This is the third oil painting that is being sent out to you. The scene is of the North Fork of the Guadalupe River near one of the low water crossings on FM 1340 just west of the tiny village of Hunt, Texas. The story that follows doesn’t have anything to do with this painting, it just happens to be on my mind and I can’t shake it, so I might as well write about it.

Do you remember when and where you were when you learned the-earth-shaking-fact that Santa Claus was not real? I do, it was a kid named Grady Grabbs that shattered my belief in Santa. He was the kid that lived across Highway 90 from our home in Uvalde, Texas, when I was about seven years old. Earlier that December morning, my mother had asked me to look through the Montgomery Ward catalog and tell her what I wanted Santa Claus to bring me for Christmas. After looking at all the wonderful toys in that catalog, I told her what I wanted. She assured me that Santa would probably bring me some of those things. Feeling wonderful, I walked across the highway to play with Grady and tell him the good news. Grady, an older and more wise kid, just laughed and told me that Santa Claus was not real. Of course, I didn’t believe it, however it was the beginning of the end in my belief in Santa Claus.

Now I have found out that one of my favorite Texas history stories is mostly a myth. While in Lubbock recently, my daughter gave me the book, Myth, Memory and Massacre, The Pease River Capture of Cynthia Ann Parker, by Paul H. Carlson and Tom Crum.

The story that I am referring to is the one where Captain Sul Ross leading some Texas Rangers and US Cavalry attacked a large band of Comanche Indians in 1860 on the Pease River and rescued Cynthia Ann Parker. According to Captain Ross, he personally had a hand-to-hand fight with the famous chief Peta Nocona, the husband of Cynthia Ann. There is even a state park there now where this “battle” took place. A number of the rangers that supposedly were in the battle would later write eyewitness accounts of their heroic adventures in the battle. As it turns out just about everything concerning this famous battle are simply not true including all of the eyewitness accounts.

The truth is that the Texas Rangers and US Cavalry attacked a small group of Comanche women and a few men helpers that were loading up a large quantity of buffalo meat. They killed all of the unarmed women except for Cynthia Ann, her small daughter and a ten year old boy. Also killed were a few Mexican men slaves that were helping with the work.

Part of the myth is that Peta Nocona was a great Comanche chief that loved Cynthia Ann. The truth is that Peta was not a chief, but a short squat Indian that had several wives. At the time of the battle he was off somewhere else having fun with his favorite wife. It was a Comanche custom for the men to have several wives, one of which got to be the favorite while the other wives, such as Cynthia Ann, did all the dirty work.

It was later in the 1880’s when Sul Ross was running for governor of Texas that he and his political advisors concocted the great Pease River battle story to make him a living legend. By-the-way, it worked, he became famous and was elected governor.

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