Iron County register. [volume] (Ironton, Iron County, Mo.) 1867-1965, 1910-03-31
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her martyrs. Parker, Coleman,
Crockett. Fannin, Travis, Bowie
1WTV and a hundred others have the
map for their monument; their
names are given daily utterance
- by those for whom their deeds
have little meaning.
In the beginning, after the Indian tribes
friendly at first-became hostile, the warfare
was almost solely with the savages. For a
full halfcentury every settler who built his
campfire on the frontier did so at the risk of
his property and his scalp. Those who estab-
-lished homes and settlements must have been
a daring race indeed. for raids upon horses
and herds were always imminent and massa-
ores were as regular as the seasons.
The mother of Chief Quanah Parker (still
living) for whom the town of Quanah, Tex, was
named, was Cynthia Ann Parker, a little white
girl captured by the Tehaucano Indians, during
a raid on what was known as the Austin col
ony, in 1886. A brief story of that raid will
serve as an example Of a thousand others Of a
similar sort. The Austin colony settled in
what is now Grimes county and consisted of
something more than a score of persons, in
GLIDING women and children. The Indians
who dwelt in the neighborhood seemed friend
ly enough until a small party of unknown set
tiers came along and attempted to steal their
" A"lICuidbO GoublC was IN lSbuib Nv
the loss of Tehaucano friendship for the entire
settlement. When the reader considers what
follows. l believe l shall be forgiven for hoping
that those newcomers who stirred up the first
trouble received the sort of a reward which
only an Indian would know how to confer.
AS the Austin colony consisted chiefly of
the Parker family, a rude fertilization which
they erected was called Fort Parker, a name
that to-day still suggests something of shud-
dering horror to those who have heard its his
tory.
1t was a fair May morning when that his
tory was made. The early risers noticed that
a body OF restless Indians had collected within
about 400 yards of the fort. A white flag was
hoisted by the sayages to signify their peace
able intentions and a warrior approached as
If for conference. Benjamin Parker, COM
1nander Of the fort, went out to meet him. He
came back presently with the word that he
believed the Indians intended to fight. He re-
turned, however, to the hostile camp, where
he was at once set upon and literally chopped
to pieces by the savages, who then with wild
yens and blood-curdling warwhoops charged
on the fort. Some of the inmates had already
left the stockade. Others were trying to
escape. John Parker and wife and a Mrs.
Kellogg were overtaken a mile away. Parker
was killed and scalped; his wife was spared
and Mrs, Kellogg was made captive. Other
members of the colony were butchered right
and left and mutilated In the barbarous fash.
ion which seems to give an Indian Joy. Silas
Parker was brutally killed and his two chill.
dren, one of whom was the little girl, Cynthia
Ann, were carried away. A Mrs. Plummer-
daughter of Rev. James W.. Parker-attempted
to escape, carrying her little son In her arms.
A huge painted savage, begrimed with dust
and blood, overlook her, felled her with a hoe.
and Selling her by the hair dragged her, still
elinging to her child, back amid the butchery
and torture of her friends. She and the others
who were living were beaten with clubs and
dashed with rawhide thongs. That night such
of the captives as remained alive, and these
included three children, were flung face down
in the dust, tkeir hands bound behind their
backs, while the Indians, waving bloody scalps
and shrieking, danced about them and beat
them with their bows until the prisoners were
strangling with their own blood. Later they
took the infant child of Mrs. ,Plummer and
slowly choked it before her eyes. When it was
not quite dead they flung it again and again
into the air and let it fall on the stones and
earth. Then they tied a rope around its neck
and threw It's naked body into the hedges Of
prickly pear, from which they would jerk it
fiercely with demoniacal yells. Finally they
fastened the rope attached to its neck to the
ipommel OF a saddle and rode round and round
in a circle until the body of the child was lit.
orally in shreds. The poor fragments were
then thrown into the mothers lap. For some
reason the little girl, Cynthia Ann Parker, re-
iceived better treatment, and lived. She grew
up an Indian, forgot her own race and tongue,
married a chief and became the mother of an.
other chief, Quanah, surnamed Parker, to-day
ia friend of the white race.
1t was the massacre of Fort Parker and
events of a similar nature that resulted in the
organization of the Texas Rangers. The
Rangers were at first a semi.oficial body,
locally enlisted and commanded, with regula-
tons and duties not very clearly defined.
Their purpose, however, was not in doubt. 1t
was to defend life and property, and their
chief qualifications were to be able to ride and
shoot and stand up against the warfare Of
bloodthirsty savages.
'Exterminate the Indians" became a watch
word in those days and the warfare that en-
sued and continued for 40 years can be COM
pared with nothing in history unless it be
with the fierce feuds Of the ancient Scottish
clans.
Early In 1886 Texas fought for and gained
her independence, the only state in the Union
to achieve such a triumph. In the following
year the Texas congress recognized the Ran
ger movement and authorized several persons
to raise Ranger companies to scour the coun.
try and annihilate marauding bands. Indians
and low class Mexicans ("greasers') often
consorted and the work, desperate and bloody,
continued along the ever widening and wester-