Nine Children Taken From Texas: One May Have Been Found 66 Years Later as a Kiowa Grandmother

Between 1864 and 1866, raiding parties carried dozens of children off the Texas frontier. Some came home and became famous. This is the other list. Nine children taken from Texas: two who died on the road north while someone watched, five who were seen alive and written down by name before the records simply stop, and two who break every category, including a toddler from the Elm Creek raid who may have been found 66 years later, living as a Kiowa grandmother in Oklahoma. Told from the records outward, with the gaps left visible: the letters, petitions and agents' reports that were supposed to bring these children home, and why "never found" usually says more about the paperwork than about the child. CHAPTERS 0:00 The grandmother who didn't believe it 2:30 How a captive child got home 5:15 Elijah Carter and the Elm Creek raid 7:45 The Box family 9:45 Alice Todd 12:45 The McDonald children 15:30 James Benson and James Vaughn 17:30 Millie Durgan 21:45 Twenty children with no names SOURCES Gregory Michno, "The Search for the Captives of Elm Creek" (HistoryNet) Texas Co-op Power, "The Mystery of Sain-toh-oodie Goombi" Gillespie County captive documents, 1865–1866 Texas Historical Commission, Todd Mountain marker (1974) Barbara A. Neal Ledbetter, Fort Belknap Frontier Saga (1982) Part of an ongoing series on captivity in the American West. New story every week. #TexasHistory #WildWest #FrontierHistory #ComancheHistory #AmericanHistory