Young County, TX - History - The Famous Salt Creek Fight

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The Famous Salt Creek Fight

After spending the night on Flint Creek, north of the old Murphy
Station, a group of cowmen, who were on a roundup, waded their horses
knee-deep through the luxurious wild flowers, found so abundantly in
northern Young County, and started to their herd, approximately two
miles away. It was Monday, May 16, 1869. For several days, fresh Indian
signs had been discovered. So these cowmen realized that the
approximately five hundred head of cattle, already gathered, would
attract the attention of the savages for many miles. Consequently the
Texans camped about two miles distant from the bawling herd, to avoid,
if possible, a night conflict with the barbarous hordes of the plains.

It was a damp day. The spring breezes were blowing intermittent flurries
of rain. And about the usual hour, the cowmen began to slowly move their
cattle. Ira Graves assumed command, and with him were: Wm. Crow, John
Lemley, Geo. Lemley, C. L. (Shap) Carter, Jason McClain, W. C. Kutch, J.
W. Gray, Henry Harrison, Rube Secris, Joe Woody, and Negro Dick, a cook.

After the herd had been drifted for about four miles, several cattle
were seen grazing in the distance. So C. L. (Shap) Carter and W. C.
Kutch were detailed to bring them in. Kutch and Carter galloped away.
They had hardly gone two miles, however, when the two heard the shrill
voices of many shouting demons behind them. The peaceful prairies, which
only a few moments before, were waving with millions of wild flowers,
seemed to have suddenly transformed into a sea of raging red men. Carter
and Kutch could have easily escaped into the timber, but realizing the
plight of their companions, these faithful frontiersmen dashed almost
through approximately fifty-seven painted Indians, to reach their
associates, who were also rapidly riding to join Kutch and Carter. The
cowboys, only armed with cap and ball six-shooters, rushed toward a
little ravine; but when within a few yards, discovered that it was
already occupied by a large band of Indians. They were then compelled to
retreat, and assume a location in a little depression to the right. This
depression drained into one of the prongs of Salt Creek. Their position,
then, was about five miles southeast of the present city of Olney, in
Young County. Jason McClain and J. W. Gray were already seriously
wounded, and since the little wash-out was so shallow, the dozen cowmen
were forced to lie down. It was now about ten o'clock in the morning,
and again and again the Indians' onslaughts were repulsed by the cowmen.
Wm. Crow was instantly killed during the early stages of the battle,
when a rifle ball penetrated his head; George Lemley seriously wounded
in the face, and before the fight was over, every man received a painful
wound, excepting Henry Harrison and Joe Woody. But still the twelve
citizens realized their dangerous predicament, and waged one of the most
bloody and dangerous battles ever fought on the West Texas frontier.
With one man dead, and nine others seriously and mortally wounded, their
very existence was suspended by rotten twine. Each savage charge and
onslauht came sweeping like a death dealing tide and threatened to
completely destroy the Texans so poorly armed.

While the battle was most intense, the citizens discovered ammunition
was growing low. So the besieged cowboys began to feel their last hopes
were gone. But it was agreed the wounded would load the guns while
others did the shooting. When the horses were shot down, their dead
bodies afforded the frontiersmen additional breastworks. After the
Indians realized the citizens were not being dislodged, they tried new
tactics, which seemed to be in accord with the command of the main
chief, not in the fight, but stationed on a nearby hill. The Indians
attempted to slip up the branch below, but when they did, five or six of
their number fell wounded.

The savages were under the immediate command of a Negro, who seemed to
inspire the Indians to fight far more desperately. Finally, however,
about five o'clock in the evening, the chief summoned his warriors by
his side, and to his place of eminence on a nearby hill. It seems the
savages were holding a council of war preparatory to make a final drive.
But just at this moment, perhaps, the cowboys were saved by their own
perseverance, and strategy of Capt. Ira Graves, who ordered every
cowboy, regardless of whether well or wounded, to stand up and wave
defiance at the wild demons. Most every one, excepting Wm. Crow, stood
up, and this bit of strategy, no doubt, caused the Indians to think that
after fighting for six or seven hours, and after losing several of their
own number, the citizens had scarcely been harmed. And too, during the
last part of the fighting, Capt. Ira Graves and his men had been
shooting at the Indian leaders, and this apparently caused considerable
consternation in the savage ranks. So the Indians discharged a final
volley or two, and then drove the cattle away.

When the Indians retreated, Wm. Crow had been dead for several hours, C.
L. (Shap) Carter had a severe arrow wound in his body, and had been also
painfully injured with a rifle ball. John Lemley was mortally wounded in
the abdomen with an arrow; J. W. Gray had been twice struck with rifle
balls, once in the body and one in the leg; W. C. Kutch had two arrow
heads in his knee, and one in his shoulder; Jason McClain had been twice
wounded with arrows; Rube Secris(Segress) had his mouth badly torn, and
his knee shattered; Geo. Lemley had his face badly torn, and an arrow
wound in his arm; and Ira Graves and Negro Dick were also wounded. Henry
Harrison was dispatched to the Harmison Ranch, several miles away for
aid. John Lemley died from the effects of his wound sometime in the
evening following the battle.

During the dreadful night that followed, the citizens stood guard and
waited on the wounded as best they could. The next morning, their souls
were inspired when they saw a wagon approaching in the distance. And
according to reports, A. C. Tackett, Bob Whitten, and Theodore Miller,
assisted in moving the cowboys, and removing some of the spikes from
their bodies. Messengers were also dispatched for Dr. Getzwelder, of old
Black Springs in Palo Pinto County, and Dr. Gunn, the U. S. Army
surgeon, at Fort Richardson. But it was nearly twenty-four hours after
the fight was over, before these surgeons arrived. C. L. (Shap) Carter
died the next day after the fight, and his death made the third victim
of this battle. About two years later, Jason McClain, who helped move a
large herd of cattle over the trail, died in Kansas, and his death was
attributed to the wounds received in this battle, which numbered among
the most desperate, dangerous, and bloody engagements ever fought on the
west Texas frontier.

