Murphy Givens Corpus Christi History Caller-Times

Marketplace \| Services \| Contact Us \| Community \| Arts & Entertainment \| Local Guides

Corpus Christi History by Murphy Givens

Corpus Christi History is published Wednesdays. Murphy Givens also sits on the Caller-Times editorial board and can be contacted at givensm@caller.com

Wednesday, September 1, 1999

Indian raids on Corpus Christi

The settlement of Corpus Christi from its beginning in 1839 had to be defended from attacks by Comanches and Lipans. There was a lull in 1845 and 1846 when armies were on the move in South Texas during the Mexican War, but Indian raids resumed in the summer of 1847.
   A Capt. Gray with a company of U.S. troops had been in Corpus Christi in the spring of '47, but then had been ordered south. There was no force in South Texas to fight off Indian attacks.
   In 1848, Rosalie Hart (later Priour) moved to Corpus Christi. She wrote in her journal: "The day before we arrived the Indians killed a man named Long Scotty and a Mexican about nine miles from town on the other side of the reef. The town was a scene of excitement and terror, the inhabitants making preparations to take refuge in a large brick building surrounded by a brick wall known as the Mann Warehouse.''
   Indian raids became even worse in 1849. Many people were killed and thousands of head of horses and cattle were stolen in the area. A man recently arrived from Matamoros, Antonio Cabasos, was killed in Corpus Christi in one attack. The U.S. government ordered troops into the region and made Corpus Christi the general depot for military supplies.
   Indian raids into Mexico became so bad that the Mexican government offered a bounty of 200 pesos for any Indian brave's scalp and 100 for a woman's, without much worrying about whether the scalps were taken from peaceful or hostile Indians.
   In 1850, a young man named James Doyle came to Corpus Christi from Refugio to buy supplies from Rosalie Hart's mother. On his way home, he camped at a spring between Chiltipin Creek and Corpus Christi, where he was attacked and killed by Indians. His parents recovered his body, pierced with many arrows. The place became known as Doyle's Watering Hole.
   Charles G. Bryant moved his family to Corpus Christi from Galveston. Bryant had been appointed the mustering officer for three companies of Texas Rangers commanded by John G. Grumbles, Charles M. Blackwell, and John S. "Rip" Ford. In connection with his duties, Bryant left Corpus Christi on Jan. 11, 1850, to go to Austin. He was killed by Indians on the other side of the reef from Corpus Christi. Capt. Grumbles, with 23 Rangers, chased the Indians for 300 miles, over six days, but never caught them. (Bryant is a story in himself. He was a native of Maine who took part in the rebellion in Canada in 1837 and was caught and sentenced to be hanged by the British government. He escaped the night before his execution was to be carried out and made his way to Texas, where he was eventually killed by Indians.)
   Not long after Bryant was killed, there was another attack on Corpus Christi. Rosalie Hart described it. "About this time the Indians were worse than usual and were advancing to attack the settlement. Four or five companies of soldiers were stationed in the town and the officers resolved to meet them and give battle. They met them near the Lagoon del Madre and had a severe battle. They succeeded in driving the savages out of the county but lost several soldiers. One poor officer had 20 arrows in his body. He was taken to the military hospital, situated about 300 feet from our house, where he died.''
   In a raid sometime before 1853, the Gravis family barricaded themselves inside their two-story rooming house on Chaparral. They heard a noise and looked up the chimney to see an Indian starting to come down; they lit a fire to drive him away.
   At Kinney's mustang pen on the Rincon (North Beach), men hid in a mesquite thicket and watched Comanche warriors ride up and throw their buffalo robes in the bayou so their horses wouldn't sink in the mud.
   The Lipans were raiding as far north as San Antonio, stealing horses and taking captives. In the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo, Mexico and the United States agreed to stop cross-border Indian raids, but Mexico could no more stop the Lipans from raiding north than the United States could stop Comanches from raiding into Mexico.
   In 1854, Lipan warriors were riding up to the outskirts of Corpus Christi again. A boy was captured while hunting mustangs west of the town. A Capt. Van Buren was killed by Indians at the mouth of the Nueces; his tombstone is in Bayview Cemetery.
   By 1858, Corpus Christi, concerned over the frequent Indian raids, formed a militia company called Walker's Mounted Rifles, commanded by Charles Lovenskiold. The Indian raids in the Corpus Christi area soon stopped, not because of the defense of the Walkers Mounted Rifles, but due to the onset of the Civil War. For two decades, there had never been a time when any person in Corpus Christi might not be attacked by a Comanche or Lipan.

This is the second of two parts. Sources include Caller-Times archives and archive editions of the Corpus Christi Star, 1849; Eugenia Briscoe's manuscript history of Corpus Christi; recollections of John B. Dunn; "Indian Wars and Pioneers of Texas'' by John Henry Brown; "Pathfinders of Texas'' by Mrs. Frank DeGarmo; "blank blank blank'' by J.W. Wilbarger; "The Great Comanche Raid''; the journal of Rosalie B. Hart Priour; "Texas Indians Papers'' "Pathfinders of Texas'' "Rip Ford's Texas'' by John S. Ford.