Month: January 2023

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The Searchers

~ michaelhvs ~ Leave a comment
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The following incident was the inspiration behind the John Ford/John Wayne classic western, The Searchers, but the film bears little resemblance to the actual story.

On May 19, 1836, Comanche warriors (along with Kiowa and Kichai allies) attacked Fort Parker in Central Texas. They killed several inhabitants and seized five individuals, among them 9-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker, the 5th great grand-aunt of my nieces. Four of the captives were eventually released, once the typical ransom had been paid. For some reason, the Comanches chose to hold onto Cynthia.

For the next twenty five years, Cynthia lived among the Indians, forgetting the ways of the white man. On at least two occasions, she was offered the opportunity to return to her white family but she refused both times. 

By the mid to late 1840s, she had married a Comanche warrior named Peta Nocona and later gave birth to two sons, Quanah and Pecos, as well as a daughter, Topsannah. She had become a full-fledged member of the tribe.

In December of 1860, Texas Rangers attacked a Comanche hunting camp and during the raid, they captured three Indians. One of them was a non-English-speaking white woman with blue eyes and an infant daughter. She was later identified by her uncle, Col Isaac Parker, to be his niece, Cynthia Ann.

She made numerous attempts to “escape” back to her Indian family and she was never reconciled to the idea of living among white society.  She resided with her white brother and later her white sister but never stopped mourning the loss of her Indian husband and children, refusing even to speak English. After she died, her son Quanah, who had grown to be an influential leader during the reservation era, claimed her body and she was reinterred in the Oklahoma territory where she remains to this day, lying next to his body.  

Michael Ondrasik and Home Video Studio specialize in the preservation of family memories through the digitalization of film, videotapes, audio recordings, photos, negatives and slides. For more information, call 352-735-8550 or visit our website. And please take a look at our TEDxEustis talk and let us know what you think.

Know When To Fold ‘Em

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From the Philadelphia Inquirer of March 9, 1836, reporting on the stabbing death of my first cousin (five times removed), Robert Allen Jr:

“We learn with much pain, that Robert Allen, esq., son of Col. Robert Allen, of Smith County, and formerly of this place, was stabbed by a blackleg, on the 29th January, on board the steam boat Selma, about twenty-five miles above Bayou Sarah, on the Mississippi river, of which wound he died in New Orleans.

The circumstances we understand to be these. At the dinner table, in conversation with other gentlemen, Mr. Allen expressed himself in strong terms of professional gamblers – remarking in substance that he considered them little better than horse thieves. After dinner, a man named Hamilton Taylor, formerly of East Tennessee, who was at the table when the remarks were made, called upon Allen to know if they were intended to allude to him. Allen replied that his observations were general – that he knew nothing of him [Taylor] or his profession; but that if he were a professional gambler he fell under the general remark.

After some warm words, Taylor struck Allen with his left hand and immediately thereafter with a large clasp knife stabbed him just below the right nipple through the lungs. Taylor was secured and will be tried at the May term of the Feliciana criminal court.

Mr. Allen was a young man of high promise – a member of the Bar – and was on his way to Alexandria in the state of Louisiana where he intended to settle himself, with a view of attending to his profession.”

Michael Ondrasik and Home Video Studio specialize in the preservation of family memories through the digitalization of film, videotape, audio recordings, photos, negatives and slides. For more information, call 352-735-8550 or visit our website. And be sure to watch our TedXEustis talk and let us know what you think.

The Jamestown Massacre

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The year 1622 saw what many consider to be “the most brilliantly conceived, planned, and executed uprising against white aggression in the history of the American Indians.” It was orchestrated by Opecancanough, chief of the Powhatans, who, while openly professing love and affection for the settlers of Jamestown, was, for almost a decade, secretly plotting for the indiscriminate massacre of every man, woman and child in the colony.

On March 21, 1622, the Indians came to the plantation homes bringing food gifts to share. But on March 22, 1622, while socializing with the settlers, an Indian war whoop signaled the commencement of the hostilities. As one, the Indians fell upon the colonists, quickly moving from the plantation homes into the fields and towards the main settlement, attacking the unsuspecting colonists without mercy nor regard to age or sex. Those who perished, died within an hour of the first blow. And yet, despite the well conceived surprise attack, 893 souls of the 1240 settlers survived – all because of the actions of two men.

