The second William Penn : $b a true account of incidents that happened along the old Sante Fe trail in the sixtiesRyus, W. H. (William Henry)
History
The second William Penn : $b a true account of incidents that happened along the old Sante Fe trail in the sixties
Ryus, W. H. (William Henry)
Frontier and pioneer life -- West (U.S.); Indians of North America -- West (U.S.); Santa Fe National Historic Trail
After this brutal crime against the Indians, trouble commenced on the
Santa Fe Trail, and the sight of a "pale face" brought memories of the
assassination of their tribe by Chivington and his raiders.
At this Indian lodge where the Chivington massacre occurred lived the
father-in-law of John Powers. He was known the plains over as a
peaceable old Indian (Old One Eye), the chief of the Cheyennes, but his
"light was put out" during this desperate fight with Chivington.
Right here I will give an account of the marriage of John Powers to the
daughter of "Old One Eye."
Mr. Powers had crossed the plains several times as wagon-boss for
Colonel Charles Bent, who was the builder of Bent's Fort, also the new
fort at Fort Lyons. He was also wagon boss for Mr. Winsor, the settler
at Fort Lyon at the time of his marriage to the daughter of the
old chief.
Mr. Powers' mother, Mrs. Fogel, and his stepfather received the news of
Powers' marriage with many misgivings and rebuked him severely for
having made such a choice, finally vowing that they disowned him and
never wanted to see him again. With a finality not at all disconsolate
John Powers set about to polish his Indian wife for the polite society
of his mother, so he sent her to school, chaperoned by Miss Mollie Bent.
At the school at West Port this Indian girl soon excelled and under the
careful management of Miss Bent the wife of John Powers soon became an
expert in domestic science. But Powers, getting impatient for a meeting
between his mother and wife, asked Mollie Bent to arrange it. So
accordingly Miss Mollie visited at the home of her friends, the Fogels,
and during the gossip Miss Bent casually remarked to Mrs. Fogel that she
had a most charming friend, an Indian maid, over at the school whom she
would like to introduce to her.
When Mrs. Fogel insisted upon her coming over the following Saturday,
bringing with her her friend, Mollie Bent's heart was little less glad
than John Powers.
At last the eventful day had arrived. Mollie, accompanied with John's
"Indian squaw," went to the home of Mrs. Fogel. The high-spiritedness of
the Indian maid soon captivated Mrs. Fogel. After they had eaten supper
Mrs. Fogel was ordered to go to the front porch and entertain her other
visitor, Miss Mollie Bent, while she (Mrs. John Powers) did up the
kitchen work and cleared up the dining room. Mrs. Fogel did so with
reluctance, wondering greatly just how a real Indian would do up her
greatly "civilized" kitchen work. But she did not wonder long, for very
soon, indeed, the daughter of "Old One Eye" came to inquire of her host
where to place the dishes and how to arrange the dining room.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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