Date: July 1 1915

Newspaper published in: Graham

(Typographical errors were not changed.)

The Texas Frontier

Mr. Editor: "I am not now, neither have I ever been, a citizen of your
county, but having been a resident of an adjoining county, towit, Parker
county, for a number of years and claiming to be a pioneer, my father having
settled in Parker county in 1854, before the county was organized, and
having spent more than sixty years of my life on the frontier, and having
obtained consent of you to become a scribbler for your most valuable paper,
I take the liberty to present to its readers some of my observations and
experiences on the frontier of the greatest state, at least to me, in the
Union.

I first saw the light on the 10th day of April, 1849, four miles east of
Dover, Pope county, Arkansas. My father was Rev. Pleasant Tackett, my mother
Kezia F. Tackett, whose maiden name was Kezia Bruton. My father was a native
of Kentucky, my mother of Mississippi. My father was born April 12, 1803, my
mother, November 15, 1812. They were married in 1832. They raised a family
of six boys and one girl, who have all reached a ripe old age, my oldest
brother being born August 31, 1837, and the youngest January 1, 1855. I have
four broters older and one sister and one brother, James G. Tackett, who
died in 1913. My father moved to Texas in the spring of 1854, and settled in
Parker county in October 1854. My Great Grandfather was a Frenchman and
Great Grandmother a Delaware Squaw. And, as I myself am a descendant of the
red man, I will give a short history to them.

The Delaware Indians were found by William Penn in the valley of the
Delaware. They were peaceable. He cultivated friendly relations with them
and purchased much of their lands. Their chief council fires blazed in the
site of the present city of Philadelphia. In 1726 they refused to join the
Iroquis in a war against the English and were stigmatized as women, later
however, they became quite war-like and were driven beyond the Alleghanies.
Near the close of the revolution a large number of Delawares were massacreed
by the Americans. Remnants of the tribe dwelt temporarily in Ohio, and in
1818 migrated to Missouri, in 1829 to Kansas and in 1868 to the Indian
Territory, where they now live among the Cherokees and are well civilized.
They are almost extinct, now not numbering more than fifteen or sixteen
hundred.

My father was a Methodist preacher and was the first Missionary to the
Cherokee Indian after they came west and located in Arkansas or Indian
Territory. He acquired a knowledge of their habits and a part of their
language. In 1856, after we had removed to Texas he was appointed Missionary
to the Indians then on the reservations in Young and what is now Shackleford
counties at what was then called Camp Cooper. The reservation in Young
county was near where the town of Graham is now located. Upon these
reservations were located small tribes of Indians, consisting of Caddos,
Wacos, Tonkaways, Anadarkos, Shawnees, and a few Delawares and a few of
other tribes. Upon the Camp Cooper agency or reservation there was a part of
the Commanche tribe. These were all under treaty stipulations with the
United States Government, and were fed and clothed by the Government.

The Comanche Indians were early engaged in war with the Spanish settlers. In
1724 they were on the upper Kansas river and later were south of Red River
in Texas. Their recent territory was the extensive plains from the Rocky
mountains eastward to the Indian Territory and Texas, and they raided the
country southward from Kansas to Durango, Mexico. The early history of the
Comanches, Kiowas and Naconas is the same.

Indian hostilities had ceased in Texas, and when we settled in Parker county
in 1854 the United States troops had been removed from Fort Worth in Tarrant
county to Fort Belknap in Young county, and the Indians on the reservations
were friendly with the whites. There were some of the Comanche Indians under
Chief Buffalo Hump that had not treated with the United States, and
depredated some on the extreme frontier but were held in check by the United
States soldiers, who were then stationed at the different posts from Red
river to the Rio Grand. Those of the Indians that were on the reservation
were expelled from the reservations and removed to Fort Cobb in Indian
Territory in 1859, and became bitter enemies of the Texans.

The first killing that I remember of was a man by the name of Skidmore on
the Clear Fork of the Brazos river in 1856. The next was Will Holden in 1857
or 1858. The next were the Cameron and Mason families on Lost Creek in Jack
county in 1858. Some horses had been stolen in different parts of the
country. Some had been trailed to the Indian reservation, either stolen by
the Indians or stolen by white men, and traded to the Indians. The reserve
Indians were accused of the theft and especially the Caddos. The Indians
made frequent hunting excursions and on one of these a part of Caddos were
camped on Keechi creek in Palo Pinto county, where Peter Garland and some
other citizens made a raid on them and killed several of their number,
including squaws and children. From this, excitement ran high, and the
farther away the worse. About this time Col. John R. Baylor, who had
formerly been Indian agent at Camp Cooper agency, and who had been removed
from office there through some misunderstanding or unpleasantness between
himself and Major Neighbors who was head agent over Col. Baylor at the Camp
Cooper Agency, and Capt. S.P. Ross, who was agent at the Agency in Young
county. Col. Baylor made speeches through the counties of Jack, Palo Pinto,
Parker, Wise, Johnson, Tarrant and others and raised a little army of eight
hundred or one thousand men and boys to kill off the Indians on the
reservation or drive them away. This, as well as I now remember, was the
spring of 1859. We lived at that time on Fish creek in Young county, on the
San Antonio and Fort Belknap road, nine miles south of Belknap and where the
road running from one agency to the other crossed the Fort Belknap and San
Antonio road.

Col. Baylor marched his men backward and forward from one agency to the
other for several weeks, and the United States troops were kept almost
constantly on the march from one agency to the other until some time in
July, I think it was, Col. Baylor marched his men near the Agency in Young
county, formed them in line of battle and sent out a courier under a flag of
truce and was met by the Captain in command of the troops who were stationed
at the agency.

Written by ã R.E. Tackitt