Tales, Traditions and Romance of Border and Revolutionary TimesEllis, Edward Sylvester
History
Tales, Traditions and Romance of Border and Revolutionary Times
Ellis, Edward Sylvester
Frontier and pioneer life -- United States -- Anecdotes; United States -- History -- Revolution, 1775-1783 -- Anecdotes
Dr. Franklin then rose, and with his usual dignified simplicity, said:
"_George Washington—the Joshua, who commanded the sun and moon to stand
still, and they obeyed him._"
We could fill many pages with anecdotes of Washington, illustrative of
his goodness, his real, _heart_ piety, his reliance on an overruling
Providence; but will not, at this time, devote more space to the theme,
promising ourselves the pleasures of again recurring to the truly august
subject.
THE JOHNSON BOYS KILLING THEIR CAPTORS.
The father of the little heroes whose daring exploit is here
illustrated, removed from Pennsylvania in 1786, or thereabouts, and
settled on what was called Beech-bottom Flats, in the State of Ohio,
some two miles from the Ohio River, and three or four miles above the
mouth of Short Creek. In common with all the early settlers of that
State, Johnson was subject to the depredations of the Indians, who felt
that the white men were encroaching upon their hunting-grounds, and did
not hesitate to inflict upon them the fullest measure of vengeance.
Protected by the station, or fort, near which they resided, the family
enjoyed, however, a tolerable share of security.
One Sunday morning, in the fall of 1793, two of his sons—John, aged
thirteen, and Henry, eleven—started for the woods to look for a hat
which the younger had lost the previous evening, while out after the
cows. Having found the hat, they started for home, but coming to the
foot of a hickory tree, whose tempting fruit lay in bounteous profusion
on the ground before them, they, boylike, and dreaming neither of
Indians nor of any other danger, sat down on a fallen log and amused
themselves cracking and eating nuts. While thus engaged, they observed
two men approaching from the direction of the station, who, from their
dress and appearance, they took to be neighbors, seeking for strayed
horses, one of them having a bridle in his hand. Satisfied of this fact,
they continued their employment, until the men had approached quite near
to them, when, upon looking up, they discovered, to their horror, that
they were Indians, dressed in the garb of white men. Their first impulse
was to fly; but upon rising to their feet, one of the intruders
presented his rifle, and told them to stop or he would shoot. Coming up
to them, the other presented his hand, and said: "How do, brodder?" The
oldest boy, John, immediately—instinctively, as it were—called into
requisition a tact perfectly astonishing in such a child. Accepting the
savage's hand, he shook it with a smile, asking with apparently pleased
curiosity if they were Indians. Their captors replied that they were,
telling the boys that they must go with them. Concealing their feelings
of fear and distress, the little fellows submitted, and took up their
line of march for the wilderness, not without the most poignant emotions
at thus being rudely torn from their home and parents. They had heard
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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