Volume 17 , Issue 20

Cynthia Anne Parker - by J. M. Emerson, 1909

According to the Palestine Daily Herald, of Palestine, Texas, dated 14 April 1909, page, 6, we found a story of Cynthia Anne Parker as written by J. M. Emerson, of Brushy Creek, Texas, 12 April 1909, and continued the story in the June 2, 1909 issue of the Palestine Daily Herald.

As Emerson's story goes, in 1833 a small colony was organized in the state of Illinois for the purpose of forming a settlement in Texas. After their arrival in the country they selected for a place residence a beautiful region on the Navasota, a small tributary of the Brazos. To secure themselves against the various tribes of roving savages was the first thing to be attended to. They chose a commanding eminence adjacent to a large tiered bottom of the Navasota, about three miles from where the town of Springfield formerly stood, and about two miles from the present town of Groesbeck. Through their joint labor they soon had a fortification erected.

It consisted of a stockade of split cedar timbers planted deep in the ground, extending fifteen feet above the surface, touching each other and confined at the top by traverse timers which rendered them almost as immovable as a solid wall. At convenient distances there were port holes, through which, in case of an emergency, fire arms could be used. The entire fort covered nearly an acre of ground. There were also attached to the stockade two log cabins at diagonal corners, constituting a part of the enclosure. They were rally block houses, the greater portion of each standing outside of the main stockade, the upper story jutting out over the lower, with openings in the floor allowing perpendicular shooting from above. There were also port holes out in the upper story so as to permit horizontal shooting when necessary. This enabled the inmates to rake every side of the stockade.

The fort was situated near a fine spring of water. As soon as it was completed the little colony moved into it. Parker's colony at this time consisted of only some eight or nine families, viz: Elder John Parker, the patriarch of the colony, and his wife; his son, James W. Parker, wife, four single children, and his daughter, Mrs. Rachael Plummer, her husband, L. M. S. Plummer, and an infant son fifteen months old; Mrs. Sarah Nixon, another daughter, and her husband, L. D. Nixon; Silas M. Parker, another son of Elder John Parker, his wife and four children; Benjamin F. Parker, an unmarried son of Elder John; Mrs. Nixon, Sr., mother of Mrs. Jas. W. Parker; Mrs. Elizabeth Kellogg, daughter of Mrs. Nixon; Mrs. Duty; Samuel M. Frost, wife and two children; in all thirty-four persons besides these above mentioned, old man Lunn, Dave Faulkenberry and his son, Evans, Silas Bates and Abraham Anglin, had erected cabins a mile or two distant from the fort, where they resided.

These families were truly the advance guard of civilization in this part of the frontier, Fort Houston, in Anderson country, being the nearest protection except their own trusty rifles. Here the struggling colonists remained, engaged in the avocation of rural life, tilling the soil, hunting buffaloes, bear, deer, turkey and smaller game,, which served abundantly to supply their larder at all times with fresh meat, in the enjoyment of a life of Arcadian simplicity, virtue and contentment, until the latter part of the year 1835, when the Indians and Mexicans forced the little band of compatriots to abandon their homes and flee with many others before the invading army of Mexico.

On arriving at the Trinity River they were compelled to halt in consequence of an overflow. Before they could cross the swollen stream the sudden and unexpected news reached them that Santa Anna and his vandal hordes had been confronted and defeated at San Jacinto, that sanguinary engagement which gave birth to the new sovereignty of Texas, and that Texas was free from Mexican tyranny. On receipt of this news the fleeing settlers were overjoyed, and at once returned to their abandoned homes.

The Parker colonists now retraced their steps, first going to Fort Houston, where they remained a few days in order to procure supplies, after which they made their way back to Fort Parker to look after their stock and prepare for a crop. These hardy sons of tilt spent their nights in the fort, repairing to their farms early each morning. The strictest discipline was maintained for awhile, but as time wore on and no hostile demonstrations had been made by the Indians they became somewhat careless and restive under confinement. However, it was absolutely necessary that they should cultivate their farms to insure sustenance for their families. They usually went to work in a body, with their farming implement in one hand and their weapons of defense in the other. Some of them built cabins on their farms, hoping that the government would give them protection, or that sufficient numbers of other colonists would soon move in to render them secure from the attacks of Indians.

On the 18th day of May, 1836, all slept at the fort, James W. Parker, Nixon and Plummer repairing to their field, a mile distant on the Navasota, early the next morning, little thinking of the great calamity that was soon to befall them. They had scarcely left when several hundred Indians (accounts of the number of Indians vary from 300 to 700, probably there were about 500) Comanches and Kiowas, made their appearance on an eminence within 300 yards of the fort.

Those who remained in the fort were not prepared for an attack, so careless had they become in their fancied security. The Indians hoisted a white flag as a token of their friendly intentions, and upon the exhibition of the white flag Mr. Benjamin Parker went out to have a talk with them. The Indians artfully feigned the treacherous semblance of friendship, pretending they were looking for a suitable camping place, and inquired as to the exact locality of a water hole in the immediate vicinity, at the same time asking for a beef, as they said they were very hungry. Not daring to refuse the request of such a formidable body of savages, Mr. Benjamin F. Parker told them they should have what they wanted. Returning to the fort he stated to the inmates that in his opinion the Indians were hostile and intended to fight, but added he would go back to them and he would try to avert it. His brother Silas remonstrated, but he persisted in going, and was immediately surrounded and killed; whereupon the whole force, their savage instincts aroused by the sight of blood, charged upon the fort, uttering the most terrific and unearthly yells that ever greeted the ears of mortals.

