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This article was written almost 50 years ago before the age of political correctness and was written from the white settler's point of view.  

This is copied here with permission from The Weatherford Democrat, July 20, 1950 issue.

Comanches Worse Offenders

County was Center of Indian
Raids During 1853-74 Period

Parker County and nearby territory seems to have been the center of indian raids, murders and depredations in the period from 1854 to 1874.  The settlers were continually harassed b the marauding parties of Kiowa and Comanche Indians. At frequent intervals, usually during the full moon, these fiendish tribes would over run pioneer communities. Slyly and silently they would come, in roving bands, stealing the horses and cattle of the settler, destroying his property, committing the cruelist of murders, without the least provocation, and taking many helpless women and even more children into captivity and slavery to endure all cruelties and hardships the cunning and beastly nature of hate and revenge the Indian could provide. The Kiowas were bad, cunning and very cruel, but the raids of the Comanches were more often and marked with more bloodshed and far more destruction of property.

The northwest part of the County was never so much raided as the western and southwestern parts of the County. This is explained possibly by the fact that the Brazos River running through this art of the County and offered shelter and facilities for the raids.  It is estimated that from the first Indian raids on the first settlements in 1854 to the last raid in 1874 that within a radius of 100 miles including Parker County, which was the worse sufferer, that the Indians stole and destroyed six million dollars worth of property, killed and scalped or carried away more than 400 people. Some of the more outstanding Indian raids were as follows:

What was probably the last Indian raid in Parker County occurred in July 1874. There was a protracted meeting in progress at Veal Station when an alarm was given that the Indians were raiding the country, and all able bodied men formed a posse and men and young boys formed an escort for the women and children to their homes. In this raid, Joe Hemphill was killed and scalped and is buried in the Veal Station Cemetery.

In March 1886 several citizens were patrolling the line of Parker and Wise Counties. They were attacked by Indians who greatly outnumbered them. John McMahan and Sam Leonard were wounded and Jack Culwell was killed. Culwell is buried at Goshen and his grave is marked by a monument inscribed "Killed by indians."

Rev. N. Vernon lived about two miles north of Parker's Ship (now Reno) with his wife settled here in 1859. He was a Baptist minister, probably the first Baptist minister, and surely the first of public record, in this section of Texas. In 1865, he and his family were attacked in a field near his home, by forty or more savage Indians, among whom were a white man and a negro. The girls escaped into a field. One boy, Andrew, was shot with several arrows and killed. Frances, a boy of 14, was shot in the back and arm; Thomas was shot in the side and shoulder and was speared. The Indians then turned their attention to a neighbor, a Mr. Long, and killed and scalped him. A few miles further on they shot and wounded a man by the name of Buck Reynolds. He carried a steel-spiked arrow in his body from which he died afterwards.

There were a great deal more Indian raids and massacres that occurred in the County during the 20-year period. (From John Nix's, "A Tale of Two Schools.")

This page was added on March 13, 2000

 

 
County of Month Award January 2001 

10 year County Coordinator Award

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Last Updated on February 4, 2011
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