Fort Parker
Groesbeck, Limestone County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Built 1834 for protection from Indians. Named for leaders who bought first Predestinarian Baptist church body to Texas: Elder Daniel Parker; his father, Elder John; brothers Jas. W., Benjamin, Silas, John. Also here were Kellogg, Frost, Nixon, Duty and Plummer families on May 18, 1836, raiding Comanches killed Benjamin, John and Silas Parker, Samuel and Robert Frost and others; captured Elizabeth Kellogg, Rachel Plummer and son James, and Sila's children, John and Cynthia Ann in captivity, Cynthia Ann married Chief Peta Nacona; her son, Quanah, was last Comanche Chief. With her baby, Prairie Flower, in 1860 she was captured by Texas Rangers. She, the baby and Quanah are buried at Fort Sill.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
Built in 1834 by the Parker family — leaders of the first Predestinarian Baptist body to reach Texas — this private stockade sheltered several allied families on the Central Texas frontier. On May 18, 1836, a Comanche raid killed several of the men and carried off captives, among them nine-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker. She grew up among the Comanche, married Chief Peta Nocona, and bore Quanah Parker, who would become the last chief of the Comanche.
Why it matters
The raid and Cynthia Ann Parker's life became one of the most resonant stories of the Texas frontier, embodying the collision of settler and Comanche worlds and the human cost on both sides.
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Related people
- · Cynthia Ann Parker
- · Quanah Parker
- · Peta Nocona
- · Daniel Parker
Related events
- · Fort Parker massacre of 1836
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Old Springfield
Mexia, TX
Founded in 1838 around a spring donated by Moses Herrin, Old Springfield grew into the seat of newly formed Limestone County by 1846, complete with a two-story brick courthouse, a Methodist district that seeded the Northwest Texas Conference, and a short-lived college. The town's fortunes turned when the Houston & Texas Central Railroad passed it by in 1870, and two devastating fires in 1873 — one consuming the courthouse — hastened its end as buildings were carted off and the county seat moved to Groesbeck. Today only the old cemetery and Springfield Lake, inside Fort Parker State Park, carry the name of what was once the county's leading town.
Faulkenberry Cemetery
Groesbeck, TX
David Faulkenberry, born in South Carolina about 1795, came to Texas in 1833 as part of Daniel Parker's Pilgrim Church and moved to present-day Limestone County in 1835, helping build cabins and Fort Parker for defense. He and his son Evan were killed in an 1837 attack near Fort Houston, and his widow Nancy — who later married Elisha Anglin — established this cemetery, deeded as a graveyard by her descendants in 1874. Its graves include two state representatives, five sheriffs, an early Texas Ranger, and veterans reaching back to the Texas Revolution.
Plummer Cemetery
Groesbeck, TX
L. T. M. Plummer and his wife Rachel, born a Parker, reached this part of Limestone County in 1834 and received a Mexican land grant of over 3,000 acres. In the 1836 raid on Fort Parker, Rachel, her son James, and her cousin Cynthia Ann Parker were taken captive by Comanches; Rachel was ransomed in 1838 but died within a year, as did her infant son Wilson. Grieving, L. T. M. set aside an acre as a family burial ground, where more than a hundred Plummer descendants now rest.
Tehuacana
Tehuacana, TX
Perched on one of the highest points between Dallas and Houston, Tehuacana was home to the Tehuacana Indians, a Wichita people who farmed here until Cherokee raids destroyed them in the early 1830s. Settler John Boyd secured a Mexican land grant in 1835, and the town he built even vied to become the state capital in 1850. Its Presbyterian academy helped spark the founding of Trinity University in 1869, and later colleges kept the hilltop a seat of learning for generations.