During the fall of 1860, Cole and Will Duncan established ranch headquarters on California Creek about ten miles northwest of Fort Belknap; their houses were about seventy five yards aparted; and not yet completed. Lindy Harmison, colored, working for Mrs. Cole Duncan, started to the creek for water. With a bucket in each hand, and one on her head, she was singing, "I am going home to die no more." Mrs. Cole Duncan could see and hear her through the cracks of the unfinished house. When Lindy reached California Creek about one hundred yards away, Mrs. Duncan heard her say, "Oh, Lordy," The mistress of the new ranch quarters looked up just in time to see Lindy surrounded by Indians and literally filled with arrows. She was buried on the banks of California Creek about two hundred yards from the house. The Indians then started toward Wm. Duncan's unfinished ranch quarters, which were about seventy-five yards away. This was late in the evening. He and his brother-in-law, Bob Mathis, at the time, had gone out on the range to drive in milk cows. For fear they would be killed, Cole Duncan ran out in the yard with his gun, waved his hat, and this unusual movement caused the Indians to believe the soldiers were coming, and they dashed away in a northeasterly direction. Ref: F.M. Peveler and others; living in Young County at the time. The above story is from the book, The West Texas Frontier, by Joseph Carroll McConnell. |
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