The Somerset herald. [volume] (Somerset, Pa.) 1870-1936, 1881-11-23

General John r. Baylor furnishes
the San Antonia Erprcss with the
following incident connected with
his late visit to Corpus Christi,
where he met a Spaniard by the name
of Tito Rivera, whom he rescued
from the Comanchcs quarter Of a
century ago:
'.In 1856 was Tx. :;.ltes In
dian Agent at the Colaleii Iseserva-
ton on the Clear Fork OF the Bra
zos, then Throckmorton county.
One day found note on my ta-
bic from a boy, who asked that he
be taken from the Indians. Soon
afterwards the boy walked into my
office with a bunch of turkey feath-
ers fastened to the top of his head,
and lis face painted, and dressed in
the Indian costume, and said he
Twas the boy who left the note on
my table. / asked him where he
came rom, and he said that his
father was a Spaniard, and lived in
the mining town of Tapio, in the
state of Durango, Mexico. He spoke
I Spanish and also Comanche. l
didn' feiieve that he had written
the rote, and to try him asked him
to sit down at my desk and show
me how he could write. He wrote
a beautiful hand for a boy. Ques-
tioning him as to how he came to
| fall into the hands of the Indians,
he said that his father owned pack
train, ard ono day he went out with
the mules and the men in charge OF
the mules and camped. The Indi-
lans came on them and took him in
to captivity. After hearing his sto.
Try, sent for the Indian who claim
ed to own the boy and when he
came | told him | must have Tito.
He replied that | could not, and l
told him | would or we would fight.
He said that fight it would be then !;
the boy could not 60. | went to see
Gen. Robert Z. Lee, who was then
Lieutenant-Colonel of the second
United States cavalry, at Camp Coop
er, and who had been stationed there
to protect the Comanche camp.
While there, Chief Catemase, of the
Comanches, who had heard of the
object of my visit, came to me and
said that he wanted no trouble be
tween myself and the Indians, and
that if / would give up 500 worth
of goods / could havethe boy. 1gave
him an order on the sutler and he
was given the goods, and the boy
was turned over to me. / sent the
little fellow to my house and he liv-
ed with my children for about two
years, being treated as one of the
family. Afterwards | met Major
. Neighbors, who then lived near San
Antonio, on the Salado. Major
Neighbors said he wanted him, and
if | would give him to him he would
send him back to his mother. l
turned him over to the Major, but he
didn't send him back to his mother,
and the confederate war came on
and he went into the conferate army.
| The boy was twelve years old when
took him, and the Indians had
captured him when nine. Hespoke
the Comanche language perfectly and
used him as interpreter. Major
Neighbors left the boy on his ranch
on the Salado, near San Antonio,
and the boy entered the confederate
army when about sixteen. Upon
returning from the war he stopped
with Captain Albert Wallace on the
4 Cibolo, fifteen miles moth Of San
Antonio, and from there went to
Galveston and thence to Corpus
Christie. While with Captain Wal
lace he earned his living as a cow
boy. | went to Corpus Christi to
see the boy, Tito Rivera, now cash.
ier of the bank of Davis and Dod-
ridge in Corpus Christi. and one of
the most respectable gentlemen of
Corpus. He married Miss Mollie
Woodward, and now has one boy
and two little girls, and the best Of
my visit was that the little children
came about me, threw their arms
around my neck and called me
grandpa. Rivera is a man now
about thirty-six years of age and is
a magnificent looking man."