USA > Wyoming > Wyoming; its history, stirring incidents, and romantic adventures > Part 23
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RICHARD GARDNER.
take leave of him. Elisha Harding, Esq., then a boy, was present, and represents the scene as extremely af- fecting. When the last adieu was exchanged, an In- dian placed a grievous load on his shoulders which he could scarcely raise, then put a halter round his neck, and led him off as he would a beast. The farewell ex- pressed the sentiment, 'I go to return no more.' Ex- hausted with fatigue before he arrived at his captor's home, he fell, crushed by the weight of his load, when he was handed over to the squaws, who tortured him to death by fire. Daniel Carr, a fellow-prisoner, saw the remains the following day, and represented it as a sight to awaken the deepest pity."
At the time of the Indian battle Mr. Gardner was eleven years of age, and was with his mother in a fort on the west side of the river, immediately opposite the place where Pittston now stands; he knew not by what name the fort was called. The fort consisted of a house built of hewed logs, and surrounded by a stockade: it was Fort Jenkins.
They heard the firing plainly on the day of the bat- tle, and on the day following learned that "our army was cut off." On that day Butler sent in a flag, and demanded the surrender of the fort .* There was no- body there to defend the fort but women and children, and a few old men. The gate was opened, and the In- dians and Tories came in. They ordered all the things taken out of the house and spread upon the ground. They then set fire to the house, and, after taking what they wanted of the goods which lay upon the ground, they went away, and no more was seen of them.
* The articles of capitulation are signed July 1, 1778, but it prob- ably was not thought necessary to enter it, as it was a small, helpless concern.
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WYOMING.
" Several of the Tories who were with the Indians," said Mr. Gardner, "had often been at my father's house, and been kindly treated there. One by the name of Vanderlip, and another by the name of Show- ers, I distinctly recollect. I saw upon the Indians clothes taken from the bodies of our men covered with blood." This is the amount of Mr. Gardner's personal knowledge of the wars of Wyoming. The first Penn- amite and Yankee war had subsided when his father came into the country, and the last was concluded be- fore he returned finally to remain.
The old men, with the women and children who were in the fort, left the country and returned to Con- necticut. Mr. Gardner's mother had a young child, which she nursed and carried in her arms. The feeble and defenseless little company traveled through the swamp on foot. There was no road but a mere foot- path, and no bridges across the streams. They suffer- ed indescribably from hunger and weakness, but, by the most indomitable perseverance, they finally reach- ed the settled country, where they received aid and comfort from the people.
What fearful times were these! The strength of the settlement was gone. The husbands, sons, and brothers, who were expected to clear the farms and raise the bread, had perished upon the field of battle, or been led away into hopeless bondage. A few old men leaning upon their staves, mothers with infants at their breasts, and boys and girls of tender age, were left in a country overrun by murderous savages, with- out food, and often stripped of their clothing, until not enough was left to screen their bodies from the ex- tremities of the weather, and in this condition obliged to undertake a long journey through the wilderness
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on foot. The fathers and mothers had lost the sup- port of their age, and the wives and the children their natural protectors and their only earthly source of de- pendence. One old gentleman lost three sons in the battle, and thus, in an hour, was left with three widows and twelve helpless, fatherless children upon his hands to provide for! What were the sufferings of the be- reaved fathers, mothers, wives, and children on that memorable occasion, it is impossible to tell or even to conceive. Look for a moment at the mother of Mr. Gardner-made a widow under the most heart-rending circumstances, with a child hanging to her breast, and a little boy scarcely able to take care of himself, on so long and laborious a journey. Why did she not faint, or give herself up to inconsolable grief or to utter de- spair? Ah! the women of those times were made of stern stuff. How nobly they bore themselves when the storm beat furiously upon them, when the iron entered into their souls. There was a religious ele- ment in their character, which came to their relief in that terrible day of need. When they could truly say, " All thy waves and thy billows are gone over me," they could also add, "Yet the Lord will com- mand his loving kindness in the daytime, and in the night his song shall be with me, and my prayer unto the God of my life."
