The Murders
The mother, being a fleshy woman, was with difficulty extricated; besides, the wounded Jacob had to be assisted, and by the time the family were all out they were surrounded, were all easily captured except Joseph who, being swift-footed like a deer, circled around, eluded them and ran up the hill, followed by two Indians who had thrown their guns away, determined to take him alive. He easily outran them and beholding them give up the chase and return to the burning building, he dropped down behind a log. It happened that one of the Indians observed him but they hastened to the scene of carnage. The son Jacob and the daughter were tomahawked and scalped. But the mother, against whom they seemed to have a particular spite, was stabbed to the heart with a butcher knife and was scalped.
There is a tradition that years before hostilities broke out between the Delaware Indians and the white settlers, a party of Indians called at the Hochstetler home, being in want, begged subsistence, were refused and gruffly turned off by mother Hochstetler. Some of them picked up a coal and drew a rude picture on the wall at the porch, which together with their grimaces forboded no good to the family, but seemed to indicate they were to take revenge. Some believe that but for this unkindness the family would never have been molested; but when it is considered that over 300 were murdered in that section of the country alone, it is not likely that our ancestors were singled out just for this unkindness. The manner in which mother Hochstetler was put to death, however, shows that they had some special grievance against her. The Indians at that time believed that to die under the tomahawk or to be shot was the death of a warrior, and therefore an honorable death, but to die in some other violent way was to them a dishonorable and disgraceful death; hence the mother was killed in that way, they not having time to burn her at the stake.
Taken from pp. 30, 31 of Descendants of Jacob Hochstetler, by Rev. Harvey Hostetler, D.D.
I wonder on what basis the Indians decided to kill some members of the family, and to take captive others.
As I read this part, it was a reminder to consider how I respond to people who are in need and request my help. Tomorrow I will recount the story of another Ho[ch]-stetler mother who was approached by a family needing help, and how she responded to their request.
2 comments:
I read a lot of historical novels - lately I've been reading some by James Alexander Thom - he writes mostly about early America and the American Indians. I recall in one instance a few members of a white family being captured by Indians d were to replace members of the Indian family that had been killed by whites. The rest of the white family killed as revenge.
Linda
Aha, it would be interesting to know what it was in this case. It's hard to imagine any member of the family integrating with the tribe after some members of their family had been killed by the tribe.
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