Democratic Sentinel, Volume 7, Number 32, Rensselaer, Jasper County, 7 September 1883 — Women as Indian Fighters. [ARTICLE]

Women as Indian Fighters.

Dr. Edward Eggleston,in a historical paper in the Century, on thb “Indian War in the of the heroism of the wives of the : “The women of those timea.developed a readiness and cousAjjfe fjw that of the lueu. Thq Sw|fcß»h'; Ufiar the boiling soapMWre warn- d that the Indians were soap and all; m fW’forraled church, blew the conch-shell horns to alarm the men, and when the Indians tried to unmin'e the building ladled the scalding strap upon them, and so savedthem-, sHves from destruction until’ bands arriv. d. The ren juTtelftwlnah Brrtdley, of Haverhill, in ABSeachii* sgtts, who had F s §ftßre 6f captivities and adventures, killed an Indian who was rushing into the open gatd of her husband’s garrison, by throwing boiling soap upon him; and when the savages came to captajre her a third time, sh> savetl herself W| shooting the ; foxeyo^t. the battle in defense ojp was«l|d|ded by the promp|neffi» of the women, who loaded with BmaJ swt Acambon that had jlint awpved from Boston and conyeyed it W the defenders; these discharged it to the dismay and rout of the saysges. A story is told of a maidin Dorchester who defeated an Infl: mi single-handed by the . use of a cet and and a shoveful of live coals, ung girl in Maine shut a. door and hWc it, and thirteen women and childbed ;ime to reach a block-house, while tlw Indians were Chopping down the dobi and knocking down, though they did lot kill, its defender. Twelve years afte Bickford’s ingenious defense <# his : iouse at Oyster river, some women at the pame place imitated it. There being no toen in the garrison, they fired an alartn, loosened their hair to appear like men, and used their guns so briskly that tine savages fled. In 1712, Esther Jones saved Heard’s garrison, in the township of Dover, in New Hatopshire, by mounting guard and calling so loudly and confidently as to make the Indians believe that help was at hand. The stalwart Experience Bogarth, of Dunkard’s Creek, in Pennsylvania, in a hand-to-hand fight in a doorway, in which two white men were killed, slew three Indians with an ax.”