Alarm Creek is remembered as the scene of a near battle between two vigilante factions, one based in Walnut Springs and the other in Dublin. The two sides were drawn up for battle on each side of Alarm Creek when “Choctaw Bill” Robertson, a respected preacher, galloped down the creek with a large white flag. Robertson brought the two sides together and settled the matter. In 1912, Will Hickey described the creek in The Stephenville Tribune, as once spring fed, with an abundance of fish. But when the timber on the slopes was cut and the thick, native grasses grazed away, the creek dried up, “It’s glory has departed forever.”

In 1841, ten Caddo Indians were employed by settlers to locate stolen horses. Somewhere south of the Palo Pinto hills they were surrounded by General Edward Burleson’s Rangers. A letter written by settlers giving the Indians authority to find the horses was disregarded. The group voted 40-22 to kill the Caddos. The Indians were shot and scalped; one had the skin peeled from his back for use as a razor strap.

John Holmes Jenkins (ed.) Recollections of Early Texas: The Memoirs of John Holland Jenkins, Austin: University of Texas press, 1958.

Perhaps the heaviest rain in Erath’s written history began on August 23, 1882. “The rain came down in perfect torrents and looked as though it would breakthrough the roof. It fell in such blinding sheets as to cast a pall of darkness. No human could have stood in it without being drowned.” Several houses were destroyed, with the greatest damage to rail fences, stock, and crops. Stephenville Empire

Eleven-year old Herman Lehmann was captured by Mescelero Apaches from his German immigrant family near Fredericksburg in 1870. After fives years he was completely re-socialized into that tribe, later joining the Comanches for their last stand. He was nearly recaptured in August, 1875, as his band was returning to New Mexico Territory after raids in Texas. As Rangers under Captain Dan Roberts attacked the war party, Lehmann separated from the others to pick up Nusticeno (Old-Trot-Slow) whose horse had been killed. The two used their shields to deflect a dozen shots until Lehmann’s horse went down, pinning him beneath it briefly. Nusticeno ran away and was soon overtaken by the Rangers, who shot, decapitated, scalped, and skinned him. Jim Gillette and ed Sieker saw Lehmann’s long red hair and continued the running fight. Lehmann “crawled some distance on my belly and hid in the grass . . . They searched for me for an hour or so.” Lehmann then walked all the way back to the Apache camp in the New Mexico Territory.

A.C. Greene. The Last Captive: The Lives of Herman Lehmann, Who Was Taken by the Indians as a Boy from his Texas Home and Adopted By Them, Austin: The Encino Press, 1972.

Many of the Erath area atrocities that were committed were by John Baylor’s scoundrels disguised as Indians and the Patrick Murphy gang were among the worst. A letter was found that implicated Baylor and the Patrick Murphy boys in much of the frontier horse stealing and violence, that was blamed on the Natives. Sam Houston looked into the matter and wrote to a friend that the frontier chaos was originated through “the prejudices of evil and designing persons, who keep up the cry to enable them to better carry on their schemes of robbery and plunder,” In May, 1859, the charismatic Baylor and his core of desperadoes had convinced themselves and hundreds of others that the best policy regarding the Brazos Reservation Indians was not just removal from Texas, but extermination. Baylor and his second in command, Peter Garland, gathered hundreds of vigilantes from the area in Jacksboro under the banner presented by the local ladies: “Necessity knows no law,” and marched on the reservation on May 23, 1859.

The best remembered and most gruesome instigator of the chaos that stained the history of the 1850s in the Erath area, was John R. Baylor. He directed the likes of Peter Garland to harass the reservations until they were moved to Oklahoma. Earlier, Baylor had been appointed Indian agent to the Comanches on the Clear Fork Reserve in 1855. He was soon dismissed for feuding with his supervisor, the conscientious Robert Neighbors. (Neighbors was later murdered by a Baylor follower). Baylor claimed that Indian agents and Comanches were operating a horse-thieving scheme, delivering Texas frontier horses to Kansas. Ranger Captain “Rip” Ford investigated the charges and found that the hoof prints of the “relentless, merciless, and treacherous foe,” as Baylor called them, were shod with iron shoes and the arrows strewn along the way were not even Comanche. Edward Burleson, Jr. reported that Baylor had asked him to help steal a neighbor’s horses and then fabricate a trail to the Comanche Reservation. Others reported that Indian trails were usually hard to follow but after some of these murderous raids, the trails were so distinct that “an Easterner could follow . . . blazed from mutilated bodies to the Clear Fork Reserve.” Baylor’s charges were a supreme act of projection, he was found guilty of the very scheme that he had worked so hard to spread during mass meetings and through his “newspaper,” The Whiteman.

