Transcriber’s Note: Care has been taken to preserve the content of the original publication including unexpected punctuation and spelling. See the note at the end of this ebook for further details. [Illustration: CYNTHIA ANN PARKER.] CYNTHIA ANN PARKER. THE STORY OF HER CAPTURE At the Massacre of the Inmates of Parker’s Fort; of her Quarter of a Century Spent Among the Comanches, as the Wife of the War Chief, Peta Nocona; and of her Recapture at the Battle of Pease River, by Captain L. S. Ross, of the Texian Rangers. --BY-- JAMES T. DeSHIELDS, Author of “Frontier Sketches,” Etc. “Truth is Stranger than Fiction.” ILLUSTRATED. ST. LOUIS: Printed for the Author, 1886. Copyright 1886 by JAMES T. DeSHIELDS. All Rights Reserved. CHAS. S. WOODWARD Printing and Book Manufacturing Co., ST. LOUIS. DEDICATED (By Permission) --TO-- GENL. L. S. ROSS, --OF-- WACO, TEXAS. PREFACE. In the month of June, 1884, there appeared in the columns of the Forth Worth _Gazette_ an advertisement signed by the Comanche chief, Quanah Parker, and dated from the reservation near Fort Sill, in the Indian Territory, enquiring for a photograph of his late mother, Cynthia Ann Parker, which served to revive interest in a tragedy which has always been enveloped in a greater degree of mournful romance and pathos than any of the soul-stirring episodes of our pioneer life, so fruitful of incidents of an adventurous nature. From the valued narratives kindly furnished us by Victor M. Ross, Major John Henry Brown and Gen. L. S. Ross, supplemented by the Jas. W. Parker book and copious notes from Hon. Ben. F. Parker, together with most of the numerous partial accounts of the fall of Parker’s Fort and subsequent relative events, published during the past fifty years; and after a careful investigation and study of the whole, we have laboriously and with much pains-taking, sifted out and evolved the foregoing narrative of plain, unvarnished facts, which form a part of the romantic history of Texas. In the preparation of our little volume the thanks of the youthful author are due to Gen. L. S. Ross, of Waco; Major John Henry Brown of Dallas; Gen. Walter P. Lane of Marshall; Col. John S. Ford of San Antonio; Rev. Homer S. Thrall--the eminent historian of Texas; Mr. A. F. Corning of Waco; Capt. Lee Hall, Indian Agent, I. T., and Mrs. C. A. Westbrook of Lorena, for valuable assistance rendered. To Victor M. Ross of Laredo, Texas, the author has been placed under many and lasting obligations for valuable data so generously placed at his disposal, and that too at considerable sacrifice to the donor. From this source we have obtained much of the matter for our narrative.