Marion T. Brown on Peta Nocona

Subject: Marion T. Brown on Peta Nocona Sat 21 Jul 2007, 5:01 pm

I noticed last night when unpacking some older books that one of them contained a brief correspondence of Marion T. Brown, daughter of Dallas-mayor and writer, Maj. John Henry Brown. Miss Brown, then about thirty years of age, was visiting Fort Sill in the Indian Territory when she composed these several letters to her parents.

I have read over the years about the changing theories and the few new testimonies which have emerged regarding what became of Peta Nocona after the capture of Cynthia Ann Parker on the Pease River, but need to reacquaint myself with these. I am reminded, though, that from whatever sources the evidence may be drawn, it will remain secondary and removed for most of us.

In one of her letters to her father, Marion Brown wrote of some of the talk which she had been hearing around the post concerning the passing of Peta Nocona (this I do recall having read in another location) and his status in the Comanche tribe. Composed on Dec. 20, 1886, a portion of the letter reads:

"Lieut. Crane says ... Mr. Jones says Peta Nocona, Quanah Parker's father, was not killed in the Battle of Pease River, that he saw him himself a year and a half after the battle, and knows he has only been dead some nine or ten years.

"Mr. Jones has been among the Indians for more than twenty-five years, was in the neighborhood at the time of the Pease's River fight. Lieut. Crane asked one of the old Comanches about itand he said P. N. had only been dead a few years. I told him I would believe Gen. Ross was correct until Quanah himself stated differently. Of course he might have been desperately wounded and have recovered, but it does seem as though it would have been more widely known.

He will try to send word of inquiry to Quanah, and from him we can surely learn the truth. Mr. J. also states that Peta Nocona was not one of the 'big men' among the Indians. 'How are the mighty fallen!' ...." *

Miss Brown strikes me as an inquisitive and exacting woman. Her quest for accuracy in relation to Peta Nocona's life and death are impressive, though what she may have learned through second-hand through Lieut. Crane is not revealed in this book. It also may be relevant that what was fallen was not so much the manner in which the father of Quanah Parker was regarded, but our own assumptions that white female captives usually grew up to marry the leaders of the tribes in which they remained.

What might have been the relationship between John Henry Brown and his daughter (if any) in relation to his own research? Reading between the lines of this letter, it seems that he may have held her perceptive abilities in high regard. Also, might someone have further information Lieut. Crane and Mr. Jones?

Thank you,

Holly

* Taken from, 'Document Sets for Texas and the Southwest in U. S. History,' J'Nell L. Pate, 1991, page 111. The original correspondence, I believe, is held in collection at the Center for American History at U. T. Austin.
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The woman of the frontier made the best of her situation, for she had developed a respect for the land that gave her freedom as well as the courage to live in it.
~~~ from the perspective of Anne Seagraves