Site of Harvey Massacre

The preacher Z. N. Morrell nearly shared the Harveys' fate, and his 1872 memoir is the nearest account. His family camped close to the Harvey house in November 1836; that night about 150 raiders approached, saw the guns and drew off. The next evening, he wrote, the Harveys were killed. He believed the same band fought George Erath's rangers on Elm Creek in January 1837, where his nephew died. Word came later that the Harvey girl was alive in Mexico, her arm broken in the attack, and that the enslaved girl taken with her had been spared.

What the plaque says

Site of Harvey Massacre (one mile west) At this site one Sunday night in November 1836, the family of John Harvey was attacked by an Indian raiding party. Harvey, his wife, and son were all killed, Mrs. Harvey's blood staining the open pages of the family Bible. Their daughter Ann, aged 5, and a servant girl were taken captive, later to be sold as slaves. The price of Ann was a few blankets. After four years in Mexico, Ann was recovered by her uncle, James Talbot of Alabama. In 1848 she wed Sanders Briggs and in 1853 they moved to Texas, where they built a home -- ironically -- near the site of the massacre. (1972)

Where it stands

Worth the stop nearby

• Calvert — 5.3 mi
  A railroad cotton town of 1868 on State Highway 6 that claimed the largest cotton gin in the world and elected Black men to county and state office during Reconstruction.
• Milam County Courthouse and Jail — 21 mi
  Cameron's 1892 Renaissance Revival courthouse and the 1895 St. Louis-built jail beside it, now the county museum, are listed together on the National Register.

More markers nearby

• Site of Extinct Town of Hammond — 3.3 mi
• Sterling Cemetery — 4.3 mi
• Virginia Field Park — 5.1 mi
• Sneed Memorial Methodist Church — 5.2 mi