chimney; but here again they were met by the same determined enemy.
Mrs. Merrill seized the only feather bed which the cabin afforded, and
hastily ripping it open, poured its contents upon the fire. A furious
blaze and stifling smoke instantly ascended the chimney, and brought
down two of the enemy, who lay for a few moments at the mercy of the
lady. Seizing the axe, she quickly dispatched them, and was instantly
afterwards summoned to the door, where the only remaining savage now
appeared, endeavoring to effect an entrance, while Mrs. Merrill was
engaged at the chimney. He soon received a gash in the cheek, which
compelled him, with a loud yell, to relinquish his purpose, and return
hastily to Chillicothe, where, from the report of a prisoner, he gave an
exaggerated account of the fierceness, strength, and courage of the
'long knife squaw!'"
HEROISM AT INNIS SETTLEMENT.
Courage alone can save us.
SOUTHEY.
The account of the Indians' attack on the Innis settlement, near
Frankfort, Kentucky, in April, 1792, has been differently related by
different writers. The most reliable account is doubtless that given by
the Rev. Abraham Cook, a minister of the Baptist denomination and the
brother of Jesse and Hosea Cook, whose wives were the heroines of the
settlement. The attack was made on the twenty-eighth of the month, by
about one hundred Indians, and at three points almost simultaneously.
The first onset was upon the Cooks who lived in cabins close together,
and where was displayed a degree of intrepidity rarely matched.
"The brothers were near their cabins, one engaged in shearing sheep, the
other looking on. The sharp crack of rifles was the first intimation of
the proximity of the Indians; and that fire was fatal to the
brothers--the elder fell dead, and the younger was mortally wounded, but
enabled to reach the cabin. The two Mrs. Cook, with three children--two
whites and one black--were instantly collected in the house, and the
door, a very strong one, made secure. The Indians, unable to enter,
discharged their rifles at the door, but without injury, as the balls
did not penetrate through the thick boards of which it was constructed.
They then attempted to cut it down with their tomahawks, but with no
better success. While these things occurred without, there was deep
sorrow, mingled with fearless determination and high resolve within. The
younger Cook, mortally wounded, immediately the door was barred, sank
down on the floor, and breathed his last; and the two Mrs. Cook were
left the sole defenders of the cabin, with the three children. There was
a rifle in the house, but no balls could be found. In this extremity,
one of the women got hold of a musket ball, and placing it between her
teeth, actually bit it into two pieces. With one she instantly loaded
the rifle. The Indians, failing in their attempts to cut down the door,
had retired a few paces in front, doubtless to consult upon their future
operations. One seated himself upon a log, apparently apprehending no
danger from within. Observing him, Mrs. Cook took aim from a narrow
aperture and fired, when the Indian gave a loud yell, bounded high in
the air, and fell dead. This infuriated the savages, who threatened--for
they could speak English--to burn the house and all the inmates. Several
speedily climbed to the top of the cabin, and kindled a fire on the
boards of the roof. The devouring element began to take effect, and
with less determined and resolute courage within, the certain
destruction of the cabin and the death of the inmates, must have been
the consequence. But the self possession and intrepidity of these
Spartan females were equal to the occasion. One of them instantly
ascended to the loft, and the other handed her water, with which she
extinguished the fire. Again and again the roof was fired, and as often
extinguished. The water failing, the undaunted women called for some
eggs, which were broken and the contents thrown upon the fire, for a
time holding the flames at bay. Their next resource was the bloody
waistcoat of the husband and brother-in-law, who lay dead upon the
floor. The blood with which this was profusely saturated, checked the
progress of the flames--but, as they appeared speedily to be gathering
strength, another, and the last expedient ... proved successful. The
savage foe yielded, and the fruitful expedients of female courage
triumphed. One Indian, in bitter disappointment, fired at his unseen
enemy through the boards, but did not injure her, when the whole
immediately descended from the roof.
"About the time the attack commenced, a young man named McAndre, escaped
on horseback, in view of the Indians, who, it was supposed, would give
the alarm to the older neighboring settlements. As soon as they
descended from the house top, a few climbed some contiguous trees, and
instituted a sharp look out. While in the trees, one of them fired a
second ball into the loft of the cabin, which cut to pieces a bundle of
yarn hanging near the head of Mrs. Cook, but without doing further
injury. Soon after, they threw the body of the dead Indian into the
adjacent creek, and precipitately fled."
