The daily progressive-miner., 1916-01-11
AS TOLD BY MRS. MARY PERRY FROST NOW VISITING HERE
 WITH HER DAUGHTERS
FATHER MURDERED
On Trip Across Plains When
 Wards Party Was
 MasSacred
Continued from Yesterday


 ed us, and in conversation stated that our men had shot two Of the Indians. who were sure to die. might say here that we never en- tertained doubt but that the two men who led the Indians in the at tack. were white men, as their manner. dress and talk indicated 1t. They wore good clothes, and had their hands and face and feet painted, which the Indians did not.
 In about two CT three hours after burying father we came upon the dreadful sight Of the massacred Ward train. of which I spoke here tofore. they having been brought to the big train. in the following man. ner:
 The nighs previous to the terrible affair there were some horses stol- en from the big train. and Alex Yantis, well known in Thurston county. this state, who died few years ago on his farm near Tenino, was detailed to go with six others in search of them, and Edward Neely. now living on White river, in King county, was one Of the party. While tracking the horses they came upon the bodies of the men of the Ward train. who had just been slain by Indians. and could then hear the cries or the women and children. The Indians had stealth fly crept up to within easy gunshot of the party while they were eating dinner. and had shot the men. after which they took the women and children to the brush to burn them; and it was at this crisis that the Yantis party came upon them.
 As soon as they realized the state of affairs, Yantis and his men charged upon the Indians and drove them from the wagons and under took to rescue the women and children, but as soon as the savages they closed in upon them and ttey were o5iged to retreat, after los ing one of their number by a shot from the rifle of an Indian, with the desparing cries Of the poor suffer ing eaptives ringing in their ears, imploring them not to leave them. But their numbers were so few they could do nothing but resort to save their own lives. However, Captain Yantis was much dissatisfied with the cowardly conduct exhibited by two Of his men, and as they ap- preached the Ward train he was uP- braidtng them for not giving the.r support, when 2 nine year old boy, Neuty Ward, who had been left for dead by the Indians, heard him and recognized his voice, and asked if that was Nr. Yantis, whereupon they went to the little fellow, and, taking him in their arms, carried him away with them, this task fall ing wholly on 3Ir. Yantis ard Ed ward NeeIy, as the other men want ed to leave him, stating that he could not live and that they would all be killed if they stopped to at ttend to the boy, and even undertook to leave them, whereupon Captain Yantis threatened to shoot them if they attempted desertion, which had the effect Of keeping them togeth- CT, but they would not help to get him away. However, by persever- ance in this determination, they ar rived safely at the large train with the boy, who recovered, and I have been lately informed that he is now living in Oregon.
 Another Of the Ward boys, Will liam, Q lad Of Il or 15 years old was shot with an arow through his right leg, the point Of the arrow going so nearly through as to cause the skin to protrude on the back, but he hid himself away in the brush until the savages had left, when he made his escape, walking to Fort Boise. in this condition. which journey took him five days (during which time he lived on wild herbs and berries gathered on his route), where the arrow was ab- stracted by cutting it from the back and pulling it through. He d. so recovered. These two make the only survivors Of the entire Ward train.
 I will say here that Empson Can trell, the young man who was shot in our train, was very nice young an and had parted with sister and two brothers at the California road, who were bound for Cali fornia, and I do not know that they have ever learned the sad fate that befell him.
 From appearances the Indians had attacked the Ward train on the same day that We were attack ed, as the stench from the dead and mutilated bodies was terrible, but we stopped long enough to dig trenches and rude graves for the burial of our murdered companions.