Note: Author personally interviewed: A. C. George, and L. L. Tackett;
John Marlin; Henry Williams; Mann Johnson; J. B. Terrell; F. M. (Babe)
Williams; Uncle Pink Brooks; A. M. Lasater; James Wood; B. L. Ham; Mrs.
H. G. Taylor; E. K. Taylor; Mrs. Huse Bevers; Mrs. Jerry Hart; and
several others who lived on the frontier at the time.

Further Ref: History of Young Co., by Judge P. A. Martin, as published
in the Graham paper, and W. C. Kutch's own account of this fight, as
published in the Star-Telegram and Graham paper. Clippings from these
papers were furnished by J. B. Terrell, but we are unable to supply the
dates.

[Transcriber's notes: History of Young County by Judge P.A. Martin,
editor of The Graham Leader was originally published in 1906. W.C.
Kutch's exploits was origially published in The Graham Leader in 1916]

A post explaining this one will follow.

This Indian Fight is the one lost to history for the most part because some "accredited historian" lumped it in with the "Warren Wagon Train Massacre" which took place several miles to the ESE from this one.

Here is how I got interested in this story:

Along about 1953, at the age of 12, I stayed a couple months with our neighbors,Artemus and Doris Nash. Mr Nash was probably around seventy YO at the time and was a small rancher.

He told me of the fight and added a detail the writer above left out. One of the "cowboys" was only about 16 YO and when the Indians attacked he was riding a small black mare. As they raced for cover, he was kicking the little mare so hard that he knocked the wind out of her and one of the other men came back and rescued him.

Mr. Nash told me that a man came through the country in 1904 or 1908 asking about this particular fight, and erected a monument at the site.

Later that year, in the summertime, four of us boys were planning on different places to go horseback. We had pretty much explored the Johnson Bottom and Flat Top Mountain, and I remembered Mr. Nash's story about the monument.

We packed our lunches, along with a couple sheets of paper and a - new at the time - ball point pen so we could draw a picture of the monument. We knew the pasture it was in but not much more.

Nobody locked their gates back then so we had no trouble getting in the pasture. Finding the monument amongst the mesquites turned out to be more difficult than we anticipated. We ate our lunch and were about ready to give up for the day, when Wilburn had a sudden, urgent call from Nature.

He headed off into the mesquites looking for a suitable spot [so maybe it wasn't as urgent as he let on] taking our two sheets of writing paper.

Sure enough, the little 4 foot tall monument was there in the clump of mesquites Ol' Wilburn had chosen for his outhouse.

Since he had used our writing paper for wiping paper, and Haven was shirtless, being brown as a Mexican, I drew a picture of the monument on his back along with all the wording and names. In the interest of accuracy I'll point out that "Negro Dick" in the newspaper story has a different first name on the monument.

We headed home, proud of our contribution to the preservation of local history, but our contribution was very short lived as we stopped off at one of our swimming tanks to cool off and swim our horses.

All the ink washed off Haven's back.

Negro Dick??!!

Anybody know how many Indians died in that battle?

Good story, Curdog!

All the confusion about the two different battles started with an Army Officer writing "Salt Grass Prarie" instead of Salt Creek Prarie, and mistaking Flint Creek for Salt Creek.

This, from the THS has the geography right"

SALT CREEK PRAIRIE

SALT CREEK PRAIRIE. Salt Creek Prairie, once known as "the most dangerous prairie in Texas," is a rolling, intermittently timbered prairie extending about nine miles on either side of Salt Creek in Young County from Fort Belknap to Rock Creek near the Young-Jack county line. It was crossed by the Butterfield Overland Mail and was long a favorite area for Comanche and Kiowa war parties striking south from the Fort Sill area to waylay travelers and attack settlers. Some twenty-one graves were dug on the prairie for victims of Indian attacks over a four-year period in the early 1870s. Young county sheriff W. F. (State) Cox and 2d Lt. William R. Peveler were casualties of an Indian attack on the prairie in 1863. On May 16, 1869, a group of twelve cowboys, besieged by Comanches northwest of what is now Jean, held their attackers at bay for an entire day while pinned down in a buffalo wallow. In mid-July 1870, Kiowa raiders led by Kicking Bird robbed a mail stage at Rock Creek Station. Pursuing cavalry from Fort Richardson engaged the raiders, but were forced to retreat. In late January 1871, Britton Johnson and two companions were slain by Kiowa raiders at the Turtle Hole. On May 18, 1871, Henry Warren's wagon supply train (see WARREN WAGONTRAIN RAID) was attacked en route to Fort Griffin by Kiowas under Satanta, Satank, and Big Tree. Seven of twelve teamsters were killed, and forty-one mules were stolen. Gen. William Tecumseh Sherman, on a frontier inspection tour, had passed unmolested over the same ground scant hours before. Capt. G. W. Stevens's company of Texas Rangersqv camped for two months here on Flat Top Mountain, pursuing Kiowa and Comanche raiding parties in July and August 1874. On July 12, 1874, a party of about fifty Kiowas under Lone Wolf attacked Frontier Battalion commander John B. Jones and his escort near Jermyn."

Cox Mountain, immediately North of Jermyn Tx was named for the Young County Sheriff mentioned above.

Likely never known since when they weren't routed they often carried away their dead.

Considering the cap and ball revolvers at fairly long range, there was probably a lot more wounding than lethal hits.

It should be noted that at the time of the battle, the mesquites I mentioned were not there, so there was no cover for either side.

It would be cool to find a monument like that, or other artifacts of an old battle.

Walking up a brushy hillside once on the Eastern side of the Sierras, I came upon a metal box about my height, maybe two feet square at the base. Puzzled, I banged on it, shook it, and finally walked around the other side of it, where it had a sign that read, "earthquake sensor, University of Nevada". I prolly made some grad student all excited.

Had not heard or read of that story. Thanks for sharing.

The drawing/washing off was funny part too!

Would be cool to find that back today! The monument I mean.

I think, my family history comes close to dovetailing into that story. It has been awhile since I read the details of the battles they were involved in, but it was close.