BOLD EXPLOIT AT TAMPICO.
A thousand hearts are great within my bosom;
Advance our standards.
SHAKSPEARE.
Rocks have been shaken from their solid base;
But what shall move a dauntless soul?
JOANNA BAILLIE.
At the capture of Tampico, which took place on the fourteenth of
November, 1846, a noteworthy act was performed by a lady, whose
patriotism and daring should not be forgotten. She not only gave
Commodore Connor full information in regard to the defence of the place,
with a plan of the harbor, town and forts, but when the squadron was
approaching, though opposed by the city council and even menaced, she
hoisted the American flag and persisted in waving it beneath the very
eye of the _ayuntamiento_! This intrepid woman was Mrs. Ann Chase, wife
of the American Consul.
[Illustration: THE COLONEL AND HIS DAUGHTER.]
DICEY LANGSTON.
Thou soul of love and bravery!
MOORE.
Dicey Langston was the daughter of Solomon Langston, of Laurens
district, South Carolina. She possessed an intrepid spirit, which is
highly serviceable in times of emergency, and which, as she lived in the
days of the Revolution, she had more than one opportunity to display.
Situated in the midst of tories, and being patriotically inquisitive,
she often learned by accident, or discovered by strategy, the plottings
so common in those days, against the whigs. Such intelligence she was
accustomed to communicate to the friends of freedom on the opposite side
of the Ennoree river.
Learning one time that a band of loyalists--known in those parts as the
"Bloody scout"--were about to fall upon the "Elder settlement," a place
where a brother of hers and other friends were residing, she resolved to
warn them of their danger. To do this she must hazard her own life. But
off she started, alone, in the darkness of the night; traveled several
miles through the woods, and over marshes and across creeks, through a
country where foot-logs and bridges were then unknown; came to the
Tyger, a rapid and deep stream, into which she plunged and waded till
the water was up to her neck; she then became bewildered, and zigzagged
the channel for some time; reached the opposite shore at length--for a
helping Hand was beneath, a kind Providence guiding her:--hastened on;
reached the settlement, and her brother and the whole community were
safe!
She was returning one day from another settlement of whigs--in the
Spartanburg district, when a company of tories met her and questioned
her in regard to the neighborhood she had just left; but she refused to
communicate the desired information. The leader of the band then held a
pistol to her breast, and threatened to shoot her if she did not make
the wished for disclosure. "Shoot me if you dare! I will not tell you!"
was her dauntless reply, as she opened a long handkerchief that covered
her neck and bosom, thus manifesting a willingness to receive the
contents of the pistol, if the officer insisted on disclosures or life.
The dastard, enraged at her defying movement, was in the act of firing,
at which moment one of the soldiers threw up the hand holding the
weapon, and the cowerless heart of the girl was permitted to beat on.
The brothers of Dicey were no less patriotic than she; and they having,
by their active services on the side of freedom, greatly displeased the
loyalists, these latter were determined to be revenged. A desperate
band accordingly went to the house of their father, and finding the sons
absent, they were about to wreak their vengeance on the old man, whom
they hated for the sons' sake. With this intent one of the party drew a
pistol; but just as it was aimed at the breast of her aged and infirm
father, Dicey rushed between the two, and though the ruffian bade her
get out of his way or receive in her own breast the contents of the
pistol, she regarded not his threats, but flung her arms around her
father's neck and declared she would receive the ball first, if the
weapon must be discharged. Such fearlessness and willingness to offer
her own life for the sake of her parent, softened the heart of the
"bloody scout," and Mr. Langston lived to see his noble daughter perform
other heroic deeds.
One time her brother James, in his absence, sent to the house for a gun
which he had left in her care, with orders for her to deliver it to no
one except by his direction. On reaching the house one of the company
who where directed to call for it, made known their errand, whereupon
she brought and was about to deliver the weapon. At this moment it
occurred to her that she had not demanded the countersign agreed on
between herself and brother. With the gun still in her hand, she looked
the company sternly in the face, and remarking that they wore a
suspicious look, called for the countersign. Hereupon one of them, in
jest, told her she was too tardy in her requirements; that both the gun
and its holder were in their possession. "Do you think so," she boldly
asked, as she cocked the disputed weapon and aimed it at the speaker.
