EARLY TIMES IN TEXAS AND HISTORY OF PARKER FAMILY *************************************************************************** Copyright. All rights reserved. http://www.usgwarchives.net/copyright.htm Transcribed by Nancy Crain Submitted by Scott Fitzgerald - scottfitzgerald@tyler.net East Texas Genealogical Society, Vice-President 24 July 2006 *************************************************************************** Originally published in The Tracings, Volume 3, No. 1, Winter 1984, Pages 52-58 by the Anderson County Genealogical Society, copyright assigned to the East Texas Genealogical Society. EARLY TIMES IN TEXAS AND HISTORY OF PARKER FAMILY (From Palestine Daily Herald, Feb. 12, 1935 by Ben Parker) I have read many letters on the Parker family, most of them being only partially true. I decided to give the history as handed down to me by my father and great-uncles. My great-grandfather, Daniel Parker, first came to Texas for the purpose of getting permission to establish his church, a primitive Baptist church, from the Mexican government, which had control of Texas at that time. Failing to get that permission from the Mexican government, he did get permission through Stephen F. Austin to return to his home in Crawford County, Illinois, and organize his church and bring it to Texas in a body. So he returned to his home and organized his church. At the same time he organized a colony of his neighbors, friends and kinsmen, which delayed him some time in returning to Texas. When he got his colony organized and ready to start back to Texas, it consisted of 25 wagons, mostly ox wagons. There were several families in this colony, their names consisting of: Parkers, Browns, Kennedys, Jourdans, Greenwood, Lagos, Bennetts, and probably some others that I cannot call to mind at present. The Parkers coming with this colony were John Parker and his six sons: Daniel, James W., Isaac, Silas, Joe A., and Ben. With Daniel Parker was his son, and his five sons: Dickison, Daniel, Ben, Isaac, and Kalbe, and his two sons-in-law, Joseph Kennedy and Ruben Brown. John Parker was a very elderly man so his son, Daniel, was at the head of the colony. On their way to Texas they never traveled on Sunday, but stopped and held their religious services and rested their stock. They came into Texas through Louisiana, coming into Texas near the town of Logansport, La. Coming on into Texas they stopped and built their first fort on San Pedro creek, in what is now Houston County, near the north line and near the town of Grapeland. This first fort was known as Brown's Fort. A part of the colony being satisfied at that time with the surrounding country, decided to stop and build the fort and their homes surrounding it. Daniel Parker, his brother Isaac, and his two sons-in-law decided to build a fort and build their homes nearby. James W. Parker, Silas Parker, and Ben Parker and their father, John Parker, decided to go farther west, and they built what was known as Parker's Fort on the Navasota River in what is now Limestone County near the town of Groesbeck. Daniel Parker and his sons all built their homes north of the Brown's Fort, near the town of Elkhart, in Anderson County. When great-granddaddy Daniel Parker built his home he built his church house and set up his church near his home. At the same time he made deeds for the church house and cemetery purposes. The first church house was made of logs twenty feet square, the second being a box house, and the third a frame building, and the last a brick building, making the fourth house on this site. This is known as the "Old Pilgrim Church," the oldest Protestant church in Texas. It has the documentary proof. My great grandfather, Daniel Parker, was its pastor from the time he organized the church and brought it to Texas in 1833 until his death in 1844. His son, Ben Parker, was then pastor until his death in 1896. I have talked to him many times about the history of the church. He told me that his father nor anyone else of the Protestant faith could organize a church in Texas until the declaration of independence had been declared, and the Battle of San Jacinto had been fought, giving Texas her independence. Everything seems to have gone on peaceably after they had built the fort until the year of 1836. Then both the Mexicans and Indians got on the war path and gave the settlers lots of trouble. After the fall of the Alamo and Goliad, my grandfather and others from this section of the country joined Sam Houston's army and were in the Battle of San Jacinto. Among them was Captain W. T. Sadler, who walked side by side with my grandfather in that battle. He saw my grandfather shoot a Mexican out of a tree. (See Texas History) After Parker's Fort was completed in Limestone County for protection against Indian raids, the colony began the erection of their homes. Then everything was peaceable until May 19, 1836. While the men were out on their farms at work a band of Comanche Indians came within sight of the fort and raised a white flag, which meant to the people at the fort that they were peaceable. They came nearer the fort and motioned the people at the fort to come out and talk to them. Then Uncle Ben Parker went to see what they wanted. They told him they wanted a camping site and asked him for a beef that they were very hungry. Uncle Ben, fearing to offend them, promised that they should have what they wanted. Returning to the fort he told those there, "I fear they intend to fight, but by kindness