Geo. W. Wolf, a Methodist preacher, lived about one mile from the mouth of the Llano, between the Llano and Colorado Rivers. His two sons, Hiram, aged about seventeen and Washington, who was perhaps fourteen years old, were out hog-hunting near the confluence of the two streams. The boys were afoot and armed with a small cap and ball pistol, when several Indians surrounded them. Hiram and Washington concealed themselves under the bank of the Llano where they were largely protected by trees. Hiram fired a few shots at the Indians in front of him but finally one savage jumped off of a fifteen foot bank and fortified behind a large pecan tree where he could do his deadly work. In a short time, Hiram was killed and Washington captured. The Indians then went west and passed through the very edge of Llano. Wm. Haney heard a peculiar noise so he stepped out of his house, which was in the edge of town, and the Indians took a shot at him. The warriors then left Llano and proceeded on their journey. Late in the evening while Jim Bidy was about two miles from his home, which was seven or eight miles southwest of Mason, he heard the Indians coming, so he hid in the brush. When the savages passed, he shot and wounded a squaw. Two warriors were left with her. Jim Bidy soon discovered they had a white child but he did not know whose child it was. He reported to the surrounding settlements, so Wm. Gammer, James Johnson, Charlie Cox, Boy Johnson and six or eight others followed the Indians to Leon Flats, about fifteen miles west of the present town of Mason. When the savages were encountered, they dropped the Wolf boy, who took after the Indians as hard as he could run. Washington Wolf had already been painted by the Indians during his captivity and they fed him jerked meat and prickly pears. Note: Author personally interviewed: Mr. and Mrs. J.F. Milligan; Asa Arnold; W.J. Nixon; Ike Maxwell and others who lived in Llano, Mason and adjoining counties at the time. The above story is from the book, The West Texas Frontier, by Joseph Carroll McConnell. |
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