Olive Ann Oatman Fairchild

The marker says Yanapai, now spelled Yavapai, killed Olive Oatman's family in 1851. The Handbook of Texas says the attackers were almost certainly Western Yavapai, or Tolkepaya, suffering from drought and famine, and that six of the nine family members died. It also says the chin tattoo the marker calls a slave mark showed her acceptance among the Mohave, who wore similar marks. The 1857 book that made her famous misnamed her captors Apaches, and her husband later tried to destroy copies. She and John Fairchild share a grave in Sherman.

What the plaque says

Olive Ann Oatman Fairchild (1837-1903) Captured in Arizona at age 13 (1851) by Yanapai Indians, who massacred 6 members of family. Sold to Mojave Indians, she was treated kindly but bore mark of a slave -- blue, cactus needle tattoo on chin -- for rest of life. Ransomed by army at Fort Yuma, 1856. Lived in California, then New York. There she married J. B. Fairchild in 1865. About 1872 moved to Sherman, where husband founded city bank. Resided in Sherman until death in 1903. Recorded 1970

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Eisenhower Birthplace State Historic Site — 9.4 mi
  The small frame house beside the Katy tracks in Denison where Dwight Eisenhower was born in 1890, bought by townspeople in 1946 and given to Texas in 1958.
• Hagerman National Wildlife Refuge — 11 mi
  A 1946 refuge on the Big Mineral Arm of Lake Texoma, laid over land bought for Denison Dam and the site of the vanished railroad town of Hagerman, now a winter stop for geese.
• Eisenhower State Park — 12 mi
  A bluff-top park on Lake Texoma opened in 1958 on land leased from the Corps of Engineers, in the Red River country of Fort Johnson, Colbert's Ferry and the Butterfield stages.
• Sam Rayburn House State Historic Site — 24 mi
  The two-story farmhouse west of Bonham that the longtime Speaker of the House built in 1916 and kept as his home, left as he lived in it and open as a museum since 1975.

More markers nearby

• Aaron S. Mangum — steps away
• The Rev. John Silliman Moore — steps away
• Tom Randolph — steps away
• Jesse P. Loving — steps away