The Press., 1891-04-09
RESCUE FROM THE SIOUX

REOCUE FKUM HE OlUUA
 On the 3d day of May 1s6;, pioneer on the Solomon river, Kansas, heard the re- ports of rifles to the west of him just as he had finished breakfast. His name was Cherry, and his family consisted of wife and two boys. Only one of the boys was at home at the time. He was a lad of 12, named John. The Indians had been surly and menacing all winter, and every white man knew that an outbreak was likely to | occur in the spring. Believing that the blow was about to fall Cherry closed and | barricaded the doors, and made ready to l hold out as long as possible.
 Two hours passed quietly, and then the settler argued that the firing must have come from party of hunters. In order to satisfy himself on this point he slipped | out of the back door into the brush, in- | tending to go up the river to the other cabin. He had gone only quarter of mile when five Indians fired on him from an ambush. Every bullet, as they after | ward related, inflicted mortal wound. | Cherry fell to the earth, but as they rushed I forward to scalp him he killed the fore | most man with shot, and then drawing | his knife, he attacked the others and cut | two of them badly before he fell down and | died. | The reports of the rifles warned Mrs. Cherry of what had happened to her hus- | band. He had taken the rife, while she 1 had 8 shotgun and Johnny had single barreled pistol. They did not have long to wait. A band of nine warriors came | toward the front of the house waving 8 | white shirt as 8 flag of truce, and when within ten feet of the door the leader 11I %o %lo1 o%1 <>f4 4ho1
 "We no hurt you if you open door!'
 eff you try to get in we shall shootr' re- | piled Mrs. Cherry.
 l The Indians laughed in derision, and | four or five stepped forward to burst in 1 the door, Mrs. Cherry and Johnnie quiet- | ly retreated to the back door, hoping to l get clear of the house, but as they opened l it two warriors were found there on guard. | Mother and son fired together and the two l men fell but before the fugitives had run | hundred yards they were oyertaken. The l first impulse of the Indians was to toma~ l hawk them, but after wrangle lasting l two or three minutes the lives of the pris- oners were spared. They were taken back l to the house, their arms tied behind their backs, and then, conducted by two war | riors, they set off for the west. The In- l dians they had fired on at the door were both dead before the party started. This made three warriors killed and two wound ed by the Cherry family.
 | Mrs. Cherry and Johnnie were taken to the other settlers, whose name was Rob- | inson. He had been shot down in his door, and his wife and sister were prisoners The house had been ransacked and set afre, and one of the Indians had Robin sons scalp at his girdle. The prisoners, who now numbered four and were guarded l by only two men, were conducted along 8 small creek which emptied into the Sol l omon, and after marching about seven miles were halted in 8 grove. The guards offered them no violence, and they were all | lowed to talk with each other as they walked along. The two Robinson women were completely overcome, but Mrs. Cherry and Johnnie were full of courage and de- | termined to escape if possible.
 l The grove had been named as 8 rendeZ- l vous, and the four prisoners were the first to reach it. One of the guards had an old wound in the side, and about an hour after reaching the grove he pulled off his shirt to dress it. Mrs. Cherry's arms were so securely bound that she could not release them. They had been more careless in the case of the boy. AS the two Indians were employed with the wound the lad worked his arms loose, and with an encouraging nod from his mother he made rush for the rifles. With one of them he shot the wounded Indian dead. The other was wrested from him before he could fire, but he turned and ran and got clear away lodging the bullet sent after him, and the surviving Indian did not dare to pursue l him for fear the women would get away 1 This brought the dead up to four. What l happened to the lad after his escape no one 1 will ever know, as no trace of him was ever discovered I myself was employed for nearly six months searching for him after peace came, but nothing came of it.
 He was not killed as he wandered about, neither was he retaken. I believe he per ished on the plains from exhaustion.
 The remaining Indian sat with his rife across his knees and guarded the women until band of seven or eight of his com panions came up. They had as prisoners two children belonging to 8 family named Hascall, woman named Deering and 8 boy 10 years old named Lawton. This boy had been living with an uncle named Thomas, and both his aunt and uncle had been killed. In the raid on the settlers quite 8 number of Indians had been killed and many wounded. But for the efforts of the subchiefs all the prisoners would have been tomahawked. About 3 o'clock in the afternoon the party left the grove and headed to the northwest. All the lashings were cast off to enable the prisoners to move faster, and in the confusion of start ing Mrs. Cherry managed to pick up and secrete hunting knife which had be- longed to the Indian her boy shot. After travelling four hours the Indians made a camp without fire, food or water. Here l one of the Indians attempted to outrage ! Mrs. Cherry, and she gave him such blow | a vuith ho koor olr
 knife that his head was almost severed from his body. She was disarmed and
 tied hand and foot, and the Indians prom
 ised that she should be tortured for three
 whole days before death came to her relief
 l must now continue the story from a n4nefep5 experlence. Twenty days after the party of prisoners had disappeared into the Indian country was engaged by the father of the Layton boy and by a brother of Mrs. Cherry to make an effort to find and rescue them. The northern and vest ern parts of Kansas were then in the hands of the hostiles, many of the forts and posts besieged, and there were no railroads to transport troops. Indeed, the lethargy of the government in re-sqforcing the troops occupying stations greatly encouraged the Indians and prolonged the war;
 When cut loose from the frontier had
 
 named Reid. We were mounted on fine and speedy mules, had Winchester rifles and revolvers, and the pair of us were put up against four or five large tribes of In- dians. Scores of prison~-s had been car ried off along the entire frontier, and to look for any particular one seemed a hone less task. We knew, however, that the two we wanted had made their start from the grove on Mink creek, and we decided to make that our point of departure. It was then forty miles from the nearest mili- tary post, but we reached it without acci- dent. We had not yet unsaddled our horses when Tom made adiscovery that furnished ns with clew. He picked gp an Indian tobacco pouch which had belonged to a Sioux. Up to this time we did not know whether the pair we were after had been captured by the Sioux or Cheyennes. This l rzG acr l. ss=A Ai. slI 1 as