Fort Parker massacre
Encyclopedia
The Fort Parker massacre was an event in May 1836 in which members of the pioneer Parker family were killed in a raid by Native Americans
. In this raid, a 9-year old girl, Cynthia Ann Parker
, was captured and spent most of the rest of her life with the Comanche, marrying a Chief, Peta Nocona
, and giving birth to a son, Quanah Parker
, who would become the last Chief of the Comanches. Her brother, John Richard Parker
, who was also captured, was ransomed back after six years, but unable to adapt to white society, ran back to the Comanches.
, Limestone County
, Texas
, USA
by Elder John Parker
(1758–1836), his sons, Benjamin, Silas and James, plus other members of the Pilgrim Predestinarian Baptist Church of Crawford County, Illinois
. Led by John and Daniel Parker
, they came to Texas
in 1833. Daniel's party first settled in Grimes County, then later moved to Anderson County
near present-day Elkhart
and established Pilgrim Church. Elder John Parker's group settled near the headwaters of the Navasota River, and built a fort for protection against Native Americans. It was completed in March 1834. Fort Parker's 12 foot (4 m) high log walls enclosed four acres (16,000 m²). Blockhouses were placed on two corners for lookouts, and six cabins were attached to the inside walls. The fort had two entrances, a large double gate facing south, and a small gate for easy access to the spring. Most of the residents of the fort were part of the extended family of John and Sarah Parker.
company to use the Fort, perhaps not understanding that many Native Americans regarded the Rangers with hatred for their Indian Fighting.
On May 19, 1836, a large party of Native Americans, including Comanche
s, Kiowa
s, Caddo
s, and Wichita
s, attacked the inhabitants of Fort Parker. In her memoir, Rachel Plummer
wrote that "one minute the fields (in front of the fort) were clear, and the next moment, more indians than I dreamed possible were in front of the fort."
One of the Indians approached the fort with a white flag. No one believed the flag was genuine. Silas Parker wanted the five men present to man the walls and fight as best they could. Benjamin Parker felt that by going out he could buy time for the majority of the women and children to flee out the back (small) gate. He felt that there was simply no way that five men would be able to hold the Indians out more than a second or two, as they could use ropes to scale the walls. He felt that the war party would then kill everyone in the fort, and the unsuspecting men in the fields. He argued with Silas that they had to barter their lives for time for everyone else. Their father agreed with Benjamin.
Benjamin knew he was going to be killed. According to Rachel Plummer's account, Benjamin returned to the fort, after his first talk with the war party, and told his brother and father that he believed they would all be killed, and that they should run swiftly to the woods. Silas again argued with him, telling him they should push the big gate shut, and man the walls. Ben pointed out, rightly, Rachel said, that there was no time, and their "course was decided." He told her, "run little Rachel, for your life and your unborn child, run now and fast!" She said he then straightened up and went back outside. She recounted how Silas told her to watch the front gate, after Benjamin had gone out to talk to the Indians the second time, when she herself wanted to flee, while he ran for his musket and powder pouch. “They will kill Benjamin,” she reported her Uncle Silas saying, “and then me, but I will do for at least one of them, by God.” At that moment, she said she heard whooping outside the fort, and then Indians were inside.
The 3–5 minutes bought enough time that the majority of the women and children did get away. Rachel Plummer, who was pregnant, was afraid she would not be able to keep up while carrying her two year old son, and so she stayed in the fort. She began running after seeing the Indians come into the fort, holding her little boy's hand, while behind her she said she saw Indians stabbing Benjamin with their lances, and then she heard “Uncle Silas shout defiance as though he had a thousand men with him. Alas, he was alone, and soon dead.” Lucy Parker, who also had a small child, stopped to argue with her husband Silas, begging him to come with her. Elizabeth Duty Kellogg stopped to gather up their savings, $100 in coins, before she attempted to escape.
