The St. Cloud journal. [volume] (St. Cloud, Minn.) 1866-1876, 1876-04-13

OU0tu ulM 1e2s10G. /; 1uOoo W6te .COe
=daFe dvhen men went to the p]ow
with Aleun slune from the shoulder
as we'll ,as a. goad in the hand, apd
when the musketk were stacked in
the aisle Of the church for use in 10
pelling any sudden assault Of the In.
dian foe. e..
On Sunday night. 10 the story
ran, the great attack was made whose
memoryiis preserved in. the name Of
Black river. The settlers made their
last stand upon its. banks. :DOf these
who fell dead among, the ruins
Of their burning houses and of those
Who: fed to the woods to return after
many days, fahnished and half frozen
to the ashes Of their Dhomes, the ree-
ords Of: Ashton preserve the: full
list. The Mary: Wilson of those
days was among this number. When;
Captain; Wilson; coming back from
his mission to the neighboring settle
ment lower down: the valley, search
ed the blackened foundation: of his
dwelling, he found neither charred
corpse nor mutilated body. His
daughter was gone and he mourned
without hope.
It was years after, when a treach.
erous peace ruled between the colon
lists and the Indians, that woman.
wearing a blanket and with uncover
ed head; came to his door and claim.
ed him as father: She carried the de-
grading marks Of Indian servitdde,
and she told him Of children born to
her in Indian wedlock, and of 4
home under the Undiscovered poles
of the wigwam. They her once
more in: the skirts Of civilized wom-
hood, the tradition goes on; to say !;
wept over her, wondered at her
strange stoicism, placed her again on
her fathers right hand at the table,
,apd took her to the family seat in the
westinghouse. The Bible, over
wv which the stern captain leaned as he
offered Up the prayer, Of ,thankagiy:
ing for her release from captivity;
was that evening wet with unaccus:
toned tears.
But in the morning the wanderer
was gone. She had wrapped her
blanket about her and stolen away
in the night.
Again it was years before word
came from Mary Wilson. A boy,
through whose copper -colored skin
<shone the bright Caucasian blood,
brought leaf torn from the Gospel
Of St. John, upon whose narrow mar.
gin was ;scrawled her story. The
tribe. was smitten with smallpox;
Husband, children, al had died:
She herself was dying, and this and;
her eldest: son only remained: Might
the God of the Bible and her fathers
turn the hearts of their grandparents
to this, her offspring of the wilder.
ness.
The rigid policy Of the colony. de.
manded that the infected youth
should be driven forth. 1t was his
grandfather who shielded him in
close seclusion until it became evi-
dent that the pestilence had passed
him by, and was received as a brand
from the burning, as one especially
reserved by Providence for great
things.
Here the details of tradition cease.
HHtory steps in to tell us how the
halfbreed grandson Of Capt. Wilson
continued the family. that must
otherwise have become extinct, and
his descendants held high places in
all the colony.
T. If there be recurrent periods in
hereditary characteristics, it might be
said that the wild, restless, improvl-
dent Indian nature had reappeared
in the later generations of the viii.
sons. The name, which held a prom
inent. place on every tax-list from the
days when the yearly dues were paid
in corn, and finally< disappeared
with the death of Mary's father. The
property had long since been absorb:
ed by new comers. Old heads alone
now retained a memory of what the
Wilson's had been. Mary, the last Of
the line, was as solitary and estrang.
ed in the midst Of the multitude aa
her ancestors in the wilderness.
Rising from the darkness of. abo-
riginal paganism, the races seemed
to sink how in the night Of civilized
barbalism. Many Of the character:
| istics, as we'll AS the misfortunes' ol
the doomed Indian, produced them:
selves id this gir1::'' Uneducated, i'm.
petuoqs, fierce in her prejudices, and
headstrong in her confidence, she
was by nature set apart from the
crowd 81 New England factory girl
among whom she lived and struggled
Her one Wild passion had for its ob
ject the young night watchman d
the mill. . Her affection, equally rnast
and equally strong, wa; 'lavished Or
the 'eommsoan.plseed gill. y whcs'
lddt she walked through: tie lgIleea
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