Everything about The Fort Parker Massacre totally explained
The
Fort Parker massacre was an event in 1836 in which members of the pioneer Parker family were killed in a raid by
Native Americans. In this raid, an 8-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.
History
Fort Parker was founded about two miles (3 km) west of present-day
Groesbeck,
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. 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 of 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 (Duty) 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 Ranger 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
Comanches,
Kiowas,
Caddos, and
Wichitas, 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'd to barter their lives for time for everyone else. 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. The Frost Brothers 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.
Cynthia Ann Parker
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 massacres 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.
John Richard Parker
John Richard Parker, who was also captured, was later ransomed back, but unable to adapt to white society, 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.
Rachel Plummer
Rachael Plummer's Narrative of Twenty One Months Servitude as a Prisoner Among the Commanchee 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.
Quanah Parker
Staked Plains were defeated, Parker and his group surrendered to authorities and were forced to an
Indian reservation 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.
Fort Parker inhabitants on May 19, 1836
- Elder John Parker (aged 77) and 2nd wife, Sarah (Pinson) Duty "Granny" Parker
- Benjamin Parker
- James W. Parker and wife, Martha "Patsey" Duty
- Rachel Plummer (aged 17) and husband, L. T. M. Plummer
- James Pratt Plummer (aged 1)
- Sarah Parker (aged 18) and husband, Lorenzo Dow Nixon
- James Wilson Parker (aged 5)
- Francis Marion Parker (aged 4)
- Silas Parker and wife, Lucinda Duty
- Elisha Anglin
- Seth Bates
- G. E. Dwight and wife
- David Faulkenberry
- Samuel Frost and wife
- Robert Frost
- other Frost children
- Elizabeth Duty Kellogg (dau. of Sarah Duty Parker)
- Oliver Lund
James W. Parker
John Wayne'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.
Further Information
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