abilenet March 24th, 2009
Between 1500 and 1700 the name Jumanos was used to identify at least three distinct peoples of the Southwest and South Plains. They include the Tompiro-speaking Pueblo Indians in Salinas, a nomadic trading group based around the Rio Grande and Río Conchos, and the Caddoan-speaking Wichitas along the Arkansas River and Red River basins. Although they ranged over much of northern Mexico, New Mexico, and Texas, their most enduring territorial base was in central Texas between the lower Pecos River and the Colorado. The Jumanos were buffalo hunters and traders, and played an active role as middlemen between the Spanish colonies and various Indian tribes. Historical documents refer to Jumana, Humana, Sumana, Chouman, Xoman, and other variants of the name; but Jumano has been the standard form in twentieth-century scholarship. Other names mentioned in connection with the Jumanos, as closely allied or subordinate groups, include Cíbolos, Jediondos, and Caguates. Continue Reading »
abilenet March 10th, 2009
Born a slave in Tennessee around 1840, Britton “Britt” Johnson would become a famous West Texas character for his exploits of bravery. He came to Texas in the 1850s with his master Moses Johnson, who had bought land in the Peters’ Colony. As a reward for Britt’s loyalty and hard work, Moses Johnson appointed him foreman of the ranch, with unlimited freedom to perform his duties. He also permitted Britt to raise his own horses and cattle. Continue Reading »
abilenet January 15th, 2009
Delaware Indians shaped much of Abilene’s early history. Men like John Conner, Jim and William Shaw, Black Beaver, and Jim Ned served as scouts and interpreters for the U.S. Army, helped with diplomatic missions to the Comanches, and guided immigrant trains into the region. They left their mark on the land in other ways, as well, in the names of creeks, mountains, and springs. Continue Reading »
abilenet December 26th, 2008
Elizabeth Ann Clifton, rancher, merchant, and Indian captive, was born on March 29, 1825, in Alabama. In 1842, when she was sixteen, she married Alexander Joseph Carter, a free black. The couple had two children and lived with Carter’s parents, Edmund J. and Susanna Carter, in Red River and Navarro counties before moving west to Fort Belknap in Young County, where they began raising stock and farming. Elizabeth Carter managed the ranch, soon as a full partner, while her husband and father-in-law ran a cargo transportation business. Though she was illiterate and epileptic, she also ran a boarding house, the Carter Trading House. In 1857 her husband and father-in-law were both mysteriously murdered. When Carter’s estate was finally settled, his remaining assets were divided between his two grandchildren, Elizabeth Carter’s married daughter as well as her young son. Mrs. Carter was not, however, made guardian of her son’s property. Continue Reading »
abilenet December 25th, 2008
On October 13, 1864, in western Young County, several hundred Kiowa and Comanche Indians raided the Elm Creek valley northwest of Fort Belknap. Peter Harmonson and his son, after taking refuge in a thicket on nearby Rabbit Creek, shot and killed one of the Indian leaders. At the household of Elizabeth Ann FitzPatrick the Indians killed and scalped Mrs. FitzPatrick’s daughter, Mildred Susanna Carter Durkin, and killed the son of Britt (Britton) Johnson, a black slave. Mrs. FitzPatrick, her son and two granddaughters, Mildred and Lottie, and Johnson’s wife and children were taken captive. Continue Reading »
abilenet December 11th, 2008
As soon as there were Texas cowboys, the cowboy song came into being. Driving cattle for endless weeks on the prairie inspired the young men who did it to occupy their time with poetry and singing. As early as the 1880s, many cowboy poems appeared regularly in ranching trade magazines. One of the most popular and poignant songs to come out of this tradition was “Bury Me Not on the Lone Prairie.” Inspired in part from an old tale of a sailor buried at sea, the cowboy version takes its origins from the Hashknife Ranch, the site of modern-day Abilene. Continue Reading »
abilenet December 2nd, 2008
This Penateka War Chief, Buffalo Hump, was born most likely in the late 1700s or early 1800s near present-day Abilene. He first emerges in the historical record in 1836, listed as a resident of a brushy creek village, northwest of San Antonio. He rose to prominence as a leader of the Penateka Comanches by leading 400 warriors in the retaliatory Linnville and Victoria Raid in 1839. He was conspicuous in the running battle at Plum Creek, but escaped to his home on the upper Colorado. Continue Reading »
abilenet November 30th, 2008
Comanches rode into the history of the United States in 1706, being mentioned by observers in Santa Fe as newcomers from the north. Sometime during the late seventeenth century, the Comanches acquired horses and that acquisition drastically altered their culture. The life of the pedestrian tribe was revolutionized as they rapidly evolved into a mounted, well-equipped, and powerful people. Their new mobility allowed them to leave their mountain home and their Shoshone neighbors and move onto the plains of eastern Colorado and western Kansas, where game was plentiful. After their arrival on the Great Plains, the Comanches began a southern migration that was encouraged by a combination of factors. By moving south, they had greater access to the mustangs of the Southwest. The warm climate and abundant buffalo were additional incentives for the southern migration. The move also facilitated the acquisition of French trade goods, including firearms, through barter with the Wichita Indians on the Red River. Pressure from more powerful and better-armed tribes to their north and east, principally the Blackfoot and Crow Indians, also encouraged their migration. A vast area of the South Plains, including much of North, Central, and West Texas, soon became Comanche country, or Comanchería. Continue Reading »
abilenet November 29th, 2008
Comancheros were New Mexican traders among the Plains Indians, particularly the Comanche and Kiowa of Western Texas and Oklahoma. Ranging from the Dakotas to the Davis and Wichita Mountains, this trade emerged from Spanish treaties with the Comanches in the 1780s. Merchants could obtain a license from the governor of New Mexico to venture out on the plains and conduct business with the Indians. The name Comanchero dates to 1840, when explorer Josiah Gregg described this commerce in his journals. Continue Reading »
abilenet November 18th, 2008
In the summer of 1854, General Randolph B. Marcy, under orders of the United States Department of War and Interior and in accordance with an act of the Texas Legislature dated February 6, created two Indian reservations in West Texas. The Brazos Reservation originally comprised four leagues, or 18,576 acres, twelve miles south of Fort Belknap, where the Brazos River makes three big bends. The size was doubled when an adjacent tract of equal size, intended for the western Indians, was added to it. The main building was three miles east of the site of present-day Graham.
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