Read Ebook: Woman on the American Frontier A Valuable and Authentic History of the Heroism Adventures Privations Captivities Trials and Noble Lives and Deaths of the Pioneer Mothers of the Republic by Fowler William Worthington

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WOMAN'S WORK IN FLOODS AND STORMS, The Frontier two Centuries ago. The Pioneer Army. The Pilgrim "Mothers." Story of Margaret Winthrop. Danger in the Wilderness. A Reckless Husband and a Watchful Wife. Lost in a Snow-storm. The Beacon-fire at Midnight. Saved by a Woman. Mrs. Noble's Terrible Story. Alone with Famine and Death. A Legend of the Connecticut. What befel the Nash Family. Three Heroic Women. In Flood and Storm. A Tale of the Prairies. A Western Settler and her Fate. Battling with an Unseen Enemy. Emerging from the Valley of the Shadow. Heartbroken and Alone.

EARLY PIONEERS.--WOMAN'S ADVENTURES AND HEROISM, In the Maine Wilderness. Voyaging up the Kennebec. The Huntress of the Lakes. Extraordinary Story of Mrs. Trevor. Two Hundred Miles from Civilization. Sleeping in a Birch-bark Canoe. A Fight with Five Savages. A Victorious Heroine. The Trail of a Lost Husband. Only just in Time. A Narrow Escape, Voyaging in an Ice-boat. Snow-bound in a Cave. Fighting for Food. Grappling with a Forest Monster. Mrs. Storey, the Forester. Alida Johnson's Thrilling Narrative. Caught in a Death-trap. A Desperate Measure and its Result. The Connecticut Settlers. Their Courage and Heroism.

ON THE INDIAN TRAIL A Block-house Attacked. Wild Pictures of Indian Warfare. Exploits of Mrs. Howe. A Pioneer Woman's Record. Holding the Fort alone. Treacherous "Lo." Witnessing a Husband's Tortures. The Beautiful Victim. Forced to Carry a Mother's Scalp. The Fate of the Glendennings. A Feast and a Massacre. Led into Captivity. Elizabeth Lane's Adventures. In Ambush. Siege of Bryant's Station. Outwitting the Savages. Mrs. Porter's Combat with the Indians. Ghastly Trophies of her Prowess. "Long Knife Squaw." Smoking out Redskins. The Widows of Innis Station. A Daring Achievement. The Amazon of the Stockade.

PATRIOT WOMEN OF THE REVOLUTION Times that Tried Men's Souls. The Women of Wyoming. Silas Deane's Sister. Mrs. Corbin, the Cannoneer. A Heroine on the Gun-deck. The Schoharie Girl. Women of the Mohawk Wars. Concerning a Curious Siege. The Patriot Daughter and the Bloody Scouts. What she Dared him to do. Brave Deeds of Mary Ledyard. Ministering Angels. Heroism of "Mother Bailey." Petticoats and Cartridges. A Thrilling Incident of Valley Forge. Ready-witted Ladies. Miss Geiger, the Courier. How Miss Darrah Saved the Army. Adventures of McCalla's Wife. Love and Constancy. A Clergyman's Story of his Mother.

GOING WEST.--PERILS BY THE WAY, After the Revolution. Starting for the Mississippi. Curious Methods of Migration. A Modern Exodus. Incidents on the Route. Wonderful Story of Mrs. Jameson. Forsaking all for Love. A Woman with One Idea. That Fatal Stream. Alone in the Wilderness. A Glimpse of the Enemy. Strength of a Mother's Love, Saved from a Rattlesnake. Individual Enterprise. Migrating in a Flat-boat. A Night of Peril on the Ohio River. Terrifying Sounds and Sights. A Fiery Scene of Savage Orgies. Coolness and Daring of a Mother. An Extraordinary Line of Mothers and Daughters. A Pioneer Pedigree and its Heroines.

HOME LIFE IN THE BACKWOODS, The Nomads of the West. Romance of a Pioneer's March. How the Cabin was Built. Where Mrs. Graves Concealed her Babes. Husband and Wife at Home. Rather Rough Furniture. Forest Fortresses. Fighting for her Children. Mrs. Fulsom and the Ambushed Savage. Domestic Life on the Border. From a Wedding to a Funeral. Among the Beasts and Savages. Little Ones in the Wilds. Woman takes Care of Herself. Ann Bush's Sorrows. The Bright Side of the Picture. Western Hospitality. A Traveler's Story. "Evangeline" on the Frontier. An Eden of the Wilderness and its Eve.

