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This month's Iconic Image is...
Cynthia Ann Parker
On the morning of May 19, the settlers of Fort Parker woke up to a terrifying sight. Outside the walls of Fort Parker, were more than 100 angry Indian warriors. The warriors were all from the Commanche, Kiowa, Caddo, and Wichita tribes. Due to the Texan settlers' recent conflict with the Mexican army, many of the local tribes had become emboldened to take back what they considered to be their land (especially when they heard of the Texan defeats at the Alamo and Goliad).
Since most of the Texan men had gone south to fight the Mexicans, Fort Parker's garrison had been greatly reduced to just over 30 residents (most of whom were women and children). Fearing that an attack was going to occur, Benjamin Parker left the fort and approached the warriors under a white flag of truce. Exactly what was said has been in dispute, but Parker returned minutes later saying that he believed the warriors were going to storm the fort and that he was going to attempt to distract the warriors while the women and children fled through the back door.
One of the residents was Rachel Plummer (daughter of James and Martha Parker). She would recount later that her uncle then left the fort a second time to speak to the warriors. Minutes later she heard gunshots and screams. The warriors broke through the gate and began to massacre those inside. The warriors killed Silas Parker, John Parker, Samuel Frost, Benjamin Parker, and Robert Frost.
Most of the residents of Fort Parker had already successfully fled out the back entrance and into the wilderness (among them were Silas Parker's widow Lucinda and their two youngest children, Silas Mercer and Orlena). However, five of those in the fort were captured by the Commanche warriors. They were, Rachel Plummer (who was pregnant), her son James Plummer, Elizabeth Duty Kellogg, Cynthia Ann Parker, and her younger brother John Richard Parker. The warriors then plundered the fort and departed with their captives.
Part II
By the time the survivors reached safety and told Texan authorities what had happened, the Comanche warriors and their allies were long gone. They divided captives among the tribes and parted ways. However, the late John Parker's surviving son (James W. Parker) was working in the fields during the attack and therefore survived. He then began a long search to try and find his missing relatives. He was able to successfully find and win the release of four of them.
Rachel Plummer was released after two years of captivity. In 1838, she published a written account of her 21 months with the Comanche tribe. Her account is considered to be one of the best and most accurate depictions of Comanche culture before the tribe was placed on reservations. Sadly, Rachel Plummer died on March 19, 1839, due to a complicated pregnancy (her newborn tragically died two days later). She did not live to see what became of her son James.
James Pratt Plummer was released in the year 1842 (two years after the death of his mother). He was then raised by his grandfather, James. He married twice and had four children before dying in the American Civil War on November 17, 1862. He was only 27 years old.
John Richard Parker was also released with his cousin James Plummer in the year 1842. Unlike his cousin, John was unable to readapt to white society and returned to the Comanche tribe less than a year later. He later fought with the Comanche in their war against Mexico. However, the tribe eventually abandoned him in Mexico after he fell ill with smallpox. After this, he was taken in by a local family who nursed him back to health. He eventually married one of their daughters. After serving in the Confederate Army during the Civil War, John Parker moved back to Mexico with his wife and became a rancher. He stayed there until his death in 1915.
Elizabeth Kellogg was the most fortunate of the captives. She was given to the Kichai tribe within days of the massacre at Fort Parker. After a single summer of captivity, she was released after James Parker (her brother-in-law) paid a ransom of 150 dollars. Her fate after this is unknown.
However, although James Parker searched fervently for nine years, he could not locate his missing niece (Cynthia Ann). When he begged Texas President Sam Houston for help, the latter had none to give. He finally gave up looking in 1846 after the death of his wife, Martha (he had five other children who had grown up without him). He died in the year 1864.
Part III
Like her brother, Cynthia Ann Parker was also adopted into the Comanche tribe. Unlike John, she was not released for a ransom and remained with the tribe for more than twenty years. For her first year of captivity she was treated as a servant girl by the tribe. But eventually, Cynthia was adopted by a Comanche family. The gave her the name, Naduah (someone found).
