frontier times – Page 2 – Texas History Notebook

John B. Denton

John B. Denton is the namesake of Denton County and the town of Denton. There has been some question regarding what his middle initial stood for. His middle name has variously been shown as “Bernard,” “Bunard” or “Bunyan” but the wife of a descendant said that his middle name was “Bunyan.”

Denton was born in Sparta, Tennessee on July 28, 1806 to James Denton and Sarah Clarkson Denton. He was the oldest of about eight children. Some accounts say that he was orphaned around 1815, but his father and mother are believed to have died in 1827 and 1846, respectively, according to current genealogical information available. Other accounts suggest that Denton ran away from home as a young boy and held various jobs including apprenticing as a blacksmith and working on steamers on the Mississippi River. For whatever reasons, he was residing in Arkansas when he was marred on June 23, 1825 to the former Mary Greenlee Stewart. The couple started their family with the birth of the first of their children the next year.

Legend of Indian Emily

There is a considerable amount of legend and folklore connected to the Fort Davis and Big Bend area. Whether it is fact or fiction, the tale of “Indian Emily” is an interesting one. The story supposedly originated in the mid to late 1800s at Fort Davis. According to the National Park Service, it first appeared in print in a 1919 book called “The Romance of Davis Mountains and Big Bend Country” written by Carlysle Raht. About ten years later, the story reappeared in a Texas newspaper and southwestern periodical with more detail. It was essentially the same narrative but with slight variations.

Isaac Parker, Legislator

Isaac Duke Parker was a son of John and Sarah White Parker. He was born in Georgia on April 7, 1793 and came to Texas as an adult with his family, finally settling in a stockade fort near the current town of Groesbeck in the early 1830s. The circumstances of the raid are probably familiar to many. To summarize, the Parker family consisted of about two dozen people and there were numerous others living in the compound. Many names are similar, adding to the confusion, but below is a rough listing of the family members and close relatives in or near the fort at the time of the attack:

John Parker (“Elder John Parker”) – a widower
Silas Mercer Parker, Sr. – husband of Lucinda Duty Parker
Lucinda Duty Parker – wife of Silas Mercer Parker, Sr.
James W. Parker – son of Silas, Sr. and Lucinda
Cynthia Ann Parker – daughter of Silas, Sr. and Lucinda
John Richard Parker – son of Silas, Sr. and Lucinda
Silas Mercer Parker Jr. – son of Silas, Sr. and Lucinda
Orlena Parker – daughter of Silas, Sr. and Lucinda
Sarah Pinson Duty (“Granny Parker”) – mother of Lucinda and Clara Elizabeth
Clara Elizabeth Duty Kellogg – sister of Lucinda and recently widowed
Benjamin Franklin W. Parker – brother of Elder John
Isaac Parker – brother of Elder John
Sarah Parker Nixon – daughter of James William
Lorenzo Dow Nixon – husband of Sarah Parker Nixon
Luther Martin Thomas (“L. T. M.”) Plummer – husband of Rachel
Rachel Parker Plummer – wife of Luther, daughter of James William Parker
James Pratt Plummer – son of Luther and Rachel
James William Parker – father of Rachel
Abigail Parker – sister of Elder John
Daniel Parker – brother of Elder John
Martha “Patsy” Dixon Parker – wife of Daniel

Ferdinand Jakob Lindheimer

Perhaps less known than others of his time, botanist and naturalist Ferdinand Jakob Lindheimer is called the Father of Texas Botany. Lindheimer was born May 21, 1801 in Frankfurt, Germany. He received his early education in Germany and was teaching there before he was 30 years old. According to accounts, he held political views that were controversial and unpopular for the day in Germany and around 1833, he decided to leave Germany. At that time the prevailing form of government was described as being a loose union of 39 states, dominated by Austria. It is presumed that Lindheimer held to a minority opinion favoring liberalism and democracy. Lindheimer relocated to the United States, living for a while in Illinois and for a year and several months in Mexico with other German expatriates until around 1836. About this time, articles note, he served in the Texas army. Some say that he fought in the Battle of San Jacinto while others hold that he joined soon after the battle.

Frances Cooke Lipscomb Van Zandt and Isaac Van Zandt

Although her husband Isaac Van Zandt is probably better known, Frances Cooke Lipscomb Van Zandt’s pioneer story is interesting. She was born March 4, 1816 to William Lipscomb and Ann Day Cooke Lipscomb. Isaac was born July 10, 1813 in Franklin, Tennessee to Mary Margaret Isaacs Van Zandt and Jacob Van Zandt. Isaac’s ancestry was Dutch, but both his grandfathers had participated in the Revolutionary War.

Acknowledging Frances’ 90th birthday, she and her daughter Ida gave a newspaper interview in which they provided more details about Frances’ life in the early days on the frontier of Texas. Frances was married to Isaac Van Zandt in Franklin County, Tennessee on December 18, 1833 when she was 17 and he was 20 years old and working as a merchant in the family store. Around two years later, the couple decided to make their home in Coffeeville, Mississippi along with their daughter Louisa and son Khleber. Life was good, but only for a short time until 1837 when there was a widespread economic depression, leading Isaac to close his business. Isaac studied law and was admitted to the Mississippi bar. Then in 1838, the family decided to move to the Republic of Texas and set out to make the journey by wagon. They got as far as the Louisiana-Texas border before running low on funds. Isaac and the family stopped at an abandoned garrison known as Camp Sabine, formerly a post of the United States Army, located east of the Sabine River. There they remained for the rest of that year before moving on to northeast Texas.