“In the fall of 1873, the Indians made one of the worst raids into our country that had ever been made since we lived there. There was a family named Williams who lived farther down Mud Creek, just across the line into Brown County. Our place on the Jim Ned was only about a mile from the Brown County line. Mr. Williams was out in the woods, cutting logs not very far from home, and his wife and three children were at home alone. About the middle of the afternoon, Mr. Williams heard screams from the direction of the house and started on a run toward it. When he came near, he could see that it was entirely surrounded by a bunch of painted, screaming Comanches. Being unarmed he could do nothing to save his family,’ states an article in the Coleman Democrat-Voice published in 1935 from an account of the raid given by early settler William Hunter. Hunter went on to describe the details of that day’s event, something I will skip as they are pretty gruesome. It is enough to say only Mr. Williams and his son Willie, who was with him cutting wood, survived.

As soon as the raid alarm was given, a company of Minute Men set off in pursuit. They rode for two days without stopping for food and water in pursuit of the marauding band. The body of one of the Williams girls was discovered, and, according to Hunter’s account, hardened frontiersman Captain Mullins was so disturbed by the incident he asked to sleep with Hunter that night to avoid being alone. The company was unable to catch up with the Comanche band, but the following year Hunter believes they found the same group and took revenge. Williams seems to have been a broken man, and left the area, along with his son after participating in at least two Indian tracking parties. “It is later reported that Mr. Williams accompanied Ronald MacKenzie during the 1874 expedition against the Indians. This group was known to travel through Borden County,” reads an article shared online by Borden County Historian Lisa Dennis Mahler. “Mr. Williams and his son, Willie, arrived in Borden County in the early 1890s. He is mentioned in an early newspaper edition as a lobo hunter and he kept two lobos as pets. The two settled down in a house near Gail Mountain. The elder Williams died of an unknown illness, in an unknown year, and was buried in the Gail Cemetery in an unmarked grave.” The grave has since received a marker.

I spent some time looking for the location of the Williams ranch, but could not pinpoint it. Hunter describes it as being right where Mud Creek and Jim Ned Creek come together, meaning it was likely in the map quadrant above. One thing that is unusual about this story is that it might actually have been told from both sides, one account by the settlers and another recorded by a Comanche captive named Clinton Smith who wrote a book called The Boy Captives about his experiences living with the Comanche. Smith’s account of course does not have dates or names. It also does not correspond exactly to Hunter’s description, which in turn does not line up exactly with other accounts. Such is the way of early frontier history, as not many were riding around with pen and ink out here. Anyway Smith said this, and I think he was likely referring to the Williams tragedy: “We stole horses from every ranch we came to, and the chief made me and twelve Indian boys drive those horses on ahead. A bunch of men were discovered on our trail, and we had to ride in a swinging gallop until night, when we camped and killed some horses to eat. We layed down and slept until about 2 am, when the moon came up, and we set out again, travelling the balance of the night. Next morning we were about twenty miles from there.” To the settlers, this raid was an unthinkable atrocity. To the Comanche, as Smith’s matter of fact account implies, it was a war for survival.

My husband and I often drive out near the area where the Williams Massacre, or as it is sometimes called, the Sand Creek Massacre took place. I didn’t actually know that the area is one of our usual evening drives until I read Hunter’s account. That knowledge gives a whole different feel to a drive down those back roads, where so much tragedy and sorrow was enacted.

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Diane Adams is a local journalist whose columns appear Thursdays on BrownwoodNews.com. Comments regarding her columns can be emailed to [email protected].