Stringfield Massacre

Duane's take

Here's what the official marker in McMullen County has to say, and I'll tell it to you straight. September 28, 1870. A horse-drawn wagon rolls through country that does not forgive mistakes.

Inside that wagon is the Thomas W. Stringfield family: Thomas, his wife Sarah Jane, and their children. Ida Alice, eight years old.

Adolphus, six. And the youngest, Thomas, just four years old. They never made it where they were going.

A group of Indians and bandits raiding out of Mexico overtook them. The family ran on foot, toward a nearby house that must have looked like salvation from where they stood. They did not reach it.

Thomas W. Stringfield was stabbed and shot to death. Sarah Jane was stabbed and shot to death.

Six-year-old Adolphus was murdered. And the youngest, little four-year-old Thomas, his fate was never known. The marker doesn't say, because nobody ever found out.

That silence is its own kind of weight. Now. Ida Alice.

Eight years old, and she fought. She fought to avoid capture; fought hard enough that her attackers answered with something terrible. They speared her seven times.

Seven. And when that wasn't enough to stop her, the raiders' horses trampled her, and they left her there in the dirt, believing she was dead. She was not dead.

Somebody found her. She was rescued. And Ida Alice Stringfield, speared seven times, left for dead in McMullen County on a September afternoon in 1870, lived until 1937.

Sixty-seven years she carried that day with her. Some people are just harder to kill than the world expects.

What the marker says

On Sept. 28, 1870, the Thomas W. Stringfield family was ambushed by Indians and bandits raiding from Mexico. Overtaken in their horse-drawn wagon, the victims ran for a nearby house, but did not reach it. Thomas and wife Sarah Jane were stabbed and shot to death. Six-year-old son Adolphus was also murdered, but the fate of Thomas, 4 years, was never known. The survivor, 8-year-old Ida Alice, fought to avoid capture. She was then speared 7 times, trampled by the raiders' horses, and left for dead. She was later rescued and lived until 1937. 1968