At the age of twenty-one Mr. Gardner married and returned to Wyoming. He settled upon land which his father had occupied, and there he has lived from that day to the present. He established a ferry, and often was subjected to great labor, and exposed to great danger on the river. He is now a most remarkable man. He was ninety years of age the eighth day of last February. He has suffered from several casualties,
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but still his constitution remains unbroken, and his in- tellect is sound.
Soon after he settled in the country he received an injury in one of his elbows, which has ever since been to him a source of trouble, although it did not make him a cripple. In a bear-hunt, one of his companions, not perceiving that Mr. Gardner was nearly in range between him and a ferocious old dam with two cubs, drew up his piece and fired just as his friend was in the same act. Unfortunately, the ball struck his el- bow. "I've hit her," exclaimed the delighted hunter. " You've hit me," answered Mr. Gardner. The blood streamed from the arm of the wounded man, while the bear escaped unhurt. They were in the woods some miles east of the settlement. One of Mr. Gardner's companions accompanied him home, while the other took a straight course through the woods to Lacka- wanna to procure the services of Dr. Hooker Smith. It was two days after the wound was inflicted before Dr. Smith could be on hand. When he came the arm was much inflamed and swollen, and the probing, cut- ting, and picking out splinters of bone was a most ter- rible operation, but it had to be endured. The wound was some time in healing, and the injury of the joint was such that the consequences were permanently troublesome.
Two years since, Mr. Gardner received an injury to his spine by a fall in the barn. This much increased his stooping position, and considerably diminished his power of locomotion. He assured us that, before he received the last-mentioned injury, he could walk to Wilkesbarre, the distance of fourteen miles, and back again the same day; indeed, he affirmed he could do so now if his back had not been injured. Summer
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before last, he said, he laid up thirty rods of stone fence, and he should do a good business in that line this season, if his son could find time to draw the stone. On the day before our visit he had crossed the river, walked three miles, helped his son-in-law plant his po- tatoes, and returned before sundown. If he stood erect, he would appear to be about seventy years of age-perhaps not so old. He is one of that small class of human beings who seem to defy the laws of natu- ral decay.
Mr. Gardner had been twice married, and been blessed with thirteen children, two of whom died in childhood, while the remaining eleven lived to mature years. Two of the number have been cripples from early youth. A son had his lower limbs paralyzed when a child, and they have ever since been almost incapable of locomotion. He hitches about on his hands and hips, but is cheerful, and converses sensibly and with animation. He is sixty-one years of age. A daughter walks upon crutches in consequence of having lost the use of one of her limbs by a fever-sore.
Before we left dinner was announced, and we were invited to "sit by" and share in the repast, which we did with a relish. The table was well supplied, and the cookery done up in comfortable country style. When all were seated, the old gentleman craved a blessing, somewhat in the ancient Puritanic style as to length and particularity. We found he had long been a member of the Baptist Church, and should judge him a truly religious man. We asked him how he enjoyed life ; his answer was, "Oh, very well. I have always enjoyed very good health-have never been sick. much, and have no reason to complain."
Mr. Gardner said that when he first came into the
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WYOMING.
country, and for a long time afterward, game was abundant every where in the woods, and the waters furnished plenty of the finest fish. In the spring the shad were abundant in the river, and in the little stream not far from his house, called Gardner's Creek, a mess of the finest trout could be caught at almost any time except in winter.
Many years since, a company of Indians passed down the river on their way to Philadelphia, to conclude a treaty with the government. There seemed to be two parties, one taking the east and the other the west side of the river. Several of them lodged in an old, de- serted house near by. He visited them, and one of them spoke good English. The Indian asked him if he ever saw an Indian before. "Yes," said he, "at the time of the Wyoming massacre." "Ah! you live there ?" responded the Indian. "Yes," was the an- swer. From that moment the Indian seemed shy. He finally said his tribe, the Oneidas, were not here on that occasion, but some of the other company were here, and he and his friends would not go in their com- pany, for they expected every one of them would be killed. "How many Indians do you think were in the battle ?" asked the Indian. "I do not know; I have heard about a thousand," answered Mr. Gardner. "Oh no," responded the Indian, "not near so many."
