The Capture of the Little Johnson Brothers and Their Killing and Escape From Their Captors
“The affair of the two Johnson boys in what is now Jefferson county, forms an interesting and stirring page in the history of its warfare with the Indians. Accounts of this event differ somewhat as to date. A. S. Withers, in his Border Warfare, places it in the year 1779, and he was a very careful and painstaking author in all such matters. Doddridge uses the same date in his account, while later accounts 'make the date as early as 1788. This last date rests on the claim of a statement made by Henry Johnson, the younger of the two boys. The exploit is as follows: The two boys were named John and Henry Johnson, aged about thirteen and eleven respectively. Their father had settled about 1785 about four miles north of Short creek and about two and one-half miles back from the river. While engaged in cracking nuts one day in the woods, they saw two men approaching them. At first they thought they were neighbors. When the strangers approached nearer, they discovered their mistake, but it was too late to fly. The strangers were Indians and they made the boys depart with them. After a circuitous march, as the Indians were looking for horses, they finally halted in a hollow for the night. John, in order to keep the Indians from killing them, had skillfully impressed on their minds that they were ill-treated at home and that he and his brother were very willing and happy to become hunters in the woods. During the evening, before they lay down to sleep, John guardedly told his younger brother that they would kill the Indians in the night time, and by other means managed to allay his fears and to quiet his crying in order that the Indians might not become suspicious and thus thwart the brave design that his young mind was planning. After the Indians had tied the two boys and they themselves had fallen asleep, John, who had kept awake, managed to loosen his hands and soon he and his brother were free. Instead of fleeing, they resolved on the death of their former captors. Henry took his position with cocked gun resting almost against one of the Indian's heads, John with uplifted tomahawk stood over the other, At a given signal, Henry pulled the trigger and John struck with his tomahawk. The Indian who was shot did not move, but the one whom John struck uttered a fearful yell and attempted to rise. The brave lad struck and struck again until he was victor. The boys now hurried away, fearful of other Indians. Coming near Fort Carpenter in the early morning, they saw some men getting ready to go in search of them and heard their mother exclaim, “ Poor little fellows, they are killed or taken prisoners." “ No mother," cried out John, “ we are here again." The story of their killing the Indians was doubted by the men at first, but getting up a party, John conducted them to the spot where the struggle had occurred. The dead body of the Indian whom John had tomahawked was found, but the other Indian had crawled away with the gun. His body was found some time afterwards. Doddridge says that “at the treaty with Wayne, a friend of the Indians who were killed asked what had become of the boys who killed the Indians on Short creek? He was told that they lived at the same place with their parents. The Indian replied: “You have not done right, you should have made kings of those boys." The two Indians killed were of the Delaware tribes, and one of them a chief. The place where these boys performed their brave act, is located in Wells township, and it is said the government donated section 9 in that township to them in honor of their brave deed.” History of the Upper Ohio Valley, 1890
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