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 Indian
Fighting in
Jack County - 1870s
By Eddie Matney
The
early spring of 1875 began. Citizens of the northwestern frontier counties
of Texas happily started to emerge from twenty years of almost constant
Indian raids, killings, and thievery. Several factors had led to this
sense of hope and safety.
In the year 1868,
the United States government had adopted a peace plan whereby the Indian
reservations would be administered by civilians. As long as the Indians
stayed on the reservations, they would be protected and fed.
This act caused
a real hardship on the anguished citizens of Texas and the army stationed
in Texas. The Indian raiders would come off the reservations into Texas
for depredations and then retreat back to the badlands of West Texas
or to the sanctuary of the reservations. According to the treaty, Texas-based
cavalry units chasing Indian raiding parties had to stop along the Red
River and could not legally advance onto the reservation unless requested
by higher authority.
Throughout the
early months of 1874, the U.S. government had been seeing an ever-increasing
unrest among the Indians on the reservations, especially among the Kiowa,
Comanche, and Cheyenne. It was becoming apparent that civilian control
was slipping. Some of the reservation Indians were leaving and going
out to the Staked Plains of West Texas and others were making raids
into the northwestern part of the state. It seemed that a general outbreak
of Indian warfare was at hand.
Stationed at Fort
Richardson in Jack County, the Army had been doing its best to protect
the homesteaders and ranchers, but the number of cavalry companies was
never enough to give proper protection of such a large area. Through
patrols, the soldiers found and had several fights with warriors, yet
the Indian raids continued.
The raids coming
out of the western parts of the state, especially from the reservations
in the Oklahoma Territory, were so numerous the citizens were begging
the state government for extra protection. In answer to the pleas, the
state legislature authorized Governor Coke in 1874 to organize six companies
of Rangers for deployment across the west and northwestern frontier
counties of the state. They were to be designated as Companies A through
F and were to have full legal power to arrest “wrong doers”
and especially to find and either kill or drive out Indian raiding parties.
This contingent of men was to be known as the Frontier Battalion.
 Overall
command of the Frontier Battalion was placed under John B. Jones, a
Civil War veteran, and he was given the rank of major. Major Jones reported
to State Adjutant General William Steele.
John
B. Jones
G. W. Stevens of
Wise County was commissioned captain and authorized to recruit men from
the Wise County area for the new Company B, stationed west of Wise County.
Enlistment was to be for one year or less. Stevens was the captain of
a Wise County minuteman company and had always answered the call of
neighbors to lead in chases and fights with Indians. In the last two
or three years, he had been wounded in the hand and the hip in a fight
with Indians just above Buffalo Springs, located in Clay County.
Stevens recruited
to the full compliment of seventy-five men. Several of the enlistees
had lived in Wise County for years and had experience fighting with
Indians. Company B moved out to the western part of Young County for
duty. By early June, the unit was on station and riding on patrol over
Young, Archer, and Jack Counties.
The men soon got
their first baptism of fire. On July 9, 1874, Corporal Newman and eight
men were attacked by about 50 Indians while patrolling in western Archer
County. The engagement lasted about four hours, with no lives lost on
either side.
After organizing
the battalion, Major Jones had begun his first series of inspection
tours up the line of his units in order to position the companies where
he thought they would do the most good. He also set about whipping the
battalion into the proper fighting force that he desired. At each company,
he would take five or six men to provide an escort for protection as
he traveled the dangerous frontier counties.
While visiting
with Company B on July 12, 1874, Major Jones, his escorts, and a portion
of Company B had a major fight with approximately 125 Kiowa and Comanche
Indians in Lost Valley, about sixteen miles west of Fort Richardson.
The fight lasted for several hours and there were casualties on both
sides.
Recognizing that
the Grant Peace Policy was a failure, the Army was finally authorized
in late July to hunt down and drive into the reservations any Indians,
wherever found. The Army then set in motion a devastating five-pronged
attack throughout the west and northwestern part of Texas and the southwestern
area of the Indian Territory. This became known as the Red River War.
