Mr. and Mrs. Lem Barton lived about eighteen miles southwest of Weatherford. Mrs. Barton and her two little children were alone and eating dinner when they saw several horsemen running stock back of Sam Littlefield's field. At first, she thought it was her husband, and other cowhands, who would want dinner. So she jumped up and began making necessary preparations. But before realizing what had transpired, her house was surrounded by a band of treacherous red-men. Mrs. Barton took her children and started for the home of Tack Barton which was about two hundred yards to the east. Mrs. Tack Barton and her daughter, had also discovered the warring Indians, and had donned some men's clothes for protection. When Mrs. Lem Barton and her children started toward the Tack Barton home, several blood-thirsty savages dashed toward them. Mrs. Tack Barton and daughter donned as they were in men's clothing, grabbed some guns and started to the relief of Mrs. Lem Barton and children. The cowardly Indians thought they were men, and ran away. But Mrs. Lem Barton was already mortally wounded, and died before she could be moved to the house. She was buried in the Soda Springs Graveyard, in the picturesque Littlefield Bend, where other Indian victims lay dead. Note: Author personally interviewed Dave and F.S. Littlefield, James Newberry, Sam Newberry, C.R. Bradford, and others who lived in Palo Pinto and Parker Counties at the time. The above story is from the book, The West Texas Frontier, by Joseph Carroll McConnell. |
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