In opposition to the vigilante hysteria, Major Robert S. Neighbors, Indian agent, and one of the few Erath County residents not drawn in by conspiracy theories, Joshua R. Carmack (his cabin is on the Stephenville grounds). Together they gave affidavits for the arrest of Garland’s vigilantes. Then Judge Battle issued writs to Ranger Captain “Rip” Ford to arrest Garland and his men. Ford was afraid of Garland’s gang and refused, even when ordered to by Governor Harden Runnels. This part of the frontier slid into anarchy. The best remembered and most gruesome instigator of the chaos that stained this period of Erath County’s history was John R. Baylor. (Baylor’s uncle was the founder of the university by that name) It was Baylor that directed the genocidal purges conducted in the area. Baylor published a racist newspaper in Weatherford, called “The Whiteman,” which spread misinformation throughout the area. Baylor’s main justification for wanting to exterminate all Indians was his claim that the Indian agents aided the reservation Natives in stealing horses from the frontier and driving them to Kansas for huge profits. This charge was disproven and it was found that this traffic in stolen horses was actually carried out by Baylor’s operatives. But Baylor was above the law, protected by hundreds of followers that refused to believe the charges.

Dan Young. When the Bosque Ran Clear, unpublished manuscript, 2023.

The well-known Ranger and surveyor, George B. Erath, was among the committee chosen to travel to the reservation to determine whether or not an attack was imminent. The Indian agents had not yet returned from their Christmas leave in San Antonio, so Erath and the “commissioners” met with Captain T.N. Palmer of the Second Cavalry and others. These men tried to convince the vigilante representatives that the reservations were peaceful. Erath summed up the meeting by saying “more or less was said to little purpose.” When the leaders returned to Stephenville and made this report, most of the vigilantes went home, at least for a time. In reference to Garland’s band, celebrated as heroes along along the Texas frontier, western historian Hubert Howe Bancroft, said the names of these men were doomed to “immortal infamy.” When word of the Choctaw Tom Massacre reached District Judge Nicholas Battle, he began preparations to prosecute Garland’s vigilantes. Judge Battle mistakenly believed that the rage and vigilante hysteria on the frontier could be brought to reason if only the Garland gang could be apprehended and punished. At first he tried to get officials in Palo Pinto County to indict the killers. They refuse and instead they indicted Jose Maria for horse theft. Next Judge Battle appointed E.J. Gurley of Waco as special prosecutor to gather evidence.

After murdering Choctaw Tom’s family, the Stephenville vigilantes returned to town to warn that a revenge raid was coming. There were many young Caddo and Anadarko men who wanted to do just that, but Jose Maria, as many times before, suggested a peaceful strategy. He called on Texas authorities. Peter Garland and W.W. McNeal, another Stephenville provocateur, (yes the street is names for him) published their own contrary version of events. They explained that they had been following the trail of horse thieves that had led them to the Caddo camp where a “fierce and terrible battle” ensued and “we have no apology for what we have done.” In early January, 1859, as many as three hundred hate and fear-crazed immigrant settlers from nearby counties gathered in Stephenville in preparation for an attack on the Brazos Reserve. Not only did they endorse the Choctaw Tom massacre, they elected members of the Garland raid as their captains. Allison Nelson, known for hating all Indians, was elected commander of the vigilante army on the Bosque River. A committee was chosen to ride up to the reservation evaluate the situation, among them was the respected Ranger and surveyor, George B. Erath.

Dan Young. When the Bosque Ran Clear, unpublished manuscript, 2023.

The vigilantes knew that no Anglo (I use this term to include the mostly Scots-Irish immigrants in Erath County) had been questioned about murders committed around the Brazos Reserve, so at dawn they crept up to the teepees containing Choctaw Tom’s Caddo families and a few Anadarkos. Choctaw Tom had just purchased a wagon and had already started back to the reservation, leaving his family and friends asleep in camp. Choctaw Tom’s wife was among the seven people killed, mostly women and children in their beds, a nine year-old girl survived by pushing a rifle away from her face as her thumb was shot off. The only Anglo casualty was sixteen-year-old Samuel Stephen, whose father, the founder of Stephenville, John Stephen who had opposed the raid. Samuel had jumped to his feet as the command to charge was given and was shot in the back of the head by his own people – his was the first grave in the West End Cemetery. When Garland led his victorious men back to Stephenville, he announced “We have opened the ball and others can dance to the music.” That cryptic remark was taken to mean as an alarm that Jose Maria’s Caddoes and Anadarkos were on their way to attack Stephenville. Instead, the Indians took their case to court, where it was ignored.