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Show TI1E LEW SUN. LEW, UTAH Recent Death' of an 88-Year-Old Kansas Woman Recalls Gen. Custer's Dramatic Rescue of Two Captives From Cheyenne Indians 70 Years Ago bTeLMO SCOTT WATSON mele.d by Western Newspaper Union.) 5?HE died the other day N and her passing snapped L a living link between the Ussnt-day, modern America Amer-ica and an era in frontier history which now seems al-Lst al-Lst as remote as the days When Kentucky was the -nark and Bloody Ground end a "Narrative of an Indian Captivity" was a familiar type of American literature. Yet it was only 71 years ago that she was kidnaped from her home in Kansas by a war party of Cheyenne Indians, suffered indescribably while lield a captive by that tribe Vnd was finally rescued by Gen. George A. Custer and his famous Seventh cavalry in one of the most dramatic incidents in the whole thrilling thrill-ing history of the Wild West. I Her name was Mrs. Sarah 'Brooks but back in 1868 she was Sarah White, the 17-year-old daughter of Benjamin White, who tad brought his wife and 10 children chil-dren from Wisconsin the previous year to a homestead on Granny creek, a tributary of the Republican Repub-lican river in northern Kansas. On the morning of that fateful day, August 13, 1868, Benjamin White and his three sons had gone to the meadows along the I Republican to cut hay, leaving I his wife, Sarah, their oldest ! daughter, and three smaller chil-fdren chil-fdren at the cabin. 1 Presently a party of six Chey-fenne Chey-fenne Indians appeared, profess-I profess-I ing friendship and asking for i'food. Mrs. White prepared a I meal for them and as they startled start-led to leave they seized young ? Sarah and dragged her out of the house. One of the Indians leaped upon his horse and with the aid of another savage pulled her, fighting desperately, up beside him. Then, followed by the horror-stricken gaze of her mother who ran after her with outstretched out-stretched arms, they rode away. Meanwhile, another party of the same band of Indians had I discovered her father and broth-! broth-! ers working in the meadow near ! the Republican. The ' boys es- ! caped by running to the river and hiding in the bushes along I its banks but the Indians killed i Mr. White and rode away with his team of horses. .That night when these Indians rode into the Cheyenne camp on Buffalo creek, young Sarah White recognized her father's horses and wept bitterly bit-terly over this evidence that he and her brothers were dead. A Stratagem That Failed. In the camp on the Buffalo she found an old newspaper which she hid in her dress. The next day, as she rode along, she tore off bits of the paper and dropped them unobtrusively, hoping that this might mark a trail which a party of rescuers could follow. But it was a vain hope, for seven months were to elapse before she was to be released from the horrors hor-rors of her captivity. Three months after she had been captured, her miserv was I shared by another young woman mrs. Anna Brewster Morgan, the 19-year-old bride of a young farmer in the Solomon valley. He had hppn I in the field by Indians who shot 1 nun with arrows, left him for j "e.ad, and, dashing to his cabin, I seized his wife and bore her away. This party of Cheyennes j traded her for some ponies to the I bat-, which held Sarah White I capuve. I The Indians made slaves of the two girls and subjected them to I au sorts of indignities. The juaws, who were jealous of I them, were especially cruel to them. They forced the white vmJ. cut wood and carry unui their shoulders were raw and sore and when they sank aown with exhaustion they were lashed with whips until the blood j ran. Sheridan Takes the Field. f JS.688,0 fortunate women ere only two of the victims of Lo,erLes of raids by Indians S0Uvgh Kansas that year during i rCV?veral hundred settlers ! w,- mA members of their ! Iamuies carried awav pan. ! rfs" As 3 result of these depre- dV- Samuel N- Cr'w-I Cr'w-I Zr ed upon the fedal gov-for gov-for aid and Gen. Phil Nwidan was ordered into th ueia. For the difficult task of ! dnv ?aptives' Sheridan re-! re-! the Seventh l yeut.CoI. George i Meanu-hru o . I had icT ' "urcrnr trawiord teeni, "Sent, the Nine-S33 Nine-S33 Volunteers, re- - uiu icq inp rDfrrr rendezvous 1:.1 SPnLULply; m?es south of te- n arch, 1869, Cus- The three Cheyenne Indians who