The Portland daily press., 1893-12-11
THE INDIAN LADD.
Story of Daniel Mitchell Told to the His
torical Society-The Exile Endured by
One of the Old Residents of Yarmouth.

Among the papers to have been given
at Thursdays meeting of the Maine
Historical Society was one by Mrs. Eliza
S. Mitchell, of North Yarmouth, relating
the capture of Daniel Mitchell, of Var
mouth, by the Indians in 1851, and his
return home ten years later. On account
of i'll health, however, Mrs. Mitchell was
unable to be present, and the paper was
filed among the archives of the society
without being read. Some facts from it
are of interest
On the 25th of May, 1851, the town of
Yarmouth was thrown into consterna-
ton by the disappearance of three
children who were sent after the cows
in a pasture near the house of the late
Daniel Lowell. The children were
Joseph Chandler, and Solomon and
Daniel Mitchell, aged respectively 10
and years. They were the sons of
Benjamin Mitchell.
Great search was made for the boys.
All the neighbors turned out with Ian
terms and torches, securing the woods
for miles. The parents were of course
thrown into state of great agony; and
this redoubied the energy of the search.
But it was of no avail.
Some time after, local traditions do
not say how long, the two older boys,
Solomon Mitchell and Joseph Chandler
returned home, and related how they
had been captured by the Indians.
Their captors had taken them to
Lewis's Landing and secreted them in
WOODS on the night of the capture. The
boys had heard the voices of the search
ing parties; but had been prevented
from replying by the threat that they
would be tomahawked.
The next morning they were started
on weary march towards Canada. The
older boys walked. but little Daniel be-
ing unable to keep the pace, was carried
much of the way on the backs of his cap
tors.
When he arrived in Canada Daniel
was adopted into an Indian family, and
lived with. them for ten years. Gradu-
ally the memories of his childhood home
faded from his mind, and he grew to
like the savage life and his savage asso-
ciates so much that when the time came
for him to part with them he had to be
taken by force. The circumstances Of
thought that in one of the intervals of
peace commission sent to Canada re-
covered him with other captives.
Tradition yet preserves some account
of.the strange scene when he.wasreturned
to his old home and his mother. He
was no longer the tender little fellow
of seventeen years, but tall Algonquin
youth of seventeen, speaking gutteral
language, used only to savage ways,
with little memory of or feeling for
his parents.
1t is related that as he went from
room to room of his fathers house his
former life came back to him like a
dream. He was at once put to school,
and gradually acquired a very good edu-
cation. Occasionally he would relapse
into a savage outbreak. Being sent
after the cows one day, he punished one
that strayed so severely with the toma-
hawk that it had to be killed. At an
other time while chopping wood with
two companions the axes of the latter
were found to be missing. After. long
and fruiltess search he pointed to the
top of a tall tree where the axes were
seen sticking into the trunk, forty feet
from the ground. No one but he could
recover them. For such pranks his par
ents did not dare to discipline him lest
he should return to the Indians.
He would rarely say anything about
his life among the Indians, apparently
having acquired thoroughly their habits
of reticence. One incident of his savage
life has been preserved. Having bad
toothache one day, he complained to a
savage companion. The latter caught a
rattlesnake and obliged him to bite it,
saying that after this remedy he would
never again be troubled with the ache.
Mrs. Mitchelps paper relates that in
spite OF the peculiarities acquired by life
among the Indians, and his tardy edu-
cational advantages. Daniel Mitchell be-
came a man of standing. He became a
sailor, and at one time commanded a
vessel, which was burned at Bagaduce,
now Castine, during the French and In
dian.war.
Twelve years after his return from
captivity Daniel Mitchell married the
daughter of Hon. John Lewis, a promi-
nent man in the province at that time
Mrs. Mitchell has in her possession rem
nants of the dress of the bridegroom on
that day. The coat was English broad
cloth, dark garnet in color, while the
breeches were old gold in color. Nine
children sprang,, from the union, and
any of his descendants now live in Maine,
The late Daniel L. Mitchell, of Var
mouth, was his grandson and tie mother
of Hon. Thomas B. Reed was his niece.
He was man of ability and standing
in the community in which he lived,
and seems to have been little handi-
capped by the ten lost years.