Indian Depredations in Texas

"Texas Ranger Indian Tales: Indian Depredations In Texas" by John W. Wilbarger is a complete and exhaustive look at Indian attacks in frontier Texas from about 1825, when the first American settlers began arriving, to about 1880.


John W. Wilbarger (1806-1892) was Methodist Minister, Texas author and early pioneer. He moved to Texas in 1837 at the urging of his brother, Josiah P. Wilbarger. He was a minister and assisted his brother in surveying.


In 1833 Josiah Wilbarger was scalped by Indians and left for dead, but miraculously survived. This and other tales of Indian attacks that John Wilbarger heard during his lifetime prompted him to write a compendium of such stories, which he published in 1889. Wilbarger began actively collecting material around 1870 working on it for two decades. The book, described as "the most complete compilation of accounts of Indian warfare in nineteenth-century Texas," contains over 200 separate narratives of Indian attacks and Texan counterattacks. In his preface Wilbarger notes that while a number of the articles had been "written by others, who were either cognizant of the facts themselves or had obtained them from reliable sources." he had attempted to verify all of the stories. Written at a time when some writers, particularly in the academic world, were beginning to paint a more balanced view of Indians, Wilbarger's book casts them as unredeemable savages and showed little sympathy for their culture or motives. Nevertheless, the book is has always been considered a classic work of Texana.


A must-read for both the student of Texas settlement and the struggles of Texas settlers with the Indians. Much of Wilbarger's information is found nowhere else.


There are approximately 259,750+ words and approximately 865+ pages at 300 words per page in this e-book.

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