The Horrific Tragedy of the Dowdy Children. Risks of Early Pioneers.

hey gang we are in Mountain Home Texas right now right off the highway at a beautiful spot and there you see The Monuments post this is the site where a terrible tragedy would happen in the pioneering days to a family family called the dowdy family they said that at this location here they built a huge pile of rocks 10 feet high to commemorate this terrible event that I'm going to talk to you about and there's a nice pull over here for cars and an Overlook now we're going to go to the cemetery the Sunset Cemetery to visit the victims but let's let's go over here and I'll tell you a little bit about the story [Music] now there was a man his name was Thomas Dowdy he wanted a better life for his wife Susan and their eight children so they decided to move from Goliad to this very small town here it was in 1878 and at the time it was called You're a family packed up their belongings and headed off to start their new dream location to live that pioneering life away from everybody in the beauty and the quiet of this Texas wilderness they would make a homestead here in the Hills it was a beautiful Sunny Saturday it was October 5th 1878. and the family was really just getting acquainted here unpacking their belongings and this is one tragedy tragedy would come in a really bad way the dark clouds were coming the Comanches were on the ride [Applause] well we finally have a beautiful day it is February 3rd Friday and we are at the cemetery here the Sunset Cemetery and I want to thank Neil Crawford who suggested I come here never would have known about it and this is just marvelous we've got 50 degrees sunny finally out of the ice storms and we're at a really beautiful location all by ourselves it's next to the river and we're going to go to the graves of four young pioneer children so what happened well it was daughter Alice who was 18 years old she was with her 16 year old sister Martha there was Susan who was 14 and they were with the little brother James now they were all out here watching over their family's flock of sheep Carefree probably a beautiful day like this and they were about a half mile away from the home the homestead and oldest brother Richard went back home or he was back home with a friend his friend was engaged to one of the girls they had headed back to have an early lunch they finished their lunch around 11 A.M and they headed over to where brothers and sisters were were tending to the Sheep and they were nowhere to be found they were nowhere to be found they were gone and they couldn't figure out what happened they were calling out to them and and calling and there was just no answer they ran back to the homestead of course screaming screaming for the parents and parents came and indeed the children were missing the Sheep were there they were scattered just wandering about and unbelievably Mrs Dowdy then was here also and unbelievably she when she got to the the hillside at a certain point she was just horrified she was horrified to see her children all there laying about pierced with arrows pierced with arrows she got closer and unbelievably things looked even worse they were mutilated they were mutilated with tomahawks they were beaten the mute the tomahawks were there left they were shot they were shot with guns they were not scalped though which at the time was a native custom I you know they they were children children were not always scalped but we were in the home of the Comanche here the dominant tribe the dominant Force but nothing seemed to be stolen now back then the pioneer children were considered prized they would be captured and they they'd be brought into the band or they would be ransomed back I mean Quanah Parker some other famous Comanche Story the Comanche chief that's his mother that's what happened and a lot of times these kids would stay they grow up in the tribe we talked about when I was in Arizona Olive Oatman so so many stories like that where this happened but in this case the the children were just massacred it was just kind of really odd and not fitting the Comanche profile but of course everyone suspected them and they were blamed didn't add up though a lot of people were jumping to the conclusions and blaming I mean the tomahawks were there but again they wouldn't leave their tomahawks would they the nearest Ranger camp was well over 100 miles away from here but there was a local Posse of men formed and they tracked Comanches down who they thought were the culprits for nearly 200 miles but they lost the trail so they came back empty-handed Rangers eventually met up with the dowdy parents and they made Camp here to give them protection they all thought that the Comanche were coming back but they didn't come back no one came back it was just really odd sometime later though very interestingly one of the Dowdy family was taken to jail for some minor offense and he was in the jail cell and there was this guy that was imprisoned with him by the name of Potter and they're making small talk and of course this Potter Guy starts bragging he goes yeah I was in on that raid I we we killed those kids and we left tomahawks there to make it look like it was a Comanche raid so that was his big mistake they were taking him out I think on trial they were taking him on the stagecoach and they the dowdy family and others you know Vigilantes they stop the trade she got this guy and they they hung him whether he was bragging and but there's a good chance there's a good chance that is what probably happened it probably wasn't it probably wasn't the Comanche but no one no one is ever going to know here are their graves right here these four actually two pair of bonded Stones tombstones seashells there's another couple of children here but we're going to focus on this this plot right here now they all have foot Stones very interestingly and I see the names I see the names of the children here you see Susan Susan right here and this is Alice and you just see the same date the death date let's go over here here's James he's with Martha next to Martha I mean I'm sure they're all buried in a row here and it is said that the words and I can't read it and maybe we can see it when I produce this but it says murdered it's supposed they say it says murdered on these Stones now here are the footstones now these look like they were added later maybe I don't know yeah let's see Susan very sad story well I thought I would bring you here and share this story with you typical typical in those days pioneers taking huge risks but this country you look here it is so beautiful it's just gorgeous here well to the children the dowdy children rest in peace

Channel: Faces of the Forgotten

Views: 843,867

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Id: C_cuIAvQzG4

Length: 14min 7sec (847 seconds)

Published: Mon Feb 27 2023