Thursday, February 15, 2018
The Killing Of Britt Johnson A Frontier Of Texas Hero ...
Johnson was probably the son of Moses Johnson, because when the Johnson family moved to Peter’s Colony in Young County Texas from Tennessee, they brought Britt and a young girl named Mary with them.
Though technically a slave, Britt did not act like one and lived like a Freedman. He knew how to read and write and was a skilled horseman and teamster. He was the foreman of the Moses Johnson ranch west of Dallas and was allowed by the family to own a small farm nearby. Britt often handled the sale of the Johnson family cattle and usually accompanied the elder Johnson on cattle buying trips.
By 1864, Britt and Mary were married and had three children. When Britt would travel, the family would stay with a neighbor, Elizabeth Fitzpatrick, at a trading post NE of Ft. Griffin.
THE ELM CREEK RAID
On the 13th of October, 1864, several hundred Comanche and Kiowa Warriors raided into Young County from their sanctuary in Indian Territory in what became known as the Elm Creek Raid.
Britt’s young son, Jubal, (Jim) was killed as were Mrs. Fitzpatrick’s son, daughter and grandson. Britt’s wife, Mary Johnson, her two daughters, along with Mrs. Fitzpatrick and her two grand-daughters were all taken captive and forced to ride with the Savages back into Indian Territory after the raid was over.
When Britt and Mr. Johnson returned the following day, they buried all the dead and Britt asked Moses Johnson if he could leave and attempt to find his family. Moses immediately wrote out a “Permission to Travel” letter for Britt to carry with him and handed over half of the cattle sale money for him to have.
THE SEARCH
Britt Johnson spent the next two years looking for his wife and two daughters at all the reservations in Oklahoma and along the different forts on the Texas Frontier. In the spring on 1865, Britt went to live with the Comanches under Chief Asa-Havey (Milky Way).
Peace talks were underway at the time between the US Government and the Plains Tribes and as a result, Britt’s wife and his two daughters were “ransomed” and rescued in June of 1865. Working with Chief Asa-Havey, Britt was able to trade goods for several more “white” captives named Ben Blackwell, Elonzo W. ???, and Thomas Roland and for this action, Britt Johnson became known and admired all over the Texas frontier.
Soon after he returned home, he moved his family to Parker County, where he served as a teamster hauling goods between Weatherford and Ft. Griffin in Shackleford County Texas.
During the latter part of January 1871, J. B. Terrell from Newcastle, was in Ft. Worth and met Britt Johnson, who was in town trying to sell his cattle to Dave Terrell of the same family. Britt told Mr. J. B. Terrell that he was going to leave the following day, which was a Sunday, for Ft. Griffin.
Britt then returned to Parker County, where he loaded his wagons with sacks of flour for the journey. At this time Britt Johnson was living near the old Veale Station. After loading his wagons in a bois-d’arc wagon, he started for Ft. Griffin and was accompanied by Dennis Cureton, who had been the slave of William A. Cureton at the time of his death in 1859 and Paint Crawford, who was a former slave of Simpson Crawford, one of the first settlers of Palo Pinto County. All three men had been living on the frontier of Texas for nearly 15 years.
About the second night out, the teamsters camped at Turtle Hole, at the head of Flint Creek, on the north side of the Butterfield Road. Turtle Hole is a spring fed waterhole on the Butterfield Stage route two miles west of Murphy’s Station and about 12 miles east of Ft. Belnap.
THE SECOND SALT CREEK RAID
The following morning of the 24th of January, 1871, three men continued their travels and just after day-light, the raiders struck. The Kiowa has previously told Johnson that if they ever caught him alone they would kill him. Seems there was bad blood between them over the release of his wife some years previous.
The three teamsters were attacked by a Kiowa war party led by Maman-ti (Owl Prophet) and about 25 warriors approximately 4 miles east the Butterfield Stage crossing on Salt Creek in eastern Young County.
The raiders quickly killed Cureton and Crawford, but Johnson managed to keep under cover behind one of his dead mules, while he fought the raiders off as long as possible until they killed him also.
Several hours later another teamster group came upon the grizzly scene and found Britt Johnson’s mutilated body surrounded by 72 shell casings (hulls) lying around his body from the .44 Henry Rifle that he always carried.
The Savages had gutted him and stuffed his dead dog in his cavity. All three teamsters had been scalped but the scalps were later discarded nearby because the Negro curly hair was unsuitable to tie to their saddles as a display.
The teamsters buried the three men in one grave and in later years a historical marker was placed nearby. The actual grave of the three men is on private property and its location and its wooden cross has been lost to the ravages of time. It was originally on the north side of the old Ft. Worth to Ft. Belnap military road.
The Kiowa chief Maman-ti was arrested four months later after the Warren Wagon-Train massacre by his warriors in May of 1871. He was imprisoned for a short while at Ft. Sill, Indian Territory, then he was transported with others, to Ft. Marion, St. Augustine, Florida. Shortly after he arrived there he fell ill, possibly with dysentery. On the 28th of July 1875, he called the other Kiowa inmates together and told them that he would soon die. He shook all their hands, then went to his bed in the barracks, laid down and died. He was buried in the Ft. Marion Post cemetery. Later, his remains were removed to “Knolls Hill”, in the Ft. Sill Cemetery, Lawton, Oklahoma.
FOOT NOTES:
Several movie critics believed the 1954 book by Alan Le May and the subsequent 1956 movie the Searchers, produced by C. V. Whiney and directed by John Ford, starring John Wayne, were inspired by the 1836 kidnapping of 9-year-old Cynthia Ann Parker only to be rescued years against her will later by the Texas Rangers.
However, later research revealed that Le May had studied some 64 real life cases of 19th century child kidnappings in Texas and his surviving research notes indicated that the two characters in his book were in fact inspired by Nigger Brit (Johnson), as he was known on the Texas Frontier, who ransomed his wife and children from the Comanches in 1865, and then made at least three more trips into Indian Territory and Kansas relentlessly searching for another kidnapped girl, Millie Durgan (or Dukin).
Johnson owned his own freight wagon business, was known as a man of his word and was extremely well thought of by the citizens of NW Texas. Everyone knew that Johnson had spent his own time and money working to free those kidnapped by the Indians who were not his kin. His untimely death on the Butterfield Military Road in 1871 was well known and the bravery shown in his last moments became legend.
Britt Johnson’s historical marker is located on FM 1769 about 6 miles east of Newcastle and about 10 miles north of Graham, Young County Texas.
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