Noble Deeds Of American Women Part 24

"About the first of September, 1833, a deep and solemn interest upon the subject of religion, began to be visible in the Presbyterian church and congregation of Washingtonville, New York, and particularly in the Sabbath school. One teacher, feeling deeply the responsibility resting upon her, and the worth of immortal souls, before the school was dismissed on the Lord's day, affectionately requested her cla.s.s, consisting of little girls about twelve or thirteen years of age, to remain after the rest of the school had retired. She then began, with an aching heart and with flowing tears, to reason and plead with them upon the subject of personal religion. They were deeply affected, and 'wept bitterly' in view of their lost condition. They then all knelt together before the Lord, and the teacher prayed for their salvation; and immediately the scholar next to her commenced praying for herself, and then the next, and so on, until the whole cla.s.s, with ardent supplications, begged for the forgiveness of their sins, and the salvation of their souls. It would take long to tell the history of this cla.s.s, and relate particular instances of conversions, and the happy changes which took place in the families to which they belonged, and show the family altars which were established. These scholars, with their teacher and their fathers and mothers, brothers and sisters, were ere long seen commemorating a Saviour's dying love together. The revival extended itself to other towns, and the great day can alone unfold the astonishing results."

THE WIFE OF THOMAS HEYWARD.

What I will, I will, and there's an end.

SHAKSPEARE.

Immediately after the victory of the British at Guilford, order was given for the illumination of Charleston, South Carolina. This order, Major Garden informs us,[60] the wife of Thomas Heyward of that city refused to obey; and when an officer asked her the reason of her disobedience, she replied, "Is it possible for me, sir, to feel a spark of joy? Can I celebrate the victory of your army while my husband remains a prisoner at St. Augustine?" Enraged at her obstinacy, he told her she _should_ illuminate. "Not a single light shall be placed, with my consent, on any occasion, in any window in the house," was her fearless reply. He then threatened to destroy her house before midnight.

"You have power to destroy, sir," she said, "and seem well disposed to use it, but over my opinions you possess no control. I disregard your menaces, and resolutely declare, _I will not illuminate_!" As good as her word, she _did_ not, nor was her house destroyed.

[60] Revolutionary Anecdotes, First Series

Orders were given, at another time, for an illumination on the anniversary of the battle and surrender of Charleston,[61] and Mrs.

Heyward again refused to obey. The mob was so indignant as to pelt her house with brickbats; and while engaged in the mean act, a feeble and emaciated sister of Mrs. Heyward--Mrs. George A. Hall--expired! When the town major heard of this painful circ.u.mstance, he tried to apologize to Mrs. Heyward, expressing regret for the indignities and damages, and offering to repair the building. She received his personal courtesies, but refused his proffered aid in making repairs, hinting, at the same time, that it was hardly possible for the authorities, in that way, to remedy insults the offering of which their baseness had probably prompted and and which they could and _should_ have prevented.

[61] May twelfth, 1781.

n.o.bLE DECISION.

We are born to do benefits.

SHAKSPEARE.

When the news was received in Illinois, a few years ago, that, owing to a deficiency of funds, the Ceylon missionaries had been obliged to dismiss thousands of pupils from their schools, and that twenty-five dollars would revive any one of them, a minister of that state laid the subject before his small and poor church, and between pastor and people twenty-five dollars were promptly raised. Going home and communicating the intelligence to his wife, the minister learned that she had been weighing the subject, and was anxious, in some way, to raise enough herself alone to resuscitate a school. Her husband told her she could do it by dispensing with a tomb stone which had been ordered from New York for a child lately deceased, and which would cost twenty-five dollars.

She promptly consented to have the order countermanded, saying that "living children demanded her money more than the one that was dead." By suffering the love of Christ to triumph over maternal feeling, she re-opened a mission school, and the day of judgment will reveal the great amount of good thereby accomplished.

A TENNESSEE HEROINE.

It is held That valor is the chiefest virtue; Most dignifies the haver: if it be, The man I speak of cannot in the world Be singly counterpoised.

SHAKSPEARE.