After several months
of fighting and unrelenting tracking by the Army, almost all the pursued
Indians began to see that their old way of life was gone. They started
to come back to the reservations and surrender.
In November, Adjutant
General Steele informed Major Jones that the Frontier Battalion could
not be sustained at its present level because the state treasury was
low on cash flow. Steele, wishing to keep the battalion in force, cut
the manpower of five companies in half, leaving each company with thirty
Rangers commanded by one 1st lieutenant.
Captain Stevens
of Company B left the Ranger service with an honorable discharge and
returned to his home in Decatur. In turn, 2nd Lieutenant Ira Long was
promoted and placed in command of the company.
By the spring of
1875, the Red River War was over and the northwestern part of Texas
was, for once, almost free of Indian raids and depredations on its citizens.
While the Army
had been chasing the Indians, Company B had continued their patrols
against the occasional horse-stealing party slipping across the Red
River. Early May of 1875 found the little company of Rangers camped
in the foothills just east of Lost Valley at a spring then known as
Raines Spring. Location of the camp was three miles east of the present
community of Jermyn, just north of present State Road 199.
On May 5, 1875,
Major Jones rode into the camp of Company B with his escort. He was
perhaps surprised to find that the men there had a measles outbreak.
The next day, after conferring with Lieutenant Long about the condition
of the company and the Indian situation, Jones wrote a report to Adjutant
General Steele:
Sir
I have the
honor to report my arrival at this the camp of Co B yesterday. I find
the measles in camp. Seven or eight men just recovering but not able
for duty, six more down, and new cases breaking out every day. Consequently
the Company is, and has been for several weeks, entirely unfit for
service, and will not be able to do any scouting before the expiration
of their time of service.
I regret
this much more, because the Indians have visited this immediate section
three or four times already since the first of January, and will probably
come frequently during the Spring and Summer. They have stolen horses
twice this spring from Mr Loving whose ranch is five miles from this
place.
I have eleven
men with me, some of whom have not had the measles, and have established
a quarantine between my camp and Leuit Long’s.
Loving (James
C. Loving) was a
rancher who, in 1868, had moved his headquarters and ranching operations
from Palo Pinto County up to the northwestern end of Lost Valley, located
on the western edge of Jack County. Lost Valley was an area of flat
land approximately three miles wide and about eight miles long, north
to south. It was somewhat surrounded by rocky hills and low mountains
and made for an excellent place for raising cattle and horses. The northern
end of the valley was watered by two creeks, Cameron and Stewart.
For several years,
the Loving ranch had been almost constantly harassed by Indian raiding
parties who either killed or stole the cattle and horses—especially
Loving’s horses. Two of Loving’s cowboys, Mr. Wright and
Mr. Heath, had been killed by Indians in the last two years.
Perhaps on the
very day that Major Jones arrived at Lieutenant Long’s campsite,
a party of six Kiowa men and one squaw slipped away from their reservation
in the Indian Territory for a short raid across the river into Texas.
Arriving in the Lost Valley area on the night of May 7, they headed
to Loving’s ranch. There they stole some horses out of the corral
and rode southwest down Cameron Creek.
The next morning,
after Loving and his men had left for the day’s work on the ranch,
two of the men who had stayed at the ranch house soon discovered that
part of the fence was down and a few of the saddle horses kept in the
corral were missing. Knowing that there was a Ranger company stationed
southeast at Raines Spring, the boys saddled their horses and quickly
rode to give the alert to the Rangers.
Once informed,
Major Jones gathered some of his men and rode towards the ranch to investigate
the theft. When he arrived, he found the messengers to be correct.
Following the trail
south along Cameron Creek, the Ranger force lost the tracks left by
the raiders and began a search along the western area of Lost Valley.
