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Show THE BULLETIN 1 Deerfield Massacre i in 1704 Was Most Historic Event Ever to Take Place on Calendar's Rare Date "Leap Year Day By ELMO SCOTT WATSON (Released by Western Newspaper Union.) PROBABLY the most which has ever place on that rare date in our calendar February 29 or "Leap Year Day" was a famous Indian massacre which had many a romantic aftermath. That was the attack on and burning of the town of Deerfield, Mass., on February 29, 1704. At the outbreak of Queen Anne's war between England and France in 1702, Deerfield, on the Connecticut river, was the farthest northwest settlement in New England. Although there were many alarms of impending attacks by the French and Indians, Its inhabitants felt reasonably secure behind the log walls of the palisade surrounding the town, even though it was badly in need of repair and the governor of Massachusetts had disregarded their appeals for money with which to do the necessary work on it. Regularly at night a sentry was posted on the walls to watch for an approaching enemy who never came until the winter of 1704. Early in February a force of 200 Frenchmen, commanded by Her-tde Rouville and accompanied by 140 Indinn allies, set out from Canada for Deerfield. The weather was bitter cold and snow covered the ground to a depth of several feet. By the evening of February 28 De Rouvillc's force had reached the elevated pine woods, now known as Pctty's Plain, two miles north of Deerfield, where they hid themselves until midnight. Finding that the crust on the snow was strong enough to bear their weight, the invaders laid aside their snowshoes and packs and pushed on, crossing the Deerfield meadows a little before daylight. Fearing that their approach would be heard, they adopted the stratagem of rushing forward swiftly for a moment, then resting, then rushing forward again so that the noise they did make would sound like the soughing of the wind. But there was no necessity for this caution. For everyone in Deerfield was sound asleep including the sentinel on guard that night I Over the Stockade. . Although the main gate of the stockade was securely barred, the snow had drifted so deeply at the northwest corner of the palisade that the enemy had no difficulty in swarming over the top of the log walls there. They quickly scattered through the town and the people cf Deerfield were awakened from their slumbers by the sound of the and the crashing of tomahawks against their doors. The most imposing house in Deerfield was that of Ensign John Sheldon, afterward famed as the "Old Indian House." It was built in 1698, its wooden walls lined with brick. The upper story projected over the lower and was pierced with loopholes. The door was made of two thicknesses of el war-who- op French and Indians, led by Ilertel de Rouville, en route to the attack on Deerfield. (Picture reproduced by courtesy of the National wie insurance company, nionipeuer, vi.j see the hatchet-hew- n door of the "Old Indian House," which was preserved when the house was torn down in 1848, and the bullet which ended poor Mrs. Sheldon s life. At the time of the attack, Shel don was absent but three of his children and a daughter-in-labesides Mrs. Sheldon, were there and were taken prisoners. After wards Sheldon, though middle- aged, made three long, weary trips to Canada, by order of Governor Dudley, to redeem his chil dren and other captives and it is said that through his efforts no less than 113 prisoners from Deerfield and other New England towns were released. But of all the stories connected with this historic tragedy, none is more romantic than that of the settlement's pastor, the Rev. John Williams. Born at Roxbury, Mass., on December 10, 16G4, he was one of 13 children born to Mr. and Mrs. Samuel Williams, and was baptized by the Rev. John Elliot, the famous "Apostle to the Indians." After graduat ing from Harvard, where he had studied for the ministry in the class of 1683, (there were only three members of that class and all were from Roxbury) young Williams began to look about for a pulpit. Since he was only 18 he could not expect to obtain an important parish, but young minis ters were needed on the frontier and three years later he accepted a call to the settlement of Deerfield in what was then the wilderness of western Massachusetts. En route to his pastorate in the wilds, he stopped at the home of Rev. Solomon Stoddard at Northampton where he met StodEunice dard's stepdaughter, Mather. The following summer they were married and Williams took his bride to the "nous 40 ft. long, 20 ft. wide with a lentoo w, gether for the bleak journey across the snowy landscape to-wara Canada. Parson Williams, who sooke several Indian Ian guages, was able to talk to his captors and persuaded them to allow