My great-great-great-grandfather, William George Washington (Uncle Billy) Powell, brought his extended family to Texas from Arkansas in 1849. They settled in Hood county, around the area of what later became the community of Tolar. Uncle Billy had lots of sons to farm the land, and he was often gone, out riding with the Texas Rangers. The Rangers in those days were a fairly loosley knit bunch from what I understand, coming and going from the regiment as they saw fit, and as other obligations allowed. It was before they were paid, and the service was voluntary. Anyways he rode with them a fair amount, chasing raiders as the need arose.

Anyways, the story I remember reading about in our family history happened in Hood county I am pretty sure, so not the same one you are talking about. I believe there were some "white folks" killed, and the company of Rangers Uncle Billy rode with chased the raiders back to the NW, catching and killing at least some of them. Since I don't remember the details right now I will refrain from relating more of the story, but you have peaked my interest enough I am going to go dig it out when I get home and refresh my memory. The account I have was written by one of Uncle Billy's sons around 1910 or so, when most of those involved were still alive. It used to be on the website for the Hood County Genealogical Society, but has since been taken down, for what reason I do not know.

Thanks Curdog, what a great story. First I've heard of it.

Thanks Gene! Needed a great story today!!

I pass by the wire gate going into the pasture pretty often, but it's locked. I need to find out who owns it now and get permission to go to it and take pictures.

In the 'seventies I found the monument marking the Warren Wagon Train Massacre while quail hunting.

We had 3 dogs out and I didn't see Addie, a real good young English Pointer gyp. I looked behind and to my left and she was "honoring", except there was no other dog on point.

Way off in the distance I saw something whitish colored, and that's what she thought was another dog pointed.

We walked out to it and it was the monument which had fallen over. It is a larger monument put up in 1936 by the State in conjunction with the Centennial.

Now both monuments are designated by hiway markers.

Thank you. That was well worth reading.

You're welcome. I thought it might bring Birdwatcher out of hiding.

I like reading his Texas history about places down South.

Here's another:

http://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/online/articles/btb03

Billy Dixon really got around. I always thought he received the MOH for the Second Battle of Adobe Walls.

Thanks for the story.

Ya, Britton Johnson, the guy who apparently rescued at least some captive White kids by riding alone into Comanche territory and later got that teamsters contract to supply Fort Griffin (??) was also popularly known as "ahem"... "Negro" Britt.

Weren't he surrounded and killed by Kiowas not far from there? His body found behind that of his dead horse, surrounded by a pile of spent .44-40 cases from his Winchester and covered with a buffalo robe or so legend has it.

Birdwatcher

Great story Gene, thanks

A couple of interesting things to note....

Tho pop history has them starving on account of the passing of the buffalo, especially after 1860 the Comanches and Kiowas were running off whole herds of cattle. Not just for their own consumption, but for trade primarily in New Mexico.

Nary a rifle in the hands of the cowboys, despite the known threat of Indians. However pop history may have it, the rifle, cartridge gun and frontstuffer both, was the premier instrument of battle out on the Plains, not the six gun.

Birdwatcher

Great story, thanks for sharing!

Hey, Gene - good work. Enjoyed reading about something I never heard before. Thanks.

Thanks Gene, great post.

enjoyed it myself


hardy men from tough times, on both sides of the battle

Loui' Lamour flashbacks.......thanks for the read

Indians atop Flat Top Mountain - about 2 1/2 miles SSW from where I'm sitting - could spy on the Butterfield Road than ran from Ft Richardson to Ft Belknap and passes to the South of Flat Top. About 2 or 3 miles SW of Flat Top lies the Turtle Hole on an unnamed little creek, which was a reliable source for water year round, being spring fed.

Britt camped at the Turtle Hole with his wagon and team and that's where the Indians attacked and killed him and his companion.I think it was 76 cartridge cases the Army found next to his body.

Some accounts say the Indians didn't mutilate his body out of respect for the fight he put up and in fact covered it with a robe. Some say it was mutilated as were a lot of their victims.

I was surprised about their not having rifles as well. Despite the writing style in the article, I'm inclined to believe it's accurate in the details. One reason may have been the difference in the cost of ammunition for cap n ball sixguns vs rifle cartridges.

And I'm sure that if they really expected to get in an injun fight that they would have stayed home.

Thanks Gene. A good read for sure.

That's interesting. When they were in country known to harbor dangerous Indians, why didn't they carry rifles, too?

That bike ride I did this summer gave me a whole new appreciation of what Butterfield, who began by operating stage lines in New York State, truly accomplished.

A bicycle is about the most efficient muscle-powered mode of travel there is, and I was moving maybe one hundred pounds of bicycle, water, and equipment over paved roads. Two thousand miles in thirty-three days, averaging 64 miles a day.

Between 1857 and 1861 the Butterfield Stage people were moving maybe 3,000 pounds of coach, passengers and mail across 2,800 miles in 24 days or less. Better than 100 miles a day on dirt roads either scarcely worthy of the name or absent altogether, most of this route across what today would be called wilderness, in all weather, moving the stage 24/7 year-round through areas that would contain free-roaming and hostile Indians and bandits for up to another twenty years.

800 employees, 1800 head of stock, moving both eastbound and westbound stages twice a week.

A simply incredible feat of logistics.

Birdwatcher

By way of contrast most Texas commerce (in and out of San Antonio, still the largest city) was rolling on Mexican ox-carts, ten miles per day on a good day.

Heck, they even brought in blocks of ice from ships at the coastal ports like this, more'n two weeks to cover 150 miles. Musta been a popular cargo for the cart crews.

Birdwatcher

Great story! Thanks for posting. Those would have been Comanches.

It is interesting that the Comanche war chief was a Negro. The Comanches were notorious for kidnapping children and adopting them into the tribe.
This is one of the reasons that there were so many Comanches.

