The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 27, July 1923 - April, 1924 Page: 151
344 p. : maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Memoirs of George Bernard Erath
and situated in the lower part of Young County). These Indians
remained friendly, and were progressing rapidly in civilization
and in the practice of agriculture. Only a small portion of the
Comanches could be induced to go on a reserve, located on the
Clear Fork sixty miles west of the Brazos Reserve. The rest
moved north of Red River and sent small thieving parties hun-
dreds of miles through settled country far down into Texas. In
my district they came as far south as Bell County. They desired
no fight, but would kill any lone man or a family taken unaware.
Their object was to drive off horses; many of these were left
dead from exhaustion along their way back before getting beyond
the settlements. Their raids were sometimes six months apart,
but occurred simultaneously over the country by different bands.
We passed a bill during the session 1857-'58 to send out a hun-
dred men, not so much to furnish protection to the frontier by the
State, as to bring on an action with the Comanches and to give
notice to the Federal government of its neglect in not protecting
us. Captain John S. Ford led the expedition. The majority of
his men were from below the frontier. But Captain Nelson of
Bosque County with a number of men and Captain Ross, then sub-
agent on the Brazos reservation, with a few friendly Indians
accompanied him. They went as far north as the Canadian
River, defeated a large party of Comanches and returned.
The population of this particular frontier district had recently
arrived from the older States, and had acquaintance with Indians
only through tradition. Their fear of all quite naturally in-
cluded the friendly ones of the Brazos Reserve, who, in spite of
their progress in civilization, still followed their old habits of
roaming when they could, and camping out at times. The raid-
ing Comanches who stole in and out unseen were confused with
the Indians to be seen passing openly, and the result was that a
violent prejudice against the Brazos Reserve developed. The
agents for those Indians, in some cases being old settlers, them-
selves once exposed on the frontier, were not always unsympathetic
with their own people.
At Christmas in 1858, a party of twenty men of good standing
but of recent arrival in the country fired on a number of Indians
who were fifteen or twenty miles from the Reserve, and killed
several of them. The Indians in turn killed one of the whites151
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 27, July 1923 - April, 1924, periodical, 1924; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101086/m1/157/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.