The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1859-04-21

+ The Pnilsdelphia Press relates the follow
ing story which va thiak oar readers viii
find interesting:
An incident in connection with one Of the
many ronlances OF the Wyoming Valley may
here Be mentioned. especislly as the writer of
this article while the editor of the Lancaster
LteHigeRcer. more than twenty years ago)
was an humble instrument In unrayelling
probably the most touching mystery in the
records of this theater OF Indian aud British
barbarity and crime. At Scranton we met
member OF the Slocum family lone OF the en-
erpetic pioneers of that town. and recalled
to his attention the fact that, in 1887, while
Mrs. Mary Dickson, post mistress of Lancas,
ter, Pennsylv ania, an excellent woman, who
only lately departed this l,fe,) she sent Us a
faded letter, written to her post office by a
gentleman named Geo. w. Ewing. who dated,
we think, Logansport, Indiana, in which he
desired to know if any of the Slooum family
lived in that neighborhood. He detailed in
this letter his visit to an Indian cabin, aud
his discovery OF the long lost Francis SlocUm,
who had been stolen from her fathers family
Mr.. jonathan Socum) some fifty eight years
before by the Indians, and by them carried
into captivity.
After every effort had been made to tescue
the lost child. or even to hear of her Hhegea
bouts, the veil of years fell like dark and
impenetrable cloud before the narrowing Sc
cret, and her brothers aud their posterity
mourncd over her as one forever lost to them.
We published the letter IN the IqtefttS Queer,
and aided by Tie Rev. Samuel Bowman, (uow
assistant Bishop of this Episcopal diosesa.)
himself native of the Wyoming region we
were enabled to send the first information to
the Slocum family. The published letter isll
into the hands OF M. S.ocum of Wilkesbarre.
who wasa fttle boy Of 10 years Of age when
his sister Francis was taken. The reminder
of the story Is n household word IN northern
Pennsylvania, but it may have been forgotten
in other parts of the State. The family seek
ed the little Frances sixty years after her
captis ity, aud find her at the home oi the
Miami Indians They go into cabin where
they see an Indian woman having the ap-
pearauce of seventy five years of age, paint-
ed. jewelled and dressed like an Indian queen
nothing but her hair and cclorod skin Iadi-
cate her origin.
By the aid of an interpreter tfey converse,
and satisfied that this is their long lost
sister. She has forgotten her Christian lame
and the very language Of her race, though
she responded to Frances" aud admitted,
in her Indian dialect, that that was her name.
While her brothers and sisters sat sobbing
and weeping at this strange revelation, the
poor Indian woman was motionless and pass
ionless. She had become one Of another peo-
pe she had been married and reared two
daughters, both married and living ia all
the glory OF an Indian cabin, deer skin cloth
ing, and cow-skiu head dresses. For Indi-
ans, she belonged TO rich community. own
cd houses, could use the rife, bride her own
horses ard mount a la Turk, whenever she
desired to do 50. She could sleep on the tioor
or the bare earth, wrapped in her blanket.
as soundly as her wealthy relatives sleep in
their beautiful residences In the Valley OF the
Wyoming They tried to pursuade her 10
return, but she refused to do SO. She had
always lived with the Indians since her cap
ture; they had always been kind to her, and
she promised her late husband, on his death
bel that she never would leave the Indian
country.