Finally, several miles south of the ranch house, the Indians trail was
found just north of Cox Mountain at the south end of the valley.
Following the trail
and riding at a fast rate, the Rangers overtook the raiding party close
to Rock Creek, northeast of the present community of Bryson. One of
the Indians was shot and killed immediately. A running gunfight then
took place in which four more of the raiders were killed. Two Indians
were able to make their escape. With the chase and fight over, the Rangers
returned to their camp at Raines Spring.
The next day, May
9, Major Jones sent a Western Union telegram from Jacksboro to Adjutant
General Steele in Austin:
With small
detachment of my command I struck Indian trail in Lost Valley yesterday.
Overtook them & killed five only one known to have escaped. One
of my men slightly wounded. Lt. Long’s horse killed another
wounded Indians blankets marked U.S.I.D.
As a follow-up,
Major Jones wrote a report to Steele, giving a description of the fight:
Headquarters
Frontier Battalion
Camp near Lost Valley Jack Co. Texas
May 9th 1875
Gen Wm Steele
Adjt genl
Austin.
Sir,
I have the
honor to report that information reached me yesterday morning about
ten o-clock that some horses had been stolen from Mr. Lovings ranch,
some five miles distance, the night before. I immediately started
to the ranch accompanied by Dr. Nicholson, the Surgeon, Lt Long and
ten men of Company B, five men of Company A and four men of Company
D.
From the
ranch we searched through the western part of the valley; found some
Indian sign, but no trail until we reached the south end of the valley,
five or six miles from the ranch, when we struck a trail just where
I entered the same valley last summer when in pursuit of Lone Wolf
and his party.
We followed
the trail at a brisk gallop in a southeasterly direction three or
four miles, when we overtook a party of seven Indians. Luit Long killed
on the first fire.
Then they
took to flight and a running fight ensued for five or six miles in
the woods and over rough and rocky hills and hollows, during which
they changed their course and performed almost a complete circle,
so that the fight ended within a mile of where we first struck their
trail. We killed five; the other two evaded us in the woods and made
their escape into the mountains.
Private L.
C. Garvey of Co. B received a very slight wound. Lt Long’s horse
was killed and two horses wounded. No other casualties on our side.
The Indians
were armed with breach loading shot guns, and six shooters and fought
desperately, three of them continuing to fight after they were shot
down. One of those killed was a squaw, but handled her six-shooter
quite as dexterously as did the bucks. Another was a half-breed or
quarter, spoke broken English, was quite fare and had auburn hair.
They were
well mounted, but had no horses but what they were riding. Four of
those were killed in the fight. Some of them proved to be horses that
were stolen from Mr. Loving about three weeks ago, the others were
taken night before last. It is very evident that they had mounted
themselves at the first ranch they came to, with the design of penetrating
farther into the settlements, as there course lay in the exact direction
of Keeche valley in the northeast corner of Palo Pinto, and northwest
corner of Parker County, and if we had not overtaken them, would doubtless
have reached the settlements yesterday evening.
The fight
took place in Jack County, about fifteen miles a little south of west
from Jacksboro, on the head of rock creek. They were well clothed,
and doubtless directly from the Reservation, as their blankets were
marked U.S.I.D. One of them had the scalp of a white woman fastened
to his shield.
In this report,
Major Jones went on to give special commendation to Lieutenant Long
for his leadership, coolness, and courage in the fight. Lieutenant Long
(later captain) penned a very interesting story of his part in the fight:
We found
some sigh at the ranch but no definite trail until we got about six
miles south in the valley. Watching closely in order not to lose it
and by any chance let them escape again, I sighted far ahead and saw
a man standing under a tree. The very fact that he was alone roused
my suspicions and speaking to the Major about it we turned our field-glasses
on him and he ran into the timber. I hurried to investigate and when
I reached the tree, was so intent on examining the footprints that
I neither looked up, nor around, until I heard my men shout, ”Indians!”
and saw them turn in the direction that they had discovered them.
