Democratic standard. [volume] (Georgetown, Brown County, Ohio) 1837-1850, 1843-11-28
ROMANCE or THE PAsT.


The Hon George Robertson, of Ken
tucky delivered an oration at "CamI
Madison J" in thai State, on the last anni'
veFsary Of our National Independence. -
FromftS pages we clip tho following pas
sages relative to some Of the incidents il
the early history Of the "dark and bloody
grOund." Truth is indeed 'strangeI
than felton," ....
"And at the Blue Lick defeat Au.
gust the 20th, 1882, the cormUrant Oi
death fed greedily on the flower Of the
first settlement. On that darkest oI
their gloomy days, every settler lost q
friend, aud nearly every family prop
And on that bloody field, the COloneIs
Todd, and Trigg, the chivalrous Captain
Herland, and the gallant son of Boone,
lay undistinguiShed among the promscu.
ous slain, all soon mangled by devouring
wolves and Vullures, so as not TO be re-
cognized by their friends, who three days
after the battle buried the fragments. A
few of their crumbling bones, since col
lected BY their counlrymsn, now lie ex'
posed 10 the elements, 10 a confused pile
on the summit Of the bleak and rocky
plain where the heroes fell. We cannot
now imagine the grief and dsspondeuco
with which the mournful intelligence Of
that days catastrophe covered the land.
But the survivors though wofully bereaV.
ed, were not TO be discouraged or dis.
mayed They were resolved never to look
back or falter in their first and last re
solve to conquer the wilderness or die in
the attempt, lsrGels God stood BY and
tustained tho noble and forlOrn band; for
sheir cause was His. On the long roll Of
that days reported slain we're the names
of few who had in fact been captured
and after surviving the ordeal of the gaunt
let, had been permitted to live az captives
--had been taken BY a tribe, painted
black as the signal of torture and death to
all.
"Ths night after the battle, these IL
prisoners we're stripped and placed in 4
line on a log-he to whom we have es
pecially alluded being at the extremity
of the devoted row. Tho cruel captors
then, beginning at the other end, slaugh.
tered l 1, one by one; but when they
came to the only survivor, though they
raised him up also, and drew their bloody
knives TO strike under each uplifted arm,
they paused, and, after long pow WOW
spared his life why, he never know -
For about one year none Of his fTiandS.
excepting his faithful wife, doubted his
death. She, hoping against reason, still
insisted that he lived, and would return
TO her. Wooed by another, she from
time to time postponed tho nuptals, de.
claring that she could not divsst herself
Of the belief that her husband survived. /.
Her expos;ulating friends finally sue.
ceeded in theil efforts to stifle her affsc-
tonate instinct, she reluctantly, Welded.
and the nupiial day was fixed But Just
before it dawDed, The crack Of rife was
heard near her lonely cabin, at the IA.
miliar sound she leaped out like q Diber.
ated fawn, calculating, as she sprang,
"thdrs Johns gunr' II was Johns gun
sure enough; and in an instant, she was
once more in her lost husbands arms.-
But nlne years afterwards, that same hus>
band fell in 'St. Clair's defsat,' and the
same disappointed but perssvsring lover
renewed his suit, and a! last the widow
became his wife. The scene Of these
romantic incidents wac within gun-shot
of my natal homestead; and with that no.
BILE wife and matronI was myself well
acquainted" 10