Elm Creek Raid, Cabin #8

Back to the Rates page

The Elm Creek Raid occurred in western Young County on Oct. 13, 1864. It is considered one of the largest Indian raids in Texas history as an estimated 600 to 1,000 Comanche, Kiowa, and Kiowa Apache warriors were involved.

The main raid and its associated subplots have been the basis for several books, a John Wayne movie The Searchers, and a mid-1990s three-part television miniseries called Black Fox, Bloodhorse, Good Man and Bad. The miniseries starred the late Christopher Reeves and Tony Todd of Star Trek fame.

In 1864, the frontier west of Weatherford was sparsely populated as federal troops had left the area to fight in the Civil War. The Texas Frontier Regiment, manned by Texas Rangers, was a tough group of men but few in number.

Knowing this, the Southern Plains Indians to the north planned their most extensive raid ever in the fall of 1864. Traveling on a Comanche moon night Oct. 12, 1864, they arrived at the Elm Creek Settlement west of Fort Belknap around noon on Oct. 13, 1864. The settlement consisted of individual cabins strung out along Elm Creek from the Brazos River some 12 miles upstream.

The Indians first encountered Peter Harmonson and his son, who escaped by fleeing into a thicket and returning fire very effectively. The second settler was not so lucky. Joel Meyer, hunting for lost oxen, was killed and scalped becoming the first casualty of the raid.

The Fitzpatrick homestead was next in line. Here two were killed immediately, including Millie Suzanna Durkin and Jim Johnson. Jim was the son of the African American pioneer Britt Johnson, who was at Weatherford that day. Taken hostage were Elizabeth Carter Fitzpatrick, her son Joe Carter, her two granddaughters Millie and Lottie Durkin, a grandson and Britt Johnson’s wife Mary and their son and daughter.

While taking the hostages back to Indian Territory, Joe Carter was too ill to travel and was burned alive by the savages. Further up Elm Creek, Thomas Hamby and his son had concealed their women and children and those of a neighboring family in the caves near their house. The men rode ahead of the Indians to spread the alarm to other homesteads in the valley and to lead the Indians further away from their hidden relatives.

They reached William Bragg’s land in time to give his family and the Judge H.D. Williams family a chance to hide in thickets along Elm Creek. Two 15-year-old boys with rifles were left to guard three women and nine children.

The men rode on to the ranch house, where they took shelter. The men managed to hold off an hour-long attack by the Indians, losing two to three of the men in the attempt. Thomas Hambry, with a wry sense of humor, wrote years later, “I guess I was under the bed for I was the only one who didn’t get shot. No that won’t do for there was no room for me under any of the beds.”

Three or four families of women and children and two African American children were already under the beds. In spite of the light vein in which Mr. Hamby wrote of his role in the fight, the settlers later regarded him as a hero and credited him with saving many lives that day.

The band of Indians broke off the attack and headed back to Indian Territory with all the horses and cattle they could steal. The exact number of Indian casualties couldn’t be determined as they carried many of their dead and wounded back north with them.

On the way they met John McCoy and his son Miles, both of whom they killed and scalped.

A group of soldiers camped near Fort Belknap took up the pursuit and encountered some 300 Indians. They retreated to the McCoy house where they rescued Mrs. McCoy and a neighbor woman as they moved back to Fort Murrah. Troops and local citizens, including Charles Goodnight, pursued the Indians in their retreat back to Oklahoma but they never got close to catching up with the large group of Indians.

The final count tallied eight settlers and five Texas Rangers killed and six hostages taken into Indian camps.

One of the major subplots of the story began when Britt Johnson arrived back from Weatherford to discover the horrific scene and realized that his remaining family had been taken hostage. He immediately began planning to go into Indian country and retrieve both his family and the Fitzpatrick family. This incredibly dangerous feat would take longer than he planned, but with the help of Comanche Chief Asa Harvey “Milky Way” he would retrieve all the hostages with the exception of Millie Durkin.

Rumors among the Indians were that this small girl had died that winter in captivity, but doubt existed this was true.

Unfortunately, Britt Johnson would die at the hands of the Kiowas in January 1871, only a few months before the Warren Wagon Train Massacre. His body was found north of present-day Graham, along with two other African American pioneers, Dennis Curaton and Paine Crawford. Over 100 spent cartridges were found by his mutilated body, showing the tremendous fight this hero gave. He was buried there by Calvary men from Fort Richardson, along the old Butterfield Stage Route.

As for Millie Durkin, presumed dead, an old woman dressed in Indian garb claiming to be her would show up at the Newcastle and Graham schools to talk to students in the 1930s. Historians still debate whether it was Millie.

One other Elm Creek raid of note occurred on July 17, 1867. Rice Carlton, Reuben Johnson and Patrick Proffitt, all about 19 years old, were killed by Indians and buried in a common grave in the Proffitt Cemetery.

Truly the Elm Creek area in the 1860s was a very dangerous place to have settled.