Benjamin Parker was killed, and before the fort's gates could be closed, the raiders rushed inside. Silas Parker, who was outside with his brother, was killed before he was able to get back inside the gate. Samuel Frost and his son Robert were killed inside the gate, as they attempted to flee. John Parker's genitals were cut off and he was then scalped. His wife came out of the woods when she saw his torture and was captured. Lucy Parker and her youngest two children were captured but were rescued by Luther Plummer as he ran up to the fort from the fields. But his wife, his son, and their cousins were all lost.
In all, five men were killed, some were left for dead, two women and three children were captured, and the rest escaped into the wilderness.
Note: Killed were Samuel Frost, Robert Frost, Benjamin Parker, John Parker, and Silas Parker. Captured were Elizabeth Kellogg, Cynthia Ann Parker, John R. Parker, Rachel Plummer, and James Pratt Plummer; all of them were later ransomed or freed. Their captivity took several years, except Mrs. Kellogg, who was ransomed within 3 months.
One of the captives was a nine-year-old girl, Cynthia Ann Parker
, daughter of Silas and Lucinda (Duty) Parker. Cynthia Ann lived with the Comanches for nearly 25 years. She married Comanche chief Peta Nocona
and was the mother of three children, including Quanah Parker
. In 1860, she was among a Native American party captured by Texas Rangers
at the Battle of Pease River
. Ironically, Cynthia Parker was the victim of two massacre
s which destroyed her life. The first, the attack on Fort Parker in 1836, killed her parents and left her among the Comanche for nearly 25 years. The second, a massacre of the Comanche Band of her husband, the Noconis, at the Battle of Pease River
left her a prisoner among the whites. She was identified by her uncle, Isaac Parker, and returned to her family. Cynthia Ann never readjusted to the Anglo society, and died at the age of 43 in 1870 after starving herself to death after her daughter, Prairie Flower, had caught influenza and died from pneumonia. She was originally buried with her daughter in Fosterville Cemetery in Anderson County near Frankston
, but her son, Quanah, had her re-interred, and reburied next to him at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
was ransomed back in 1842 along with his cousin, James Pratt Plummer. He was unable to adapt to white society and ran back to the Comanche. He later was left to die after he contracted smallpox during a Comanche raid into Mexico. The war party left a captive Mexican girl to care for him, and he restored her to her family after recovering, and spent the remainder of his life in Old Mexico after marrying her. During the American Civil War
, he served in a Mexican Company within the Confederate Army. He later lived as stockman and rancher in Mexico, where he died in 1915.
NOTE: Late Texas historian & Dallas Morning News writer Frank X. Tolbert in his book "An Informal History of Texas" refutes most of the Rev. James Parker's negative claims toward L.T.M. Plummer. In the book with the chapter entitled "Was Uncle James the Real Villain" Sam Houston takes the side of the real father of James Pratt Plummer in his letter to Luther Thomas Martin Plummer. In fact, Houston had several other eye-opening things to say about the Reverend Parker. Tolbert, the late historian & writer for the Dallas Morning News, and his book are well worth the reading.
in August 1836 for 150 Dollars (the money was sent by Sam Houston
). She was reunited with her sister Martha "Patsey" Duty on September 6, 1836.
's character Ethan Edwards, in the John Ford Western The Searchers
, was modeled by author Alan Le May
after Parker and others affected by child abductions.
Addendum: In his book An Informal History of Texas, Lone Star State historian Frank X. Tolbert (also a long time contributor to the Dallas Morning News) dedicated an entire chapter of his book of which he titled "Was Uncle James The Villain?" In that chapter Tolbert relates how the Rev. James Parker's did not want to return his grandson who had been ransomed from the Indians to his natural father, ie, Luther Thomas Martin Plummer. Tolbert in his book used the content of a letter written from Sam Houston to Plummer as proof that Parker's claims toward his son-in-law were not only unfounded but malicious. In fact, Sam Houston in his letter to Plummer wrote: "I had not supposed him capable of practicing such scandalous fraud upon his kindred and connexions." Sam Houston even alluded to other dishonest deeds to others by the hardshell Baptist preacher, ie, the Reverend James W. Parker so it wasn't just the one incident with his son-in-law Luther T.M. Plummer that disgusted Sam Houston.
