The Psychedelic History of Texas

A Complete Timeline from Prehistory to the Present Day

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1861 - 1865 (American Civil War)

Norwegian ethnographer Carl Sophus Lumholtz writes in Volume 1 of his 1902 treatise, "Unknown Mexico," that during the Civil War there were Texas Rangers who were captured by Union forces and held as prisoners of war, with the men turning to drinking a beverage consisting of soaked peyote buttons in water, having been deprived of alcohol and all other intoxicants.

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1861/1862 - Cynthia Parker reintegrates into Anglo society

Cynthia Parker is granted a league (~4,400 acres) of land and an annual pension of $100 for the next 5 years. Her cousins Isaac Duke Parker and Benjamin F. Parker became her legal guardians.

Brother Silas Jr. was appointed as Cynthia's guardian, taking her to live with him at his home in Van Zandt County. Once he entered the Confederate Army during the Civil War, Cynthia went to live with her sister, Orlena Parker O' Quinn.

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December 18, 1860 - Cynthia Parker is rescued

After years of Cynthia's father searching for her with the help of various scouts, a group of Texas Rangers led by Lawrence Sullivan Ross discovered a band of Comanche deep in the heart of Comancheria that was rumored to house American captives.

The Rangers carried out a surprised raid, with the small group attacking the Comanches in the Battle of Pease River.

Ross and his men closed in on the individual who seemed to be their leader, who was fleeing on horseback with a female companion. As the Rangers approached the woman that was with him and surrounded her, she held a child over her head.

Ross pursued the fleeing chief, shooting him three times, knocking him off his horse. However, the chief refused to then surrender. Ross's cook, Antonio Martinez, identified the man as Noncona and killed him.

The Texas Rangers questioned the woman and she, using broken English, identified herself as Cynthia Parker. Ross sent Cynthia and her child to Camp Cooper, notifying her uncle, Colonel Isaac Parker.

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March 3, 1851 - John Rayleigh Briggs is born in Meigs County, Tennessee

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1849 - The Carrizo Indians, who were situated along the South Texas Rio Grande Delta, are observed performing peyote rituals that included all night dancing around a fire and singing

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1845/1848 - Quanah Parker is born in Wichita Falls, Texas (according to some sources)

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1836 - 1860

Cynthia was integrated into the tribe, being adopted by a Tenowish Comanche couple, who raised her as their own, with Cynthia soon forgetting how to speak English and fully embracing the Comanche ways.

Eventually, Cynthia would be married to Pete Nocona, a chieftain. The two lived happily together as husband and wife, having three children among them: sons Quanah and Pecos, along with a daughter named Topusana (which translates to "prairie flower.")

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May 19, 1836 - Cynthia Parker is kidnapped during the Comanche raid on the Parker Family settlement

A group consisting of somewhere between 100 and 600 warriors from the Comanche tribe, along with Kiowa and Kichai allies, raid the Parker family settlement, ambushing the settlers and quickly overpowering the residents, taking Cynthia Parker hostage, along with five other prisoners.

Cynthia, aged 8 or 11, was taken captive along with others, being led away into Comanche territory. A rescue force was quickly mounted to save the captives.

While pursuing the tribes, a young teenage girl escaped. The remaining captives would all be released over a period of years, once a ransom was collected, except for Cynthia, who would remain with the tribe and live as one of their own for the next 25 years.

Cynthia would eventually marry into the tribe, taking one of their Comanche Chiefs as her husband.

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1830s - The Parker Frontier Family settles in East Texas

John Parker, Cynthia's grandfather, was recruited to settle his family in north-central Texas and establish a fortified settlement against the frequent Comanche raids.

The Parker Family with extended kin and surrounding families would establish fortified blockhouses and a central citadel -- later renamed Fort Parker -- on the headwaters of the Navasota River in modern day Limestone County

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June 10, 1832 - Famed Texan cacti collector Anna Buck Nickels is born in Corpus Christi, Texas

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October 28, 1827 - Cynthia Ann Parker is born in Crawford County, Illinois

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1760 - Among the first surviving documented cases of peyote use among the natives occurs

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1649 - Peyote Ceremonies Among The Carrizo Tribes in the Rio Grande Delta

The Carrizo Indians. who were situated along the South Texas Rio Grande Delta, are observed performing peyote rituals that included all-night dancing around a fire. more dancing, and singing.

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Around 1000 BC - The Cult of Peyote Grows. Peyote begins to see widespread ceremonial/ritual use among Native American tribes in what's modern-day Texas.

The very first published image of peyote as it originally appeared in Curtis’s Botanical Magazine.

Source:

Curtis’s Botanical Magazine – plate 4296 (vol. 73, 1847), Lophophora williamsii (illustration)

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3780 - 3660 BC - Peyote button specimens found in Shulma Cave No. 5 on the Rio Grande in Texas. The material was not quite what they'd initially thought it was, however, and the finds turned out to be man-made peyote effigies, rather than preserved specimens intact, as they'd be found in nature.

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5000 BC - S. secundiflora seeds are found alongside peyote specimens at archaeological sites in the area that's now the southern part of Texas.

Page from Omer C. Stewart's book Peyote Religion: A History

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Ungnadia speciosa entry in Flore des Serres et des Jardins de l'Europe, 1854

Source: Louis van Houtte - Flore des Serres et des Jardins de l'Europe, 1854