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 October 12, 2008 | Limestone County Courthouse Texas County Courthouse Project #52: Limestone County (Groesbeck, Texas) Limestone County, named for the limestone found in the area, was established on April 11, 1846 and the town of Springfield was selected as the county seat. When the courthouse burned and the railroad bypassed Springfield the county seat was moved to Groesbeck in 1874. Groesbeck was named for Abram Groesbeeck, a director for the Houston and Texas Central Railway. The town retained the spelling of Groesbeck rather than Groesbeeck from the original railroad station. Near present day Groesbeck, John Parker, a Baptist minister and his sons Benjamin, Silas and James Parker established Fort Parker in 1834 to protect nearby families and members of the Pilgrim Predestinarian Baptist Church from Indian attacks. On May 19, 1836 the fort was attacked by 700 Kiowa and Comanche warriors who had approached under a white flag of truce. The Indians brutally murdered Benjamin, Silas and two other men. Seventy-eight year old John Parker was scalped, castrated and left to die while his wife was raped. Two women and three children were captured and the rest escaped into the woods where they wandered for days until reaching the safety of Fort Houston. Silas’ daughter, Cynthia Ann Parker, who was nine when she was captured, was found twenty-five years later at the Battle of Pease River when she was among a party of Comanches who were captured by Texas Rangers led by Sul Ross. She had married Comanche chief Peta Nocon (who was killed in the battle) and had a daughter, Prairie Flower, and two sons, Pecos and Quanah. Quanah Parker would become famous as the last chief of the Quahadi Comanche Indians. Cynthia Ann Parker, having lost most of her memory of her white family, never adjusted to her life away from the Comanches. She never knew the fate of her sons and Prairie Flower died in 1863 of pneumonia. She stopped eating, became sick and died in 1870. Her uncle, James Parker, made finding his daughter Rachel, grandson, nephew John and niece Cynthia Ann an obsession. Rachel was ransomed several years later but her young son James was never found. She gave birth six months after being captured only to see her infant son brutally mutilated by the Indians because they felt he was slowing them down. Rachel died in child birth a year after being reunited with her family. She was only twenty, but her red hair had turned to gray. Cynthia Ann’s brother, John, was ransomed back to his family six years after his capture, but ran away back to the Comanches. His Indian family left him for dead while on a raid into Mexico because he became sick with smallpox. He was nursed back to health by a young Mexican girl who he married and spent the rest of his life with. The Limestone County courthouse was built in 1924. The rather large building is constructed of brick and stone. For some reason I expected to see some limestone. 
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