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feel across, perfectly round in the shapo of a funnel, and walled up nicely withirCf v*' -v,.rii jfc,'latter* *di»tilwV |*^W*r«6«he o£jN»‘dt£t iDfigttorfupd, jjjfrp#:tb^cly to Ihft, D'eTlbcr BiW nor Hik hi* twtrme what the Indians used those places for.There were a few Indians yet in the country who had escaped from the main hinly while indTiHg JtfcearMfeat * y?ar or two before, and had returned to the graves ^nd tfiCTCIiilVl^rer oftfaeirfatlieTsr The first and second winters were very cold with deep1 sriowsV One cold day father was ’iittay * fiom^i home* and the rest of us Were housed «p trying to keepwarm, we heard a noise, and on opening the door' there stoodrjarlitUe old:Indian nearly frozen ' to death. He had little black eyes (like a mink), a sharp Roman nose, an old yellow blanket aroundhim, leggings and moccasins on.’ He left his gun outside, which was a good sign. I asked the poor old soul to come in, which he did;-and took a seat My mother was nearly scared to death, as it was the first Indian she had ever seen. Indian said he was hungry: She said we had nothing to give him. I said there was somei cold pone left, and to give him that,-which she did. lie ale it up. and then left, and never said farewell, good bye, thank you sir, or nothing else; After ? he left I took his track in the snow and followed it south about half a mile, and then he turned east up into the heavy timber, dragging something in the snow like a deer. A3 it was;ueariy night I went home. My father came home that night, and the next morning wejook hi9 tracks again, and followed it up into the heavy limber about three miles near Mr. IIi9er’s old place, and there we found him in a little bark hut or wigwam, built by the side of a big log; to break the wind and snow off of him. He had a squaw and papoose. As we appruached 'the hut a wolfish looking dog, with hair turned all the wrong way, ran out at us. The Indian said something and the the dog subsided. We found he had killed a deer the* day before, and had a small kett?t on a small fire in the center of his wigwam, making soup out of the entrails of the deer. He motioned us to. have some, but I was not hungry enough for that kind of soup. We asked him kis name. -Hesaid something about Pe-ash-away, Bad Ax, or True Ax, Tippecanoe, c.? but we could not understand him. He gave us some venison to take home, which more than paid for the cold corn-bread of the day before, and as I was always piously inclined 1 thought of that passage of scripture: “Cast your bread upon the waters, and after many days ye shall find it ” a •; ’• ••Now for the ground hog question. 1 have always been a firm believer in the ground hog theory, for the truth of which I refer you to the present year. If the ground hos sees his shadow on the 2d of February there will be six weeks more cold weather, if It takes to the 4th of July to have it. On a 2d day of February the morning was clear, and 1 went :OUl to watch an old ground hog that lived in a sand bank near our cabin. I slipped up behind a tree; Mr. Groand Hog came out, took a walk around, saw his shadow, played flip Hop, and turned a somersault backwards into his hole, throwed sandinto my eyes, took the holein after him, and said; “Farewell, vain world, I am going home,” and that was the last of him for. two months. That was the cold winter when teams crossed -Fletchers, tiuke and the Wabash river in April, and every old settler ought to remember it This was also the winter that some hunters killed sixty dear on Bogus Island m Beaver Lake, the deer having been surrounded tin re with smooth ice and could not get off. Those were my happiest days, liv-imr on.wild game and honey, and sleeping out with nothing but the green grass ’ or dry lcares hcncuth me and the .starry heavens above me, and drinking the pure water out: of Blue Grass - and Indian creeks. Imiehfc give you many more Items and incidents in reference to the Indians, hunting bees, killing came, etc.. but this article is already too long : ana l will close for the present, and perhaps at some future time will give you another dose of the same kind. ^Yovjrs truly,lt; Samuel L. McFajmh.
Newspaper Details
Logansport Evening News
Logansport, Indiana, US
Fri, Apr 06, 1877
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Roberta H.
IN, USA 26 Jan 2020
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