The Kalida venture. [volume] (Kalida, Ohio) 1841-1865, 1845-06-13
ROMANCE OF THE PAST.


XIV, delivered an Grafton at /" Camp Madison .
in that State, on the last anniversary of eur
national Independence. From its pages we
culI the following passages relative to some
Of the incidents that transpirsd in the early
history of the " dark and blsody ground."--
Truth is indeed " stronger than felton,"
. And in the blue Lick Defeat on the
10th of August, 1852, the IGNORANT Of death
fed greedily on the flower of the first settle
ment. On that most dreadful of gloomy
days, every settler lost friend, and every
family a prop. And on that sanguinary
field the Colonels Todd and Trig, the Chi
valrous Captain Hartland, and the gallant,
intrepid son Of Boone, lay undistinguished
among the promiscuous victims of warrior
death, all soon mangled by voracious wolves
and yultures, SO as not to be recognized by
their friends, who, three days after the bat
.le, inferred the remains. A few of their
crumbling bones, since collected by their
countrymen, now lie exposed to the huctua-
ting breath Of the elements, in a.confused
pile, on the summit Of the bleak and rocky
plain where the heroes fell. We cannot
how imagine, much less portray, the grief
and dependency that prevaded the land, at
the intelligence of that days catastrophe -
every bosom heaved with the tremulous i'm
pulse Of saddened wo. But the survivors,
though mournfully bereaved, were not to be
discouraged or dismayed. They were re-
solved never to falter in their first and last
effort, to subdue the wilderness,o or die in the
attempt. Israsl's God stosd by, and sus-
tanned the noble and forlorn 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 after
surviving the ruthless ordeal of the gauntlet,
had been permitted to live as captives--had
been taken by tribe and painted black, as
the signal Of torture and death to all.
The night after the battle, these twelve
prisoners were stripped, and ranged in line
upon leg-he to whom we have specially
alluded, being at one extremity Of the dsvo-
ted phaIanx. The cruel capters, then, be-
ginning at the other end, slaughtered eleven,
one by one, but when, they came to the only
survivor, though they raised him up, also,
and drew their bloody knives tostrike under
each uplifted arm, they paused, and, after a
long powwow, spared his life--why he never
knew.
Fer about enc year, none of his friends,
except his devoted 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
the .nuptials, declaring that she could net
diyest herself Of the belief that her husband
survived. Ker expostulating friends finally
succeeded in their efforts to stihe Her affec-
tionate instinct--she reluctantly yielded, and
the nuptial day was fixed. But just before
il dawned, the crack Of a rifle was heard near
her lonely cabin, and at the familiar sound,
she lsaped out like liberated fawn, eiacu-
lating as she sprang, "THat's Jshn's gun ~
1t was Johns gun, sure enough; and in an
instant, she was once more in her lost hus-
bands arms. But nine years afterwards that
same husband fell in ST. Clair's defeat; and
the same disappointed but pressvsring lover
renewed bis suit, and at last, the widow be-
came his wife. The scene of these roman
tic incidents was within gun-shot Of my natal
homestead; and with that nsble wife and
matron was myself well acquainted
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