John Richard Parker

John Richard Parker (born 1830 - died 1890?) was the brother of Cynthia Ann Parker and the Uncle of Quanah Parker, last chief of the Comanches. An Anglo-Texas man of Scots-Irish descent who suffered being kidnapped from his natural family at the age of five by a Native American raiding party, who returned to the Native American people of his own free will after being ransomed back from the Comanche. (He literally ran away back to the Indians after being ransomed back from them) He was a member of the large Parker frontier family that settled in east Texas in the 1830s. He was captured in 1836 by Comanches during the raid of Fort Parker near present-day Groesbeck, Texas.

Birth and Early Years

John Parker was born in 1830 in Crawford County, Illinois¹, the second oldest child of Silas Mercer Parker (1802-1836) and Lucy (Duty) Parker. His younger siblings were Silas Mercer Jr., and Orlena. His older sister was Cynthia Ann Parker who was also kidnapped by the Comanche, married a chief, Peta Nocona and had a son Quanah Parker, who became the last Chief of the Comanche. This family and allied families, led by Silas' father John and brother Daniel, moved from Illinois to Texas in 1833. A large group under the family patriarch, Elder John Parker, settled near the headwaters of the Navasota River in present-day Limestone County. In 1834 they completed Fort Parker for their protection on the frontier.

The Fort Parker Massacre and capture by the Comanche

Main article Fort Parker massacre.

On May 19, 1836, a large force of Comanche and allied warriors attacked the fort, killing five men and capturing two women and three children - Cynthia Ann, her brother John and James Pratt Plummer (son of her first cousin). Cynthia Ann spent almost 25 years among the Comanches. James W. Parker, brother of Silas and uncle of Cynthia Ann, spent much of his life and fortune in what became an obsession of searching for her.

Different Fates of the Parker children

Of the three children, two lived their lives happily among the Comanche, despite "rescue," by whites, from which one escaped. The third and youngest, was regained by white society. Brother and sister John Richard and Cynthia Ann Parker became happily Indian. Their cousin James Pratt Plummer was ransomed in 1842 when John Parker was first ransomed, and in 1843 he was reunited with his family. Since he was much younger, he was able to readapt to white society, and he married twice and fathered four children. During the Civil War, he joined the Confederate Army and died, on November 17, 1862, at Little Rock, Arkansas, of pneumonia brought on by typhoid fever.[1]

John Parker and the Comanches

John Parker was raised by the Comanche, as were as his sister and younger cousin, John Pratt Plummer. Although the two boys were ransomed back, John was unable to adopt to white life as James was, and returned to the Comanche. (He escaped his white family, which then knew to watch his sister a great deal closer when she was recaptured - this illustrates a very understated issue involved European children raised by Indians - many of them preferred the Indian life; indeed when the tribes were finally forced on Reservations, and the white captives "freed," most chose to stay) Although most attention in that tragedy centered on his sister, and her tragic double kidnapping, first by the Comanche, the second time by the Texas Rangers, an extremely interesting sidelight of this story is what became of Cynthia's younger brother John. John Richard Parker adapted well to the wild Comanche life where one was free to roam the Llano Estacado from the Wichitas to Mexico. John became a Comanche through and through, and though recovered by the family once, returned of his own free will to the Comanche, and probably would have lived his life out among them quite happily, but fate intervened.

In Old Mexico

As did most young Comanche, John Parker went on many raids into Mexico during the September full moon, the “Comanche Moon,” when the dreaded Comanche raids literally devastated Mexico all the way to Central America. On one of these raids, John contracted smallpox.. The Comanche were returning from the raid with captives, horses, and other plunder, but stopped briefly when John Parker became too ill to ride, somewhere just north of the Rio Grande in West Texas. The Comanche so feared this disease that it terrified the entire band and left them terrified they too would catch this dreaded killer which had killed over half the tribe during the epidemic years. The Comanche raiders abandoned John and left a Mexican captive girl whom they had taken captive on the raid to take care of him. It would have not surprised anyone had the girl abandoned this sick Comanche who had kidnapped her from her home and family. However, she did not. John was nursed back to health by the girl, and eventually recovered from the disease. He then returned to Mexico with the girl and restored her to her family, and he later married her..

Later Life

John returned to the United States during the civil war and served with Confederate troops in Texas. After the war, he returned to Mexico where he died on his farm an old man with his wife and children. Of all the Parker children taken by the Indians, he was the only one to actually have a happy life.

External Links

http://www.rootsweb.com/~okmurray/stories/cynthia_ann_parker.htm

References

• Frontier Blood: The Saga of the Parker Family, by Jo Ella Powell Exleyy Jo Ella Powell Exley (Author)

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