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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 live 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 were
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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