SOME REMARKABLE WOMEN, Diary of a Heroine. The Border Maid, Wife, Mother, and Widow. Strange Vicissitudes in the Life of Mrs. W. Adopted by an Indian Tribe. Shrewd Plan of Escape. The Hiding-place in the Glen. Surprised and Surrounded, but Safe. Successful Issue of her Enterprise. Mrs. Marliss and her Strategy. Combing the Wool over a Savage's Eyes. Marking the Trail. A Captive's Cunning Devices. A Pursuit and a Rescue. Extraordinary Presence of Mind. A Robber captured by a Woman. A Brave, Good Girl. Helping "the Lord's People." A Home of Love in the Wilderness. A Singular Courtship. The Benevolent Matron and her Errand. Story of the Pioneer Quakeress.

A ROMANCE OF THE BORDER, The Honeymoon in the Mountains. United in Life and in Death. A Devoted Lover. Capture of Two Young Ladies. Discovery and Rescue. The Captain and the Maid at the Mill. The Chase Family in Trouble. The Romance of a Young Girl's Life. Danger in the Wind. Hunter and Lover. Treacherous Savages. Old Chase Knocked Over. The Fight on the Plains. An Unexpected Meeting. Heroism of La Bonte. The Guard of Love. The Marriage of Mary. Miss Rouse and her Lover. A Bridal and a Massacre. Brought back to Life but not to Joy. A Fruitless Search for a Lost Bride. Mrs. Philbrick's Singular Experience.

PATHETIC SCENES OF PIONEER LIFE, Grief in the Pioneer's Home. Graves in the Wilderness. The Returned Captive and the Nursery Song. The Lost Child of Wyoming Little Frances and her Indian Captors. Parted For Ever. Discovery of the Lost One. An Affecting Interview. Striking Story of the Kansas War. The Prairie on Fire. Mother and Children Alone. Homeless and Helpless. Solitude, Famine, and Cold. Three Fearful Days. The Burning Cabin. A Gathering Storm. A Dream of Home and Happiness. Return of Father and Son. A Love Stronger than Death. The Last Embrace. A Desolate Household.

THE HEROINES OF THE SOUTH WEST, Texas and the South West. Across the "Staked Plain." Mrs. Drayton and Mrs. Benham. A Perilous Journey. Sunstrokes and Reptiles. Death From Thirst Mexican Bandits. A Night Gallop to the Rendezvous. Escape of our Heroines. A Ride for Life. Saving Husband and Children. Surrounded by Brigands on the Pecos. Heroism of Mrs. Benham. The Treacherous Envoy. The Gold Hunters of Arizona. Mrs. D. and her Dearly Bought Treasure. Battling for Life in the California Desert. The Last Survivor of a Perilous Journey. Mrs. L., the Widow of the Colorado. Among the Camanches. A Prodigious Equestrian Feat.

WOMAN'S EXPERIENCE ON THE NORTHERN BORDER, March of the "Grand Army" Peculiar Perils of the Northern Border. Mrs. Dalton's Record. A Dangerous Expedition. Her Husband's Fate. A Trance of Grief. Between Frost and Fire. A Choice of Deaths. Rescued from the Flames. One Sunny Hour. The Storm-Fiend. Terrific Spectacle. In the Whirlwind's Track. The Only Refuge. Locked in a Dungeon. A Fight for Deliverance. Arrival of Friends. Another Peril. Walled in by Flames. Passing Through a Fiery Lane. Closing Days of Mrs. Dalton. A Story of Minnesota. What the Hunters Saw. A Mother's Deathless Love.

