On September 28, 1870, the Thomas W. Stringfield family was ambushed by Indians and bandits raiding from Mexico. Overtaken in their ox-drawn wagon, the victims ran for a nearby house but did not reach it. Thomas and his wife Sarah Jane were stabbed and shot to death. Their six-year-old son Adolphus was also murdered, but the fate of four-year-old Thomas was never known. Seven-year-old Ida Alice survived after fighting to avoid capture, being speared seven times, trampled by the raiders' horses, and left for dead; she was later rescued and lived until 1937.