The sickening and bloody tragedy was soon enacted. Brave Silas Parker fell outside the fort while he was gallantly fighting to save Mrs. Plummer. Mrs. Plummer made a desperate resistance, but was soon overpowered, knocked down with a hoe and made captive. Samuel M. Frost and his son, Robert, met their fate while heroically defending the women and children inside the stockade. Old Granny Parker was stabbed and left for dead. Elder John Parker, wife and Mrs. Kellogg attempted to escape, and in this effort had gone about three-fourths of a mile, when they were overtaken and driven back to the fort, where the old gentleman was stripped, murdered, scalped and horribly mutilated. Mrs. Parker was stripped, speared and left for dead, but feigning death, exacted, as will be seen further on. Mrs. Kellogg was spared as a captive. The result summed up is as follow:

Killed - Elder John Parker, age 79; Silas M. and Benjamin F. Parker, Samuel M. and his son Robert Frost.

Wounded, dangerously - Mrs. John Parker, old Granny Parker and Mrs. Duty. Captured - Mrs. Rachel Plummer, daughter of James W. Parker, and her son, James Pratt Plummer, two years of age; Mrs. Elizabeth Kellogg; Cynthia Ann Parker, and her little bother, John Parker, children of Silas M. Parker. The remainder made their escape.

When the attack on the fort first commenced, Mrs. Sarah Nixon made her escape and hastened to the field to advise her father, husband and Plummer of what had occurred. On her arrival Plummer hurried off on horseback to inform Faulkenberry, Bates and Anglin, who were at work in the fields. Parker and Nixon started to the fort, but the former met his family on the way and carried them some four or five miles down the Navasota, secreting them in the bottom. Nixon, though unarmed, continued on toward the fort, and met Mrs. Lucy, wife of Silas Parker (killed), with her four children, just as they were interrupted by a small party of mounted and foot Indians. They compelled the mother to lift her daughter, Cynthia Ann, and her little son, John, behind two of the mounted warriors. The foot Indians then took Mrs. Parker, her two youngest children and Nixon on toward the fort. As they were about to kill Nixon, David Faulkenberry appeared with a rifle and caused them to fall back. Nixon, after his narrow escape from death, seemed overmuch excited and immediately went in search of his wife, soon falling in with Dwight, his own and Frosts's families. Dwight and family soon overtook J. W. Parker and went with him to his hiding place in the bottom. Faulkenberry, thus left with Mrs. Parker and her two children, bade her to follow him. With the infant in her arms and leading the other child, she obeyed.

Seeing them leave the fort, the Indians made several attempts to intercept them, but were held in check by the brave man's rifle. Several mounted warriors, armed with bows and arrow, strung and drawn, and with terrific yells, would charge them, but as Faulkenberry would present his gun they would halt, throw up their shields, sight about, wheel and retire to a safe distance. This continued for some distance, until they had passed through prairie of some forty or fifty acres. Just as they were entering the woods the Indians made a furious charge, when one warrior, more daring than the others, dashed up so near that mrs. Parker's faithful dog seized his horse by the nose, whereupon horse and rider somersaulted, alighting on their backs in a ravine. At this moment Silas Bates, Abram Anglin and Evan Faulkenberry, armed, and Plummer, unarmed, came up, causing the Indians to retire, after which the party made their way unmolested.

As they were passing through the field where the men were at work in the morning, Plummer as if aroused from a dream, demanded to know what had become of his wife and child. Armed only with a butcher knife he left the party in search of his loved ones, and was seen no more for six days. The Faulkenberrys, Lunn and Mrs. Parker secreted themselves in a small creek bottom, some distance from the first party, each unconscious of the other's whereabouts.

At twilight Abram Anglin and Evan Faulkenberry started back to the fort to succor the wounded and those who might have escaped. On their way, and just as they were passing Faulkenberry's cabin, Anglin saw his first and only ghost. He says: "It was dressed in white with long white hair streaming down its back. I admit that I was more scared at this moment than when the Indians were yelling and charging on us. Seeing me hesitate my ghost now beckoned me to come on. Approaching the object it proved to be old Granny Parker, whom the Indians had wounded and stripped, with the exception of her under garments. She had made her way to the house from the fort by crawling the entire distance. I took her some bed clothing and carried her some rods from the house, made her a bed, covered her up, and left her until we should return from the fort. On arriving at the fort we could not see a single human being alive, or hear a human sound. But the dogs were barking, the cattle lowing, horses neighing and the hogs squealing, making a hideous and strange melody of sounds. Mrs. Parker had told me where she had left some silver, $160.50. This I found under a hickory bush by moonlight. Finding no one at the fort, we returned to where I had laid Granny Parker. On taking her up behind me, we made our way back to the hiding place in the bottom, where we found Nixon, whom we had not seen since his cowardly flight, at the time he was rescued by Faulkenberry from the Indians."

In the book published by James W. Parker he states that Nixon liberated Mrs. Parker from the Indians and rescued old Granny Parker. Mr. Anglin in his account contradicts or rather corrects this statement. He says: "I positively assert that this is a mistake, and I am willing to be qualified to the statement I here make, and can prove the same by Silas Bates, now living near Groesbeck. The next morning Bates, Anglin and E. Faulkenberry went back to the fort to get provisions and horses, and look after the dead.

On reaching the fort they found five or six horses, a few saddles and some meat, bacon and honey. Fearing an attack from the Indians who might still be lurking around, they left without burying the dead. Returning to their comrades in the bottom they all concealed themselves until they set out for Fort Houston. Fort Houston, an asylum, on this, as on many other occasions, stood on what has been for many years a farm of a wise statesman, a chivalrous soldier and true patriot, John H. Reagan, two miles south of Palestine. After wandering mourned and traveling for six days and nights, during which they suffered much from hunger and thirst, their clothing torn to shreds, their bodies lacerated with braids and thorns, the women and children with unshod and bleeding feet, the party, with James W. Parker, reached Fort Houston."
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