ENCOUNTERS WITH WILD BEASTS--COURAGE AND DARING, Personal Combat with a Bear. The Huntress of the Northwest. An Intrepid Wife and her Assailant. Combat with an Enraged Moose. A Bloody Circus in the Snow. Trapping Wolves--a Georgia Girl's Pluck. A Kentucky Girl's Adventure. A Wild Pack in Pursuit. The Snapping of a Black Wolf's Jaws. Female Strategy and its Success. A Cabin Full of Wolves. Comical Denouement. A Young Lady Treed by a Bear. Some of Mrs. Dagget's Exploits. Up the Platte, and After the Grizzlies. Catching a Bear with a Lasso. What a Brave Woman Can Do. Facing Death in the Desert. A Woman's Home in Wyoming. A Night with a Mountain Lion.

ACROSS THE CONTINENT.--ON THE PLAINS, Voyaging in a Prairie Schooner. A Cavalry Officer's Story. The Homeless Wanderer of the Plains. Mrs. N. Battling alone with Death. A Fatherless and Childless Home. The Plagues of Egypt. Murrain, Grasshoppers, and Famine. Following a Forlorn Hope. A Bridal Tour and its Ending. On the Borders of the Great Desert. An Extraordinary Experience. Women Living in Caves. A Waterspout and its Consequences. Drowning in a Drought. Fleeing from Death. A Woman's Partnership in a Herd of Buffaloes. The Huntress of the Foot-hills. A Charge by Ten Thousand Bison. Hiding in a Sink-hole. A Terrible Danger and a Miraculous Escape. A Prairie Home and its Mistress.

WOMAN AS A MISSIONARY TO THE INDIANS, The Heroine and Martyr among the Heathen. Mrs. Eliot and her Tawny Proteg?s. Five Thousand Praying Indians. Mrs. Kirkland among the Oneidas. Prayer-meetings in Wigwams. The Psalm-singing Squaws. A Revolutionary Matron and her Story. A Pioneer Sunday-school and its Teacher. The Last of the Mohegans and their Benefactors. Heroism of the Moravian Sisters. The Guardians of the Pennsylvania Frontier. A Gathering Storm. Prayer-meetings and Massacres. Surrounded by Flame and Carnage. An Unexpected Assault. The Fate of the Defenders. A Fiery Martyrdom. Last Scene in a Noble Life. Closing Days of Gnadenhutten. Massacre of Indian Converts. The Death Hymn and Parting Prayer.

WOMAN AS A MISSIONARY TO THE INDIANS, , Missionary Wives Crossing the Rocky Mountains. Buried Alive in the Snow. Shooting the Rapids in a Birch Canoe. Sucked Down by a Whirlpool. A Fearful Situation and its Issue. A Brace of Heroines and their Expedition. Women Doubling Cape Horn. A Parting Hymn and Long Farewell. A Missionary Wife's Experience in Oregon. All Alone with the Wolves. A Woman's Instinct in the Hour of Danger. Dr. White's Dilemma and its Solution. A Clean Pair of Heels and a Convenient Tree. A Perilous Voyage and its Consequences. A Heartrending Catastrophe. A Mother's Lost Treasure. A Savage Coterie and the White Stranger. Mrs. Whitman and Mrs. Spalding. A Murderous Suspicion. The Benefactress and the Martyr.

WOMAN IN THE ARMY, The Daughter of the Regiment. A Loving Wife and a True Patriot. Mrs. Warner in the Canadian Campaign. The Disguised Couriers. Deborah Samson in Buff and Blue. A Woman in Love with a Woman. A Wound in Front and what it Led to. Mrs. Coolidge's Campaign in New Mexico. Bearing Dispatches Across the Plains. A Fight with Guerillas. A Race for Life. Two against Five. Frontier Women in our Last Great War. Their Exploits and Devotion. Miss Wellman as Soldier and Nurse. The Secret Revealed. A Noble Life. A Devoted Wife. Life in a Confederate Fort. The Little Soldier and her Story. A Sister's Love. The Last Sacrifice.

THE COMFORTER AND THE GUARDIAN, The Ruined Home and its Heroine. The Angel of the Sierra Nevada. Mrs. Maurice and the Dying Miners. The Music of a Woman's Word. The Young Gold Hunter and his Nurse. Starving Camp in Idaho. The Song in the Ears of the Dying. The Seven Miners and their Golden Gift. A Graveyard of Pioneer Women. Mrs. R. and her Wounded Husband. The Guardian Mother of the Island. The Female Navigator and the Pirate. A Life-boat Manned by a Girl. A Night of Peril. A Den of Murderers and an Unsullied Maiden. The Freezing Soldiers of Montana. A Despairing Cry and its Echo. The Storm-Angel's Visit.

