The Ely miner. [volume] (Ely, Minn.) 1895-1986, 1900-05-04
LOST CHILD OF WYOMING.
Monument to BE Erected to the Mem.
DRY of Frances SlOcum Who
Was Stolen by Indians.

A very interesting monument is soon
to be dedicated on the high knoll over
looking the valley of the Mississineva
river, in Wabash county, Indiana. The
monument will mark the burial place
of woman of singular and romantic
history, known as Frances Slocum
among the white people and as White
Rose among the Indians-who was
stolen from Quaker parents in the
Wyoming valley of Pennsylvania in
IT'S, and brought up among the In
dams in the West. Her parents were
Jonathan and Mary Slocum of Con-
necticut, who had moved TO Wilkes
barre, Pennsylvania, when that was a
small frontier settlement. There, when
Frances was young girl, their dwell
ing was attacked by Delaware Indians.
Two or three members of the family
were killed, and little Frances was car
ried away, first to Ohio, and later to
Indiana and Michigan. Soon after her
capture her father was killed by the
Indians, but her mother, aided by
Frances brothers and other white men,
made a persistent search for Frances,
who became known in those parts as
the '1ost child of Wyoming" She was
not found.
For, meantime, the Indians had car
ried her far away, over mountains and
through forests. They treated her
kindly, giving her blankets to sleep
upon at night in beds of leaves. At
length, too, they gave her horse to
ride and dressed her in garments of
buckskin, decorated with bright beads.
All this pleased her; she dried her tears
and became happy in her new life.
She was taught to fear and hate the
white man, and whenever she saw one
she ran away. None of the white men
who visited her tribe suspected, there
fore, that they had a white child among
them. She learned to shoot well with
the bow and arrow. When the Della
wares had a war with the whites, she
was run off into the north with the
other women and children. She did
not lament this.
When she was 16 years old she was
married to a Delaware chief, Little
Turtle. He treated her cruelty, and
she left him, and afterward was mar
ried to the Usage chief Chepokenah, or
"Deaf Man" He was good to her, and
she remained with him through long
life.
She remembered the wars of the In
dams against Gen. Wayne and Gen.
Harrison, and in both her sympathies
were with the Indians. After the last
war her husband and his people settled
on the Mississineva, at a place called
Deaf Mans Village.
To this place in 1S35-ffty-seven
years after Frances had been carried
away from the Wyoming valley-there
came one night trader named George
Ewing; belated on the road, he sought
a nights lodging. The old chief took
him into his cabin. The chiefs wife
busted herself about the room, and as
the trader waited for his supper he
watched her. He noticed that she
looked like white woman. Once she
raised her arms for something; her
loose sleeves fell away, revealing arms
that were suspiciously white.
The trader could speak the Indian
tongue, and as she made no response
when he addressed her in English, he
questioned her in that language. She
admitted that she was a white woman
and had been stolen in her girlhood.
She remembered her name and the
names of her father and mother, as
we'll as that of the place from which
she had been taken.
Ewing, much interested, wrote to the
postmaster of Wilkesbarre, asking if
there were any people of the name of
Slocum still living in that vicinity. 1t
took two years for his letter to fall
into the hands of Frances surviving
relatives, but at last it reached them.
In due time her brothers and sisters
came to her cabin. An affecting inter-
view took place between her and them.
and they were instantly satisfied that
she was indeed their long-lost sister.
They implored her to go home with
them, but she refused.
81 am DID," she said, "and have lived
all my life with these people. They are
my people. l love my husband and am
happy with him."
She even refused to go with them as
far as the neighboring town of Peru,
apparently suspecting trap. They
went away sorrowful. Not long after
ward her husband died. Her relatives
came again, once more imploring her
to go home with them to Pennsylvania.
But now she declared that she could
not leave her bones elsewhere than by
the side of her husbands. She lived
there until 1S47, when she died.
Her story is often told in Indiana,
and the monument to her memory will
be not only reminder of a romantic
history, but the memorial of people
who had won her love as well as her
loyalty.
Horses In Auckland.
Horses are SO cheap in Auckland that
pedestrianism bids fair to become ex-
tipct The DOStman does his rounds