A Comanche war party would go into New Mexico, and find a band of, say, 30 Apaches. They would kill all the men, unless they felt like bringing a male captive back home to be tortured and burned to death. Comanche women were experts at torturing captives.
The adult women would be raped and killed, if they were lucky. If not, the women would be brought back to the Comanche village to be used as sex slaves, and as slave laborers. An adult woman brought back to the Comanche village had no rights, she was lower in status than a dog.
They had no use for babies and would kill them, sometimes they would grab an infant by the heels and smash his head against a rock.

But, they wanted to capture children alive. They liked kids that were about 5 or 6 years old, these were big enough to walk, but young enough that they could be adopted into the Comanche band, and converted into Comanches. Children captured in such a manner were treated as full fledged Comanches.

On other occasions, the Comanches would raid into Mexico, likewise kill most of the adults, and capture young children to be adopted into the tribe.
When George Catlin went out west in 1837, he made a painting of a Comanche warrior named "Little Spaniard," who was a full blooded Mexican who had been kidnapped as a boy.



Catlin's painting of Little Spaniard.

When the Texans moved into Comanche territory, they, too were attacked and their children kidnapped and adopted. Cynthia Parker was kidnapped at age 5 near Waco, Texas, at age 14 married to a Comanche war chief, and her son became the great war chief Qanah Parker.

I had not heard of Comanches kidnapping Negroes but it makes sense that they did, there were certainly lots of black slaves in Texas in those days.

The Comanche policy of kidnapping and adopting Spanish, Indian, and American children was brilliant. A tribe just barely out of the stone age, that wanted to expand, times were tough. Women died during childbirth. Some children were born with defects, or were retarded.
As the Comanche raiding party took over the hapless village of Indians, Spanish, or Americans, they carefully assessed the children they wanted to adopt. The picked only the healthiest and most vibrant.
By introducing all these outsiders into the tribe, they attained hybrid vigor.

In 1690 the Comanches were a small, poor tribe of about 2,000, living in the mountains of Wyoming.
By 1800, they had taken over most of Texas, and parts of Oklahoma and other states, and they numbered at least 20,000. They had all the buffalo meat they could eat, and they were "The Lords of the Plains."

Hard to know, but it could have been Adam Payne, a Black Seminole born in Florida in 1843, shortly before removal. He woulda been twenty-six or thereabouts in '69.

According to Thomas Porter in what is pretty much the final word on the topic in his book "The Black Seminoles" some stories had it that Payne had been captured by Comanches as a child and had spent some time living with them. If that is so he was back with his own people by '73 when he enlisted as a Scout at Fort Clark, hard to know every instance but the Black Seminoles and Comanches were by and large enemies.

Uncommonly tall, reputed to have worn a buffalo horn headdress on campaign, Payne caught the attention of none other than Ranald MacKenzie who awarded him a Medal of Honor during the Red River War for "habitual boldness". The one particular incident being when Payne was with a group of Scouts in advance of MacKenzies' column. Trailing their quarry until after dark and making a cold camp, a first light they found themselves in close proximity to a large body of Comanches.

The version Porter tells is that a Creek Scout lost his horse in the scramble to mount up and flee, and that Payne gave him his own mount. Whether he gave it away or had it shot from under him, all sources agree that Payne shot the first charging Comanche off of his horse and then sprang upon the running animal as it charged past him, then single handedly keeping the chasing Comanches at a distance while covering the retreat of his fellow scouts. Accounts have it his lathered up horse was at the point of collapse when they made it to the cover of the main column.

Payne left the service shortly after and took work as a teamster. In Brownsville he got in a fight in a saloon with a soldier and killed him with a knife, becoming a wanted man and fugitive. If it matters any I'm recalling the dead soldier was also Black.

Payne was apprehended into Mexican custody but escaped, and subsequently partnered up with a White horse thief by the name of Unwin IIRC. Hard to pick the good guys and the bad guys in that era. The major power along the relevant section of the Border at the time was John "King" Fisher, who ran a sort of Cowboy Mafia dealing in smuggling and rustling around the Eagle Pass/Uvalde area. Payne and Unwin's big problem might have been that they stole horses from the wrong people, apparently including one belonging to Uvalde Deputy Sheriff Clarence Windus.

According to Porter, the Sheriff of Uvalde, who was certainly in Fisher's employ, and a deputy actually came across Payne drinking in a Brackettville Saloon close to Fort Clark where the Black Seminoles resided. Payne was armed with a revolver and had a Winchester rifle in front of him on the bar, and actually faced down both the Sheriff and his deputy, who let him leave. Payne was regarded as a very dangerous individual in a fight.

Pretty much his death warrant, On New Year's Eve, January 1st 1877, Payne was celebrating with family in the Black Seminole community. Deputy Clarence Windus stepped out of the dark and shot the unarmed Payne point blank, both barrels, with a shotgun, close enough to set his shirt on fire, killing him instantly. That being I guess a measure of how dangerous Payne was regarded as being by his enemies.

Clarence Windus hisself had previously won a Medal of Honor for gallantry during his own enlistment in the Cavalry, in Kansas fighting Cheyennes IIRC. Whatever the merits of the case, he later served time for theft and desertion.

Still, it is the only incidence in history where one Medal of Honor winner killed another.

Payne was buried in the Black Seminole Cemetery outside of the Fort.









Nearly twenty three years later his younger cousin Isaac, who himself was awarded the Medal of Honor, was by his own request upon his death buried next to Adam.



The circumstance of Isaac Payne's award occurred in 1875. (White) John Lapham Bullis and three of his Scouts attempted to bluff a party of 25 Comanches into abandoning their stolen stock from Mexico at their camp on the Pecos. It didn't work, and recovering from their initial surprise the Comanches rallied. Bullis' horse was shot out from under him and the three scouts charged back under fire to rescue him. I forget which one it was but whoever lifted Bullis up behind him to make their escape had a rein cut and his carbine stock shattered by Comanche bullets.

Anyways, I dunno how freely they handed them out back then, but including Adam and Isaac Payne there are four Medal of Honor winners interred in that little cemetery. Highest per capita anywhere.

And what you'll note if you stop in some time, the military tradition continued among the Scouts' descendents....