We take the following account of this visit of the Indians to Wyoming from Mr. Miner : "Fifteen years after the battle, a number of Indians, among whom were several chiefs of distinction, passed through Wy- oming on their way to Philadelphia, on business with the government. Apprehending danger, they sent word to Wilkesbarre, and an escort of respectable cit- izens turned out to accompany them into the town.
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RICHARD GARDNER.
In the evening a council was held in the court-room, where mutually pacific assurances were given. It is not surprising, considering their cruel conduct during the war, that the Indians entertained fears for their safety. On their return, passing on the opposite side of the river from the battle-ground, the old braves showed much excitement, talking and gesticulating with great emphasis and spirit, as they seemed to be pointing out to the younger savages the position and incidents of the conflict. I met Red Jacket at Wash- ington in 1827 or '8, and strove to lead him to talk of Wyoming, but on that subject his lips were hermetic- ally.sealed."
From this time, we believe, no Indians visited Wy- oming until the summer of 1852, when a company of performers made their appearance in Wilkesbarre. They rode through the town in single file in native cos- tume, and whooped, and yelled, and performed many curious feats. At night they had a war-dance on the bank of the river, on the ground of the old fort. Few of the people who had been raised in the Valley ever saw an Indian before, and, of course, they were objects, of great curiosity.
Mr. Gardner's conversation is all in a plain, straight- forward style, without a particle of enthusiasm, and exhibits evidence of an unimpaired intellect. We left him, and returned right well satisfied with our trip through the Narrows. We had learned some things, and among them was the fact that there were some other things not to be learned.
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WYOMING.
XVI.
PROVIDENTIAL DELIVERANCE OF RUFUS BENNET ON THE FATAL 3D OF JULY.
" Woe to the vanquish'd ! was stern Runo's word When sunk proud Rome beneath the Gallic sword : Woe to the vanquish'd ! when his massy blade Bore down the scale against her ransom weigh'd ; And on the field of foughten battle still,
War knows no limit save the victor's will."
The Gailliard.
" Slaughter grows murther when it goes too far, And makes a massacre what was a war."
DRYDEN.
THE retreat of the patriot army on the fatal 3d of July became a flight and a massacre. Each man shift- ed for himself as best he could, and the more swift on foot took the lead. The Indians, frantic with the war spirit and thirsty for blood, shot down, scalped, and tomahawked those they overtook. More than two hundred of the New England people fell in that ill- judged and disastrous encounter. A portion of these were first captured, and then massacred in cold blood. Very few-it is thought only two-of those who were captured upon the field of battle escaped torture. Of Butler's Loyalists and Indians from fifty to eighty are supposed to have fallen, but no reliable report of the number has ever been made. It is reported that all the "shovels and picks" which could be raised were put into requisition the next morning. This certainly was not for the purpose of burying our people, for they were all left above ground. The facts will probably
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RUFUS BENNET.
never be revealed until the morning of the resurrec- tion, when it is probable that " the marsh" will yield up some scores of the Red Men who fell upon that memorable day .*
In the flight and chase down the plains, there were hair-breadth and providential escapes as well as dia- bolical deeds of cruelty. Among the strange escapes we would notice that of Rufus Bennet, a young man of seventeen years of age. He was tall and slender, but resolute and quick of foot. He was hotly pur- sued by two stalwart Indians, one of them close be- hind him. Colonel Butler, who was almost the last to leave the ground, galloped his horse close by Bennet. Quick as lightning he seized the long switch tail of the colonel's horse. He now made long strides, and hoped to out-distance his pursuers. They, however, presuming upon the fact that he would not be able long to keep his hold, kept on at the top of their speed, although for a few moments they fell in the rear.
Bennet broke his hold, and his spirit sunk. He and
* Since writing the above, we have learned from John Bennet, Esq., of Kingston, that when his uncle Solomon was in Wyoming last-in 1820-he went with him upon the battle-ground, and show- ed him where he stood when the battle began, and how far they pushed John Butler's men. He also pointed out the spot where the British and Indians who were killed were buried. It was on what. was called "the Island," in the marsh, under some large yellow pines which were then standing. There sixty were consigned to their long resting-place by their fellow-royalists-British, Tories, and Indians. The number of the slain and the place of burial were com- municated to Mr. Solomon Bennet by the Wintermoots and Secords in Canada in 1812. Mr. Bennet was in Canada upon a visit to a daughter when the late war broke out, and there was obliged to re- main for about two years, and during this period he had frequent interviews with his old Tory acquaintances above named, who were perfectly frank in their communications.
