Jeffersonian Republican. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1840-1853, 1843-11-23
rY, PA, THURSDAY, NOVEMBER %, ls43

THE ROMANCE OF FRONTIER LIFE Is well
exhibited in The following extract from an ora
ton on The last 4th of July a, Camp Madison,
Kentucky, by the Hon. George Robertson:
In "lhe Blue Lick defeat" August the 20h,
1882, the cormorany Of death fed greediiy on
the flower Of the first settlement. On that dark
esr OF their gloomy days every settler lost
friend, and nearly every family prop. Aud
on iha, bloody field The Colonies Todd and
Trigg, and chralrons Capt tiarland, and the
gallant SOUS of Boon, lay undls'lhguished
among the promiscuOus slain, all soon maDgied
by deyourug wolves aud vultareS, 50 as not 10
be recognized bv their friends, who. three days
after the battle, buried The fragments. \ few
OF their crunbling bones, since collected by
their countryneu, now lie exposed to the ele-
ments, in confused pile, en- the summit OF the
bleak and rocky plain where The heroes fell.
We cannot now imagine the grief aud despon-
dence with which the mournul intelligence Of
that DAVIS catastrophe covered the land.
Bul Ihe survivors, though wofully hereaved,
were not TO be discouraged or dlsmayad They
were resolved never TO look back or lalter in
their first and last resolve 10 c0nquer the will
deTness or die in the attempt lsRAEL's Con
stood by and sustained the noble but lorlorn
band for their cause was his. On The long
roll Of that days reported slain were the names
of a few who had in fact been captured. and af
Ter surviving the ordeal Of the gauntlet, had
been permitted to live as captlyes. Among
these was an excellent husband and father
who, with eleven other caplives, had been Ia
ken by Tribe, painted black, as the signal of
torture and deaih to all. The nigh; after the
ballle these twelve prisoners We're stripped and
placed in a line on log, he 10 whom we have
specially alluded being at one extremity OF The
devoted row.
The cruel cap'ors, then beginning at the
other end, slaughtered eleven, one by one; but
when thew came 10 Ihs OnlY survivor, though
they raised him up also and drew their bloody
knives 10 strike under each UplIied arm. they
paused, and after long pow-wow, spared his
ile---whr, he never knew. For about one
year none of his friends excepting his faithful
wife doubled his dealh; she hoping against
reason, sill insisted hat he lived and would
return 10 her. W0ned by another, she from
time to time postponed the nuptlaIs. declaring
that she could not dlyesl herself Of the belief
that her husband survived. Her exposlulai!ng
friends finally succeeded in their efforts 10 sti-
fe her afTeciionsie ins,incl; she reluctantly
yielded, and The nuP'ial day was fixed. But
just before it dawned the crack OF rfe was
heard near her eroneiy cabin; at the iauiarsound
she Ieaped out like liberated lawn, calculating
as she sprang, t4ats John's gun 1t was
Johns Gun, sure enough. and in an instant she
was once more in her lost husbands arms.
But nine years afterwards that same husband
fell in "St. Glars defeat" and The same dis
appointed but persereFing lover renewed his
suil, and at last The widow became his wife.
The scene of those romantic incidents was
within gunsbot Of my natal homestead, and with
lha, noble wife and nalron was myself well