Myth Busters?

Yesterday, as I was reprinting an entry I wrote years ago during my first attempt at blogging, I came across the following comment offered by someone I don't know:

"Quanah died 23 Feb 1911 and Mah-Cheeta-Wookey died 02 Jan 1914. I ahve [sic] reviewed all of the Kiowa-Comanche Agency census files, one each year from 1894-1937. All of Quanah's children and all of the orphan Indian and white children are accounted for. None were taken by any of the missionaries. According to census files 1900-1920 and Rodney's WWI draft registration - Rodney Herbert Yarberry was the son of John Milton Yarberry (1854-1945) and Cynthia R England.

Uh-dah (Comanche for thanks)

Jim Yarbrough

Member/researcher Quanah Parker Historical Preservation Society"

Now, I am reasonably certain that Mr. Yarbrough had the best of intentions here, even if I can't imagine what they were. Still, why would anything think it proper to make an attempt to destroy a family legend just for the sake of accuracy?

I ask this question given the fact that in the blog I stated clearly that the Parker references were part of "family legend".

Since Rodney Herbert Yarberry was my grandfather, I think I might already know the facts, as boring as they might be. The facts, however, are not all that great a story.

Then I had a thought. I wondered how accurate the information offered by Mr. Yarbrough could possibly be with regard to the children of Quanah Parker since so much of Quanah's life is a mixture of hyperbole and legend? The claim is made, for example, that he never lost a battle against the white man. I guess his surrender to General Mackenzie after being threatened with extermination doesn't count as a loss.

He is credited with starting the North American Church Movement, famed for its use of peyote in its rituals but his son White Parker, became a Methodist minister which, in my mind, underscores the possibility of a Methodist connection to my grandfather's father.

One source claims Parker had 5 wives and another is adamant that he had 8, still another claims 7 and yet another claims he had 6. All of these sources make claims of being experts on the life and genealogy of Quanah Parker. All of the sources state he had "at least" 25 children. This means that 25 have been accounted for but clearly leaves open the possibility of other for which there has been no accounting.

So, with all due respect to Mr. Yarbrough, his claims are really no more provable than are mine and mine make a better story...

So, perhaps the family legend was invented by my mother to create some sensation of celebrity in her life; a life marred by dysfunction and mental illness; an early life of an abusive, alcoholic father and a vicious mother. She, perhaps, finds some value in being an Indian princess.

I want to offer my thanks, though, to Jim Yarbrough, for his eagerness to correct the record. I should be grateful because it's quite likely Jim and I are distant cousins since the name "Yarberry" is a derivation of Yarbrough. Of course, if that's true, and since he is related to Quanah though Cynthia - Quanah's mother, perhaps my mother is a princess after all.

I promise that the next time I wrote a story about the Yarberry clan, I will include a tale of the snivelling mythbuster, Cousin Jim.