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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
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