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WYOMING.
the Indians had severally discharged their guns and could not take time to reload, and there was no hope for the poor fellow but in a deadly close encounter against great odds. The foremost of the two, toma- hawk in hand, now rapidly gained upon his supposed victim, and, with a yell which echoed from mountain to mountain, bounded forward like the bloodthirsty wolf in pursuit of the exhausted fawn. A few more leaps, and his prey would be secure.
On the march of the little army up the plains, Rich- ard Inman had fallen back from the ranks, and lay down in a wheat-field just above Tuttle's Creek. It is said that he had "taken a little too much," and re- quiring a nap, he flung himself upon the ground and fell asleep. By the time the fugitives came rushing down from the battle-field Inman had come to him- self, and when he heard the heavy tread of Colonel Butler's horse he began to rub open his eyes. The colonel saw him lift his head and lay his chin in his hand, his elbow resting on the ground. Throwing the point of his sword back, Colonel Butler roared out, "Inman, shoot that Indian !"
Inman was a dead shot, and the order was no soon- er given than it was obeyed. Crack went Inman's rifle, and down fell the Indian brave. He fell within a few feet of the exhausted fugitive, and his compan- ion was not far behind him.
The next moment, and Bennet would have spent the last remnant of vital power, fallen prostrate upon the ground, and been scalped and tomahawked. He was a young man of nerve; he neither fell into a swoon nor forgot that another foe was upon his track. Gathering up his energies, he was now ready, sup- ported by his friend, to give battle hand to hand to the remaining savage; he, however, came to a sudden
LOSSING-BARRITT
ESCAPE OF RUFUS BENNET.
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RUFUS BENNET.
pause, turned about, and took to his heels. The crack of Inman's rifle and the fall of the Indian warrior had measurably restored the equilibrium of Bennet's sys- tem, and, after a few long breaths, he and his com- panion were on their way to the fort, where they ar- rived without farther molestation .*
Rufus Bennet married Martha Bennet, a young woman of the same name, but not immediately related to him, and settled in Hanover, where he raised a large family, and lived to advanced years. His wife out- lived him, and after long having been called " Aunt Martha," was by every body called "Grandmother." She died one mile below Wilkesbarre in the year 1853. We visited her upon her dying-bed, and, al- though in the very jaws of death, she entertained us for an hour or more with accounts of "the battle" and the flight " through the swamp."
The company she was in "went through Capouse on to Shehola, and across Jersey." They were in con- stant excitement from fear of Indians. At Capouse they found one of the settlers-if we recollect right, a Mr. St. John-lying dead in the road, who had the same day been shot and scalped.+
* The Inman family were great patriots, and suffered severely from the Indians. Three of Richard's brothers fell victims to their bar- barous cruelty. Richard lived to old age, and, after the termination of the wars, became a religious man. Colonel Edward Inman, his brother, was also, to the day of his death, a man of influence and re- spectability. Both these veteran pioneers had a high reputation for hospitality, and were gratefully remembered by the early itinerant ministers.
+.Mr. Miner gives the following account of the Capouse murders. "News came down from Lackawanna that Mr. Hickman, his wife and child, were murdered at Capouse. The very next day, two men, by the name of Leach and St. John, who were removing with their families, were shot six miles up the Lackawanna. One of them had a child in his arms, which, with strange inconsistency, the Indian
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WYOMING.
It is not wonderful that impressions made upon the minds of children by these bloody scenes should be durable. Seventy-five years had elapsed, and Mrs. Bennet was all but in her death-struggle, and yet she seemed to have a passion for thinking and conversing of those awful scenes. True enough, "The ruling passion strong in death." The day following she breathed her last.
