Comanches Attack Miss Ann Whitney's Schoolhouse, Near Hamilton, TX, 1867 

Sounds like a weekend in Chicago, but with feathers.

I am a direct paternal descendant of Hugh Stanaland. The story is in our family history. My Dad told me stories he heard as a kid. I am 75 now.

A couple of months before Miss Whitney was attacked and killed near Hamilton, one of my ancestors, Ole T. Nystel age 14, was captured and enslaved by Comanches about 35 miles to the east near Meridian, Texas. Nystel had been working with a neighbor man when they were attacked. The neighbor Carl Quested was shot by the Indians but made his escape. Nystel was injured and captured, then taken west back through Hamilton and beyond after the Indians killed two local black men. Over the next few months, Nystel was taken to New Mexico, then over to the Arkansas River area of Colorado or Kansas while subjected to terrible treatment at the hands of the Comanches. He was freed when a white man in that area paid the Indians a ransom. Nystel then worked his way back home to his family in Texas.

As a teenager I was quite interested in tales of the American frontier. At one point I remember reading a book of short histories of the Indian Wars. One story in particular I wish I'd never read was about an American Army officer who was captured sometime in the early 1800's by an Iroquois war party. His own small band of soldiers had been killed during an ambush and he was the only survivor. The story was related by a French trapper who was friendly to the Iroquois in that area, but had no love for the Americans or British. Long story short, the Iroquois braves decided to burn the American alive. When the trapper told the officer that his fate was to be burned, he stated that he "would attempt to bear it bravely", but the trapper told him that it would be nowhere near a quick death, as the Iroquois truly enjoyed the spectacle of burning their captives slowly on a bed of coals where they would tie a man's hands behind his back and then rope him by his neck to a pole, but leave his feet and legs free. Then they'd watch him dance as he'd slowly roast to death over coals with just enough rope to allow him to put part of his body out of the intense heat, but not all of it. This led to a man "favoring" various parts of his body as the rest of him roasted in various places until the thousands of twists and turns to obtain some relief had finally caused every part of the man's surface to become charred, with the exception of his face and head; at which point the Iroquois would shove him to the ground and heap hot coals on his head to finish the deed. The "fun" was to see how long they could keep a man alive during this ordeal. The trapper related that it took this particular officer a day and a half to finally expire. I still have trouble grasping this level of evil and the knowledge that the native peoples of the Americas had been dealing out this sort of treatment to their rivals long before Europeans appeared on the scene has since destroyed any naive ideas of the "Noble Indigenous Peoples" B.S. you might hear from supremely ignorant people in our modern era.

When I was a boy I remember going to a few graveyards in Texas with my mom. There were many markers that simply said " killed by Indians" no names or anything.

Thank you very much sir for telling these truths . Its about time somebody did this .

West of San Antonio near Sabinal a 12 year old boy was taken by Lipan Apaches. Frank Buckelew, a cousin was captive for two years before escaping in Mexico and making his way back. Old for a captive, he was spared after Chief Costeletta? Spelling may be wrong....took a liking to him. Frank regaled his stories of life with the Lipan in vivid details. Making bows, arrows, including arrowheads, hunting animals permitted and those not permitted all were taught to him. It was years after Frank's passing before his stories were recognized by historians as the only anthropological studies ever on the now extinct Lipan people. Years after his return Frank made a trip into San Antonio from Medina. Unknown to him at the time he had passed by a creek nearing the city. On the banks of that creek lay the body of Chief Costeletta. He had died while attempting to cook a rabbit he killed after escaping from soldiers at Fort Sam Houston. He had starved to death. After learning awhile later how close he had come to the old Chief he grew a sad heart and had he only known would surely have visited him and bargained for his release. If not him being fond of a young boy he would have surely been killed. Chief Costeletta was the last Chief of the Lipan Apache Nation.

2 of my relatives, the Powers kids, escaped from the school and survived thanks to the teacher. The Mannings were also relatives, being cousins to the Powers. Shortly after the attack, the Powers family relocated to Arkansas.

They should teach this in the schools ,Instead of the woke crap.

I have an ancestor, Edward Cox bn. 1810, d. July 1865, who was killed and scalped by Comanches in Hamilton county. He is buried in Hamilton Cemetery, in Hamilton, Texas

The only thing amazing to me about this story is RU-vid still has it up. If anyone thinks activities like this were not routine you are fooling yourself. Even before Europeans got here, warring among the tribes was commonplace. Either that or you'd have to think that all the tribes people got together, after crossing the land bridge arm in arm while singing kum-by-ya, divided the country up and everybody stayed to themselves afterwards. Now if we could just address the numerous animals they caused to become extinct. Then maybe we could put aside all the fairytsle based politically correct, lovers of mother earth bullshit and talk of "native" Americans in factual terms of good and bad, just like every other society on earth.

