"Enough of War"

During the spring of 1763, before hostilities broke out, Lieutenant Blane was visited, at Fort Ligonier, by several parties of friendly Delawares, among whom was a young brave, named Maiden Foot.  When Maiden Foot was at the fort on one of these occasions, a settler named Means, with his wife and little daughter, Mary, aged eleven years, was there also.  The Means home was about a mile south of the fort.  Maiden Foot seemed much pleased with little Mary. On leaving the fort, he gave the little girl a string of beads.  He seemed sad and thoughtful at the time. In the latter part of May or early in June, after the Pontiac and Guyasutta War had started, Mrs. Means and Mary started for the fort on hearing a rumor that Indians had become hostile. On their way to the fort, they were captured by two Indians, who took them into the woods and tied them to saplings.  Soon they heard the report of rifles, which was the first Indian assault on the fort.  Later in the afternoon, Maiden Foot appeared before Mrs. Means and her daughter, no doubt being the Indian selected to scalp them.  He recognized them, cut the bands which bound them to the tree, and conducted them by a roundabout way to their home, where Mr. Means met them.  Maiden Foot then told the family to flee to the mountains, and pointed to a ravine in which they could hide until after the Indian band left the neighborhood.  On leaving them Maiden Foot took the little girl’s handkerchief, on which was worked in black silken thread her name “Mary Means.” Some years afterwards the Means family moved to a point near Cincinnati, Ohio, where the parents died; and the girl having grown to womanhood, married an officer named Kearney, who commanded a company under Wayne at the battle of the Fallen Timbers, August 20, 1794.  After this battle, Kearney and some companions found an elderly Indian sitting on a log on the battlefield and waving a white handkerchief.  On their approaching him, the Indian said that he had been a warrior all his life; that he had fought at Ligonier, at Bushy Run, the Wabash against St. Clair, and at the recent battle against Wayne.  He then explained that he had enough of war, and desired henceforth to live in peace with all mankind.  Searching in his pouch he brought forth the handkerchief of Mary Means.  Officer Kearney had often heard his wife tell the story of Maiden Foot.  He took the old Indian home with him.  Mrs. Kearney and the Indian immediately recognized each other, although thirty-one years had elapsed since they parted near Fort Ligonier.  Maiden Foot now explained that shortly before he met Mary Means, he had lost a sister about her age and size, and that the giving of the string of beads to her was in effect the adopting of her as his sister.  He was taken into the Kearney family, according to Boucher’s “History of Westmoreland County,” and upon his death four years later, was buried in a graveyard at Cincinnati, where a tablet was erected at his grave bearing the following inscription: “In memory of Maiden Foot, an Indian Chief of the Eighteenth Century, who died a Civilian and a Christian.”

  
Available As A Limited Edition Canvas Print
Ten In The Issue
Size - 16" x 8"     Framed Price - $350.00     Unframed Price - $225.00