The Mena weekly star., 1922-01-12
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 great trapper. He gathered hundreds of belts from these animals and sold them at Philadelphia.
 Was Union Soldier. James B. Brown, the father of R. G., was a union man and before the war and in country strongly Confeder- ate, voted the union ticket. About the beginning of the last year of the Civil war. a man named Wes Jones got to- gether a good sized band of Indians and promised them if they would go with him they would get some scalps. They came over into Polk county and in east of where Mena now is came to the house of Jim Shedd. Shedd was sick. but had managed to get out into the woods. where he was hiding. His wife, being asked by Jones where her husband was, made the mistake of taking him to where the sick man was hiding. Then Jones and his Indians killed Shedd and an Indian scalped him and hung the scalp to the bridle of his pony. The elder Brown, his sons, Ben F. and R. G., Johnny Southerland, Bill Philpot, John Philpot, Lem Lofts, Ben Eisenhower, Marion Wimberly and a man named Mcclure, ten in all,, all union sympathizers, were hiding under big rock on Southern creek or branch, a small stream which heads in the Ironsfork country and flows south ward a short distance west of Cherry Hill. They knew Wes Jones and the Indians were around and finally young R. C.. Brown went on scout and found the tail where the band had passed, very near the hiding place. He reported and with Marion Wimber- ly, John Sutherland and his father, who were skeptical, went to see. Sutherland soon saw the "sign," and said: Please ken! here's the sign, sure enoughl"
 Homes Plundered by Redskins.
 The party then came out of hiding and went down into the settlement and found every house plundered of all valuables, feather beds dragged in- to the yards, cut open and feathers cattered-every sort of destruction deviltry that the redskins and their white leader could devise.
 Then and there the little bunch of men realized the time had come for their nasty departure, and they head ed at once for Fort Smith and enlist ed. some of them in Company G, End Arkansas regiment, Capt. A. D. Flynn in command of company, Colonel Stew ems of the regiment. Afterwards Captain Flynn was displaced by Cap tain Williams.
 On applying for enlistment, R. G. Brown and brother, Ben F., were ques- toned as to ages. R. G., the older, gave his age as IS, his brother, younger. The officer asked if that was not a mistake, Ben F. being the larger, but was told not by R. G. He said ''well, you want to go in to- gether, and we will put your age at 20 your brothers as IS. In later years. on applying for a pension, R. G, gave his age correctly, an officer was sent by the Pension Bureau to in- vestigate the discrepancy, and the af- fair was explained satisfactorily.
 Ben F. Brown Died of Measles.
 While at Clarksville measles was prevalent among the soldiers, and both Brown boys caught it. Ben F. was first to apparently recover and left the hospital, had a relapse and died. R. G., after being about well, also relapsed and came very nearly dying, only being saved by the best of nursing and care, and says he never iias recovered from the effects. He was cared for by two doctors, Dr. Hawkins and Dr. Myers. After being in service nine months, and with but one slight skirmish for his company, Brown and the others of his party, save his brother, all returned to Polk county.
 Two of Party Escaped Execution.
 Before joining the party hiding out on Southern branch, two of the men, Lem Lofts and Mcclure, according to Mir. Brown, were held in Sevier county as union sympathizers by the Confed- crates, and were under sentence of death. the shooting to occur the fol- lowing day. They were shackled to- gether with chains and homemade collins had been brought up and placed close by for the burial But a woman baked a eorn-dodger and gave it to them. and in this they found a file. with which they filed the shackles un- til they felt they could break them at an opportune moment When it came they tried to break the shaekles. bur Mcclure was unable to release him. self, and carried the chain some dis tance, finally hammering 1t off with a rock. In getting away they were ! shot at but not hit.
 l Of this party of ten, three are yet alive, Mir. Brown. Marion Wimberly and John Sutherland. all living in Polk county.
 1 After the return, the war being over, the Brown family moved from near Dallas to near where Yocana now is.
 Welded Many Long Years.
 Years earlier Horace Wilder hac come from Ohio and settled near Biz Fork, and had married Lucy Garmon To this union five children were born
 Wilder joined the Confederate army
 He was said to have been a very re. hgious man and was shot while rest ing, with his back to a tree, reading his bible. After the war R. c. Browr married Mary, the third girl of tho
 Wilder family. and 1t is she who, 1T
 their old age. now helps to make lifs
 sweet for him in his humble countr,
 home.
 One of their sons, Ben L. Brown
 served m France in the World war ans