The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 107, July 2003 - April, 2004 Page: 49
660 p. : ill. (some col.), maps, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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"Every Day Seemed to be a Holiday"
cemetery near the site of their capture (1968) and the other two miles
north on the Comanche raiders' getaway route (1971).
A TRUE STORY OF MY CAPTURE BY,
AND LIFE WITH THE COMANCHE INDIANS.
My name is Mrs. J. D. Bell, of Denton, Texas, before marriage my
name was Bianca Babb, daughter ofJ. S. & Isabel Babb, early pioneers of
Texas.
At the time of my capture by the Comanche Indians I was a little girl
of nine [sic; ten] summers living with my Parents on a ranch located on
Dry Creek about twelve miles West of Decatur in Wise County, Texas.
It was in the late sixties that my story really begins, back in the Old
Indian Territory days when the buffalo roamed the Western Prairies of
Texas by the thousands, Antelope and Deer were also very plentiful.
Our family consisted of Father, Mother, two boys and two girls.
At the time of the terrible tragedy of my capture and the death of my
Mother, my Father and oldest brother had gone to Arkansas with a
bunch of horses to trade for cattle, they went overland as there were no
railroads in our part of Texas at that time, nor for many years after-
wards.25 My Mother had staying with us for company, a Mrs. Luster while
my Father and older brother were gone.
One afternoon in September my Brother Dot and I were lying under
a brush arbor in front of the house asleep, when Mother noticed a
bunch of men horseback about a half mile away from the house; Mother
called Brother to decide if they were cow-boys; at once my brother
replied, "No," they are Indians." One Indian rode up near the house
and not seeing any men folks around the place, gave a yell, I don't think
that I will ever forget, he came up to the yard fence, got off his horse
and came into the house; Mother shook hands with him and asked him
to have a chair, he whirled the chair across the floor, went back to the
bed and commenced taking off the bed clothes. By that time a number
of Indians had crowded into the house, taking anything and every thing
that they liked. Mother was holding my baby sister in her arms, and with
the other arm she held my brother and myself close to her. One Indian
then shot my Mother in the back with an arrow, another plunged a long
lance into her throat, and another scalped her. One Indian then took
25 Dot and Blanca Babb remembered some of the details differently. Concerning their father's
absence, Dot said: "Now my sister has made a statement in regard to my father going to Arkansas
with horses to trade for cattle. She got it wrong, as he took cattle to trade for horses." Statement of
Dot Babb, Mar. 16, 1926, T. A. Babb file (Panhandle-Plains Historical Museum, Canyon). Dot's
comment in 1926 suggests that Bianca had already written one version of her story by then.2003
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 107, July 2003 - April, 2004, periodical, 2004; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101224/m1/67/: accessed April 23, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.