The Killough Massacre is believed to have been both the largest and last Native American depredation of white immigrants in East Texas. The event took place on October 5, 1838, near Larissa (north of Jacksonville) in the northwestern part of Cherokee County. There were eighteen victims, which included Isaac Killough, Sr., and his extended family (families of four sons & two daughters). They immigrated to Texas from Talladega County, Alabama in 1837, settling on December 24th.
According to Dallas newspaperman Charles Kilpatrick, several of the men walked into an ambush, and the Native Americans "...shot down Isaac, Jr., Allen, Samuel and George Wood, then swept uphill into the little settlement. Isaac, Sr., fell in his front yard and Barakias Williams was killed in front of the screaming women. Eight settlers, including seven women and children, were seized by warriors and carried into the forest. They were never seen or heard of again...Nathaniel Killough and his wife (and 11 mo. old baby girl, Eliza Jane) escaped into a canebrake and Mrs. Samuel Killough, Mrs. Isaac Killough, Sr., Mrs. Isaac Killough, Jr., and the baby William also managed to elude the redskins. Three weary days later the little party staggered into Fort Lacy at Alto, 40 miles south, where they found safety." A stone obelisk was erected by the Work Projects Administration in the 1930s. An historical marker was dedicated in 1965.
In the long history of the English colonization of North America, the term "Indian massacre" was often used to describe mass killings of European-Americans ("whites") by Native Americans ("Indians"), and, less frequently, mass killings of American Indians by whites.
In theory, massacre applied to the killing of civilian noncombatants or to the summary execution of prisoners-of-war.
Similarly, massacres were sometimes mislabeled "battles" in an attempt to give legitimacy to what would today be considered a war crime.
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