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Surnames: Simpson,
CHAPTER X.
ANOTHER LETTER FROM THE SCHOOL MASTER TO HIS COUSIN—LARGE GANG OF WILD
DEER—HUNTER WOUNDED IN THE WOODS—NOVERMODE OF CHASTISING AN INEBRIATE—SALUTARY EFFECTS OF
DOMESTIC DISCIPLINE—COUSIN BOB’ S REPLY—THE CHOKE TRAP —AN INCIDENT IN THE EARLY
JUDICATURE OF INDIANA—SQUIRE TONGS—HIS EXTENSIVE JURISDICTION—TRIAL AND FINE OF A
PRISONER—HIS INCARCERATION—A STRIKING COINCIDENCE.
Another letter from the schoolmaster to his cousin has been found, which reads
thus:
FORKS OF COAL CREEK, FOUNTAIN Co.,
May 2, 1827
Dear Cousin Bob: Father has sold his farm here in the woods, and talks of
moving to the Wea plain. The whole family are in favor of going there, as soon as we can
get ready. Game still continues very plenty here. Last winter I stood in our door and
counted twenty-two deer in a drove, skipping along within one hundred yards of the house.
In a few minutes after they passed, we heard the report of a gun about a quarter of a mile
distant, followed by a loud screaming, as of some person in distress. Brother Richard and
a neighbor ran to see what was the matter. They found James Simpson, eldest son of our
“mighty hunter,” sitting on the snow a few rods from a prostrate buck he had just brought
down, twisting a cotton handkerchief around his thigh, to stop the blood in a wound he
received while attempting to stick the deer. As he stooped to cut the throat of the dying
animal, it gave a flounder, and turned the point of the knife into the hunter’s!
thigh, above the knee, cutting a branch of the femoral artery, which was bleeding
profusely. My brother and his assistant surgeon, discovering the extreme danger of the
wound, compressed the artery by twisting a stick through a tourniquet, made of a strong
pair of suspenders, staunched the wound with lint and tallow from the gun box, put Jim on
a temporary hand-sled constructed for the purpose, and hauled him home, leaving
the slaughtered buck, which had died from loss of blood, to he devoured by the
wolves—”unwept, unhonored and unsung). We have in our neighborhood another indubitable
proof of the old adage, that necessity is the mother of invention, which may be regarded
as a parallel ease to the one related in your story of the “choke trap.” There is a little
old man named B— in this vicinity, who is in the habit of getting drunk at every log
rolling and house raising he attends, and in coming home at night makes indiscrim!
inate war upon his wife and daughters, and everything that comes in his way. The old lady
and daughters bore with his tyranny and maudlin abuse as long as forbearance seemed to be
a virtue. For a while they adopted the doctrine of non-resistance, and would fly from the
house on his approach; but they found that this only made him worse. At length they
resolved to change the order of things. They held a council of war, which it was
determined that the next time he came home drunk, they would catch him and tie him hand
and foot, and take him out and tie him fast to a tree, and keep him there until he got
duly sober. It was not long until they had a chance to put their decree into execution.
True to their plan, when they saw him coming two of them placed themselves behind the door
with ropes, and the other caught him by the wrists as he crossed the threshold; he was
instantly lassoed. A tussle ensued, but the old woman and girls fell uppermost. They
made him fast with !
the ropes, and dragged him out towards the designated tree. He raved, swore,
remonstrated, and begged alternately, no effect—the laws of the Medes and Persians were
not more unalterable than was their determination to punish the stubborn offender.
