John Henderson

John Henderson Halts the Indians

During 1862, while John Henderson was riding alone on Barton's Creek, south of Gordon, near the Palo Pinto-Erath County line, he was charged by a large band of Indians. After running for one or two miles his horse began to weaken, so Henderson ran into a dense thicket, tied his horse and hung up a red blanket which he had in his possession. Indians were always extremely shy of anything unusual. So this large band of savages stayed back a considerable distance during the remaining part of the day. When night came, John Henderson slipped out and after crawling almost a quarter of a mile, made his way to the nearby settlement. Later in company with others he went back to his horse which was still tied in the thicket.

Note: Author personally interviewed Mrs. Wm. Mingus, who lived near at the time.

The above story is from the book, The West Texas Frontier, by Joseph Carroll McConnell.