSHIELDS, Belton, Texas, May 19, 1886. VII CONTENTS. Page. Preface • ^ CHAPTER I. 9-21 The Parker Fort Massacre, etc - — CHAPTER n. The Captives—Cynthia Ann and John Parker 22-35 CHAPTER HI. The Battle of ^'Antelope Hills," 36-46 CHAPTER IV. Genl. L. S. Ross.—Battle of the Wichita 47-57 CHAPTER V. Battle of Pease River.—Recapture of Cynthia Ann Parker 58-68 CHAPTER VI. Cynthia Ann Parker.—Quanah Parker 69-80 CYNTHIA ANN PARKER. CHAPTER I. The Parker Fort Massacre, Etc. Contemporary with, and among the earHest of the daring and hardy pioneers that penetrated the eastern portion of the Mexican province of Texas, were the '^ Parker family," who immigrated from Cole county, Illinois, in the fall of the year 1833, settling on the west side of the Navasota creek, near the site of the present town of Groesbeck, in Limestone county, one or two of the family coming a little earlier and some a little later. The elder John Parker was a native of Virginia, resided for a time in Elbert county, Georgia, but chiefly reared his family in Bedford county, Tennessee, whence in 18 1 8 he removed to Illinois. The family, with perhaps one or two exceptions, belonged to one branch of the primitive Baptist church, commonly designated as "two seed," or ''hard shell" Baptists. : . 10 CYNTHIA ANN PARKER In the spring of 1834 ^^^^ colonist erected Parker's Fort, ^) a kind of wooden barricade, or wall around their cabins, which sensed as a means of better protect- ing themselves against the numerous predatory bands of Indians into that, then, sparsely settled section. As early as 1829 the ^^Prairie Indians" had declared war against the settlers, and were now actively hostile, 1) The reader will understand by this term, not only a place of defense, but the residence of a small number of families belonging to the same neighborhood. As the Indian mode of warfare was an indiscrim- inate slaughter of all ages, and both sexes, it was as requisite to provide for the safety of the women and children as for that of the men.