The Comanche were the worst of the worst…. Tortured children and women…..They were hated and feared by all other tribes.

Need more teachers like this lady. I can dream.

Very well told. I can't imagine the fear they experienced.

A couple Natives attempted a raid on a schoolhouse in Indian Creek, Brown County in the 1870's. A couple of brothers had brought a shotgun that day and that was used to kill one of the attackers.

I am grateful to have sources like this to learn history. I have great respect for my ancestors and am proud of my family. My mom's side has been here 🇺🇸 b4 we were even a country. 1 of my family signed the declaration of independence. That makes me smile. God Bless to all. --j

Wow! What a tragic heroic story. Thank you for your work.

Killing or terrorizing women and children is horrifying and would enrage anyone who heard of this story, it's cowardly and the responsible ones will pay in this life or the next.

America's history is sometimes not the best, but regardless, it needs to be preserved for future generations to learn

And today horror is considered when the Starbucks gets a coffee order wrong , a restaurant order is not perfect or somebody says something perceived as mean. The things that all these people (Indians included) endured is amazing. These were truly hard times . Thanks for the story .

I live in comanche County and have walked that site before. My friend is head of the comanche County museum and Texas, historical commission. I know of two other sites that were attacked within miles of there.

Wow! Those were truly brave and amazing women!!! Thank you so much for putting these out here for us!!! 👍🏻

The pre-civil war federal frontier forts line had been abandoned and the animosity towards all of the confederate states was still a fresh wound in 1867. It’s obvious that reestablishing security along the frontier border was not a high priority of the Union government (and the Indians knew this)

Thank you for covering this episode .

The two Women were extremely brave what I would call bad ass

Them Texas gals have always been brave and should be remembered.

When I was @ 4 my great grandma was 98 and yelled at my grandpa not to burn the garbage cause the indians would see the smoke 802 booth street HOUSTON TXS

Terrifying to picture being there in the middle of that.

Its so refreshing to hear real history as sad as it is... Truth, we need truth to navigate life...Not a recreated history by liberals bent on thier own fantacy reality...

I am glad that I heard this story. Such bravery

Did they try and ban the bow and arrow afterwards?

Amazing how in this incident two young boys can remember every word spoken during what must have been a traumatic experience and yet there are politicans who today cannot remember what happened hours or days before.

The bravery is very admirable

I drove through this area on Hwy 281 the other day, it is pretty hill country and remote, not many people anywhere. It was Comanche territory.

Sadly, Most people nowadays believe that All the Indians were living peacefully with rainbows and Love everywhere and that it was the "White Man" that made them like that. They also think Slavery was only done by the "White Man" and that Slavery never existed until the founding of this Country.

Most remarkable story. Thank you.

Against a school house? It sounds like Uvalde.

When you hear Comanche you know it's going to be horrible

Thank you

Just happened to get here. Great story. I love history. I just subscribed and will be binge watching !!!!

I'm surprised the teacher didn't have a rifle, or that there was not an armed guard on the door of the school. Thank you for the story --- so interesting.

I very much enjoyed this from Missouri

Another great one

Similar to today's recent attack on our school in Texas where TDOT allowed a Massacre to happen

Excellent story. It is fascinating in every aspect. The courage of everyone involved. The Teacher. The two Kuykendall boys who stayed with the Teacher. Those sisters on horseback were only a few feet ahead of those braves. And the one Kuykendall boy riding through that country, and sitting in that salty horse sweat for two days. The rest of the kids. Quite an escapade. And that posse of 8 "men". Maybe 4 young men and 4 boy's. And that poor brave teacher. Getting hit with those arrows would be a rough way to go. My hat is off.

I thoroughly enjoy your stories.

Fascinating historical stories, thanks for sharing. (As an aside, there's a TV series called '1883' that is about the American west, worth a watch)

Hard to imagine the terrifying reality of knowing your painful fate, should you fail to escape the clutches of " them thar bloodthirsty injuns!" Great channel, very glad I found it, thank you.

Wow . Thank you

Another awesome narration, exciting true story from our history;thank you!!

Too bad they didn't have cell phones back then to get actual video of the attack.

