Mississinewa Trail 

Frances Slocum / Her Life in Indiana 

One of the most thrilling and colorful stories ever told of pioneer days in the Midwest if the story of Frances Slocum and her life among the Miami Indians here in Indiana. Often called the Lost Sister of the Wyoming, Frances was taken from home in the Wyoming Valley, in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania, when she was only five years old. This gripping tale began in November of 1778, when angry Delaware Indians seeking revenge, swooped down upon the farmhouse of Jonathon Slocum. After ransacking the house, they carried away his daughter, tiny auburn-haired Frances. The Slocums were Quakers and refused to join military attacks against the Delaware and therefore were never bothered. But, one of Frances’ brothers joined other white settlers in tracking the Indians after a raid. Thinking they had been betrayed, the Indians decided to avenge themselves by attacking the household and capturing Frances and a neighbor boy, Wareham Kingsley. 

The Slocums and soldiers from a nearby fort searched for several days, but were unable to locate the two children. Later the Indians returned and killed Frances’ Father and Grandfather. Although this brought great sorrow to Mrs. Slocum, she could not reconcile herself to the loss of her daughter, for she was certain that Frances would be tortured or mistreated by the angrv Indians. The Kingsley boy was released by the Indians and returned home within a few years. He told the Slocums that he and Frances had been treated kindly by the Indians, but that they had been separated shortly after the capture. He did not know what had become of the little girl.

Through the years, thousands of dollars and much time were spent by the Slocum brothers as they searched for their lost sister. Fifty-eight years later, a trader from Logansport, Indiana named George Washington Ewing, was traveling along the Mississinewa River. One day, while trading, he found himself nearly seven miles from Peru, the nearest town of any size, when night fell. Coming upon a Miami village, he asked if he might spend the night with a family there. 

Since he spoke the tongue of the Miami nation, he was able to converse with the members of the household. In talking with the oldest woman in the house, who apparently was head of the family group, he pieced together a strange and wonderful story. The woman was short and stocky build, with features, habits and characteristics of an Indian, and yet her skin that had not been tanned by

the sun, she was white. Mr. Ewing discovered through his talk with Ma-con-a-quah (Litter Bear Woman) that she had been taken from her home, along the Susquehanna River in Pennsylvania, as a child, and her years since that time had been spent with the Indians. The Indian trader deduced, too, that her parents must have been Quakers for she recalled that her Father had worn a large brimmed black hat, and that his name was Slocum.

She said that she could remember very little else about her own family, but she recalled the happy days of her youth with the Indians. She said that a Delaware couple had taken her in and reared her as their own child, treating her kindly and teaching her their way of life. When she was very young, she had married a Delaware Indian who proved to be worthless and she later married a Miami Chief who had been a wonderful husband and a good Father to her children. She told Mr. Ewing that she was happy there and asked that he keep her story in confidence. She did not want everyone to know this tale, but said that she thought someone should know of it before her death.

Mr. Ewing, returning to Logansport, could not put the story out of his mind. He decided to write and see if he could locate some of her relatives who might still be living. He wrote to a post office in Lancaster, Pennsylvania and asked if the Postmaster there had ever known a Quaker family by the name of Slocum living in that vicinity. He then proceeded to relate, by letter, the story he had learned from the old woman. The Postmaster at Lancaster at that time was an elderly woman who was so confused by the story that she laid the letter aside and forgot about it. Two vears later, John Forney became Postmaster and he found the letter. Mr. Forney had the letter published in the local newspaper. Friends of the Slocum family in Lancaster read the account and mailed the paper to the family of Joseph Slocum, who still lived in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania. 

They read the story with incredulity, wondering if this woman could possibly be their lost sister. Joseph immediately wrote to Mr. Ewing, to learn whether Ma-Con-A-Qah was still living, as it had been two years since the letter had been written. Ewing replied at once that the woman was still living and that he would be happy to arrange a reunion if the family desired to make the trip to Deaf Man's Village.

Since there were no railroads or automobiles at that ume, several weeks of preparation were necessary and at last Joseph, Isaac and Mary Slocum were ready to make the westward trip to visit the woman they hoped would be their lost sister. They make the trip by carriage and horseback, and after many weeks arrived at Peru, Indiana. By the time they had arrived there, Mary, the sister, then seventy years of age, was so exhausted that she asked to remain in Peru, and sent her brothers on to Deaf Man’s Village. 

When Joseph and Isaac Slocum entered Frances’ cabin, thev saw the clean and well-kept orderliness that they remembered in their Mother’s home at Wilkes-Barre. They felt at home at once, but the Indian woman who greeted them was very formal and not too cordial. Long years among the Indians had made Frances suspicious of the white men and at first she treated her brothers coldly. The brothers were overjoyed at seeing her and were confident that she was their lost sister. Joseph told the Indian woman, Ma-Con-A-Qah, through an interpreter, that there was one way he could be certain that this woman was his sister. 

He explained that when they were children they had been playing in their Father’s blacksmith shop. Swinging a hammer, he accidently had struck Frances’ little finger, and had cut off the end. Sure enough, the Indian woman had the end of one finger missing. But still she was not convinced of their relationship. They then asked if her name was Frances, and she smiled at them for the first time, saying, “Franca, Franca”. This was her first sign of friendliness, and from then on she was more congenial. When the two brothers took Frances back to Peru with them, they introduced her to her sister Mary, and it was indeed a happy reunion, after more than 60 vears of separation. Many other family reunions were staged before Frances Slocum’s death, and a nephew, George Slocum, brought his family to live in Indiana and settled very near Deaf Man’s Village. 

Frances Slocum died in March 1847, at the age of 74. She was given a Christian funeral and was buried, as she had requested beside her husband and two sons, on a knoll across from her old cabin on what is now called the Frances Slocum Trail. At the time of her death, nothing but a white flag was used to mark her grave. When Mississinewa Reservoir was built, her grave was moved and a monument erected on County Road 650 W. in Wabash County, across the river and upstream from her original burial site.