were held as hostages by Custer Cus-ter for the surrender of Mrs. Morgan and Miss White and who were later taken to Fort Hays where two of them were killed by their guards. There is much confusion as to the identity of these Indians. Custer gives their names as Fat Bear, Dull Knife and Big Head and those are the names accompanying the above illustration (a wood cut made from a photograph taken at Fort Dodge, Kan., March 13, 1869) which appears in Mrs. Custer's book "Following the Guidon." Grin-nell, Grin-nell, quoting different Cheyennes as bis authority, names them as Younger Bear, Chief Comes in Sight and Island (or Lean Man) but elsewhere in his book, "The Fighting Cheyennes," says that the two who were killed by their guards at Fort Hays were Slim Face and Curly Hair. ter, with 11 troops of the Seventh and 10 of the Nineteenth Kansas, set out to find several bands of the Cheyennes who were still on the warpath. A short time before a young man applied for permission to accompany ac-company the expedition. At first Custer refused but when .he learned that the boy's name was Brewster and that he was the brother of Mrs. Morgan who was still held captive by the Indians he permitted Jiim to go along. Young Brewster did not know which Indians had carried his sister sis-ter away but he hoped that Custer's Cus-ter's command might find them and that, by being with it, he might aid in her rescue, if she were still alive, or at least, learn what her fate had been. Discovers Cheyenne Camp. Moving out from Fort Cobb Custer's command struck a fresh trail and followed it to the north fork of the Red river in what is now Wheeler county, Texas. There he discovered a camp of Cheyennes under the leadership of a chief known to the whites as Medicine Arrow but called Rock Forehead by his own people. peo-ple. ', A little farther down the stream was the camp of Chief Little Robe, a noted "friendly." Sometime during this march Custer had learned that two white women were captives in Mrs. Sarah Brooks (from photograph taken in 1931 and reproduced re-produced here by courtesy of the Kansas City star ana me ,ou-cordis ,ou-cordis (Kan.) Blade-Empire). Medicine Arrow's camp and hAnrefnrward their rescue be came his main objective. ' As the commander of the Sev-pnth. Sev-pnth. accompanied by an order ly, approached the camp, he began be-gan making the customary Plains signal of his desire for a conference confer-ence by riding around in circles aa hp advanced. As he drew near, he was met by Medicine Arrow and several other chiefs arhn invited him to come into the camp for a counciL Although Custer was fearful that they had a treacherous intent he agreed to their proposal and entered the camp accompanied only by rninnel Cook of the Seventh. The rocnli was fhat the soldiers camped near the Indian village and a series of councils ensued. The testimony as to subsequent events is very contradictory, The version which Custer gives in his book, "My Life on the Plains," is sharply at variance in Tnanv details with the Indians' wMirai. as eiven in George Bird GrinneU's "The Fighting Chey ennes." Custer tells how a large V- . .'V; vv party of Indians entered his camp and strove to distract- his attention atten-tion while the remainder made preparations to take down their lodges and move the village away before the troops realized what they had done. Thereupon, he seized four Indians "chiefs and warriors of prominence," Custer calls them to hold as hostages for the surrender of the two white women. The Indians insinuate that Cus ter acted treacherously in seizing these men while they were making mak-ing a friendly visit to his camp and that they were old men of no particular importance. How ever that may be, the fact re mains that when Custer sent one of his four captives to the village bearing a message that he would hang the other three if the captives cap-tives were not delivered up to him, the Indians, after protesting that the women were not in their camp, finally sent Chief Little Robe to Custer s camp to arrange for the exchange of prisoners. Rescue of the Captives. Custer tells a dramatic story of the arrival of the two women in his camp the next morning how he sent three of his senior of ficers forward to escort them into camp and how young Brewster, unable to restrain his eagerness to. see his long-lost sister, raced forward past - the officers