Show t. I FORGOTTEN BY Elmo EImo Scott Watson i i Forty Bushels of Wheat u c P BACE bath Its Us victories no noI noless I less renowned than war And It also bas has Its Us heroes who do brave deeds far from the sound of ot bugle or drum Come Como up to the tiptop of Indian Hill In N. N H. H anti and there In a n grassy sunny nook look upon a simple granite monument monument monument ment which bears this Inscription Reuben 1771 1771 Reuben Whitten Son 1847 1847 Son of at a Revolutionary soldier pioneer of this town Cold season of ot 1816 1810 raised 40 bushels of wheat which I kept ept his family and his bis neighbors from starvation Life was hard for the early settlers settlers set set- tiers In the foothills of the White While Mountains away back In 1810 when Reuben Whitten moved his family from the little village of Pl Plymouth mouth and began a pioneers pioneer's life ute on a little UttIe little lit Ut- tle tIe farm near Lake Lak e In the summer time they raised a n little grain and a few vegetables but for tor forthe forthe tort t the e m most st part they hey d depended upon fish Ush and game for food So when the summer of ot 1810 came and It rained week after arter week they did not worry worry even eyen when their grain and vegetables rotted In the ground The Tue woods still still were we're were full of game and the lake was still full of t r fish that could be taken talen through the Ice Reuben neuben Whitten was more fortunate than th the r rest st st. ill His corn cornand cornand cornand and vegetables had been a failure but he had raised 40 bushels of wheat There was no autumn that year Winter came In on an Icy blast In October and for tor two weeks It snowed and rained and hailed balled The whole country side was deep In snow Most of the cattle perished as ns did much of the wild game And then the specter of starvation began began be be- gan gnu to stalk through the settlement Then came the word from Reuben Reuben neuben Reu Reu- ben Whitten that so long as ns his little store of wheat lasted nil all the others In the settlement should share In It It was little more than enough to carry his own family safely through the winter and whatever what whatever whatever what what- ever lay beyond b but t he would portion portion portion por por- tion It out a n little each cach week to other families The winter Increased In severity In other parts of New Hampshire and Vermont whole families were wiped out others were so weakened weak ened by privation that they fell prey to disease fathers and mothers ent went without food to keep the spark of life Ufe In their children But In Inthe the Indian Hill settlement Reuben neuben Whittens Whitten's wheat with what little fish and game could be secured kept the half-dozen half families alive till spring Three Hundred to One OWN In Oklahoma stands a D DOWN monument of native stone which commemorates one of the most remarkable st stories rles of desperate desper desper- ate valor In all nil frontier history It marks the spot where Pat Hennessy bra bravely vely faced face odds of to 1 and true to the frontier code s sold ld hIs bis life Ufe dearly Pat was an time old Fort Sill sm freighter and In the tile spring of 1870 was vas on his way ray from Caldwell Kan to the the fort with a n. wagon train He was accompanied by by three other men When Jumped by a crowd of ot some Cheyenne warriors his companions became confused contused and tried to escape north along the trail Immediately they were were surrounded and cut ut down In the meantime Hennessy had sought shelter among some rocks rocks- a little natural fortress from which his rifle menace menaced the savages as they approached Confident ent In their overwhelming numbers the swept forward forwar to within 20 yards ards of Pats Pat's stronghold RestIng RestIng nestIng Rest Rest- Ing his rifle rIOe on the rock In front of him and not taking the trouble to aim he cocked It with one band and pulled the lever Ie and trigger with the other A continuous ball hail of bullets bullets bul bul- lets poured Into the mass of sav say ages They broke nn and retreated But nut they came back again this again this time In front and at both sides Falling Failing In this they tried another another an other frontal attack and surged up to within ten feet of ot the white whiteman whiteman man who fired his revolver pointblank pointblank pointblank point- point blank Into their faces until he be had bad emptied It Picking up his rifle again he continued to fire And then then the the gun jammed I IThe IThe The rifle had bad become so hot and dirty from constant tiring firing that a cartrI cartridge ge stuck fast and hIs bis desperate desper desper- ate efforts to extricate It were use use- less In another moment the Indians Indians In In- would have been r retreating But when the firing stopped the they believed his ammunition was exhausted exhausted ex ex- ex- ex hausted and pressed forward Hennessy Hennessy Hen LIen nessy met met them with clubbed rifle rIOe but the surging mass overpowered him Infuriated by the toll toil he had extracted for 30 lay Iny dead on the ground they scalped him tied him to the wheel of ol one of his wagons emptied sacks of oats around him hint and set them on tire Ore lI For or a few minutes there was a writhing figure by flames nn and then the spirit of ot Pat Hennessy y passed on to that Valhalla reserved for tor warriors who know bow how to die did I but but- not how bow to surrender fD j 1931 Wc Western tern No Newspaper Union |