Traces of Texas
Y'all are not going to believe the Texas Quote of the Day, written in an 1883 article in the San Antonio Express newspaper:
"Colonel Albert C. Pelton, whose beautiful twenty thousand acre ranch is out toward the Rio Grande, near Laredo, has been the "Peter the Hermit" of Texas for years. He has believed that he held a divine commission to kill Apache Indians. Colonel Pelton came to Texas in 1844, a common soldier. By talent and courage, he rose to the rank of colonel. Finally, in 1867, he commanded Fort McRae. That year he fell in love with a beautiful Spanish girl near Albequin, New Mexico. Her parents were wealthy and would not consent to their daughter going away from all her friends to live in a garrison... But after two years of courtesy and devotion, Colonel Pelton won the consent of the beautiful Spanish girl and they were married.
Then commenced a honeymoon such as only lovers shut up in a beautiful flower-environed fort can have. The lovely character of the beautiful bride won the hearts of all the soldiers of the fort, and she reigned a queen among the rough frontiersmen. One day, when the love of the soldier and his lovely wife was at its severest, the two, accompanied by the young wife's mother and twenty soldiers, rode out to the hot springs, six miles from the fort, to take a bath. While in the bath, which is near the Rio Grande, a shower of Indian arrows fell around them, and a band of Apache Indians rushed down upon them. Several of the soldiers fell dead, pierced with poisoned arrows. This frightened the rest, who fled. Another shower of arrows and the beautiful bride and her mother fell in the water, pierced by the cruel shafts of the Apache. With his wife dying before his eyes, Colonel Pelton leaped upon the bank, grabbed his rifle and killed the [Apache] leader. But the Apaches were too much [and he] was pierced with two poisoned arrows, so he swam the river and hid under a ledge. After the Apaches left, the Colonel made his way to Fort McRae. Here his wounds were dressed and he finally recovered, but only to live a blasted life without love, without hope, with a vision of his beautiful wife dying perpetually before his eyes.
After the death of his wife a change came over Colonel Pelton. He seemed to think that he had a sacred mission from heaven to avenge his young wife's death. He was always anxious to lead any and all expeditions against the Apaches. Whenever any of the other Indians were at war with the Apaches, Colonel Pelton would soon be at the head of the former. He defied the Indian arrows and courted death.
Once, with a band of the wildest desperadoes, he penetrated a hundred miles into Apache country [and] the Apaches fled, leaving their women and children behind. It was then that there darted out of a lodge a white woman. 'Spare the women,' she cried, and then fainted to the ground. When the Colonel jumped from the saddle to lift up the woman, he found that she was blind. 'How came you here, woman, with these d___d Apaches?' he asked. 'I was wounded and captured,' she said, 'ten years ago. Take, oh take, me back again.' 'Have you any relatives in Texas?' asked the Colonel. 'No; my father lives in Albequin. My husband, Colonel Pelton, and my mother, were killed by the Indians.' 'Great God, Bella! Is it you, my wife?' 'Oh, Albert, I knew you would come!' exclaimed the poor wife, blindly reaching her hands to grasp her husband. Of course, there was joy in the old ranch when Colonel Pelton got back with his wife. The Apaches had carried the woman away with them. The poison caused inflammation, which finally destroyed her eyesight."
----- San Antonio Daily Express, January 25, 1883