The night before the planned assault, two Indian brothers who had embraced Christianity and were in the employ of two different colonist families, were discussing the impending raid. They had instructions to strike down their patrons at noon the next day as the main attack was beginning. One of the brothers, Chanco, lived in the plantation home of Richard Pace who had always treated him as a son, educating him alongside his own son George. When his Indian brother left for his own house, Chanco woke Pace and warned him what was about to happen. 

Pace acted quickly. He secured his family and as many neighbors there was time to reach and then rowed the three miles across the James River to warn the inhabitants of Jamestown. Defensive measures were taken and as the Indians approached the main settlement, they were quickly repelled. 

Richard Pace was the 10th great grandfather of my daughter-in-law. His actions saved the lives of the 893 surviving colonists. Among them was one of my ancestors, William Cantrell.

Michael Ondrasik and Home Video Studio specialize in the preservation of family memories through the digitalization of film, videotapes, audio recordings, photos, negatives and slides. For more information, call 352-735-8550 or visit our website. And please take a look at our TEDxEustis talk and let us know what you think.

Aviation Pioneer

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My daughter-in-law’s 4th great-granduncle, Lincoln Binion, was tragically killed in one of the nation’s first airplane related accidents. And he never left the ground.

Binion was an assistant and best friend of Matthew Bacon Sellers II, a Kentucky inventor who in the early 1900s became a leading pioneer in the field of aerodynamics. While most believe the Wright Brothers to be the first to achieve manned flight, Sellers, with Binion by his side, was not far behind. In 1903, the year of the Wright Brothers’ first recorded flight, Sellers was already building and testing gliders. It was an odd-four winged contraption built from sticks and linen, which Sellers would wheel to the top of a Kentucky hill outside his family home. Binion would then grab hold of a tether and race down the hill, pulling the machine behind him until it reached a speed necessary to take flight.

It was 1908 when Binion switched his attention to powered flight. His aim was to make the lightest aircraft capable of flying with the least amount of power and he succeeded. He was also the first to invent a retractable landing gear. 

The tragedy that befell Lincoln Binion occurred in 1911. While he was assisting Sellers prepare for yet another flight, the propeller of the craft which was about to be launched darted backwards and struck Binion in the head, killing him. Sellers was so distraught, he left Kentucky and his family home. He returned just once more during the remainder of his lifetime.

Michael Ondrasik and Home Video Studio specialize in the preservation of family memories through the digitalization of film, videotapes, audio recordings, photos, negatives and slides. For more information, call 352-735-8550 or visit our website. And please take a look at our TEDxEustis talk and let us know what you think.

Lavisa’s Ruse

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There are many stories told involving the Bowens of Virginia and Tennessee. This one features Lavisa Smith, wife of Lt. Rees Bowen, Revolutionary War hero, and a 6th great grandmother of my niece’s husband.

Rees and Lavisa were among the first whites to settle in Tazewell County, Virginia. To protect themselves and other families from Indian attacks, Rees built a strong stockade around his house which grew to encompass other structures. It eventually would become the historic Maiden Springs Fort. Hearing that the Ohio Indians were on the warpath and heading towards Maiden Springs, killing and scalping any inhabitants along the way, the men of the area left the fort to meet the Indians and keep them from attacking their women and children. When they were several days away from the fort, the men were horrified to find that the Indians had slipped past them and were headed straight for their settlement and their defenseless families.

Lavisa was outside of the fort’s walls, driving the cows to their milking area and, while passing over some marshy ground, noticed fresh moccasin prints. Immediately realizing their dire circumstances, she managed to keep a cool head and after she finished with the cows, informed the other women that they should dress in men’s clothing and march around the palisade to make the Indians think their husbands were in the fort, armed and ready. Not one woman was willing to risk exposing themselves in such a manner.

So Lavinia dressed the only woman over whom she had authority, a large negro woman, in her husband’s clothes, while she, being of diminutive stature, dressed in her son’s clothes. Carrying sticks to simulate rifles, they marched in military fashion around the fort all night. Her ruse worked for when the men arrived back home, they found their families safe and secure. Lavisa had surely averted a massacre from taking place for they found the Indian’s camp ground on the side of Short Mountain, overlooking the fort, where they opted not to carry out their attack plans based on what they could see.

Michael Ondrasik and Home Video Studio specialize in the preservation of family memories through the digitalization of film, videotape, audio recordings, photos, negatives and slides. For more information, call 352-735-8550 or visit our website. And be sure to watch our TedXEustis talk and let us know what you think.