Robbed by Indians in Early DeKalb County, Indiana
"At that time there was a large Indian Village where Denmark now is,
And some traders came among them with whiskey, and made them drunk, so
they came to rob us. We had worked hard all day, until nearly sundown,
when we went to the house to eat supper. The Indians came yelling and
soon filled the house. They then drew their knives, bows and arrows, and
tomahawks, stuck their hands into our supper pot, and our supper was gone
in a trice. Samuel Houlton drew a large poker, and was about to strike
when Avery exclaimed, 'Don't strike, Sam, or they will kill us all !" Hughes
also told him not strike, but let them take what they wanted, and he would go
to the Indian agent at Fort Wayne and make them pay for it. They then acted
as true lords of the soil.
"They poured out their whiskey into their camp kettles, knocked in the
head of a flour barrel, and also of a pork barrel, and in fifteen minutes flour,
pork and whiskey were gone. They crossed the creek about twelve rods off,
and camped for the night, While they were making their fires and drinking
the whiskey, we rolled out our last barrel of flour and hid it in a brush heap.
We had also about thirty pounds of pork up in the chamber, they did not
get, and that was all that saved us from starvation. The two hundred Indians
fought and screamed all night. A better sample of the infernal regions never
could be gotten up in this world.
"As soon as we had secured our barrel of flour, we next resolved that
when they had generally got drunk, we would alight on them with a vengeance,
and kill the last one nf them. So we loaded our four guns with slugs and then
got two tomahawks and two hand-axes, and waited until they would become
more drunk. In this, however, we were disappointed. They did not seem
to get more intoxicated. After drinking twenty gallons of whiskey, eating
two hundred and thirty pounds of pork, and using up two hundred and fifty
pounds of flour, with several bushels of potatoes, they started off about eight
in the morning, well satisfied with what they had done.
"We made application to the Indian agent at Fort Wayne, but never got
any compensation for the articles taken. Every time I think of Indian
tragedy, I feel thankful that we were prevented from imbruing our hands in
their life blood. It was the traders, with their whiskey, that made all this trouble.
