Kidnapped by the Comanche: The Harrowing Tale of Dot and Bianca

In September 1865, in Chico, Texas, 14-year-old "Dot" and his 10-year-old sister Bianca were kidnapped by Comanche warriors after a raiding party left their mother killed

Depiction of Dot and Bianca Babb

September 14, 1865. Another normal day on the Babb farm in Chico, West Texas. John Babb and his oldest son had left to sell cattle in a nearby town.

He had no fears about leaving the rest of his family at home. His wife, Isabel Babb, their baby Margaret, fourteen-year-old son Theodore, also known as “Dot,” and his ten-year-old sister, Bianca, were content to stay behind.

A young widow staying with the family, Mrs. Luster, was also in the cabin that day.

The Raid

In a memoir he wrote years later, Dot Babb talked about the day his innocent play was interrupted.

"I remember to this hour how hollow I felt when I saw the clay-smeared face of an Indian peeping around the corner. I started inching toward the house, but when I saw a whole bunch rush out from the wood lot, I ran. 'Indians, Mother! They are right here,' I yelled." (Timmons, 2014).

Indian raids were not uncommon at the time, although up until that fateful day, the Babb family had only casual dealings with the many tribes who lived nearby.

In many parts of the West, Indian tribes were hostile. The taking of white captives, often children, was a weapon of retaliation against treatment by the whites. Some tribes took children or adults to use as bartering power to trade for something they wanted.

Many captives never saw their families again, others were tortured and killed.

On that fateful day, a raiding party of thirty-five to forty Indians surrounded the Babb cabin. They were led by the Comanche leader, Persummy.

Recently, six of Persummy’s warriors had been killed by white settlers. One of the men had been scalped, a fate the Comanche considered worse than death. In their beliefs, a scalped warrior condemned his soul so he could never enter the afterlife.

That day, Persummy had been on a raid seeking revenge. The Babb farm lay right in his destructive path.

Although Dot would later relate how he’d try to bar the door of the cabin and grab a shotgun, he was too late. The Comanche braves overpowered the young boy and raided the cabin.

They tore apart the food supplies and ripped open feather beds, intent on destroying anything of value. Unknown to the Comanches at first, a young widow who had been living with the Babbs managed to hide in the loft.

Mrs. Luster might have remained hidden, except for an Indian who found and dragged her, screaming, from her hiding place.

Photo of marker indicating the site where Dot and Bianca were kidnapped (Texas Historical Markers Facebook)

Kidnapped

While Isabel Babb held the baby and Bianca to her side, Dot fought as much as he dared. He struggled valiantly to help his mother, but one of the braves shot her with an arrow. Still holding the baby, Isabel was scalped alive. Her last words were for Dot. “Go with your sister, keep her safe!”

Despite Bianca’s desperate hold on her mother’s skirts, she was dragged kicking and screaming out the door. She grabbed at anything she could, table, door, fence post, so she could stay behind. Dot warned her not to resist, knowing he couldn’t protect her.

Years later, Bianca would later recount how, even though she fought to prevent the kidnapping, “I did not cry.”

She later learned from a sympathetic Indian foster mother that if she had begun to cry, she’d have been killed instantly.