Indian Captives Dot and Bianca Babb

Bianca's life after the ransom is the part the plaque skips. Their mother, Isabel Babb, had been killed in the raid. Wikipedia, citing a 2003 Southwestern Historical Quarterly article, says Jacob Sturm, an agent from Fort Arbuckle, secured Bianca's release in about April 1867 for $333, and Dot's followed that June for $210. She returned to Texas in 1881 and married in 1882. When the Kiowa-Comanche-Apache reservation was allotted, she filed a claim as a former adoptee; it was rejected. She wrote a memoir in the 1920s and died in Denton in 1950.

What the plaque says

Indian Captives Dot and Bianca Babb Two of Texas history's best-known Indian captives, 13-year-old T. A. "Dot" Babb (1852-1936) and his 9-year-old sister Bianca (1855?-1950) were stolen by Comanches from their home near here in September of 1865. While at play one day, the children were surprised by a raiding party of 35 to 40 Indians. Mrs. Babb was killed and Dot, Bianca, and Mrs. Luster (a visitor) were taken to Indian Territory (present Oklahoma). After helping Mrs. Luster escape on the way, Dot was very nearly executed, but so stoic was he in facing death that the Indians admiringly spared his life. For the next two years Dot and Bianca lived, in different tribes, as adopted Comanches. Bianca later recalled that the Indians held a feast - with coffee, a luxury - upon her arrival and that they colored her blonde hair with charcoal and buffalo tallow. Dot, after a winter as the squaws' flunky, asserted his male rights and thereafter spent his time taming horses. He was taken on raids against other tribes and showed signs of becoming a fine warrior. After two years, the children's father ransomed them and a joyful reunion occurred. Both Dot and Bianca spoke with sympathy, however, of many Indian customs and of kind treatment during captivity. (1971)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Wise County Courthouse — 11 mi
  J. Riely Gordon's granite Romanesque courthouse of 1895-96 in Decatur, built after fire destroyed the Second Empire courthouse and set off a fight over the county seat.
• Fort Richardson State Park and Historic Site — 23 mi
  The northernmost post of the Texas frontier line, outside Jacksboro, where a stone hospital and six other buildings stand from 1867 and a later Guard unit became the Lost Battalion.

More markers nearby

• Brown Hotel — 2.1 mi
• Republic of Texas' Santa Fe Expedition in Wise County — 4.8 mi
• Bridgeport Coal Mines — 5.7 mi
• General Ernest O. Thompson — 5.9 mi