The new Northwest. [volume] (Portland, Or.) 1871-1887, 1877-03-23
Woman's Heroism,

There died in the city of Detroit,
Michigan, on the 9th of January, 1877,
woman SO little known, even to the
people on the block in which she lived,
that the Grape on the door was the first
warning many of them had that she
had been i'll. Itwas the widow Hutley,
and living in the same cottage, and
made widow at the same time, was
Mrs. Ebberts.
When the frontier troubles began, the
two widows were wives and mothers,
living in log cabins about a mile apart,
These two cabins were the only ones
for three or four miles either way, and
when the conduct of the Indians be-
came so suspicious that prudence coun-
seled removal from the frontier, the
Ehberts family left their home and con-
solidated with the Hutleys for mutual
defense. Each family had two children,
making eight persons in the cabin. The
Indians had thus far molested no one,
but they wore fierce and surly looks,
skulked about as if keeping watch on
the settler, and the pioneers were living
In state OF excitement and apprehen-
sion. One day, when the women had
occupied the same cabin for two weeks,
Mr.. Hutley started for a settlement
ions, leaving Mr.. Ebberts to guard the
cabin. All outdoor work had ceased.
If the pioneer moved outside of the bar
ricaded cabin, his life was carried in
his hand, and his eyes were on the alert
to detect the presence of the expected
foe.
The average women can sever the ties
OF friendship, or rise superior to the
perils of the hour, to carry her point.
Mr. Hutley had not been gone an hour
when the children, rendered nervous
and irritable by their close confine-
ment, engaged in a quarrel. The eldest
child was only five, so that no great
physical damage could have been in
fiicted, but the quarrel angered the
mothers; harsh words passed, and Mrs.
Ebberts declared that she would not re-
main in the Hutley cabin another hour.
Her husband was weak-mipded enough
to share in her feelings, and immedi-
ately preparations were made to return
and occupy his own cabin. He took
the bed on his back, and the oldest
child by the hand and started for home.
leaving his wife to follow on with his
rifle and the other child. Anger brought
such spirit of recklessness that the
man no longer feared any danger Mrs,
IOIlOW.
having to make up a bundle Of little ar
tieles, and the husband had about
twenty minutes start of her. While
both women were heartily ashamed of
their silly conduct five minutes after
their hot words had been spoken, vet
neither would be the first to make con-
ciliatory advances, and Mrs. Hutley
stood in her cabin door and saw Mrs.
Ebberts and child disappear in the
forest.
Just as she lost sight of them she
heard the report of rifles and faint wells
ih the direction of the other cabin, and
she instantly OWNED that the long-ex-
Pected blow had fallen. Forgetting ev-
erything but the fact that her neighbors
were ia peril, she took down the spare
rife which her husband had provided and
which she knew how to use, warned her
children not to leave the cabin, and in
two or three minutes she was running
through the woods after Mrs. Ehberts.
It subsequently appeared that Ebberts
had Just reached his home when he was
attacked by band of at least fifty In
dians. The child was shot dead at the
first volley, but the father prolonged
bis life for few minutes by lodging
from tree to tree. His wife was within
eighty rods of him when he was killed.
She heard the firing and whooping,
and, while prudence warned her to re-
treat, her love forced her on to ioin her
husband. The Indians had caught sight
OF her, and opened fire when Mrs. Hut
ley came up.
History will never record braver