Comanche County, Texas
During 1861, Grandpa McKenzie lived on Indian Creek, about four or five miles east of Comanche. In company with a small boy, he went to the creek to secure walnut bark, to be used for dying purposes.
The Indians shot Mr. McKenzie but the boy ran hurriedly to the house. The old man exclaimed, "Don't leave me, my pistol has gone off and shot me." He apparently did not know Indians were hiding.
An examination of the gun of Grandpa McKenzie, who was seventy-three years of age, disclosed that it had not been fired. Grandpa McKenzie died the next day.
Note: Author interviewed Dave Cunningham and one or two others who lived in Comanche County at the time.
The above story is from the book, The West Texas Frontier, by Joseph Carroll McConnell.