The Woman with Steel Ribs to Match Her Steel Spine (or, You Don't Mess with a Girl's Corset)

By Heather Blanton

Doing research for a book (Hang Your Heart on Christmas), I came across an amazing story of a woman with a steel backbone ... and ribs to match! Fashion saved her life and I mean that in the most literal sense possible.

Juliet Constance Ewing was born in Ireland, date unknown. On September 17, 1839, she and her brother, William G. Ewing, entered Texas as immigrants. And it was women like her who gave the state its reputation.

Juliet had the misfortune to suffer firsthand Texas change in policy toward Indians. Under the earlier leadership of Sam Houston, the Republic had few problems with the tribes, as he understood and respected them. His successor, Mirabeau B. Lamar, did not. Nor did he care to.

He promised the extermination of the Comanches.

On July 18, 1840, Juliet married station manager Hugh Oren Watts. This same year, talks with the Comanches broke down and 35 braves were massacred by US troops. The tribe hit the warpath with a vengeance, pun intended. Shockingly brutal attacks ensued, ending with the "Great Comanche Raid" that Texans still talk about today.

Just like Sherman would march through Georgia decades later, the Comanche thundered across Texas, burning, scalping, raping, and pillaging. When they attacked the small community of Linnville, where Juliet and William resided, the town was completely unprepared. Panicked, running for their lives, the townsfolk made a bee line for the boats in the bay, thinking to float out of reach of the marauders.

Only, William suddenly realized he’d left behind a gold watch. And went back for it. Juliet followed him. I don’t know which of the two was dumber.

William was killed and scalped. Juliet was taken captive. The Comanche spent most of the day pillaging the community, setting ransacked buildings on fire, and,—no kidding—trying to figure out how to get Juliet out of her steel-boned corset.

Running out of time and exasperated by the infernal garment, the Indians tied the woman to a tree and shot an arrow into her breast. Only, the steel ribbing and thick material slowed the arrow enough so that it didn’t kill her. Merely lodged in her breast bone.

Hollywood wouldn’t even believe this, yet it is fact.

From his eye witness report, Private Robert Hall recalled, “A little further on I found Mrs. Watts. They had shot an arrow at her breast, but her steel corset saved her life. It [the arrow] had entered her body, but Isham Good and I fastened a big pocket knife on the arrow and pulled it out. She possessed great fortitude, for she never flinched, though we could hear the breastbone crack when the arrow came out.

Ooooouch.

Clearly, Juliet was one tough Texan. This should have been a big hint to her second husband.

She married Dr. James Stanton in 1842, but divorced him five years later, “the first divorce in the new state of Texas.” Oddly, the woman demanded nothing short of complete fidelity from her husband. He didn't see it her way and for the disagreement, got to hand over to her the hotel the couple had opened.

Juliet’s third, and, thankfully, final, husband was a Dr. Richard Fretwell. They were married until her death in 1878.

I’ve no doubt Juliet was buried wearing her corset. Steel ribs to match her steel spine.

Comanche Captives, part II: the Captives

In 1860 Cynthia Ann Parker, who’d been living with the Comanches for twenty four years, was returned to her family. In 1871 weakened by self-imposed starvation, she succumbed to influenza following the death of her daughter. Her years back among the whites saw several attempts to escape back to her Indian family and her failure to readjust. Cynthia is perhaps the most well-known Indian captive, and unfortunately her story typifies the return of the captive.

Cynthia Ann Parker

During last half of the 19th century in Texas dozens of white children were taken captive by the Indians. When a former captive was returned to their families it was big news, and reporters were sometimes on scene to record the reunions. Except the reunions were oddly subdued. Newspapers found they had to stretch the truth to paint a rosy picture. The families were happy to have their children back, but the feeling was not reciprocated.

In his book, the Captured, author Scott Zesch focuses on the cases of children taken from German immigrants in the Texas hill country, including a relative of his own. The mystifying thing about the children taken captive was how quickly they became Indianized. In as little as six months the children had almost forgotten their native language and were speaking in the tongue of their new group. A child recovered after a year was feared to be a lost cause.

What happened to these children to make them switch allegiance? And remember some of these children had witnessed the cruel murders of their own family member at the hands of their captors. There is a little Stockholm Syndrome going on, I'm sure ("You didn't kill me. Thank you. I love you."), but there had to be more.

If you look at the lives of the children before capture it's a bleak picture. The German immigrants who were lured to Texas with the promise of an easy life were disappointed. Living in one room cabins that were inadequate against the elements, the settlers toiled from daybreak to nightfall.

