Mower County transcript. [volume] (Lansing, Minn.) 1868-1915, 1877-06-14
A Brave Canadian Woman.

Think Of heavens bliss, and give the sign
To parting friends such death be mine
A Brave Canadian Woman.
Deeds Of hcroism have always com
mandcd the highest admiration, particu
larry female heroism. We are apt to lool
upon woman as the weaker portion Of ou1
race, and as dependent upon man, the
sterner and tirmer part, to sustain them
i'll hours of trial and places Of peril, whe1
the strong arm of man is put forth tt
succor and to save human lives. There
are cases. and they are not few in number
in the worlds history, where this action
is reversed-where woman stands forth
to save men. 1t is often the case where
the plant. delicate form of woman has
intcrposed to save human life, when tho
efforts of stalwart men have proved i'm.
potent and futile. 1t is of such a case
will speak, in few words, on this oc-
casion. The shores Of our great lakes
have been the scenes Of terrible disasters
they have also furnished many deeds OF
heroism and bravery unsurpassed in any
country. will tell you one Of these, one
greatest ever known on these lakes. !
will tell you OF Abigail Becker, the hero
inc Of Long Point. The scene that will
attempt to describe to you occurred some
twenty odd years ago. Mention was made
Of it then, and later, not many years ago,
the writer sent to the poet Whittier con-
densed statement Of the facts, and asked
him to weave into poem, the noble and
brave deed of Abigail Becker He pub
lished my story in the atlantic Monthly,
in prose, as written to him. had thought
as the scene was not unlike the beach of
New England (where his old home and
mine was) where he wrote his poem The
Tent on the Beach," it might inspire him
heroism, such poetic story as might
equal his former efforts. When asked by
me. why he failed to do so, he replied
Friend Dorr, thee knows but little of
making poems, they are made of cobwebs,
something floating in the air and men $
brains: why, one fragment of Abigail's
great deed would drive all poetry from
mans mind. I could not do it. l tried
to over and over again.
This story will be new to most of you.
l venture to relate it. Looking upon the
map or chart Of Lake Erie, you will see
Long Point Island on the Canada side,
near and between Port Rowan and Port
Dover, the ports above and below the
island. 1t is about seventy-fve miles
from Buffalo, running parallel with the
main shore of Canada, its western point
terminating upon Port Rowan Bay, where
is formed what is called "Thc CUT
named so, as it is formed of quick sands,
the violent gales and great waves. with
the rapid current formed by them, cut
ting through the main shore into Port
Rowan Bay, making, for a while, pass
age that vessels may sail through, and
forming, also, an island of Long Point,
when otherwise it is only peninsula,
the entrance being almost or quite choked
up with the drifting quicksand. The
whole island is made from the upheaving
sands Of the lake. 1t is covered, here and
there, with dwarf. sparse trees and trail
ing shrubbery, the land made up of
broken hillocks, with intervening ponds,
where the wild fowl in great numbers re-
sort in their season, and the muskrat and,
occasionally, otter are found.
At the time of which write, in 1854.
Long Point Island was owned as wild
land by the British or Canadian Govern.
ment. Upon its eastern end, stretched
out to long point of sand, stands light
house, built by the Canadian Government
to guide the mariner, by its clear, strong
light, up and down the lake, and 1t IS
point Of departure to assure seamen of
their position. The lighthouse and point
Of land on which it stood were, in direct
line, several miles from the main shore of
Canada, its keepers and their families be-
ing the only inhabitants proper upon the
island. Toward the upper end, near the
cut, some eight or nine miles from the
lighthouse 1.-THE whole island, probably,
is about twenty miles long,, there were
squatted and lived, temporarily, Johnny
Becker, with his wife Abigail and some
children. Johnny was trap
per; he led a nomadic life, trapping
muskrats, beaver and other game, shoot
ing ducks and fishing, eking out a poor
existence from these precarious modes of
life. He had built a sort of shanty home
from the slabs and drift-wood that had
on the beach. Here let US
trurn toit.
On cold, stormy November night in
1854, Johnny Becker was away on the
main land at Port Rowan to swap his
skins for supplies, and to return when he
could. Housed in the shanty was Abigail,
his wife, the heroine of our story. Let us
leave her there with the children, while
We turn to another scene and fact in our
story. The Canadian three-masted schoon-
er Conductor, of Amherstburg, Canada,
owned by John Mcleod, Scotch gen.
tleman and member of the Canadian Par
lament, her commander, Capt. Robert
Hackett, now Of Detroit (whose father
kept lighthouse on Bobo Island oppo-
site Amherstburg many years., and
by crew of seven men in all;
this vessel, loaded with wheat, bound
from Detroit to lower lake through the
Welland Canal, on the night in question
was in the vicinity of Long Point Island,
and near Abigail Becker's rude home. It
was blowing terrible gale of wind, the
weather bitter cold, the tops of the waves
in the air as they broke, filling it
with frozen spray, SO that nothing could
be seen twenty feet feet away from the
vessel. ..t
The Conductor was scudding before
the wind under close-reefed sails; they
judged they were a safe and proper dis
lance from the land and running parallel
with it on toward their port of destination,
in which they were deceived. They
we're nearer the Canadian shore than they
and at midnight struck the