Olive Ann Oatman Fairchild
N 33° 37.924 W 096° 37.161
14S E 720815 N 3723903
Texas Historical Marker at the gravesite of Olive Ann Oatman Fairchild, one of the best-known captives of the Native Americans in the nineteenth century. West Hill Cemetery, Sherman, TX.
Waymark Code: WMD54H
Location: Texas, United States
Date Posted: 11/20/2011
Views: 8
Although the book written by Royal Stratton ("The Captivity of the Oatman Girls") was written with her help, during her lifetime, it's filled with a tremendous amount of Stratton's own prejudices towards the Native Americans, and ironically, it was Stratton's death in an insane asylum that contributed to the myth that Olive herself had died, insane.
The Oatman family were a group of Mormon settlers who were massacred near what is now Yuma, AZ, by Native Americans who were probably Yavapai. The family was left for dead -- Lorenzo actually survived and walked away to find help -- while the two girls, Mary Ann and Olive, were abducted. They were eventually bartered to the Mohave, who treated them well, and at some point, Olive and Mary Ann were both tattooed on their chins and arms. Unfortunately, times were difficult, and Mary Ann died of starvation.
Eventually, Olive was bartered back to "civilization" and reunited with Lorenzo, and after some travels, she met and married John B. Fairchild, who took her to Sherman, TX, where she lived until her death.
Suggested reading: Margaret Mifflin, "The Blue Tattoo," and Brian McGinty, "The Oatman Massacre," both of which do a fine job of attempting to separate legend from reality, with some insight on how Olive was a stranger to her own people in some ways.
Marker Number: 7361
Marker Text:
(1837-1903)
Captured in Arizona at age 13 (1851) by Yavapai Indians, who massacred 6 members of family. Sold to Mojave Indians, she was treated kindly but bore mark of a slave-- blue, cactus needle tattoo on chin -- for rest of life. Ransomed by Army at Fort Yuma, 1856. Lived in California, then New York. There she married J. B. Fairchild in 1865. About 1872 moved to Sherman, where husband founded city bank. Resided in Sherman until death in 1903.
Recorded 1970
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