The Bolivar bulletin. [volume] (Bolivar, Hardeman County, Tenn.) 1865-1888, 1878-06-13
S 1.5O Per Annum.

| American officer at Fort Dearborn;
: making eyery effort to soathe the wound
ed pride and passion OF the Indian, and
| trying to excuse the indiscretlon OF his
| son. The Indian heard him in silence,
| and then springing st bound upon his
horse, he paused q moment and SAID
80 The word of We-no-nah Is like the word
/ of the great spirit; the young whlte
chief talks like the crawling serpent;
and with these words he wheeled his
horse and rode rapidly away, AMI was
not seen for a long time anywhere along
the banks of Rock river. twas Tumored
that he and his band had crossed the
Mississippi and had gone far toward the
setting sun. Gradually, time and the
long absence Of the chief relieved the
anxiety of the Graham family growing
out of the incidents described, and the
'' Rose of Rock river" became a happy
wife and mother. A son born to her she
had, in remembrance of her dusky lover,
cbristened We-no-nah. One day, when
the in ant had grown to be sturdy
child of about twelve months, Captain
Graham, his sons and all the men ser
wants being absent, driving herd OF
cattle to Fort Dearborn, the young
mother sat singing cradle song to her
child sleeping at her feet, when she was
startled by seeing the chief ride up to
t door. He was painted in the war
paint of his tribe. and looked stern and
savage. Suppressing with great difficulty
and a wonderful self control all indica-
tions of distrust and fear, she welcomed
him kindly, placed food before him and
treated him with all the kindness of an
old friend. He haughtily refused the
food she offered, and stood gazing wildly
upOn her and the sleeping child. She
saw that his rage and passions were
rising into uncomfortable fury, and that
he was working himself up to deso
perate deed. His face grew dark and
black as the thunder cloud before the
lightning bursts; his eyes cleaned with
ferocity; one hand clutched the scalplng-
knife, and the other the tOmahawk,
which he was already raising. A hoTrld
death for herself and her child seemed
her instant doom, when sudden thought
OF appealing to the Indians better nature
flashed through her brain, and, instantly
seizing her child and holding him up to
the chief, she cried: "Look, We>nO-nahI
Is not this a noble boy? He will be
great chief. / have named him We~no-
nah, in memory of yeu." The child
smiled at the feathers which hung from
the head bending over him. For mo-
ment the Indian hesitated, the tomahawk
was lowered in his grasp, and then he
exclaimed, with q bitter smile: Pap
poose is very brave, white squaw very
bad, white pappOose is good, We-no-nah
will make a great chief of the young
eagle" and instantly snatching the child
from the arms of the hOrror-stricken
mother, and sPringing with it away from
her impioring gesture, in an instant he
was on the back of his horse, flying like
the wind across the praiTies; and before
Captain Graham and his party could
| return he had placed the Mississippi
between him and the heart-broken
mother, and was flying far toward the
Rocky mountains. No efforts of the
family or the government were ever able
to rescue the stolen child.
The bereaved mother, the fair "ROse of
Rock river" did not long survive the
loss of her child. Her family are scat
tered, and there remains nothing of this
once happy household but lonely bluff,
which looks down upon the dark waters
of the river, and a rough, gray stone,
crowning lonesome cairn, marked with
the name of Wauban."
Such is the tale told to me thirty years
ago, and still told to the traveller as he
sits by the freside of the " lockwood
farm house" "Time runs its ceaseiess
course" The Graham family are scat
tered and gone, their beautiful home
has passed into other hands, and it boots
not now to tell how or by what changes
the agate necklace, the stones for which
were gathered by an Indian prince on the
shores of Lake Superior, and that once
told the love of an OttOWa chief for
white maiden, found its way to the an
cestral home of the Grahams, among the
highlands of Scotland, and was made to
express the kind wishes of an American
for a Scotch lassie as lovely as the "Rose
of Rock river."--[ Chicago Journal.