Quanah Parker never lost a battle to the white men.
Daniel Parker led a small group to Texas to establish Pilgrim Primitive Baptist church. Elder Parker’s nine year old niece, Cynthia Ann Parker, and her parents, Silas and Lucy Parker, were among the group.
The Parkers started their church, and they established and settled at Fort Parker (near present-day Groesbeck, Texas).
May 19, 1836, was an important day in Texas history. A war party of around 500 Comanche Indians raided Fort Parker. Many of the Parkers were killed, but Cynthia Ann was taken captive. The Comanches took her and her dog to the uninhabited West Texas plains, hundreds of miles from Fort Parker. Cynthia Ann lived with the Comanches for the next 25 years and married Chief Peta Nocona. Together they had three children.
In 1860, Chief Nocona led a raid in Parker County (where we currently go to church), and then headed back for the plains. Sam Houston, then governor of Texas, ordered Texas Ranger Captain Sul Ross to pursue. The Rangers met Nocona and his party in present-day Foard County. What then took place is now called the Battle of Pease River.
After a fierce fight, the Comanches fled. The facts aren’t clear after this point (assuming that they are up to this point). Was Chief Nocona killed? Sul Ross claimed to have ordered his execution after taking him captive. Nocona’s son (Quanah Parker), however, says that he escaped and died of illness years later. I believe Quanah. One thing is certain: Cynthia Ann and her infant daughter were taken by the white men, or “rescued,” as the Sul Ross party claimed.
The Rangers noticed that their captive had blue eyes, though she didn’t seem to understand English. After a long period of questioning, she patted her breast and said, “Me Cynthia Ann.” Against her will, she and her daughter were forced to return to her white relatives in Weatherford. Cynthia Ann’s daughter, Prairie Flower, died of illness. Cynthia Ann, grieving over her husband and children, died a few years later.
Two of Cynthia Ann’s sons escaped the battle of Pease River. One was Quanah Parker. Quanah became the last chief of the fierce Quahadi (Antelope eater) band of Comanches. During the late 1800’s, when many of the Indians were giving up and moving onto reservations, Parker and his band refused to quit. Along with groups of Kiowa, Cheyennes, and others, Quanah fought the Texans at famous battles like the battle of Adobe Walls. You might remember the Adobe Walls from Lonesome Dove.
When Quanah finally surrendered (without ever losing a battle), he moved into a house, adopted many of the white ways, and even became involved in politics, becoming friends with the likes of Charles Goodnight and Theodore Roosevelt. He died in 1911 and is buried at Fort Sill, Oklahoma.
A few years ago my wife and I lived in Motley County (Matador), Texas. Motley County lies in the plains of West Texas, and has changed very little (other than fences) since the Comanches roamed the hills. (The Comanches supposedly brought Cynthia Ann to Motley County after their raid on Fort Parker.) Mary Mason was our neighbor while we lived there. Mrs. Mason was 93 years old with a terrific mind. I loved visiting her and hearing her stories. Her father had been one of the first settlers in Motley County, a member of the Texas legislature, and a friend of Quanah Parker.
I said in the last post that it was easy for a boy to imagine that only a few generations had passed since Daniel Parker came to Texas from Illinois in his covered wagon. But as I sit and type this on a computer in what was Indian Territory just 150 years ago (70 miles west of Parker County), it’s hard to believe how true that is.