Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 1.djvu/455



journey, sorrowfully leaving the dead body of little Willie Thomas where he fell. The brave women tramped through the deep snow, following the well-armed men and the heavily loaded sled. The only coward among the settlers at Springfield was a Dr. Strong. In October he went from Fort Dodge to Mr. Gardner’s at the lakes. When he afterward settled at Springfield, his wife persuaded Eliza Gardner to go with them and spend the winter and thus she escaped the fate of the other members of her father’s family. When the news of the massacre reached Springfield, Dr. Strong took his wife and child and Eliza to the Thomas house for safety. On the morning before the attack Dr. Strong had been called to Mr. Wheeler’s to attend two men who had lost their legs by freezing. While there, he heard the guns all through the day at the Thomas house, where the fight was going on and where his wife and child were. He was so terrified that he did not venture out of the Wheeler cabin until dark. When the firing had ceased and he had seen the Indians retreating, he made no effort to learn the fate of his family. The next morning he persuaded Mrs. Smith to go over and learn the fate of the settlers at the Thomas cabin. When she returned with the report that it was deserted, and that a boy was lying dead in the yard, Dr. Strong left the three women, their two children and his two crippled patients and fled without an effort to learn the fate of his wife and child.

There was now but one able-bodied man left at the Wheeler house, J. B. Skinner. The others were Mrs. Skinner, Mrs. Wm. Nelson and her child, Mrs. Smith and her crippled husband, whose leg had recently been amputated, Mr. Sheigley’s little boy and Mr. Henderson, who had lost both legs. To remain now until the Indians returned seemed to be certain death for all, with but one man able to defend them. They had no team and no way to carry the wounded men. Hard as it was they had to abandon Henderson and Smith and start through the deep