Sunday, July 4, 1872, Mr. J.W. Moore and his wife, accompanied by their four children, Amanda, ten years of age, John Travis, six years of age, George, about four, and Mary Anne, a baby, left their home on the Medina River, about eight miles above Medina City, and traveled in an ox-wagon to visit some neighbors. Late in the evening, while returning home and when Mr. Moore was on the ground, driving down a steep hill, he and the members of his family drove into a band of hidden Indians. Mr. Moore attempted to get back to the wagon, but was soon killed. The savages also shot an arrow completely through the breast of Mrs. Moore, who was holding the baby in her arms. Amanda, however, took the baby; and the frightened oxen, with the children and dead mother in the wagon, began running down the road. They were followed by only one savage, who many times attempted to strike the children with a butcher knife. When this blood-thirsty scoundrel also attempted to several times stab the baby, Amanda would jerk it from side to side, and finally when the oxen were nearing the home of John Walker, the Indian retreated back to his companion. But excepting John Travis all of the children, including the baby, had been struck with the butcher knife. Ref.: Pioneer History of Bandera Co., by J. Marvin Hunter. The above story is from the book, The West Texas Frontier, by Joseph Carroll McConnell. |
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