Birdwatcher

Interesting history. Thank you all for sharing. I have been to the site of the Battle of Adobe Walls, but some of these stories are new to me.

Adobe Walls - Billy Dixon, Bat Masterson.

Great history lesson, birdwatcher. Where is that cemetery of the Black Seminoles?
I often go to Eagle Pass, Uvalde, and San Antonio in the Big Rig I drive, might could go by to see that cemetery.


I hate to sound so ignorant but I have never heard of the Black Seminoles. You spoke of the removal, I am from Georgia and of course know about the Trail of Tears. I thought the Seminoles dodged the bullet, and just hung out in the swamps of Florida.

By the way, I had thought all the Creeks got sent to Oklahoma, but somehow a lot of Alabama Creeks stayed behind. There is a real nice truck stop in Alabama on I 65 at mm 53, and it is on the Creek Reservation. All the employees there are employees of the Creek Indians. Great truck stop I stay there all the time.

The MOH was passed out pretty freely in those days--something like 23 for the massacure at Wounded Knee

Simon, those are the Porch Creeks on I 65.

True! Most all MOH were reviewed in the 19-teens and most were revoked.

Nelson Miles reviewed the ones from Wounded Knee and let them stand.

That would be cool to get to go to the actual site. My understanding is that it's on private property.

There were two different Battles at Adobe Walls...a number of years apart. Kit Carson was at the first one.

No small part of that was due to their acquisition of horses after the Puebloan Revolt of 1680 in New Mexico Territory.

Speaking of actual sites..... .

This evenin' I made a little circle south of the house and took this picture which fits into the story of Britt Johnson AND the Butterfield Trail.

The Live Oak Trees in the foreground mark the Turtle Hole, a spring in a small creek bed.

The horizon is Flat Top Mountain, where Indians camped to watch for travelers on the Butterfield Trail which lies between the two. The distance is about 3 miles.



There's no shortage of internet material about Britt, but I selected the following as probably more factual. There are some accounts of his family having his body removed to Weatherford and re buried there.


Cemetery notes and/or description:
Burial site is located one half mile east of Young County Texas State Historical Marker on FM 1769, six miles northwest of Graham. The exact location of the final remains of these three men is a secret due to past excavations by visitors to the gravesite. The site is on private property. No trespassing signs are posted.

Negro Britt Johnson and his colorful career, during the early days, always commanded the respect and esteem of those acquainted with his activities. Britt had been reared on the frontier among the white citizens, and although he was a negro in fact, in many respects, was not in ways.

During the latter part of January, 1871, J. B. Terrell, who still lives at Newcastle, was in Fort Worth and met Britt Johnson, who was there to try to sell his cattle to Dave Terrell. Negro Britt told Mr. J. B. Terrell that he was going to leave the following day, which was Sunday, for Fort Griffin. Britt, as a consequence, returned to Parker County, where he prepared to make his last journey.

Negro Britt was then living near old Veale Station. After loading his provisions in a bois-d'arc wagon, he started for Ft. Griffin, and was accompanied by Dennis Cureton, who was the slave of Wm. Cureton Sr. at the time of his death in 1859. Britt was also accompanied by Paint Crawford, who was a former slave of Simpson Crawford, one of the first settlers of Palo Pinto County. The three negroes had been living on the frontier for approximately fifteen years.

About the second night out, Negro Brit Johnson, Dennis Cureton, and Paint Crawford, camped at the Turtle Hole, at the head of Flint Creek, about nine miles north of Graham, and on the north side of the road. The next morning, Indians slipped over the hill from the east, and charged the three frontier colored men. According to reports, the Indians had previously told Negro Britt they would kill him if he were ever found out alone. Negro Britt's companions ran, but Britt stood his ground and sold his life as dearly as possible. All three were killed and seventy-two empty shells found around Negro Britt's body, told the story of his bitter fight. No doubt, he made several feathered savages bite the dirt. Britt and his companions were buried near where they were killed, and on the north side of the old Fort Worth-Fort Belknap military road.

And here in an unmarked grave, at the end of his long winding trail, that led to many ranches and cow camps in western Texas, and Indian villages in Oklahoma, lie buried the bones of Negro Britt Johnson. He was a faithful friend to the whites, was highly esteemed and respected by frontier citizens, and helped write much of the early history of Young and adjoining counties.

Note: Author personally interviewed: J. B. (Blue) Terrell, who conversed with Negro Britt in Fort Worth the day before he started on his last journey, and who passed Negro Britt's grave, about the second day after he was killed; Mann Johnson; Henry Williams; F. M. (Babe) Williams; F. M. Peveler; John Marlin; Uncle Pink Brooks; Jeff (Cureton) Eddleman, who was also a slave of Wm. Cureton, mentioned above; A. M. Lasater; Walker K. Baylor, son of General John Baylor; James Wood; and many others who lived in this section of the time.

The above story is from the book, The West Texas Frontier, by Joseph Carroll McConnell.

A wooden cross at the site of the burial and was still visible by land owners as late as 1931.

Here is my mug at the site of the Battle of Adobe Walls back in the 1980's. Yes, the site is on private property, a few miles off the highway by ranch roads passing through a few ranch gates. We were given permission and directions how to find it.

In this picture I am standing at the site of the compound at Adobe Walls. The hill-top in the distance to the right of my head is the spot where the Indian leaders were on horseback conferring about their next plan of attack when Billie Dixon took one off his horse with one shot from his Big-50 buffalo rifle at a distance of 7/8s of a mile. That action convinced the Indians that the Gods were not on their side in this battle and they left the area before the Cavalry arrived to aid the white defenders.

If you ever drive to Del Rio you'll pass about three miles from it. Brackettville/Ft Clark lies maybe thirty miles west of Del Rio on Hwy 90, basically a wide spot in the road. Climbing the hill out of Brackettville going west you'll see the sign at the top, directing you to turn left to find the cemetery.




