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Notes for Jonathan M. Cheairs

1850 No Township, Houston Co, Texas 11 December 1850, p188b:
#669/669 Jeramiah S. Johnson 29 m w farmer, can't read/write Ga
George W. 6 m w Al
Mary 52 f w can't read/write Ga [mother]
Teresa E. 12 f w Al
Henry H. 9 m w Ar
Jonathan Chairs 21 m w Ar
Martha A.E. 22 f w can't read/write Ga [dau of Mary and ? Johnson]

Texas Land Title Abstracts
J. M. Cheairs
Patentee: J. M. Cheairs
Abstract #: 2874
File #: 127319
District Class: School
County: Parker

Plainview News article May 15, 1925? by Mrs. Charles Hayden of Plainview, Texas (daughter of William Henry Cheairs who died 12 Aug 1904 in Palo Pinto, Texas).

Mrs. Sherman [Martha] was my own grandmother, being my father's mother. My father [William Henry Cheairs] was eight years old when the Indians scalped his mother, but he never forgot that day. My father's father died when father was only four years old; his name was Charfin Cheairs [I think she has his name confused]. Later Grandma married Mr. Sherman [Ezra], and there was born to them one child, a boy named Joseph, who now lives somewhere in Lubbock County.

He [Joseph] was only a small boy of about two years [he had turned one Oct. 11th and this was Nov. 27th 1860] when one day at noon Grandmother was fixing dinner when she noticed a bunch of men on horse back, whom she took to be Indians, a bunch of about 25 or 30. She told Mr. Sherman, her husband, that they were Indians but he told her not to be frightened as they were only cowboys. So they forgot all about it, thinking they were cowboys, when all at once a chief rode up with five others and faced the house.

Mr. Sherman had no gun, and he went out to threat them kindly as he thought they would not harm them, but the chief raised in his stirrups and whistled aloud, then the rest of the Indians who were hidden behind surrounded the house, slapped Grandma several times and told Mr. Sherman to take her and the papooses and leave. They then turned the table over, which had dinner on it. My father, only a child, did not know what to do, but ran out the back door and down the road a ways to a live oak thicket where he hid. Mr. Sherman taking Grandma and a little girl, Mary Cheairs, my father's younger sister, and the little boy, Joseph, and started to a neighbor's house, a distance of about two miles. When about half way the chief [Peta Nocona] overtook them and took Grandma away from Mr. Sherman. He took her by the hair of the head and dragged her. He passed the thicket where father was hid, but he was afraid to run out. The chief then dragged her about a quarter of a mile, beat her, took the pins from her clothes and stuck them in her flesh, and then scalping her he left her to die.

When Mr. Sherman reached the neighbor's house, he got a gun and went back, but the Indians were gone. He found Grandma a little ways from the house; she called for water, and Mr. Sherman carried it to her in his hat, then picking her up he carried her to the house, where she stayed until her death, which was only three days.
My father slipped out at dark from his hiding place to see what had happened, thinking he would never see his mother again, but alas he walked in and found his mother scalped and laying on what bed the Indians had not destroyed.

Su Ross and his men the next day passed on their way on a chase of the Comanches and stopped by to bid Grandma farewell, as they knew she could not live until they returned. She told Ross that she hoped he got the chief for he was the one that scalped her. Ross told her he would get him if he had to follow him to the Rocky Mountains. Ross and his men captured them one evening late as a drizzly rain was falling. He scalped the chief and as he did so the Comanche said, "Woof! White man bad!"

The Indians had with them the family Bible with an arrow hole about one third through the thickness. Ross brought back the Bible; also the scalp of Grandma, the coat that was worn by the chief, which they said, belonged to Mr. Sherman. They also got it to show they got the right bunch.

My father and his sister were reared by his uncle and aunt, Jerry Johnson near Desdemona, Texas, better known as Uncle Jerry and Aunt Lizzie. My father has been dead nineteen years in August. He was 54 at death.

Cynthia Ann Parker [kidnapped at age 9 by the Comanches from Fort Parker] was a second cousin of my father on his father's side. [Cynthia later became Chief Peta Nocona's wife and mother of Quanah. Cynthia told, after her recapture, that her husband, Peta Nocona had led the raiding party through Parker County.] The Parker and Cheairs families all lived in Illinois and moved to Texas along about the same time. I have heard my father tell so much about the capture of Cynthia Ann. Now I could tell you much more but will not take up too much space.
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