James Jackson [Capt. Jack] Cureton, son of William Cureton, was born in Crawford County, present day Franklin County, Arkansas Territory, on October 19, 1826. In 1846, he served in Company H, Arkansas Mounted Volunteers, under Colonel Archibald Yell during the U.S. Mexican War. He is believed to have fought in the Battle of Buena Vista on February 23, 1847. He was discharged at San Antonio, Texas, and may have seen Texas for the first time during the war.
After returning home after the Mexican War, James J. Cureton married Eliza Margaret Price about 1847, in Arkansas. Eliza Price was born in Tennessee on February 14, 1823. Her parents were not found. U. S. General Land Office records show James Jackson Cureton of Franklin County, Arkansas, purchased about seventy-six acres of land in Arkansas on December 1, 1849. The 1850 census for Mill Creek, Franklin County, Arkansas, listed James J. Cureton, farmer, and his wife Eliza, with their son, William, age two.
James J. Cureton was a successful farmer and cattle raiser, at one time owning over 3,000 head of cattle. Historian William C. Pool stated J. J. Cureton made four overland trips to California — the first in 1852 as head of an immigrant wagon train heading for the gold fields and driving a herd of cattle for the miners. The California State census of September 1852 listed Jas. J. Cureton, age twenty-six , of Arkansas, as a resident farmer in Sacramento County, California.
Captain Cureton’s son — William E. Cureton — remembered the J. J. Cureton family, including four sons, moved from Arkansas to the Texas frontier during the winter
of 1854-1855. In 1855, the family settled on Keechi Creek near the Brazos River, in present day Palo Pinto County. There James Cureton engaged in both farming and cattle ranching. The homestead was about forty miles south of Fort Belknap, established in 1851 as the northernmost fort established to protect early settlers on the west Texas frontier.
Jack Cureton joined his neighbors along the Brazos in the attempt to protect their families and property from the constant raids of the Comanche and Kiowa tribes. He joined the Texas Rangers and was elected Captain of a company of Rangers in 1857. Historical sources state that he fought alongside his neighbors at the Battle of Salt Creek in 1858.
In June of 1860, J.J. Cureton was listed as a stock raiser in Palo Pinto County, Texas. The family included his wife Eliza and their six children, as well as his brother, William H. Cureton. James J. Cureton and Eliza M. Price were the parents of four boys and two girls: William E. Cureton, born 1848, Arkansas; John Calvin Cureton, born 1850, Arkansas; James White Cureton, born 1852, Arkansas; Richard Adolphus Cureton, born 1854, Arkansas; Melissa Caroline Cureton, born 1857, Texas (she married William F. Grounds), and Dorinda Marzee [Dora] Cureton (born 1860, Texas) who married Judge O. L. Lockett.
Texas history books mention in late December 1860, Captain Cureton also led his company in what was called the Wolf Creek Fight in an area north of the Colorado River. During his service with the Rangers, J. J. Cureton formed lasting friendships with legendary Texas Rangers like Shapley P. Ross, Charles Goodnight, and James “Buck” Buckner. Charles “Charlie” Goodnight served in J. J. Cureton’s Ranger Company. J. Everetts Haley’s book Charles Goodnight: Cowman and Plainsman has many mentions of Captain Cureton’s Ranger activities, “Their field of operations was from the Clear Fork of the Brazos north to the Wichita Mountains in Indian territory and from the Plains settlements west to New Mexico.”
On December 19, 1860, Ranger Captain Jack Cureton, leading about seventy citizen “Minute Men” from Palo Pinto County, supported Ranger Captain L. S. “Sul” Ross in the battle on the Pease River against the Comanche encampment of Chief Peta Nocona — father of Quannah Parker. During the fight, former captive, Cynthia Ann Parker, one of the wives of Peta Nocona, was captured [rescued?]. She was later forced against her will to return to relatives in East Texas.
In 1861, when Texas joined the Confederate States, some of the U. S. Army garrisons abandoned the Texas forts voluntarily. Others were forced to surrender to state authorities, leaving the Texas frontier unprotected. The Texas State Legislature organized volunteer troops, called the Frontier Regiment, to patrol areas of the frontier against marauding Indians and Mexican bandits.
Family history states that Capt. J. J. Cureton enlisted in the Confederate Army on March 15, 1861, and retained his rank as Captain from the Texas Rangers. Military records show Captain J. J. Cureton enlisted in the Frontier Regiment, Texas State Troops on March 11, 1862, at Fort Belknap, Texas. His equipment included a $200 horse, $40 rifle, $25 six-shooter, and $50 of clothing. Jack J. Cureton served as Captain of Company B, Frontier Regiment, Texas State Troops, during the Civil War. Muster rolls list him from February 1862 through March 1863.
In March of 1862, Captain Cureton selected old Fort Belknap for the headquarters of Company B, Frontier Regiment. He moved his family there for protection from increasing Indian raids. Fort Belknap, established in Young County in 1851, was a former U. S. Army post, and had been abandoned since the beginning of the war.
