Simmons, Martha Virginia Webster Strickland, 1836-1927

Martha Virginia Webster (1836-1927) was the daughter of Captain John Webster, a Virginia lawyer, businessman, and plantation owner who brought his family to Texas in 1836. As the family traveled with several others to West Texas in 1839, they came upon a large force of Comanche Indians on Brushy Creek in Williamson County, who killed all of the men of the party. The four-year-old Webster was captured, along with her mother and older brother, and taken back to live at the Comanches’ camp. Months later, Webster’s mother escaped with her daughter, arriving in San Antonio in March 1840. Her brother was eventually ransomed after two years of captivity. At 17, Webster married a man named Strickland. The couple lived in Burnet County before moving to Lampasas and then Gillespie County, where Strickland died. Three years later, Martha married Charles Simmons, with whom she moved to Oregon and then Fernly, California.

From the guide to the Simmons, Martha Virginia Webster Strickland, Narrative, 1912, (Dolph Briscoe Center for American History, The University of Texas at Austin)

...