WOMAN AS AN EDUCATOR ON THE FRONTIER, A Mother of Soldiers and Statesmen. A Home-school on the Border. The Prairie Mother and her Four Children. A Garden for Human Plants and Flowers. The First Lesson of the Boy and Girl on the Frontier. The Wife's School in the Heart of the Rocky Mountains. A Leaf from the Life of Washington. The Hero-Mothers of the Republic. A Patriot Woman and a Martyr. A Mother's Influence on the Life of Andrew Jackson. Woman's Discernment of a Boy's Genius. West, the Painter, and Webster, the Statesman. The Place where our Great Men Learned A. B. C. Miss M. and her Labors in Illinois. A Martyrdom in the Cause of Education. Woman as an Educator of Human Society. Incident in the Life of a Millionaire. What a Mother's Portrait Did. A Woman's Visit to "Pandemonium Camp." An Angel of Civilization.

WOMAN AS A PIONEER

Every battle has its unnamed heroes. The common soldier enters the stormed fortress and, falling in the breach which his valor has made, sleeps in a nameless grave. The subaltern whose surname is scarcely heard beyond the roll-call on parade, bears the colors of his company where the fight is hottest. And the corporal who heads his file in the final charge, is forgotten in the "earthquake shout" of the victory which he has helped to win. The victory may be due as much, or more, to the patriot courage of him who is content to do his duty in the rank and file, as to the dashing colonel who heads the regiment, or even to the general who plans the campaign: and yet unobserved, unknown, and unrewarded the former passes into oblivion while the leader's name is on every tongue, and perhaps goes down in history as that of one who deserved well of his country.

Our comparison is a familiar one. There are other battles and armies besides those where thousands of disciplined men move over the ground to the sounds of the drum and fife. Life itself is a battle, and no grander army has ever been set in motion since the world began than that which for more than two centuries and a half has been moving across our continent from the Atlantic to the Pacific, fighting its way through countless hardships and dangers, bearing the banner of civilization, and building a new republic in the wilderness.

In this army WOMAN HAS BEEN TOO OFTEN THE UNNAMED HEROINE.

The benign spirit of Christianity has lifted woman from the position she held under other religious systems and elevated her to a higher sphere. She is brought forward as a teacher; she displays a martyr's courage in the presence of pestilence, or ascends the deck of the mission-ship to take her part in "perils among the heathen." She endures the hardships and faces the dangers of colonial life with a new sense of her responsibility as a wife and mother. In all these capacities, whether teaching, ministering to the sick, or carrying the Gospel to the heathen, she shows the same self-devotion as in "the brave days of old;" it is this quality which peculiarly fits her to be the pioneer's companion in the new world, and by her works in that capacity she must be judged.

If all true greatness should be estimated by the good it performs, it is peculiarly desirable that woman's claims to distinction should thus be estimated and awarded. In America her presence has been acknowledged, and her aid faithfully rendered from the beginning. In the era of colonial life; in the cruel wars with the aborigines; in the struggle of the Revolution; in the western march of the army of exploration and settlement, a grateful people must now recognize her services.

There is a beautiful tradition, that the first foot which pressed the snow-clad rock of Plymouth was that of Mary Chilton, a fair young maiden, and that the last survivor of those heroic pioneers was Mary Allerton, who lived to see the planting of twelve out of the thirteen colonies, which formed the nucleus of these United States.

The names of these nineteen pioneer-matrons should be engraved in letters of gold on the pillars of American history:

The Wives of the Pilgrims.

Nor should the names of the daughters of these heroic women be forgotten, who, with their mothers and fathers shared the perils of that winter's voyage, and bore, with their parents, the toils, and hardships, and changes of the infant colony.

The Daughters of the Pilgrim Mothers.

Elizabeth Carver. Remember Allerton. Mary Allerton. Sarah Allerton. Constance Hopkins. Mary Chilton. Priscilla Mullins.

Sometimes she ranged herself in battle beside her husband or brother, and fought with the steadiness and bravery of a veteran. But her heroism never shone so brightly as in undergoing danger in defense of her children.

