St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1877-08-10
Ethan Allen and the Lost Children.

NARRATIVE OF THE REMARKABLE PRES
ERyATION OF TWO CHILDREN, LOST
IN SUNDERLAND, IN 1880.
From the Burlington Sentinel, March 16, 1891
On the last day of May, 1880, Keziah,
aged seven, and Betsy, four years of
age, daughters of Eldad Taylor, living
in Sunderland, went into the woods
toward the Roaring Branch, about one
o'clock in the afternoon. After wan
dering about an hour or two they per-
ceived they were lost. Their parents
became alarmed two or three hours af-
ter their departure and several of their
neighbors searched all night by torch
light. The second day the country was
alarmed-peOple collected from Man.
chester, Arlington, SALISBURY and Ben
nington. Col. Ethan Allen then lived
in Sunderland, and was one of the first
who came to the assistance of the dis
tressed family. He avOwed his determ-
ination to find the children, or look till
he died, and took a sort of command of
the party from the first. They were
to advance at arms length from each
other in Il line, keeping their range
carefully searching us they proceeded
no guns to be fired at game of any kind,
or on any occasion, except as a signal
when the children should be found.
Several parties encamped in the woods
and staid through the second night.
The country for n great distance was
in agitation, and on the third day, peO-
pie came from the borders of Massachu-
setts and from White Creek, Salem and
Cambridge, in the State of New York,
until it was now believed by those liv-
ing who were present, that the number
amounted to six or seven hundred. On
the third day, the sun being three hours
high, nearly the whole company came
to the residence of the parents-faint,
weary and hungry. They seemed to
be discouraged and several were about
to withdraw. At that moment, Col.
Allen ascended a stump, and in voice
as loud as when he summoned the COM
mand of Fort TicOnderoga to surrender,
he commanded attention. The people
gave heed, and he addressed them in
the most earnest manner-pointed to
the afflicted and agOnized parents who
make the case his own and ask himself
if the lost children were his, whether he
would go off, without making one more
effort to find them. The tears fell fast
from his cheeks, and it is believed that
there were but few if any dry eyes in
that assemblage of several hundred
men. "Tll go-I'll CO." was heard from
every quarter of the crowd. They took
to the woods with fresh courage and
before the sun went down, as if to re-
ward their kind intentions, the signal
was fired-the lost children were found
and found alive. The signal was i'm
mediately answered by the main body.
They were found by Captains Bull
Bartlett, Underhill and Dyer Bingham,
who had by some means been separated
from the main body and were not at the
house when Col. Allen addressed the
multitude.
The children were soon brought in,
and the company returned to the house
of the parents. The company were then
formed in two lines facing each other a
few feet apart-the parents each with
one of the lost children passed through,
that. all might see them Col. Allen
walked Immediately after the parents,
making such observations as the occa-
sion seemed to require. That done,
the colonel again ascended the stump,
thanked the people very handsomely
on behalf of the parents for their kind
ness, so long continued, and thanked
God most heartily for their success.
The people then departed peaceably to
their homes.
From a late relation of one of the
persons it appears that after perceiving
they were lost, they exerted themselves
to find their way back until after dark,
when weary with walking and crying
they sank down and slept at the foot of
large tree. The next day they wan
dered in search of berries-the only
substitute for food. They heard the
sounding of horns frequently but did
not know from what direction it pro-
ceeded this being the second day, they
made bed of hemlock boughs and
moss upon large rock, upon which
they slept that highland on that rock
they were found. The younger child
was sick and thirsty in the night-they
got up, took hold of hands, groped their
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