During a deep dive into the history of our grandmother, Bessie Hudson, I discovered some very fascinating information. Nancy Hudson, fourth great-grandaunt to me, married Allen Killough and migrated to East Texas with the intention of starting a new life. But fate had other plans! Let’s get into the story…
In 1837, Isaac Killough Sr. led his extended family out of Alabama toward the newly formed Republic of Texas. The party included his sons—Isaac Jr., Samuel, Allen, and Nathaniel—his daughters—Jane, Polly, and Elizabeth—their spouses, and other relatives and companions, about thirty people in all.
On Christmas Eve 1837, the Killough family settled along what is now Killough Creek, near present-day Jacksonville in northwestern Cherokee County. The site lay within a larger tract that had been set aside for the Cherokee under the 1836 Sam Houston–John Forbes treaty. In December 1837, the Republic of Texas nullified that treaty and began selling portions of the land to incoming settlers, including the Killoughs. This nullification of the treaty and the influx of Anglo settlers bred deep resentment among the Cherokees and set the stage for the 1838 uprisings.
Early that year, the Killough family built cabins, cleared fields, and planted crops. In August—just as the corn was ready to harvest—they learned of a growing insurrection of pissed-off Mexicans and Indians led by Vicente Córdova, the former alcalde of Nacogdoches. Córdova, working in concert with Mexican officials along the Rio Grande, devised a plan to reclaim Texas by urging local Indian tribes to attack English-speaking settlers. The goal was to create chaos that would pave the way for a full-scale invasion by the Mexican army. Known as the Córdova Rebellion, the plot never came to fruition; a hastily assembled militia swiftly quashed the uprising under the command of Gen. Thomas J. Rusk.
With the growing unrest, Killough and roughly thirty settlers abandoned their homes and sought refuge in Nacogdoches. By late September or early October, believing the danger had passed, they returned to harvest their crops. According to one later account, the Indians had agreed to let the group remain until the “first great white frost.”
Well, that hope ended on the afternoon of October 5, when a hostile band struck the settlement. Eighteen settlers, including Isaac Killough Sr., were killed or taken captive. Survivors fled south to Lacy’s Fort, forty miles away.
News of the massacre spread quickly. General Thomas J. Rusk organized a militia and set out in pursuit of the attackers. At Fort Houston, near present-day Palestine, they learned the band was camped at an abandoned Kickapoo village near Frankston. The next day, Rusk’s force attacked, killing eleven, including a renegade Cherokee known as Tail.
The group’s exact makeup remains uncertain. General Hugh McLeod, who took part in the fight, later wrote that it included Caddos, Coushattas, several runaway slaves, Mexicans, and possibly Keechis. Some survivors also claimed they saw a White man disguised as an Indian, though the report was never verified.
A total of eighteen settlers were either killed or abducted. Ten men were killed, and eight women and children were carried off and never seen again. Among the women was my fourth great-grandaunt, Nancy Hudson.
According to Dallas newspaperman Charles Kilpatrick, several of the men unwittingly walked into an ambush. The attackers, he wrote:
“…shot down Isaac, Jr., Allen, Samuel and George Wood, then swept uphill into the little settlement. Isaac, Sr., fell in his front yard and Barakias Williams was killed in front of the screaming women. Eight settlers, including seven women and children, were seized by warriors and carried into the forest. They were never seen or heard of again…Nathaniel Killough and his wife (and 11 month old baby girl, Eliza Jane) escaped into a canebrake and Mrs. Samuel Killough, Mrs. Isaac Killough, Sr., Mrs. Isaac Killough, Jr., and the baby William also managed to elude the redskins. Three weary days later the little party staggered into Fort Lacy at Alto, 40 miles south, where they found safety.”
The bodies that were found were buried at the site, and in the 1930s the W.P.A. erected an obelisk made of stone to mark the location. In 1965 the cemetery was dedicated as a Texas Historical Landmark, and the area is now enclosed by a fence with a small parking lot beside it.
The following story comes from William B. Killough, the infant son of Isaac Killough Jr., who escaped to Fort Lacy. Though he was only a baby at the time of the massacre, he later retold the events as his mother had repeated to him over the years.
I was born in Montersville, Talladega County, State of Alabama, in the month of September, 26th day, 1837. Father moved to Texas the same year, stopping where old Larissa now stands, the 24th day of December 1837, it being some forty miles from any white settlement, Lacy’s Fort being the nearest. They built houses, cleared land and made a crop. Everything went well until the fall of 1838, when the Indians began to give trouble.
The Killoughs, together with the families of O. C. Williams and George W. Wood, left, but on making a treaty with the Indians, they returned to gather their crops and stock. They had finished all except about two hauls in Uncle Nathaniel Killough’s corn. As they would not be out long, they decided to leave their guns at home. (They had been in the habit of taking them and stacking them in the field.) About one o’clock, they started to the field. On their way, the larger potion had to cross a creek. In passing through the swamp, they were attacked by the Indians and all killed, xcept Nathaniel Killough, his wife and child. He was watering his horse. (He lived on that side of the creek.) On hearing the firing, he rode to the house and tried to get is wife and child upon the horse, but the Indians pushed him so he had to leave the horse and take to the cane. He made his way to a friendly Indian and got another horse and made their escape to the Fort. The baby girl, which was about one year old, is still living. She is the wife of C. W. Matthews, of Garden Valley, Smith County.