In the Eighteenth Century the Frontier was relatively stable in the Southeast, hence there was a great deal of intermarriage/cultural exchange between White and Indian, no accident this is where the "Five Civilized Tribes" came from. We like to draw neat borders around things but tribal boundaries and culture were all indistinct. Hence among the Creeks you had everything from slave owners with large plantations breeding fine race horses to Indians still living an approximation of the old ways and people living everything in between.

Cant really separate them out entirely by blood quotient either, there were near fullbloods owning plantations and some of the traditional faction were mostly White or Black or mixtures of all three (Osceola himself being a prime example).

Across the board what they all had was a Frontiersman's familiarity with and competency with firearms.

The Seminoles were those Creeks living in then-remote Florida, mostly on the traditional end of the spectrum. Florida became a haven for runaway slaves from Alabama and Georgia. Slavery among the Creeks ran the spectrum; acculturated plantation owners practised chattel slavery typical of the South. Traditionals practised a sort of "soft" slavery more akin to feudalism, "slave" villages gave tribute in the form of crops and such. But there was a great deal of intermarriage and association.

This gave rise to one of the great unsung partnerships in history; the Seminole Wildcat (AKA Coacoochie) and the Black Seminole Juan Caballo (in English John Horse).

Runaways of expensive slaves to Seminole country was frequent. It was entirely unacceptable to the South to have such a state of affairs on their immediate border, the Seminole Wars to remove them lasted from 1837 to 1842. An exceedingly costly war that has been termed "our first Vietnam". It devolved into a series of bloody guerrilla actions on the one hand, but on the other hand Seminole riflemen were making some of the longest shots with patched round-ball muzzleloaders ever recorded on our Frontier, picking off sentries at 400 yards.

A major faction of the Seminoles were the Black Seminoles, runaway slaves and their offspring actively bearing arms against United States troops.

Eventually Osceola, Wildcat and John Horse were all captured by treachery under a flag of truce and imprisoned in the old Spanish Fort at St Augustine. Their common cell had a single impossibly small window IIRC 30 feet above the outside ground (still there today IIRC). While imprisoned Wildcat and John Horse starved themselves skinny over a period of weeks in order to fit through it. Osceola himself was by that time to ill to accompany them.

Free again, they resumed hostilities while ironically gaining the respect and even friendship of certain Army officers and even the general in charge, General Jessup. The military "Hoooagh!" is said to be derived from a toast Wildcat gave during a formal Army occasion.

Long story short, because the war was so costly it came down to negotiations. Jessup sent Wildcat and John Horse to Washington, in return they went out and convinced their people to move. THe remarkable thing being that the US Government actually allowed 500 free Black Seminoles, lately bearing arms against the US, to remove to present day Oklahoma while bearing arms. The technicality that permitted this was that they were listed as slaves of the Seminoles.

Things were chaotic in the Indian Territory, ironically one of the main enemies of the Widcat/John Horse traditionalist faction were the more acculturated Creeks. For the Black Seminoles things became unlivable when a Federal Law in the 1850's forbade slaves from bearing arms. John Horse himself lost his wife and daughter to Creek slave raiders.

In those years Wildcat turns up all over Texas, fighting skirmishes with Whites and Indians both as far east as Bandera TX and all along the Border. IN fact he gained some notoriety among Whites, the fear being that he was trying to unite the tribes. Other Seminoles, late of the swamps of Florida, likewise turn up all over West Texas and the Border.

Along with the Kickapoos, Wildcat and John Horse accepted a deal with Mexico to accept land (and refuge) in Mexico south of the Rio Grande in return for intercepting Comanche, Kiowa and Apache raiders. In this role they were very active and effective as hostilities between them and these tribes had already broken out since their arrival in the '40's anyway. Well fer one thing, unlike most Texans, they didn't have to employ Indian scouts as guides either.

Wildcat dies of smallpox in 1857, subsequent to which most of his band returned to Oklahoma to the main body of the tribe. The Black Seminoles, being technically runaway slaves, didn't have that option.

Sometime after 1870 the US Cavalry, lacking Indian Scouts in Texas, made a deal with John Horse for a number of Black Seminoles to relocate to Texas and take up employment with the Army.

Short version. Among the funniest parts of the whole story is when Wildcat during his Texas period, deep in his cups in a Fredericksburg bar, sold his buddy John for money to buy more booze, this being a scam they had apparently perpetrated more than once.

On this occasion John Horse and a couple of others hustled the passed-out Wildcat out of town before the other party came to collect.

And a measure of how things were in Texas as late as the 1850's. After removing from Oklahoma and negotiating with Mexico, the Seminoles and Black Seminoles actually took up residence in Texas for the better part of a year, long enough to put in corn crop IIRC somewhere around present Hamilton Texas, one of them events skipped over entirely in pop history.

Birdwatcher

Yes. Most others were reviewed by congressional committee. I think it was done in 1917.

Great pics, thanks

'tis true that the militant faction of the tribe had, out of desperation, just held the first-ever Comanche sun dance in an attempt to gain spirtitual mojo, and that Isa-tai hisself claimed to have made them all bullet-proof.

But generally overlooked is the fact that the main business of the Comanches as a whole had long been the livestock trade, to the extent that they had moved more than 30,000 head of cattle for trade to Army posts in New Mexico just the year before, in 1873.

Billy Dixon was a remarkable guy who made a remarkable shot, which he himself always ascribed to luck. But ultimately there were only 27 buffalo hunters at Adobe Walls. The Whites lost four killed, the Indians less than twenty of the hundreds at the scene.

Not usually talked about is the fact that those hundreds of Indians then fanned out across the Frontier, wreaking what havoc they could.

Adobe Walls was remarkable, but in the greater flow of events it was a skirmish.

Quanah Parker himself had wanted to take out the Tonkawas rather than the Whites, which that many Comanches and Kiowas all at once might have finally accomplished, believing them the greater threat.

Actually he was right, it was Tonkawa scouts later that same year that led the implacable Ranald McKenzie down on them, finally driving them off the Texas Plains as a major power.

And no one at all recalls gentle old "Doc" Sturm, the German Texas Hill Country agriculturalist who had that time been living with the Comanches since the the Brazos Reservation in the 1850's.

