CHAPTER XVI.

QUANAH PARKER, HEAD CHIEF OF THE COMANCHES

WITH SOME ACCOUNT OF THE CAPTIVITY OF HIS MOTHER, CYNTHIA ANNE PARKER, KNOWN AS "THE WHITE COMANCHE."

U

P to this point we have refrained from writing the biography of half-breed Indians, lest people should imagine their greatness was due to the infusion of the blood of the superior white race. But the story of Quanah Parker is so interesting, and he has such a remarkable personality in many ways, that we have decided to make an exception in his case. Then, too, as will be seen, his mother, Cynthia Anne Parker, at the time of his birth, was to all intents and purposes an Indian, though born of white parents.

It is said on good authority that the Apaches and Comanches are related through intermarriage and consanguinity, and at one period formed a single tribe.

During a scarcity of food these people were divided into the mountain tribes, who pledged their word and honor to their brothers who lived on the fish, water-fowl and swine, that they would never eat the fish from the streams, nor the fowls from the waters, nor the hogs from the mud. Their bottom-land brothers were to abstain from the game of the mountains and plains. This treaty, made in the time of famine, was sacredly kept in the days of plenty, and ever afterward those highland Indians refused to eat pork, fish or water-fowl.

The best account of Cynthia Anne Parker and her famous son, Quanah, is found in White's "Experiences of An Indian Agent." In it he quotes an article from General Alford on "The White Comanche," in which the general says:

"Amongst numerous illustrations of heroism which illumine

the pages of Texas history perhaps none shines with a brighter halo than the capture of Fort Parker. In 1833 a small colony formed in Illinois, moved to the then Mexican province of Texas, and settled in a beautiful and fertile region on the Navasota River, about two miles from the present city of Groesbeck, the county seat of Limestone County. The colony consisted of nine families, in all thirty-four persons, of which Elder John Parker was the patriarchal head. They erected a blockhouse, which was known as Fort Parker, for protection against the assaults of hostile Indians. This structure was made of solid logs, closely knit together and hewn down so as to make a compact perfect square, without opening of any kind until it reached a height of ten or twelve feet, where the structure widened on each side, forming a projection impossible to climb. The lower story, reached only by an interior ladder, was used as a place of storage for provisions. The upper story was divided into two large rooms with port-holes for the use of guns. These rooms were also the living rooms, and reached only by a ladder from the outside, which was pulled up at night, after the occupants had ascended, making a safe fortification against any reasonable force unless assailed by fire.

"These hardy sons of toil tilled their adjacent fields by day, always taking their arms with them, and retired to the fort at night. Success crowned their labors and they were prosperous and happy. On the morning of May 18, 1836, the men left as usual for their fields, a mile distant. Scarcely had they left the inclosure when the fort was attacked by about seven hundred Comanches and Kiowas, who were waiting in ambush. A gallant and most resolute defense was made, many savages being sent to their "happy hunting grounds," but it was impossible to stem the terrible assault, and Fort Parker fell. Then began the carnival of death. Elder John Parker, Silas M. Parker, Ben F. Parker, Sam M. Frost and Robert Frost were killed and scalped in the presence of their horror-stricken families. Mrs. John Parker, Granny Parker and Mrs. Duty were dangerously wounded and left for dead, and the following were carried into

a captivity worse than death: Mrs. Rachel Plummer, James Pratt Plummer, her two-year-old son, Mrs. Elizabeth Kellogg, Cynthia Anne Parker, nine years old, and her little brother, John, aged six, both children of Silas M. Parker. The remainder of the party made their escape, and after incredible suffering, being forced even to the dire necessity of eating skunks to save their lives, they reached Fort Houston, now the residence of Hon. John H. Reagan, about three miles from the present city of Palestine, in Anderson County, where they obtained prompt succor, and a relief party buried their dead."

Cynthia Anne Parker and her little brother, John, were held by separate bands. John grew up to athletic young manhood, married a beautiful, night-eyed young Mexican captive, Donna Juanita Espinosa, escaped from the savages, or was released by them, joined the Confederate army under Gen. H. P. Bee, became noted for his gallantry and daring, and at last accounts was leading a happy, contented, pastoral life as a ranchero, on the Western Llano Estacado (Staked Plains) of Texas.

Four long and anxious years had passed since Cynthia Anne was taken from her weeping mother's arms, during which time no tidings had been received by her anxious family, when in 1840, Col. Len Williams, an old and honored Texan, Mr. Stout, a trader, and Jack Harry, a Delaware Indian guide, packed mules with goods and engaged in an expedition of private traffic with the Indians. On the Canadian River they fell in with Pahauka's band of Comanches, with whom they were on peaceable terms. Cynthia Anne was with this tribe, and from the day of her capture had never beheld a white person. Colonel Williams proposed to redeem her from the old Comanche who held her in bondage, but the fierceness of his countenance warned him of the danger of further mentioning the subject.

Pahauka, however, reluctantly permitted her to sit at the foot of a tree, and while the presence of the white men was doubtless a happy event to the poor stricken captive, who in her doleful captivity had endured everything but death, she refused to speak one word. As she sat there, musing perhaps,