Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas Page: 99 of 894
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INDIAN iWARl.S AND PIONEERS OF TEXAS.
89
on foot, through the wilderness, for the house of
Andrew Lockhart, reaching it before daylight,
where warm hearts bestowed all possible care and
kindness on those so ruthlessly stricken in the
wilderness and so remote from all kindred ties.
Mrs. McSherry, for a considerable time, found a
home and friends witli the Lockharts; but a few
years later marriedl John HIibbins, a worthy man,
wlio settled on the east side of the Guadalupe, in
the vicinity of where the town of Concrete now
stan(ds, in DeWitt County.
In the summer of 1835, with her little boy, John
McSherry, and an infant by Mr. Hibbins, she revisited
her kindred in Illinois. She returned via
New Orleans in the winter of 1835-6, accompanied
by her brother, George Creath, a single man, and
landed( at Columbia, on the Brazos, where early in
February, 1836, Mr. Hibbins met them with an ox
cart, on which they began tle journey home.
They crossed the Colorado at Beason's and fell into
the ancient La Bahia road on the upper Navidad.
In due time they arrived at and were about
encamping on Rocky creek, six miles above the
subsequent village of Sweet Home, in Lavaca
County and within fifteen or sixteen miles of their
home, when they were suddlenly attacked by
thirteen Indian warriors who imme(liately killed
Hibbins an(d Creath, made captives Mrs. Hibbins
an(l her two children, took possession of all the
effects and at leisure moved off up tile country
with perfect unconcern. They traveled slowly up
through the timbered country, tile Peach creek
region between tile Guadalupe and the Colorado,
securely tying Mrs Ilibbins at night and lying
encircled aroundl her. About the second day, at
one of their camps, the baby cried with pain for
some time, when one of the Indians seized it by tile
feet and mashed its brains against a tree, all in the
presence of its helpless motlher. For two or three
days at this time Mrs. libbins distinctly lheard
the guns in the siege of the Alamo, at least sixty
miles to tile west. That sle did so was made certain
a little later by her imparting the news to
others till then unaware of that now worldrenowned
struggle.
In due time her captors crossed the Colorado at
the mouth of Shoal creek, now in the city of
Austin. They moved on three or four miles and
encamped on the south edge of a cedar brake,
where a severe norther came up and caused them
to remain three nights and two days. On the third
night the Indians were engaged in a game till late
and then slept soundly. Mrs. Hibbins determined,
if possible, to escape. Cautiously, she freed herself
of the cords about her wrists and ankles andstepping over the bodies of her unconscious guards,
stole away, not daring even to imprint a kiss on
her only and first-born child, then a little over six
years of age.
Daylight found her but a sliort distance from
camp, not over a mile or two, and she secreted
herself in a thicket from which she soon saw and
heard the Indians in pursuit. The savages compelled
the little boy to call aloud, " Mama! Mama!"
But she knew that her only hope for herself
and child was in escape, and remained silent.
After a considerable time the Indians disappeared.
But she remained concealed still longer, till satisfied
her captors had left. She then followed the creek
to the Colorado and, as rapidly as possible, traveled
down the liver, shiel(led by the timber along its
banks.
The crow of a cliicken late in the afternoon sent
a thrill througlh her agonizing heart. The welcome
sound was soon repeated several times and thither
she hastened with a zeal born of her desperate con(lition,
for she did not certainly know she was in a
hundred miles of a habitation. In about two miles
she reached the outer cabin on the Colorado, or
rather one of the two outer ones -Jacob Harrell
occupying the one she entered and Reuben Hornsby
the other. She was so torn with thorns and
briars, so nearly without raiment, and so bruised
about the face, that her condition was pitiable.
Providentially (as every old pioneer untainted with
heathenism believed), eighteen rangers, the first
ever raised un(ler the revolutionary government of
Texas, and commandled by Capt. John J. Tumlinson,
had arrived two (lays before and were
encamlped at the cal)in of Ilornsby. To this warmhearted
and gallant officer Mrs. IIibbins was personally
known and to him she hastily narrated her
sa(l story.
Tumlinson knew the country somewhat and felt
sure he could fin(l the Indians at a given point
further up the country. lie traveled nearly all
night, halting only a short while before day to rest
his horses and resuming the march at sunrise, and
about 9 o'clock came upon the Indians, encamped,
but on tile eve of (leparture. I have the privilege,
as to what followed, of quoting the exact language
of Capt. Tumlinson, written for me forty years ago,
as follows:"
The Indians discovered us just as we discovered
them, but had not time to get their horses, so
they commenced running on foot towards the
mountain thickets. I threw Lieut. Joseph Rogers,
with eight men, below them
and with the others
I dashed past and took possession of their route
above them. The Indians saw that the route
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Brown, John Henry. Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas, book, 1880~; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth6725/m1/99/?rotate=0: accessed April 24, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting UNT Libraries Special Collections.