Source: "An Informal History of Texas" published in 1951 by Harper & Brothers (New York) and J.G. Plummer, Jr., Weatherford, Texas. who believes that fair and balanced coverage should be part of any historical account expecially when there are attempts to revise history.
in Oklahoma territory
. The Quahadis were the very last tribe left on the Staked Plains. Quanah Parker was made chief of all the Comanche tribes on the reservation. Shortly before his own death in 1911, he arranged for the disinterment of his mother and sister and had them reburied in a plot next to his own at the Post Oak Cemetery near Cache, Oklahoma
. Congress passed a special allotment to fund the reburial. The three were moved in 1957 to the Fort Sill
military cemetery in Oklahoma
.
Native Americans in the United States
Native Americans in the United States are the indigenous peoples in North America within the boundaries of the present-day continental United States, parts of Alaska, and the island state of Hawaii. They are composed of numerous, distinct tribes, states, and ethnic groups, many of which survive as...
. In this raid, a 9-year old girl, Cynthia Ann Parker
Cynthia Ann Parker
Cynthia Ann Parker, or Naduah , was an American woman of old colonial stock of Scots-Irish descent who was captured and kidnapped at the age of nine by a American Indian band which massacred her family and...
, was captured and spent most of the rest of her life with the Comanche, marrying a Chief, Peta Nocona
Peta Nocona
Peta Nocona was a chief of the Comanche band Noconi. He led his tribe during the extensive Indian Wars in Texas from the 1830s to 1860. He was the son of the Comanche chief Iron Jacket and father of chief Quanah Parker. His band Noconis, or Wanderers, or travellers were named after him...
, and giving birth to a son, Quanah Parker
Quanah Parker
Quanah Parker was a Comanche chief, a leader in the Native American Church, and the last leader of the powerful Quahadi band before they surrendered their battle of the Great Plains and went to a reservation in Indian Territory...
, who would become the last Chief of the Comanches. Her brother, John Richard Parker
John Richard Parker
John Richard Parker was the brother of Cynthia Ann Parker and the uncle of Comanches chief Quanah Parker. An Anglo-Texas man of Scots-Irish descent who suffered being kidnapped from his natural family at the age of five by a Native American raiding party, he returned to the Native American people...
, who was also captured, was ransomed back after six years, but unable to adapt to white society, ran back to the Comanches.
History
Fort Parker was made about two miles (3 km) west of present-day GroesbeckGroesbeck, Texas
Groesbeck is a city in and the county seat of Limestone County, Texas, United States. The population was 4,291 at the 2000 census. The community is named after a railroad employee.- History :...
, Limestone County
Limestone County, Texas
Limestone County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of 2000, the population was 22,051. Its county seat is Groesbeck.-Geography:According to the U.S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of , of which is land and is water....
, Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
, USA
United States
The United States of America is a federal constitutional republic comprising fifty states and a federal district...
by Elder John Parker
John Parker (pioneer)
Elder John Parker was an American Patriot, veteran of the American War of Independence, scout and minor diplomat for the American government, famous frontier Ranger, noted Indian fighter, Texan settler, and Predestinarian Baptist minister...
(1758–1836), his sons, Benjamin, Silas and James, plus other members of the Pilgrim Predestinarian Baptist Church of Crawford County, Illinois
Illinois
Illinois is the fifth-most populous state of the United States of America, and is often noted for being a microcosm of the entire country. With Chicago in the northeast, small industrial cities and great agricultural productivity in central and northern Illinois, and natural resources like coal,...
. Led by John and Daniel Parker
Daniel Parker
Daniel Parker was a leader in the Primitive Baptist Church in the Southern United States. As an elder, Parker led a group who separated from that church and formed the Two-Seed-in-the-Spirit Predestinarian Baptists...
