The following is from the
book, Taming Texas,
by Stephen L. Moore:
...The Indians waited
until everyone had gone
to bed for the night,
watching as the men took
to their own room.
Apparently, some of the
men had just checked on
their children for a
goodnight "chat" and
were retiring back to
their own room at the
moment of attack. The
women, children and
Patsy, the Edens family
servant, were across the
dogtrot in the other
room with many of the
guns. By the light of a
bright moon, the Indians
slipped up beside the
house quietly before
erupting with horrible
"war whoops and yells
fiendish..."
Several Indians guarded
the door to the room
occupied by the men
while several others
burst into the other
room with the women and
children. With tomahawks
and scalping knives in
hand, the Indians
proceeded to butcher
their helpless inmates.
The women cried out for
help, but they were
prevented from escaping
and the men were
prevented from coming to
their rescue. According
to one Texas historian,
escape was prevented by
"one powerful and
hideous demon, guarding
the doorway by spreading
his arms and legs from
side to side and
grasping the lintels
with his hands, all the
while yelling and
gloating rapturously
over the bloody,
sickening scene of death
wrought within."
All
accounts seem to agree
that the Indians
attacked the grown women
before moving on to the
children. Lucinda Edens
Madden, wife of James
Madden, was savagely
attacked. One chop of
the tomahawk severed her
collarbone while a
second cut through two
ribs near her spine.
After a third blow
opened a horrible gash
in her back, Mrs. Madden
"fell senseless upon the
floor and was abandoned
as dead." With great
physical force, the
barbaric savages spared
no mercy on the other
women.
Captain Sadler's wife
Mary was among the first
to die. She and her
stepmother, Sarah
Murchison, and Mrs. John
Edens quickly fell to
the tomahawks and
scalping knives while
the raging Indians
slashed into the other
women and their
defenseless children.
One of the first
published accounts of
the Edens-Madden
Massacre relates the
horrible fate of one of
the women slaughtered
after Lucinda Madden had
passed out. "Another
lady was tomahawked and
fell dead into the
fireplace, her life's
blood flowing so
profusely as to
extinguish the flames,
and leave the fiends to
complete the slaughter
in semi-darkness."
In
the crowded women's room
of the Edens home, the
wooden floors became
saturated with blood as
the occupants were
brutally massacred.
Three women, including
Mary Sadler, were
already dead. The
Indians went after the
children and remaining
women with their
tomahawks, and Nancy
Madden wife of Robert
Madden of Captain
Sadler's company,
suffered a shot through
her ear and a tomahawk
wound in the back of her
shoulder.
In
the wild melee of
attacking Indians and
screaming children,
Nancy Madden somehow
managed to crawl from
the room and burst into
the men's room where she
"fell exhausted by
fright and loss of
blood."
The
men, perhaps thinking they
could be of no help,
attempted an escape.
...There were a large
number of children in
the women's room, and
only two survived. Two
of John Edens'
daughters, Emily and
Caledonia Edens, were
killed as were two of
his grandsons, Robert
and Seldon Madden, both
sons of James and
Lucinda Madden. A fifth
child, Nancy Madden's
three-year-old daughter
Mary, was also killed. A
sixth child, Mary
Sadler's infant daughter
Sophia, is believed to
have been killed and her
body left in the house,
although many sources do
not list her. Noted
Texas historian Louis W.
Kemp, in a biographical
sketch of William Sadler
obtained from the Texas
State Library, noted
that "Mrs. Sadler and
her infant child were
killed by Indians
October 18, 18[8]."
Prior
to fleeing from their
scene of butchery, the
Indians set fire to the
Edens home. They ripped
into the bedding and
emptied the feathers
into the room to fuel
the blaze, then started
the fire by spreading
the remaining coals from
the fireplace in the
center of the room. In
the confusion of flying
feathers, rapidly
spreading fire, and
Indians busily scalping,
severely wounded Lucinda
Madden regained
consciousness long
enough to escape from
the room shortly before
the Indians departed. As
she later related to her
grandson, she crawled
through the legs of an
Indian guard at the door
who was wrapped up in
the excitement of the
moment.
According to this same
account, Lucinda found
the strength to pull
herself far out of the
view of the Indians to
save her own life.
Crawling to the corner
of a fence, she lay
there, bleeding, while
the Indians set fire to
the buildings and
destroyed the entire
group of houses with the
exception of one little
out building. As she lay
in this fence corner, my
grandfather leaped the
fence right by her,
hotly pursued by the
Indians, but she was not
seen by either. My
grandfather escaped into
the woods. After the
fire had died down and
the Indians [had] gone,
by grandmother pulled
herself into this little
building which had been
left, and lay there
alone all night. I have
heard from her own lips
the remarkable statement
that she "never slept
better in all her life,"
a fact probably due to
the severe loss of
blood.
She
would not be the only
survivor from among the
women and children,
however. Lucinda
Madden's four-year-old
son Balis Erls Madden
observed his mother's
slithering past the
Indian guard and
followed suit. Young
Balis slipped through,
apparently unnoticed,
and ran off behind the
slaves' quarters to hide
all night in what he
described as a "hog
bed." The young boy
remained safe here
because the Indians did
not molest the negro
slaves.
The
Indian stole the guns
from the women's room
and took all but one of
the horses tied up near
the Edens home. Some of
their own inferior guns
were discarded in favor
of those of the settlers
before the attackers
retired in the direction
of Fort Houston. One
account claims some of
the children may have
been carried off by the
Indians, while another
states that some had
their brains smashed out
against the side of the
home before being tossed
into the fire.
Source:
Fort Tours |
