Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1882-05-11
NUMBER 10.
A WHITE WAIF.
Twenty Years Prisoner Among the IndIans-A
Wisconsin Romance

! Wlscuhsfn Romance.
winona. Mimi. Special to the Chicago Times.
The history of singular case, one
which might, if the phrase were not too
hackneyed, be said to demonstrate that
truth is stranger than fiction. has Just
come into the possession of the Times
correspondent. In the quiet village of
ST. Charles, in the Western end of this
| county. there resides a lady named Mrs.
Ruth A. Barber. She has been married
twice. Her first husband was named
Camp, and was one of the brave "bovs
in blue" who faced the music Of the
rebel artillery and gave up their lives
that the union might live at the battle
of Pittsburg Landing. His relict then
lived. with several small children, on the
Big Wolf River. Waupaca county. Wis
consin. In 1864 one of her children.
named Orton Morrell Camp. about 4
years of age at that time, mysteriously
disappeared. He was last seen BY his
mother playing on the river bank, and
his little cap being found floating on the
stream. it was generally supposed he
had been drowned A persistent search
and dragging of the river failed to dis
cover his body or any further trace of
him. His mother did not for time
fully accept the drowning theory, a hope
clinging to her, as it only will to
mother, that at some time the missing
darling would turn up. In the neigh
borhood of her residence were camped
a rowing band of Pottawattamie Indians.
the chief of whom, Nassana, had often
tried TO barter with her for the boy, he
having taken great liking to him.
Mrs. Camp believed her boy to have
been spirited away, but no evidence
could be procured to fasten the guilt
upon the Indians. The band was traced
and the camp searched, and the whole
country adjacent vainly secured in the
hopes OF discovering some trace of the
boy. AT last even the mothers patience
and hope died, and she settled down TO
the belief that her boy was dead She
married again. and with her husband
removed to this county. Her other chill
dren grew up about her. became men
and women, and settled down in homes
of their own. One of these, James w.
Camp, located at Royalton, Wis He
was at work in one of the mills there a
few days since when a rowing band of
Indians camped in the vicinity, and
among the number Mr.. Camp noticed
one whose white skin clearly betokened
that he did not belong to the tribe, al
though his garb was of the Indian fash
ion, MIR. Camp being interested in him,
found he could speak English clearly.
and learned in conversation with him
that he was aware that he had been
stolen from white parents when small
tie had, OF his own impulse, made fire.
quent inquiries concerning the wllerea-
bouts of his parents, but all efforts in
that respect had been fruitless. He
could remember but very few incidents
OF his youth previous to being so uncer-
enormously adopted by the Indians, but
he could recollect that his parents called
him Morrell. Such was the name of
MIR. Camps lost brother, and the con
yiction flashed upon him that at last the
lost had been found. Two scars on the
person of the n ewly-fOund brother es-
tabllshed chain of evidence which put
the question of his identity entirely be-
yond doubt. His mother was at once
notified, and, as might be expected,
sped to him by the next train. The
young man found it hard to break
away from the life which he had led so
long and the habits which he had
formed, but the better promptings of
his heart and the warnings of love for
the being who bore him weighed greater
in the balance, and he now begins new
existence among the surroundings of
civilized life-the stay and support of a
fond mother in whose heart during these
eighteen long years there has ever been
niche sacred to his name and memory.