him to help his wife, who had been ill and whose strength was gradually failing. On the second day of their journey she told him that she could not hold out much longer. Later in the aay sne iell exhausted and the story of her fate is told in the inscription on a tablet affixed to a granite stone which marks the spot where she sank to the ground. It reads: "The cruel and bloodthirsty savage who took her slew her with his hatchet at one stroke, "Rev. John Williams of Deerfield, the redeemed captive, so wrote of his wife Mrs. Eunice Williams, who was killed at this place, March 1st, 1704. Other settlers in the Connect! cut valley, following hard unon the retreating invaders, found her ooay ana Do re it back to the burned and plundered settlement. Visit the ancient Deerfield burial ground today and vou will find n there a headstone, its top weathered and broken. From its top a death's head grins at you and below is engraved these lines: "Here lveth the Bodv of Mrs. Eunice Williams the Vertuous & desirable Consort of the Revrd Mr. John Williams & Daughter to ye Revrd. Mr. Eleazer & Mrs Esther Mather of Northamoton She was Born Aue: 2. 1664 and fell by the race of ve Barbarous Enemy March 1, 1703-4Meanwhile Parson Williams and his four surviving children were on their wav to Canada, en during that terrible journey which he so graphically describes in the book "The Redeemed Captive Re turning to Zion, published several years later. Among these four was a little girl named Eunice (for her mother), who was carried most of the way on the brawny shoulders of an Indian warrior. The "White Indian." ." ld After two years' captivity. Par massacre. planks, held together firmly by lines of rivets crossing each other diagonally about three inches This powerful door for apart. some time resisted the attempts of the savages to batter it down. Finally they succeeded in cutting a hole through the middle of it, large enough to permit them to shove the muzzle of a gun through. Thus they fired through the door, blindly and as rapidly as the weapons could be discharged and withdrawn. At the first assault, Mrs. Sheldon, who had been sleeping in an adjoining room, became terrified and started to suck refuge in anShe crossed the other room. room just as a musket was discharged and the bullet which plowed through her body, killing her, buried itself deep in the wall beyond. If you visit Memorial hall in Deerfield today, you can son Williams and his children were ransomed and returned to Deerfield all except Eunice. The Indians had adopted her and despite her father's utmost efforts he was unable to secure her release. She grew up at Caughna-wag- a on the St. Lawrence river and married a Mohawk warrior who had been converted to the Catholic faith and by whom she had several children. However, this "White Indian" did not entirely separate herself from her father but at his earnest request made several visits to his home in Deerfield with her son and two daughters. The entreaties of her relatives to give up her life with the Indians and return to the Protestant faith, were useless for she always went back to her husband at Caughnawaga and she died a "Catholic Indian." According to tradition, during her visits to her father's home in Deerfield she would retire to the guest room at night but morning would always find her crouched before the fireplace in the morning with her blanket wrapped around her in the fashion of Indian women. One of her daughters, Sarah, married an Indian and one of their sons was or Thomas Williams, a noted warrior who fought on the side of the British during the American Revolution. One of Thomas Williams' numerous progeny was Eleazer Williams, destined for future fame as the man who claimed to be the "Lost Dauphin" (lean-to)- " which his, parishioners had provided for their pastor. There their five children were born and there they lived happily until that tragic morning of February 2!t. 1701. When the French and Indians attacked the parson's home, he sprang from his bed. seized a pistol and leveled it at an Indian who had dashed into his room. He pulled the trigger but it missed fire and he was immediately made prisoner. He was compelled to dress with one arm tied to his side, as were his wife and children, but one of the latter nnd a Negro girl servant were immediately tomahawked. A Bleak Journey. After killing a total of 49 persons in Deerfield, the French and Indians set fire to the houses inside the stockade and herded their captives, 111 in number, to-- of France. 