DUANE
Duane's take
Here's what the official marker has to say, and I'll tell it to you straight. Somewhere back in October of 1858, a family set out on what should have been the most ordinary kind of day. Moses and Lydia Jackson, settlers, loaded up four of their seven children and headed out one morning to spend the day with friends.
Simple as that. A visit. The kind of thing folks do.
They never made it. As they neared their destination, they came upon a small party of Indians — the marker says possibly Comanches. And what happened next was swift and merciless.
Moses and Lydia were killed immediately. So were two of the children with them — Louis and I. J.
Jackson. Gone, just like that, before a single thing could be done about it. But the two middle children — Joshua and Rebecca — those two were taken.
Abducted, carried off into the Texas wild. Now, you might think that was the end of them. And for almost two weeks, the world had no reason to think otherwise.
Then something shifted. After nearly two weeks, those children were abandoned. Left out there on their own.
And what did Joshua and Rebecca Jackson do? They walked. Two days on foot through that country before a search party of settlers and Texas Rangers found them — near Sweetwater.
The rest of the family — Moses, Lydia, Louis, and I. J. — they were buried where they fell, the marker tells us, a short distance from this very site. Four people gone on a morning that started like any other.
Two children who walked their way back to the living. That's the story the ground here holds.
What the marker says
Settlers Moses and Lydia Jackson set out one morning in October of 1858 with four of their seven children to spend the day with friends. As they neared their destination they encountered a small party of Indians, possibly Comanches. Louis and I. J. Jackson and their parents were killed immediately. The two middle children, Joshua and Rebecca, were abducted, only to be abandoned after almost two weeks. They walked for two days before being recovered by a search party of settlers and Texas Rangers near Sweetwater. The Jackson family was buried where they fell, a short distance from this site. (1998)