, they came to Texas
Texas
Texas is the second largest U.S. state by both area and population, and the largest state by area in the contiguous United States.The name, based on the Caddo word "Tejas" meaning "friends" or "allies", was applied by the Spanish to the Caddo themselves and to the region of their settlement in...
in 1833. Daniel's party first settled in Grimes County, then later moved to Anderson County
Anderson County, Texas
Anderson County is a county located in the U.S. state of Texas. As of 2000, the population was 55,109. Its county seat is Palestine. Anderson county was organized in 1846, and is named in honor of Kenneth L. Anderson who had been Vice President of the Republic of Texas.-Geography:According to the...
near present-day Elkhart
Elkhart, Texas
Elkhart is a town in Anderson County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,215 at the 2000 census. Elkhart is named for a friendly Native American who assisted the early settlers of the town.-Geography:Elkhart is located at ....
and established Pilgrim Church. Elder John Parker's group settled near the headwaters of the Navasota River, and built a fort for protection against Native Americans. It was completed in March 1834. Fort Parker's 12 foot (4 m) high log walls enclosed four acres (16,000 m²). Blockhouses were placed on two corners for lookouts, and six cabins were attached to the inside walls. The fort had two entrances, a large double gate facing south, and a small gate for easy access to the spring. Most of the residents of the fort were part of the extended family of John and Sarah Parker.
The Massacre
Soon, the settlers were making their homes and farming the land. Several had built cabins on their farms, and used the fort for protection. Peace treaties were made with surrounding Native American chiefs. Perhaps, the Fort Parker inhabitants expected that other tribes would honor the treaties as well. The Fort Parker inhabitants had also allowed a Texas RangerTexas Ranger Division
The Texas Ranger Division, commonly called the Texas Rangers, is a law enforcement agency with statewide jurisdiction in Texas, and is based in Austin, Texas...
company to use the Fort, perhaps not understanding that many Native Americans regarded the Rangers with hatred for their Indian Fighting.
On May 19, 1836, a large party of Native Americans, including Comanche
Comanche
The Comanche are a Native American ethnic group whose historic range consisted of present-day eastern New Mexico, southern Colorado, northeastern Arizona, southern Kansas, all of Oklahoma, and most of northwest Texas. Historically, the Comanches were hunter-gatherers, with a typical Plains Indian...
s, Kiowa
Kiowa
The Kiowa are a nation of American Indians and indigenous people of the Great Plains. They migrated from the northern plains to the southern plains in the late 17th century. In 1867, the Kiowa moved to a reservation in southwestern Oklahoma...
s, Caddo
Caddo
The Caddo Nation is a confederacy of several Southeastern Native American tribes, who traditionally inhabited much of what is now East Texas, northern Louisiana and portions of southern Arkansas and Oklahoma. Today the Caddo Nation of Oklahoma is a cohesive tribe with its capital at Binger, Oklahoma...
s, and Wichita
Wichita (tribe)
The Wichita people are indigenous inhabitants of North America, who traditionally spoke the Wichita language, a Caddoan language. They have lived in Kansas, Oklahoma, and Texas...
s, attacked the inhabitants of Fort Parker. In her memoir, Rachel Plummer
Rachel Plummer
Rachel Parker Plummer was the daughter of James W. Parker and the cousin of Quanah Parker, last free-roaming chief of the Comanches...
wrote that "one minute the fields (in front of the fort) were clear, and the next moment, more indians than I dreamed possible were in front of the fort."
One of the Indians approached the fort with a white flag. No one believed the flag was genuine. Silas Parker wanted the five men present to man the walls and fight as best they could. Benjamin Parker felt that by going out he could buy time for the majority of the women and children to flee out the back (small) gate. He felt that there was simply no way that five men would be able to hold the Indians out more than a second or two, as they could use ropes to scale the walls. He felt that the war party would then kill everyone in the fort, and the unsuspecting men in the fields. He argued with Silas that they had to barter their lives for time for everyone else. Their father agreed with Benjamin.
