The Shasta courier., 1869-05-22
SHASTA COUR RI Err.
LEONORA BROWN.
A STORY OF A HEROIC GIRL.

On the border of Green Lake, in Min
nessota, there lived sturdy, white haired
frontiersman named Walter Brown. He
was one Of those adventurous spirits ever
to be found in the van of advancing civili-
cation, always courting the free, wild air of
the prairie, and rejoicing in the profound
depths of uninhabited forests
But the country become more and more
thickly settled, and Walter Brown became
uneasy. His wife had borne him a daugh-
ter the third or fourth year of their resi-
dence at the headwaters of the St. Croix,
whom he called Leonora She was a good
girl, and the idol of her father. He pur-
chased rifle for her when she was but
twelve years old, and took the utmost pains
in teaching her the use of it. She was
brave and steady of nerve, and soon ac-
quired wonderful skill as shot, and the
number of prairie. chickens, patridges, wild
water fowls, and other small game she
managed to shoot each day, was really large.
Occasionally she would shoot deer, and
one eventful morning, by lucky shot
through the eye into the brain, she killed a
| fine bear
When she came home with the news her
father could scarcely credit her. But,
knowing her perfectly truthful nature, he
danced about the room for joy, and seizing
the sturdy little maid, he mounted her upon
his shoulders and insisted upon carrying
her all the way to the spot where the dead
bruin lay.
Thicker and thicker flowed the tide of
emigration into Minnesota and Wisconsin,
following the navigabe rivers as matter
of course, and more and more uneasy and
"crowded" felt Walter Brown. At length
his wife died. Leonora was then sixteen,
and engaged to be married to a handsome
young trapper by the name of Watson, who
had joined her father in business.
The death of the mother had made it
necessary to postpone the wedding, and in
the interim old Walter decided to move
into Northwest Minnesota. Neighbors
were getting too near, and hunting and
trapping were bad. AS ..the young man
had proved up and pre-empted quarter
section of land near Taylor Fails, he did
not wish to either abandon orEsell it just
then, and persuading Leonora to agree to
write to him, he babe her an affectionate
goodbye.
Brown lived in Minnesota for three or
four years in peace and quiet, finding good
trapping and hunting grounds, when all at
once young Watson arrived, and renewed
the proposition of marriage with Leonora
The old man had about determined to move
no more, and had accordingly located and
pre-empted several thousand acres of land
about him, and learning from Watson that
he had money enough to do likewise, pro-
posed that he should go down to st Paul
and buy land warrants with his money, and
take up all the land he could "swing. -
He might then marry Leonora, and they
two would 60 to work, and after building
plenty OF stabling, ETC., would get good
stock Of cattle and sheep, and try and lead
a pastoral life for the rest OF their days.
To this proposition the young man beart-
lily assented, and after returning from st.
Paul, went bravely to work in the woods.
telling trees for building purposes. 1t was
agreed first that they should build new
hewed log house for the united family, as
Watson had only got up small, single
room cabin. Then the wedding was to
take place, and the two would again resume
their work.
While thus busily engaged the Sioux
war broke out. 1t was the habit of Leonora
to take her rife out every morning and
shoot prairie chickens for the table, while
her lover and father were hard at work ON
the new house. Watson had bought her
as "a present from ST. Paul light and
handsome revolving rifle, of which she was
immensely fond, and with which she be-
came so expert that she could shoot duck
or prairie chicken on the wing with al
most absolute certainty.
One morning, as she was strolling around
the lake, rifle in hand, she noticed three
canoe loads of Indians padding carefully
along the opposite side of the water, steadily
and stealthily approaching the spot where
her father and lover were at work. She
did not Immediately apprehend any TRACE
dy, out In some unaccountable way she
felt impelled to remain and watch their
motions. She therefore concealed herself
behind the top of "a fallen tree, and observed
their movements, which grew more and
more suspicious. There were two Indians
in each canoe, and after pulling steadily to
point where thick, overhanging birch
tree afforded concealment for their canoes.
they disembarked, and crept carefully and
noiselessly along until they were within a
faw feet of where tho two ,p,rs.a..:
men were chopping. Suddenly, with a
yell that made the forest ring, and which
echoed and re-echoed across the broad still
lake, they spra6g upon their victims and
bore them to the earth.
Leonora trembled with excitement and
apprehension, expecting nothing less than
to witness the horrible butchery of her
father and lover at once.
But this did not seem to be the purpose