The Columbian. [volume] (Bloomsburg, Pa.) 1866-1910, 1900-03-15
White Rose Of the MiamiS

nOWN at Wabash, Ind, arrange.
IL ments have just been completed
for the erection of a monument to one
of the strangest characters in Ameri-
Gan history.
Nc stranger story than that OF
Frances Slocum, whose descendants
are about to immortalize her memory
in bronze, has ever been told since the
Pilgrim Fathers landed at Plymouth
Rock.
Born of white parents, she was
stolen while little girl by the In
dians. She was reared in an Indian
wigwam, married an Indian chief and
was given up as dead by the surviving
members of her family. Years after.
wards her presence in an Indian viii
lage was accidentally discovered by
traveller, and in a most curious way
the news finally reached her brothers
and sisters. She, however, resisted all
their efforts to persuade her to return
to civilization, and she died as she had
lived, an Indian in everything but
birth. Among the savages and the
early settlers of the west she was
known as the "White Rose of the Mi
amis," and as "The Lost Child of Wy
oming."
Frances Slocum was the daughter OF
Jonathan and Mary Slocum, Quakers,
who in 1771 moved from Connecticut
to Wilkesbarre, Pa, then a mere ham,
let in the wilderness
They were constantly exposed to the
attacks of the Indians, but it was not
until November, ITS, that three Della
ware Indians, during the absence of
Mr.. Slocum, stole up to the dwelling
and murdered two of the children and
the son of a neighbor, who were at
work outside.
Frances and her mother fled into
the house and hid, but Frances was
found in closet and was carried
away by one of the Delawares, while
the mother followed the red men and
implored them to restore her daugh-
ter. Mr.. Slocum on his return home
Undertook to follow the trail of the
Indians, but was obliged in the dense
forest to abandon the pursuit. A
month later the Slocum household was
again assailed by the savages, who
killed Mr.. Slocum.
Repeated attempts were made to re-
cover the lost child by Mrs. Slocum
and her sons. They obtained clews to
her occasionally through the reports
of government agents, but when they
visited the localities where she was
said to be held she had disappeared,
and the Indians themselves seemed to
have entered into a conspiracy to pre-
vent her return, for they refused to
divulge the slightest information when
questioned concerning her.
Long before the opening of the nine
teenth century Frances had been car
ried west, as the Indians were forced
10 retire before the approaching civil
ization, and the discovery of her
abiding place was purely accidental.
Col George w. Ewing, an Indian
trader, whose home was at Logans-
port, Ind, chanced one night in 1885
to be overtaien by darkness in the
vicinity of the Usage camp, known as
Deaf Mans village, in the western
part of Wabash county. He applied
at the home of the chief for lodging
and was assigned the corner of the
large room in the cabin occupied in
common by the chief, his squaw and
the two daughters. Ewing could not
sleep, and as he watched the move
ments of the squaw attending to the
household duties he noticed that her
demeanor differed somewhat from that
OF the Indians, and also observed,
when she raised her arms and the
sleeves fell away, that the skin was
white.
Astonished at this, he questioned her
in the Indian tongue, and after some
hesitation she admitted that she was
not of Indian blood and spoke Of her
abduction and her journey from Penn
sylvania west. Col. Ewing returned
home and later made another trip to
Deaf Mans village, where he was again
entertained by Frances, who went fur
ther into the details of her romantic
life.
COL Ewing, with scarcely any hope Of
finding her relatives, wrote a letter to
the postmistress of Wilkes barre, who
was also the editress of local paper,
but she paid no attention 10 the story
OF Frances Slocum or the inquiry con-
cerning her relatives, and threw the
letter aside. Two years afterwards it
was found by the editor of the paper,
John w. Forney, afterwards OF the
Philadelphia Press, who printed the
matter, and, copy of the paper fall
ing into the hands of friends OF the
SlOcums her brOt hers and sisters set
out on pilgrimage to Logansport