Early Life
Cynthia Ann Parker was born to Silas M. Parker and Lucy Parker in Crawford County, Illinois. There is considerable dispute about her age; according to the 1870 census of Anderson County, Texas, she would have been born between June 2, 1824, and May 31, 1825. When she was nine years old, her paternal grandfather John Parker was recruited to settle his family in Texas; he was to establish a fortified settlement against Comanche raids which had been devastating to the colonization of Texas and northern Mexico for generations. Upon arriving in Texas, the Parker family moved to north-central Texas and built a log fort—which soon became known as Fort Parker—on the headwaters of the Navasota River in what is now Limestone County. Cynthia's brother James was killed on the way from Illinois to Texas when the wagon lost a wheel and he was struck through the chest with a piece of splintered wood.
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