Chasing Our Tales - Palo Pinto County, Texas Rangers and McAdams

I receive this email today:

“Dear Sue, I have seen one of your pages on the net with a reference toShirley Spencer Wells. I tried for several years to contact her because her Grandfather rode with this ranger unit (the Palo Pinto Rangers) and so did my wife’s Great Grandfather. They rode with Captain W.C. McAdams around 1874. I was trying to contact her so we could share our information. I recently have documented that my wife’s Great Grandfathers female relative was Susan Doggett Morgan who married Cattleman Oliver Loving. We had heard stories for years that William Doggett and
many of the Doggetts in Johnson County Texas had a lot of business in Parker County and surrounding counties. William for sure pushed cattle up the trails to market. I workwith the Johnson County Historical Commission and if you have anything on the Ranger Unit I would greatly appreciate it if you would email me. Thanks, Gary L. Meador, Burleson,TX”

There’s lots of different ways of looking into this, but I thought Captain W. C. McAdams was the most interesting. A Tennessee native who was born in 1825 and died in 1906, Captain McAdams came to Texas in the 1840’s, served as a Texas Ranger, and fought in the Mexican War. He and his wife, Ann Alexander, got their land in Palo Pinto County in 1854 and began raising cattle. He had many adventures during his life.

In 1871 Captain McAdams and his son David had worked a roundup on the Boydston Ranch and made their way home by McAdams’ Creek. When they were about six miles from the ranch house, they were chased by Indians, but they stopped and refused to run. The Indians, when faced by these fearless men, turned and fled. The McAdams men pursued the Indians, wounding one who was carried away by his tribe.

In the summer of 1872 McAdams and a Mr. Wilson from Parker County decided to travel west together for mutual protection. They were accompanied by one of McAdams’ cow hands, and Wilson brought along a new employee named Mullins and a boy who was about fifteen-years-old. When they reached Rock Creek, MaAdams and his hired man, driving one wagon, heard an odd noise from the hills. They waited until Mullins, driving another wagon, and Wilson and the boy, driving several head of cattle, caught up. They held a short conference and then headed on westward.

Leaving Loving’s Valley on the Palo Pinto-Parker County line, the men came upon a large number of Indians standing in the road about 200 yards ahead. McAdams stopped his wagon and signaled Mullins to drive his wagon about ten feet to the side. They then unhitched their teams, put the wagon seats over the ends of the wagons, tied horses to the wagons, and McAdams stepped out and told the Indians that if they wanted a fight, they were ready.

The Indians mounted their horses and began circling the wagons. Suddenly one of the Indians fired a gun, and the bullet struck Mullens in the head and killed him. When Mullins fell, it is reported that Wilson shouted, “Let’s run.”

Wilson and the boy mounted their horses, with McAdams shouting, “Aren’t you going to let us ride behind you?”

Wilson and the boy rode off with McAdams and his employee following on foot. When they reached the timber, Wilson and the boy rode straight in, but McAdams and his hand turned abruptly right and when the Indians came galloping along, they went straight for Wilson and the boy. McAdams and his man circled through the timber and made their way to Old Black Springs, about ten miles northwest.

Wilson and the boy turned east and went into Parker County to the community of Dry Creek. They returned to the attack site in wagons, wrapped Mullens in a wagon sheet, and placed him in a tree, where they intended to leave him until morning.

At Black Springs McAdams rounded up A. M. Lasater, John Lasater, James Wood, Lee Wood, Tobe Palmer, Silas Sheek, and Wiley Peters, and they also returned to the wagon. There they found Mullins in the tree. They also found an empty whiskey jug, probably drained by the Indians who had also taken some tobacco and other supplies.

The next morning both groups of men, thirty-two in all, returned to the wagon, and since the Indians had taken the mules and harness, the men tied ropes to the tongue of the wagon and pulled it with their horses. Twelve of the men took Mullins’ body to be buried in a graveyard about one mile east of the present community of Salesville.

Before returning home McAdams told the men he wanted to find the harness that was taken, as it was new, and he felt the Indians would have hung it in a tree not far for the site. Sure enough about a mile north they found the harness hanging in a tree, and some of the men suggested they follow the Indians’ trail, but McAdams said, “No, those Indians may be sixty miles from here by now.”