In the early days of the settlement of Royalton, Vermont, a sudden attack was made upon it by the Indians. Mrs. Hendee, the wife of one of the settlers, was working alone in the field, her husband being absent on military duty, when the Indians entered her house and capturing her children carried them across the White river, at that place a hundred yards wide and quite deep for fording, and placed them under keepers who had some other persons, thirty or forty in number, in charge.

Returning from the field Mrs. Hendee discovered the fate of her children. Her first outburst of grief was heart-rending to behold, but this was only transient; she ceased her lamentations, and like the lioness who has been robbed of her litter, she bounded on the trail of her plunderers. Resolutely dashing into the river, she stemmed the current, planting her feet firmly on the bottom and pushed across. With pallid face, flashing eyes, and lips compressed, maternal love dominating every fear, she strode into the Indian camp, regardless of the tomahawks menacingly flourished round her head, boldly demanded the release of her little ones, and persevered in her alternate upbraidings and supplications, till her request was granted. She then carried her children back through the river and landed them in safety on the other bank.

Not content with what she had done, like a patriot as she was, she immediately returned, begged for the release of the children of others, again was rewarded with success, and brought two or three more away; again returned, and again succeeded, till she had rescued the whole fifteen of her neighbors' children who had been thus snatched away from their distracted parents. On her last visit to the camp of the enemy, the Indians were so struck with her conduct that one of them declared that so brave a squaw deserved to be carried across the river, and offered to take her on his back and carry her over. She, in the same spirit, accepted the offer, mounted the back of the gallant savage, was carried to the opposite bank, where she collected her rescued troop of children, and hastened away to restore them to their overjoyed parents.

During the memorable Wyoming massacre, Mrs. Mary Gould, wife of James Gould, with the other women remaining in the village of Wyoming, sought safety in the fort. In the haste and confusion attending this act, she left her boy, about four years old, behind. Obeying the instincts of a mother, and turning a deaf ear to the admonitions of friends, she started off on a perilous search for the missing one. It was dark; she was alone; and the foe was lurking around; but the agonies of death could not exceed her agonies of suspense; so she hastened on. She traversed the fields which, but a few hours before,

"Were trampled by the hurrying crowd,"

where--

and where unarmed hands were now resting on cold and motionless hearts. After a search of between one and two hours, she found her child on the bank of the river, sporting with a little band of playmates. Clasping her treasure in her arms, she hurried back and reached the fort in safety.

During the struggles of the Revolution, the privations sustained, and the efforts made, by women, were neither few nor of short duration. Many of them are delineated in the present volume. Yet innumerable instances of faithful toil, and patient endurance, must have been covered with oblivion. In how many a lone home, from which the father was long sundered by a soldier's destiny, did the mother labor to perform to their little ones both his duties and her own, having no witness of the extent of her heavy burdens and sleepless anxieties, save the Hearer of prayer.

A good and hoary-headed man, who had passed the limits of fourscore, once said to me, "My father was in the army during the whole eight years of the Revolutionary War, at first as a common soldier, afterwards as an officer. My mother had the sole charge of us four little ones. Our house was a poor one, and far from neighbors. I have a keen remembrance of the terrible cold of some of those winters. The snow lay so deep and long, that it was difficult to cut or draw fuel from the woods, or to get our corn to the mill, when we had any. My mother was the possessor of a coffee-mill. In that she ground wheat, and made coarse bread, which we ate, and were thankful. It was not always we could be allowed as much, even of this, as our keen appetites craved. Many is the time that we have gone to bed, with only a drink of water for our supper, in which a little molasses had been mingled. We patiently received it, for we knew our mother did as well for us as she could; and we hoped to have something better in the morning. She was never heard to repine; and young as we were, we tried to make her loving spirit and heavenly trust, our example.

"When my father was permitted to come home, his stay was short, and he had not much to leave us, for the pay of those who achieved our liberties was slight, and irregularly given. Yet when he went, my mother ever bade him farewell with a cheerful face, and told him not to be anxious about his children, for she would watch over them night and day, and God would take care of the families of those who went forth to defend the righteous cause of their country. Sometimes we wondered that she did not mention the cold weather, or our short meals, or her hard work, that we little ones might be clothed, and fed, and taught. But she would not weaken his hands, or sadden his heart, for she said a soldier's life was harder than all. We saw that she never complained, but always kept in her heart a sweet hope, like a well of water. Every night ere we slept, and every morning when we arose, we lifted our little hands for God's blessing on our absent father, and our endangered country.

