John R. Baylor (1822-1894) nephew of R.E.B. Baylor, founder of Baylor University, escaped an accomplice to murder charge by coming to Texas in 1842. He worked as an Indian agent from 1855 to 1857 when he was dismissed from the Brazos Indian Reservation for misuse of federal funds and accusing the reservation Comanches of conspiring with the non-reservation Natives from the North. Baylor began his career of hate and demagoguery as editor of The White Man, a Weatherford newspaper dedicated to wild misinformation about a supposed invasion of “masses of Red Warriors preparing to attack the settlements.” There were actual Comanche raids from north of the Red River, but Baylor was referring to the agricultural Caddo and Anadarkos living on the Brazos Indian Reservation near Fort Belknap (94 miles North). In May of 1859 Baylor traveled widely in North Central Texas preaching hatred for Indians, on the third, “Hundreds of citizens assembled at Stephenville to join the main Baylor army which had already killed 15 Reservation Indians.” Baylor and his associate, Peter Garland, offered a reward for the scalp of Major Robert S. Neighbors, a respectable Indian Agent who was assassinated a few months later. A few days later, Reverend Noah Byars blessed Baylor’s army of 1000 as a ‘righteous crusade,’ concluding his sermon with “Men . . . the only thing we can do is to march upon these blood-thirsty savages [Anadarkos had a long history of cooperating with Anglo-settlers against the Comanches] and kill or drive them from the country. . . . the minister’s solemn and emphatic words were endorsed and sanctioned by every man of the camp and hats went hurling into the air.” Respected frontiersman, James Barry, one of the few not susceptible to Baylor’s charisma, listened to one of Baylor’s speeches in Stephenville and noted that Baylor’s army camped near the Caddo reservation in May, to prepare their attack. John Elkins, a 14-year-old follower, recorded that the wives of bBylor’s vigilanted army “prepared a large and costly flag of silk which had the forcible words ‘Necessity knows no law’ inscribed across its fold; Israel Mulkins unfurled and presented it to us in our camp. This thoughtful encouragement . . . so enthused and inspired the men . . . the deep and intense reverence with which they received the flag made them more anxious for the fray” Baylor ordered the assault on the federal fort guarding the reservation to begin on the 16th but “Captain” Peter Garland, in charge of one wing of Baylor’s vigilante army refused. Henry Belding recorded what Garland said: “If we attack that fort we would be the worst whipped set of men on earth.” Which, Belding wrote, “threw a damper on the whole business.” The main Baylor army charged to within 600 yards of the line of U.S. soldiers and Anadarko Natives [Anadarkos, led by Jose Maria, rarely lost a mounted fight with Anglos] then withdrew, killing a Caddo woman working in her garden and an old man looking after horses near the road. Jose Maria and 50 fighters broke away from the federal line and chased the much larger vigilante army to the Bill Marlin ranch. The Anadarko knew and respected the marlin family and refused to fire into the cabin, though they killed a few of Baylor’s men who took up positions near the house. Inside the house the vigilantes cowered and wept, expecting to be killed any minute. Jim Pockmark, second in command, asked Baylor to come out and settle the matter by single combat. Baylor refused. Jose Maria hoped to capture the entire Baylor group (most had run away by this time) but at nightfall General Badfute arrived with several hundred troops, and after watching for a while, ordered Jose Maria to call off the attack. The Brazos Reservation was abandoned in July and the last Texas Natives (except for Alabama-Coushattas) formed a caravan to Anadarko, Oklahoma amid rumors that Baylor’s army was following. There was a land rush to claim the 18, 576 acres and multiple log cabins on the site of the reservation.

https://www.tshaonline.org Brazos Indian Reservation – Texas State Historical Association

John M. Elkins, Indian Fighting on the Texas Frontier. Amarillo: Russell and Cockrell, 1935

Henry Belding, “Memoirs” West Texas Historical Association Yearbook, 29 (October, 1953

John R. Hutto, “Uncle John Marlin.” West Texas Historical Association Yearbook, 4 (June, 1928)

James Buckner Barry, A Texas Ranger and frontiersman: The Days of Buck Barry in Texas, 1845-1906, ed. James A. Greer, Dallas: The Southwestern press, 1932.

Barbara Ledbetter, “Zachariah Ellis Coombes, The Samuel Pepys of the Texas frontier. West Texas Historical Association Yearbook, 44 (October, 1968)

Kenneth Neighbours, Robert Simpson Neighbors and the Texas Frontier, 1836-1859. Waco: Texian Press, 1975.

Joseph Carroll McConnell, The West Texas frontier: Or, A Descriptive History of Early Times in Western Texas. Jacksboro: Gazette Print, 1953.

H.S. Thrall, A History of Texas. New York: University Publishing Company, 1876.

Dan Young, Unpublished Manuscript, 2022.

Handbook of Texas