The San Francisco call., 1896-11-29
SPENDS HIS LIFE
IN THE TEPEES
A Child Stolen Forty Years
Ago Becomes an Alaska
Tribesman.
Placed Among Indians by the
Man Who Took Him From
His Home.
A White Brave at Sitka Identified as
Willie Heidenfe1dt, Once of
Vancouver.

PORTLAND, Or, Nov. 2S.-Chief OF Po-
lice Robertson is in receipt of letter
from Sitka, Alaska, solving mystery OF
forty years standing, and which but few
persons in this vicinity have even the
slightest recollection of. 1t brings news of
man who, back in the fifties, when he
was a toddling babe, was stolen from his
home and conveyed to the wilds of the
frozen North, there to grow up among In
dians and adopt the forest as his home.
In 1856, Vancouver, Wash, then a
sparsely inhabited settlement, was IA
vorite place of recreation for many of the
Hudson Bay Compsny's men. Among
the families then dwelling in what now is
Vancouver proper was that of Philip
Heidenfeldt, who had beautiful faxen-
haired boy named Willie, at that time
years old. "Long John" McGregor, a
Hudson Bay Company man, loved the
child as a father would. his son. Long
John" had saved about $4,000 during his
long service with the company.
All OF this he promised to bequeath to
little Willie if the parents would allow
him to adopt the child. The Heidenfeldts
were poor, put not so needy as to be forced
to part with child dearer to them than
they believed it possible that it could be to
''Long John" They even refused $4,000
in gold coin from McGregor for the priv
ilege of max ing Willie his heir and taking
the child along with him.
In April of that year Long John" re-
turned to his duties in the frozen Arctic,
where his business was mainly with the
Indians in the interior of Alaska. With
McGregor's departure also disappeared
Willie Heidenfeldt. That the Scot
had stolen the child was not doubted by
any one knowing his attachment for it;
but no trace of the man or the boy could
be had until they reached Alaska. Then
all the law the poor parents had at their
disposal in those days was impotent
either to punish the child-stealer or to re-
store their boy.
"Long john some time in the eos
was frozen to death while returning to
Sitka from business trip to the interior
in an open sled. The saddest chapter of
this story at that time was that Nc
Gregor, like most men OF his type, always
imagining death in their cases to be
century or more distant, neglected to pro-
vide for his protege. He failed 10 make
will, and when death claimed him every
dollar of his estate went to distant rela-
tives in Scotland. st31sl
The greater part of McGregor's time in
Alaska being spent among the Indians. he
had placed the stolen boy in the custody
OF tribe with which his business rela-
tions were the most extensive. And with
that tribe Willie was when death overlook
"Long John" and with that tribe Heiden-
feldt, now man A years of age, is to-
day. He frequently visits Sitka. bearing
an Indian name and speaking English
with rhe broken accent charac teristic OF
an Indian.
The writer of the letter received to-day
was in Vancouver when the boy was stolen
and knew Willie quite well. The child
was peculiarly marked at his birth; he
had but one joint on each of his little
fingers and one of his eyes was black and
the other dark brown. This optical de-
feet in Heidenfeldt, when the writer saw
him in Sitka a month ago, recalled the
abduction of forty years ago to his mind.
Engaging the man in conversation, he
noticed also the other physical defects
m arking him when he came into this
world. Without being prompted by lead
ing questions the Indian t-ibesman ad-
mitted that he recol!ected having been
taken from his home by rough-looking
man and placed aboard ship. Beyond
that his childhood recollections were quite
vague.