Show CHASED BY AN INDIAN utah county february 1897 while at american fork the other isyl lay I 1 found the stream of conversation and flowing between the sena fight now on and the battles and troubles with the indians ot of the long ago in the early days ot of the settlement d X utah the latter subject was brought to 4 memory from the tact that the veterans of the black hawk war had held a the night before but lather said a young lady ad 4 lr essing a veteran in my hearing they did not have a real engagement now did qi they yes n y dear girlia girl we had all the engage we cared for and the lather father continued your ideas of an engagement are possibly swinging to and fro between the achievement of the ring on your finger and the illustrations you have seen of the bloody fields ot of shiloh murfreesboro and gettysburg oh nol no such engagements as those my 41 daughter aughter we were but few in those t early days we had bad an engagement a gravelly ford and then the affair at grass valley in which one of our corn com rades was killed yes we had many engagements just of as great moment to us as to the vast numbers of men engaged in the struggles you have seen portrayed in the illustrations all they had to give was their lives and ours like theirs were risked in the defense of 0 the rig right ht 1 I well remember being called out by our commanding officer to take a company of men and go into the mouth ot of the canyon above our town to recover the body of a young man who had been stain slain by the indians before going into the canyon I 1 brought my men into line to inspect their arms and out of the twenty one men there were only three guns among them that were reliable and really fit lor for service the balance were shot guns and old time worn muskets after doing some scolding I 1 ordered my men to deploy as skirmishers and advance we had not gone far when some turkey buzzards were observed flying in small circles above the bluffs on the other side of the canyon to our right we knew the rest and there we found the mutilated body of the young man never shall I 1 forget the sight or the smell of that poor body scalped scalded and disfigured i beyond recognition we bound the body upon one of our horses and carried it through the hot sun back to the sorrowing parents the father would not gaze upon the lifeless form saying 1 I know how he be looked when he left me I 1 will not lose that memory of my boy engagements continued the father ask mr there it he was not in one when a small slight boy that made him think thick and fast and tho father ot of the girl pointed to a man who stood by listening attentively the party addressed was a spare ascare built man who would not weigh an ounce over one hundred and thirty pound sand from appearance about fifty years of age 0 that affair said he was more a happy stroke of wit on my part than an engagement but at the same time it was serious enough for me a slight built boy of fifteen to contend with an indian all alone but my adventure is of no consequence in comparison to the deeds related last night never mind returned the elderly man tell it to my daughter in my opinion while the numbers to make up an engagement of sufficient value to make a gett gettysburg asburg were not there still as much coor cool bravery was manifested on the occasion as was shown in any part ot of the field on that terrible day dav tell it john well it is over thirty years back said the younger man and I 1 was working for old steve mott or some ot of the Chip mans herding over on the west mountains and of course I 1 being the boy had to pass back and forth from the herd to town here very otten often for sup plies or with messages from the men when hen they were working over there on the occasion referred to the camp was out ot of matches and tobacco and I 1 was sent to town late one summer evening on old steve sieve motts young race mare with strict orders to come back ear y the next morning with the much needed articles so the next morning found me on the back of the gray mare proud as a peacock peacocks kas as I 1 passed the boys of toy my acquaintance wh who I 1 knew envied me in in seeing me on the fastest mare of the north end ot of the country in the height of my joy it was all I 1 could do to restrain myself from giving a shout and letting the mare out in a burst of speed I 1 controlled myself as best I 1 could little thinking of the race that was before me but as I 1 felt the movement ot of the muscles of the fast mare I 1 rode so supple and ready for the spring if I 1 would only let her gomy young blood went coursing through my veins and I 1 felt the force of the old say ing the outside of a horse is good for the inside of a man passing on with my matches and tobacco in my hand band done up in a red cotton handkerchief I 1 soon passed through lehi lebi and its farming land on the west and gently galloped my mare up the ascent towards the divide which separated me from cedar valley As I 1 was riding up out of the big hollow I 1 came face to face with an indian mounted upon a pretty tair fair pony I 1 i knew the indian and also had a very poor opinion of him as he had once re a severe beating from one of the men of our camp for stealing and I 1 like him a bit we rode up side by side and commenced talking I 1 fancied he looked quite sullen and cross I 1 felt a little scared of him but did not let on that I 1 was he knew I 1 was going to the herd and seeing the little bundle in my hand