Chronicles of border warfare : $b or, A history of the settlement by the whites, of north-western Virginia, and of the Indian wars and massacres, in that section of the stateWithers, Alexander Scott
History
Chronicles of border warfare : $b or, A history of the settlement by the whites, of north-western Virginia, and of the Indian wars and massacres, in that section of the state
Withers, Alexander Scott
Indians of North America -- Wars -- 1750-1815; Ohio River Valley -- History -- To 1795; West Virginia -- History -- To 1950
So soon as he was in their power they plundered the house of such
articles as they could conveniently take with them, and set fire to
it, and to the barn, in which was a quantity of wheat, some horses and
other cattle. After inflicting some severe tortures on Williamson, and
forcing him to carry a heavy weight of the plunder, which they had
taken from him, they went to a neighboring house, occupied by Jacob
Snyder, his wife, five children and a servant. The piercing cries, and
[77] agonizing shrieks of these poor creatures, made no impression on
the savages. The father, mother, and children were tomahawked and
scalped, and their bodies consumed by fire together with the house.
The servant was spared that he might aid in carrying their plunder;
but manifesting deep distress at his situation as prisoner, he was
tomahawked before they proceeded far.
Before they could accomplish farther mischief a fall of snow, making
them apprehensive that they would be pursued by the united force of
the settlement, induced them to return to Alamingo--taking Williamson
with them.
On their way back, they met with the party of Indians, which had
separated from them, as they approached the settlements. These had
been lower down on the Susquehanna, and had succeeded in making
greater havoc, and committing more depredations, than it had fallen to
the lot of those who had taken Williamson, to commit. They had with
them three prisoners and twenty scalps. According to the account of
their transactions as detailed by the prisoners, they had on one day
killed and scalped John Lewis, his wife and three children, and in a
few days after had murdered, with almost every circumstance of
cruelty, Jacob Miller, his wife and six children, and George Folke,
his wife and nine children, cutting up the bodies of the latter
family and giving them piece-meal to the hogs in the pen. Wherever
they had been, destruction marked their course. In every instance the
houses, barns and grain stacks were consumed by fire; and the stock
killed.
The three prisoners who had been brought in by the last party,
endeavored soon after to effect an escape; but their ignorance of the
country, and the persevering activity and vigilance of the Indians,
prevented the accomplishment of their attempt. They were overtaken,
and brought back; and then commenced a series of cruelties, tortures
and death, sufficient to shock the sensibilities of the most obdurate
heart, if unaccustomed to the perpetration of such enormities.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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