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Texas Historical Marker Text:A monument to the Pioneers of Parker County. The east room with bullet scarred walls is where George McCleskey was killed by Indians in 1873. The west room of the cabin was Dan Waggoner's headquarters ranch house, built in 1855. Adopted as a meeting place for old settlers' reunions.
Erected by the State of Texas 1936
On December 19, 1860, the State of Texas granted a patent to John A. Whitten for 160 acres of land, near Ballew Springs, in the northwestern part of Parker County, Texas.
He built on it a log house hand hewn from logs cut down on the property. It was 20 feet by 20 feet.
This is the cabin where George W. McCleskey was shot by Indians, and died there on the 28th of July 1872.
It has been said that John Whitten felt "The Indians were so bad, [he] moved his family back to Johnson County and joined the Confederate Army."
Later, John Bumgarner acquired the title to the property and was living there in August 1863. The wife had probably died, and he and his youngest son, Hubbard, were keeping house. George McCleskey had married a daughter (Eliza) of Bumgarner. Hubbard was on crutches from a broken leg. George lived only a few miles away, and both had a number of horses on the range near Fort Worth to keep them from the Indians. They were intending to bring them back to Rock Creek range, and, in order to get an early start, McCleskey spent the night at the Bumgarners. They had their horses saddled and at the door; at daybreak a group of Indians crept up behind the shelter of some broomweeds so they couldn't be seen. When the men started to mount their horses, the Indians fired upon them and McCleskey fell wounded and paralyzed. Bumgarner dragged him into the house and the Indians continued to fire. McCleskey, wounded as he continued to help Bumgarner, calling for his Henry rifle, lay on the floor, punched the daubing from the chinks of the logs and continued to fire until he expired. This is the cabin where George W. McCleskey was shot by Indians, and died there. This was on the 28th of July, 1872.
Mr. Holland later bought the cabin, numbered all the logs and moved it to Holland Lake, where the cabin still stands in Hollands Park, near Weatherford, Texas. The story of the Indians killing George McCleskey near Ballew Springs has been handed down to several generations of McCleskeys.
--Source: Parker County History by G. A. Holland, assisted by Violet M. Roberts, published in 1937 by The Herald Publishing Company in Weatherford, Texas.
Note: Although no longer in print, researcher Lars Kristiansen says the book is widely available in most public libraries with a genealogy section. "I have found it at the downtown public library in Los Angeles, the Fort Worth Public Library, and, of course, the Weatherford Library. I can heartily recommend a trip to that facility in Weatherford. The people were incredibly helpful, organized, and had a great deal of information." They have microfilmed records which pertain to Parker County (newspapers, census records, tax records, etc.) as well as the Texas State Death Index which is current. Also, Lars also says a brief artist's sketch of this cabin can be found on the Internet at the Parker County U.S. GenWeb site. An artist's group of sketches which were published are part of the web site. Sketch No. 10 is of Holland's Double Log Cabin. A brief mention is made in the text that this is where George W. McCleskey was killed in 1873 by Indians.
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