Zavala County Indian Raid

TELLS OF AN INDIAN RAID Source: "Branches and Acorns" SWTGS Quarterly Vol III, No. 2, p. 58-59 - December 1987 G. M. Day, Loma Vista, Zavala County, Texas (This account originally appeared in Frontier Times which was published monthly at Bandera, Texas. The article was in Vol. 2, No. 11, August 1925. SWTGS Member Edith Frazell submitted this account of her grandfather. [The wording in this article has been faithfully reproduced as it appeared in 1925. Ed.] In the spring of 1877 a bunch of Indians, supposed to be Kickapoos, passed through the Castroville neighborhood, stealing horses on their way, then went on to Black Creek and killed a young man named Joe Wilton. On the morning of April 28th, they passed by the house of David Parks, who then lived at the old Todos Santos ranch. Trav. Bell stayed at David Park's during the night of the 27th, and had staked his horse in a flat a few hundred yards from the house. After the cows were milked the next morning, and the family were at breakfast, they heard horses' feet and thought Billy Parks was driving up his horses. Some of them ran out of the house to go turn the cows out so the horses could be penned, but found that the horses they heard were ridden by Indians, who were driving a bunch of loose horses. Trav. Bell rushed out to get his horse before the Indians got to it, and just did save himself and the horse, as the Indians came very near cutting him off from the house. Soon a posse collected at Todos Santos Lake, including Bill Bennett, Claude Bennett, Alex Bennett, Buck Lock (now living at Sabinal), Billy Parks, and a man named Couser. They followed the Indians to a point of the Cibola, just over the line in Frio county, where the trail turned sharply from its course. The men from Todos Santos Lake knew we were cutting timber and building a pen on the Cibolo to catch wild cattle, so when the trail suddenly changed its direction they understood that the Indians had seen us and had gone around. They left the trail and came and told us about the Indians being near at hand and started with us to our camp, which was about three hundred yards from where we were building the pen. When we got to camp we found the Indians had been there and had plundered it. We had rounded up all our horses that morning and had left them all in camp, except those which we rode to our work. A few had strayed, but the Indians found and drove off about forty. Besides the horses, the Indians got all the ammunition we had in camp, a packsaddle, a cowboy saddle which Bob McKinney had bought in San Antonio a short time before, all of our bedding, and everything else we had there. All of the men who had followed the Indians from Todos Santos Lake, except the six whose names are given, went back home after leaving our camp. These six were joined by Tom McKinney, Bob McKinney, Tol McKinney, John Rutledge (now living at Loma Vista), Jack Foster, Emory Foster, Virgil Ridgeway, Frank Conley and myself, making fifteen men in all. We always took our guns and a supply of ammunition when we went to work and always kept our horses near us, as we never knew what moment we might need them, so we had everything we needed to follow the Indians with out losing any time. The trail from our camp led us due west into Zavala county. After stealing our horses the Indians had so many that they made a trail plain enough for us to follow at a full run. We kept our horses on the run for eight or ten miles and overtook the redskins at the Arroya Negro. Only five Indians were with the stolen horses. We had a little fight, drove the Indians off, and recaptured all of the horses except those with the Indians were riding. We passed by the horses, which were so tired after their long, hard run, that they stayed right where we left them, and we went on after the Indians who had scattered. One Indian was riding a horse which belonged to C. C. McKinney. Bob McKinney knew the horse and knew, too, that he just couldn't get through the brush, but was fast in an opening. By this time the horse and his Indian rider were nearing the edge of the brush, so Bob called to those ahead of him to "kill the horse or he'll get away." Several shots were fired, the horse fell, but the Indian did not seem to be hurt, and he started back through the brush towards John Rutledge and Couser. John Rutledge was still on horseback, but Couser's horse had given out and he was walking and leading the horse. The Indian had a six-shooter in one hand and a big knife in the other and was evidently scheming to get a horse from one of the two men. It was found afterward that one side of the Indian's pistol had been shot away and the main spring had fallen out, so he couldn't use it. John Rutledge had a six-shooter that shot too high, but John hadn't owned it long enough to learn its tricks, so as the Indian charged them he fired several shots over his head. Couser waited until the Indian came closer, then dropped on one knee, took careful aim, fired, and the Indian fell forward on his face. This Indian was wearing a jacket which some of the men said belonged to Joe Wilton. The other boys collected around the dead Indian. Alex Bennett, who had followed Indians before, told them they should leave there at once, and warned them that if they didn't the Indians would come back and kill some of them. They would not listen to him, but stood around, some on foot and some on horseback, talking and joking. In a few minutes I rode off about seventy-five yards to the edge of a white brush thicket which had a gully running through it about thirty yards from where I sat on my horse, holding my rifle barrel in one hand with the butt resting on my left thigh. Couser, always full of mischief, was stooping over the dead Indian, had his hair wrapped around his hand, and said he was "preaching his funeral." He said he was going to scalp him afterwards. Then I heard a shot and thought one of the boys let his gun go off accidently. My arm dropped and my gun fell to the ground. The bullet had cut the big leader and knocked me to one side. Other shots followed, and we knew that the Indians had slipped back, crawled up the gully that ran through the thicket, and were shooting at us. The first shot scared my horse. He began pitching, threw me to the ground and shattered my right shoulder. I started to run, and did not realize that my shoulder was broken until I tried to pull my six-shooter. Several other shots were fired at me while I was running, but none of them hit me. Then I began to turn blind and fell. Billy Parks saw me fall and come to me. He called the others and told them I was wounded, and they carried me to the shade of some hackberry trees on a little creek. Later Billy Parks and Bill Bennett went to Doc Spears' place on Sugar Creek and got his wagon to take me home. It took a long time for my wounds to heal, and my left arm has been stiff ever since. When the Indians began shooting at us from the thicket we all scattered. I was the only man wounded, but Billy Parks' horse was killed, and a bullet cut the headstall, right between the eyes, of the horse ridden by John McKinney. How John escaped unhurt none of us could understand. Not an Indian was seen during the attack. The shells afterward picked up showed that the Indians had used a Spencer rifle, a rim-fire rifle, a center-fire rifle, and a Winchester. Some of the boys picked up my rifle and caught my horse. The stolen horses were driven back to Todos Santos Lake and held there until the owners came for them. Sometime afterwards small groups of these Indians, two or three at a time, were seen crossing the Rio Grande into Mexico. [Submitted by Amanda Jowers]

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