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Text originally published in 1955 under the same title.
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Publishers Note
Although in most cases we have retained the Authors original spelling and grammar to authentically reproduce the work of the Author and the original intent of such material, some additional notes and clarifications have been added for the modern readers benefit.
We have also made every effort to include all maps and illustrations of the original edition the limitations of formatting do not allow of including larger maps, we will upload as many of these maps as possible.
COMANCHE BONDAGE: DR. JOHN CHARLES BEALESS SETTLEMENT OF LA VILLA DE DOLORES ON LAS MORAS CREEK IN SOUTHERN TEXAS OF THE 1830s
with an Annotated Reprint of
SARAH ANN HORNS NARRATIVE
OF HER CAPTIVITY AMONG THE COMANCHES HER RANSOM BY TRADERS IN NEW MEXICO AND RETURN VIA THE SANTA F TRAIL
BY
CARL COKE RISTER
TEXAS TECHNOLOGICAL COLLEGE
ILLUSTRATIONS
1. STOCK CERTIFICATE OF THE RIO GRANDE AND TEXAS LAND COMPANY
2. SITE OF LA VILLA DE DOLORES
3. CORNERSTONES OF A BUILDING AT DOLORES
4. WRAPPERS OF THE ORIGINAL EDITION OF MRS. HORNS NARRATIVE Courtesy of the Huntington Library, San Marino, California
5. FACSIMILE OF THE TITLE PAGE OF THE ORIGINAL EDITION Courtesy of the Huntington Library, San Marino, California
6. MRS. HORNS PICTURE AS IT APPEARED IN THE SECOND EDITION TITLE PAGE Courtesy of the Huntington Library, San Marino, California (H.M. 97186)
7. WILLIAM WORKMAN
8. MAP OF BEALESS RIVER GRANT Drawn by Arnold Matter, 1955
FOREWORD
Mrs. Sarah Ann Horn and a Mrs. Harris were among the first, if not the first, Anglo-American women to be captured and enslaved by the nomadic Comanche Indians. Mrs. Horns small sons, John and Joseph, and Mrs. Harriss infant shared their mothers fate. For many weary and horror-packed months the Indians subjected the two women to every hardship and cruelty which their primitive minds could invent, but at last they were ransomed by kind-hearted New Mexican traders and sent to Missouri via the Santa F Trail. While captives, they had been forced to watch the warriors impose on their children inhuman treatment, from which the babe, and later little John, died. So it is small wonder that both women, when ransomed, were sadly broken in heart, body, and soul and lived but a short time to tell their tragic story.
In September, 1838, Mrs. Horn found a friendly asylum in the home of David Workman of New Franklin, Missouri. And a short time later, to obtain the means to enable her to return to the land of her nativity, England, and for a measure of comfortable support, a kind amanuensis and friend presented to the American public her graphic narrative in book form. By going to England, Mrs. Horn hoped to gain the support of her relatives and friends to recover from the Indians her remaining son, Joseph.
That Comanche life and ways were as primitive as described in Mrs. Horns narrative is proved by the accounts of other captives of this period. The narratives of Cynthia Ann Parker, James W. Parker, Mrs. Rachel Plummer, Herman Lehmann, and Edwin Eastman, which are listed in this books bibliography, corroborate much of the minutia found in the Horn account. Yet since the 1830s, no ethnic group of the world has made a more profound advance in modern civilization within so short a period. Today these Indians conform amazingly well to the white mans ways. Their children attend village and community schools, churches, and attire themselves in store-bought clothes. Some Comanche young men and women hold college and university degrees and are accomplished in the arts and sciences. In short, the old tribal days are gone, and the present-day youth of Comancheria view the future with optimism.
It is not known how many copies of this little book were published and sold in 1839. In 1853, at Cincinnati, a second edition was published with some changes and abbreviations, although copies of it are also scarce. At present, only a few copies of the original edition are known to be in the United States. Bibliophiles and collectors of Western Americana regard it as the rarest of captive accounts, not only because of its scarcity but also because of its narration of stark realism, of primitive Indian life, and of terrible cruelty and grim tragedy. It is hoped that this reprint will in part reveal to its readers the price which our pioneers paid for laying well the basis of our present Southwestern life.
In editing this book, I have left the narrative as it was originally, except I have modified the pagination by inclosing page numbers in brackets, e.g. [], [], etc. Although the narrative carries a sustaining interest, at points it is replete with redundance, misspelled and misused words, involved sentence structure, and long paragraphs. Even the typography is faulty. On one line a six-or eight-point type has been employed and on another a larger type-face. But all these irregularities were common in border publications and lend color to the account.
In the Introduction of Mrs. Horns narrative, I have found it necessary to present an epitomized history of Dr. John Charles Bealess Dolores colony on Las Moras Creek in southern Texas. To do this, I have leaned heavily on Bealess part-journal found in William Kennedys Texas ... (London, 1841), his Memorial and supporting documents, and Thomas H. OS. Addickss Depositionall of which are cited more fully in the bibliography. I have also found indispensable six letters in Eduard Ludecuss Reise durch die Mexikamschen Provinzen Tumahpas, Cohahuila und Texas im Jahre 1834 (Leipzig, 1837), which Mrs. B. Brandt of the Texas Archives has translated and has kindly permitted me to study and cite.
I am indebted to the staffs of the Library of Congress, the Texas State Library (Archives Division), the University of Oklahoma Library (Phillips Collection) for their helpful courtesies. E. Houses Narrative of the Captivity of Mrs. Horn and Her Two Children with Mrs. Harris by the Camache Indians (St. Louis, 1839) is reproduced by permission of the Huntington Library, San Marino, California, which also reproduced for my use Mrs. Horns portrait from the 1853 edition of this book. The New World Study Club, Brackettville, with the assistance of Mrs. H. H. Senne, Secretary of the Kinney County Chamber of Commerce, kindly made available photographs of the ruins on the site of the Dolores settlement. Arnold Maeker drew the map used in this book, and my faithful wife, Mattie May Rister, and my secretary, Mary Doak Wilson, were helpful in copying, proof-reading, and rechecking data.