I will try to dissuade them." His brother, Silas, and all the women begged him not to go out again, but he returned to the Indians. Immediately they surrounded him and murdered him. Then with horrid yells and death-dealing clubs, axes and tomahawks they rushed upon the fort and battered down the doors. Then began one of the bloodiest tragedies known in Texas Indian warfare. Silas Parker was murdered trying to rescue his niece, Mrs. Rachel Plumer. She made a desperate effort, but was knocked down by an Indian and captured. Sam Frost and his son were killed while heroically defending the women and children inside the fort. My great, great-grandfather, John Parker, who was then 79 years of age, and his wife, and a Mrs. Kellogg were trying to make their escape but were overrun in a short distance from the farm and murdered and mutilated. Mrs. Rachel Plumer and her little son, two years old, daughter, and grandson of James W. Parker, Mrs. Elizabeth Kellog, Cynthia Ann Parker and her brother, John, were taken into captivity. Mrs. Silas Parker was trying to make her escape with her four children when the Indians overtook her and forced her to put her two oldest children up behind them on their horses. Some of the Indians on foot were driving Mrs. Silas Parker back to the fort when the men, who were at work in the fields nearby, hearing the cries of the women and children, arrived and rescued her from the Indians. The terror-stricken men and women, seeing the fort and their homes in the possession of five hundred blood-thirsty Indians, made their escape in the timbered thickets of the Navasota River bottom. When night came on they held a consultation and decided that Abraham Anglin and Evan Faulkenberry would return to the fort and see if they could be of any help to anyone who might have been left wounded. The only living thing they found was my great grandmother. She had been scalped and speared. They carried her into a house and fixed some bedding for her and made her as comfortable as they could under the circumstances. On reaching the fort all was silent except the dogs were barking and the cattle lowing and hogs squealing about the fort. They found five or six horses and a few saddles the Indians had left behind. But fearing an attack by the Indians from the nearby thicket they left without even burying the dead. James W. Parker was left with the women and children to guide them to some place of safety as best he could. He decided that the nearest place of safety was Fort Houston, in what is now Anderson County, near the town of Palestine, and what is now the home of Judge John H. Reagan, about 65 miles away. He took one of his children on his back, and the rest of the grown people did the same, and started their journey through the wild woods infested by Indians and all kinds of wild animals. They traveled until about 3:00 in the morning until the women and children became so tired and hungry they could go no farther, then they lay down on the grass and slept until daylight. When they again started on their journey the briars and thorns had torn the children's feet and legs until they could almost be tracked by the blood that flowed from their wounds. At dark on the second day the children and women who were nursing babies began to suffer intensely from hunger. They came across a polecat and they pursued it and succeeded in getting it in a hole of water and drowning it. They dressed and cooked it and divided it among the hungry children. That was all they had until the fourth day, when they succeeded in getting another polecat and two terrapins, which they again divided among the children. On the eve of the fifth day the women and children were so exhausted that it was impossible to travel farther. After holding a consultation, it was agreed that James W. Parker would leave them and hurry on to Fort Houston. The next morning he left a man by the name of Dwight in charge of the women and children. He started for Fort Houston, which was then about 30 miles away. He reached Fort Houston in the afternoon. The first person he met was Capt. Carter, who soon had five horses saddled and other conveyances and went with him back to meet the starving women and children. They placed the women and children on horses and returned to the fort. They arrived between midnight and daylight. They were given every comfort and care possible. The next morning James W. Parker and his son-in-law, Pratt Plumer, started back to the fort. Arriving at the fort, with the help of others, they buried the dead. After taking the fort, the Indians started west with their captives. Their first camping ground was where the town of Waxahachie now stands. The captives were tied down with rawhide strings, while the Indians danced their war dance around them, with the scalps of their loved ones hanging from their belts, still dripping with blood. The captives were divided among the different tribes. Cynthia Ann, the little eight-year-old girl of Silas Parker, was taken by the Comanche Indians. She was entirely lost from her people for twenty-two years. She grew to womanhood among the Indians and became the wife of an Indian chief named Nocona. She was the mother of three children, two boys and one girl. Twenty-two years after her capture, she was recaptured by Sul F. Ross, who was then captain of the Rangers. Chief Nocona had been giving the settlements trouble for some time. Captain Ross and his Rangers followed their trail into Northwest Texas. He