Story Of Frances Slocum

Taken From: Stories Of Pioneer Life For Young Readers

By Florence Bass ©1900

About one hundred twenty years ago the white people in Pennsylvania were in great danger from the Indians. There was then a family named Slocum living in that part of the country. There were several children, one of whom was named Frances.

One day when Frances was about five years old the Indians suddenly appeared near her home, and before anyone knew of their approach they killed a boy near the house.

All the Slocum family were greatly frightened, and tried to escape to the woods. Mary, one of the larger girls, caught up her two-year-old brother Joseph, and ran away. Mrs. Slocum and several of the children also reached the thick bushes.

Little Frances tried to hide under the stairs, but an Indian saw her and seized her and also her little lame brother.

Then the mother rushed out and begged for her children, but the Indian only laughed at her. Pointing to the boy's feet she said, "He is lame; he can do thee no good."

Then the Indian let the lame child go, but he threw Frances across his shoulder and dashed off into the bushes.

"He Threw Francis Over His Shoulder"

As she disappeared from sight, she put back her tangled curls with one hand, and stretching out the other toward her mother, she cried bitterly and begged to be saved.

The family searched for her in every direction. They offered much money for any news of the little girl. They did everything that they could to find her, but there was no trace of her.

How the poor mother grieved for the little child! She could not forget the tearful face as she last saw it vanishing into the woods. Over and over again she would say: "What has become of the dear child? How will the Indians treat her?"

Little Frances had had a new pair of shoes before she was taken from home. She had been required to lay them aside, to save them for cold weather. The poor mother kept thinking, "Oh, if Frances only had her shoes! How will she endure the cold in the forest with bare feet !"

The winter dragged on and no word came from the little one. Years passed, and still there was no news of the captive.

II.

Mrs. Slocum could not forget her lost child. She was sure Frances must still be alive. She could not give up the hope of finding her.

One day a woman came to the house of Mrs. Slocum. She said she had been taken captive when a child, but had forgotten her own name as well as her father's, and she had come to see if she were not the lost Frances.

Mrs. Slocum soon saw that the stranger was not her child. Still she said, "Stay with me as long as thee likes; perhaps someone will extend the same kindness to my dear Frances." The stranger stayed a few months and then went away. She felt that these were not her own people.

After Frances had been gone twenty-nine years her mother died. Even to the day of her death she believed that her lost child lived, although she had never heard one word from her.

She had told her sons never to cease looking for their sister. The brothers made many long and dangerous journeys, and spent thousands of dollars searching for her; but the time went by and they could not find her.

III.

At last nearly sixty years had gone since Frances was stolen. At this time there was a man living in Indiana named Mr. Ewing, who was an Indian trader and knew the language of the Indians.

One night he stopped at an Indian cabin and asked to spend the night. He was kindly received and well treated by an old Indian woman.

He saw that this woman did not look like most Indian women. Her hair seemed unlike an Indian's, and seeing her bare arm, he noticed that the skin was white. At last he asked her if she were not a white woman.

At first she seemed unwilling to tell him; but finally she said she was not an Indian. She told him that she had been captured when she was a little girl. She thought her father's name was Slocum, but she could not remember her own name. She could not speak a word of English.

The Indians had taken her as their own child, had reared her as an Indian, and taught her to fear white people. Indeed, she had never told her story before, fearing that the white people might come and take her away. She had married an Indian, and had at this time two grown daughters. The Indians had always treated her well, and she had been very happy with them.

Mr. Ewing thought a great deal about her story, and wondered if her family were still living. He wrote a long letter to a postmaster in Pennsylvania, telling him all that he could about the aged captive.

The letter was finally printed in a newspaper. A friend of the Slocum family saw it, and sent a copy of it to Joseph Slocum, who was then an old man. It was he who had been carried into the woods by his sister Mary at the time Frances was stolen.

IV.

What must have been the feelings of the brothers and sisters in reading of the long-lost Frances ! So many times they had tried to find their sister, and failed. Surely now they would see her.

They decided to go to Indiana at once, though they were all old people, and it would be a long, hard journey. They must go through forests and over rough roads, where houses were few and far apart, yet they were willing to endure any hardship to find their sister.

Soon Joseph Slocum started and was joined by his sister Mary who lived in Ohio. Later, his brother also joined them. After several weeks they reached the Indian village where Frances lived.

How eager they were to see her ! "Will she look at all like the curly-headed Frances of so long ago ?" "Will she be glad to see us?" they asked each other.

Mary said, "I shall know her, if she is my sister. She has lost the nail from one forefinger. You remember, brother, that you pounded it off in the blacksmith shop about a year before we lost her?"

When they entered her house, they found her sitting quietly in a chair. At first she seemed to them very cold and distant. Of course, she could not understand a word that they said. Neither could they understand her.

They had brought a white man with them who could speak the Indian language, and could tell each of them what the others said.

At first the Indian sister even seemed to suspect her visitors of having some plan to rob her. Her brothers walked the floor in grief. Her sister wept bitterly, but Frances sat unmoved. Could it be that this was the dear little Frances, lost so long ago? How could she possibly have become this old Indian woman?

Still there could be no doubt about it. There was the same hurt finger. She remembered her father's name, and could tell just where she hid when the Indians came to the house.

She was told that this was her sister, who ran away with the little brother, and here was the little brother, too.

Slowly she began to understand that these were really her people. She grew interested, and was willing to tell them about herself.

She told them that the Indians had painted her skin, and that they had dressed her in wampum beads which she thought very fine.

They had always been kind to her. Even now they treated her like a queen, gladly doing whatever she wished. She was quite rich, too, for an Indian.

The brother and sister wished very much that Frances would go back to the old home with them. She said : "No, I cannot; I have always lived with the Indians; they have always treated me kindly. I am used to them. Why should I go to be like a fish out of water?"

Then they begged her to visit them. But she said : "I cannot, I cannot. I am an old tree. I cannot move about. I shall not be happy with my white relatives. I am glad to see them, but I cannot go, I cannot go ; I have done."

Her daughters agreed with her. One of them said, "The fish dies quickly out of the water." The other said, "The deer cannot live out of the forest."

And so the brothers and sister had to return home without her, but they had much to console them. Their sister was like a queen among the Indians. Her life was not one of hardship or suffering. She had always been well-treated and was satisfied with her home.

VI.

Two or three years later Joseph Slocum visited his sister again. This time his two daughters were with him. Mr. Slocum told Frances he had brought his children to see her. All her coldness of the first visit seemed gone, and she showed great joy at seeing her brother again.

She was much pleased that her nieces had come so far to see her. She showed that she was very grateful for their visit. She offered her brother half her land if he would come and live with her. But there seemed to be no way by which the long-parted brother and sister could remain together. They parted in the most friendly manner.

The father and daughters had journeyed about two thousand miles before they reached their own home. They had been gone seven weeks and had spent nearly four hundred dollars.

As the years passed by the Indians were required by the government to leave their old homes and go farther west; but Frances and her family were allowed to remain.

She was very sad after many of her Indian friends had gone, so she asked one of her brothers to allow his son to come and live with her. This was the child that he had hoped to have near him in his old age, but he cheerfully gave him up to his poor Indian sister.

The young man came with his family and lived near his aunt, till her death. He preached among the Indians and did them much good.

Frances Slocum died when she was about seventy-four years old. She was buried in Indiana where she had lived so many years.

Now a small monument marks her grave.