DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker tells it this way, and I'm just the voice carrying it down the road to you. Now settle in, because this one reaches back a long way and covers a lot of ground before it's done. We're in Palo Pinto County, not far from the Staggs Prairie Cemetery, where a man named Sam Savage is buried — a rancher, a farmer, and by all accounts a champion fiddler.
Born in 1861, died in 1951. Ninety years of living, and the most remarkable chapter of it happened before he was old enough to lose a baby tooth. Here's the thing about Sam Savage: he was five years old when the Comanches came.
March 2, 1866. The attack fell on his father Bolin Savage's homestead in Parker County, and before that day was done, it spread to his brother's farm as well. Both Bolin Savage and James Savage were killed.
Sam Savage, his brother, and a cousin were taken captive and carried off into Comanche territory. Now, Parker County Judge A. J.
Hunter put together a posse and went after them. Rode hard, I'd imagine. But the posse failed to overtake the Comanches, and those three children were gone.
Months passed. The better part of a year. After a time, Sam and the other children adapted to their situation — learned the language, learned the use of a bow and arrow.
Life kept moving, the way it does even when it has no business doing so. Then, in November of 1866, a trader named John Fields found them. He ransomed all three children for the sum of four hundred and fourteen dollars, at Fort Arbuckle, Oklahoma.
Four hundred and fourteen dollars. That was the price of their way back. Now here's a detail that catches you quiet if you let it: in 1911, Sam Savage and John Fields — the man who had bought his freedom all those decades before — held a reunion.
Two old men, sitting together, recounting the old tales. What those conversations sounded like, the marker doesn't say, and I won't pretend to know. Sam Savage married Arizona Pierce in 1881, and the two of them made their life in Palo Pinto County, where they remained until their deaths.
He lived long enough to tell his story himself — the raid, the captivity, the language learned, the arrows learned, the long road home. The champion fiddler who, once upon a time, was a five-year-old boy on his father's farm when everything changed. He's buried just up the way, in Staggs Prairie Cemetery.
The marker is here because the story is worth keeping.
What the marker says
Buried in the nearby Staggs Prairie Cemetery, Sam Savage (1861-1951) was a rancher, farmer, and champion fiddler. At the age of five, he survived a Comanche Indian raid on his father's farm in Parker County and lived in captivity with the Comanches for a time. The attack on Bolin Savage's homestead occurred on March 2, 1866, and was followed by a raid on his brother's farm. Both Bolin and James Savage were killed. Sam Savage, his brother, and a cousin were taken captive by the Indians. A posse headed by Parker County Judge A. J. Hunter failed to overtake the Comanches. The children were discovered by trader John Fields in November 1866 and were ransomed for the sum of $414 at Fort Arbuckle, Oklahoma. Sam Savage lived until the age of 90 to relate his experiences of life with the Indians. After a time, he and the other children adapted to their situation, learning the language and the use of a bow and arrow. In 1911, Sam Savage and the trader, John Fields, held a reunion during which many of the old tales were recounted. Sam Savage married Arizona Pierce in 1881, and they lived in Palo Pinto County until their deaths. Texas Sesquicentennial 1836-1986.