Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 1.djvu/440



and shooting them on the way. Gardner, Luce and Clark now realized the great peril and made a heroic effort to warn their neighbors. Mr. Gardner remained to protect his family, while Luce and Clark started about two o’clock to give the alarm. Soon after, the rapid firing of guns at the Mattocks house and the screaming of the terrified women warned the Gardner family that the terrible work had begun. Mr. Gardner now barricaded the door and prepared to defend his family to the last, but his wife, who still had hope that the Indians would spare them for the many acts of kindness in times past, begged of her husband not to fire upon them. The Indians now forced their way into the house and shot Mr. Gardner, killing him instantly. They then turned upon the women and children and beat their brains out with clubs; the only one spared was Abbie, the daughter, fourteen years of age. The terrified child begged of the savages to kill her, too, as she could not endure the thought of the terrible tortures and outrages inflicted on helpless prisoners. But heedless of her entreaties, they dragged her away, while the moans of her dying mother, sister and brother, crazed her with anguish and horror. At the Mattocks house a brave resistance was made. When the attack began Dr. Herriott and Carl Snyder seized their guns and hastened to the assistance of their neighbors. But outnumbered five to one as they were by the Sioux warriors, there was no hope of successful resistance. The five men fought here with a bravery unsurpassed to save the women and children, and as they fell one by one, with rifles grasped in their hands, the terror of those remaining, for whom their lives had been given, was appalling.

When Abbie was dragged to this scene of slaughter the mangled bodies of the five men, two women and children were lying about the burning cabin, while the shrieks of other children roasting in the flames, made a succession of horrors too hideous to be described. No witness survived to tell the fearful story of the heroic fight and