overtook them near Pea's River. They were just breaking camp when Captain Ross and his Rangers came in sight. They immediately engaged them in battle and killed many of the Indians. Chief Nocona and his wife, being mounted on swift horses, started for the hills, pursued by Capt. Ross and his lieutenant, a Mr. Killiher; Captain Ross pursuing Nocona, and his lieutenant pursuing the squaw. Capt. Ross, with a well-directed shot brought Nocona down and a girl that was riding behind him. The lieutenant, seeing that the squaw had a baby in her arms, did not shoot but captured her. When he returned to Captain Ross he complained of riding his horse so hard and only capturing an old squaw. Capt. Ross saw that she was weeping, and he knew that an Indian never cries or laughs. He told his lieutenant that she was a white woman, pointing to her blue eyes. She was carried to the government post, and an inquiry was begun as to who she was. Senator Isaac Parker of Tarrant County, hearing of the capture of the white woman, wondered if it could be possible that it was his long-lost niece, Cynthia Ann Parker. He went to the post to see if he could identify her. When he got there he saw her, and with the exception of her eyes, she had every appearance of a typical Indian. Fearing that she or her child was going to be injured, she would pay no attention to anything said. He asked that he be left alone with her, thinking that if anything would make her remember, it would be something that happened at the time of her capture and the massacre of her relatives. She had entirely lost her mother tongue. He spent some time in getting her reconciled and relieved of her fear, so that he might talk to her, which he succeeded in doing. After he had gone over the happenings of the massacre and her capture, he saw that she was giving him her attention and finally, when he called her name, she patted herself on the breast and said "Cynthia Ann Me-me-me." He was then convinced that she was his long-lost relative. He then took her back to his home in Tarrant County, and kept her in his home for a short while until her brother, Silas Parker could come and get her and carry her to his home in Anderson County. Every tender care was given her and her little baby, Prairie Flower. She fast gained her mother tongue and was able to tell of all hardships she had gone through while a captive with the Indians. She never became satisfied to live with her people wanting to return to her two sons and to the Indian life and customs that she had been used to. The little girl, Prairie Flower, lived only about two years. She was buried in what is known as the Fosterville Cemetery in the northern part of Anderson County. After the death of her baby, she became more dissatisfied and only lived a few years longer, and was buried by the side of her baby and remained there until her son, Quanah Parker, who had taken her name grew into manhood and became chief of the Comanche tribe, came to Texas and took her remains to his home at Fort Sills, Oklahoma. He erected at her grave a nice monument to her memory. Mrs. Rachel Plumer, the daughter of James W. Parker, was only with the Indians about eighteen months but endured many hardships during her captivity. She was carried to the far north. She said she saw snow-capped mountains that stayed almost the year round. She suffered intensely from the cold, very seldom having any cover at night or any clothing on her back, and many times her feet would be frost bitten in October. After she was captured, she gave birth to her second son, which she said was a very beautiful child and healthy. It being impossible for her to get the right kind of food for her body, she often beseeched her mistress to advise her what to do to save her child, but she would only turn a deaf ear to her supplications. One cold morning some five or six Indians came to where she was nursing her baby. As soon as they came up she feared for her safety and for her child. Suddenly one of the Indians caught her baby by the throat and choked it until it appeared to be dead. He repeatedly threw it into the air and let it fall to the frozen ground. He then threw it back in her lap. She began to work with her child, washing the blood from its face. After working with it for some time, she could see the life returning. The Indians, seeing the baby was not dead, tied a rope around its neck and threw it into a bunch of prickly pears and pulled it back and forth until its tender flesh was literally torn from its body. One of the Indians who was on horseback tied the end of a rope to his saddle and ran around in a circle until the baby was not only dead but literally torn to pieces. One of the Indians untied the rope and again threw the baby into her lap. She wrapped it up and took a butcher knife and dug a grave and buried it, and then rejoiced that her child was through with its suffering. Then she lifted her head to God in prayer that the child could never return to her, but God being her keeper, she could go to it. She endured many other hardships while with the Indians. She was made to dress so many buffalo hides a day and guard horses at time. She was taken in hand by an Indian squaw who gave her her daily tasks. She became so unbearable that she could not stand the hardships and tasks that were given to her daily. One day they were some distance from the camp, but not out of sight, and her mistress began beating her with a club. She wrenched the club from the squaw's hand