Indian Captives Dot and Bianca Babb
Chico, Wise County, Texas
Marker Inscription
Two of Texas history's best-known Indian captives, 13-year-old T. A. "Dot" Babb (1852-1936) and his 9-year-old sister Bianca (1855?-1950) were stolen by Comanches from their home near here in September of 1865. While at play one day, the children were surprised by a raiding party of 35 to 40 Indians. Mrs. Babb was killed and Dot, Bianca, and Mrs. Luster (a visitor) were taken to Indian Territory (present Oklahoma). After helping Mrs. Luster escape on the way, Dot was very nearly executed, but so stoic was he in facing death that the Indians admiringly spared his life. For the next two years Dot and Bianca lived, in different tribes, as adopted Comanches. Bianca later recalled that the Indians held a feast - with coffee, a luxury - upon her arrival and that they colored her blonde hair with charcoal and buffalo tallow. Dot, after a winter as the squaws' flunky, asserted his male rights and thereafter spent his time taming horses. He was taken on raids against other tribes and showed signs of becoming a fine warrior. After two years, the children's father ransomed them and a joyful reunion occurred. Both Dot and Bianca spoke with sympathy, however, of many Indian customs and of kind treatment during captivity.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In September 1865, as the Civil War closed and the Texas frontier remained violent and contested, a Comanche raiding party swept down on the Babb homestead near here, killing the children's mother and carrying off young Dot, his sister Bianca, and a visiting neighbor. For two years the siblings lived among the Comanche in Indian Territory, adopted into different bands—Bianca's blonde hair darkened with charcoal and tallow, Dot learning to break horses and ride on raids—until their father secured their ransom. Their later recollections, notably sympathetic toward their captors, complicated the era's lurid captivity narratives.
Why it matters
The Babbs' ordeal captures the human cost of the collision between settlers and Plains nations on the post-war Texas frontier, and their nuanced testimony pushed back against the one-sided captivity stories that shaped American attitudes toward Native peoples.
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Related people
- · T. A. "Dot" Babb
- · Bianca Babb
- · Mrs. Luster
Related events
- · Comanche captivity of the Babb children
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Babb Cemetery
Chico, TX
This cemetery dates to September 1866 and the killing of Mrs. John S. Babb by Comanches, an attack that also carried off two of her children, Dot and Bianca, into a captivity that lasted two years before their father recovered them. It marks the violent frontier that North Texas remained in the years just after the Civil War, when raids and captivities were a constant fear for settling families.
Huff Family Massacre
Alvord, TX
In 1874, during one of the last Indian raids in Wise County, tragedy struck a newly arrived settler family. While C. W. Huff and his son worked a remote part of their land, raiders killed Mrs. Huff and her daughters Palestine and Molly. Neighbors buried the victims in a wagon bed, and in 1879 Huff donated the land around the grave for a cemetery.
Captain George Stevens
Flat Rock, TX
Alabama-born George Stevens came to Wise County in 1855 and made his name as a defender of frontier settlers, active in resisting Indian raids and serving as a guiding officer in local home-guard units. He also wore the badge of county sheriff across the 1860s and 1870s, keeping order in a raw and often violent region.
Flat Rock Cemetery
Decatur, TX
Flat Rock was settled in the 1850s by Moses Ball and other pioneers, its name drawn from flat stones that formed a local landmark. Tradition holds the first burial in its cemetery was an American Indian and the second a small girl who died as her family migrated through; the oldest legible stones date to 1878, amid many unmarked graves. Ex-Texas Ranger George W. Stevens deeded the ground for the cemetery in 1890, and the community faded after 1914.