[From J. Marvin Hunter’s Frontier Times Magazine, February, 1924]

Mr. and Mrs. E. E. Brooks of Burnet, Texas, recently celebrated their 58th wedding anniversary. It was also the anniversary of Mr. Brooks' 79th birthday. Mr. Brooks is the oldest living settler in the town of Burnet, having lived there since 1854. He possesses all of the innate energy and joyous disposition characteristic of the Texas pioneers. Despite his years of activity he takes lively interest and an energetic part in all business conditions. Mr. and Mrs.Brooks are regular attendants at church.

Mr. Brooks relates some very thrilling Indian stories, all memories from his personal experience with the Red men in the early days in the Burnet settlement. In those days it required real and true courage, both of men and women, to remain in their homes and encounter the hardships and trials incident to this backwoods life. The Indians were very aggressive and bloodthirsty. often making desperate and sudden attacks upon the settlers.

He vividly recalls the murder of the Whitlock family by the Indians at Long Mountain, a settlement between Burnet and Llano. The Indians came upon Mr.Whitlock while he was plowing in the field. They killed and scalped Mr. Whitlock without any ceremony and captured his five year old son who was in the field with him. The Indians went to the Whitlock home. Mrs. Whitlock seized a gun and made a brave effort to defend herself and children. The savages shot her and took the infant from her arms to the yard and dashed it to death against a tree. They took the five-year old boy and the little girl with them, then after cutting the featherbeds and emptying the feathers in the air, set fire to the house and rode away. The little girl screamed until the Indians feared she would be heard so they dragged her to death on the heels of a horse. They were trailed by her blood and particles of clothing which were scattered along the route taken by them. It was an outrage that aroused the settlers and soon every able-bodied man was in the saddle ready to do and die for the settlement's protection.