[From J. Marvin Hunter's Frontier Times Magazine, September, 1927]

VETERAN B. F. GHOLSON, who now resides at Evant, Texas, has kindly furnished the following account of the murder of Mr. and Mrs. Riggs and a Mr. Pierce and Mr. Riggs by Indians in Bell county in the Spring of 1859.

A new settlement was being formed in the northwest part of Bell county near Sugar Loaf Mountain by homesteaders and newcomers who were not familiar with Indian warfare. During the light moon of April, 1859, the Indians raided this settlement and killed a man by the name of Pierce and a Mr. Riggs and his wife and captured a boy and Riggs' two little girls, but these escaped. I lived about six miles from where these murders occurred. My brother, S. S. Gholson, had gone to mill at Sulphur Springs (now Lampasas) with an ox wagon and, on learning that Indians were in the country, I hastened to meet him. I encountered him on his return about thirty miles out and we reached home in safety, after which we hurried forward to join in the pursuit of the Indians.

Mr. Pierce, Mr. Riggs, Mr. Elms and few others lived in that particular settlement near Sugar Loaf Mountain. Mr. Pierce and Mr. Riggs were engaged in hauling cedar from a nearby cedar brake. Mr. Riggs lived nearest the cedar brake and it was his custom to wait the coming of Mr. Pierce each morning, then they would proceed together to the brake with their wagons. On this sad April morning, Mr. Pierce accompanied by a small boy by the name of Dave Elms, came along and Mr. Riggs not being quite ready to start, Mr. Pierce drove on towards the cedar brake which he had scarcely reached when the Indians sprang from the ambush surrounded his wagon and killed him. While they were killing Pierce, the boy attempted to escape by running but the Indians pursued and captured him. When the Indians ran on to Pierce, Mr. Riggs had stayed with his wagon but on witnessing the attack he abandoned his team, ran back to his home and taking his wife and three children, started to brother's place which was in sight of his own home. All this was in full view of the Indians, and when they had murdered Pierce and had captured the boy, they turned their attention to the fleeing family. Leaving one of their bucks to guard the boy, Dave, they overtook the Riggs family, killed and scalped Mr. and Mrs. Riggs, and carried off the two little girls, leaving the baby boy unhurt. After having committed this atrocious deed, the Indians returned to Mr. Riggs' home and appropriated such articles as suited their fancy and that they could carry off.

When the savages caught the boy, Dave Elms, they stripped him bare and because he resisted, they whipped him unmercifully. The Indian left to guard him became deeply interested in the tragedy just then being enacted and when his whole attention was fixed on the slaughter of Mr. and Mrs. Riggs, the boy disappeared and got away. After his escape, the first man he met was Mr. Ambrose Lee, whose home was in the settlement. Mr. Lee seized his gun and went to where Dave told him Mr. and Mrs. Riggs lad been killed and where he found their mutilated bodies and the little babe crawling around on the ground in the blood of its father and mother. Mr. Lee was the first to reach the scene of the tragedy. A. M. Woods was the second. After having plundered the Riggs home, the Indians went south about ten miles, taking all the stock that came in reach; then turning west, they came in sight of a man on horseback. Four of their number gave pursuit, overtook, killed and scalped him, taking his horse and all his effects. The Indians driving the herd of stolen horses along near the body of this unfortunate man while he was yet alive and the little captive girls, who had witnessed the chase and the killing, heard his groans as they passed the dying victim of savage ferocity. This man's name was Peevy, but I have forgotten his initials. The Indians had out spies on each side of their course and after traveling some distance their spy on the north side reported a body of horsemen approaching. They immediately changed their course and took down a rough hollow or canyon in order to keep out of sight of the men discovered by their spy. Each one of the Riggs girls was mounted behind an Indian. The savages were going in a run and the smallest girl fell off the horse she was riding. The elder girl saw her fall and, seeing that the Indian behind whom she had been riding made no halt or any effort to recover the child, jumped off. The Indian she was riding with made a grab for her and caught her by the clothing and held to her for some distance, her head and arms almost dragging the ground . Finally she seized a bush and held to it with such strength and persistency that her skirt was torn off and left in the hands of the savage, while she was left bruised and bleeding on the ground. The Indians had no time to look after their late captives.

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This brave little girl made her way back to where her little sister had fallen. It was now late in the evening and the air was chilly. The little child had sustained severe bruises in her fall on the rocks but, with her sister's aid, was able to travel. They began the painful and weary journey back in the direction they had come. After nightfall they came to an old vacant cabin long since abandoned by some pioneer. In this house they passed the night. The little sister complained of cold and hunger. There was no food to be had but the older sister, herself but a child, showed the qualities of the Texan heroine. She removed every remaining thread of her own clothing and with these remnants she wrapped the shivering form of her little sister, forgetful of her own comfort, thinking only of that of the little sister! Does history record a deed more sublime?

Next morning these two little girls followed a path which led them to another abandoned house where they found that the occupants had left only a short time before—frightened away probably by the Indians—leaving all their household effects. With lacerated and swollen feet, weary exhausted, the little waifs could go no further. Some time during the day a man came to the house. I do not remember his name, but he was a stranger and had not heard of the Indians being in the country. He mounted the two girls on his horse, walked and led the animal and took them to Captain Dameron's, where they found quite a number "forted up." There were also a few men present for protection, the others had gone forward in pursuit of the Indians. Here at Captain Dameron's these two little girls were tenderly cared for until they were delivered to their relatives.

Dave Elms has been known ever since that fatal April day, as “Indian Dave Elms." I think he now lives near Rock Springs in Edwards county. (EDITOR'S NOTE—The two Riggs girls, in after years, resided in Bandera county. One of them married a man named Benton, and now lives in Arizona.)

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