AUGUST 2015
PA R K E R C O U N T Y T O D AY
his sister Cynthia Ann’s release.)
Many back in the settlements discounted these stories,
their conventional thinking unable to conceive of such a
scenario, a world in which a young girl snatched from her
loving mother’s arms would shun every opportunity to be
reunited with her blood family, choosing rather to remain
among the “bloodthirsty savages” who’d killed her father,
grandfather and uncle. Inconceivable. A damn lie! (The
Stockholm Syndrome was as yet an unknown theory).
As the years wore on and the shadow-being Cynthia
Ann had become began to come into sharper focus, the
“lie” seemed more plausible. An 1852 official report to
the U.S. Army made by Capt. Randolph Marcy seemed to
rivet her happy existence among her captors in fact.
“There is at this time a white woman among the
middle Comanches, by the name of Parker, who, with her
brother, was captured while they were young children,”
Marcy reported. “This woman has adopted all of the
habits and peculiarities of the Comanches, has an Indian
husband and children, and cannot be persuaded to leave
them.”
The captain also reported: “The brother of the woman,
who had been ransomed by a trader and brought home to
his relatives, was sent back by his mother for the purpose
of endeavoring upon his sister to leave the Indians and
return to her family; but he stated to me that on his arrival, she refused to listen to the proposition, saying that her
husband, children, and all that she held most dear, were
with the Indians, and there she should remain.”
26
Lawrence Ross
TEXAS BUTANE CO., INC.
Morris & Judy V. (Kemp) White
South Side Square • 103 W. Church • Weatherford, Texas 76086
Propane Sales & Service Since 1958
Local Phone:
817-594-2612
Metro Phone:
817-596-8758
“LOCALLY OWNED & FAMILY OPERATED”
We are proud to be the oldest continuously family owned propane company in the Area!