April 18, 1858; Jermyn, Texas: In April 1858, about a year after Jack County, Texas, was organized, a band of Indians, joined by several white bandits, raided a settlement in the northwest section of the county, murdering several residents, The community, located a few miles north of present-day Jermyn, on the north end of Lost Valley, was then known as Gertrude. The creek flowing through the valley is now called Cameron Creek -- also spelled Camberon, Cambren, and Cambern -- after the Cambren family, the victims of the most vicious of the attacks.
On the morning of 18 April, James B. Cambren and his two oldest boys, Luther and James Jr., were working in the field. The boys' mother, Mary, had just called her family in to dinner when they noticed Indians approaching, but they thought little of it, as friendly Indians lived nearby on the Lower Brazos Reservation. Without warning, the Indians attacked, sending an arrow through the senior James's torso, bringing down Luther with a bullet, and shooting the younger James as he clambered over the fence. White bandits grabbed Mrs. Cambren and the children and restrained them while other raiders ransacked the cabin. One of the leaders, a red-haired half-Indian, sent half a dozen raiders over to the Tom Mason homestead, about a mile away, where the Masons were eating dinner. The raiders killed Tom Mason and his wife, Mary, leaving Tobe, age three, and Milton, age ten months, alone.
The raiders stole the Cambrens' money box and other items, then, kidnapping Mary Cambren and her four youngest children, headed to a hill a few miles away. When the raiders stopped to tie one boy, Thomas, onto a mule, Mary and her youngest boy began crying and screaming. At this disturbance, the bandits shot Mary several times and ran a spear down the child's throat. The younger Mary Cambren, age seven, and her five-year-old brother, Dewitt, were left behind with their dead mother as the raiders rode off with Thomas. Mary later reported that she and DeWitt stayed by their dead mother until nearly sundown, at which point she led her little brother back to the house.
As the raiders were making their getaway with Thomas, they were spotted by some mounted men who were riding with an emigrant train on the Marcy-California Trail. When the men rode over to investigate, the bandits pushed Thomas off the mule and raced away.
The next morning, Isaac Lynn, father of Mary Mason, rode to the Mason homestead to visit his daughter. He was horrified to find her and her husband dead and their little son, Milton, crawling in his mother's blood. Lynn then hurried to the neighboring Cambren house, where he discovered a similar scene. "Is there anyone alive here?" he called out, and Mary Cambren answered, "Me and Dewitt are here."
Lynn took the two Cambren children and his own two grandchildren back to his home on Lynn Creek, then rode to Jacksboro with the news. A posse formed up and sped out, but the men were much too late to do anything but bury the bodies. Nevertheless, they got a remarkably detailed description of the raiders from young Mary, and based on this, the posse members thought they knew who the culprits were.
While the Comanche raiders were long gone to Indian Territory, it was believed that the white bandits had headed south. The posse, which included W. L. Lasater, William Kutch, John Taylor, Bryant Herrington, and Oliver Loving, followed a trail through Palo Pinto County to Comanche County. Locals reported seeing four white men riding through, and the chase continued. The Texans caught up with their targets in Lampasas County, and brought them back to Jacksboro for trial. When Mary Cambren saw them, she exclaimed, "There is the man who killed Ma and took Pa's money from the trunk!"
Incredibly, in Jacksboro, the defendants were released on some technicality, but their luck did not last. As one account explained: "Judge Lynch's court settled the affair near Austin, Texas."