Samuel Killough, my father, lived on the Northeast side of the creek. When mother (Narcis) heard him firing, she took me up and started to see who was killed. She was joined by Aunt Jane, Isaac Killough’s (Junior) wife, and her brother, William, he taking me to carry, for mother was very weakly, (stationary weight being 94 pounds.) They did not go but a few steps when they saw the Indians coming. Handing me to mother, Uncle William said, “Here’s the baby, I must go.” The Indians swept y the women and shot Uncle William down a few yards from them. They found father in a small branch beyond the main creek, where he fell. The balance they failed to find, except grandfather, Isaac Killough, Sr., he was lying in his yard and grandmother was all alone.
In this massacre there were eighteen killed and taken off. Wood, a brother-in-law of the Killoughs, his wife, five children, a Miss Williams, a sister to the young Williams, spoken of, a Miss Killough, sister to father, were all taken off and were never heard of. The girl was about seventeen years old. Williams and Miss Killough were to have been married soon.
After trying to get grandfather in the house and failing (he being very large) they covered him up with quilts, laying rails on the sides to hold them down. They turned their steps to the East. Returning to father, they found everything torn up and strewn over the yard.
After some time taken up in consultation, (there being three women) Mrs. Urcey Killough, Jr., Narcissa Killough, wife of Samuel Killough (my mother), the Indians sent for them while they were at the house to go to Sam Bengs, their Chief, about two miles North. The first two mentioned were in favor of going. Narcissa Killough told them they could go, but she would die first. So one of the three Indians sent for them (Dog Shoot by name) told them if he had a gun he would kill them. (The male portion being dead, the Indians did not bring their guns.) Narcissa sent them for their guns, and while they were gone, she took the baby boy up and started on their long journey of forty miles, without anything to eat, among savages and wild beasts. They hid in the grass, near where Larissa now stands, until night came. They could hear the Indians yelling and see the smoke from the house, which on returning, and not finding the women, they set on fire. When night came, the women started for Lacy’s Fort, traveling as best they could, as they had to leave the path often on account of Indians coming up all through the night. There was one serious drawback to them, one that might have proven fatal to them at any time. They had an infant one year old and a small fice dog along. The cry on one or the bark of the other would have been fatal, but it seems that both knew there was something wrong for, when they would stop, the dog would hover under their skirts like he was trying to keep out of danger. In starting, they didn’t know what to do with the dog, they could not leave it, and didn’t have the heart to kill it, nor anything to kill it with.
The third day, in the morning, as they had been without anything to eat, they concluded they should travel by day, (they had been hiding in the day-time) they had not gone far, when they heard a noise behind them; they turned and there was an Indian with his gun to his shoulder ready to shoot. As some of the women screamed, he ran up and showed them there was no powder in the pan (all guns were flint and steel then.) The path forked at that place and the Indian wanted them to turn to the left, a dimmer path; they refused to at first. (He could not speak English and had to use signs.) As they would not go, he got in the trail ahead of them and leaded his gun. They concluded it was death anyway, so started his way. They had no gone far before they came to an Indian hut and about two hundred Indians painted. They were killing a beef. They were carried to the hut and put in, the same Indian sitting in the door holding a gun. A negro woman came in; mother asked her some questions; she gave no satisfactory answer. They gave them something to eat, the first they had had in forty-eight hours. They sent off for an interpreter, and when he came, he told them they were safe. Had the women gone one-half mile further, we would all have been killed, as the Indians in the town ahead were on the warpath. That is where the painted ones were from.
He also told them the Whites had a great many friends among them, and they knew that there were three women trying to make their escape and they had placed guards all over the county to find them, if possible, but as they had traveled by night, they had not found them before. They were kept there until the next morning, when they were furnished horses and sent to the Fort. The Indian who captured them, rolled up in his blanket before, and laid across the door all night.
This place is about four miles West of where Rusk now stands. They came very near being shot at the Fort, as it was night when they reached there, and all ere excited. They were hailed three times, finally they answered “Women from Saline,” just in time to save themselves.
There was an amusing incident that happened while we were in the Fort. One day it was reported the Indians were coming. Mrs. Box got Johnny Box, her husband, down and began to beat on him, saying at the top of her voice, “Pray, Johnny Box, do pray, if you ever did pray, pray now, for the Indians are coming.”
We stayed in the Fort about a month, then went to old Douglas; then mother and I soon left for Alabama.
One last note: William recalled that Allen Killough, his wife Nancy, and their five children were never accounted for; it is unknown how many were taken captive or how many were killed. Miss Elizabeth Williams was likewise never heard from again. According to tradition, one of Mr. Wood’s sons was adopted by a tribe and eventually became its chief.
That makes six of our own that disappeared in that massacre and were never heard of again—until now. History gave up some of its ghosts, letting us finally meet some of our kinfolk long lost to time.
References
- Whitington, Mitchel. (2005). Ghosts of East Texas and the Pineywoods. 23 House Publishing.
- City of Jacksonville. (n.d.). Killough Massacre. Vanishing Texana Museum. Retrieved August 12, 2025, from https://www.jacksonvilletx.org/501/Killough-Massacre
- Wikipedia contributors. (2025, January 22). Killough massacre. In Wikipedia. Retrieved August 12, 2025, from https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Killough_massacre.
- Killough Massacre. (n.d.). Military Wiki. Fandom. Retrieved August 12, 2025, from https://military-history.fandom.com/wiki/Killough_massacre
- KILLOUGH FAMILY HISTORY — Uncle Billie’s Story. (n.d.). Killough.org. Retrieved August 12, 2025, from http://killough.org/archives/ubs.htm