and clasped Mrs. Morgan in his arms. "The appearance of the two girls was sufficient to excite our deepest sympathy," writes Custer. "Miss White, the young er of the two, though not beautiful, beau-tiful, possessed a most interesting face. Her companion would have been pronounced beautiful by the most critical judge, being of such a type as one might imagine Maud Muller to be. Their joy at their deliverance, however, could hot hide the evidences of privation priva-tion and suffering to which they had been subjected by their cruel captors. They were clothed in dresses made from four sacks, the brand of the mill3 being plain ly seen on each dress; showing that the Indians who had held them in captivity had obtained their provisions from the government govern-ment at some agency. "The entire dress of the two girls was as nearly like the Indian In-dian mode as possible; both wore leggings and moccasins; both wore their hair in two long braids, and as if to propitiate us, the Indians, before releasing them, had added to the wardrobe of the two girls various rude ornaments, such as are worn by squaws. About their wrists they wore coils of brass wire; on their fingers had been placed numerous rings and about their necks strings of variously colored beads. Almost the first remark I heard young Brewster make after the arrival of the two girls was 'Sister, do take those hateful things off.' " The women were placed in an ambulance and the Seventh started start-ed on its march to Fort Dodge, taking with it the three Indian captives whom Custer determined deter-mined to hold until the Cheyennes came in off the warpath. Mrs. Morgan was overjoyed to learn that her husband was recover- in e from his arrow wounds m the post hospital at Fort Hay3. Later they went back to their home in the Solomon valley and lived there for several years. But the memory of her captivity preyed upon her mind which at last gave way and she ended her days in a Kansas state insane asylum. Miss White also returned to her home and while engaged in teaching teach-ing school met E. O. Brooks, a veteran cf the Civil war. They were married and made their home near the White homestead where she had been taken captive. cap-tive. There she lived for more than 70 years, reared a family of one son and six daughters and tried to forget what she had suffered suf-fered for seven months as an Indian In-dian captive. Death came on May 12, 1939, to end the ugly nighteyire of those memories. Six years after the capture of Mrs. Morgan and Miss White by the Cheyennes and their rescue by Gen. George A. Custer oc curred a similar incident in which the same tribe of Indians was involved in-volved and in which another famous fa-mous Indian fighter, Gen. Nelson A. Miles, played the role of rescuer. res-cuer. That was the capture and release of the German sisters during the war with the Southern Plains tribes in 1874-75. On September 10, 1874, a cov ered wagon, drawn by an ox team, and accompanied by two men on horseback," halted on the banks of a small stream in western west-ern Kansas. The party was com posed of John German, a native of Blue Ridge, Ga., and a veteran of the Confederate army, his wife, Lydia, their son, Stephen Wise German, and their six daughters Rebecca Jane, 20; Kathenne, 17; Joanna, 14; Sophia, So-phia, 12; Julia Arminda, 7; and Nancy Adelaide, 5, called "Ad- die by her sisters. They were on their way to Colorado where they , were going because of German's S&rfw.'STS from the Colorado border, the next day. The next morning their camp was attacked by a war party of 19 Cheyennes who killed and scalped Mr. and Mrs. German, their son and two -of the girls, Rebecca Jane and Joanna. Then they carried the other four daughters daugh-ters away and held them as captives cap-tives until November 8 when the camp of Chief Gray Beard was attacked by a detachment of General Miles' army, led by Lieut. Frank D. Baldwin. Vhen the Indians fled, taking Sophia and Katherine with them, they left the two little girls, Julia GEN NELSON A. MILES and 'Addie, who were found by the soldiers in the deserted camp. "When rescued they were the most emaciated mortals I have ever seen. Their little hand3 were like birds' claws," writes General Miles in his memoirs. They were sent to Fort Leaven worth under the care of an army physician and there the women of the garrison nursed them back to