Happy situation of her Family.--Disagreement between her sons Thomas
and John.--Her Advice to them, &c.--John kills Thomas;--Her
Affliction.--Council. Decision of the Chiefs, &c.--Life of Thomas.--His
Wives, Children; &c.--Cause of his Death, &c.
I have frequently heard it asserted by white people, and can truly say
from my own experience that the time at which parents take the most
satisfaction and comfort with their families is when their children are
young, incapable of providing for their own wants, and are about the
fireside, where they can be daily observed and instructed.
Few mothers, perhaps, have had less trouble with their children during
their minority than myself. In general, my children were friendly to
each other, and it was very seldom that I knew them to have the
least difference or quarrel: so far, indeed, were they from rendering
themselves or me uncomfortable, that I considered myself happy--more so
than commonly falls to the lot of parents, especially to women.
My happiness in this respect, however, was not without alloy; for my son
Thomas, from some cause unknown to me, from the time he was a small lad,
always called his brother John, a witch, which was the cause, as they
grew towards manhood, of frequent and severe quarrels between them, and
gave me much trouble and anxiety for their safety. After Thomas and
John arrived to manhood, in addition to the former charge, John got two
wives, with whom he lived till the time of his death. Although polygamy
was tolerated in our tribe, Thomas considered it a violation of good
and wholesome rules in society, and tending directly to destroy that
friendly social intercourse and love, that ought to be the happy result
of matrimony and chastity. Consequently, he frequently reprimanded
John, by telling him that his conduct was beneath the dignity,
and inconsistent with the principles of good Indians; indecent and
unbecoming a gentleman; and, as he never could reconcile himself to it,
he was frequently, almost constantly, when they were together, talking
to him on the same subject. John always resented such reprimand, and
reproof, with a great degree of passion, though they never quarrelled,
unless Thomas was intoxicated.
In his fits of drunkenness, Thomas seemed to lose all his natural
reason, and to conduct like a wild or crazy man, without regard to
relatives, decency or propriety. At such times he often threatened to
take my life for having raised a witch, (as he called John,) and has
gone so far as to raise his tomahawk to split my head. He, however,
never struck me; but on John's account he struck Hiokatoo, and thereby
excited in John a high degree of indignation, which was extinguished
only by blood.
For a number of years their difficulties, and consequent unhappiness,
continued and rather increased, continually exciting in my breast the
most fearful apprehensions, and greatest anxiety for their safety. With
tears in my eyes, I advised them to become reconciled to each other,
and to be friendly; told them the consequences of their continuing
to cherish so much malignity and malice, that it would end in their
destruction, the disgrace of their families, and bring me down to the
grave. No one can conceive of the constant trouble that I daily endured
on their account--on the account of my two oldest sons, whom I loved
equally, and with all the feelings and affection of a tender mother,
stimulated by an anxious concern for their fate. Parents, mothers
especially, will love their children, though ever so unkind and
disobedient. Their eyes of compassion, of real sentimental affection,
will be involuntarily extended after them, in their greatest excesses
of iniquity; and those fine filaments of consanguinity, which gently
entwine themselves around the heart where filial love and parental
care is equal, will be lengthened, and enlarged to cords seemingly of
sufficient strength to reach and reclaim the wanderer. I know that such
exercises are frequently unavailing; but, notwithstanding their ultimate
failure, it still remains true, and ever will, that the love of a parent
for a disobedient child, will increase, and grow more and more ardent,
so long as a hope of its reformation is capable of stimulating a
disappointed breast.
My advice and expostulations with my sons were abortive; and year after
year their disaffection for each other increased. At length, Thomas
came to my house on the 1st day of July, 1811, in my absence, somewhat
intoxicated, where he found John, with whom he immediately commenced
a quarrel on their old subjects of difference.--John's anger became
desperate. He caught Thomas by the hair of his head, dragged him out at
the door and there killed him, by a blow which he gave him on the head
with his tomahawk!
