Weekly expositor. (Brockway Centre, Mich.) 1882-1894, 1892-01-08
AN UNCANNY LEGEND.
THE WEIRD STORY TOLD OF A
BEAUTIFUL VALLEY.
Killed by n Wandering Band or Indians
How the First Settlers Were
Wiped From tho Face OF
the Earth.

There is an uncanny local legend OF
the lower end OF the CHARTERS creek
valley. near Pittsburg, which is known
TO the older inhabitants OF that section
as .'The Scalp Legend OF the Char
tiers" says the Dispatch.
A mile or so up the creek the valley
opens out making beautiful pastoral
expanse Of fertile bottom land. The
view over and upon this from the billy
heights at the rear OF Sheridan is
lovely by day and weird by night.
The last named element in the night
scene is partially caused by the flick
eriag gas fires from the wells in the
CHARTERS field.
At an early date in the pioneer his
tory Of this section, and long before
the days of Indian warfare had ended.
an adventuresome voyager ran his
canoe into the mouth of CHARTERS
creek. Attracted by its sylvan seen
cry and the prospects of finding good
location to settle upon, he padded up
a short distance. and then explored
further along the left bank as he
assembled. After particularly examin-
ing the locality he chose and marked
out u 'tomahawk" claim, with fine
timber and water and a southern ex-
posure Hitler the next spring he
came, with his wife, little boy and
girl and a brother who was slightly
his junior.
But one fateful evening in early
summer the brothers returned from a
long and successful days hunt and
found the cabin was smouldering
heap OF ruins. Partially in the ashes
were the charred, mangled and scalped
forms of the young wife and children.
The Indians had evidently been gone
for some hours.
Controlling their agony as best they
could, the brothers tenderly removed
and sadly buried the remains of their
loved ones beneath an immense syca-
more upon the banks OF q little brook
that ran by their cabin and headed up
IN the Sheridan Hills. Then they left
the country started eastward to go
over the mountains, but never reached
the settlements or were afterward
heard Of and it was supposed that
they were killed by some wandering
band of Indians. The only clew to
this pathetic Bit of pioneer history
that they left was q letter written on
some birch bark. inclosed in a rude
envelope OF the same texture and
stuck in q split sapling at the rivers
edge at the mouth OF the creek. This
was fortunately found. shortly after
ward, by band of white explorers
who still later conveyed the lntelli-
gence East
But now comes the ghostly legacy
OF this tragedy which goes by the
name OF THE Scalp Legend of the
Charters. Concerning it it is af-
firmed by the country folk and earlier
settlers Of this little valley that on
some summer nights to this day the
shrieks of these murdered innocents
may be distinctly heard, and when
storms arise they are blended with
the blood curdling whoops of the
painted savages And further and
more awful STILL that in the oppress-
i've silence of warm summer evenings
things strangely like the ignis-fatuus,
or jack O. lantern. may be observed to
float hither and thither over the scene
of the massacre, and to wander up and
down the banks of the little run DO
tween the hills and the creek.
Some people have always stoutly
maintained that these apparitions are
the spirits of the wife and children as
they go searching and vainly calling
for help from husband, brother and
father. Others have with equal GER
tainty held that they were nothing
but what is commonly known as jack
o'-lanterns, drifting hither and thither
upon the wings OF the moist evening
breezes. But the majority of the ear
lest settlers insist that the original
legand is sustained by the oldest, and,
therefore uncontrovertible testimony.
This is that the spectral objects. which
all unite in saying seem to emit Pc
culiar radiance, two more golden than
the other are nothing else but the
tresses and scalps of the three MUIR
dered ones.
These they declare with bated
breath, lowered voice and superstitious
terror, hover about the place and steal
through the midnight air with ghost
like uncertainty. Whenever they drift
from the shadows into the moonbeams,
or are revealed by the lightning
flashes the tresses of the mother and
daughter which were auburn, shine
with a silvery, golden radiance. The
hair is upright, as If held in the bar
barous though unseen hands of their
slayers. while from the pendant scalps
beneath drops Of blood fall and stain
the flowers.
Phosphoresccnt Infection.