Some History of Van Zandt County, Volume 1 Page: 75
220 p. : ill., col. maps, plates, ports. ; 23 cm.View a full description of this book.
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SOME HISTORY OF VAN ZANDT COUNTY .5
slave, until ransomed by some Mexican Santa Fe traders on the
Pacific slope and returned home by way of Independence, Mis-
souri, where the branch of the Parker family lived, who were my
clients for years. Mrs. Plummer's boy was ransomed at Fort
Gibson, in 1842, by his grandfather. John W. Parker was taken
by a branch of the Comanches into Old Mexico and married a
bright Senorita and lived the life of a barbarian, never knowing
what civilization was.
It is remarkable that Anglo-Saxon children carried into cap-
tivity and permitted to grow up in a savage state, without being
allowed to converse with their own kindred, will in form and feat-
ure personate, to a large degree, those by whose presence they
are surrounded, and after they have reached the age of maturity,
they want to live the life in which their early life has been spent.
PART OF A MESSAGE TO THE LEGISLATURE OF TEXAS-EXTRA
SESSION.
(By Governor Sam Houston.)
Executive Department, Austin, January 21, 1861.
Gentlemen of the Senate and House of Representatives:
You have been convened in extra session, in view of the unsettled
condition of our national affairs; the continued invasion of our frontier
by Indians, and the embarrassed condition of the treasury.
To these subjects alone your attention will be invited, and it is hoped
that only those which are incident to these will meet your attention.
The defense of the state being a paramount object, the executive will
first press the necessity of providing for the same upon your considera-
tion.
When the executive came into office the frontier was entirely un-
guarded, except by federal troops. The Indians, unrestrained by pres-
ence of rangers, embraced the favorable opportunity and gained a foot-
hold in the country and ere their presence was known and means could
be adopted to repel them, commenced a series of depredations, which
struck terror to the settlements. Their savage work was not confined to
the frontier alone, but extended to counties within fifty miles of the
capitol. Although not apprised of this. state of things, the executive had
made such provision for defense of the frontier as seemed necessary.
On the 26th of December, a few days after his inauguration, an order
was issued to Capt. W. C. Dalrymple, of Williamson county, to raise
a company of sixty men, rank and file. This was followed by orders of
this character to Capt. Ed. Burlison, of Hays, and Capt. John H. Conner,
of Travis, on the 4th and 13th of January. These companies were ordered
to such points as would enable them to carry out orders given them, to
give the greatest amount of protection to the frontier inhabitants. Had
not the frontier been entirely abandoned to the Indians for months
previous to his inauguration, these companies would have sufficed to
prevent any concentrated and extensive movements against the settle-
ments on the part of the Indians, but they were already secreted in the
country. Intelligence having already reached the executive that numer-
ous small parties of Indians were ravaging the settlements beyond Bell
county, but not yet on the extreme frontier, orders were issued on the
13th of February to Lieutenant White, of Bell county; Salmon, of Bosque,
and Walker, of Erath county, to raise, each, a detachment of twenty-five
men, to range in and give defense to the counties of Coryell, Hamilton,
Comanche, Eastland and Palo Pinto. These detachments were soon in
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Manning, Wentworth. Some History of Van Zandt County, Volume 1, book, 1919; Des Moines, Iowa. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth61110/m1/75/: accessed April 26, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; .