"If the gun is in your possession," she added, "take charge of it!" Her
appearance indicated that she was in earnest, and the countersign was
given without further delay. A hearty laugh on the part of the "liberty
men," ended the ceremony.
REBECCA MOTTE.
We can make our lives sublime.
LONGFELLOW.
During the Revolutionary war, while Fort Motte, situated on Congaree
river, in South Carolina, was in the hands of the British, in order to
effect its surrender, it became necessary to burn a large mansion
standing near the centre of the trench. The house was the property of
Mrs. Motte. Lieut. Colonel Lee communicated to her the contemplated work
of destruction with painful reluctance, but her smiles, half
anticipating his proposal, showed, at once, that she was willing to
sacrifice her property if she could thereby aid in the least degree
towards the expulsion of the enemy and the salvation of the land. The
reply she made to the proposal was that she was "gratified with the
opportunity of contributing to the good of her country, and should view
the approaching scene with delight!"[21]
[21] MRS. BREWTON,--since Foster--one of the most amiable and
enlightened of the whig ladies, was an inmate of Mrs. Motte's family at
the time of the destruction of her house. Meeting with her shortly after
the signing of the preliminary articles of peace at Philadelphia, I
inquired--"How it had happened, that she, a helpless, unprotected widow,
without any charge of improper conduct, had so far incurred the enmity
of the British commanders, as to have been arrested without ceremony,
and hurried unprepared, into exile." She answered--"That she knew no act
of hers which had merited such ungentlemanly and inhuman treatment."
Entering, however, into conversation relative to the siege and surrender
of Fort Motte, she gave at once a clue to the transaction. While the
American forces were at a distance, Major M'Pherson, the commander of
the post, suffered Mrs. Motte and her family to remain, and an apartment
was allowed for their accommodation. But when the post at Thompson's,
but a little removed from him, was attacked and carried, anticipating
the fate which awaited him, immediate removal was not only advised, but
insisted on. At the moment of departure, Mrs. Brewton seeing a quiver of
arrows, which had been presented to Mr. Motte by a favorite African,
said to her friend, "I will take these with me, to prevent their
destruction by the soldiers." With the quiver in her hands, she was
passing the gate, when Major M'Pherson, drawing forth a shaft, and
applying the point to his finger, said, "what have you here, Mrs.
Brewton?" "For God's sake be careful," she replied "these arrows are
poisoned." The ladies immediately passed on to the out-house, which they
were now to inhabit. In the siege which directly followed, when the
destruction of the house was determined upon, and missiles eagerly
sought for by Lieutenant Colonel Lee for conveying the fire to the
shingles, these arrows being remembered, were presented by Mrs. Motte,
with a wish for the happy accomplishment of the end proposed. It was
afterwards known, that the first arrow missed its aim, and fell at the
feet of the commander, who taking, it up, with strong expressions of
anger, exclaimed, "I thank you, Mrs. Brewton." The second arrow took
effect, and set fire to the roof, when the brisk discharge of a six
pounder being maintained by Captain Finley, in the direction of the
stair-case, every effort to extinguish it proved fruitless, until, from
the apprehension of the roof falling in, the garrison were compelled to
surrender at discretion. General Greene arriving soon after, paid to
Major M'Pherson the tribute of applause due to his excellent defence,
declaring, "that such gallantry could not fail to procure for him a high
increase of reputation." This compliment, however, does not appear to
have soothed the mortified soldier; for, walking immediately up to Mrs.
Brewton, he said, "to _you_ madam, I owe this disgrace; it would have
been more charitable to have allowed me to perish by poison, than to be
thus compelled to surrender my post to the enemy." This speech alone,
accounts for the enmity against Mrs. Brewton.--[Knapp's American
Anecdotes.
The husband of this noble-hearted widow had so involved himself by
securities for friends, that after the struggle for Independence was
over, it was impossible for her to immediately meet all demands against
the estate. She, however, resolved that they should some day be
liquidated--that, life and health being continued long enough, all
obligations of her husband's contracting should be good against herself.