Jumping my horse, which was a fine one, I was off at a dead run. Getting
closer I saw there was but seven in the bunch. Outdistancing my men
I gave them a hot chase for about three miles, pouring hot lead into
them as I ran. The men overtaking me used their ammunition freely,
as did the Major, with telling effect. I saw that one of the scoundrels
had it in for me and I dodged more than one of his bullets. But seeing
him draw his horse closer and draw a bead on me I let him have it
between the eyes and when he doubled up and fell I resolved that I
would come back that way and strip him of paraphernalia for he wore
the trappings of a chief.
Bullets were
whizzing constantly around us, but we were doing some pretty fair
shooting ourselves and seeing my shot had taken the horse from the
chief I felt like we could at least report progress.
I could not
tell whether he was wounded or not, but he was shielding himself in
the brush and trying to pick off my men one at a time, making every
shot tell. It seemed to me the very next one took my horse in the
center of the forehead and when I felt him tremble I knew that it
had done its hellish work.
When I hit
the ground I was on my feet. Here came the old painted devil straight
toward me, yelling and shooting like mad. I had emptied my pistol
and having to reload gave him the advantage. But with a round in place
I fed him melted bullets until both his and my guns were empty. Then
it dawned on me in a flash that it was a game of tit for tat between
us. I recall how thankful I was that I was big and brawny and strong
and then we closed. I had never then, nor have I since, seen such
strength and agility as that Indian possessed. When I threw him off
in a grapple he bounced like a rubber ball. And he used his gunstock
as skillfully as I did mine.”
My men had
gone on with the remainder of the bunch, and we were both tired out.
I knew I could expect no help from them, and that it was the best
man for it. He was panting for breath, so was I, and I knew that neither
of us could hold out much longer when, plunk! A shot took him in the
knee. One of my company, fearing that I was in trouble, had ridden
back, and taking in the situation, risking a bullet, although he said
afterward he ‘didn’t know whether it would take me or
the chief, for it was nip and tuck as to who would be on top next.’
That gave me a chance to reload my pistol and at such close range
I felt like the ball I put into him did the work. But I didn’t
take time to see, for sure. Jumping a horse, I was off with my rescuer
to try my hand on the rest of them. We got three of them after that
and on the way back we went to see if the old chief was dead, and
there he lay stretched full length.
The state would
have Indian troubles in the far western section of Texas for several
more years. However, the raiding party of May 8, 1875, proved to be
the last in the northwestern frontier counties.
Sources
Books
Horton, Thomas
F. History of Jack County (Reprint). Jacksboro: Gazette Print,
1933, 1975.
McConnell, Joseph
Carroll. The West Texas Frontier, vol. II. Palo Pinto, Texas:
Texas Legal Bank and Book Company, 1939.
McIntire, Jim.
Early Days in Texas: A Trip to Hell and Heaven. Reprint, Norman:
University of Oklahoma Press, 1992.
Nye, W. S. Carbine
& Lance: The Story of Old Fort Sill. Norman: University of
Oklahoma Press, 1937, 1957.
Webb, Walter Prescott.
The Texas Rangers: A Century of Frontier Defense. Austin: University
of Texas Press, 1935, 1993.
Magazines
Cross, Cora Melton.
“Ira Long, Cowboy and Texas Ranger.” Frontier Times,
October 1930.
Copies of the following items may be obtained from
Texas State Library and Archives Commission
PO Box 12927, Austin, Texas 78711-2927:
Jones to Steele,
report, May 9, 1875. Follow-up report giving more detailed description
of the chase and fight with the Indian party.
Jones to Steele,
telegram, Western Union, May 9, 1875. First report of fight with
an Indian party.
Major Jones
to Adj. Gen. Steele, report, May 6, 1875. Report gives condition
of Company B personnel on Jones’ arrival at their campsite.
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