1 . st hard-presse- A QUESTIONS For Leather Chairs. Rub equal parts of linseed oil and vinegar, well shaken, into leather chairs, It keeps them in occasionally. BY FELIX B. BTBETCXMAKS and ELMO SCOTT WATSON good condition. It Is not too early to look over window screens. Mend and paint now so they will be ready that crimson them THE poinsettia when it is time to put them in. so popular around Christmas time was named for a man When poaching eggs, let water who was not a botanist but, of all things, one of our secretaries of come to a full rolling boiL drop warl He was Joel Robert Poinsett, eggs into it, turn out gas and eggs seventeenth secretary of war, serv- will finish poaching in the boiling ing from 1837 to 1841 under Presi water. dent Van Bur en. And the full name If a drawer runs unevenly and of the flower, by the way, is polniet- tia pulcherrima, causes trouble in'opening and shut Li tin for "most ting it is not always necessary to Poinsettia beautiful poin have recourse to the carpenter, sett," but was for frequently the very simple meant to describe method of rubbing a little soap on the flower, not the the inner edges of the drawer will overcome this difficulty. man. Before he beWhen sprinkling flat pieces, such came secretary of war, he was as towels, pillow-slipnapkins, United curtains, handkerchiefs, and so minister to Mexi- forth, for ironing, dip one article co, the country in five in clear water, squeezing, from which the not wringing, as dry as possible. Lay flat two dry articles, then one Joel B. Poinsett brought to the wet one, then two dry, and so on, United States. It had been called rolling tightly, when all are done. "Painted Leaf," and "Mexican Fire There will be no dry spots and Plant" While In Mexico, Poinsett every piece will be a good even called the flower to the attention of dampness. It is a pleasure to iron botanists and imported some of the clothes dampened this way. flowers to the United States. This is ' why, in searching for a scientific name for the flower, Poinsett was s, States r10""."'1 honored. He was of Huguenot descent, the last of his family if he hadn't fallen in love with the flower, he never would have had a chance to per petuate the family name. He was educated in England and traveled extensively. While in Rus sia, the czar offered him a commission in the army, which he declined. While an American goodwill emissary to Chile, the Spaniards seized several of our mer chant ships. Poinsett organized a large force right on the spot, led them in an attack against the Span-larand recaptured the ships. The name is certainly more ap propriate for the flower than the man. ds that doesn't belong Is called a maverick especially if it's wandering around loose. The name was spplied origi nally to cattle that were unbranded. Samuel A. Maverick, an 1825 graduate of Yale, gave his name to the idea. Although he was one of the founders of Texas' independence and a member of the congress of the Republic of Texas in 1845 and had other signs of intelligence, he nevertheless had a reputation for allowing his cat SOMETHING a child engaged in the rough sports of his Indian playmates. left permanent scars on him and. it is claimed, in later life he increased the size of these by ar tificial means. HOUSEHOLD "The Name Is Familiar A Maverick red-brow- seven-year-o- Williams House In Deerfield, erected by the citizens of Deerfield for the Rev. John Williams, the "Redeemed Captive" of the Deerfield The fate of the "Lost Dauphin" is one of the most tantalizing mysteries in history. Soon after the outbreak of the French Revo lution, the royal family of France were imprisoned by the Paris Commune in the Temple, the pal ace of the Grand Friar of the Knights Templars. On January 21, 1793, the king was beheaded. Later the queen also went under the knife, leaving only the Dauphin, Louis Charles, and his sister, Princess Marie Therese, in the prison. The little prince is supposed to have died there on June 8, 1795, but in the years that followed his death, no less than 25 persons who claimed that they were the "Lost Dauphin" appeared before the French courts from time to time to press their claims and to disturb the peace of mind of the new repub lican government of France. Among them was one in far-of-f America the Rev. Eleazer Wil liams, an Episcopal missionary among the Indians in New York and Wisconsin. He was one of 13 children born to a Mohawk Indian chief, or Thomas Williams, (grandson of Eunice Williams), and Mary Ann (Rice) Williams, who was of mingled Indian and New England ancestry, being descended from a captive taken during an Indian foray on Marlboro, Mass., early in the Eighteenth century. Eleazer Williams grew up among the Mohawks at Caughnawaga, Quebec, but was educated in New England. During the War of 1812 he served brilliantly as the head of a corps of scouts and spies for the American army. Later he became a missionary among his father's people, the Mohawks, first as a Congrega-tionaliand later as an Episco When they and other palian. Iroquois tribesmen were being d by the advancing tide of white settlement