Fort Stockton was originally an adobe fort built in 1859 by the United States Army as a means of protecting travelers, freighters and the mail service. It was located near what was known as Comanche Springs, the source of Comanche Creek. It served as a way point on the Old San Antonio Road, the Butterfield Overland Stage route and the Comanche Trail to Chihuahua, Mexico.
Category: frontier times
Rachel Parker Plummer
Cynthia Ann Parker’s tragic story is better known, but there were other individuals including Rachel Parker Plummer who were taken by the Comanches in the attack on Fort Parker. The battle occurred on May 19, 1836 at a fort near Groesbeck, Limestone County, Texas. At the time, there were thirty or more members of the extended Parker family living in or around the stockade fort. Killed were Silas Mercer Parker, John Parker, Samuel Frost, Robert Frost and Benjamin Parker. Those who were captured included Cynthia Ann Parker, her brother John Richard Parker, Elizabeth Kellogg, Rachel Parker Plummer and her three year old son James Pratt Plummer.
Death of Oliver Loving
Charles Goodnight wrote of the death of his friend Oliver Loving in the book The Trail Drivers of Texas by J. Marvin Hunter. The book is widely available for purchase, and also can be downloaded. In it, Hunter has assembled sketches and observations of the cattle drivers of the 1800s.
Olive Oatman
This haunting image is of Olive Ann Oatman Fairchild. Olive was born in 1837 to a Mormon family, one of seven children of Royse and Mary Ann Oatman. Royse had started raising his family in Illinois, briefly moved to Pennsylvania around 1849, and by 1850 had decided to join a wagon train of around 90 fellow believers to go west.
Bose Ikard
Bose Ikard was born a slave around 1843 – 1847 in Noxubee County, Mississippi. Bose gave his age to be 37 in 1880, making his year of birth around 1843, but some accounts say 1847. All of the available genealogical records list his father to be Dr. Milton Ikard with the mother’s name simply listed as “unknown.” In the vernacular of the time, his “master” was Dr. Ikard who was the source of his last name. His mother would eventually be revealed as having the last name King and to have also been born in Mississippi, but beyond that, no more is known of her. The Ikards moved first to Union Parish, Louisiana before coming to Texas about 1852 when Bose was around 8. Bose lived with the Ikards and moved with them first to Lamar County and then to Parker County. There he lived the life of a farmer and ranch hand, joining Milton Ikard and others defending their homes and property from Indian attacks. While living here, Bose acquired his skills as a cowboy, to ride, rope steers, fight Indians and to shoot.
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