Camp Cureton was established on March 17, 1862, where the Gainesville-Fort Belknap road crossed the West Fork of the Trinity River southeast of Archer City. It was one of several posts set up by the Confederate Army to restrict Indian incursions. The camp was manned by half the men of the Frontier Regiment company of Captain J. J. [Jack] Cureton, for whom it was named. It had long buildings for the rangers and a rock-fence corral for the horses. The camp was closed in March of 1864, when the regiment was concentrated at Fort Belknap.
In March of 1863, Captain Jack Cureton returned home to Palo Pinto County and served as captain of a militia company guarding the frontier until the end of war. Military records show that he re-enlisted in the Texas State Troops in February of 1864 in Stephens County, Texas, and was paid $75 dollars for twenty-five days of service. Captain Jack Cureton also participated in the disastrous battle of Dove Creek on January 8, 1865.
In October of 1866, the Dallas [TX] Daily Herald reprinted a letter from Major General P. H. Sheridan of the U. S. Army concerning the organization of new frontier regiment companies in response to the Texas Governor’s request for additional protection on the frontier. The list included: “Capt. Jack Cureton, for the counties of Tarrant and Parker; Capt. J. B. Barry, for the counties of Bosque, Erath and Palo Pinto…” A Cureton family history stated that Captain Jack Cureton left the Rangers in 1867 in order to ranch full time.
No 1870 census record for the J. J. Cureton family was found. William Cureton, a son of J. J. Cureton, also stated that his father, helped by two of his sons, drove a herd of over eleven hundred cattle to California in 1870, taking the whole family on the trip. Jack Cureton farmed briefly in the San Bernardino area in California about 1870. In 1871, James Jackson Cureton was entered on the voter’s list for San Bernardo.
Local history states the Cureton family first came to Bosque County about 1865, settling in the Hog Creek area in southern Bosque County. When the family returned to Texas from California in 1873, J. J. Cureton established a ranch northwest of present-day Walnut Springs on land that later became Flat Top Ranch. J. J. Cureton was listed in the Bosque County Texas tax roll from 1874 to 1880.
J. J. Cureton served as Sheriff and Tax collector for Bosque County between April 1876 and June 1880. As sheriff, J. J. Cureton helped capture the Horrell Brothers during the Horrell-Higgins Feud in 1878.
The 1880 U.S. Federal Census, listed James J. Cureton, sheriff, and his wife, Eliza, living in Bosque County, Texas. Living with them were Captain Jack’s brother, Henry Cureton, and two grandchildren, Calvin M., age five, and Hugh J. Cureton, age two — children of William E. Cureton, whose wife had died in 1879. Living nearby was the family of James’ brother Richard A. Cureton.
J. J. Cureton died on his ranch near Walnut Springs on May 12, 1881. He was buried on a hilltop overlooking the present-day Flat Top Ranch near Walnut Springs.
The 1900 census for Mohave County, Arizona, listed widow Eliza M. Cureton, seventy-seven, living with the family of her married daughter Melissa and son-in -law, William F. Grounds.
Mrs. Eliza Price Cureton died on May 8, 1906, in Walnut Springs, at the home of her daughter, Dora [Mrs. O. L.] Lockett. She was buried near her husband in the Cureton Cemetery near Flat Top Ranch. Other graves in the Cureton Cemetery include grandson James Cureton [1878-1900] and William Henry Cureton [1829-1902] — James J. Cureton’s brother, who never married.
The History of Texas, published in 1896, stated: “The name of Captain Jack Cureton will be long remembered, at least so long as there are any old Texans still living, for his gallant service in the defense of the frontier…” A Texas state historical marker honoring Capt. J. J. Cureton stands at the front entrance to Katy Park in Walnut Springs, Bosque County, Texas.
SOURCES
U.S., General Land Office Records, 1776-2015. Arkansas, Franklin County, Ancestry.com.
1850 United States Federal Census. Franklin Co., Arkansas, Ancestry.com
California, U.S., State Census, 1852, Ancestry.com
1860 United States Federal Census, Palo Pinto Co., Texas, Ancestry.com
U.S., Confederate Officers Card Index, 1861-1865, Ancestry.com
Texas, U.S., Muster Roll Index Cards, 1838-1900, Civil War Index, Ancestry.com
1880 U.S. Federal Census. Bosque Co., Texas, Ancestry.com
1900 U.S. Federal Census. Mohave Co., Arizona, Ancestry.com
California, U.S., Voter Registers, 1866-1898, Ancestry.com
Texas, U.S., Bonds and Oaths of Office 1846-1920, Ancestry.com
Stringer, Don. Captain Jack J. Cureton. Bosque County TXGenWeb Project.
https://bosquecotxgenweb.org/
History of Texas, Central Texas, Vol. 1. Lewis Publishing, 1896. Library of Congress http://www.loc.gov/resource/gdcmassbookdig.historyoftexassu00lewi/?sp=9
“Early Settler at Flat Top Ranch”, The Clifton [TX] Record, Vol. 103, No. 36. Wed. May 6, 1998. Portal to Texas History, http://www.texashistory.unt.edu.
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Carolyn Hyman, “Cureton, J. J.”. Handbook of Texas http://www.tsha.org/handbook/
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Newspapers.com. “Letter from Austin.” The Dallas [TX] Daily Herald. Dallas, Texas. October
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