The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 105, July 2001 - April, 2002 Page: 300
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Southwestern Historical Quarterly
the authors of Parker County's first two published histories were con-
cerned, the Hills were far better forgotten."
Henry Smythe's 1877 Historical Sketch of Parker County and Weatherford,
Texas was the first survey of the history, economy, and social structure of
the county. He recited a litany of Indian raids, one tragic story after an-
other, often graphically detailing the various atrocities inflicted on some
of the hundreds of men, women, and children who died in the frontier
border warfare in the county. Smythe also chronicled several other inci-
dents of vigilante violence against both white and black men. Yet al-
though he listed an "Allen Hill" among the "Old Settlers" of the county,
he claimed Hill was included with those "who have moved into other
counties and states" and not among those whom "Death has gathered." In
fact, Smythe insisted that after the local vigilance committee interrogated
a minister about his correspondence in November 1 860, "Parker County
was free from similar scenes until 1864." Smythe's resolute silence on the
subject of the Hill lynchings contradicted his avowed intent in the preface
to his history: "It has been our aim to exhibit the truth. In no single in-
stance have we attempted to picture the ideal, but to portray the real."'8
Since Smythe almost certainly must have been acquainted with at least
some of the facts of the attack on the Hills, it is tempting to speculate on
the reasons for his refusal to record any version of the massacre in his oth-
erwise exhaustive chronicle. Perhaps as a real estate agent trying to pro-
mote the desirability of settlement in the area, he concluded that
community violence against women, even "degraded" women, made poor
publicity for the county. On a more personal level, he simply may have
been unable to confess the unpalatable truth that respectable solid citi-
zens of what his book called "the pleasant little village" of Springtown had
murdered white women with all the merciless savagery of the "barbarous
aborigines" he hated so deeply.9
Author John Grace's (stated) deliberate attempt to erase "these un-
pleasant memories" explains the failure of his published history of the
county to make any mention of one of its most unusual and tragic events.
Grace's 190o6 A New History of Parker County hinted darkly at "local dis-
sentions and animosities" but contended that they "arose from differ-
" Weatherford Dazly Herald,Jan. 13, 192o.
,8 Smythe, Hzstoncal Sketch of Parker County and Weatherford, Texas, v (4th quotation), 11-12 (1st
quotation), 13 (2nd quotation), 150 (3rd quotation).
9 Ibid., 373. Also see advertising plates inserted into the front of the 1877 edition. Smythe
demonstrated a passionate hatred for Indians and an abiding conviction that they were being
aided and abetted in their depredations by the muddled policies of the federal government. He
uses an infinite variety of phrases to refer to them, such as the "national murderers," "administra-
tion leeches," "the fellows sustained in laziness, idleness, debauchery and all sorts of criminal
practices," and almost never simply calls them "Indians."October
300
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 105, July 2001 - April, 2002, periodical, 2002; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101222/m1/330/: accessed May 7, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.