The parents had little time for their children, who grew up illiterate and impoverished in many cases. And, I hate to say this, Germans, but the other immigrants and settlers regarded the German parents as overly stern and lacking in affection.

In contrast, the captive children were adopted into the tribe, often by a couple who had lost their own children, and lavished with attention. Compared to life on the ranch, there was much more leisure time. One girl who was returned to her family (after first trying to escape with her adoptive mother), had fond memories of riding on her pony with her hair ornaments blowing behind her. There existed a sense of community that was lacking in the isolated homes of the settlers. And the tepees were a better shelter than the drafty cabins.

Comanche Camp

The Indian boy was a pampered member of the tribe, and this was true for the so-called white Indian youths as well. The young boys spent their days swimming, hunting, learning to fight, riding, and playing games. At night they shared a tepee. They ate when they were hungry like the rest of the tribe. The pot of food was always out. I mean, what boy wouldn't love that?

There is a story of one returned captive going out hunting. When he came home and left his horse with a deer slung over its back out in front of the house, he couldn't understand why the women didn't rush out, lead his horse away, and dress the deer.

In addition, the captives were mentored by adult members of the tribe. And this is an important factor, I think, because remember they came from a situation where parents didn't have much room for "quality time" with their children.

The boys were taught the art of warfare, and eventually the time came when they were included in raiding parties. Not only did they go willingly, they were eager to prove themselves. In later years after these white Indians returned to white society they were reluctant to speak about this, but it was noted they had scalps hanging from their war shields same as any warrior.

One such boy while on out of a raid, passed by his former home. He said he could've looked in the window to see his mother if he wished. But, he didn't.

With the Comanches, a captive could rise in status within the tribe as if he had been born there. Cynthia Ann Parker was happily married to a chief, Peta Nocona, who cared for her so much he didn't take a second wife. Her son, Quanah Parker, became a leader of the Comanches and part of the last band to turn themselves in and move to the reservation. Quanah's right-hand man was Herman Lehmann, another child captive.

The stories Zesch followed didn't have happy endings. When the children returned to their families they typically became discipline problems in school and in their communities. They had trouble sleeping in beds. This was a common comment, which I find interesting. They preferred to sleep on the floor or even outside.

As adults, Zesch makes the point that none of the former captives (with one exception) seemed to have made a successful marriage or settle down to prosper in any way.

Two of the captives grabbed my imagination more than the others, Temple Friend and Rudolph Fischer. Friend because his story was so heartbreaking, and Fischer's because he was an exception to the rule.

Temple was captured during a raid on his family while the men were away. He witnessed what he thought was the murder of his stepmother, and then on route to the Indian camp, the murder of an infant and a toddler. The three adult women who were taken along with him were raped and brutally murdered. As it turns out his stepmother, Matilda Friend, who was heavily pregnant at the time didn't die. She was shot twice with arrows, had her hand hacked by a knife, and was scalped--all the while playing dead.

Temple Friend and Topish at Fort Sill, 1871 after being liberated from the Comanches. They had their long hair cut and their Indian clothes taken away.

Temple was ten at the time of capture. Six years later he was returned to his family during a general exchange between the army and the Comanches. His grandfather took him and a second unidentified boy, who's Indian name was Topish home. Temple couldn't adjust to the white world. He acted out and was teased in school to the point he was taken out. He and Topish would escape to the woods often to act as they used to.

A strange wasting disease took hold of Temple, and he died a year and a half after being returned to his family. Some said he died of a broken heart. His sister said probably the best thing would've been if they brought him home just to see he was all right and then let him go back to his Comanche family. After Temple's death, Topish (who may have been John Maxey) ran off and was never heard from again--presumably going back to the Comanches.

In contrast Rudolph Fischer was taken while he was out on his own and was older at the time of his capture. By the time his whereabouts were discovered, he'd lived with the Comanches for thirteen years and had a wife and two children. He had no desire to return to his birth family, but at last was persuaded. He didn't suffer the behavior problems the other returned captives did, maybe because he was older, but he clearly wasn't happy. His father even offered to send for his wife and children, but Rudolph turned down the offer saying they'd be miserable.

Rudolph Fischer and his adoptive father, Black Crow, 1878

One day he announced he was going off hunting and would be back in the winter. I think this was the 19th c equivalent of "I'm going out for a pack of cigarettes," because he never came home. He moved back to the Comanches and his wife and children. He only returned to his natural family two more times for brief visits to settle estates after the deaths of his father and brother.

Unlike many, Rudolph was able to adjust to reservation life, and in the end became a wealthy man when oil was found on his land. He had eight children with his Comanche wife with whom he seems to have had a happy life. For a time he was also married to his wife's sister, but when he converted to Catholicism, he gave up the second wife. Two of his children married two of Quanah Parker's children.