Milton A. Haynes, Esq., of Tennessee, furnished for Mrs. Ellet's Women of the Revolution a lengthy and very interesting sketch of Sarah Buchanan, of East Tennessee. The following anecdotes, extracted therefrom, exhibit the heroism of her character:

On one occasion, Sarah and a kinswoman named Susan Everett were returning home from a visit a mile or two distant, careless of danger, or not thinking of its presence. It was late in the evening, and they were riding along a path through the open woods, Miss Everett in advance. Suddenly she stopped her horse, exclaiming, "Look, Sally, yonder are the red skins!" Not more than a hundred yards ahead was a party of Indians armed with rifles, directly in their path. There was no time for counsel, and retreat was impossible, as the Indians might easily intercept them before they could gain a fort in their rear. To reach their own block-house, four or five hundred yards distant, was their only hope of safety. Quick as thought, Sarah whispered to her companion to follow and do as she did, and then instantly a.s.suming the position of a man on horseback, in which she was imitated by her relative, she urged her horse into a headlong gallop. Waving their bonnets in the air, and yelling like madmen, they came furiously down upon the savages, who had not seen them, crying out as they came--"Clear the track, you ---- red skins!" The part was so well acted, that the Indians took them for the head of a body of troopers, who were making a deadly charge upon them, and dodging out of the path, fled for very life--and so did Sally and Susan! Before the savages had recovered from their fright, the two girls were safe within the gates of the fort, trembling like frightened fawns at the narrow escape which they had made.

On another occasion, when her husband and all the men of the fort were absent, two celebrated horse-thieves, who had taken refuge with the Indians, came and demanded of Mrs. Buchanan two of the Major's fine horses. Knowing their lawless character, she pretended acquiescence, and went with them to the stable, but on arriving at the door she suddenly drew a large hunting knife from under her ap.r.o.n, and a.s.suming an att.i.tude of defiance, declared that if either of them dared to enter the stable, she would instantly cut him down. Struck by her intrepid bearing, they fell back, and although they tried to overcome her resolution by threats and bravado, she maintained her ground, and the marauders were compelled to retire without the horses.

On Sunday night,[62] about the hour of midnight, while the moon was shining brilliantly, the Indian army under Watts and the Shawnee, advancing in silence, surrounded Buchanan's station. In order to effect an entrance into the fort by a _coup de main_, they sent runners to frighten and drive in the horses and cattle. This was done, and the animals came dashing furiously towards the fort; but the garrison, wrapped in slumber, heeded them not. The watchman, John McCrory, at this instant discovering the savages advancing within fifty yards of the gates, fired upon them. In an instant the mingled yells of the savage columns, the crack of their rifles, and the clatter of their hatchets, as they attempted to cut down the gate, told the little squad of nineteen men and seven women that the fearful war-cloud, which had been rising so long, was about to burst upon their devoted heads!

[62] In the autumn of 1792, while the war with the Creeks and Cherokees was raging in the c.u.mberland valley.

Aroused suddenly from deep slumber by the terrible war-whoop, every man and woman felt the horror of their situation. The first impulse with some was to surrender, and it is related of one woman that she instantly gathered her five children and attempted to go with them to the gate to yield themselves to the Indians. Mrs. Buchanan seized her by the shoulder, and asked her where she was going.

"To surrender myself and children to the Indians--if I don't they'll kill us, any how," exclaimed the terrified woman. "Come back," said Mrs.

Buchanan, "and let us all fight and die together." An old man, who waked up as it were in a dream, seemed paralyzed, and exclaimed, in a plaintive voice--"Oh, we shall all be murdered!"

"Get up then and go to fighting!" exclaimed Mrs. Buchanan; "I'd be ashamed to sit crouched up there when any one else is fighting. Better die n.o.bly than live shamefully!"

In the mean time Major Buchanan had arranged his men in the block-houses so as to rake the Indians by a flank fire, and was pouring a galling fire into the head of the a.s.saulting column. Yet, nothing dismayed, the daring foe crowded against the gates, their blows falling faster and heavier, while now and then they attempted to scale the pickets. At length, unable to do this or to force open the well-barred and ponderous gate, the bold warriors advanced to the block-houses, and standing before them, pointed their guns in at the port holes; both sides sometimes at the same instant firing through the same opening. It was the policy of Major Buchanan to impress upon them the idea that the fort contained a large garrison. To do this it was necessary for his men to fire their guns often, and occasionally in volleys. At this crisis the whisper went round--"All is lost. Our bullets are out!" But there were guardian angels whom these brave men knew not of. Scarcely had the words been spoken, when Mrs. Buchanan pa.s.sed around with an ap.r.o.nful of bullets, which she and Nancy Mulherrin, the Major's sister, had moulded, during the fight, out of her plates and spoons. At the same time she gave to each of the tired soldiers some brandy which she carried in a pewter basin. During the contest they had thus moulded three hundred bullets. Not without their fun were these hardy men in this hour of peril. In order to keep up a show of good spirits, they frequently cried out to the Indians, "Shoot bullets, you squaws! Why don't you put powder in your guns?" This was understood, for Watts and many others spoke very good English, and they replied by daring them to come out and fight like men. In the midst of these banterings, Mrs. Buchanan discovered a large blunderbuss which had been standing in a corner during the fight and had not been discharged, and gave it to an Irishman named O'Connor to fire off. In telling the story afterwards the Irish man said: An' she gave me the wide-mouthed fusee and bade me to shoot that at the blasted creeters, and Jimmy O'Connor he took the fusee, and he pulled the trigger when the rest fired, for three or four times, and loaded her again every time, and so ye see, yer honor, when I pulled the trigger again, the fusee went off, it did, and Jimmy O'Connor went under the bed. This unequal contest lasted for four long hours, and when the first blush of morning began to appear in the east, most of the chiefs were killed or wounded. The boastful Shawnee was transfixed in death, leaning against the gate which he had so valorously a.s.saulted; the White Owl's son and Unacate, or the White-man-killer, were mortally wounded, and John Watts was borne off on a litter, shot through both legs.