Benjamin knew he was going to be killed. According to Rachel Plummer's account, Benjamin returned to the fort, after his first talk with the war party, and told his brother and father that he believed they would all be killed, and that they should run swiftly to the woods. Silas again argued with him, telling him they should push the big gate shut, and man the walls. Ben pointed out, rightly, Rachel said, that there was no time, and their "course was decided." He told her, "run little Rachel, for your life and your unborn child, run now and fast!" She said he then straightened up and went back outside. She recounted how Silas told her to watch the front gate, after Benjamin had gone out to talk to the Indians the second time, when she herself wanted to flee, while he ran for his musket and powder pouch. “They will kill Benjamin,” she reported her Uncle Silas saying, “and then me, but I will do for at least one of them, by God.” At that moment, she said she heard whooping outside the fort, and then Indians were inside.
The 3–5 minutes bought enough time that the majority of the women and children did get away. Rachel Plummer, who was pregnant, was afraid she would not be able to keep up while carrying her two year old son, and so she stayed in the fort. She began running after seeing the Indians come into the fort, holding her little boy's hand, while behind her she said she saw Indians stabbing Benjamin with their lances, and then she heard “Uncle Silas shout defiance as though he had a thousand men with him. Alas, he was alone, and soon dead.” Lucy Parker, who also had a small child, stopped to argue with her husband Silas, begging him to come with her. Elizabeth Duty Kellogg stopped to gather up their savings, $100 in coins, before she attempted to escape.
Benjamin Parker was killed, and before the fort's gates could be closed, the raiders rushed inside. Silas Parker, who was outside with his brother, was killed before he was able to get back inside the gate. Samuel Frost and his son Robert were killed inside the gate, as they attempted to flee. John Parker's genitals were cut off and he was then scalped. His wife came out of the woods when she saw his torture and was captured. Lucy Parker and her youngest two children were captured but were rescued by Luther Plummer as he ran up to the fort from the fields. But his wife, his son, and their cousins were all lost.
In all, five men were killed, some were left for dead, two women and three children were captured, and the rest escaped into the wilderness.
Fort Parker inhabitants on May 19, 1836
- Elder John ParkerJohn Parker (pioneer)Elder John Parker was an American Patriot, veteran of the American War of Independence, scout and minor diplomat for the American government, famous frontier Ranger, noted Indian fighter, Texan settler, and Predestinarian Baptist minister...
(aged 77, killed) and 2nd wife, Sarah (Pinson) Duty "Granny" Parker- Benjamin Parker (killed)
- James W. ParkerJames W. ParkerJames W. Parker was the uncle of Cynthia Ann Parker and the Great-Uncle of Quanah Parker, last chief of the Comanches. A man of Scots-Irish descent, he was a member of the large Parker frontier family that settled in east Texas in the 1830s...
and wife, Martha "Patsey" Duty- Rachel PlummerRachel PlummerRachel Parker Plummer was the daughter of James W. Parker and the cousin of Quanah Parker, last free-roaming chief of the Comanches...
(aged 17, captured) and husband, L. T. M. Plummer- James Pratt Plummer (aged 1, captured)
- Sarah Parker (aged 18) and husband, Lorenzo Dow Nixon
- James Wilson Parker (aged 5)
- Francis Marion Parker (aged 4)
- Rachel Plummer
- Silas Parker (killed) and wife, Lucinda Duty
- Cynthia Ann ParkerCynthia Ann ParkerCynthia Ann Parker, or Naduah , was an American woman of old colonial stock of Scots-Irish descent who was captured and kidnapped at the age of nine by a American Indian band which massacred her family and...
(aged 8, captured) - John Richard ParkerJohn Richard ParkerJohn Richard Parker was the brother of Cynthia Ann Parker and the uncle of Comanches chief Quanah Parker. An Anglo-Texas man of Scots-Irish descent who suffered being kidnapped from his natural family at the age of five by a Native American raiding party, he returned to the Native American people...
