Bellows Falls times. [volume] (Bellows Falls, Vt.) 1856-1965, 1860-07-13
MISCELLANY Y.
Frightened 0ff.-A Border Story.
RY WILLIAM EARLE BINDER.

have figured in the history of our border,
none ever gained more unenviable noto-
riety than a man named Simon Girty.
Girty is said to have been raised in West
ern Pennsylvania, near the Virginia line,
and in his younger days served as a scout
under Simon Kenton. Subsequently he
underwent public disgrace for what is rep
resented to have been very trivial offense !;
and, burning with deep sense of real or
imaginary wrong, he foreswore his own
race, and joined cause with the savage red
man.
So the story goes; and whatever was the
reason the effect was terrible; for Girty's
conduct was ever afterwards marked with
the most fiendish malignity. Unsparing,
bioodthirsty and revengeful. he surpassed
even his savage companions, and ere hong
rendered his name a terror. Many stories
have been told of this man, one of which
we design making the subject of this paper.
One black, starless night, he led party
of his savage associates against little set
tlement in the wilderness of Kentucky.
The unfortunate pioneers were surprised
in their sleep and brutally butchered-men,
women and children--alnaost before they
had time TO realize the horrors of their
situation. .......
One family consisting of four persons
alone escaped. Their name was Story.
Thomas, the father was fifty odd years old ;
Sarah, the mother, was a woman of forty
or thereabouts. The son, who was named
after his father, was twenty-five, and the
daughter, who was named after her mother,
was about twenty or twenty-one.
Like all others, they were buried in slunf-
Der at the time of the midnight attack, but
with greater good luck than their neigh
bors, they became aroused IN time to make
some effort in their own defense. The
door and windows of their stout log cabin
were securely barred, and the father and
son, with the ready alacrity of men living
entirely in danger. at once made prepara-
tious to oppose their savage and unrelent-
ing assailants. They did not need to be
told what had happened. The lurid glare
of the burning cabins-the whoops and
yells of the bloodthirsty red skins-reveal-
ed everything. ....-....
L" I'm afraid our times come" said Mrs.
Story nervously, to Thomas, her husband.
"The Lord only knows!" was the deep
response of the pioneer. "I:'s dreadful
thing to be walked up in this manner"
"While there is life there's hope, mother"
exclaimed the son, encouragingly. "We're
not scalped yet, and something may turn
up in our favor afore we are"
"That's true as preachin', my boy" re-
Joined his father; "suthin may turn up yet
afore long, as it often has DONE" Advanc-
ing to his wife and daughter he added, "and
now let me say few words to you women.
It's hard, I know; but if we are to die,
grievin' about it won't mend it at all, SO I
just want you to keep dry eyes, still tongues,
and brave hearts, and leave Tom and me
to make the most of our situation we kin.
We shall do our purtiest"
The mother and daughter promised to
do the best they could, though the task was
no easy one.
By this time Storys cabin was surround
ed by the midnight murderers, who were
rending the air with their fendish shrieks
and wells. The massacre had commenced
at the other end of the village, but at this
moment Story's home was the only one not
enveloped in flames, and himself and fami-
" all that remained alive of the settlers.
Quietly, but with blanched faces, the be-
leagured prisoners listened to the ominous
sounds which rose up all around their little
house. Their situation was indescribably
painful.
Suddenly the savages made fearful on
slaught upon the door and windows. The
stout timbers, however, bravely withstood
the attack. Resolutely Story and his sou
betook themselves TO favorite positions, and
opened fire upon the ranting red skins.
With unerring aim they picked off the
savages, though with not much chance
or hope of really saving themselves so
overwhelming was the number OF the In
dians. For some time the unequal contest
continued, the pioneer and his son, by dint
of the greatest exertion, managing to keep
the sayages pretty well at bay. Red-skin
after red-skin measured his length on the
ground, until at least a score or more had
paid tie debt of their lives. The Indians
however, showed no signs of being beaten.
On the contrary they kept up the attack
unite as fiercely as at first.
The conhagration began to die out some
what. for want of material on which TO feed.
Story's cabin being considerably removed
from the rest, had in consequence escaped
everything but scOrehing. Had it been
otherwise but two alternatives would have
presen,cd themselves to the miserable in