DUANE
Duane's take
Here's how the official marker tells it, and I'll do my best to honor every word. John M. Davenport — born February 8, 1827, died October 28, 1859 — was the kind of man this country seemed to call for and then consume.
A stock-raiser by trade, a captain of volunteer Indian fighters by necessity, and by the end of October 1859, a name carved into the hard memory of Uvalde County. He was killed right near here. Not by one, not by a handful — by thirty Comanches.
That number has a weight to it. Thirty. And what followed his death was itself a first for this part of Texas: the inquest held for John M.
Davenport was the very first inquest in the area conducted for a victim of an Indian attack. That tells you something about how raw this land still was in 1859 — that there hadn't been a formal reckoning like that before. But the story doesn't end with the inquest.
Settlers and soldiers out of Fort Inge took up the trail. They followed that band two hundred miles — two hundred miles of hard country, hard riding, hard purpose. And when the battle finally came, they found something.
Among the Indians they'd fought, there was Davenport's gun. His own gun, carried off, now recovered. Some things don't need a lot of words wrapped around them.
That gun said everything the two hundred miles had been about.
What the marker says
(February 8, 1827 - October 28, 1859) Stock-raiser and captain of a company of volunteer Indian fighters. Killed near here by 30 Comanches. Inquest for him was first in area for Indian victim. Settlers and soldiers from Fort Inge trailed the band 200 miles. After battle, found Davenport's gun on one of the Indians. (1969)