Lafayette Daily Courier
Wednesday, November 16, 1859
OLD SETTLERS
"Another letter from the School Master to his cousin has been found
which reads thus:
FORKS OF COAL CREEK, 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 to go 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 man 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 its throat, the
prostrate buck 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 be devoured by the wolves--"unwept, unhonored and unsung."
We have in our neighborhood another indubitable proof of the truth of
the adage, "Necessity is the mother of Invention," which may be regarded
as a parallel case 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 on coming home at night makes indiscriminate war upon his
wife and daughters, and everything that comes in his way.
The old woman and daughters bore with his tyranny and maudlin abuse as
long as forbearance seemed to be a virtue. For awhile they adopted the
doctrine of nonresistance, 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, in 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, but to 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 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 other 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 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 bye, 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.
Your affectionate cousin" INCOG