Doc Sturm was the guy chosen by Ranald MacKenzie to go out and negotiate with the holdouts under Quanah Parker to give themselves up at Fort Sill. Sturm was about the only White guy who could have pulled that off, and he did. Not too much of a stretch to say the Comanches loved this benevolent and kindly man.

Forgotten too are the subsequent travels all over the Panhandle of Doc Sturm in Company with the Comanche War Leader MowWay, seeking out the last fugitives to bring them back to the tribe.

Birdwatcher

Yep, ten years before the second altercation, and that was the one that really mattered, the first time an outside force penetrated the very heart of Comancheria (even tho IIRC they was up against mostly Kiowas on that occasion).

Kit Carson was justly famous in his day, but perhaps not famous enough today. Among his many other accomplishments, when faced with the overwhelming force of Indians, succeeded admirably in extricating his men and getting them home.

Birdwatcher

That is a fantastic story, the Black Seminoles. They were some tough guys.
Somebody ought to make a movie about the Black Seminoles.

Flat Top Mountain, pictured in my previous post, was the scene of a great injustice brought about by a Medicine Man known as Owl or The Prophet.

When Satank, Santana, and Big Tree were making plans to leave the Rez at Ft Sill and conduct a raid on Butterfield Trail travelers, Owl prophesied - correctly, as it turns out - that from their lookout point on Flat Top, they would see a small group of travelers. They were to let this small group pass un-molested, because there would be a large group passing later in the day.

The "small group", which was allowed to pass was none other than General Sherman with a small escort which would have been no match for the Indians.

His "March through Georgia" could have been avenged right here four miles South of my house! Damn ignorant savages .

The second group was the Warren Wagon Train.

At the trial of the Chiefs, one of the defense lawyers was trying to get mercy for his client by blaming the raid on The Owl. The Chief, I think it was Big Tree, objected loudly saying it was HIS idea and he didn't want Owl stealing his glory.

"Actually he was right, it was Tonkawa scouts later that same year that led the implacable Ranald McKenzie down on them, finally driving them off the Texas Plains as a major power."

The Tonkawas were one of the tribes most victimized by the Army when they were driven from their reservation on the Brazos and herded to the Territory and were not even allowed to take their belongings.

Impoverishing them may have been a tactic to get them to serve as Scouts, aside from their enmity toward the Comanche.

Just a thought on that Butterfield deal. They were moving those maybe 3,000 pound wagons more'n 100 miles a day, all weathers, 24/7.

To put that in perspective, a Comanche war party in their prime, travelling light and moving at a horse-killing pace and trailing two or three remounts per man would have to push hard to sustain that same pace. I would expect as professional Plains travellers, some of them prob'ly tried it just to see exactly how fast and how far those strange apparitions were really moving.

Early in the reservation period a group of Kiowas were shown one of those early stereoscopic slide displays, with photos of New York and other cities back East.

One of the Kiowas, a veteran warrior is said to have exclaimed words to the effect of "All this out there yet we have been as ignorant as wolves living on the prairie!".

If I was a Comanche back then, I would hope I'd have the good sense to read the writing on the wall and hang up my raiding moccassins when I seen those Butterfield stage coaches, twice a week, both directions, running like clockwork.

Birdwatcher

I believe it was 1875, Ranald MacKenzie led a troop of cavalry from Ft. Clark against an Apache band raiding into Texas from sanctuary in Mexico.

This punitive attack was done without first asking permission from Mexico, so it was imperative to get in fast, strike hard and get out.

They crossed the river after dark, guided by Black Seminoles and rode all night.

The attack was timed perfectly, by first light they had deployed around the Apache camp undetected and commenced shooting as soon as they could see.

Tony Wilson was one of the Scouts, on his first such operation. In the half-light he saw an Apache figure running, shrouded by a blanket. Just as he pulled the trigger and the hammer fell, the figure turned and looked at him and he saw it was a terrified teenage girl.

According to the Seminoles Tony Wilson never could get over it, and they said the memory of the events of that morning drove him insane shortly before his death.



Birdwatcher

"Flat Top Mountain, pictured in my previous post, was the scene of a great injustice brought about by a Medicine Man known as Owl or The Prophet.

When Satank, Santana, and Big Tree were making plans to leave the Rez at Ft Sill and conduct a raid on Butterfield Trail travelers, Owl prophesied - correctly, as it turns out - that from their lookout point on Flat Top, they would see a small group of travelers. They were to let this small group pass un-molested, because there would be a large group passing later in the day.

The "small group", which was allowed to pass was none other than General Sherman with a small escort which would have been no match for the Indians.

His "March through Georgia" could have been avenged right here four miles South of my house! Damn ignorant savages"

Yes! What an injustice!
"Uncle Billy" would have been staked out, one stake at each wrist, and ankle.
Squaws would have piled burning coals onto his left hand.
Until it burned off.
Then, they would have burned up his right hand. Then, they would have moved on to the ankles.

I grew up in Atlanta. These Savages had the chance to avenge the March Through Georgia, and they blew it. Dammit!

I might guess it was their unapologetic cannibalism that was to blame but there was lots of more regular tribes that got equally well screwed over. But it must be said, LOTS of folks of all races and mixtures thereof got screwed over at different points in our history.

Individuals of all the tribes believed in and dabbled to varying extent in witchcraft, but from this White guy's distant perspective (me) one gets the impression the Tonkawas trended heavily towards the dark end of that spectrum.

Certainly from accounts the Comanches seem to have regarded them with an almost hysterical hatred, yet were never able to get their act together enough to wipe them out, although there were never very many Tonks and for the entireity of our Texas period they lived within reach of Comanche war parties.

RIP Ford on the other had praised them highly when he brung 100 Tonkawas and Caddos along as allies on his 1860 expedition against Buffalo HUmp's camp in the Wichita Mts., calling them "superior men, with an encyclopedic knowledge of the West" or words to that effect.

Cant say they really went extinct although IIRC they disappeared as a tribal entity before 1890. Lots of 'em it seemed married into the Caddos, and after the Frontier closed doesn't seem like there'd be too much benefit in bragging on being a Tonk.

