Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1890-01-23
THE OLD MANS TALES.
4 GREEN COUNTY, ILLS, FARMER
TALKS ABOUT OLD TIMES.

Their frOmis0S-IkV10S In Cose-1he
Adventure of Little Til Pruitt-A Woman
Deserted Her Indian Husband.
'eThis land was paradise" says q gentle,
kindly old man OF s., known in this region
as Uncle Rowel Honeycutt, "when could
stand on the bluff and iook down in the river
bottom and count fifty deer in sight. White
men hadn't spoiled the Country and turned
everything to dollars. Neighbors thought
of what they could do for one another, not
Of how they might take advantage. And the
Indians were always honest"
Among eastern nations the best pastlme
was listening to the tales of old men. Their
experience is kind of wealth which time
has not yet given Us, and when ours comes 1t
will bear different date and be different
kind of experience.
Here is an old man who may pass out OF
sight any day. But while he lasts we may
look through him, as through field glass, at
the early life Of this country.
He has thin hair, faded blue eyes, and
few teeth, hard as nuts, and impresses sensi-
tive beholders as an aged boy, grieved by
civilization and always honlesick for his first
playmates, the Indians. He is not in bar
mony with Anglo-Saxon ways. The red
tribes always treated him well.
AWAY BACK IN 1920
II lived with the Sauks and Foxes three
months" says this old man; 81 went with
them when they left this county and went to
their reservation in Iowa. And l would like
to go to Oregon now-as far west as l could
reach-and spend my last days in sight Of the
tribes left there.
IAN Indian you could trust. He keeps his
word. Once met an Indian out here on the
bluff and he borrowed ten bullets of me. You
couldn't get lead Tor making bullets short OF
Alton then. They were rather precious This
young Indian said he would return the bullets
in certain number of days when the sun was
SO high-he lifted his hand to show about the
middle of the forenoon-and meet me where
we then stood. That day, within an hour Of
the time, that Indian was there with the bull
lets, and he had walked fifty miles to keep
his word. HoneStest folks ever saw.
Eyes, lam a wild man myself yet. I wish
I could 20 to such another country as this
was in 40. We came in 1877. My father
moved his family first into cave in the bluff,
near spring. The time Of the year was May.
1t was pretty living. We built our fire against
the back of the cave, and the smoke oozed
along the roof and went out at the cave door
without doing any damage The mark OF the
smokes on that cave roof yet. The country
was full of game Only six white men were
here then.
'Once they had a mill raising up the river.
The mills standing yet. It ought to stand.
1t was built Of timbers fifteen inches square.
A rope broke at the raising, and ono of the
timbers fell and killed nearly all the men in
one county, Six men. That's about all there
were in that county.
"But Seeley's mill over here; it was the
place where everybody used to grind. Folks
brought their grists from Jacksonville and
Springfield. jacksonville and Springfield
haven't been where they are very long.
though. ! went over their sites in 1881, and
there wasn't house.
'Some tine men came out Of this region
around here There was Maj. Ringgold that
died in the Mexican war; he used to be part
owner of Seeley's mill But some folks here
In '23 didn't enjoy this country. A mans
wife got sick and wanted a pound of tea, and
he walked clear to ST. Louis TO get it for her.
He moved back east. He said it was too hard
for him here.
'sThe women did have scares. This was
when the British gave bounty on scalps.
Some Indians went down Wood river and
killed six children and a woman and brought
away their scalps-the quirl of the head, you
know, where the hair grows around. Maj.
Pruitt and some more whites got on horses
and chased them down. They killed An In
dian, and the rest ran for twenty-four hours
and bled to death at the nose they got 50 e1-
hausted. Shabbona told me about their
bleeding to death. He was the only one that
got away Maj. Pruitt took back the wom-
ans scalp to her husband.
at was little I'll Pr1itt, my wife's sister,
that got lost, and had all the men betwi1t
here and Alton turn out to hunt her.
'Her mother was sick abed when it hap
pened and afterward died Of the scare. Til
slipped out after her cousins when they went
into the woods to hunt greens. Her mother
thought she was with her father at his chop
ping. She was barefooted and bareheaded
and had on nothing but a cotton slip. It was
the 9th day of April 1890. She was gone
two nights and two days. One night she
slept in the bed Of . dry run where leaves
had drifted thick. She followed the course
of a stream, and that's how she got lost. 1t
made a crook and turned her. She waded
across. The folks out hunting found her lit
tie footprints, and bear's tracks close by.
Til was about 4 years old. The men hunted
down the bear and killed him, and cut him
open, but he hadn't got hold OF the child.
When they found her she was asleep. They
wouldn't have found her easy If she'd been
awake. She'd got pretty wild. She says
when she saw anybody or heard the shouting
she'd hide. She was afraid Of men that were
not her dad. Per feet were al cut and
bloody and her slip Was in tatters. Every
man had carried hunk Of bread and meat
In bis pocket to feed her with when they
found her, and she was nigh starved, and
weak, and they carried her to her father.
More than . hundred men took dinner at
PFlitt's the day FL was found There was
frost both nights that she was out. The
woods were full Of b.ars and wildcats and
painters and Indians.
eyes, did know . couple Of children that
were carried of and brought up among the
Indians; two girls, ono not 4 years Old.
Taken prisoners, and the oldest one never
got back, but the youngest one-I found her
out here at the point Of the bluff. See was
with the tribe. / knew her, though she was
a woman of 80 then and had an Indian hus-
band and two half breed children-boy and
girl The boy was named Baptiste and the
girl was named kloteed. Kloteed Is an In
dian name.
"As soon as that woman satisfied herself
she wasn't an Indian but was white, she took
her children and LEFT her husband. She went
to live with her white uncles fanAily-uncle
that lived not far from here.
"Her husband would come and stand by
the window and cry two or three days at
time, but she Wouldn't 80 back He begged
her to go, but she wouldn't do 1t The chill
drea both got sick and died They couldn't
stand life In a house. they were made 10 be