wanted to know what I 1 had got I 1 told him and he asked me for some tobacco I 1 took out a bran new knife from my pocket which I 1 had just got on my wages cut off on a good sized chunk oi of tobacco and gave it to him he motioned for me to let him have my knife to cut off a chew I 1 let him have it and after using it he put it together with the tobacco into the folds foide of his bis blanket saying he would keep it too 1 I asked him for the knife several times but he refused to give it me and as an I 1 was on the point of leaving him he caught the mares bridle saying ayou you go with me now I 1 could see he meant mischief and ill tell you I 1 thought thick and fast I 1 thought he wants the mare the balance of the tobacco and the matches and if I 1 go with him in all probability he will kill me it if he thinks it the best thing to do think I 1 should say I 1 did and as we looked into each others eyes I 1 could seethe see the devil in him only too easy and my thoughts ran out to home my mother my fair young sweetheart at the herd house my playmates and for a plan to escape from this indians clutches As quick as thought I 1 said to him as I 1 quietly untied the handkerchief let me have the knife to cut you oft another piece of tobacco I 1 held out my hand band towards him my coolness threw him off his guard As he be placed the knife in my hand my heels struck the mares flanks and I 1 shouted go it she sprang forward the indian vainly threw out his disengaged arm to catch me but the sudden spring of the mare pulled him from his pony and he fell to ane ground in a minute he was wan on his donys back in in pursuit of me he sent two arrows after me the first passed to my right seemingly floating through the air the rapid pace of the mare appeared to lessen the rapidity of its flight 1 I 1 he ot ftuer tier fell harmless in my rear 1 I leaned forward close to the mares neck urging ner to her best pace and as she responded to my voice we seem ed to fly and all fear of being overtaken was gone eone from m my mind right before me was a big horlow hollow stud and the road led wound around its head while there were trails that took down and across it it As I 1 looked back I 1 saw the red devil of an indian plunge down one of the trails to cross cron the hollow with the view of head ing me off again I 1 urged the mare to do her best and away we went like the wind clutched so tightly in knife in my t my 0 new iek left hand that it was hurting me but I 1 did ad not realize it I 1 felt the motion of the living machine beneath me as it shortened and stretched alternately springing forward with light hoofs and muscles all on the strain I 1 passed the point where the indian should have bave appeared and presently looked back and saw him come on to the inabin attain road again some three hundred yards behind me 1 I checked the mares pace a little and waved my straw hat to him with a bravado but was thankful at spirit pint ol of heart that I 1 was out of his power and in twenty minutes more I 1 was in camp J being scolded for letting that d ute set get away with so go M much uch of the tobacco although the experience I 1 had just pawed passed through was laughed at by the tor for all that I 1 shall always wen as a joke rn risk of losing ausing eve I 1 ran a narrow my we life at the bands of that indian and that the owner of the mare would have lost her had it not been for my ready wit alj winch also saved my new knife and in all probability my scalp the indians who killed the stage drivers in cedar valley a year or so after er this came and talked talkea with me and companion herder while we were rny with b our sheep and soon after they had left us we heard board the report of the guns that killed these men why did they not kill me why did they not kill all the settlers at provo in 1851 when the bottom from the old adebie yard to the hewak dagway was full of them why did they not kill our people when they sur swarmed armed into their camps while crossin the great plains in 1847 and lor for many years afterward the same answer to any of these questions will apply to au all president youngs policy won it was better out of our smal supplies to leed feed them rather than fight them and my offer of a second division of the tobacco was following on closely in in that line I 1 have always thought it a good policy and possibly saved my life here the narrator stopped mr editor the history of utah has been written but there will die out with many of the pioneer settlers here incidents that will never be recorded lull hill of interest and sparkling with brave leeds deeds the veterans of of the black hawk war may not fill the romantic imaginings of a young girls mind regarding gair ding an engagement but all that was needed was for captain pages command which held position for over a mont month between richfield and glenwood in siever county to have been attacked by a sufficient number of indians and wiped out of existence th thin in n in story and verse they would have received the attention we now give to brave custer and his men A monument to their memory would have been erected on the spot where now the hollows of the rifle pits they then dug are no more to be found and yet these men did their duty well let our legislators think 0 of this and lose no time in in appealing to congress to discharge the debt the nation owes owea to those who still live and who did their duty to their country in those early days davs ALBERT JONES |