We offered her the consolations of religion, and com- mended her soul to God, but have one thing to regret. We made no memorandum of the particular facts which she communicated, and which are now beyond recovery. Thus are the materials of history constant- ly perishing through the mere thoughtlessness of those whose duty it is to give them permanence. Our ac- quaintance with Rufus and Martha Bennet was long and somewhat intimate, and we have general impres- sions of the stories which we heard from their lips of the troublous days of Wyoming, but the particulars, except in a few instances, are indistinctly marked upon the tablet of our memory. The same remark we may make in relation to a score or more of those who were sharers and actors in the same scenes which are pre- sented in this volume, who were active members of society when we first entered the Valley. Diligence in committing to writing what we then heard from the early settlers would have furnished us with a maga- zine of facts which, at this time, we should prize above silver or gold. Most of these opportunities are now gone beyond the possibility of recovery. All we can now do is to use what has escaped the ruins of a past generation.
took up and handed to the mother, all covered with the father's blood. Leaving the women in the wagon unhurt, they took the scalps of their husbands and departed."
369
NOAH HOPKINS.
XVII.
NOAH HOPKINS-HIS LIFE SAVED BY A SPIDER.
"To turn purveyor to an overgorged And bloated spider, till the pampered beast Is made familiar, watches his approach,
Comes at his call, and serves him for a friend."-Task.
"It is not, I say, merely in a pious manner of expression that the Scripture thus ascribeth every event to the providence of God, but it is strictly and philosophically true in nature and reason that there is no such thing as chance or accident."-Dr. S. CLARKE.
THE following singular and providential escape we copy from the second edition of Colonel Stone's His- tory of Wyoming.
" Among the individual incidents marking this sin- gular tragedy was the following: Some of the fugitives were pursued for a time by a portion of the Indians, and among them was a settler named Noah Hopkins -a wealthy man, from the county of Dutchess, in the State of New York, bordering upon Connecticut. He had disposed of a handsome landed patrimony in his native town, Amenia, and invested the proceeds as a shareholder of the Susquehanna Company, and in making preparations for removing to the new colony. Finding, by the sounds, that the Indians were upon his trail, after running a long distance he fortunately discovered the trunk of a large hollow tree upon the ground, into which he crept. After lying there sever- al hours, his apprehensions of danger were greatly quickened by the tread of footsteps. They approach- ed, and in a few moments two or three savages were actually seated upon the log in consultation. He heard the bullets rattle loosely in their pouches. They ac-
Q2
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WYOMING.
tually looked into the hollow trunk, suspecting that he might be there; but the examination must have been slight, as they discovered no traces of his presence. The object of their search, however, in after-life at- tributed his escape to the labors of a busy spider, which, after he crawled into the log, had been indus- triously engaged in weaving a web over the entrance. Perceiving this, the Indians supposed, as a matter of course, that the fugitive could not have entered there. After remaining in his place of concealment as long as nature could endure the confinement, Hopkins crept forth, wandering in the wilderness without food until he was on the point of famishing. In this situation, knowing that he could but die, he cautiously stole down into the Valley again, whence five days before he had fled. All was desolation there. The crops were destroyed, the cattle gone, and the smouldering brands and embers were all that remained of the houses. The Indians had retired, and the stillness of death prevailed. He roamed about for hours in search of something to satisfy the cravings of nature, fording or swimming the river twice in his search. At length he discerned the carcass of a wild turkey, shot on the morning of the massacre, but which had been left in the flight. He quickly stripped the bird of his feath- ers, although it had become somewhat offensive by lying in the sun, dressed it and washed it in the river, and the first meal he made therefrom was ever after- ward pronounced the sweetest of his life. Upon the strength of this turkey, with such roots and herbs as he could gather in the way, he traveled until, after incredible hardships he was obliged to encounter-his clothes being torn from his limbs in the thickets, and his body badly lacerated-he once more found him- self among the dwellings of civilized men."
371
THE FRATRICIDE.
XVIII.
THE FRATRICIDE.
THE story of a Tory shooting his brother on Mono- casy Island on the day of the battle, which we have told from the historians, we believe has never been questioned. Such an astonishing instance of deprav- ity would be past belief if it were not well authenti- cated; but, giving it due credit upon the credibility of the witnesses, we naturally desire to know some- thing of the subsequent history of the perpetrator of so unnatural and barbarous a deed. We have obtain- ed some reliable information upon this subject, which we will now proceed to give.
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