"How deeply the prayers from such solitary homes and faithful hearts were mingled with the infant liberties of our dear native land, we may not know until we enter where we see no more 'through a glass darkly, but face to face.'

"Incidents repeatedly occurred during this contest of eight years, between the feeble colonies and the strong mother-land, of a courage that ancient Sparta would have applauded.

"Go forth, children," said she, "to the defence of your native clime. Go, each and all of you; I spare not my youngest, my fair-haired boy, the light of my declining years.

"Go forth, my sons! Repel the foot of the invader, or see my face no more."

A European traveler lately visited the Territory of Montana--abandoning the beaten trail, in company only with an Indian guide, for he was a bold and fearless explorer. He struck across the mountains, traveling for two days without seeing the sign of a human being. Just at dusk, on the evening of the second day, he drew rein on the summit of one of those lofty hills which form the spurs of the Rocky Mountains. The solitude was awful. As far as the eye could see stretched an unbroken succession of mountain peaks, bare of forest--a wilderness of rocks with stunted trees at their base, and deep ravines where no streams were running. In all this desolate scene there was no sign of a living thing. While they were tethering their horses and preparing for the night, the sharp eyes of the Indian guide caught sight of a gleam of light at the bottom of a deep gorge beneath them.

Descending the declivity, they reached a cabin rudely built of dead wood, which seemed to have been brought down by the spring rains from the hill-sides to the west. Knocking at the door, it was opened by a woman, holding in her arms a child of six months. The woman appeared to be fifty years of age, but she was in reality only thirty. Casting a searching look upon the traveler and his companion, she asked them to enter.

The cabin was divided into two apartments, a kitchen, which also served for a store-room, dining-room, and sitting-room; the other was the chamber, or rather bunk-room, where the family slept. Five children came tumbling out from this latter apartment as the traveler entered, and greeted him with a stare of childlike curiosity. The woman asked them to be seated on blocks of wood, which served for chairs, and soon threw off her reserve and told them her story, while they awaited the return of her husband from the nearest village, some thirty miles distant, whither he had gone the day before to dispose of the gold-dust which he had "panned out" from a gulch near by. He was a miner. Four years before he had come with his family from the East, and pushing on in advance of the main movement of emigration in the territory, had discovered a rich gold placer in this lonely gorge. While he had been working in this placer, his wife had with her own hands turned up the soil in the valley below and raised all the corn and potatoes required for the support of the family; she had done the housework, and had made all the clothes for the family. Once when her husband was sick, she had ridden thirty miles for medicine. It was a dreary ride, she said, for the road, or rather trail, was very rough, and her husband was in a burning fever. She left him in charge of her oldest child, a girl of eleven years, but she was a bright, helpful little creature, able to wait upon the sick man and feed the other children during the two days' absence of her mother.

Next summer they were to build a house lower down the valley and would be joined by three other families of their kindred from the East. "Have you never been attacked by the Indians?" inquired the traveler.

"Only three times," she replied. "Once three prowling red-skins came to the door, in the night, and asked for food. My husband handed them a loaf of bread through the window, but they refused to go away and lurked in the bushes all night; they were stragglers from a war-party, and wanted more scalps. I saw them in the moonlight, armed with rifles and tomahawks, and frightfully painted. They kindled a fire a hundred yards below our cabin and stayed there all night, as if they were watching for us to come out, but early in the morning they disappeared, and we saw them no more.

"Another time, a large war-party of Indians encamped a mile below us, and a dozen of them came up and surrounded the house. Then we thought we were lost: they amused themselves aiming at marks in the logs, or at the chimney and windows; we could hear their bullets rattle against the rafters, and you can see the holes they made in the doors. One big brave took a large stone and was about to dash it against the door, when my husband pointed his rifle at him through the window, and he turned and ran away. We should have all been killed and scalped if a company of soldiers had not come up the valley that day with an exploring party and driven the red-skins away.

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