The Hochstetler Massacre - The Captivity

The Captivity
Quite likely the prisoners’ hands were tied and they made to walk at a rapid pace, making for the Blue mountains, which are in sight of the Hochstetler home and about two miles distant on a straight line. There is a tradition that while crossing the mountains they passed a clearing where a man named Miller, an ancestor of the numerous Miller family now residing in Holmes County and adjoining parts of Tuscarawas County, Ohio, was chopping. He was shot at and hit in the hand as he raised his ax; he fled and was not pursued. He may have belonged to the family of John Adam Miller, before mentioned as having been killed the previous April.

Indian Abuses of Prisoners
Prisoners were always subject to many abuses on arriving at Indian villages; every old squaw or young Indian would hit them with switches and sometimes clubs and tomahawks. This was known to Hochstetler, who had saved some of the peaches from his home. He now with his sons approached the chief and those near him and presented them some peaches. This so pleased the chief that he immediately ordered the abuses stopped. It also saved them from going through what is called running the gauntlet, which was as follows: All Indians at the village or camp, both sexes, young and old, would stand in two rows facing each other, armed with switches, sticks and sometimes tomahawks or other implements and the unfortunate captive was made to pass through between the two columns, every one striking and some endeavoring to impede their progress by throwing sand or dust into their eyes, and woe unto one that was slow in running; such a one was beaten unmercifully. At the end of the row stood the guardhouse, where the prisoner for the time was free; but some indeed never reached it.

Taken from p. 33 of Descendants of Jacob Hochstetler, by Rev. Harvey Hostetler, D.D. This portion was prepared by William F. Hochstetler.

Here, again, we see the wisdom of the father -- and, indeed, his foresight spared his sons and himself from the full brunt of mistreatment they might have endured.

The incident involving the Miller family was recounted in my April 22, 2006 posting entitled "Here We Go."