During the 1830s, a Baptist missionary named Silas Mercer Parker and his wife Lucinda Duty had settled in Texas with their children. Other Parker relatives joined Silas, Lucinda and their children to start a new life. 
The Parker family settled in an area where they felt safe. They even built a fort as a protection against the Indians. On May 19, 1836, a sizeable group of Indians attacked the fort. After a brief battle, the Indians murdered Silas Parker and four other men while the remaining settlers escaped.
The Indians captured five prisoners. Among them were Cynthia Ann Parker and her brother John Parker. It’s believed Cynthia may have been around 10 and born between 1826 and 1827; John was born in either 1829 or 1830. Regardless, Cynthia and John were children. A group of Comanches had taken the Parker siblings.
For many years, James Parker and Isaac Parker searched for their abducted nephew and niece. Unfortunately, the group of Comanches vanished into the Texas plains. Even worse, the Comanches who took the children never settled anywhere. This made it more difficult to locate Cynthia and John.
Becoming a Comanche prisoner was brutal. It’s unknown if anyone raped Cynthia, but she witnessed other captives get raped. Captives were used for sexual gratification or as slaves. However, captives were spared from brutality if a warrior took an interest in them.
Eventually, three of the Parker fort captives were released. The Comanches kept John and Cynthia though. They made Cynthia a princess. She became Naduah, which meant “She carries herself with grace.” Cynthia married a warrior named Peta Nocona and bore his children.
John Parker also adapted to life as a Comanche and took part in raids throughout Mexico. In 1842, John returned to his family. However, he eventually returned to the Comanches because he couldn’t adapt to living in the white man’s world.
He married a woman he met in Mexico and then returned to America. Afterward, he fought in the Civil War as a Confederate soldier. After the war, he bought a ranch in Mexico and died in 1915. Both John and Cynthia had become indoctrinated into the Comanche society.
In 1846, Indian agent Leonard Williams met with a group of Comanches. He saw a white girl among them. He realized it was Cynthia. Williams unsuccessfully tried to negotiate her release. Williams said Cynthia cried often and her captives threatened his life several times. Cynthia now had a warrior husband, a family and didn’t want to leave.
William’s thought the military needed to take her back by force. He left without her. In 1855, Peta Nocona had led his warriors on a deadly raid through Parker County (named after the Parker family). The warriors stole horses, killed several people, and took several captives. The Army pursued Nocona and his marauders.
A Texas Ranger named Lawrence Ross confronted and shot Nocona to death. As Nocona died, his wife tried to fight back against another soldier. Ross noticed the Indian woman had blue eyes and white skin.
He thought she might be Cynthia Parker. The soldiers returned to Camp Cooper with the angry woman. Isaac Parker, Cynthia’s uncle, identified her as his missing niece. When she saw him, she said, “Me Cincee Ann.” Although Isaac was overjoyed to see his niece, she was indifferent about the reunion.
She had lost her husband while her two sons remained with the Comanches. She managed to keep her three-year-old daughter, Prairie Flower. Cynthia tried to escape several times. She was heavily guarded and couldn’t escape. Cynthia became a celebrity of sorts. People wondered how she survived living with the Comanches. She settled in with her sister Orleana and her husband.
Cynthia learned how to read, write and speak English. She sewed, worked for neighbors and settled into her new life. Although she lived a peaceful life, she became depressed. She missed her two sons, Peanuts and Quanah. While the Civil War raged on, she couldn’t visit her sons. Orleana promised her sister they would visit them after the war ended. Unfortunately, Cynthia never saw her sons again.
Cynthia’s life took a turn for the worse. In 1864, Prairie Flower died of an illness. After the war, Orleana and her husband moved Cynthia away to a location farther away from her sons. Orleana never took Cynthia to visit her sons.
In 1870 or 1871, Cynthia sank into a deep depression from losing her children. She stopped eating and starved herself to death. Only in death would she be reunited with Quanah and Prairie Flower. Although she survived without material goods, she couldn’t live without her children.
Marc is a longtime resident of Clermont County and an avid reader. Contact him through his website at www.themarcabe.com or through Facebook: www.Facebook.com/themarcabe or his Twitter account @themarcabe. Marc also has a podcast called Catch my Killer where he interviews family members seeking justice for their murdered loved ones. You can listen at www.catchmykiller.com.