Was up near Real county, Campwood?
Some miles upstream of Leakey on the Frio, I dunno how far, I’ve visited Mrs McLauren’s gravesite in the Leakey Cemetery years ago, I didn’t think to look for young Allen Lease’s.
April of 1881 small group of Lipans, including at least one woman, apparently on a raid in their old haunts in the Texas Hill Country, break into a house to steal. Surprised, they shot a 14 year old youth in the head and a young mother a number of times (with a Winchester?) but leave a 6 yr old child unharmed. Here’s a pretty good link….
http://www.texasescapes.com/LindaKirkpatrick/Conflict-on-the-Frio-McLaurin-Story.htmThe date differs from other accounts but it does illustrate the circumstance of those people and the continuing hardship of life on a Frontier even at that late date.
The Apaches stole some stock and a local posse forms and pursues them for some distance. Either they lost the trail or maybe thought discretion was the better part of valor. Not everyone had the skills to press combat against Apaches in hostile terrain. Nearly two weeks later Bullis and the scouts were called in.
I dunno how doable it is to track 30+ horses after two weeks, I suspect Bullis and crew would proceed to where the Apaches would probably pass through rather than start all the way back on the Frio, especially given how quickly they picked up the track and the speed of the pursuit. What followed was the usual outcome…
A year later, the Seminole Scouts fought their last Indian battle, marking the final significant hostile raid in Texas. On April 14, 1881, a small Lipan band killed a woman and a boy at an isolated ranch at the head of the Rio Frio. The warriors also robbed other houses in the area and stole horses. Almost 2 weeks after the attack, Lieutenant, Bullis was ordered to pursue them. He immediately left Fort Clark with 32 scouts.
Despite the time that has elapsed, the Black Seminoles located the Lipan spoor on April 27. They tracked them over the rugged, precipitous mountains, and canyons of Devils River, where the warriors killed 30 of the horses, as they could not drive them through this terrible country.
After the hostiles crossed the Rio Grande, the scouts followed them into the Burro Mountains [AKA Sierra del Burro] of Mexico. On May 2 Bullis and his men discovered the Lipan camp, observing it until after sundown. Then, with seven scouts left behind to guard their mounts. The rest moved on foot and surrounded the tribespeople.
They attacked at daybreak, killing four warriors and a woman. They captured another woman, who was wounded, and a child. Twenty-one animals were seized. Only the chief, San Da Ve, escaped; but he was mortally wounded, as usual, the strike force had no casualties. The men returned to Texas on May 5.The Sierra del Burro is the high ground you can see on the other side of the Rio Grande from about Quemado on up through Big Bend, rugged country apparently still mostly uninhabited today.
This was the last
significant Indian raid. The country would remain hazardous for a long time. No Country For Old Men references a fictional Uncle Mack out by El Paso being shot on his front porch on his ranch by “seven or eight” mounted Indians in 1909. Surely such isolated murders on both sides continued until recent times. Might still go on, I’m recalling being told of incidences of individual oilfield guys and such shooting Wetbacks into the 1980’s. Dunno the truth of it.
