Texana - The Search for Rachel - Captured at Ft. Parker
The Search for Rachel. Zula Plummer. Privately printed, 1981. Stapled paperback. 9 x 6”. First edition, second printing, first printed in 1976, 61 pages.
Very good condition, clean, tight, crisp, and unmarked interior. There are several small spots on the front cover.
Rachel Parker Plummer (1819-1839) was the daughter of James and Martha Parker. The Parker family moved to Texas in the winter of 1832/1833. The family settled on the Navasota River in the fall of 1833. Rachel married Luther Thomas Martin Plummer in May. On January 6, 1835, her son, James was born. She was at Fort Parker on May 19, 1836 when a large group of Indians, mostly Comanches, attached the fort. Five were killed, one wounded, and five were taken captive: Rachel and her son James, Cynthia Ann and John Parker, and Mrs. Elizabeth Kellogg. The captives were separated. Mrs. Kellogg was taken by a band of Kichai, and John and Cynthia Ann were taken by a band of Comanches. When the Comanches learned that Rachel’s son James was weaned, they took him from her, and she never saw him again. He survived and was ransomed in 1842. Rachel became a slave. She was beaten, occasionally burned for her failures and infractions, underfed, and given little clothing to ward off the cold. She often had to work all day and most of the night to complete her tasks. The Comanche band was constantly on the move and traveled from the headwaters of the Arkansas River to the Wichita Mountains. She was pregnant at the time of her capture and had a second son about October 1836. The Indians killed the baby when he was some six weeks old. They felt the baby was interfering with her work. Rachel was a captive for thirteen months. The Indians camped north of Santa Fe when Mexican traders ransomed her on June 19, 1837 at the behest of Colonel and Mrs. William Donaho. The Donahos feared for Rachel’s safety and took her some 800 miles to Independence, Missouri. She was reunited with her husband in Texas on February 19, 1838. She was gaunt, scarred from burns and blows, and in bad health. Rachel had a third child in January of 1839. She soon died as did her child. James W. Parker was working a mile from the fort when the attack happened. His efforts to return his family, (including his daughter Rachel), from Indian captivity were the basis for much of the John Wayne movie, The Searchers.
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