(aged ca 5, captured) - Silas Parker, Jr. (aged 3)
- Orlena Parker (aged 4 mos)
- Cynthia Ann Parker
- Elisha Anglin
- Abram Anglin
- Seth Bates
- Silas Bates
- George E.Dwight and wife Malinda Frost
- Dwight child Elizabeth Dwight
- David Falkenbury
- Evan Falkenbury
- Samuel Frost (killed) and wife
- Robert Frost (killed)
- other Frost children
- Elizabeth Duty Kellogg (captured, dau. of Sarah Duty Parker)
- Oliver Lund
Note: Killed were Samuel Frost, Robert Frost, Benjamin Parker, John Parker, and Silas Parker. Captured were Elizabeth Kellogg, Cynthia Ann Parker, John R. Parker, Rachel Plummer, and James Pratt Plummer; all of them were later ransomed or freed. Their captivity took several years, except Mrs. Kellogg, who was ransomed within 3 months.
Cynthia Ann Parker
Cynthia Ann Parker
Cynthia Ann Parker, or Naduah , was an American woman of old colonial stock of Scots-Irish descent who was captured and kidnapped at the age of nine by a American Indian band which massacred her family and...
, daughter of Silas and Lucinda (Duty) Parker. Cynthia Ann lived with the Comanches for nearly 25 years. She married Comanche chief Peta Nocona
Peta Nocona
Peta Nocona was a chief of the Comanche band Noconi. He led his tribe during the extensive Indian Wars in Texas from the 1830s to 1860. He was the son of the Comanche chief Iron Jacket and father of chief Quanah Parker. His band Noconis, or Wanderers, or travellers were named after him...
and was the mother of three children, including Quanah Parker
Quanah Parker
Quanah Parker was a Comanche chief, a leader in the Native American Church, and the last leader of the powerful Quahadi band before they surrendered their battle of the Great Plains and went to a reservation in Indian Territory...
. In 1860, she was among a Native American party captured by Texas Rangers
Texas Ranger Division
The Texas Ranger Division, commonly called the Texas Rangers, is a law enforcement agency with statewide jurisdiction in Texas, and is based in Austin, Texas...
at the Battle of Pease River
Battle of Pease River
The Battle of Pease River occurred on December 18, 1860, near the town of Margaret, Texas in Foard County, Texas, United States. The town is located between Crowell and Vernon within sight of the Medicine Mounds just outside present-day Quanah, Texas...
. Ironically, Cynthia Parker was the victim of two massacre
Massacre
A massacre is an event with a heavy death toll.Massacre may also refer to:-Entertainment:*Massacre , a DC Comics villain*Massacre , a 1932 drama film starring Richard Barthelmess*Massacre, a 1956 Western starring Dane Clark...
s which destroyed her life. The first, the attack on Fort Parker in 1836, killed her parents and left her among the Comanche for nearly 25 years. The second, a massacre of the Comanche Band of her husband, the Noconis, at the Battle of Pease River
Battle of Pease River
The Battle of Pease River occurred on December 18, 1860, near the town of Margaret, Texas in Foard County, Texas, United States. The town is located between Crowell and Vernon within sight of the Medicine Mounds just outside present-day Quanah, Texas...
left her a prisoner among the whites. She was identified by her uncle, Isaac Parker, and returned to her family. Cynthia Ann never readjusted to the Anglo society, and died at the age of 43 in 1870 after starving herself to death after her daughter, Prairie Flower, had caught influenza and died from pneumonia. She was originally buried with her daughter in Fosterville Cemetery in Anderson County near Frankston
Frankston, Texas
Frankston is a town in Anderson County, Texas, United States. The population was 1,209 at the 2000 census. Frankston was named for Frankie Miller, a young woman who donated land for the downtown city park.-Geography:...
