Daily Kennebec journal. [microfilm reel] (Augusta, Me.) 1870-1975, 1871-11-21
Misfellameons.
CIVILIZATION TO BARBARISM.

In recent number of the Washington
Sunday Chronicle, Colonel John Forney
relates the following interesting story,
of the loss of little white girl, and her
discovery, after she had become woman,
among the Indians.
Shortly after | took possession of the
Lancaster Pa.) Intelligencer. more than
thirty-four years ago-before had reach
ed manhood-Mrs. Dickson, the amiabie
and gentle postmistress of that place,
handed me soled letter directed to 'sthe
editor of newspaper" which she said
had been in her possession for more than
a year, and had not been delivered be-
cause it had no definite address. Upon
opening it l found it dated Logansport,
Indiana, and signed by George w. Ewing,
United States Indian agent. He stated
that he had only recently stopped at an
indian wigwam for the night on the banks
of the Mississinewa, about fifty miles
south of Fort Wayne, and found it occu-
pied by family who were rich for In
dians, and boasted of considerable prop
erty in houses and lands. He went on to
say that in the course of the evening he
noticed that the hair of one of the women
was light and her skin under her dress
white, and SO he entered into converse
ton with her, which was not difficult.
as he spoke the language of the tribe.
She told him she was white, but had been
| carried away when very small girl.
She could only remember that her name
was Slocum; that she had lived in little
| house on the banks of the Susquehanna;
| also the number Of her fathers family,
and the order of their ages but she could
not recall the name of the town from
which she was taken.
Fascinated by this romantic story, yet un-
decided how to let the facts be known, he
wrote letter and sent it to my native
town of Lancaster as the place nearest the
Susquehanna that he could remember of
any Importance. After, as have said,
sleeping in the post office for many months,
it came out through the columns of my
little journal, and in that way got to the
Slocums of Wilkesbarre, being the first
intelligence of the child which had been
stolen from them sixty years before. The
brother OF Frances, who was only two
years and a half old when his sister was
carried Oft by the Indians, started for the
Indian country in company with his eldest
sister, who had aided him to escape, and
another brother, then living in Ohio, born
after the captivity of Frances. After
long journey they found little wigwam
among the Miami Indians. "We shall
know Frances" said the sister, 'sbecause
she lost the nail of her first finger. You,
brother, hammered it off in the blacksmith
shop when she was four years DID," They
entered and found a swathy woman who
looked to be seventy-fve. She was paint
ed jewelled, and dressed like an Indian in
all respects. Nothing but her hair and
her covered skin indicated her origin.
They got an interpreter, asked her name
and where she was born. ''EIow came
that nail gone ?n said the eldest sister.
She answered, "My eldest brother pound
ed it off when l was a little child in the
shop" They had discovered the long-lost
sister. They asked her Christian name.
She had forgotten it. ''Was it Frances ?"
As if smitten by revelation, she answered
Yes" 1t was the first time she had
heard it pronounced in sixty years. Here
they met, two brothers and two sisters,
after having been separated for more than
half a century.
The brothers were walking the cabin,
unable to speak, the sister was drowned in
tears, but the poor Indian sat motionless
and passionless. She could not speak a
Sunday came. Was not this the consum-
q
the Purtans? She was carried off by the
Indians, and when she grew up she mar
ried one of their number He either died
or ran away and then she married a Miami
chief, since dead She had two daugh-
ters, both married, who, thirty-fours ago
lived in all the glory of Indian cabins,
deer-skin clothes, and cow-skin head
dresses. They had horses in abundance,
and when the Indian sister accompanied
her new relatives, she bridled her horse
and mounted it astride. At night she slept
on the floor, with her blanket around her.
They could not persuade her to return to
Wilkesbarre, even when the invitation
was extended to children. She had always
lived with the Indians, they had been kind
to her, and she promised her last husband
on his death-bed she would never leave
them. 1t is now nearly ninety-ive years
since this white child was torn from her
parents home in Wyoming Valley. She
herself has been gathered to her fathers,
and most of her double family who were
living in 1888. with the exception, be-
lieve, of Mr.. Joseph Slocum. one of the
most influential and respectable citizens Of
Scranton. Among all the changes that
have taken place in this long interval, few
are more interesting than this transforma-
a. A.