She purchased a large tract of rice land on credit, and by industry and
economy was able, in a short time, to pay the old demands, and lived to
accumulate a handsome property. She reminds us of Solomon's picture of
the virtuous woman: "She considereth a field, and buyeth it: with the
fruit of her hands she planteth a vineyard."... "She looketh well to the
ways of her household, and eateth not of the bread of idleness."
ANOTHER SACRIFICE FOR FREEDOM.
A patriot's birth-right thou may'st claim.
SHELLEY.
The subject of the following anecdote was a sister of General Woodhull,
and was born at Brookhaven, Long Island, in December, 1740. Her husband
was a member of the Provincial Convention which met in May, 1775, and of
the Convention which was called two years after, to frame the first
state constitution.
While Judge William Smith was in the Provincial Congress, his lady was
met, at a place called Middle Island, by Major Benjamin Tallmadge, who
was then on his march across Long Island. He told her he was on his way
to her house to capture the force then possessing Fort St. George, and
that he might be obliged to burn or otherwise destroy her dwelling-house
and other buildings in accomplishing this object. Ready to make any
sacrifice for the good of her bleeding country, she promptly assured the
Major that the buildings were at his disposal, to destroy or not, as
efforts to dislodge the enemy might require.
A PATRIOTIC DONATION.
Large charity doth never soil,
But only whitens soft white hands.--LOWELL.
When General Greene was retreating through the Carolinas, after the
battle of the Cowpens, and while at Salisbury, North Carolina, he put up
at a hotel, the landlady of which was Mrs. Elizabeth Steele. A
detachment of Americans had just had a skirmish with the British under
Cornwallis at the Catawba ford, and were defeated and dispersed; and
when the wounded were brought to the hotel, the General no doubt felt
somewhat discouraged, for the fate of the south and perhaps of the
country seemed to hang on the result of this memorable retreat. Added to
his other troubles was that of being penniless; and Mrs. Steele,
learning this fact by accident, and ready to do any thing in her power
to further the cause of freedom, took him aside and drew from under her
apron two bags of specie. Presenting them to him she generously said,
"Take these, for you will want them, and I can do without them."[22]
[22] Never did relief come at a more propitious moment; nor would it be
straining conjecture to suppose that he resumed his journey with his
spirits cheered and brightened by this touching proof of woman's
devotion to the cause of her country. [Greene's Life of Nathaniel
Greene.
"THE LITTLE BLACK-EYED REBEL."
Some there are
By their good deeds exalted
WORDSWORTH.
Mary Redmond, the daughter of a patriot of Philadelphia of some local
distinction, had many relatives who were loyalists. These were
accustomed to call her "the little black-eyed rebel," so ready was she
to assist women whose husbands were fighting for freedom, in procuring
intelligence. "The dispatches were usually sent from their friends by a
boy who carried them stitched in the back of his coat. He came into the
city bringing provisions to market. One morning when there was some
reason to fear he was suspected, and his movements were watched by the
enemy, Mary undertook to get the papers from him in safety. She went, as
usual, to the market, and in a pretended game of romps, threw her shawl
over the boy's head and secured the prize. She hastened with the papers
to her anxious friends, who read them by stealth, after the windows had
been carefully closed."
When the whig women in her neighborhood heard of Burgoyne's surrender,
and were exulting in secret, the cunning little "rebel," prudently
refraining from any open demonstration of joy, "put her head up the
chimney and gave a shout for Gates!"
A BENEVOLENT QUAKERESS.[23]
How few, like thee, inquire the wretched out,
And court the offices of soft humanity!
ROWE.
Charity Rodman was born in Newport, Rhode Island, in the year 1765. Her
father was a sea-captain, and died at Honduras while she was in infancy.
She married Thomas Rotch, of Nantucket, Massachusetts, on the sixth of
June, 1790. Soon afterwards the Rotch family removed to New Bedford,
where they have since distinguished themselves by their energy and
uprightness of character, and their success in the mercantile business,
being extensively engaged in the whale-fishery. Of some of them, as
traffickers, it may be said, as it was of the merchants of Tyre in the
days of her glory: "they are among the honorable of the earth."