Over time, Cynthia adapted to living with the Comanche tribe and learned to speak their language. In 1840, she married a Comanche chieftain named, Pete Nocona. With him, she gave birth to two sons and a daughter. They were named, Quanah, Pecos, and Topsanna (Prairie Flower). Sadly, just like in 1836, her world was once again shattered by war.
By the year 1860, war had once again broke out between the Comanche tribe and the settlers in Texas. Among the most prevalent of the fighters were the Texas Rangers. The rangers were led by a young captain named Lawrence Sullivan (Sul) Ross. Although Ross had been born in the Iowa territory, he and his family had moved to Texas in the year 1839. He had grown up hearing about the Fort Parker Massacre and knew that there was at least one captive who had never been released.
In late October of that year, the Comanche tribe launched a number of raids on Texas settlements along the Pease River (the border between Texas and what is now Oklahoma). Upon learning that a Chief Pete Nocona was leading the raids, Ross took a detachment of Texas rangers and militiamen and began to hunt for the raiders. He finally caught up with them at the nearby Mule Creek. On December 18, the Texans charged the Comanche camp. They killed all but three of the two to three dozen men, women, and children (Ross claimed to have personally killed Chief Nocona) before discovering a startling sight. A young white woman who was holding a baby girl in her arms. When asked who she was, she tearfully replied in broken english that her name was Cynthia Ann Parker.
Epilogue
Cynthia Ann Parker and her daughter were taken to the town of Birdville (now Arlington, Texas). Once there, Cynthia was reunited with her family. Just one day after her arrival, an unidentified photographer asked her to pose with her young daughter. She did so briefly. The photograph was then sent all over the United States and immediately made her into living legend of the American frontier. On April 8, 1861 (just four days before the beginning of the Civil War), the state of Texas awarded Cynthia a grant of $100 a year for five years and some land to farm.
However, Cynthia was deeply unhappy being back in white society. She was reportedly grief-stricken over the death of her husband and was caught on several occasions trying to sneak back to the Comanche tribe with her daughter. In 1863, she got word that her younger son, Pecos, had died of smallpox. A year later, Cynthia's daughter Prairie Flower, died of pneumonia. The loss of two of her children and the stress of being unable to readjust to white civilization caused her to suffer severe depression. She began refusing to eat food and became mostly withdrawn. She died in March of 1870.
Her only remaining son, was Quanah Parker. After the death of his father and separation from his mother, Quanah was named chief of the Comanche. In the aftermath of the American Civil War, he and his people fought against the US Army in what was called, the Comanche campaign. For nearly eight years, Chief Quanah fought on and tried to preserve their way of life. However, after the Red River War in 1875, he and his people finally surrendered to Colonel Ranald McKenzie. He died on February 23, 1911, and is currently buried with his mother and sister in Fort Sill Post Cemetery in Oklahoma. He holds the distinction of being the last chief of the Comanche.
Through the 19th and 20th centuries the story of Cynthia Ann Parker has been told and retold to millions of Americans. It is probably the most iconic story of a family tragedy on the American frontier. In the Oscar-winning movie Dances with Wolves, Mary McDonnell's character (Stands With A Fist) is loosely based on Cynthia Ann Parker. Her photograph remains a stark symbol of her tragic life and America's terrible wars with Native Americans.
https://medium.com/save-texas-history/the-aftermath-of-the-attack-on-fort-parker-in-the-records-of-the-glo-archives-1b4d4860fa67
http://www.texascenterforregionalstudies.net/the-fort-parker-massacre-and-montgomery-county.html
https://www.forttours.com/pages/parker.asp
https://www.legendsofamerica.com/na-cynthiaparker/
https://baylorarchives.cuadra.com/cgi-bin/starfetch.exe?.lokrcnef@iFOb37ua@3FElVhWkUjO@HtgJbRnmD1z5ROcmz1qxXRUivzsLZEuWfdh@@dvjLRo8QGF3xiP997G5hcCaZzT8FxdbaYRr6SRE/0001n8.xml
https://www.tshaonline.org/handbook/entries/parker-james-w
https://www.rootsweb.com/~okmurray/stories/cynthia_ann_parker.htm
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