Kemp Road
WEATHERFORDG
Granbury Hwy . Hwy . 51
GRANBURYH
Google Maps more in tears . She crept behind a rock and I told her to put up her hands and come with me .”
The liberators raining lead down on the ascending party were not relatives come to recapture William and Anna , but 45 Minutemen of the company out of Stephenville . William Wilson would always refer to what happened in the Palo Pintos as “ miraculous ,” as he later learned nearly all 45 of the Minutemen emptied their pistols and long guns at him . A Stephenville judge who touted himself as one of the best marksmen on the frontier told William ’ s father he personally fired six rounds from his repeating rifle at the 12-year-old . The judge ’ s name was “ Marvel .” When the dust and gun smoke cleared , the Minutemen determined that while most of the horses had been killed or mortally wounded , all the Indians had escaped .
A Captain Hughes of the Minutemen Company dispatched a rider to inform Hiram Wilson that
William and Anna had been retaken .
“ We were not missed from home until the day after our capture ,” William said . “ My uncle thought we were at my father ’ s house , and my father thought we were at my uncle ’ s . During the day following our disappearance , my father went over to see how my uncle was progressing with his sorghum making , and it soon developed that something had happened to us . Searching parties were sent in all directions , and the search was still under way when Capt . Hughes ’ message reached my father ’ s house .”
The following day , leaving out of Stephenville , Judge Marvel [ Marvell ] began transport of the exhausted cousins back to the little settlement a dozen or so miles south of Weatherford . The trip took four days .
NOTE : As often happened with frontier tales , there were a few variations on this story , “ facts ” shuffled around a bit . The above story is largely based on one written by Joseph Carroll McConnell in his masterful book The West Texas Frontier . McConnell ( 1892-1988 ) dedicated himself to preserving the stories of the Texas Frontier , conducting personal interviews with eye-witnesses and relatives of those caught up in the pages of local history . For this story he interviewed various people still living in Parker , Palo Pinto , Erath and Eastland counties . He even corresponded with William Wilson himself .
Another source consulted was an article from The Weekly Herald of Weatherford dated Thursday , April 2 , 1903 and written by A . J . Sowell of the Dallas News .
JANUARY 2017 PARKER COUNTY TODAY
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