ldren around the house. Waggoner
was unarmed; his gun was in the house, but he feared to enter,
so ran for help to the cabin of Hardman, a neighbor. But
Hardman was out hunting, and there was no gun left there. The
screams of his family were now plainly heard by Waggoner, and
he was with difficulty restrained from rushing back to help
them, unarmed. Jesse Hughes carried the news into the fort, and
a rescue party at once set out. Mrs. Waggoner and her three
youngest children had been carried across the ridge to where is
now Rev. Mansfield McWhorter's farm, on McKenley's Run, and
here they were tomahawked and scalped. Henry McWhorter helped
to carry the bodies to the fort, but made no mention of their
being 'mangled in the most barbarous and shocking manner.'"

The boy Peter, then eight years old, remained with the Indians
for twenty years. The manner of his return, as related to me by
Mr. McWhorter, was singular, and furnishes an interesting and
instructive romance of the border. One Baker, one of John
Waggoner's neighbors, went to Ohio to "squat," and on Paint
Creek saw Peter with a band of Indians, recognizing him by the
strong family resemblance. Baker at once wrote to the elder
Waggoner, telling him of his discovery, and the latter soon
visited the Paint Creek band, with a view to inducing his son
to return home. But Peter was loth to go. He was united to a
squaw, and by her had two children. In tears, she bitterly
opposed his going. When finally he yielded to parental appeals,
he promised her he would soon be back again. When the time for
his return to the forest came, his relatives kept him under
guard; when it had passed, he was afraid to return to his
Indian relatives, having broken his word. Gradually he became
reconciled in a measure to his new surroundings, but was ever
melancholy, frequently lamenting that he had left his savage
family. "Some time after his return to civilization," continues
McWhorter, "an Indian woman, supposed to be his wife, passed
through the Hacker Creek settlements, inquiring for Peter, and
going on toward the East. She appeared to be demented, and sang
snatches of savage songs. Peter never knew of her presence, nor
would any one inform he