The Fort Dearborn Massacre: Written in 1814 by Lieutenant Linai T. Helm, One of the Survivors, with Letters and Narratives of Contemporary InterestHelm, Linai T. (Linai Taliaferro)
History
The Fort Dearborn Massacre: Written in 1814 by Lieutenant Linai T. Helm, One of the Survivors, with Letters and Narratives of Contemporary Interest
Helm, Linai T. (Linai Taliaferro)
Fort Dearborn Massacre, Chicago, Ill., 1812; Massacre survivors -- Illinois -- Chicago
On entering her presence, her son presented the little girl, saying, "My
mother, I bring you a child to take the place of my brother who was
killed by the Lenape six moons ago. She shall dwell in my lodge, and be
to me a sister. Take the white woman and her children and treat them
kindly--our Father will give us many horses and guns to buy them back
again."
He referred to the British Indian Agent of his tribe, Colonel Johnson,
an excellent and benevolent gentleman, who resided at Fort Niagara, on
the British side of the Niagara River.
The Old Queen carried out the injunctions of her son. She received the
prisoners, and every comfort that her simple and primitive mode of life
made possible was provided them.
We must now return to the time and place at which our story commences.
Late in the evening of that day the father returned to his dwelling. All
around and within was silent and desolate. No trace of a living
creature was to be found in the house or throughout the grounds. His
nearest neighbors lived at a considerable distance, but to them he
hastened, frantically demanding tidings of his family.
As he aroused them from their slumbers, one after another joined him in
the search. At length, at one of the houses, the maid servant who had
effected her escape was found. Her first place of refuge, she said, had
been a large brewing tub in an outer kitchen, under which she had
secreted herself until the Indians, who were evidently in haste,
departed and gave her the opportunity of fleeing to a place of greater
safety. She could give no tidings of her mistress and the children,
except that they had not been murdered in her sight or hearing.
At last, having scoured the neighborhood without success, Mr. Lytle
thought of an old settler who lived alone, far up the valley. Thither he
and his friends immediately repaired, and from him they learned that,
while at work in his field just before sunset, he had seen a party of
strange Indians passing at a short distance from his cabin. As they
wound along the brow of the hill he perceived that they had prisoners
with them--a woman and a child. The woman he knew to be white, as she
carried her infant in her arms, instead of upon her back, after the
manner of the savages.
Day had now begun to break. The night had been passed in fruitless
search, and, after consultation with kind friends and neighbors, the
agonized father accepted their offer to accompany him to Fort Pitt that
they might ask advice and assistance of the commandant and Indian Agent
there.
Proceeding down the valley, they approached a hut which the night before
they had found apparently deserted, and were startled by seeing two
children standing in front of it. In them the delighted father
recognized two of his missing flock, but no tidings could they give him
of their mother or of the other members of his family.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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