The Cambria freeman. [volume] (Ebensburg, Pa.) 1867-1938, 1875-04-09
LOST FOR 4 LTFEIIME.
THE STORY OF A SEARCH FOR STOLEN
CHILD IN THE oLDEN TIME.

CHILD IN THE OLDEN TINE.
Some thirty years ago John Quincy Adj
ans attracted considerable attention i'm
Congress by strong speech in favor of
bill introduced by 3. A. Bidlack, OF Penn
sylvania. which provided that one mile
square of the land then occupied by the
Miami Indians, embracing the house and
improvements of Frances Slocum, should
be granted i'm fee to her and her heirs for
ever. The bill became a law, and she oo-
cup;ed this special reserve until her death
in the spring of 1s47.
The history of this woman was remark
able. She was the daughter Of Quaker
who lived in the Wyoming Valley during
the Revolution. Several months after the
massacre of 177S she caught up by a
party of marauding Delaware Indians, who
got off before any attempt could be made
to rescue her. She was five years old at
this time. About month later her father
was shot dead by the Indians while at work
i'm field near his house. Knowing that ho
was gone to his eternal rest the widow in
time became reconciled to herloSs, but she
could never forget her child, the last sight
of which was when she was in the arms of
brawny Indian, struggling aud calling
piteously upon her parent to come to her
help.
The sons Of Mrs. Slocum became pros
porous business men, and after the close Of
the Revolution they used every effort to
recover their lost sister. In 1884 two of
them visited Niagara, where large number
of Indians were gathered, made diligent
inquiries and offered liberal rewards for
any information of her. They prosecuted
the search for several weeks and returned
home with the impression that she WAS
dead.
The mother, however could not be per-
suaded that such was the case, and four
years later tie Slocums spent several
months in the West among the Indian
agents and traders. publicly Offering $500
to any one who would give any autheutic
information of the fate of their sister, but
their success was no better than before.
y similar expedition was undertaken in
1871 by four of the brothers, with the same
result. As in the Ross case, the search
brought numbers of stolen children to light,
Mrs. Slocum never lost faith in her
daughters existence. She believed she
was somewhere waiting to be clasped in her
arms, and she continued the search with
scarcely any iDtermission until 1907, when
she died, her children promising her to use
every effort to learn what had become of
the little one abducted nearly thirty years
haf, fait full r.i.41 ont
pledge, and III 1926 made long and ex-
pcnsive journey to Upper Sandusl1y to see
woman who, there was no reason to hope,
was The one for whom they were searching.
Disappointed again, they finally came to
The conclusion thai Frances was dead, and
| the search ended.
In the month of January, 1885. Colonel
George w. Ewing, gentleman connected
| with the public service among the Indians,
| and able to speak several of their Ian
guages, was benighted near an Indian town
known as The Deaf Mans Village, on a
| branch of the Wabash. He applied for
| lodging, and was Hospitality received ut a
| respectable dwelling. He was fatigued and
unwell, and after eating lay down upon
| some skins in the corner. The household
| consisted of venerable woman and a
number of children, all of whom treated her
with The greatest Difference, and who de-
parted to their own rooms.
AS Colonel Ewing lay upon his pallet he
watched the old lady moving about, and
noticed particularly the color of her skin
| and hair. The result OF. the scrutiny CON
viuced him that she was white woman,
and he opened a conversation with her.
She admitted that his suspicious were co.,
rect. She said that she was stolen hy the
Indians when a very small child, and she
had carefully concealed that fact from those
! of her own race whom she met for fear that
her relatives would come and take her
away. She was now SO old that She felt
she could not live much longer, and if any
of her friends were living she would be
| glad to see them. In short, she was Fran
ces Slocum, ard she remembered, distinctly
the name of her father, though her own
| given name was forgotten.
Colonel Ewing was so impressed with her
narrative that he addfossed a long letter.
giving the fiill particulars, to the postmas-
ter at Lancaster, Pa. He had never heard
of the Slocums, but he judged from certain
answers made by the old lady that heI
home was somewhere in that State.
The letter reached its destination, but
when the postmaster came to read 1t ho
concluded it a hoax and flung 1t aside,
among some waste papers. where IT lay fov
two years. At the end Of that time the
postmaster died, and his widow n over
hauling his effects came upon Colonel E'v-
| ing's letter. She had never heard tie name
of Slocum, but thinking there was some
thing in il. she sent the missive to the
Lancaster Iatsyligencer, a copy of which
containing the letter, fell into the hands %!