Paducah, Texas

Quanah Parker and members of his family spent time in the  Cottle County area and Paducah from before the Reservation Era into the 20th Century.

Less than two years before his death, Quanah was distinguished attendee at Paducah’s Fourth of July Picnic in 1909.

The late Carmen Bennett, Cottle County historian, saw Quanah herself on that occasion. She wrote:

“He was tall, erect, and made a

striking figure.”

   In earlier years, Quanah camped near Paducah on his way to hunt in King County. The location of his camp would most likely have been southeast of Paducah on the ranch of his friend W. Q. Richards. Quanah’s ties to Texas ranchers made him welcome across a sizeable swath of the Texas Plains and Panhandle.

    But it was Quanah’s relationship with

a maternal second-cousin once removed,

Charlie Hart, that respresents a special

connection to Paducah. Hart was

Quanah’s chore boy from age 10 through

most of his teen years. A trusted

employee, Hart managed an array of

special assignments from looking after Quanah’s several wives in Cache, Oklahoma, to traveling to Arkansas at age 16 to buy and drive back 1,000

head of cattle.

    When Hart was still in his

teens, he went to work for the

Burnett ranching family.  The

caption on his picture in the

Cottle County Heritage Museum

describes him as “Burnett Ranch

Cowboy and Triangle Ranch

Manager,” work that led him

to settle in Paducah.  Hart’s

stepson Billy Gilbert remembers

Hart recounting that Quanah would visit the Burnett ranchers for business dealings and for beef, trips that would have taken him through Cottle County. After Quanah’s death, members of the family continued to come to the ranches and spend several days at a time visiting with Hart and butchering

                                                             beef, then returning to Oklahoma.

                                                             Gilbert has photographs that document

                                                             the relationship between Hart and the

                                                             Parker family, including one of Charlie Hart

                                                             and Topae, Quanah’s last surviving wife,

                                                             taken in the Harts’ back yard in Paducah.

                                                             Gilbert himself remembers her visit and

                                                             that she preferred sleeping on the back

                                                             porch to inside the house.

                                                                 Gilbert also remembers visiting the               

                                   Parker              Parker family in Oklahoma, especially the

                                                             family of Laura Parker Birdsong, a daughter

                                                             of Quanah Parker.

Charlie Hart

Cottle Counthy Heritage Museum Photograph

Cottle County Heritage Museum

Paducah, Texas

Cottle Counthy Heritage Museum Photograph

Charlie Hart

© 2011

HANABA WELCH

Photograph from Wayne Parker, nephew of Markum Parker

    A photograph from the 1920s shows Baldwin Parker Jr. and his two sons with Paducah hardware merchant Markum Parker. The two Parker families maintained a friendship through the years. Quanah and his entourage  had camped years earlier on the Parker family ranch at Dumont, southwest of Paducah in neighboring King County.