Ann Whitney

The sources agree on the year and disagree on much else. Ann Whitney, a teacher, was killed in a Comanche attack on a school on the Leon River in July 1867. Her gravestone, as Texas Escapes transcribes it, gives Massachusetts and July 9; the 1992 plaque says Missouri. Texas Escapes says she was shot after helping children out a window, while the plaque says arrows came through the walls. The Handbook adds that a neighboring farmer was killed and that children were wounded or captured. Texas Escapes names one captive, John Kuykendall.

What the plaque says

Ann Whitney (1839 - 1867) Described as a stout lady with an engaging personality, Elizabeth (Ann) Whitney confirmed that she could be strong, brave, and resourceful on one fateful July day in 1867. Ann was a teacher at a nearby frontier school. Suddenly, during the course of a typical school day, a party of Comanche Indians attacked. Reportedly pierced by 18 arrows during the ordeal, Ann Whitney nevertheless helped all but a young boy escape before dying herself. (1993)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Hamilton County Courthouse — 0.4 mi
  A limestone courthouse of 1886-87 on the Hamilton square, built after the county's 1878 courthouse burned, enlarged in the early 1930s and rededicated in 2012 after restoration.
• Meridian State Park — 28 mi
  A 505-acre park in Bosque County where World War I veterans of a Civilian Conservation Corps company dammed Bee Creek in 1933-34 for a 72-acre lake and cut stone buildings around it.

More markers nearby

• John J. ("Jack") Durham — steps away
• Frederick B. Gentry — steps away
• Elise Waerenskjold — 0.5 mi
• Elise Waerenskjold — 0.5 mi