I returned soon after, and found my son lifeless at the door, on the
spot where he was killed! No one can judge of my feelings on seeing this
mournful spectacle; and what greatly added to my distress, was the
fact that he had fallen by the murderous hand of his brother! I felt my
situation unsupportable. Having passed through various scenes of trouble
of the most cruel and trying kind, I had hoped to spend my few remaining
days in quietude, and to die in peace, surrounded by my family. This
fatal event, however, seemed to be a stream of woe poured into my cup
of afflictions, filling it even to overflowing, and blasting all my
prospects.
As soon as I had recovered a little from the shock which I felt at the
sight of my departed son, and some of my neighbors had come in to
assist in taking care of the corpse, I hired Shanks, an Indian, to go to
Buffalo, and carry the sorrowful news of Thomas' death, to our friends
at that place, and request the Chiefs to hold a Council, and dispose
of John as they should think proper. Shanks set out on his errand
immediately,--and John, fearing that he should be apprehended and
punished for the crime he had committed, at the same time went off
towards Caneadea.
Thomas was decently interred in a style corresponding with his rank.
The Chiefs soon assembled in council on the trial of John, and after
having seriously examined the matter according to their laws, justified
his conduct, and acquitted him. They considered Thomas to have been the
first transgressor, and that for the abuses which he had offered, he had
merited from John the treatment that he had received.
John, on learning the decision of the council, returned to his family.
Thomas (except when intoxicated, which was not frequent,) was a kind
and tender child, willing to assist me in my labor, and to remove every
obstacle to my comfort. His natural abilities were said to be of a
superior cast, and he soared above the trifling subjects of revenge,
which are common amongst Indians, as being far beneath his attention.
In his childish and boyish days, his natural turn was to practise in the
art of war, though he despised the cruelties that the warriors
inflicted upon their subjugated enemies. He was manly in his deportment,
courageous and, active; and commanded respect. Though he appeared well
pleased with peace, he was cunning in Indian warfare, and succeeded to
admiration in the execution of his plans.
At the age of fourteen or fifteen years, he went into the war with
manly fortitude, armed with a tomahawk and scalping knife; and when he
returned, brought one white man a prisoner, whom he had taken with his
own hands, on the west branch of the Susquehannah river. It so happened,
that as he was looking out for his enemies, he discovered two men
boiling sap in the woods. He watched them unperceived, till dark when he
advanced with a noiseless step to where they were standing, caught one
of them before they were apprized of danger, and conducted him to the
camp. He was well treated while a prisoner, and redeemed at the close of
the war.
At the time Kaujisestaugeau gave me my liberty to go to my friends,
Thomas was anxious to go with me; but as I have before observed, the
Chiefs would not suffer him to leave them on the account of his courage
and skill in war: expecting that they should need his assistance. He
was a great Counsellor and a Chief when quite young; and in the last
capacity, went two or three times to Philadelphia to assist in making
treaties with the people of the states.
Thomas had four wives, by whom he had eight children. Jacob Jemison,
his second son by his last wife, who is at this time twenty-seven or
twenty-eight years of age, went to Dartmouth college, in the spring of
1816, for the purpose of receiving a good education, where it was said
that he was an industrious scholar, and made great proficiency in the
study of the different branches to which he attended. Having spent two
years at that Institution, he returned in the winter of 1818, and is now
at Buffalo; where I have understood that he contemplates commencing the
study of medicine, as a profession.
Thomas, at the time he was killed, was a few moons over fifty-two years
old, and John was forty-eight. As he was naturally good natured, and
possessed a friendly disposition, he would not have come to so untimely
an end, had it not been far his intemperance. He fell a victim to the
use of ardent spirits--a poison that will soon exterminate the Indian
tribes in this part of the country, and leave their names without a root
or branch. The thought is melancholy; but no arguments, no examples,
however persuasive or impressive, are sufficient to deter an Indian for
an hour from taking the potent draught, which he knows at the time will
derange his faculties, reduce him to a level with the beasts, or deprive
him of life!