health. On returning to Miles' command, the doctor brought with him a photograph of Julia and Addie and when Miles saw this it gave him an idea. On the back of it he wrote this message: Headquarters Indian Territory Expedl-tion Expedl-tion in the field, January 20, 1875. To tho Misses German: Your little listers are well, and In the hands of friends. Do not be discouraged. Every effort is being made for your wel-' arC NELSON A. MILES, U. S. Army Colonel and Brevet Major General Commanding Expedition. Then he gave the photograph to a Delaware Indian scout and told him to find the Indians who still held Sophia and Katherine and give the picture to them secretly. He was also ordered to tell Chief Stone Calf that no mercy would be shown his band if the girls were not returned alive and unharmed. The Dela ware scout set out over the snowy plains and after a remarkable journey of more than 400 miles, found the Cheyenne camp on thej Pecos -river in New Mexico and managed to deliver his message to the captives who had begun to despair of ever being rescued. By this time the Cheyennes, who had been kept so constantly on the move by the vigorous cam paigning of Miles and Col. Ranald S. Mackenzie, ana wno were near ly destitute, were quite willing to listen to peace overtures. So Stone Calf took the two girls from their captors, placed them in a lodge next to his and treated them with special consideration on the journey back to the Chey enne agency in Indian territory. There they were surrendered to Miles. A short time later the tour Ger man sisters were reunited at Fort Leavenworth and on the recom mendation of General Miles the sum of $10,000 was deducted from the annuities given to the Cheyennes and $2,500 placed to the credit of eacn ci the girls. Miles became their guardian and served thus until they came of age. Addie, who became Mrs. Frank Andrews and mother of II chil dren, was, at the last accounts, living near Bern, Kan.; Julia. now Mrs. Julia Brooks, was living near Humboldt, Neb., and near her lived her sister, Addie; and Katherine, now Mrs. Katherine Swerdfefer, was living at Atas- cadero, Calif. ? 'aw if-,.: - ' t . 3 ' i nt- - -'- - - - " ADVENTURERS' HEADLINES FROM THE LIVES OF PEOPLE LIKE YOURSELFI Tivo Kinds HELLO EVERYBODY: This is the story of a man who had a choice to make a choice Ijetween two kinds One of those deaths was certain and unpleasant. II he chose the other, he'd at least But he chose the death that tain! Anthony A. Hensler is his York City. Tony is an aviator, and one day in the latter part of July, 1927, he had a call from Andy Andrews, who was then senior pilot at Curtis Andy wanted to get hold of blimP UP in e ai5 ??d P! it were lew men avauaDie in uie rasi, ai uiav urae, wnu iuiew enough to test fly a blimp, and Tony Hensler was one of them. Andy asked him if he would Tony Bald it was all right with htm, and Andy took him to meet a (ellow named Hamra who owned the blimp. The ar- , rangements were made and Tony went to work. He did a little tinkering with the machinery and finally had the big fat bag' whipped into shape for a first hop. The department of commerce lays down certain rules by which va rious types of aircraft are tested, and that the first hop had to be a fixed sent aloft with a line attached to the wrong it can't get away, float over the property In coming down. Tony Decides on a Second Fixed Flight. Tony made that fixed flight. He adjusted the controls and centered the stabilization. But Just to make he decided to make a second fixed flight a few days later while he checked those controls over again. And three days later, on the third of August, he did make that fixed flight And it nearly fixed Tony for good. Tony climbed into the blimp all set for what he thought was going to be just another routine test In a captive balloon firmly anchored to the ground by a land line. But the trouble wasn't long in starting. No sooner was .the blimp in the air than the land line snapped and the big gas bag started shooting upward. "She went up to 6,000 feet before 1 got the motor started," Tony says, ' Out tne motor, a two-cyunaor, nign-speea moiorcycie engine, luiaiiy began to turn over, and for a while everything went swell But not for long. I was just over Manhattan, with my spirits as high as my ship, They were creating a wind of blimp's nose around. when things began to happen. And at