Year: 1875

7 d

 How Three Young Girls Wore Captured

 nnd Rescued Ninety-Nine Years Ago.

 It was Sunday, July IA, 1776-ninety- nine years ago-and the rudely con- structed fort at Boonsboro lay in drowsy stiffness on the bank of the Kentucky river. Daniel Boone and his friend and associate, Richard Galloway, had been absent since early in the morning; and the good wives, sharers in the toll of the early pioneer days, were enjoying the rest that the Sabbath brought even to the unbroken wilderness. In the grate- full shade of 8 tree in one corner of the inclosure, sat three young girls, giving an unwonted charm to the rough evi- dences of ' civilization which had but recently forced themselves upon the primitive harmony of the surrounding scenery.

 The eldest of these maidens was Elizabeth Oallaway. The experiences of life rather than the observance of nature seem to have given turn to the thoughts and tastes of the early settlers, so, while the euphonious name of Bessie might have harmonized we'll with the murmur- ing river and the soft and languid aspect of nature in her summer garb, the hard, everyday life of the adventurous dwell CTS in the dark and bloody ground seemed to comport best with the harsher name of Betsy. So Elizabeth was known simply as Betsy Callaway-not a name suggestive of romance, yet she was withal a gentle and loving girl, and had maiden fancies that gave the deep color of romance to one of the in cidents of her life in the wilderness. She was just turned of sixteen. The other girls, younger by two years, were Fanny Galloway, fairer than her sister Betsy, and Jemima Boone Though but fourteen years counted the lives of the two girls each had a lover who was hardy pioneer. As evening drew near, should go a short distance below the fort to where a canoe was lying, and drift out upon the river to catch the rising coolness of the evening. | !, Hardly were they seated and prepared to push from the shore, when they de- tected slight rustic in the brush, and in moment more five stalwart and hideously painted Indians leaped to the side of the canoe. What girl of sixteen could be equal to such an emergency 2 Betsy Galloway, without moments hesitation, determined to defend the honor and the lives of herself and her young companions, and wrote her name in the annals of Kentucky. Standing erect in the canoe, she seized the paddle, and at single blow laid open to the bone the head of the foremost savage. The other Indians pressed on, but, still undaunted, the brave girl fought them. Finally exhausted. she sank to the bot tom of the canoe, and with her trembling sister and friend was dragged ashore, and hurried off to meet whatever fate might be in store for them.

 t The consternation at the fort can we'll be imagined. The fathers of the girls soon returned, and before the night closed in Daniel Boone, at the head of 8 party on foot, and Richard Galloway, at the head of a party on horseback, were off in pursuit. In Boone's party were Samuel Henderson, John Holder, and Flanders Galloway. As Henderson strode along he was thinking of the olive checked heroine, Betsy Galloway and Holder clenched his hands and ground lis teeth when he thought of poor, little, frightened Fanny and Flanders Calla- way almost forgot his kith and kin for thinking of his captured Jemima Boone. We can easily smile over it now, but let any man put himself in the place of these young men and ask himself how he would feel in slfch a pursuit.

 When the Indians started with the girls they made the younger ones take off their shoes and put on moccasins, but Betsy refused to take off her shoes, and as she walked along she ground her heel into the soil to leave atrial. Noticing this, the Indians made the whole party walk apart and deviate from the course, so as to wade through the water and de- stroy the trail. Then the undaunted Betsy broke off twigs and dropped them along the road and when the savages threatened her with uplifted tomahawk if she persisted in this, she secretly tore off portions of her dress and dropped them on the road. -.

 Boone's party soon found the trail and followed it rapidly, fearing that the girls might grow weary and be put to death. All Sunday night and all Monday the pursuit was kept up. On Tuesday morn ing slender column of smoke was seen in the distance, and the experienced eye of the hunter detected the camp of the Indians. A serious difficulty now pre- sented itself. How were the captives to be rescue without giving the captors time to kill them2 There was but little time for reflection, as the Indians must quickly discover their presence. The white men were sure shots and so they picked theil men, fired upon them, and then rushed into the camp to their rescue. At the moment of attack the girls were sitting at the foot of a tree; Betsy with red bandanna handkerchief thrown over her head, while the heads of Fanny and Jemima were reclining in her lap. Betsy's olive complexion came lear serving her bad turn at this juno Sure, for one of the rescuing party com ing suddenly upon her mistook her for an Indian, and was about to knock her brains out with the butt of his rife when a friendly hand intervened and saved the girl from meeting her death just at the moment when she saw liberty within her reach.

 The fathers and gallants carried their loved ones home in triumph, and this romance of real life in Kentucky cen tury ago would not be completed without the information that the dreams of love and happiness that were so cruelty dis turbed were subsequently, all realized. Brave Betsy Galloway became Mrs. Samuel Henderson, and lived to tell the story of her capture to her children and her children's children. Little Fanny became Mrs. John Holder, and Flanders Galloway took to his home Miss Jemima Boone, and thus cemented the friendly ties of the Boones and Callaways. It is a long time ago, nigh on to hundred years; and all the actors in the romance have long since departed, but their memory is green with many of us yet, and we can all well afford to give few thoughts to the event that marked their characters and the times in which they