Squaw Creek Indian Fight
Glen Rose, Somervell County, Texas
Marker Inscription
In early 1864, a raiding party of twenty native Americans left Indian territory (Oklahoma), entered Texas and, passing west of Comanche Peak, descended the high ground between Prairie and Squaw Creeks. There they surprised stockman Rigman Bryant who was out hunting. He was overtaken and lanced to death, and his wounded, faithful dog stayed with his body. The band next encountered W.C. Walters and Silas Scarborough on horseback and Bryant’s slave on a mule who were returning from Goather’s Mill on the Paluxy River with a turn of corn. The mule-mounted young man was captured and induced to join the raiding party. When he refused, he was mortally wounded with lance and arrows. Walters and Scarborough narrowly escaped to spread the alarm. By circuitous route of central Somervell county, the raiders gathered a large horse herd from ranches and farms. Re-crossing the Paluxy River, they took the mounts of the Barnard’s Mill (Glen Rose) mill hands, then retreated north two miles, stopping to regroup at mesquite flat where the men and boys of the home guard, who were trailing, caught up with the band. Following a running skirmish, the raiding party withdrew and abandoned the stolen horse herd. Two of the home guard received minor arrow wounds while the casualties of the native Americans is unknown.
Erected by Texas Historical Commission
The Story
In early 1864 a raiding party of about twenty Native Americans crossed from Indian Territory into Texas, descending the high ground between Prairie and Squaw Creeks near present Glen Rose. They killed stockman Rigman Bryant and a captive young man, gathered a large stolen horse herd from area ranches, and were finally overtaken by the local home guard in a running skirmish that forced them to abandon the horses. The clash reflects the violent frontier warfare that gripped North Central Texas during the Civil War years, when frontier defense fell to home guards.
Why it matters
The fight illustrates the wartime collapse of frontier security in Texas, where settlers and Native raiders contested the land while regular troops were away at war.
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Related people
- · Rigman Bryant
- · W.C. Walters
- · Silas Scarborough
Related events
- · Squaw Creek Indian Fight
Themes & tags
Nearby & related markers
Somervell County
Glen Rose, TX
This county honors Alexander Somervell, a Maryland-born veteran of San Jacinto who served as the Republic of Texas secretary of war and led the 1842 Somervell Expedition against Mexican incursions. The region, long home to the Waco and other Native peoples, saw its first Anglo settler in Charles Barnard in 1848, and raised its first cotton crop and tannery during the Civil War. Carved from the south end of Hood County in 1875, the new county made Glen Rose — founded as Barnard's Mill — its seat.
Barnard's Trading Post No. 2
Glen Rose, TX
In 1843 the Torrey brothers and their friend George Barnard—with Sam Houston as a silent partner—won a contract to build trading posts along the Brazos frontier. Barnard's fair dealing earned Native trust, and after ransoming a young captive, Juana Cavasos, from the Comanches, the family settled her with his brother Charles at a post near Comanche Peak. When the government removed the region's Native peoples to Oklahoma in 1859, the trade faded, and Charles built a gristmill whose town became Glen Rose.
Comanche Peak
Granbury, TX
Rising 1,229 feet above the Brazos country, Comanche Peak is really a flat-topped mesa long known as a landmark to Native peoples and later settlers. It may have held ceremonial meaning for local tribes or served as a lookout over game and rivals, and a Comanche trail crossed the region nearby. In 1846 a party of pioneers and Native Americans bound for a meeting there nearly missed it because of its flat crown, and later settlers came to dance, picnic, and hunt among its caves and rocks.
John W. Bull Stone House
Tolar, TX
Tennessee-born John W. Bull came to Texas in 1853, preempted land here in 1861 within sight of Comanche Peak, and in 1865 took part in the Dove Creek fight against Kickapoo people migrating through the region. After his land grant was approved, he hired mason Pat Gannon to build this stone house from a nearby quarry, chiseling the date "March 17, 1872" into the chimney. It stands as one of the area's earliest masonry homes on what was then the Texas frontier.