Life and adventures of "Billy" Dixon of Adobe Walls, Texas panhandle : $b A narrative in which is described many things relating to the early SouthwestDixon, Billy
History
Life and adventures of "Billy" Dixon of Adobe Walls, Texas panhandle : $b A narrative in which is described many things relating to the early Southwest
Dixon, Billy
Frontier and pioneer life -- Texas; Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.); Indians of North America -- Wars -- 1866-1895
Upon coming in sight of Adobe Walls, we were quickly discovered, and
our disordered appearance convinced the men that we had been attacked
by Indians--possibly we were the only survivors of a desperate
encounter. We found Adobe Walls buzzing with talk about Indians. The
particulars of the killing of the men on Chicken Creek were now
learned. Their names were Dudley and Wallace. They were camped on the
south side of the creek near where the Ledrick brothers now have a
ranch. Dudley, Wallace and Joe Plummer were hunting together from this
camp. Plummer went to Adobe Walls for supplies. Upon his return he was
horrified to find the dead bodies of his two companions. Through the
breast of one had been driven a heavy wooden stake, pinning him to the
ground. Both were scalped, and otherwise mutilated in a shocking
manner.
Looking away from his camp, Plummer said he saw objects at a distance
which he felt sure were Indians. Realizing that the next thing for him
to do was to try to save his life, he cut the harness from one of his
horses, mounted and dashed away toward Adobe Walls.
The news he brought caused much excitement, as these were the first
men that had been killed since the building of Adobe Walls. When
Plummer reached the Walls there were only a few men there, but he
managed to get two buffalo-hunters to go back with him to bury the
dead. A party of fifteen surveyors, employed by the State of Texas,
and in charge of a man named Maddox, had just arrived in that section.
I am told that this was the first surveying ever done in the
Panhandle, and that the Maddox survey still holds good. The surveyors'
camp was on Johns' Creek. Plummer had halted there on his way to Adobe
Walls, to warn the men against the Indians. When Plummer returned, the
members of the surveying party joined him to help bury the dead. No
further indignities had been offered the bodies, which were buried on
the spot. The horses, still in their harness were found grazing in the
valley. Plummer gathered up the outfit and went to Adobe Walls--the
surveyors kept going straight south, fully satisfied that soldiers,
not surveyors, were what the country most needed.
Hearing all this, I was impatient to return to my own camp as quickly
as possible, but was detained by the necessity of buying a mate for my
mule, which was beset with difficulties. Finally, I managed to buy a
horse. My next obstacle to overcome was to replace the gun I had lost
in the Canadian. The best I was able to do was to buy what was called
a round-barrel Sharp's. I had left camp in such a hurry that I failed
to take my six-shooter, an oversight of which I was rarely guilty in
those days. I had been absent three days when I got back to my camp.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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