Cherokee County History Page: 7
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quickly mounted one of the animals and rushed to his home. He
attempted to pick up his wife and baby daughter, but the raiders
were so close they were forced to flee into the cane. That night they
made their way to the house of a friendly Indian who gave them a
horse, and they made their way southward to Lacy's Fort.
Owen Williams lived on the outer edge of the settlement, which
gave Elbert time to saddle three horses. Polly and her daughter,
Elizabeth, were on their way to visit Isaac Sr., when the raid began.
Elizabeth chose to join the family of Allen Killough as they were
running for their lives. None of them was ever heard of again. Polly
reached home in time to join Elbert, Owen, and her three other
children before they sped away through a hail of bullets amid the
shouts of the murderers.
All members of the George Wood family were missing when the
massacre ended.
Isaac Killough Sr. was killed in his yard with 18 bullet wounds in
his body. The renegades refused to shoot Urcey, his wife, after she
asked them to do so. They cursed her in broken English and ordered
her to go into the house.
When the shooting seemed to be over, Urcey and Jane, the wife
of Isaac Jr., and Narcissus, Samuel's wife, with her one-year-old
baby, Billy, came together. They were joined by Barakias Williams,
who took the baby into his arms. Soon, the raiders were seen coming
their way. Urcey persuaded Barakias to flee, because one of the
murderers had said the women would not be harmed. Barakias was
killed as he fled into the woods.
While the three women were holding a conference, an unarmed
Indian, Dog Shoot, approached and said that Chief Samuel Benge
had sent orders for them to come to his house. Benge was either a
white or half-white chief who lived among the Cherokees. In defi-
ance, Narcissus refused to obey the order even though the Indian
said he would kill her, if he had his gun. Benge was slain later
because of his friendship for the whites.
The women decided to make their way to Lacy's Fort, 40 miles
away. They covered the body of Isaac Sr. with quilts and weighted
them down with poles, and then hid out until night. After dark they
began their journey. Their plans were to travel at night and to hide
out in daytime. On the third morning they decided to travel in day-
light, because they had nothing to eat. It was not long before they were
stopped by an Indian with a gun. The women screamed, and then he
showed them the gun was not loaded. He ordered them to take a path
to a log cabin. A black woman came to the cabin, but she answered
questions evasively. An interpreter was sent for, and the escapees
were told that if they had gone a short distance farther they would
have been killed by the hostile Indians living in the next village. The
women were given food, and the Indian slept in the doorway through-
out the night. When morning came, they were given horses to com-plete the journey to Lacy's Fort. The three women and baby were the
last of the refugees to reach safety. The massacre was the largest and
bloodiest depredation in East Texas. Eighteen people, including
men, women, and children, were either killed or captured.
Word of the massacre spread rapidly throughout East Texas and
created an enormous amount of excitement. Gen. Rusk sent out an
urgent call for volunteers to gather at Lacy's Fort. Several hundred
men were ready to march within a few days. Gen. Rusk took his men
and secretly crossed the Neches River at night. When he reached Fort
Houston, in the suburbs of present Palestine, he received word that
the enemy was hidden out near the old Kickapoo Village two miles
south of present Frankston. The army marched to that area and
pitched camp for the night on a horseshoe bend of a creek. The next
morning was foggy and misty. At daybreak the enemy attacked them
fiercely from behind trees and out of the fog. After some time, Gen.
Rusk ordered his forces to charge, and they swept the enemy from the
field. They left 11 dead, including one Cherokee named Tail. Chief
Bowles told Gen. Rusk later that Tail was an outlaw Indian, and the
tribe could not control him. Gen. Hugh McLeod wrote that the rebels
were a motley crew of Caddos, Coushatta, blacks, Mexicans, and
possibly Keechis. Some people believe that two or three renegade
white men were in the group. The Killough women reported that they
saw a white man disguised as an Indian taking part in the massacre
and thought they recognized him as a former neighbor in Alabama.
After the Indians were removed from East Texas, Nathaniel
Killough and his wife and child and Jane and Narcissus and the
baby, Billy, returned to their land. Nathaniel became a prominent
leader in Cherokee County. Billy, known as "The Child of the
Massacre," became a highly respected citizen.
The descendants and relatives of the Killough families hold their
annual reunion each June in Jacksonville. - Jack Moore.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Craven, John Nathan, James Harper Starr. Austin, 1950
Dublin, Mrs. Narcissia K., Affidavit, Cherokee County deed records, Rusk
Ford, Fred Hugo and Brown, J. L., Larissa.
Gullick, Charles Adams, Jr., The Papers of Mirabeau Bonaparte Lamar, 6
Vol., Austin
Lewis Publishing Company, A Memorial and Biographical History of Na-
varro, Henderson, Anderson, Freestone, and Leon Counties, Chicago, 1893
Richie, Carrie Everett, Thomas Jefferson Rusk and His Indian Campaigns,
Library Stephen F. Austin State University.
The Southland, The Killough Massacre, Vol VI, No. 8 Waco, 1903
Wilbarger, J. W., Indian Depredations of Texas, Austin, 1889, reprint by
Steck 1935.
Winfrey, Dorman H. and Others, The Texas Indian Papers 1825-1843,
Texas Library and Historical Commission, Austin, 1959
Yoakum, Henderson, History of Texas, 2 Vol., New York, 1885, reprint by
Steck 1935.THE CREATION OF A COUNTY
CHEROKEE COl)NTY is situated in the central portion of East
Texas, bounded on the west by the Neches River and for 30 miles on
the east by the Angelina River.
Measuring 50 miles north and south and 30 miles east and west
across the middle, the county contains 1,049 square miles of broken
terrain. In some sections the hills approach the dignity of small
mountains with an elevation of more than 750 feet. One chain,
about eight miles east of the Neches River, extends almost the
length of the county. East of Mud Creek, a sizable stream flowing
across the northeast corner of the county and emptying into the
Angelina River, the land is also quite hilly. Contrarily, the river
bottomland in the southern part of the county descends to an
elevation of 250 feet.
The climate is usually humid and warm, and the temperature
averages about 65 degrees Fahrenheit. Average annual rainfall is 45
inches. occurring mainly in late winter and early spring.
Under the liberal Mexican Colonization Law of 1825, the regionbegan to attract white settlers a decade or more before the Chero-
kee Indians were driven out in 1839. The first land grant of four
leagues was patented in 1828 by Helena Kimble Dill, widow of
Capt. James Dill. In 1830, Helena deeded the southeast league to
her daughter, Delilah, wife of Joseph Durst; the northeast league
went to another daughter, Mary Sevier, and eventually to Gen.
Kelsey H. Douglass, while the southwest league became the Forest
Hill Plantation home of another daughter, Helena, and Capt.
Henry Berryman.
Another grant of six and one-quarter leagues, part of a nine-
league grant, was made to the trading firm of William Barr and
Samuel Davenport and was patented by John Durst in 1832. Soon
thereafter, 1,000 acres of the grant located along the San Antonio
Road about three miles west of the Angelina River were purchased
by Peter Ellis Bean, a colorful figure in Texas and Mexican history,
who came to Texas with Phillip Nolan's Expedition in 1801.
In June, 1835, Roland W. Box purchased one-third league of land
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Cherokee County Historical Commission (Tex.). Cherokee County History, book, 2001; Jacksonville, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth354360/m1/17/: accessed May 4, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Cherokee County Historical Commission.