Hide Article Text (OCR)
feet across, perfectly round in the shapeof a funnel, and walled up nicely withsouwhiCU-JPhstv*l»INt. he|hj*u•mmIUk Hi »• «js ^apafekafiass1what the Indians used those places for.There were a few Indians yet in ihe country who had escaped, from the main hixly while moving StheorWest a yf ar or two before, and had returned to the graves ^tfd llicrcEmpl!re« of their fathers The first and second winters were very cold with decp snows/ One cold day father was* ’ a* ay t from I home, and the rest of us Were housed up trying to keep warm, we heard a noise, and on opening the door there stuodju?little old:Indian nearly frozen *' to death/ He had little black eyes'- (like a mink), a sharp Homan nose, an old yellow blanket aronndhim, 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 isomei cold pone left, and to give him that, which she did. lie ate 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 be turned east up into the heavy timber, dragging something in the snow like a deer. A3 it wa^uenriy night I went home. My father came home that night, and the next morning we look his tracks again, and followed it up into the heavy: timber about three miles near Mr. Iliser’s lt;!d 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 himv He ■ had a squaw and papoose. Ah we approached the hut:a woUish 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?C on a small fire in the center of his wigr warn, 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. : He said something about Fe-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, Sind after many days yc shall find it” *•: •• *• • .i!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 hot? 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 I went out to watch an old ground hog that lived in a sand bank near our cabin. I slipped up behind a tree; Mr. Ground Hog came out, took a walk around, saw his shadow, played flip Hop, and turned a somersault backwards into his hole, throwed sand into my eyes, took, the hole in after him, and said, “Farewell, yain world, I am going home,” and that was the last of him for.two months. That was the cold winter when teams crossed Fletcher’s, l»ake 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 in Beaver Lake, the deer having been surrounded thrre with smooth ice and could not get off. Those were my happiest days, living on.wild game and honey, and sleep- j mg out with nothing but the green grass ! or dry leaves beneath me and the .starry heavens above me, aud drinking the pure water out of Bluo Grass and Indian creeks. I might give you many more i Items and incidents in reference to the Indians, hunting bees, killing came, etc., but this article is already too long : and I will close for the present, and perhaps at some future time will give you another i dose of the same kind. ^Yoiijrs truly,Samuel L. McFajhk.
Newspaper Details
Logansport Evening News
Logansport, Indiana, US
Fri, Apr 06, 1877
Page 2
Full Page
Clipped by
Roberta H.
USA 26 Jan 2020
Other Publications Near Logansport, Indiana
Logansport Daily Reporter
Logansport Weekly Star
Logansport Daily Star
Logansport Democratic Pharos
Logansport Morning Journal
