Butler citizen. [volume] (Butler, Pa.) 1877-1922, 1889-10-18
THE WYOMING CAPTIVE.

Correspondence bI W IlitIllSpoIty u,
| Gazette + BHlletR.)
For rich and well cultivated farms the
part of the Wabash Valley about Peru,
Ind, is hard to excel. Peru is the capital
| of Miami County, and it is a very neat and
beautiful little city of ten thousand inhab
itaEtS The Court House is commanding
structure of brick with tower and clock,
and well kept lawn adds to the attract
iveness Of its surroundings The streets
are wide, the buildings stately and hand
some, and everything bears evidence of
thrift and prosperity The main line of
the great Wabash Railroad runs through
| the town. Electric lights illuminate the
streets at night and natural gas warns the
houses of the inhabitants. 1t is brought
brought from Kokomo, which is the centre
of the gas field, and less than thirty miles
| away.
But it is not my intention to write par
ticularIy of this charming agricultural reg
ion and the prosperous and well to do peo
| pie. / came here for the purpose OF visit
ing some of the descendants of Frances
Slocum, the girl captive of Wyoming. The
story of her captivity, wanderings and
| death, is the most romantic in the annals
of Indian history. The Slocum family,
readers of our early history well remember,
| lived at Wyoming in l777. One day in the
summer of that year band of Delaware
Indians suddenly appeared before the Slo-
cum cabin, and after killing and scalping
| boy, seized little Frances, then only about
| three years of age, and carried her away.
| The mother, with several other children,
| escaped to the forest. The last she saw of
her daughter was when she was thrown
across the back of stalwart Indian and
with outstretched arms beckoned heI moth
| er for protection Years rolled away and
no tidings We're ever heard of the captive
child Many believed her dead, but the
mother always entertained the idea that
she was alive and well, and would finally
return to her But that hope was never
realized The mother died without ever
| learning the fate of her child. The broth
ers and sisters attained ripe ages, and gray
and venerable were passing down the sha
| dy hillside of life, when rumor came
| from the West that woman was living
with the Miamis on the banks of the Mis-
sissinewa who evidently had white blood
in her veins. The discovery was made by
George W. Ewing, Indian agent at Logans-
port, in 1882, fifty-fve years after the
child had been carried into captivity. He
was making a visit to some of the Miami
villages, and stopping at the cabin of an
Indian noticed that the squaw was evident
ly not of Indian origin, on account of the
whiteness of her skin. He interrogated
her i'll the dialect of the tribe, when she
admitted to him that she remembered her
name was Slocum, that she was carried
away from the Susquehanna when she was
a child and that she had hrothers and sis
tiers. That was ali she knew of her early
life, and she appeared TO be greatly alarm
ed for she had been taught to fear the
whites Thus was the discovery of her ex-
istence made But need not stop to tell
how the letter Mr. Ewing wrote concerning
her laid for two years in the Lancaster
postofice. how it fell into the hands of
John W. Forney, was published, and the
facts made known to the world; how she
was visited here sixty years afterwards by
her brother and sister; how they finally
proved her identity and she told the story
of her life; how they were entertained by
her, and how they plead with her to re
turn with them to civilized life; how she
resisted all their opportunities aud prefer
red to remain with the people who had
reared and tenderly cared for her; how
she was happy and contented with her
children around her, and wished to spend
her last days on the banks of the lovely
Mississinewa.
1t was for the purpose of visiting the
place where Frances Slocum spent hel
last DAYS that | came here. Major Nc
Fadin, an old resident of LOgansport, ac-
companied me. For fifty years he has
been a resident of LOganSport, and is famil
lar with the Indian history of the country.
The objective point of our visit was 10 the
house of Gabriel Godfrey, who lived about
three miles north of Peru, ON the banks o
the Mississiuewa River, short distance
above its junction with the Wabash. Hi
father, Francis Godfrey, was the last great
chief of the Miamis His mother was
pure Indian woman, and his father was a
Frenchman. The son, Gabriel, whom We
visited was q half breed, but he bore tht
! unmistakable traces and lineaments of al
Indian When young man he had mar
ried grand daughter of Frances Slocum
aud his children were descendants of tn
= captive child of Wyoming. Mr. Godfrey
who is an intelligent and we'll educated
farmer, owns one the richest and fines
. | n,,ltiuataA farms in the YallnV of the Ma