The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1881-11-24
Story of ali Indian Captiye,

General John r. Baylor furnishes
the San Antonio (Texas) ETpress with
the following incident connected wi i
his late visit to Corpus Christi, where
he met Spaniard by the name of Tito
Rivera, whom he rescued from the
Uomanches quarter of q century ago:
In 1856 I was United States Indian
agent at the Comapche reservation ON the
Clear Fork of the Brazos, then Throck
morton county. One day found note
on my table from boy, who asked that
he be taken from the Indians, Soon
afterward the boy walked into my Office
with bunch of turkey feathers fastened
to the top of his head, and his face
PAINTED and dressed in the Indian
costume, and said he was the boy
who left the note on my table. asked
him where he came from, and he said
that his father was Spaniarj, and
lived in the mining town of Tapio, in
the state of Durango, Mexico. Hespoke
Spanish and also Comanche. 1 didn't
believe that he had written the note,
and to try him asked him to sit down
at my desk and show me how he could
write. He wrote beautiful hand for q
boy. Questioning him as to how he
came to fall into the hands of the In
dians, he said that his father owned a
pack train, and one day he went out
with the mules and the men in charge
of the mules and camped. The Indians
came on them and took him into cap
tivity. After hearing his story / sent
for the Indian who claimed to own the
boy, and when he came T told him |
must have Tito He replied that I
could not, and told him I would OF
we would fight. He said that fight it
would be then; the boy could not go.
I went to see General Robert e. Lee,
who was then lieutenant colonel OF the
Second United States cavalry, at Camp
Cooper, and who had been stationed
there to protect the Comanche camp,
While there, Chief Cateman, of the Co.
manches, who had heard of the object
of my visit, came to see me and said
that he wanted no trouble between my
self and the Indians, and that if 1 would
give up 800 worth of goods I could gel
the boy. I gave him an order on the
sutler, and he was given the goods, and
the boy was turned over to ME. l sent
the little fellow to my house AMI he
lived with my children for about two
years, being treated as one of the family
Afterward 1 met Major Neighbors, VIII;
then lived near San Antonio, on the
Salado. Major Neighbors said ht
wanted him, and if 1 would give him tc
him he would send him back to hi
mother. 1 turned him over to the
major, but he didn't send him back tc
his mother, and the war came on ant
he went into the Confederate army
The boy was twelve years old when
took him, and the Indians had captured
him when nine, having had him three
years. He spoke the Comanehe Ian
guago perfectly, and used him as in
terpreter. Major Neighbors left tht
boy ON his rancho on the Salado, neal
San Antonio, and the boy entered thu
Confederate army when about sixteeI
years. Upon returning from the wa
he stopped with Captain Albert Wal
lace, on the Cibolo, fifteen mile
north of San Antonio, and from
there went to Galveston and thence t,
Corpus Christi. While with Captain
Wallace he earned his living as COW
boy. 1 went to Corpus Christi to Sc
the boy, Tito Rivera, now cashier o
the bank of Davis & Dodridge in Cor
pus Christi. and one of the most respect
able men of Corpus. He married
Miss Mollie Woodward, and now ha
one boy and two little girls, aud til
best of my visit was that the littl
children came about me threw thei
arms around my neck and called m
grandpa. Rivera is a man now abou
thirty. six years of age and is magn
ficentlooking man.