The Saint Paul globe. (St. Paul, Minn.) 1896-1905, 1903-10-15
SCALPED, YET LIVES
Nebraska Man Describes Sen.
satiOns He Endured.

and yet lived to tell the story has been
with the Nebraska State Historical
society and the mute indisputable
PROOF OF the incident is a wrinkled
scalp IN Theoretically sealed glass
case, which is one of the curiosities in
library. p"iiO
Inc scalp once adorned the head of
Wllilam Thompson, and was torn from
its natural resting place in an Indian
dttack on the employees of the Union
racine railroad Aug. 6, 1867. The at
TACK was made a short distance from
the present site of Kearney, Neb., and
Ia tnat city lives Moses H. Sydenham.
the veteran Journalist, who printed the
ilrst newspaper in the state and he
Is the authority for the authenticity of
the incident.
In a personal interview Thompson
described to Mr.. Sydenham the whole
aIIalr, and gave a detailed account of
the sensation while the scalping knife
hair. -
thompson was one of the five men
ordered out of the Plum Creek station
on Aug. to repair the telegraph wire
| a short distance from Kearney. On
the afternoon of the next day they en-
countered the savages. The first sug-
gestlon or danger was a pile of ties on
the railroad track.
They had no sooner stopped the
handcar," said Mr.. Sydenham in de-
scribing the incident, than rifle shots
were heard, and the bullets began to
sing and whizz about them. At the
same time the prairie grass along the
Platte river seemed alive with Indians.
all in war paint. The men aimed a
lew desultory shots at the Indians, and
then decided to run for cover.
c hot fYCt,
thompson in the right arm, but he
Kept on running. Finally he was laid
low by blow from tomahawk. For
a moment he lay stunned, and then
recovered sufficiently to realize what
the Indian was doing. He determined
to remain perfectly quiet, and to this
decision he probably owed his life.
Thompson described the whole
scalping operation. With the dizziness
of an expert he said, the savage
whipped out knife, and, grabbing my
scalp lock in one hand, cut around it
again and again until the edges of the
skin were lOosened. Then he tore it
free. The sensation was about the
same as if some one had passed a red
hot iron over my head. After the air
touched the wound the pain was almost
uncomfortable. 1 never felt anything
that hurt so bad. / had to bite my
tongue to keep from putting my hand
on the wound. l wanted to see how
much of the top of my head was left
The Indian left Thompson and hur-
| ried on in pursuit of the others Just
as he turned to go he tucked the hair
OF the scalp under his girdle. In his
hurry 1t was insecurity fastened and
fell into the grass. The piece of scalp
was just about as big as mans hand.
In the distance the Indians pursued the
living linPmQn ThnrpnSnY,
prepared to crawl into the grass, he
was roughly seized a hand clutched
his hair again, and once more he felt
a knife. Through his half closed eyes
he saw that another Indian was scalp
ing him. After removing a couple of
inches of the scalp the Indian rushed
on.
THE pain Of the wounds was soon
added to the torture of the thirst. The
loss of blood from the wounds caused
weakness, and soon Thompson felt
dizzy and unable to rise. Soon he heard
the Indians moving near him. He lay
perfectly still, and saw that a freight
train was approaching in the distance.
The Indians had placed ties on the
tracks Thompson dared not try to
flag the train, which was steadily APP
preaching. 1t crashed into the ties,
and the Indians surrounded the de-
fenseless train crew. Several cars and
the engine were derailed. The Indians
found a barrel of whisky among the
freight, and as darkness closed in
Thompson heard their frenzied yells.
They fired the derailed cars, and from
the grass Thompson saving the living
fireman and engineer thrown into the
flames.
I'm the darkness Thompson picked
up the scalp lock and managed to
crawl away. He met a rescuing party
from Omaha in the morning. They did
everything possible to ease his suf-
ferings.
Thompson went tc Melbourne, Eng,
as soon as he recovered. few years
ago DR.. Moore received a letter from
him. Thompson said he was getting
old, and few people believed the scalp
ing story He wanted to know if the
doctor wanted a slight token of the
case. Dr. Moore replied in the affirm
ative, and soon after he received the
dried and wrinkled scalp. He recog-
nized it, and has given it to the Omaha
public library"
Mr.. Sydenham regards the incident
worthy of permanent record, as
Thompson is the only man in the his
tory of the state who has survived a
scalping experience.
DRESSER RI AMFS