once. My controls began to go And to make matters worse, a large hole appeared in the nose of the shit). "I shut off the motor for fear cubic feet of hydrogen when I left got into any of that leaking gas it would blow me and the Wimp to bits. The ship was losing altitude fast. The city seemed a long way down, but It was getting closer with alarming speed. And then Tonji, took a desperate chance did the only thing he could to save himself and avoid crashing on a tall building or In a crowded New York street. He climbed out on the narrow catwalk cat-walk and pulled on the foremost suspension cords, doubling the cloth over the hole in the bag's nose to prevent any more hydrogen leaking out of the balloon. The Blimp Wallowed Helplessly in Mid-air. "After securing those ropes," then knew that the ship wouldn't didn't dare start ihe motor, and mid air. And what was worse still, And right there was where Tony between two kinds of death. There was a slim chance that he might bring that big bag down safely in crowded New York. On the other side of the picture was the prospect of blowing far out to sea and drowning in the Atlantic. Drowning wasn't a pleasant thought It would be much Kotttr tn tr and make a landint about those other people down there those scurrying humans that looked like ants as they crawled along the crowded streets? If Tony landed omnnr them there was a Dretty food chance that a lot of them would be killed. So Tony made his choice, and he chose the sure, unpleasant death rather than taking a fighting- chance and perhaps killing someone else. He sat still and did nothing while the wind carried him out to sea! Tony Recognizes a Woman Pilot. Out across New York harbor and the ocean and his dooml And shore Tony saw two planes coming in he recognized one. It was the plane woman pilot The two plane came closer and closer. They couldn t take Tony off that blimp In mid-air. In fact, it didn't look as though there was much they could do but stand by, or return to the airport air-port from which they bad come, and send help. But Tony wasn't counting on the ingenuity of Thea Rasch. She beaded straight for the blimp until Tony thought she was going to crash Into It until be could feel the wind of the plane as it dived nnder him. The other plane followed suit. They were creating a wind of their own that was slowly turning the blimp's nose around pointing it back to land. Ahnut that time. too. the wind hirtrf tn another ouarter. Aided fi,nv landPrt at Colleee Point L. that would pack the Yankee "stadium, including the College Point police rocorvfll "Nope. I wasn't locked up," says Tony. "But if it hadn't been for h- Karkwash of those two Dlanes I'd have blown out to sea and never found again." .... (Released by Wealero Newspaper Union.! Earth's Motion Interferes Ii you make a deep hole in the earth you can't drop anything to the bottom, because the earth moves on and the side of the hole stops the railing object This has been proved by experiments In the deep shafts of the American copper mines. Tools dropped from the mouth of a shaft were not found at the bottom but wedged against the side of the shaft, and this led the Michigan college of mines to make experiments. The t . 1 CLUB of Death it of death. have a chance. was unpleasant and cer name, and he lives in New field out in Mineola. somebody who could take a through test flights. There do the job. the rule In regard to blimps was flight. That means that the blimp is ground, so that if anything goes city and kill somebody or damaga sure everything was in good shape their own that was slowly turning the what I mean, everything happened sour. The big bag began to hog badly or an explosion. 1 naa carnea n.uuu the airport, and if a motor spark ever he says,-"I felt a little better, for 1 crash in the crowded city. But I still the blimp was wallowing helplessly In the wind was carrying me out to sea had to make his choice his choice in New York for Tony. But what he Boated out toward Sandy Hook then, from over toward the Jersey his direction, as Uiey nearea mm, of Thea Rasch the famous German that was blowing him out to sea by that and by the two planes. Tony L. and there he was met by a crowd With the Law of Gravity object being to discover how far the earth's motion interfered with the usual effect of the laws of gravity. 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