Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/107

This page has been validated.
82
Part Taken by Women in American History

Cherokee Indians offered their services to General Jackson. General Jackson asked Joseph Brown to take command of these Indians, but this he never did. He served as an aid of General Robards in the army, and was a most valuable interpreter and guide. When General Jackson became President, Colonel Brown obtained an allowance from Congress for a part of the property lost by his father in 1788. Mrs. Brown lived to be ninety years of age, having spent one of the most eventful lives, and exhibited the greatest heroism amidst the trials of the women of even that day. Her son George became a noted citizen of Mississippi, and her captive daughter Jane, the wife of Mr. Collinsworth, became well known in Texas where they resided. No history can do adequate justice to the sufferings and heroism of Mrs. Brown and these early pioneers of the Holston and Cumberland Valleys.

ELIZABETH KENTON.

The name of Simon Kenton, one of the early pioneers of Kentucky, is intimately associated with that of Daniel Boone, he being one of the hardy explorers who went into the wilderness of the Alleghany Mountains and spent three years in the wilds near the Kanawha River, until the breaking out of the wars between the Indians and the settlers in 1774, when he tendered his service to his country and acted as a spy. He was captured by the Indians, carried off and the details of his capture form one of the most thrilling stories of these days. He was tied on the back of an unbroken horse and eight times was exposed to what the Indians call "the running of the gauntlet," which consists in giving a man this one chance for his life. He is allowed to run a certain distance, and if he reaches the enclosure selected by the Indians in safety, when all the Indians are shooting at him, he is given his life. He