Chalk Bluff Indian Massacre - Texas Historical Markers on Waymarking.com

"Henry M. Robinson and Henry Adams were killed by Indians at the Chalk bluff, on the Nueces river, about March 7, 1861, while on their way to Camp Wood. A. M. Robinson had been on the frontier for many years. He was a stockman and farmer and sometimes was employed at Fort Inge to trail and fight Indians. He was married and left a wife and nine children, all now living in Uvalde county except one girl and a boy, hereafter mentioned. There were sixteen Indians in the party that murdered these men. From the sign it was evident the two men had stopped to make coffee, and that the Indians crept upon them under cover of some drift wood and killed them before they could use their guns. After killing Robinson and Adams the Indians went to Robinson's house, about seven miles from the Chalk bluff, and attacked it. Mrs. Robinson was on a visit to one of her neighbors at the time, and hearing some noise went to the door and saw the Indians chasing the children. A boy named George, about sixteen years old, who had a gun, fired upon the Indians and was immediately shot down himself. The balance of the children ran towards their mother, who soon afterwards joined them, and in her desperation she endeavored to drive the Indians back by throwing rocks at them, but such weapons were of little avail against guns and bows and arrows. They shot a girl about fourteen years old named Kilrey, who was visiting the Robinson family, but, strange to say, they made no attempt to shoot Mrs. Robinson and the other children and they all escaped. Courage is more highly esteemed among savages than anything else, and perhaps the Indians refrained from killing Mrs. Robinson and the rest in consideration of her heroic attempt to defend the children by throwing rocks. Although Miss Kilrey was shot with arrows, lanced, scalped and left for dead, she eventually recovered from her wounds and went to California. The Indians plundered Mrs. Robinson's house, took everything they fancied, cut open the beds and scattered the feathers to the four winds of heaven, and appropriated all the provisions they could carry off. One of their acts was quite unaccountable. When they killed Robinson they took one of his socks. In his house they found his portrait hanging on the wall. This they took down, placed it on the floor and laid the sock they had stripped from the dead body across it.

Henry Adams was unmarried and lived on Potranco creek, sixteen miles west of San Antonio. Says Kennedy: "I knew him to be a brave and determined man and I am satisfied he would have made a gallant fight if he had had any chance to use his arms." "

Source: Genealogy Trails Website

Marker Number: 799 Marker Text: Here on May 29, 1861, two of southwest Texas' most feared Indian fighters were ambushed by a band of 20 hostile Indians. Henry Robinson-- tall and red-bearded-- was so well known to the tribes that they had painted his picture on a rock near the Llano River. He and his companion Henry Adams (also his daughter's fiance) were in route to Camp Wood when the attack came. The Indians, after they had killed the two men, took both their scalps and Robinson's beard, too; they then attacked Robinson's home, but his family fought them off successfully. (1970)

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Date Logged Log   09/18/2016 Raven visited it