The Republican. [volume] (Oakland, Md.) 1877-current, 1937-07-22

and his family to make a settlement on
the Glades Path just across the State
line near Snowy Creek, on what was
in recent years the Joseph DeBerry
farm just north of Corinth, West Va.
In Withers' history of Border War
fare" written in 1881, the author says
Of the massacre which occurred on
Snowy Greek:
On the eleventh of the same month
april, 1778) five Indians came to a
house on Snowy Creek (Corinth, Pres
ton county,, in which lived James
Brain and Richard Powell, and re-
manned in ambush during the night,
close around it. In the morning early
the appearance of some ten or twelve
men issuing from the house with guns,
by shooting at mark, deferred the
Indians from making their meditated
attack. The men seen by them were
travellers, who had associated for mu-
tual security, and who, after partaking
of mornings repast, resumed their
journey unknown to the savages.
When Mr.. Brain and the sons of Mr..
Powell went to their days work, be-
ing engaged in carrying clapboards
for covering cabin at some distance
from the house, they were soon heard
by the Indians, who, despairing of sue
ceeding in an attack on the house,
changed their position and concealed
themselves by the side of the path
along which those engaged at work
had to go. Mr.. Brain and one of his
sons being a little distance in front
of them, they fired and Brain fell. He
was then tomahawked and scalped,
while another of the party followed
and caught the son as he was attempt
ing to escape by flight.
Three other boys were then some
distance and out Of sight and hearing
the report of the gun which had killed
Brain, for an instant supposed that it
proceeded from the rifle of some hum
ter in quest of deer. They were soon
satisfied that this supposition was I'M
founded. Three Indians came running
toward them, bearing their guns in
one hand and their tomahawks in the
other. One of the boys stupefed by ter
was Immediately made prisoner; an
other, the son of Powell, was also soon
caught, but the third, finding himself
out of sight of his pursuer, ran to one
side and concealed himself in bunch
of alders, where he remained until the
Indian passed the spot where he lay,
when he arose and taking a different
direction, ran with all his speed and
effected an escape. The little prison.
ers were then brought together, and
one of Mr.. Powells sons, being dis
covered to have but one eye, was
stripped naked, had tomahawk sunk
into his head, spear ran through his
body and the scalp then removed from
his bleeding head.
The little Powell who had escaped
from the savages, being forced to go
in a direction opposite from the house
proceeded to a station doubtless Ash
by's Fort on Cherry Creek)) about
eight miles off and communicated in
telligence of what had been done at
Brains. A party of men equipped
themselves and went Immediately to
the scene of action, but the Indians
had fastened homeward as soon as
they perpetrated their horrible cruel
ties. One of their little captives ben
jamin Brain) being asked by them
"How many men were at the house ?"
replied, Twelve" To the question,
GLOW far from thence to the nearest
fort? he answered, 1.-TWO miles," Yet
he well knew there was no fort, nearer
than eight miles and there was not a
man at the house, Mr.. Powell being
away from home and the twelve ira
elers having departed before his father
and he had gone to work. His object
was to save his mother and the other
women and children from captivity or
death, by inducing them to believe
that it would be extremely dangerous
to venture near the house. He succeed
ed in the attainment of his object. De-
tered by the fear of being discovered
and perhaps defeated by the superior
force of the white men, represented
to be at Mr.. Brains, they departed in
the greatest hurry, taking with them
their two little prisoners, Benjamin
and Isaac Brain.
So Silly had the whole affair been
conducted (the report of gun being
too commonly heard to excite any sus-
picion of what was doing), and so ex-
peditiously had the little boy who had
escaped and the men who accompanied
him on the way back, moved in their
course, that the first intimatlon given
Mrs. Brain of the fate of her hus-
band was given by the men who came
in pursuit.
NOTE-Ashby's Fort was about 8
miles east of Snowy Creek. Ben Brain
was captive six years before he
escaped.
The history of this raid as told
above agrees with the story as told to
Farley DeBerry by his mother, Rachel
LETTERS DeBerry, who heard it from
Benjamin Brain ("Uncle Ben," she
called him). After his release by the
Indians Ben Brain resided near Bruce
ton Mills, West Va, but we do not
know what became of his brother Isaac
or of the Powell family.
This was the last Indian raid re-
corded in our section of the noun
tains.
The Brain Family
We know little of the history of this
pioneer family. However, we note that
eighty years before the murder of
1