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Exciting Chase of Sam Brooks and M.J. Bolt and Others Fight in Burnet County

Michael has a BA in History & American Studies and an MSc in American History from the University of Edinburgh. He comes from a proud military family and has spent most of his career as an educator in the Middle East and Asia. Please consider reading our editorial policy to understand how and why we publish the resources we do.

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Burnet County, Texas

    During 1871, while Sam Brooks was hunting horses about six miles northwest of Burnet, he saw three men whom he thought were John Calvert's cow hands. Shortly afterwards, however, he discovered that a large band of Indians were only about thirty yards away. Brooks hurried to the home of Oliver Lee, about three hundred yards away. Mrs. Lee opened the gate and instructed Sam to hurry on the inside. When he did, the Indians circled and left. Shortly afterwards, John Calvert, Sam Wilson, Marion Armstrong, Marion Gree, Tom Fry, Sam Books, W.B. Johnson, Oliver Lee and M.J. Bolt took the Indian trail and ran on the savages about six or seven miles away. The chief began to chatter, "Yip! Yip! Yelp! Yelp!" For a few minutes a brisk fight followed and later evidences disclosed that at least one savage was wounded.

    Note: Author interviewed M.J. Bolt, who was in the fight.

The above story is from the book, The West Texas Frontier, by Joseph Carroll McConnell.

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