Barbour County index. [volume] (Medicine Lodge, Kan.) 1880-current, 1888-02-01
A TRUE TALE.
And One That Is Stranger Than
Fiction.

One October day, about one hundred
and twenty five years ago, two small boys
were returning from log schoolhouse,
in Bath County, Virginia. A hundred
and twenty five years! which means that
what is now Bath County, was wilder
ness, with here and there a clearing, here
and there a hut, here and there a stockade
fort, for defense against the Indians.
These two little boys were Daniel and
Samuel Brown; their father had small
fort on Jackson's river, to which the
neighbors, men, women and children,
were wont to gather when reports came
that dusky forms had been sighted in the
woods, and the stoutest hearts quailed be-
fore the enemy that could not be faced.
since he kent ever behind their backs,
alert, cunning, relentless.
"Hi! Dan," whispered the younger boy
the blood suddenly leaving his sun burnt
cheek, whats that anent the big maple
yonder?"
Dan lifted his head with quick suspicion
and saw a shadow pass into the denser
woods on their right. "Mebbe it's q buck,
SAM" he said, with manly desire not to
scare the smaller boy.
"A buck :" answered Sam, scorning to
be treated as if he were a coward; "it's
the kind o. buck that wears a blade, tell
ye. Let's put out"
"You hie on, Sam, and get behind the
walls, quick as ever you can; nanny
and dad are working in the three-cor-
nered field, and Pm bound to go round
that way and give them warnin'."
1t was with difficulty that Dan could
persuade Sam to go to the fort, leaving
him to the perilous task of warning the
workers in the corn-field. The forest
born lads Of those trying times were
trained to face danger, and were often as
cool and as plucky as the young Indian
| braves themselves. Dan succeeded in per-
suading Sam TO go to the fort, by remind
ing him that those within the stockade
must be put on their guard. The brothers
| separated, but before Sam reached the
fort, he saw the flames going up from its
wooden walls, telling the cruel story of
| death and destruction.
Nor did Dan ever reach the three cor.
nered field. Cleaning eyes, concealed by
| bush and tree, had watched the boys as
| they separated, and while a dozen saw
ages had preceded Sam to the fort, others
made a short circuit, and, intercepting
Dan, gagged and bound him.
He was a well-grown boy of eleven
years, stout of heart and limb, and the
men of the woods adm red the pluck and
self-control with which he stood his
capture and imprisonment. They kept
him at first, in order to torture him for
their amusement, and compelled him to
| gather the wood which they signed to
him was intended for his own
death fire. They showed him
the plated buckskin with which he was
to be bound, and driven round and round
a tree, until the rope having coiled its
whole length upon the tree, he would be
L -
IDENTIFY they expected him to break down.
But Dan was clever as we'll as brave,
and his wits were at work TO save his life.
He bore himself with the proud indiffer-
ence so much admired by the Indians, and
every little while he would lift his head
suddenly, as il listening for and expect
ing something.
| Now nothing escapes an Indians no.
tice, and Dams captors did not doubt that
| he had some reason to expect q rescuing
party; so they hastened to rejoin their
comrades near the fort, and the poor boy
was sickened, soul and body, by the sight
of dripping scalps in the possession Of
those who had gotten behind the stock
ade. The Indians had, in fact, man aged
to take two scalps from each victim, and
Dan, sure now that his parents were
dead, gave up all thought of escape, and
moved on passively with the band, who,
having obtained information that Captain
Paul was on trail with twice their num-
bers, now hied Off to the northwest. TAX
ing with them the scalps of their victims,
their weapons and the boy captive.
Fifty years after this raid there came to
Bath County a splendid looking old chief
i'm Indian dress, accompanied by a grown
son and daughter and a few warriors.
! The stranger inquired from house to house
for Mrs. Brown, and came finally to the
residence of Colonel Samuel Brown, who
owned a fine estate, and had a large
family around him. With him his old
widowed mother lived, bent and feeble,
broken in spirit, but with a clear mind
and memory. CooAel Brown, with the
prompt hospitality of that day, invited
the travellers to become his guests, and
his invitation was accepted. When the
time came for the evening meal, which
was served in the wids. clean kitchen,
the master of the house went to an inner
room and brought out on his arm his
Bged mother.
The instant she crossed the threshold
the Indian chief and his children sprang
forward and knelt before her; they were
silent, after the Indian fashion. but the
chief showed strong emotion in every
line of his rugged features.
The old woman trembled violently as
she eazed upon the kneeling figures Of
father and son; something in the younger
face confirmed the wild hope that swept
through her soul, and with a cry as OF
one who sees the dead come back to life.
she fell upon the old warrior kneeling be-
fore hero Dan. my boy, my boy J"
II was indeed the boy she had lost half
century before. Fifty years had
changed him from a ruddy STRIPPING into
bronzed and white-headed old man;
had given a new generation to take the
place OF the old, had brought the old
mother herself to the brink of eternity,
yet it could not make her forget her first
born Under his change OF name and nat.
ure and garb and guise she recognized