Bismarck weekly tribune. [volume] (Bismarck, Dakota [N.D.]) 1884-1943, 1891-05-29
ROMANCE OF AN ABDUCTION.

Stolen by the Indians When IL Child.
There is a barber named Henry Petit
who has a rare tale of adventure to tell
concerning himself, of how he was stolen
when four years old by the Indians, and
how he finally found his father. Petit
was born in 1888 at the Indian trading post
near Huron. Mich, where his father had
IN exchange store and was patronized by
the Indians.
In 1912 Turkey Foot, chief of the Black
Creek Indians, got into a difficulty with
the father of Petit, claiming that he had
given him a "wildcat'' dollar in making
change. This was denied by Petit, who
would not take back the money. The In
dian went away mad, and vowing that he
would get even. The Indians about this
time sold their lands about Port Huron,
and were being removed to a reservation
near the present city of Sandusky. This
Indian at once executed a plan to get re-
venge IN Petit.
The night before Turkey Foot left he
stole the boy in this manner He found
out that Petit was not at home one night,
and he entered the house about midnight.
Walking lightly across the floor he jerked
the sleeping babe from the arms of the
mother, who awoke in alarm, only to find
that her baby was gone. A diligent search
failed to find a trace of the missing boy,
and he was given up as dead. The Indian
took the lad, now fou years old, to Ohio,
where an old squaw took charge of him.
There was a white man with the tribe
named Timothy Crocker, whom the In
dams sent back to Port Huron to tell Pet
tit hat his boy had died in Canada. Thus
the parents were made to believe that their
boy was dead. The lad lived with the
Indians until eleven years old, when a man
named Howser, of Williamsport, Pa, who
was among these Indians, bought the boy
for a small consideration and took him
back to his home. The boy there learned
the BARRIERS trade, but as to where the
Indians got him he coulu not remember.
He was sent to school at Republic, O.,
where he received a license to teach. He
was there going by the nam of Timothy
CrOcker, and in 1865 he was married tC
Miss Catharine Eckert, who lived at Del.
phi, this state, where he purchased a bar.
Der shop.
When the war commenced he enlisted
in the Ninth Indiana infantry. While
this regiment was with Sherman in the
"march to the seal and in Alabama,
"Crocker' was approached by n man who
asked him his name. "Crooker" told him,
and the man denied it, saying that he was
the very counterpart of a Mr.. Petit, at
Port Huron, Mich: that he must be the
missing son, long since supposed to be
dead. The stranger took the name of the
town where "Crocker" lived, and told him
that when the war closed proof would be
presented showing that ''rimothy Crocker''
was Henry Petit, the son of Edward
Petit.
After the war "Crocker" settled at
Westville, near La Porte, where he soon
heard from the mysterious person who had
told him such a strange story while in the
army. This was soon followed by a tele-
gram from Edward Petit, of Port Huron,
Mich, saying, Come at once and lose nc
time" "Crocker' went, hardly knowing
what to think would be the outcome of his
trip. He arrived at Port Huron, and upon
stepping from the train he met his father
face to face-two men almost the exact
image of each other. There could be nc
installing the fact that one was the father
} and the other the son. The mother had
died many years before.-Cor. indianapolis
Journal.