in New York, he was instrumental in ob taining lands for them in the fron tier country of Wisconsin. At some time during Williams' early career, he heard the story oi the "Lost Dauphin" and hav ing been told that he resembled the Bourbon prince, he decided to advance his claims to being the "Lost Dauphin." Due to a scrofulous taint in his family, the bruises and injuries which he received while he was Williams, howev tle to wander around without being branded. So unusual was this practice that whenever cattle were) discovered without brand- marks Gorgeous blooms in wealthy profusion. Your yard aglow all summer. Buy the convenient way from your dealer's display. FERRY'S "D SEEDS " someone was almost certain to say, "They're probably Mav In the Name of Fashion Fashion a word which knaves and fools may use, their knavery erick's." You have to be pretty well known and folly to excuse. ChurchilL to be referred to that way and must have a lot of cattle, too, and Samuel Maverick was well qualified on both oner in the Temple in Pans. counts. But after all, there is a 1841 In the Prince de Joinville. limit to and It was unson of King Louis Philippe, then reasonableeverything to assume that Maverick reigning in France, followed his owned ALL the unbranded cattle. THROAT father's example and paid a visit Cattle rustlers continued to refer Has a cold mad It hurt to America. During the trip on to talk? Throat rough the Great Lakes, the prince found to unbranded cattle as Maverick's em soon meant that they were and scratchy? Get a box of but they him at Mackinac a cler mavericks without the Sod Ludra'i awaiting capital let- spaeial ingredients, with gentleman who asked ter and without that aposcooling menthol, treat permission to accompany the trophe. That meantpossessive that the cattle aid m helping sooths that prince's party to Green Bay. Wis. "sandpaper throatl" This cleric was Eleazer Williams. merely were unbranded and, thereto fore, belonged anybody. Soon after the departure of the LUDEN'S 5" prince from Green Bay, Williams Menthol Cough Drops Gerrymander gave out the astonishing state ment that De Joinville had ac TO GERRYMANDER means to a voting district in an unknowledged that he (Williams) Purchased Friends was the "Lost Dauphin" and fair manner, especially so one politi not friends with Purchase will cal an have the therefore party advantage when thou ceasest to rightful Louis XVII give, such and that the prince had sought over the other. Elbridge Gerry (1744- him out in the western wilderness 1814), a signer of the Declaration of wiu cease to love. Fuller. to ask him to renounce his claim Independence, a vice president of to the throne of France. A few the United States and a governor of provided the name. years later Williams told his story Massachusetts, Salt Lake's NEWEST HOTEL In 1811 the Democrats of Massa to Rev. J. H. Hanson who wrote chusetts elected We an article "Have a Bourbon Among Us?" which appeared in Gerry governor the February, 1853, number of and also obtained a majority in both Putnam's Monthly. When a copy of this magazine houses of the leg was received in England, where islature. They the Prince de Joinville was then then put through iving as an exile from France. a law rearranging the state senatorihe immediately repudiated the al W Vleged interview with Williams at al districts withGreen Bay and denounced him out regard for ge loca ographical air an impostor. However, a book the main tion, wfftt if by Hanson, "The Lost Prince." which gave a detailed account of idea being to get Williams life and which proved, enuuch voters in each district to Elbridge Gerry to the satisfaction of the author. themselves in office. perpetuate the Mohawk at least, that d The arrangement of the towns in missionary was indeed the 'Lost Dauphin," gained for Wil Essex county was so absurd that the editor of the Boston Sentinel liams many adherents. 'eanseWxft$)3 colored them on a map nunc on his Lleazcr maintained Although A wall. visiting artist added head. during the rest of his days his Kofcf right to the throne of France, wines nnd claws and, turning to the editur. said. "How's that for a TEMPLE SQUARE nothing tangible ever came of his pretensions and when he died on Oppastic Mormon Tempts "Snlamandar, nothing! " he shout- HIGHLY RECOMMENDED August 28, 1858, on the St. Regis cd. a "It's Gerrymander!" reservation near Hognnsburg, N. R3tci $1.50 to $3.00 The word stuck and is in the dic Y., he was buried with Masonic It's S nark of distinction to stop tionary today. rites as "Brother Eleazer ut tliii beautiful hostelry (Released oy Western Newspaper Union.) ERNEST C KOSSITEU. Her. er, asserted that these scars were the result of the shackles and chains with which he was bur dened when he was the child pris Luden's-You- U ical-looki- ng Si s half-bree- |