One explanation for the failure of the captives to reintegrate back into white society is that their lives as Comanches was better than life as a white. I think this is true, but not the whole explanation.

In the book News of the World by Paulette Jiles, the subject of which is the returning of a captive girl to her family, one of the characters compares the rescued captives to children who survived the Great Famine in Ireland. These survivors witnessed such unimaginable horrors, they were never quite of this world again.

I can't help but agree. These kids had trauma upon trauma heaped on them, witnessed brutalities on both sides and twice were ripped away from their families. Reading the accounts I'm bothered by the times it's commented that the returned captives looked younger and smaller than expected for their age. Failure to thrive comes to mind, especially when reading of their behavior as described by family members after their return. Look at the image above of Temple Friend. He's sixteen in that picture but looks much younger to me.

Some former captives did try and return to the tribe as adults, but by that time the lifestyle they knew was a thing of the past. The Indians were now trying to adjust to life on the reservation, so that refuge was lost to them too. It's no wonder that Scott Zesch's great uncle, Adolph Korn, gave up and went to spend his remaining years alone, living in a cave high above the ground. It was a cave with a view: spread out below for miles were the plains he'd once run free in.

Comanche Captives: Taken, Part I

Note: There are records of white captives being taken since Colonial times. The following blog deals specifically with children taken captive during the Indian wars in Texas during the last half of the 19th century.

The story of Comanche Captives in popular culture: Movie poster for The Searchers

The first episode of AMC's The Son coincided with my reading of the book News of the World by Paulette Jiles. Both the TV series and the book deal with white children who lived with the Comanches after their capture. The Son centers around a ruthless Texas cattleman, played by Pierce Brosnan, his current shady dealings, and flashbacks to his life among the Comanches. News of the World is a quick read about an old man who makes his living traveling from town to town in Texas reading the newspaper to crowds. At one stop he's asked to take a young girl back to her remaining relatives after she's been released from the Kiowa. By this time the girl has lost her native language and is completely Indianized.

I enjoyed the News of the World, an obviously well-researched book, but when I finished it, it left me with a few questions. Luckily for me the author ended the book with a recommendation for further reading, The Captured:A True Story of Abduction by Indians, by Scott Zesch. I bought the book, thinking it would be dry reading. Oh, but it is not! This fascinating book read like fiction. Zesch became interested in the topic when he started to look into the story of his own relative, Adolph Korn, who had been a captive of the Comanches. Korn was reunited with his family three years after his abduction by which time he'd been living as a fierce warrior. He never was able to readjust to life back with the whites and eventually went to live by himself in a cave. While investigating his own family connection to this part of history, Zesch delved into other stories of "White Indians" who were taken about the same time.

My first question was why in the world would anyone plop their family smack dab in the middle of hostile Indian territory? During this time in Texas dozens of children were taken captive. I'm a mother, and I can't imagine putting my loved ones in such peril. Was any piece of land worth the risk?

Ranch in the Texas Hill Country

After reading Zesch's book, I learned the story was more complex. It wasn't so much a story of daring and hearty pioneers taming the land as it was a story of people who were lured to Texas with the promise of easy living and then found themselves stuck in a deteriorating situation.

German immigrants were the largest group of European settlers in Texas. In the 1800's a group in Germany, the Adelsverein  (the society for the protection of German immigrants), lured waves of families to Texas for the purpose of colonizing that area. They promised fruitful land in a temperate climate, but they forgot to mention some of the downsides--such as hostile Indians.

Comanche Warriors

At this point I'd like to mention that other Native American tribes regarded the Plains Indians as the most warlike Indians. In turn, the other Plains Indian tribes believed the Comanches to be the most fearsome. The Comanches used tools of terror such as gang rape and inventive ways of slowly torturing their victims to death (some methods they learned from the Spanish). This was the neighborhood the German immigrants found themselves in.

For a time, relations between the two groups showed promise. The Germans and Comanches signed the Treaty of Meusebach in 1847, promising to be good neighbors to one another and encouraging friendly transactions. The Comanche women were even known to care for the Germans' children while the parents went to work in the fields.

However, when the Germans met with the Comanches to sign the treaty in 1847 they saw something that must have given them pause. While at the Indian camp a warrior with blond hair entered the camp, followed by a cold, sickly Mexican child. When the delegation asked the "white Indian" if he wanted to be taken back to his people, he scoffed and said he'd never live with "the Palefaces" again. The child was a boy he'd captured in Mexico, who was now his slave.

