The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-10-14
UNITED ONCE MORE
STRANGE STORY OF MARTHA FER
RILL AND DAUGHTER.
Lost in Utah Sixteen Years Ago and
Met Mother Here-Brother Acci-
dentally Met Sister at Burnet
While Roaming Over the Country.
Story Reads Like Romance.

separation of fifteen years. The meeting
OF Il mother and daughter after years OF
separation is OF itself nothing strange. but
| the cause that brought forth this long
separation cannot fail 10 be OF interest TO
all, and the story as learned from the
mother ard daughter yesterday afternoon
| is here given:
In 1878 Theodore Ferrll and his family.
consisting of a wife, son and daughter,
left Perry, Ind, for the purpose of making
their home near Spokane Falls, Wash.
! They concluded to make the trip overland
and started with a prairie schoonea drawn
| by two mules They also had with them
e spring wagon drawn by two ponies.
There was no apparent danger in max
| ing a trip Of this kind as the route was
along the railroad aud the trip was more
IN the nature of summers outing. They
had no fear of being disturbed by Indians,
| aud the old fashion OF keeping a guard
over the stock was not enforced by Mr..
| Terrell and family.
When the company had arrived at a lit
tie village called Beth, near Ogden, Utah,
q storm occurred in the night during
which the mules broke their fastenings
aud made their escape. The father was
sick at the time and in the morning the
son, Timothy. and the daughter. Lizzie,
saddled their ponies and began the search
| for the mules, which were necessary for
| the adra nc -neDt of the party. Tne coun-
! try was exceedingly rough ani during the
day the bro her AMI sister became sepera-
ted. The brother left the trail of the
mules and began the search Tor Lizzie,
! his sister, returning o tue camp the next
1 morning when he learned that nothing
| had been heard from he absent one.
The mo- her was almost crazrd by this
| second affi ction and would not leave the
| place uuti Two more days were spent in
the search. The distress of :he fam
| lily was so great that Mr.. Farrell became
SO much wors- that it was impossible to
continue the journey 10 the proposed des-
| tipatiou.
After the search for the missing child,
| for at that time Miss Ferrill was but Il
wears of age, the family gave up the trip to
| Spokane, Dref-rring to remain near the
place where the missing girl was lost.
| They then rented a farm five miles north
| of Salt Lake city, and carried on garden
| ing for several years.
In 1893 Mrs. Ferrill moved to Wichita,
where sue has resided ever since. for the
purpose of educating three younger chill
| dren, who attend school at present in this
city. Mr.. Ferril died last wInter, aud the
wife has been living on the income of the
money III sde while in Utah, which, to-
! gether with help from her son, who is
now a nan of 80, and her pension, she has
managed to live comfortably aud educate
the Younger children.
You must not think" saii Mrs. Fer
rill, that / have ever forgot my girl who
was lost in Z All. L have never passed Il
day but what L have thought Of her, not
as you see her today, buJ as girl in short
dresses, wearing big sun bonnet and a
| blue apron. No one but moth her who has
| PASSED through case similar to the one
| have experienced can conceive what l
have suffered. OF course there were
other children born to us. and
have had TO see to their COM
| fort, but mothers heart never ceases to
| love her chilli. When Lizzie returned yes
| terday | was busy baking bread, and was
startled by a knock at the door. L aus
wered the knock and found a woman
standing there with a valise and band box.
while at the roadsi lie WAS hack. | be-
| iieved that some one had made a mistake
| in the house AS l WAS not 10 king for any
one. just then | saw some one lookiDg
around the corner of the houss and l was
| startled. | was about 10 shut the door IN
the womsn'S face. for | WAS pur-uaded
| that all was not right. | gave a look back
ward in the direction of where the shot
| gun WAS, when | chanced 10 look out the
| south window and saw that the man who
| had looked around the corner WAS my sou
Timothy who had been absent in Oklaho-
| ma II year.
You can imagine my relief, as | be-
/ lieyrd that the woman was TImothy's
| wife, and | invited h-r in while | ran
around he corner aud fell in my dear sou s
| arms. After kissing me he led NE TO the
! house as l believed for the purpose OF in
| PRODUCING me to his wife | was glad for l
! was anxious that my son SD ould marry
| and settle down, but he had always claim
| ed to me he would never III ,rry until he
| had killed the Mormon who had stolen his
! sister In f,ct we ali believed that Lizzie
/ had been met by some Mormon and was
| held by him. This was our reason fJr
! stopping so long in that country. l never
| could believe she was dead, but thought
! she was held by some OLD CHI Norm IN
and this fate | considered worse than
/ death; but let Lizzie tell her part of the
| story"
The mother, brother and the three chill
| dren ali sat down anxiou~ly waiting TO
| hear their sister again tell her experience.
! OF course they had heard IL befIr tut
| ,hey aDXiouslv nop-d sue might Tell some
thing new. Miss Ferrlil d gan:
| al was but l. wears of age AT the time,
! but | was fond of horseb ok riding. aud
my experience that summer had lei me TO
| believe | cUuli nc. be lost, and when Tim
| WAS about TO start IL search OF the N IleS
asked 20 b. allowed to accompany him. !
/ readily got Consent aud we fU' owed the
trial up Into the foot bills north OF where
! we had camped. Here we found two
trails aud proposed 10 Tim that he should
sfo one WY and l would follow up the
! other path, and we would meet IN two
! hours Kept on going but / found tbst
the TWO tral, were not coming together as
l had supposed thew would. | thea left
| the trail aud iook what supposed WAS the
/ direction that my brother had tsk-n.
! After following up this course for some
time | came 10 - creek where the banks
! were so steep | could not cross Ia
hopes of finding a crossing / started
IN the stream. but not finding
crossing place, left the
stream aud stirt-d through The WOO is
again. soon found nIght was COMM
on and must ret tru to camp Ny pony
grew li:ed aud found l could not travel
! fast. | mad lost my bearings, aud bee ,me
! satisfied was lost | never put 10 sucl a
night in my life ! couli Dot stop aud
/ urged my tired pony on. A. lrn-tn, afteI
/ what appeared TO uie was a month, day
light came. ! was in strange country,
was weary and hungry. 1 saw smoke
about TWO miles ahead, and / made nay
| way there. but I bad heard 80 much about
| Normous. aud how they wou.d keep girls
| until they were grown and force them "a
marry them that did not want 70 90. but
| was so hungry that nnaLy concluded
70 20 10 the house.
The place proved II Be dairy farm aud
| was run by msn named James Russell
and WAS ninety miles north west Of where
we had camp and twenty miles from the
road on when we would have gFaye ed on
the way TO Spokane. The family were
/ v-ry Kind TO me and Were good honest
Catholics. Mr. Russell and myself biih
concluded that the family would come
- -s.sr
| Fall aud decided u rest UCtil tn nrxt
/ ,,,-,iug .ud on with Mr. and Mrs Russell