Post by Dietmar on Apr 22, 2015 16:28:49 GMT -5
Interesting article by Scott Zesch (author of "The Captured: A True Story of Abduction by Indians on the Texas Frontier") about the council between German immigrants and Penateka Comanches in 1847:
www.masoncountynews.com/news/120231/
Comanche-German Marker To Be Dedicated In Mason on May 10th
"The new marker commemorates the first encounter between the Penateka Comanche chieftain Ketumusua and a German expedition led by John O. Meusebach, which occurred on February 5, 1847. The German immigrants had left Fredericksburg two weeks earlier to explore the wilderness north of the Llano River. The Penatekas thought that the Germans intended to wage war and had sent their women and children to the back territory for safety, but Meusebach assured them that the explorers had come in peace as neighbors and had brought presents. Ketumusua, satisfied with this response, invited the Germans to visit his camp on the San Saba River and promised to convene a council there.
In their initial meeting, Ketumusua and Meusebach set a friendly and respectful tone for Comanche-German relations and laid the groundwork for the successful peace council that would take place the following month. That council marked one of the few instances in American history when immigrant settlers and native people concluded a voluntary agreement for sharing territory. The compact was reaffirmed by both sides on its 150th anniversary in 1997. A tanned buffalo hide with the words of reaffirmation hangs in the Comanche Nation headquarters near Lawton, Oklahoma, and a bronze sculpture of the negotiators passing the peace pipe stands on the central Marktplatz in Fredericksburg.
Two other sites associated with the expedition and peace council of 1847 received state historical markers, one in 1936 (the council site in the Sloan community of San Saba County) and the other in 1967 (the Katemcy community of Mason County, where the Comanches and Germans camped). However, the location of the critical first meeting between these two leaders has remained unmarked. The event took place where Jordan Zesch’s office now stands at 442 Ft. McKavitt Street in Mason, which was previously the site of Irish immigrant David Doole’s general merchandise store. The new marker will be placed on the Zesch property fronting Highway 87 sometime after the dedication program."
www.masoncountynews.com/news/120231/
Comanche-German Marker To Be Dedicated In Mason on May 10th
"The new marker commemorates the first encounter between the Penateka Comanche chieftain Ketumusua and a German expedition led by John O. Meusebach, which occurred on February 5, 1847. The German immigrants had left Fredericksburg two weeks earlier to explore the wilderness north of the Llano River. The Penatekas thought that the Germans intended to wage war and had sent their women and children to the back territory for safety, but Meusebach assured them that the explorers had come in peace as neighbors and had brought presents. Ketumusua, satisfied with this response, invited the Germans to visit his camp on the San Saba River and promised to convene a council there.
In their initial meeting, Ketumusua and Meusebach set a friendly and respectful tone for Comanche-German relations and laid the groundwork for the successful peace council that would take place the following month. That council marked one of the few instances in American history when immigrant settlers and native people concluded a voluntary agreement for sharing territory. The compact was reaffirmed by both sides on its 150th anniversary in 1997. A tanned buffalo hide with the words of reaffirmation hangs in the Comanche Nation headquarters near Lawton, Oklahoma, and a bronze sculpture of the negotiators passing the peace pipe stands on the central Marktplatz in Fredericksburg.
Two other sites associated with the expedition and peace council of 1847 received state historical markers, one in 1936 (the council site in the Sloan community of San Saba County) and the other in 1967 (the Katemcy community of Mason County, where the Comanches and Germans camped). However, the location of the critical first meeting between these two leaders has remained unmarked. The event took place where Jordan Zesch’s office now stands at 442 Ft. McKavitt Street in Mason, which was previously the site of Irish immigrant David Doole’s general merchandise store. The new marker will be placed on the Zesch property fronting Highway 87 sometime after the dedication program."