If nothing else, lots of other Indians around with old scores to settle. When ya ate someone's relative I expect that might leave a mark

Birdwatcher

Well, they oughtta be prime candidates for "Black History Month" at the very least. Not real politically correct tho, after the Seminole Wars were over mostly who they fought were Indians (also true of pretty much every tribe). 19th Century Indian slave raiders practicing American-style chattel slavery doesn't fit in very well with pop history either.

In the Seminole War some of their toughest opponents were Creeks and Cherokees fighting on the US side, the motivation of these particular Indians being in a large part an effort to forestall their own eventual removal by proving loyalty to the US, didn't work.

Then there's the dress of the Seminoles themselves, also to a large extent followed by the Black Seminoles. Whatever he might look like, this Texas Seminole, late of Florida, roaming freely all over West and South Texas and adjacent Mexico was, as you observed, a tough individual.



Sketched here along the Border in 1857. Not remembered today but in the late '40's and '50's the Seminoles earned a reputation among Whites, Mexican and Indians alike in Texas as being a rough lot to tangle with.

After more'n ten years in the West this guy sure didn't dress like yer stereotypical Texas Indian tho'.

His name was Noco-Shimatt-Tash-Tanaki, in English "Grizzly Bear".

Dunno where he got that name, I'd guess he'd previously been to California or the Rocky Mountains, individual from displaced Eastern Tribes showed up literally all over the Continent during the first half of the Nineteenth Century, associated with or in advance of the White Fronter.

Birdwatcher

Birdy, tonkawas were made wards of the Caddo nation after their removal. Reasoning wa the Caddo were closest other texas tribe in the nations. Sorry I'm typing with nitrile gloves on.

However there was one family that survived in Bastrop county up to the 20th century. They lived just north of Smithville over by Buescher state park

Thanks Bob,

And I'm recalling reading that into the reservation period a LOT of the other Indians in Oklahoma still despised them, fer obvious reasons.

Yes lots intermarried with the Lipa s out around fort griffin. They pretty much were absorbed by white and native intermarriage.

Trying to disect "Grizzly Bears" name. It's been a while. I'm not sure if it's all Muskoegean. Prolly not. Too dang many dialects. Nita is bear and I can see that, but there were lots of other words absorbed into "Seminole" vocabulary from Algonquin roots like the Tsalagi (Cherokee).

I know my buds in the nations use lots of different words for some of the animals than Muskoegean based.

Heck thru the Mobilian trade jargon lots of french, Spanish, and English words made their way in!

Just to return to that Seminole for a moment.



The longest actual shots I have seen described during the longrifle period were at 400 yards. I believe one was Col. Edward Hanger's account of a Virginia rifleman, laying prone, hitting the horse of his aide at that distance in our Rev War. The ball passing between the bodies of Hanger and another Officer a few feet away and hitting the horse stood crosswise right behind their own mounts.

The second was of a series of 400 yard shots on sentries by Seminoles, reported by the exceedingly capable General Edmund P Gaines (another great unsung hero in our history) at the 1835 Battle of Ouithlacootchie during the opening of the Second Seminole War. General Gaines' men were besieged behind low log breastworks, taking fire over a number of days, giving some among the Seminoles time to find the range. This was at the opening of hostilities when the Seminoles and Black Seminoles were not yet chronically short of powder and lead like they would become as the conflict dragged on.

At 400 yards, a rifle-caliber round ball is dropping like a rock whatever the muzzle velocity may have been, making range estimation absolutely critical. I posted Gaines' account over on the Tradtional Muzzleloading Form board maybe a year back and was simply scoffed at by many of the regular shooters there... ...until some of them actually tried it.

Turns out it can be done, regularly, but again range estimation/elevation is absolutely critical to avoid dropping the ball either behind or in front of the target. Needless to say wind is a big factor too. No mean trick with simple blade and notch fixed sights.

Not sure exactly what kind of firearm Grizzly Bear in that pic is holding but it does appear to be a classic long rifle. I'm gonna posit a guess that that guy would be dangerous at 400 yards.

Speculation I know.

Birdwatcher

Lots of fusils in the southeast. Frenh and English. Lots of painted guns too! Everything from pink to flowers!!! Reminds me of one Choctaw chief , Tananpo Loosa, or Black Gun!

By the time of the Seminole wars, lots of cheap american trade rifles of the era made their way to the area! Like Lemans, Henry's, Golchers, etc.

Btw, of no significance here, but Ive personally examined a left hand flint fusil lock from down in the Tunica country in a private collection. Just remembered that!

Birdy,
Is the painting from the Berlandier report commissioned by the Mexican govt in 1835? Berlandier did not sketch the natives but a very talented Mexican officer who accompanied the survey did. And I can't for the life of be remember his name ?

Addendum

It was Mier e Teran who he traveled with on the Mexican Boundry commission beginning in 1827. Later expedition in 1834 was under a different commander.

I first found in an unlooked for source, here....

http://www.nps.gov/parkhistory/online_books/amis/aspr-34/chap3.htm

...about the best concise summary of Indians in Texas that I've found.

I thought it was originally from Berlandier too but it turns out the original drawing was in the 1849-55 Emory Boundary Survey...

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_and_Mexican_Boundary_Survey

Birdwatcher

Side note;

It was Beandier who stated he witnessed Comanche women having sexual relations with dogs. I have always felt this was an add on of his official report. To further demonize the tribe in the eyes of the Mexicans.

Sorta ironic, considering how many Comanches WERE Mexicans.

...I blame the women, even if they were mostly abducted in the case of the Comanches. Pretty much EVERY immigrant group going into Mexico, of whatever race, ended up marrying local girls and become part of the Mexican Borg.

Got a buddy last name Obregon, I tell him he's really Irish. Obregon is just O'Brien in Mexican.

Birdwatcher

Let's not forget Alejandro O' Reilly, first Spanisg governor of Luisiana and Hugo O' Conor, viceroy down there in Saltillo I believe!