, but her son, Quanah, had her re-interred, and reburied next to him at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
John Richard Parker
Cynthia Ann's brother John Richard ParkerJohn Richard Parker
John Richard Parker was the brother of Cynthia Ann Parker and the uncle of Comanches chief Quanah Parker. An Anglo-Texas man of Scots-Irish descent who suffered being kidnapped from his natural family at the age of five by a Native American raiding party, he returned to the Native American people...
was ransomed back in 1842 along with his cousin, James Pratt Plummer. He was unable to adapt to white society and ran back to the Comanche. He later was left to die after he contracted smallpox during a Comanche raid into Mexico. The war party left a captive Mexican girl to care for him, and he restored her to her family after recovering, and spent the remainder of his life in Old Mexico after marrying her. During the American Civil War
American Civil War
The American Civil War was a civil war fought in the United States of America. In response to the election of Abraham Lincoln as President of the United States, 11 southern slave states declared their secession from the United States and formed the Confederate States of America ; the other 25...
, he served in a Mexican Company within the Confederate Army. He later lived as stockman and rancher in Mexico, where he died in 1915.
Rachel Plummer
Rachel Plummer, the 17 year old wife of Luther Plummer, daughter of James Parker, and cousin to Cynthia Parker and her brother John, was held captive by the Comanche for two years before being ransomed by her father. Her book on her captivity, Rachael Plummer's Narrative of Twenty One Months Servitude as a Prisoner Among the Comanchee Indians, was issued in Houston in 1838. This was the first narrative about a captive of Texas Indians published in the Republic of Texas, and it was a sensation not just there, but throughout the United States and even abroad. Rachel died in 1840, in childbirth, a year after being ransomed.James Pratt Plummer
James Pratt, son of Rachel Plummer, was separated from his mother (who never knew about his further fate) and was soon given away to another Comanche band. Late in 1842 he was ransomed and in 1843 reunited with his grandfather James W. Parker. Parker refused to return his grandson to his father, claiming that Luther Plummer had not even paid his ransom. Even when the latter appealed successfully to the Governor of Texas, Parker refused to return his grandson. Luther Plummer, meanwhile remarried and father of another child, did then not pursue the matter. James Pratt Plummer married twice and had four children. He died of pneumonia while serving with the Confederate Army in 1862.NOTE: Late Texas historian & Dallas Morning News writer Frank X. Tolbert in his book "An Informal History of Texas" refutes most of the Rev. James Parker's negative claims toward L.T.M. Plummer. In the book with the chapter entitled "Was Uncle James the Real Villain" Sam Houston takes the side of the real father of James Pratt Plummer in his letter to Luther Thomas Martin Plummer. In fact, Houston had several other eye-opening things to say about the Reverend Parker. Tolbert, the late historian & writer for the Dallas Morning News, and his book are well worth the reading.
Elizabeth Duty Kellogg
In late May 1836, Elizabeth Kellogg was taken by a band of Kichai Indians, which she took for "Kitchawas". In summer, Delaware Indians purchased Mrs. Kellogg and sold her to her brother-in-law James W. ParkerJames W. Parker
James W. Parker was the uncle of Cynthia Ann Parker and the Great-Uncle of Quanah Parker, last chief of the Comanches. A man of Scots-Irish descent, he was a member of the large Parker frontier family that settled in east Texas in the 1830s...
in August 1836 for 150 Dollars (the money was sent by Sam Houston
Sam Houston
Samuel Houston, known as Sam Houston , was a 19th-century American statesman, politician, and soldier. He was born in Timber Ridge in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia, of Scots-Irish descent. Houston became a key figure in the history of Texas and was elected as the first and third President of...
). She was reunited with her sister Martha "Patsey" Duty on September 6, 1836.
