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INDIAN RAID RECALLED AT PIONEER’S DEATH |
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Mrs. C. C. Proctor
died at her home about 5 miles northeast of Florence March 7, 1924,
after a lingering illness, at the age of 84 yrs, 11 months and 2 days.
She was born in Spartanburg, S.C., May 9, 1839 and
moved to the State of Mississippi at the tender age of 2 years.
In 1848 she moved to Bastrop, Texas and in 1854 moved to Burnet County where the same year
she confessed a hope and was baptized into the Missionary Baptist
Church. In 1857 she moved with the family to Travis County
where she was married in 1858 to G.
W. Proctor. To them were born five children, two of whom
died in infancy. The living are G.
L. Proctor, Mrs. M. L. Hickman and W. H. Proctor.
In 1862
her husband joined the Confederate
Army and left her to with her uncle, Wofford Johnson, a stockman, who was
away from home a good part of the time, and as Mrs. Johnson and Mrs. Proctor had
been girlhood chums, it suited all around. They lived at this
time in the Western community known as Hopewell.
In 1863, while Mr.
Proctor was with his regiment in Louisiana, his company lost all
their clothing. He advised his young wife of his condition, and
immediately she went to work at the only job that produced clothes in
those days, and that was to spin and weave the cloth and then make the
clothes. Mrs. Proctor had
just finished her husband a comfortable suit; she had done the
last of the work at her father’s, several miles from where she was
making her home, and had turned it over to Captain Arnett to deliver, which he
did. (The men served three years without pay, and received what clothes
they had from their wives, mothers and sweethearts.) After
completing her labors, Mrs. Proctor
mounted her horse and started for home. When in sight of home she
discovered the Indians making off with her uncle and aunt, but thought
it was men driving cattle.
The family attacked by the Indians consisted of Mr. And Mrs. Wofford Johnson, Mary Jane,
Elvira and baby Georgianna.
Those killed in this raid were Mr.
And Mrs. Johnson and Mary Jane.
When Mrs. Proctor
approached near the house she discovered little Elvira running toward the
house. Blood was on her little bonnet and she said: “The Indians
are killing Papa and Mama. Mama put me off the horse and told me
to run and hide.” Mrs. Proctor set the child behind the saddle,
but she was so excited that she would climb into the saddle. By
the time Mrs. Proctor had
mounted with the child behind her the Indians were again coming toward
the house. She was riding an extra fast horse and was making good
time away from the Indians when she overtook a negro girl who belonged
to the family. She wanted to climb on the horse but Mrs. Proctor, knowing she would pull
them all if she attempted to mount, told the negro girl to run for her
life, and that she would do all she could for her. It is said
that all sprinting records prior or subsequent to this time were broken
by this negro girl. In their race for their lives they overtook
two men who were hauling water, Messrs
Peyton and Frank Williamson. There she left the negro girl
and put her horse at full speed for her father’s home.
Arriving there and telling the story, her father changed saddles on the
horse and went single handed in pursuit of the red men, but failed to
find them. When he returned, a wagon and team was procured and a
search was made for the missing. Mr.
Johnson and little Mary Jane were soon picked up with the arrows
through their bodies, dead. This left Mrs. Johnson and baby
Georgianna, unaccounted for. By this time the neighbors for many
miles around had heard of the tragedy and were gathered at the home of Mrs. Proctor's father, where the
dead where resting. While the crowd was trying to decide
what to do, old Uncle Minor, a
negro who belonged to the murdered family became impatient and spoke up
this way: “Folks, is you gwine let Missus lay out for the
varments to eat? If nobody else will go, I will go find the
Missus and bring her in myself.” Another search was
successful insofar as the wife and mother were concerned. They
found her dead with nine arrow wounds in her body and lanced in the
breast.
There was no rest or sleep in the community that
night. The next morning while
Jimmie Gilliland was passing a fallen blackjack tree off which
the leaves had not fallen, he discovered baby Georgianna leaning against the
trunk of the tree, badly scared. When Jimmie called her name she held out
her hands and came running to him. There was an arrow hole
between the bones of her forearm. Where the arrow went no one
ever knew. Also no one ever knew how little Georgianna got where she was, but it
is believed that her mother threw her into the tree top in an effort to
save the life of her baby.
When the family was attacked they were on their way
home from a Mr. Whitehead’s
where they had been making molasses. The were riding horseback
and carrying the children, therefore had little chance of defense.
The bodies of the three victims of this awful raid
rest in the old Hopewell Cemetery,
about seven miles west of Liberty Hill.
It was known in those days as the Enoch
Johnson graveyard.
The Indians took their horses and saddles and Mr. Johnson’s revolver and left the
neighborhood in a hurry.
Mrs. Proctor
cared for the two children until their grandfather, Jessee Moore, came and took them
away. He was living at the time on Little Elm in Bell
County. Georgianna grew
to womanhood, married and died. Elvira
married a man by the name of Barber,
and is living in or near Heidenheimer,
Texas.
In 1867 the subject of this sketch moved with her
husband and family, to Bell County where they have since resided.
She and her husband, who survives her and who furnished the information
for this article, have lived together for 65 years, 3 months and 7 days.
Grandchildren living in Jarrell are W. E. Proctor and Ira Proctor and their great
grandchildren Pama, and Warren Proctor and Theron Proctor. Mrs. Tom Fisher and Mrs. Wilson Wheeler reside in
Bartlett.
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Note from submitter: [This is a]
story/obit
concerning the niece of Wofford
Johnson, Katie Carolina
Johnson-Proctor. Wofford is the one that was murdered
along with his
wife and daughter, Mary,
by Comanches in 1863 along the Dog Branch.
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