Litchfield enquirer., 1840-11-19
From Me NorIk Amcricdn. THE LOST SISTER.

here and there u few sragglers returned from the mountains OF wilderness, and in the course of three or four months, other cabins were going up over the ashes of their for mcr hnt.tS, aud quite a little neighborhood was coil, ';rrd. But ,he Indians kept prowl. ing around on the mountains, now descend- ing here and now there, killing this family, scaIping that, or making it captive, At a tilile distance from the present Court House of Wilksbawc, lived a family by the name of SIocnm, upon whom the vsit,tions of In- dians' crucltics were awfully severe. The men were one day in the field, and in an in- Stant the house was surrounded by Indians. There were in it, the mother, a daughter about nine years ofage, q son aged thirteen, another daughter aged five, and little boy ngcd two and a half. A young man and a boy by the name of Kingsley, were present grinding knife. The first thing the Indi- ans did was to shoot down the young Mlan, and scalp him with the knife he had in his hand. The nine year old sister took the lit tie boy two and d half years old, and ran out dians chased her just enough to sec her fright, and to have d hearty laugh as she ran and clung to and lifted her chubby liule brother. They then look the Kingsley boy and young Slocpm aged thirteen, and little Frances aged five, and prepared to depart.-, But finding young slocum lame. at the cn-t treaties of the mother, they set him down and left hin. Their captives were then young Kingsley and the little girl. The mothers heart swelled unutterably, and for years she could not describe the scene with out tears. She saw an Indian throw her child over his shoulder, md as her hair feif over her face, with one hand she brushed it aside, while the tears fell from her distenLed eyes, and stretching out her other hand to- wards her mother, she called for her aid.-. i The Indian turned into the bushes, and this was tho last seen of little Frances. This inn age probably was carried by the mother 10 her grave. About a month after this they came again, and with the most awful cruel ties, murdered the aged grandfather, and shot ball into the leg of the lame boy.- This he carried with him in his leg near
 y sixty years from the grave. The last child was born few months after these tra- gedies What were the conversations, what were the conecturcs, what were the hopes and the fears respecting the fate of the little Frances, will not attempt to describe.- Probably tho children saw that in after life, the heart of the stricken mother was ycarI1- l ing for the little one whose fate was uncer- | thin, and whose face she could never sec again. l As tho boys grew up and became men, they were very anxious to know the fate of their little fair haired sister. They wrote letters. they, sont inquiries, they made jour- ncys through all the west and into the Cana das, if peradventure they might learn any thing respecting her fate. Four of these long journeys were made in vain. A silence deep as that of the deepest forest through which they wandered, hung over her fate, and that for sixty years.
 My reader will now pass over 1ifty-cight years from the time ot this captivity, and l suppose himself far in the wilderness, in the l farthCSt part of Indiana. A very 'respecta- b!e agent of the United States is travelling there, and weary and belated, he stops at an Indian wigwam for the night. He can speak the Indian language. The family are rich, for lndians-have horses and skins in abun- dance. In the course of the evening he no- iiccs that the hair of the woman is light, and her skin, under her dress, is also white.- She told him She was white woman, but had been carried away when a very small girl. She could only remember that her name was Slocum, that she lived in Q little house on the banks of the Susquehannah, 1 and how many l:.ere were in her fathers family, and the order of their ages. But the name of the town she could not remember. On reaching his home, ,he agent mentioned this story to his mother-sfe urged and pressed him to write and print the account. Accordingly, he wrote it and sent it to Lan- caster in this State, requesting that it might be published. By some, to me an unac- countable blunder, it lay in the office two years before 1t was printed. But last sum mer it was printed. In few days, it fell in to the hands of MT. Slocum, of Wilksbarre, who was the little two and half year old boy when Frances was tukcn. In few days, he was off to seek his sister, taking along his oldest sister, Qhe one who aided him to escape,) and writing to a brother who HOW lives in Ohio, and who, believe, was born after the captivity, to meet and 50 with him. ..l
 The two brothers and sister arc now (lS36) on their way to see little Frances, just sirty years after her captivity. After travelling more than 300 miles through the wilderness, they reach the Indian country, the home of the Miami Indians. Nine miles from the nearest white, they find the little wigwam 1: l shall know my sister, said the civilized sister, because slIe lost the nail of her first finger. You, brother hammered it off in the blacksmith's shop. when she was four years old. They go into the cabin and find an ln- dian woman, having the appearance of sev- eniy y-iive. She is painted and jcwcllcd off, and dressed like the Indians in all respects Nothing but her hair and covered skin would indicate her origin. They got ain nterpre- ter and began to converse. She tells them where she was born, her name, Sc., with the order of her fathers family. How come your nail gone ? said the oldest sister. My brother pounded it of when l was little child, in ihe shop! In word. they were satisfied that this was Frances tlioir long lost sister! They asked what her Christian l EuIn