During this protracted fight Mrs. Buchanan aided the defenders by words and deeds, as if life or death depended upon the efforts which she was then making. She knew, and all knew, that if the a.s.sault could be repelled for four hours, relief would come from the neighboring posts.

Foiled, discouraged, their leaders disabled, this formidable army of savage warriors precipitately retreated towards their country, bearing off most of their wounded, yet leaving many dead upon the field. This was the first formidable invasion of c.u.mberland valley, and its tide was rolled back as much by the presence of mind and heroic firmness of Sarah Buchanan and Nancy Mulherrin, as by the rifles of their husbands and friends. The fame of this gallant defence went abroad, and the young wife of Major Buchanan was celebrated as the greatest heroine of the West. From 1780 to 1796, there was not a year in which her family had not been exposed to peril, in which, of course, she was a partaker.[63]

[63] This heroic woman died at Buchanan's Station, on the twenty-third of November, 1831. She sleeps on the site of the old fort that witnessed her bravery; and Carcas, queen of Carca.s.sone, who defended that city with such courage and resolution, when it was besieged by Charlemagne, that the Emperor permitted her to retain the sovereignty of the place, has scarcely higher claims to historical commemoration.

AUTHOR.

MAGNANIMITY OF MRS. M'KAY.

Greatness of mind, and n.o.bleness, their seat In her build loveliest.

MILTON.

"In the beginning of June, 1781, the British garrison at Augusta, Georgia, capitulated to the American forces, under command of General Pickens and Colonel Lee, of the partizan legion. Colonel Grierson, who was obnoxious to the Americans on account of his barbarities, was shot down by an unknown hand, after he was a prisoner. A reward of one hundred guineas was offered to any person who would point out the offender, but in vain. Colonel Brown, the British commander, expecting the same fate, conscious that he deserved it, from his unrelenting and vindictive disposition towards the Americans, was furnished with a guard, although he had hanged thirteen American prisoners, and had given others into the hands of the Indians to be tortured. On his way to Savannah, he pa.s.sed through the settlements where he had burned a number of houses, and hung some of the relatives of the inhabitants. At Silverbluff, Mrs. M'Kay obtained leave of the American officer, who commanded his safeguard, to speak to him; when she thus addressed him:--'Colonel Brown, in the late day of your prosperity, I visited your camp, and on my knees supplicated for the life of my only son, but you were deaf to my entreaties; you hanged him, though a beardless youth, before my face. These eyes have seen him scalped by the savages under your immediate command, and for no better reason than that his name was M'Kay. As you are now a prisoner to the leaders of my country, for the present I lay aside all thoughts of revenge, but when you resume your sword, I will go five hundred miles to demand satisfaction at the point of it, for the murder of my son!'"

[Ill.u.s.tration: THE GENEROUS DENTIST.]

HEROIC CONDUCT OF A DAUGHTER.

Fair was her face, and spotless was her mind, Where filial love with virgin sweetness joined.

POPE.

Xantippe, a Roman lady, who nursed her father, the aged Cimonus, while he was a prisoner, and thereby saved his life, rendered herself immortal by this manifestation of filial affection. But the "Roman Charity" is not comparable to the following extraordinary deed of filial sacrifice.

The winter of 1783 was unusually severe, and the sufferings of the poor in the city of New York were very great. One family, consisting of the husband, wife and one daughter, were, on one occasion, reduced to the last stick of wood, and were wholly dest.i.tute of provisions. The daughter, who had thus far supported her aged and infirm parents by her industry, was out of work, and knew not what to do. At this juncture of affairs, she recollected that a dentist had advertised for sound fore-teeth, and offered three guineas a piece for all he was himself permitted to extract. In the midst of her grief, the generous girl suddenly brightened up, and hastened to the dentist's office. She made known the condition of her parents, and offered to dispose of all her fore-teeth on his terms. The dentist, instead of extracting a tooth, with tears in his eyes, placed in her hands ten guineas, and sent her, rejoicing, to the relief of her parents.