And now you know why the trail of tears occurred war sucks

Love History.. The Good, The Bad & The Ugly 🙏🏼✝️🇺🇸♥️💫

I have book about purvis tx and a 100 year old school history book and one of them talked about this event but I recalled only one child living but maybe it was about another school in the area

That poor heroic school teacher, bands of murdering thugs, preying on and killing the defenceless and weak, absolutely nothing noble or "brave" about that.

Truth is all the truth.

Wow!

I have read alittle bit on the history of the Comanche tribe ,specifically in Texas. They committed atrocities and weren't shy about committing genocide against other tribes in their quest to conquer territory. There is old documented reports of the raids on settler homes. They would often kill parents and abduct children. They were a scourge that needed to be dealt with. Even if it meant wiping them out

Bloodthirsty. Humans are bloodthirsty. Even today.

But did they catch up with the murderers ?

This story is in a history book I have that is 100 years old

Hallo from Germany, all this history is basic for The searchers (not the movie they made Mr Wayne a pile to smooth) by Alan Lemay, his Grandmother lost 3 of 5 sons to the Comanche.

she was shot 18 times by indian arrows

Native Americans did bad things? Say it ain't so!

Any stories from Coryell County? Thank you for this channel. Subscribed!

My family arrived in New England in 1628 and steadily moved west over time, arriving in the Rockies before the Civil War. If the Native folks killed some of ours and we killed some of theirs I guess it's par for the course.

Great video!!!

People often heard about the Indian Braves. After hearing many of these stories, the word ‘brave’ is a misnomer. They only seemed to attack isolated homesteads where they knew they outnumbered the residents, or they picked on defenceless women and children. They only attacked men if they hugely outnumbered them. Definitely not brave.

Wow. I never heard this in history class.

Another book you may want to read is Captured by the Indians. One of my top 3 favorite books, riveting and harrowing stories that are first person accounts.

remember first james town was killed off by the indians simple 25 men all killed , second james town they brought more guns and men it lasted

John Baggett was an ancestral cousin of mine.

Wonder what firearms were available to settlers back then. It was post civil war so repeating rifles and pistols were available. Wonder why more folks didn’t go about heavily armed.

1883 is the year my grandfathers house was built.

Will willbarger was scalped in webervillel Texas.... Bot lived... His sister had many dreams

To those in Valde such suffering.

This unarmed teacher was quite a foe to these courageous indians whose overwhelming numbers bade their attempt at victory but could they survive the children as well?

I THINK I REMEMBER THAT

Though Amanda was 17, the author still referred to her as a woman--and she deserved it! To not only escape murderers once but to then risk everything by riding straight towards them takes some cajones. Those settlers were made of some tough material.

actual, verified , historical facts. wow wee

Thank you for this great Story . I'm surprised there's not a actual photo of Miss Ann Whitney. This was after the Civil War when photographers were all over America especially the West. Or even a portrait or painting. Sad story. Who was Miss Whitney's parents or family ?

Texans don't forget Alamo or States Rights

fear is a full moon ... from Junction , Texas

Where can I get the book 📕, what’s the title. Why was the school house secluded?

Some story.

why were the women unarmed?

Why did they want to kill the poor woman?

Not Sorry

👍👍

There was a Kuykendall Cadillac dealership in Temple Texas when I was growing up - I assume it is the same family, but the ones in Temple pronounced their name "Kerkendall" ru-vid.com/video/%D0%B2%D0%B8%D0%B4%D0%B5%D0%BE-O42hCwfi6Kg.html for some reason, and it sounded more like "Kirchen" (German), but since it is a Dutch name, it probably came from "Kuiken" meaning chicken instead of church. I've been through Hamilton, Hico, and Comanche many times, driving from Temple to my grandparents' house in Ranger.

Listen to the story.

May I respectfully ask that you reconsider how you pronounce “Kuykendall”? That’s my maiden name, can trace ancestry back to before Revolutionary War…we pronounce it just as it reads, “Kuy-ken-dall”. Enjoy your channel! new subscriber.

Was this the first school shooting, hate crime, or both? 🧐

At night I put this on to fall asleep to.

At 1960 at Cutting Road THERS a Spring fed pond there at Walmart Indians n Travelers got water there on myold uncels hog farm Housing Texas now recon was Closer to Peck TXS now Tomball

Cow hunting? I’ve heard of deer hunting, pheasant hunting and duck hunting, but cow hunting?

Why was the school so far out from the town?

Texas women!😍

Wow... A 230 pound person... Back then?

Great story...not a happy one...but it was the times. FYI: Look up the correct pronunciation of "chaparral"