Lasater, Wood, Peters, and Garrison went ahead and followed the Indian trail, and about 600 yards ahead, Lasater announced, “Boys, I saw something move in the bush about 200 yards ahead.”

The men dismounted and Lasater stated that he saw a savage riding a “flea-bitten” gray horse, and this Indian appeared to have a calico skirt around his body. But someone shouted, “Hold on, boys, that’s our own crowd.”

And sure enough Lee Wood came up riding a speckled horse.

Shortly after that, however, the Indians were found, and a very disorganized attack took place. As Lasater was riding an old horse, and since McAdams had reported there were forty-five Indians, he was hesitant tog following the Indians, but Garrison said, “Somebody that is riding a good horse, follow me, and we will follow them (the Indians).”

The two men started out, not knowing if the other men were following them. They found the Indians, dismounted, and Garrison fired the first shot. That scared Lasater’s horse and caused his shot to go wild. The Indians mounted their horses and took after the men who retreated toward McAdams and the others. One of the men fell behind to cover Lasater whose pony was slow.

When they finally reached McAdams and the others, Lasater turned to go back toward the Indians. But McAdams shouted, “Stop, you fool, you will get killed.”

Lasater stopped and then discovered that no one was following him anyway. He and Peters were then detailed by McAdams to go for the men at the graveyard. There they found the others, and they went back to join McAdams. The men followed the Indians’ trail for about ten miles, but the Indians had fled when they realized than many more men were following them.

In January of 1874, McAdams was in command of a company of Texas Rangers who camped near the Flat Rock Crossing of the Brazos in Dark Valley, about nine miles north of Palo Pinto. These men were all experience Indian fighters and McAdams was a veteran of the Mexican War, as well.

A detachment of McAdam’s company, under the command of J. Tom Wilson, engaged in fighting some Indians in Palo Pinto County. The Rangers were reinforced by men and provisions and followed the Indians into Young County. In the eastern part of that county, the Indians hung a blanket from a hill making the Rangers believe they were taking a stand. The Rangers called a halt in order to plan their battle, but they then discovered that the Indians had not stopped after all. The Rangers kept chasing the band of Indians until darkness when they lost them near Flag Springs.

Two books that give quite a bit of detail to this period and place are: Texas Rangers Frontier Battalion, Minute Men, Commanding Officer 1847-1900 by Frances T. Ingmire and John Miller Morris’ A Private in the Texas Rangers: A. T. Miller of Company B, Frontier Battalion, College Station, Texas: Texas A&M University Press, 2001.

Here is a query regarding these Rangers:

“My grandfather, William A. Spencer , alias Champ Means, in his application for a pension from the Texas Rangers stated that he was a member of the Palo Pinto County Rangers, 1873-1874. Is there any information out there specifically about Palo Pinto County Rangers? W. C. McAdams was the commanding officer. Spencer/Means stated that he served with Wash Hullum, Joe Schoolcraft, William J. Hale, Jim Owens, Matthew Lamberth, and Long Billy Nichols. He knew John Pollard, Sam and Bill Ward, John (Bud) Matthews, and Bill Doggett. He said that he worked on the Narborough (not sure about the spelling) Ranch, 15 or 20 miles from Cisco, Texas. He worked on the Hittson Ranch. He was also in Throckmorton County at the Old Stone Ranch where he worked for Martin Hoover. He also lived in Strawn and in Eastland County. All of this took place around 1869-1876 before he went to Denton County and married. From there he moved to Granbury, Hood County, until 1884 when he returned to Palo Pinto County. He lived there until 1889.

“He was known as Champ Means from 1869 to 1876, but when he returned to Palo Pinto County he went by his real name, William A. Spencer or Bill Spencer.

“Any information you can give me will be appreciated. if any of these people are your ancestors, I would be interested in exchanging information. Shirley Spencer Wells”

Now, I want to leave you with a photo which will, hopefully, entice you into looking forward to next month’s column. Until then, if you have questions or answers or what to share some of you ancestors’ history you can write me at P O Box 61, Mineral Wells TX 76068-0061.