The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 47, July 1943 - April, 1944 Page: 241
456 p. : ill., maps ; 24 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Esther Amanda Sherrill Cullins
ent Bell County), and later at Milam, subsequently serving as
one of the first commissioners of the present Milam County;
that of William Berry Smith, a famous and fearless Indian
fighter and gunsmith; and that of William Henry Walker, who
later served as County Judge of Milam County. The four fam-
ilies took the wise precaution of building their cabins within
a radius of about one hundred yards as a safeguard against
a possible Indian attack.
In June of 1836 the Cullins family and their neighbors were
rejoicing over the recent hard-won civil and religious liberty
of the independent Lone Star Republic of Texas achieved at
San Jacinto. With renewed hope and a feeling of greater se-
curity, all were happily pursuing the improvement of their
homesteads and the laying-by of their small but vitally im-
portant corn corps.
Their roseate outlook was doomed to be sadly interrupted.
Mounted couriers galloped through the outpost settlements,
including the Cullins community, bringing the news of the
Indian assault of May 19 on Parker's Fort, and at the same
time warning the settlers to gather at Nashville for sanctuary,
since hostile Indians were known to be raiding the country.
It so happened that Daniel and Esther Cullins, with three of
their children, Mary Ann, Clarissa Amanda and Alfred Wash-
ington Cullins, and some of the negroes, had gone to Nashville
for supplies, where Daniel was to attend to some governmental
business as well. The parents had ridden on horseback, while
the children had gone in the wagon in care of their "black
mammy." The Cullins' elder son, John, well past his tenth
birthday, they had left with their special friends, the Walkers.
The Walker's baby daughter, Mary Ann, little John Cullins'
future wife, was then less than two years old.
The three terrified families remaining in the Cullins neigh-
borhood began preparations to go to Nashville. The Monroes
and Smiths went to the Walker cabin, their wagon packed,
ready to join the refugees. From Three Forks came Captain
Gouldsby Childers, a famous Indian fighter, a soldier in the War
of 1812 and in the Black Hawk War of 1832; with him were
his wife and seven children, two of his sons being nineteen and
seventeen years old, respectively. A Mr. Rhoads, old and unable
to fight, and five additional able-bodied colonists, the Reverend
Isaac Crouch, Dr. Robert Davidson, Orville T. Tyler, Ezekiel
Robinson, and a Mr. Shackleford were also of his party. All241
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 47, July 1943 - April, 1944, periodical, 1944; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth146054/m1/272/: accessed April 19, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.