James W. Parker
James W. Parker, who was working in the fields when the raid began, spent much of the rest of his life, and most of his fortune, searching for his daughter Rachel, his grandson James, his niece Cynthia, and his nephew John Richard. After many near-death escapes, he finally settled with his family. John WayneJohn Wayne
Marion Mitchell Morrison , better known by his stage name John Wayne, was an American film actor, director and producer. He epitomized rugged masculinity and became an enduring American icon. He is famous for his distinctive calm voice, walk, and height...
's character Ethan Edwards, in the John Ford Western The Searchers
The Searchers (film)
The Searchers is a 1956 American Western film directed by John Ford, based on the 1954 novel by Alan Le May, and set during the Texas–Indian Wars...
, was modeled by author Alan Le May
Alan Le May
Alan Brown Le May was an American novelist and screenplay writer.He is most remembered for two classic Western novels, The Searchers and The Unforgiven...
after Parker and others affected by child abductions.
Addendum: In his book An Informal History of Texas, Lone Star State historian Frank X. Tolbert (also a long time contributor to the Dallas Morning News) dedicated an entire chapter of his book of which he titled "Was Uncle James The Villain?" In that chapter Tolbert relates how the Rev. James Parker's did not want to return his grandson who had been ransomed from the Indians to his natural father, ie, Luther Thomas Martin Plummer. Tolbert in his book used the content of a letter written from Sam Houston to Plummer as proof that Parker's claims toward his son-in-law were not only unfounded but malicious. In fact, Sam Houston in his letter to Plummer wrote: "I had not supposed him capable of practicing such scandalous fraud upon his kindred and connexions." Sam Houston even alluded to other dishonest deeds to others by the hardshell Baptist preacher, ie, the Reverend James W. Parker so it wasn't just the one incident with his son-in-law Luther T.M. Plummer that disgusted Sam Houston.
Source: "An Informal History of Texas" published in 1951 by Harper & Brothers (New York) and J.G. Plummer, Jr., Weatherford, Texas. who believes that fair and balanced coverage should be part of any historical account expecially when there are attempts to revise history.
Quanah Parker
Quanah Parker, son of Cynthia Ann Parker, became a leader among the Quahadi Comanches. After most of the Comanches and other tribes on the Staked Plains were defeated, Parker and his group surrendered to authorities and were forced to an Indian reservationIndian reservation
An American Indian reservation is an area of land managed by a Native American tribe under the United States Department of the Interior's Bureau of Indian Affairs...
in Oklahoma territory
Oklahoma Territory
The Territory of Oklahoma was an organized incorporated territory of the United States that existed from May 2, 1890, until November 16, 1907, when it was joined with the Indian Territory under a new constitution and admitted to the Union as the State of Oklahoma.-Organization:Oklahoma Territory's...
. The Quahadis were the very last tribe left on the Staked Plains. Quanah Parker was made chief of all the Comanche tribes on the reservation. Shortly before his own death in 1911, he arranged for the disinterment of his mother and sister and had them reburied in a plot next to his own at the Post Oak Cemetery near Cache, Oklahoma
Cache, Oklahoma
Cache is a city in Comanche County, Oklahoma, United States. The population was 2,796 at the 2010 census. It is an exurb included in the Lawton, Oklahoma Metropolitan Statistical Area...
. Congress passed a special allotment to fund the reburial. The three were moved in 1957 to the Fort Sill
Fort Sill
Fort Sill is a United States Army post near Lawton, Oklahoma, about 85 miles southwest of Oklahoma City.Today, Fort Sill remains the only active Army installation of all the forts on the South Plains built during the Indian Wars...
military cemetery in Oklahoma
Oklahoma
Oklahoma is a state located in the South Central region of the United States of America. With an estimated 3,751,351 residents as of the 2010 census and a land area of 68,667 square miles , Oklahoma is the 28th most populous and 20th-largest state...
.
External links
- http://www.oldfortparker.org
- Fort Parker State Park
- Fort Parker, Texas State Historic Site
- Historical Markers in Limestone County
- Read Abram Anglin's entry in the Biographical Encyclopedia of Texas hosted by the Portal to Texas History.