A Fate Worse Than Death

Thirty years after Texas declared independence from Mexico, Parker County still lay in the heart of Comancheria, a violent expanse of the frontier. 

On March 2, 1866, Bolin Savage was plowing his small field along Sanchez Creek in Parker County, TX. Three of his sons, Marion, James and Sam, came to help. As the boys entered the clearing, a band of nine mounted Comanche rode up from cover by the creek and killed Bolin instantly. The boys ran for safety, but James, aged six, and Sam, aged five, were captured. From the nearby cabin, Bolin’s wife, Elizabeth, began firing repeatedly but to no avail. She witnessed her husband’s death and her sons’ abduction.

This account, written by Erik J. Wright, a native of Parker County, who publishes regularly for history magazines, piqued my interest. My own great-grandparents homesteaded land in nearby Comanche County and had several confrontations with the Comanche. Luckily none of their children were kidnapped, although two neighbor children were taken (See my books Under a Comanche Moon and Shadows of the Comanche). 

One warm clear day, a strong urge to see the Savage farm caused me to drive about fifteen miles southwest of my home and gaze out across Bolin Savage’s field. It remains cleared of rocks and tree stumps and capable of producing crops, just as he left it. A short distance away, Interstate 20 rushes west toward El Paso and east to the heart of Dixie, but I heard only grasshoppers in the grass, mocking birds in the trees, and the murmur of the creek.

Certainly Elizabeth experienced “a fate worse than death” in the sudden, tragic loss of her husband and sons, but this story is about a different “fate.”

Many months later, James and Sam Savage were found by a trader in the Arbuckle Mountains in present-day Oklahoma approximately 150 miles north of the Savage homestead. Soon he completed a successful deal with the Comanche band, giving a bridle, a saddle and a pony, plus $414 in cash (a total of about $6,400 in today’s money) in exchange for the boys.

The result was “a fate worse than death” for James and Sam. They had become completely “Indianized” in looks, behavior and beliefs. They viewed their adoptive Comanche families as brave, wise and caring. The fact of Indian kindness to children is well documented. Again the Savage boys were forcefully wrenched away from people they loved and respected. They left sobbing and begging to stay.

My heart believes Elizabeth suffered the most agonizing “fate.” Perhaps James and Sam would disagree.