[23] Some of the facts embodied in this article were gathered by the
author while on a visit to Massillon, Ohio, in the summer of 1847, and
were communicated to the public at that time through the columns of the
Western Literary Messenger; others were lately and very obligingly
furnished by Dr. William Bowen, of that place.
About the year 1801, Mrs. Rotch removed with her husband to Hartford,
Connecticut, where she remained till 1811. She then, in a feeble state
of health, and for its improvement, accompanied her husband on a journey
through Ohio, and other parts of the West. The mildness of the winter
was favorable to her constitution, and, restored to comfortable health,
she returned to Hartford in the early part of the next summer. The
following November she removed to Kendol, in Stark county, Ohio, near
the site of the present village of Massillon.
There the mind of Mrs. Rotch, cooperating with the long-cherished wishes
of her heart, originated and matured plans for the establishment of a
"school for orphan and destitute children." Having traveled much, she
had made extensive observations; and with an eye always open to the
condition and wants of human kind, she early and often felt the force of
a remark once made to her by an English friend: "That there were a great
many children _wasted_ in this country"--a painful truth, but no less
applicable to Great Britain than to the United States.
Her husband died in 1823, and bequeathed to her, during life, his large
and entire estate. His personal property was left in her hands to be
disposed of as her philanthropic heart might dictate. This formed the
basis of the school-fund which she left, and which, four or five years
after her death, which occurred on the sixth of August, 1824, amounted
to twenty thousand dollars. The interest of this sum has since purchased
a farm of one hundred and eighty-five acres, one and a half miles from
the village of Massillon, and erected, at a cost of five thousand
dollars, a large brick edifice for educational and dwelling purposes,
which has been open seven years and which sustains forty pupils. The
real and personal estate of the institution, is now estimated at
thirty-five thousand dollars.
A class of ten pupils enter annually and remain four years. The school
is established on the manual labor plan; and the boys are thoroughly
instructed in the art of husbandry, and the girls in culinary duties and
the manufacture of their own wearing apparel. Children enter between the
ages of ten and fourteen, hence the youngest leave as advanced in life
as their fifteenth year, a period when their habits of industry and
their moral principles usually become too well established to be easily
changed.
This school, founded by the benevolence of a single individual--a
devout, yet modest and quiet member of the Society of Friends--is
destined to become a source of inestimable blessings. Every half
century, five hundred otherwise neglected plants in the garden of
humanity, will there be pruned and nurtured, and strengthened for the
storms of life; and many of them will doubtless be fitted to bear fruit
here to the glory of God, and be finally transplanted to bloom in
eternal youth in the gardens above.
The offspring of Christian philanthropy, the school will stand as a
lasting memorial of woman's worth. The highest ambition of its founder
was to be a blessing to those who should come after her; and it may be
said that while she did not live in vain, neither did she die in vain.
Her death threw a legacy into the lap of orphanage, the benignant
influence of which will long be felt.
The grave of Mrs. Rotch is overlooked by the monument of her
munificence, but no marble nor enduring object marks the spot. Virtues
like hers neither crave nor need _chiseled_ words of praise; they are
engraved on the hearts of the succored, to be remembered while those
hearts continue to beat; and the feet of befriended children will keep a
path open to the grave of their foster-mother, for ages.
A PIONEER IN SUNDAY SCHOOLS.[24]
--Doubtless unto thee is given
A life that bears immortal fruit
In such great offices as suit
The full-grown energies of heaven.
TENNYSON'S IN MEMORIAM.
The Ohio Company, which was organized in Boston in the year 1787, built
a stockade fort during the next two years, at Marietta, and named it
_Campus Martius_. The year it was completed, the Rev. Daniel Storey, a
preacher at Worcester, Massachusetts, was sent out as a chaplain. He
acted as an evangelist till 1797, when he became the pastor of a
Congregational church which he had been instrumental in collecting in
Marietta and the adjoining towns, and which was organized the preceding
year. He held that relation till the spring of 1804. Probably he was the
first Protestant minister whose voice was heard in the vast wilderness
lying to the north-west of the Ohio river.
[24] The facts contained in this article we find in a series of papers,
by S. P. Hildreth, Esq., published in "The American Pioneer," in 1842.