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Indians Charge W.A. and Arch Johnson

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. His passion is travel, and he seizes any opportunity to share his experiences in the most immersive way possible, whether at sea or on the land.

Montague County, Texas

    March 31, 1872, W.A. and Arch Johnson, brothers, about 18 and 13 years of age respectively, who lived on Denton Creek, about two miles northwest of Denver, in Montague County, went over to the home of Fred Broadstreet, to get a couple of pigs. They started home with their pigs in a sack, and had gone about one-quarter of a mile, when charged by about eight Indians. W.A. and Arch were afoot, armed with one pistol which would snap more times than it would shoot, and made a hasty retreat back toward the home of Mr. Broadstreet.

    The Indians fired and killed little Arch Johnson, but fortunately Fred Broadstreet, Wilburn Cothern, and Baylor McDonald began firing at the Indians, at a distance, and shot several times. This caused the savages to leave. But little Arch Johnson was already dead. He was killed about eleven o'clock in the morning.

    Note: Author personally interviewed: W.A. Johnson, mentioned above; and others.

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

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