and knocked her down. The Indians witnessing the proceedings came running up, yelling at the top of their voices. She expected to be killed, but instead they said "Good and well done." She fared much better after that time, and was known as the Fighting Squaw. She was with the Indians only about six months before learning their language. Then she could converse with them and them with her. She was rescued through the assistance of some Mexican traders and ransomed by an American, Mr. W. M. Donnahue, and made a member of his family. She was carried to Independence, MO, and there met her brother-in- law, D. L. D. Nixon, and was brought back to her people in Texas in 1838. She reached her father's home 21 months after the horrid massacre of Parker's Fort. She died on Feb. 19, 1839, just one year after reaching her home. Her son, James Pratt Plumer, after six long years of captivity, was ransomed and taken to Fort Gibson late in 1842, and reached his home in February, 1843, with his grandfather, James W. Parker, and made his home in Anderson County until his death. John Parker, brother of Cynthia Ann, grew to manhood with the Comanche Indian boys of his age. When he arrived at the age of manhood, he accompanied a raiding party of the Comanches across the Rio Grande into Mexico. Among the captives taken was a beautiful Mexican girl. He soon fell in love with her and they became engaged to be married. On the way back to the hunting grounds he was suddenly taken sick with small pox. He was left alone on the vast plains to die or recover. The Mexican maid refused to leave her lover, and asked to remain with him and nurse him back to health, which she did. As soon as he was able to travel they made their way to the settlements and were married. They settled on stock ranch in the far west, where John Parker became a great stock king. I have never heard of his coming back east to visit his people but one time. He stayed only a short time and I have never heard from him since he returned to his home. After the massacre of the Parker family at Parker's Fort and the Battle of San Jacinto had been fought and Texas had regained her independence the remaining Parkers, along with other early Texas settlers, began building their homes and taking their regular positions in life for the upbuilding of Texas. Most of them settled in Anderson County. Isaac Parker, son of John Parker and brother of Elder Daniel Parker built his home in what is now Tarrant County. He was sent to the state legislature and then to the senate. While serving as senator, Parker County was created and named in his honor. One of his sons, Isaac Duke Parker, was also sent to the legislature from Tarrant County. The old Isaac Parker home, which is now standing about 9 miles from the city of Fort Worth, is near the old town of Birdwell. Elder Daniel Parker was at old Washington when they met to declare their independence and opened that body with a prayer. He took a very active part in helping make the laws under which they would be governed, and was elected to the first legislative body that was elected in Texas, but was refused his seat in that body because he was a Protestant preacher. His son, John Parker, was elected one of the first commissioners in Anderson County. After its organization one of their first duties was to lay out and build a county seat. He asked that the county seat of Anderson County be named after his home town in Illinois; the rest of the commissioners consented. Palestine became the county seat. Elder Ben Parker, son of Daniel Parker, who succeeded his father as pastor of the church, was also elected to the state legislature and served there for four years. He was an educated man and taught school in his early life. He studied law and also civil engineering and became a very valuable man throughout the eastern part of Texas. East Texas at that time was being settled very fast and his services were very much needed in the surveying of their homes. The greater part of his life was given to that work. He was considered an authority on land titles and other legal documents of the day. The Parker family had hardly gotten their homes settled before the clouds of the Civil War began to rise. The men were volunteering and going along with their neighbors and friends to defend their homes and country against an invading enemy. My father, John Parker, and his two brothers, Ira and Ben Parker, all sons of Dickison Parker, volunteered and went into service. They joined Woddard's Company, the first company organized in Anderson County. My father and brother, Ira, went to Virginia and joined John B. Hood's Texas Brigade. They were in many of the hard-fought battles, namely: Gettysburg first and second the Battle of Manassas, the Battle of Chickamauga, the siege of Vicksburg, and others. My uncle, Ira Parker, was killed in the Battle of Chickamauga while carrying the Confederate flag, and he is buried in that cemetery. My father was at the surrender of Lee's army, and stacked his gun at Appomattox court house and walked from there back to his home. After the civil War, the Parkers, as well as other southern people, went through many hardships in the rebuilding of their homes. After going through many hardships, they still retained their strong willpower, soon built their homes and were happy once again. They have already taken a great part in politics, both county, state, and national, and are very ardent supporters of the democratic party and its policies.