Theodore A. Babb, captured and raised by Comanches, was with an Indian who tried to trade for a piece of US. artillery . The officer refused refused: “If I trade a cannon to you, you will use it in killing my solders.” The Comanche indignantly responded that he wanted the cannon to shoot cowboys, he would kill the soldiers with clubs.

Theodore A. Babb, In the Bosom of the Comanches, Dallas: John F. Worley Printing Co., 1912

The first time Stephenville was raided by Comanches was during the winter of 1857. John M. Stephen had twelve horses in a fenced enclosure along present West Washington, across from TSU, The Indians burned the tall grass and the rail fence and drove the horses away.

M. L. Auten, A History of Erath County, Unpublished Master’s thesis, Hardin-Simmons University, August 1951, in Texas Tech Southwest Collection.