DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker in Young County tells this one, and I'm going to give it to you straight. July 17, 1867. That date sits heavy in the history of this stretch of Texas.
An Elm Creek raid — and three young men never came home from it. Rice Carlton. Nineteen years old.
That's all the marker gives us of him, and somehow that makes it land harder — just a name and an age, carved into record. Reuben Johnson, born 1847, son of J. Allen Johnson.
A father's name attached to a son's, the way families get remembered when the worst happens. And Patrick Euell Proffitt, born March 7, 1848, son of Robert S. Proffitt.
Three young men. One raid. One day.
They were laid to rest together — a common grave, as the marker calls it. And the land that holds them? That cemetery tract was donated by John Proffitt, a brother.
A brother who survived, and made sure there was ground to mark the loss. There's no tall tale here to spin. Just three names, a July morning in 1867, and a brother who saw to it they wouldn't be forgotten.
What the marker says
Three youths slain by Indians in an Elm Creek raid, July 17, 1867: Rice Carlton, Age 19; Reuben Johnson, born 1847, son of J. Allen Johnson; Patrick Euell Proffitt, born March 7, 1848, son of Robert S. Proffitt. John Proffitt, a brother, was donor of cemetery tract.