Parkers Fort
It was a normal morning, that 19th day of May in 1836. Nothing seemed out of the ordinary. Most of the men, as was their custom, had made the mile walk to their fields just out of sight of the stockade. They'd settled here in 1834 and this year their crops should make a bountiful harvest.
A handful of men remained behind with the women and children. The front gate was carelessly open. Somewhere around 8:00 a.m. a party of no more than 100 young Comanche, Caddo and Kiowa warriors materialized outside the gate. They presented a white flag.
The men in the stockade conferred and Benjamin Parker went outside to meet with the warriors. Silas Parker, Cynthia Ann's father, held the gate. Samuel Frost, his son Robert and Elder John Parker (the family Patriarch) stayed close to the women and children.
Benjamin returned to the fort and reported that the warriors had asked for beef (Benjamin rejected this request) and for directions to water. He told the others that he thought the Indians were hostile. Over the protests of his brother Silas, he went back out to try and avoid a fight. The riders surrounded him and drove their lances into his body, killing him. Then with the loud, terrifying Comanche yell they rode into the fort killing Silas as he tried to bar their entry. The next 20-30 minutes must have been an eternity in Hell for those in the Fort desperately trying to escape.
Several warriors rode down John Parker and his wife, Granny Parker. He, like the other men, was scalped and his genitals torn off. Then he was killed and further mutilated. Granny Parker was pinned to the ground with a lance, stripped and raped by several of the raiders. All the women who were caught inside the fort were also attacked and two of them were mortally wounded.
One woman, Sara Nixon, escaped out the back and ran for the men working in the field. Lucy Parker, Silas' wife took her four children out the front gate. The warriors overtook her near the river. They put a lance to her chest and forced her to place her oldest daughter, 9-year-old Cynthia Ann, and her oldest son, 6-year-old John behind mounted warriors. Just as the Comanches were about to take her and her youngest children, the men running from the fields arrived. David Faulkenberry, weapon in hand, was able to rescue her and pulled her and her remaining children away from the warriors.
Somewhere around 9:00, it was over. The warriors took with them five captives: Rachel Plummer and her 18 month old son James, Elizabeth Kellogg, John Parker and his sister Cynthia Ann Parker. As was the custom for a such a raid, they rode fast and hard late into the night.
The remaining settlers didn't understand the Comanches and were afraid they would be returning to finish them off, so they stayed hidden in the Navasota River bottoms. At sundown, some of the men went back to the fort to look for any provisions and horses that the raiding party might have left behind. They found Granny Parker alive. She had pulled the lance out of her body and crawled to one of the cabins searching for water.
They didn't take the time to bury their dead, but took the survivors and hurried back to their hiding places in the brambles and thick underbrush along the River. During the night, the two mortally wounded women died. James Parker led the 18 survivors on a 90-mile, 6-day journey to Fort Houston (about 2 miles south of Palestine). Most of those making this trek were women and children. The little ones had escaped the attack with shirts, but most of them had no shoes or trousers, so their feet and legs were torn and bloodied by the tough vegetation. In route, they ate only a couple of skunks and turtles. In desperation, James went on alone and made the final 35 miles in about 8 hours.
Close to midnight on the day of the attack, the warriors finally stopped. The captives were stripped and bound with leather thongs and thrown face-down onto the ground.
For the warriors, this raid had been a great success. They had not suffered any casualties, they had the plunder from the fort, and they had captives. It was time for them to stage their victory dance and tell their individual exploits. During the frenzied dancing, the captives were beaten with bows and kicked until their backs and legs were bloodied. At the completion of this ritual, the children were not subjected to any further harm. The women were tortured and raped through the night. The torture was not severe enough to do permanent physical damage. Captured adults were destined to become either slaves or trade goods. The children would be adopted into the tribe.
The next morning the raiding band split up and went their separate ways. Elizabeth Kellogg was taken by the Kichai (Caddoes), each of the others were taken by different groups of Comanches.
Elizabeth Kellogg was fortunate. Her owners eventually joined with their Wichita kinsmen up along the Red River. After about six months, she was traded to the immigrant Delawares for $150.00 worth of goods. They took her into east Texas to Nacodoches and sold her to General Sam Houston for the same amount they'd bought her for, $150.00. Her captivity was over and here she drops from sight.
James Plummer and John Parker were ransomed in 1842 and delivered to Fort Gibson. James was back with his natal family by February of 1843. Even though he could speak no English, he was able to make the transition and returned to a normal Anglo life. John was 12 years old now and had been Comanche for 6 years. He never truly adjusted again to Anglo society.
When his mother requested that he search for his sister, John willingly rejoined the Comanche. He went with them on a raid into Mexico and on the return to the Llano Estacado (Staked Plain), John was stricken with smallpox. The Comanche had a sensible fear of this disease, and left him. A Mexican slave stayed behind with him and nursed him back to health. On his recovery, he married her and they went to Mexico to live, where he acquired a small ranch. John joined the Confederate army during the Civil War, but he adamantly refused to leave Texas. After the War, he returned to his home in Mexico and would not again visit any of his Anglo relatives. He died there at his home in 1915.
Rachel Plummer was a slave for 18 months. She was returned to her father's home on February 19, 1838 and less than a year later she was dead. She never saw her son James again.
Now only Cynthia Ann remained with the Comanche. It would be twenty-five years until she was returned to her Anglo family.
The war that began in force with the raid on Parker's Fort and the kidnapping of a 9 year-old girl would rage for forty years and end when her proud son was forced by starvation to surrender to U.S. forces.
SOURCED:
Davis, Joe Tom, Legendary Texians (Vol. II), Austin: Eakin Press, 1985
Fehrenbach, T.R., A History of Texas and the Texans - Lone Star, New York: MacMillan Press, 1968.
Comanches, the Destruction of a People, New York: Alfred Knopf, 1974
Mayhall, Mildred P., Indian Wars of Texas, Waco: Texian Press, 1965
Ramsay, Jack C., Jr., The Story of Cynthia Ann Parker: Sunshine on the Prairie, Austin: Eakin Press, 1990
Calico Lace,
Sachse,
TX
November 1998