Montgomery County sentinel. [volume] (Rockville, Md.) 1855-1974, 1859-06-24
GcIcttc0 MlistellanD.
THE LOST SISTER
OF THE VALLEY OF WYOMING.

After the battle ard massacre, most of
the settlers fed. But here and there a
few stragglers returned from the wilder
ness, and in the course of three or four
months, other cabins were going up over
the ashcS of their former houses, and
quite little neighborhood was collected.
But the Indians kept prowling around
the mountains, now descending here and
now there, killing this family, scalping
that, or making it captive. AT little
distance from the present Court House Of
Wilkcsbarre, lived a family of the name
Of Slocum, upon whom the vistations of
the Indians cruelty were awfully severe.
The men were one day away in the fields,
aud in an instant the house was sur
rounded by Indians. There we're in it
the mother, daughter about nine years
Of age, a son aged thirteen, another five,
and little boy aged two and half
A young man and boy by the name of
Kingsley, were present grinding a knife.
The first thing the Indians did was to
shoot down the young man. and to scalp
him with the knife which he had in his
hand. The nine year old sister took the
little boy aged two and half years, and
ran out of the door to get back to the
fort. The Indians chased her Just
enough to see her fright, and to have a
hearty laugh as she ran and cluEg to and
lifted her chubby little brother. They
then took the young Kingsley boy, and
Slocum, aged thirteen, and little Fran
cos, aged five, and prepared to depart
But finding young Slocum lame, at the
entreaties of the mother, they sat him
down and left him. Their captives were
then young Kingsley and the little girl.
The mothers heart swelled unutterably,
and for years she could not describe the
scene without tears. She saw an Indi-
an throw her child over his shoulder,
and as her hair fell over her face, with
one hand she brushed it aside, while the
tears ran from her distended eyes, and
stretching out her other hand towards
her mother, she called for aid The In
dams turned into the bushes, and this
was the last seen of little Frances.
This image was probably carried by the
mother to the grave. About a month
after this they came again, and with the
most awful crueltics murdered the aged
grandfather, and shot ball into the leg
of the lame boy. This was carried with
him, in his leg, nearly sixty years, to
the grave. The last child was born a
few months after these tragedies. What
were the conversations, what were the
hopes concerning the fate Of little Fran
ces, | shall not attempt to describe
Probably the children saw that in all
after life the heart of the stricken mo-
Ither was yearnng for the little one whose
fate was uncertain, and whose face she
could never see.
AS the boys grew up and became men,
! they wero anxious to know the fate of
their little fair-haired sister. They wrote
letters. they sent inquiries, they made
. journeys through all the West aud into
: the Canadas, if pcradventure true they
might learn anything respecting her fate.
-Four long journeys had been made in
vain. A silence as deep as the deepest
forest through which they had wandered
hing over her fate, and that for sixty
years.
Ny reader will now pass over fifty
eight years from the time Of this captv-
ity, and suppose himself far in the viii
dcrncss, in the farthest part Of unsettled
Indiana. A very respectable agent Of
the United States is travelling there, and
weary and bclated, with a tired horse, he
stopped at an Indian wigwam for the
night. He can speak the Indian Ian
guagc. The family are rich for Indi-
ans have horses and skins in abundance.
In the course Of the evening, he notices
that the hair Of the woman is light, and
the skin under her dress is also whse. 49,
She told him she was white child, but
had been carried away when very small
girl. She could only remember her
name was Sloeum, aud that she lived in
little house on the bank Of the Sus-
quehanna, and how many there 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 the agent mentioned this story to
bis mother she urged him TO write and