Plaque commemorating the "Lasting Friendship" between German immigrants and Comanches after the Treaty of Meusebach

But then a few things happened to strain relations between the settlers and the Indians. First, the Germans who lived in tight communities to start with, discovered this was not the best way to farm in their new country, so they scattered over the land, setting up isolated farms. The Indians weren't too bothered by the small, contained communities, but now this new move infringed on their hunting grounds.

Next up the Civil War, which acted as a double blow to the immigrants. When the soldiers and Texas Rangers were moved east, this left the settlers under-protected. In addition, they lost their biggest customers when the army left town.

Texas Rangers, 1860's. Their dissolution during the Civil War years left a vulnerable population

And, life wasn't as easy as had been promised. It was hard to carve out an existence in their new land. They had to toil hard from dawn to dusk, living in one room log cabins that didn't keep out the elements. Always on the edge of poverty, the defection of the army left them more desperate.

The Indians watched with amusement as the settlers worked so hard to gain so little, while they lived off the land and enjoyed more leisure time. One Indian stated they killed the whites to "put them out of their misery."

Going out on raiding parties and taking captives was part of Indian culture since before the whites arrived. They took captives to barter for horses and also as a way to replenish their own numbers. In taking captives, they were color-blind. Mexicans, African Americans, other Indians, and Whites were fine as long as they were of a certain age. Children too young to take care of themselves or too old to be successfully incorporated into the tribe would likely be killed during raids.

The picture I have of the settlers in the Texas Hill Country is one of people living in constant fear. The saying "Comanche Moon" comes from the mistaken belief that the Indians only attacked during the full moon. Not true. Attacks came anytime, including broad daylight. A man setting off to help a neighbor might never come home, his mutilated remains found days later. Husbands returned from short trips to find their family dead or gone and their livestock stolen. Children would go out to the fields to do their chores and never be heard from again. Some settlers did pick up and move but many lacking the money to start over had to endure life under the worst circumstances imaginable.

Having children taken was considered a fate worse than death. Some families never learned the fate of their loved ones. Others got an occasional report of a sighting. The families never gave up on finding their children, seeking help from the government and army or enlisting the help third parties to negotiate with the Indians.

It's interesting to note the same debate raged then as now about paying ransom. Giving money in exchange for captives worked, but did it encourage more such acts? Also, less than sympathetic were the folks out east, who had the same initial reaction I did: If you live in Indian territory, what do you expect? Move. Just move.

The book The Searchers by Alan Lemay, which was later turned into the movie by the same name, staring John Wayne, was inspired in part by one man's attempts to rescue his family. The legendary black cowboy, Britt Johnson, born a slave, settled in Texas. When he came home to find his son dead and his wife and daughters gone, Britt went on a quest to find them, which lasted years. In that time he befriended the Comanches, even living with them for a time until his family was returned to him. Unfortunately, six years later he was killed in a Kiowa raid.

Britt Johnson, inspiration for The Searchers (photo from "Frontier Texas")

What actually became of the children captives is interesting. With some exceptions, the children were treated well and adopted into families who loved them like their own. I'll explore their stories in Part II, but one thing the white families who recovered their children learned was how fast the captives became Indianized. As early into captivity as six months the children forgot most of their native tongue and spoke in the language of their new Indian family. A child recovered after over a year of captivity was considered a lost cause. The boys became warriors, joining in war parties, setting upon their former neighbors. It was said the white Indians were the meanest Indians. They had the most to prove, I suppose. By this time they'd perhaps seen their own white family killed and now were identifying with a people who were suffering brutally at the hands of white soldiers. In this new shift, the whites became the feared enemy.

After the Civil War, the soldiers and Texas Rangers came back and helped restore order. A final blow came to the Indians with the arrival of the buffalo hunters. They watched as one of their main resources was hunted almost to extinction for their hides. With their food gone, they had to rely on government handouts. The Plains Indian way of life was coming to an end.

Buffalo Hide Hunters

In 1877 the army swooped down on an Indian camp, killing many and taking women and children captive. Along with the Indian's growing dependence on them for food, having these captives gave the whites one last, powerful bargaining chip. The Comanches under the leadership of Quanah Parker (himself the son of a white captive woman) began turning themselves and their captives in. Only a small band of renegades refused reservation life, and they continued to terrorize that part of the country until one by one they saw their old way of life was over and gave up.

In 1878 a warrior walked into the reservation near Fort Sill. He was the last Comanche to admit defeat. He had long red hair and his name was Herman Lehmann.

Next month: Comanche Captives: the Captives and Release, Part II

Spoiler alert: the family reunions weren't as happy as you'd imagine.