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by
Mitchel Whitington
Excerpted from
"Ghosts of East Texas
and the Pineywoods"
Publisher: 23 House (April, 2005) |
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When
I first started researching this chapter, I wasn’t quite sure about it being a
bona fide ghost story. I had been told about the spirit of an Indian in full battle
dress appearing on a horse, and a mysterious fog that appeared even on warm, sunny
days. I thought that I’d investigate anyway, and it turned out to be one of the
most interesting journeys that I made during this book. It all started when I
was putting together some information for another chapter. I heard about a huge
monument in the pineywoods of East Texas that marked one of the worst Indian massacres
in the history of this part of the state.
The story starts in December
of 1837, well over a year after Sam Houston and his men soundly defeated General
Santa Anna at the battle of San Jacinto, which won independence for Texas.
Issac Killough, Sr., moved his family from Talladega, Alabama to East Texas and
purchased land from the newly formed Republic. The property had originally been
part of a treaty settlement between the Texas Revolutionary Government and the
Cherokee Indians negotiated by John Forbes, John Cameron and Sam Houston. In December
of 1837, however, the Senate of the new nation of Texas nullified the treaty.
The Cherokee weren’t all that happy with the treaty because it greatly reduced
their lands – since they were led to believe that it would give them a permanent
home, however, they accepted the terms. Some bitterness still existed among many
tribe members, and the nullification of the treaty only exacerbated those feelings.
The stage was set for an inevitable clash between the Texans and the Cherokee.
On
Christmas Eve of 1837, Issac Killough didn’t know about this rising animosity
with the natives. His four sons, two daughters and their husbands, and two single
men, Elbert and Barakias Williams all settled on the land. Over the next several
months they built houses, and planted crops to sustain their families.
The corn was ready to harvest by August, but word had reached the settlers of
a growing threat by the Indians. The Killough party joined with other settlers
and fled to Nacogdoches for
safety.
In a month or so, the threat seemed to have dissipated, or so
the Killoughs thought. They struck a bargain with the Indians to allow them to
return to the land to harvest their crops, promising to leave before the first
frost of winter.
Apparently not all of the Cherokees respected the arrangement,
however, because on the afternoon of October 5, 1838, a renegade band attacked
and killed or kidnapped eighteen unarmed members of the Killough party, including
Issac Killough, Sr., himself.
The survivors, which included Issac’s wife
Urcey, began a harrowing journey to Lacy’s Fort, forty miles south of the Killough
settlement. When they arrived there safely, an enraged General Thomas J. Rusk
organized a militia and rode out in search of the Indians. Rusk’s men caught up
with them near Frankston, and defeated them in a skirmish in which eleven of the
Indians were killed.
The Killough Massacre was the largest Indian depredation
in East Texas. The bodies that were found were buried at the site, and in the
1930s the W.P.A. erected an obelisk made of stone to mark the location. In 1965
the cemetery was dedicated as a Texas Historical Landmark, and the area is now
enclosed by a fence with a small parking lot beside it. |
| Photo
courtesy Janet Gregg, 2005 | |
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| Before
I actually visited the monument, I’d heard quite a bit about supernatural activity
there, including the aforementioned sighting of a Cherokee warrior and the mysterious
fog... next
page |
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More
Books by
Mitchel Whitington
A Ghost in my Suitcase |
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