Perrysburg journal. (Perrysburg, Wood Co., O. [Ohio]) 186?-1965, 1890-12-27

flNT the writer the other morning
ie5G5S5 ut the corner and asSed him IL
he wouldn't like 10 see an account Of
how Christmas was observed up in old
Fort Meigs in the days OF ''long ago. +"
The writer replied that he would be
delighted TO rend the paper, and the
old fellow fumbled around until he pro-
duced much crumpled and terribly
greuse-stnincd document from one of
the cnpncious pockets in the appendix
to his shiny thrcad-bare coat. After
much smoothing cut, and some splicing
together. the thing proved to be let
ter written by one "John Waldorf,
whose home was in Fleming County
Kentucky, but who was Mt the time of
writing. one of the guard left by Cen
cral Harrison to protect Fort Meigs
after the British soldiers had been
driven away in the famous engage
meuts of May, 1913. 1t was to his
cousin, Charles Cornelius Waldorf, of
Tiogu, Pennsylvania, ,nd came into the
man by II round about process of "wife's
relations, and such things, which it is
unnecessary to relate. The date of the
document is Dee. 29th, 1918, and runs
us follows:
I'm your far off home among the
everlasting hills and valleys of good
Old Pennsylvania, you probably enjoyed
your Christmas day in the way in
which any one but an outright barbar-
ian ought to ENJOY it. When you were
here with US in May, the atmosphere
was exceedingly warm. The sun did
part of it, and Old Proctor furnished
the other part.
| 1t is all different now. Proctor is no
more, Tecumseh is gone, and the sun
has slipped so far south that it makes II
thermometer sick to think how low
down it has gotten. There WASH t
more than II thumbs breadth of the
quicksilver sticking out of the ball On
Chritmas day, and you know our pala-
tial huts are anything but lighthouses.
Some of the cracks are so large that We
often fear that the wind will blow the
wolves through them. Then. you
know, we are propped up on the hill
where all the wind from the North Pole
can get fair clip at US. To our north
is the cold lake with not less than two
feet of ice on it, and there isn't n blade
of grass high enough to keep the ice
cream breezes off of us.
But all this is foreign to the subject,
for started out to tell you how we
spent the holiday. Well, early in the
morning one of the pickets said he saw
Indians. or something that rcsembled Il
body of men, passing through the
woods back of the Fort, and that they
were so quiet that he feared mischief
was brewing. On such cold nights we
always had II score of redskins inside
of the stockades warming their feet,
and lying about the fires. They were
harmless enough, but this night their
absence seemed to us strange. Not II
single buck had shown himself, and
then for u party to steal quietly through
the forest near day break on such u
frighttully cold morning, was some
thing, at least, to demand investiga-
tion.
There was u long and earnest con-
sultation, then Captain Carter came
toward us, and asked if any men
would volunteer to follow that party
and discover their intentions. Now,
you know that while l never was
charged with being brave, | have
always been accused of being a con-
demned fool, so said that would go,
and ten more men were similar fools,
and they said they would go, and then
Captain Carter wouldn't back down, so
he said he would go to make out the
dozen.
We ate our breakfast, put on our fur
caps, gathered up our guns, and struck
Tor the timber line, back of the fort.
There was snow, and there were like
WlSC lcH tIuCho Va SSfoo III
the snow for mile around our quar-
ters, for the snow had been on the
ground for over two weeks. 1t was
not long, however, before we began to
get out into an almost trackless sheet
of white, and came ut length upon the
trail of the band. There were evil
IDENTITY anywhere from twenty to fifty
of them, and they had walked SO nearly
in straight line that we thought ut
first there were not more than three
or four. We knew the habits of
Indians too well to be long deceived,
and pushed on to see what the scheme
could be. They had no cause to care
to conceal their tracks If they were
good Indians, " and the fact that they
did attempt to deceive us proved con-
clusively thaG they were just the
opposite; and we knew enough of their