Grace Jackson - Cynthia Ann Parker

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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.

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Cynthia Ann Parker

by

GRACE JACKSON

Cynthia Ann Parker was originally published in 1959 by The Naylor Company, San Antonio, Texas.

Dedicated

to

Joe O. Naylor

Lover of Southwest history and culture,

who inspired me to write this story of

Cynthia Ann Parker

Contents

The story of Cynthia Ann Parker is one of adventure, romance, and pathos, depicting the spirit of the American way of life. In 1757, John Parker was born in Virginia, and his life is typical of the pioneer faith which has been the inheritance of those living today. Leaving Virginia in 1785, he crossed the distance of 3500 miles only to die at the hand of the Comanche Indians in 1836. John Parkers son, Silas, was the father of Cynthia Ann and he accompanied the elder Parker to the country of southeast Texas where they settled and built Fort Parker.

Rejoicing over the victory of the Battle of San Jacinto on the evening of May 18, 1836, they rested from their labors and disbanded the rangers who had been at the fort for their protection. On May 19, the Comanche Indians struck, killing the men in the stockade and taking Cynthia Ann and her brother John captive. The Comanches gave her a new name, Preloch, when she was taken captive. Cynthia Ann was nine years old when she last saw her mother, and for twenty-four long years she lived with the Indians of the plains.

She married Peta Nocona and became a Comanche princess, following him in his raids against the white people. She adopted their habits and customs and bore him three children.

At the Battle of Pease river, in 1860, she was captured by the white soldiers at the location where they killed her Indian chief, Peta Nocona. Taken by Captain Ross back to Camp Cooper to the white people, she could not speak English; nor did she recognize her uncle Isaac Parker who came to find her. Her bewildered mind finally awoke; she must have heard a faint echo of her own dead mothers voice crying Cynthia Ann. The scowl on her face faded, and, falteringly and brokenly, she framed the forgotten words CynthiameCynthia and pressed her hand against her heart.

She was returned to her white relatives at the age of thirty-four and was sad and lonely, for her constant association with the Indians had changed her habits, ways and customs. She tried to run away with her little girl, Prairie Flower or Tecks Ann, who had been captured with her. She mourned the loss of her two boys, Pecos and Quanah, fearing they had perished on the prairie. The child, Prairie Flower, did not live long in her white captivity, and grief-stricken Cynthia Ann passed away in 1864.

Quanah, her Indian son, lived however to become a famous Comanche chief. He advertised for a picture of his mother in the Fort Worth Gazette. Captain Ross found and gave him the only picture of his mother that is known to exist. He requested that his mothers body be brought to Cache, Oklahoma, where he was buried beside the grave of his mother. Both graves are now in Fort Sill, where they were moved by the government.

Ballad of Cynthia Ann Parker

About the Author

A group of war-weary patriots had emptied their powder horns and were trudging down the trails toward the hills of home. They had left Virginia more than two years before, for they had gone to fight the British. After the victory of Yorktown, the peace had been signed and the militia had been disbanded. This company of young men had started for home. The countryside was not new to John Parker, for, as a young man, he had fought the Indians and helped his parents build a home there.

These parts of Virginia were sparsely settled, but in these mountains, in Culpeper County, John was born in 1757. He had lived a quiet life until the American colonies began their war for independence against England. John was a lad of nineteen when he left his parents and his girl sweetheart, Sallie White, and went to the aid of his country. As he walked home, tall and handsome in his buff and blue worn regimentals, he wondered if Sally had waited for him to return. Sally was a tall frontier girl whose parents had lived near the Parker land. John Parker was welcomed home by his family and sweetheart and busy days followed. There were new wardrobes for John, and soon he and Sallie were married at his parents home. It was out of this rock that the Parker fame was hewn.

Culpeper County, Virginia. In April of 1781, a first son was born to John and Sally Parker, and they named him Daniel. Because both John and Sally were of the Baptist faith, they felt that their children should have names of men who had lived in Biblical times, and whose lives measured up to their religious beliefs. Thus, all of their sons were named for men who were in the Bible. The next son, they named John, and then Isaac arrived and was given the Old Testament patriarchs name.

The colony of Virginia in these years was still new, and the experiences with the red man were still very real with these new settlers. They still sharpened their hunting knives and put their rifles in order. The cruel, hard years at the close of the revolution brought hardships that were al -most unbearable to the struggling few. God, in his providence, used it to put metal into the sinews of these people for their future life in the West. The suffering economics of the trodden-down colonists caused them to seek their fortunes in the cotton fields of Georgia. They felt sure that the English trade would increase as the fields of cotton were planted. They thought they could turn to these fluffy white pods as a medium of trade between their poverty-stricken lands and the countries of Europe.

Elbert County, Georgia . One afternoon, the wagons and horses drove up to transport the Parker family from Virginia to Georgia. It was the ambition of John Parker that sent him trekking south with his family. The roads were very poor. From Culpeper, they took the secondary road to Orange, then Charlottesville and on to the place called Lynchs Ferry. From Lynchs Ferry they moved slowly down to Salem. From Salem they journeyed to the town of Charlotte in North Carolina where there was a main road, and the highway was completed through Camden to Augusta, Georgia. From Augusta there was an old secondary road up to Elbert County. They settled on a farm on the Savannah River, and life was much the same in this colony except that they had Negroes to do much of the manual labor on the small farm. While in Georgia, John Parker was made an elder in his church, and from this time on was called by the name, Elder John. During this stay in Georgia, James Parker was born, the fourth son of John and Sallie. But the call of the West was still strong, and as civilization pushed to their countryside in Georgia, the urge to leave and go West was in the heart of Elder John. Rumors were reaching Georgia of the opportunities in beautiful Tennessee. He decided to take his family over the mountains to this new country of opportunity.