By Bud Kennedy
bud@star-telegram.com
Cynthia Ann Parker's stay here was short.
Yet the story of a frontier-girl-turned-Comanche-mother is as vivid as any in the history of Fort Worth.
Four blocks from where she once stood crying, tied up to prevent her escape back to the Comanche Nation, the woman known to American Indians as Naduah will be remembered in an exhibit this fall at the Fort Worth Central Library.
Once, every Texas schoolgirl learned how Parker and an infant daughter were "rescued" from her Comanche sons and family in 1860 after 24 years of captivity that turned into marriage and motherhood.
Today, it no longer sounds like much of a rescue.
"Her story is one of the great tragedies of the Western frontier," said former Fort Worth tourism official Doug Harman, still fascinated with the history enough to organize the traveling exhibit "Quanah and Cynthia Ann Parker: A Pictorial Exhibit of Their Story."
"It's a very underappreciated story in Fort Worth and Texas. The irony is, she used to be better-known than she is now."
Parker, a girl of about 8 or 9, was one of five kidnapped in 1836 in a raid on the family fort in Central Texas.
In 1860, raiding Texas Rangers took her from her Comanche husband and sons, one of them future Chief Quanah Parker.
Historians disagree on whether an uncle stopped in Fort Worth on the way home to the Parker family cabin near what is now Hurst.
But reliable historian Julia Kathryn Garrett quoted a witness, Medora Robinson, describing a scene in the Daggett-Turner general store, on the square at 107 W. Weatherford St.
"Children were taken to the store to see the heroine of their folklore stories. ... Soft little gasps of sympathy arose from the awestricken schoolgirls when they beheld her.
"High above the gazing crowd, Cynthia Ann 'stood on a large wooden box, bound with rope.' Instead of being dressed in Indian attire, she wore a torn calico dress. ... Tears glistened on her tanned face as she mumbled her Indian language."
At some point, Cynthia/Naduah posed for photographer A.F. Corning's heartbreaking photo of a weeping mother nursing her infant, Toh-Tsee-Ah ("prairie flower").
History buff Clara Ruddell, who organized the exhibit with Harman, called the photo "the most poignant picture ever."
A later photo of Parker taken before the Texas Legislature is part of the exhibit.
Parker died in 1870, heartbroken at the separation from her family and the death of Toh-Tsee-Ah.
Two of Quanah Parker's great-great-grandsons, Ben and Lance Tahmahkera of Fort Worth, have contributed memorabilia and will join various programs during the exhibit Sept. 20-Dec. 15.
"In Fort Worth, we learn about Quanah, but there's so much more to the story," Ruddell said.
It's more than just a story.
Bud Kennedy's column appears Sundays, Wednesdays and Fridays. 817-390-7538Twitter: @budkennedy
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