They tied him fast to a tree and kept him there in limbo the most of the night. Nor did
they untie him even after he became sober, until they extracted a promise from him that he
would behave himself and keep sober for the future, and not maltreat them for the favor
they had conferred upon him and themselves. Two or three applications of this mild and
diluted form of lynch law, has had an admirable effect in restoring the domestic
order and happiness of- the family, and correcting the demeanor of the delinquent husband
and father. The old woman thinks the plan they pursued far better and less expensive than
it would have been if they had gone ten miles to Esquire Make-peace every few
weeks, and got!
out a writ for an assault and battery, or warrant to keep the peace; which would cost the
family, besides the trouble and expense of attending as witnesses before the justice and
circuit court, ten or twenty dollars every month or two, and done no good towards
reforming the old man. I reckon she is more than half right. By-the-by, Bob, I would be
much obliged if in your next letter you would rehearse the story of the “choke trap,”
which I wish to show to Mrs. B and the girls, to let them see the striking coincidence in
the two cases. In compliance with the request contained in the letter, “Cousin Bob”
furnished the following version of the “choke trap,” an incident in the early judicature
of Indiana: During the early history of Indiana, about the year 1808 if my memory serves
me correctly, in one of the neighborhoods on the east fork of White Water, there occurred
a flagrant breach of the peace, which demanded a summary exerc!
ise of the “laws of the land.’’ A certain ungallant offender had flogged his wife in a
most barbarous manner, and then drove her from home. Bleeding and weeping, the poor woman
appeared before Justice Tongs for redress. The Justice wrote out an affidavit, which was
signed, sworn to, and subscribed in due form; according to the thin existing laws of tho
territory.
A warrant was soon placed in the hands of a constable; commanding him to arrest, and
forthwith bring the offender before Justice Tongs, to answer to the charge preferred
against him. After an absence of some five or six hours, the constable returned with the
prisoner in custody. The constable, however, had a vexatious time of it, truly for the
prisoner, who was a man of giant bulk, and great muscular power, had frequently on the way
after he had consented peaceably to accompany him to the magistrates office, stopped short
and declared he would go no further—observing at the same time that neither he (the
constable) nor Squire Tongs had any business to meddle with his domestic concerns.
It was during one of those vexatious parleys—the constable coaxing and persuading, and the
prisoner protesting and swinging back like an unruly ox—that the constable fortunately
espied a hunter at a short distance, who was armed and accoutered in real b!
ackwoods style. The constable beckoned to the hunter, who came up to his assistance, and
who, after hearing the particulars of the affair, cocked his rifle, and soon galloped off
the prisoner to the ‘Squire’s office. But this was but the beginning of the trouble in
the case. The witnesses were yet to be summoned and brought before the Justice—even the
complaining witness had unexpectedly with drawn from the house and premises of the
Justice, and was to be looked after.
The hunter could not possibly stay long, as his comrades were to meet him at a point down
ten or fifteen miles distant that evening. The prisoner was quite sullen, and it was
evident that the ‘Squire could not keep him safely if the constable and hunter were to
leave. And although the ‘Squire’s jurisdiction extended from the west line of Ohio far
towards the Rocky mountains, and from the Ohio river north to Green hay, yet, so sparse
was the neighborhood In point of population, and so scattering were the settlers, that he
and his faithful constable found that it would be of but little use to make a call upon
the posse comitatus. But in this critical situation of affairs, the fruitful mind of the
Justice hit upon a first-rate plan to keep the prisoner until the witnesses could be
brought. It was simply to pry up the corner of heavy eight railed fence, which stood hard
by—make a crack two or three rails above the ground—and thrust the pri!
soner’s head through the crack, and then take out the pry.
As soon as the ‘Squire made known his plan to the company, they with one accord, resolved
to adopt it. The constable immediately rolled out an empty bee-gum for a fulcrum, and
applied a fence rail for a lever, up went the fence, the Justice took hold of the
prisoner’s arm, and, with the assisting nudges of the hunter, who brought up the rear,
rifle in hand, they thrust the prisoner head through the crack nolens volen , and then
took out the prop. There lay the offender safe enough, his head on one side of the fence,
and his body on the other. The hunter went on his way, satisfied that he had done signal
service to his country—and the constable could now be spared to hunt up the witnesses.
Typed just as it is written in the book, and the incorrect punctuation, and misspellings.
Typed by Lora Radiches
Old Settlers
1860
Sanford Cox