HIGHWAYS AND BYWAYS. 



the vicinity, as it afterward proved a source of profit to 

 the owner. When we get the better of his modesty and 

 succeed in persuading him to recite some of the thrill- 

 ing scenes which he saw enacted in that far-off gold 

 producing country, it is better than the stories of the 

 " Swiss Family Robinson." 



The homestead purchased from the Government by 

 his grandfather, containing about 2,000 acres of the 

 choice valley land, is still in the possession of the fam- 

 ily, and retains many landmarks commemorative of the 

 struggle of the early settlers and wild beasts and In- 

 dians. Mary Jemison, the 'white woman,' who for 

 several years had her home in the woods at the foot of 

 ' Squawlde Hill,' was a frequent visitor at the house of 

 the Mc^airs, and the older members of the family 

 were quite familiar with many of the incidents of her 

 strange and eventful life. The McNair farm was for 

 many years the favorite camping grounds of the In- 

 dians, and every spring the ploughshare turns up scores 

 of arrow heads, hatchets, stone pestles, and other im- 

 plements of chase and camp. Built into the wall of a 

 well, on the premises of Charles McKair, is a large, 

 round " hard head," marked and scarred by axe and 

 hammer. If this stone could speak, among other 

 things it might tell the following story : In one of 

 their skirmishes with the whites, the Indians captured 

 several prisoners, most of whom were put to death by 

 torture. Among the captured was a blacksmith named 

 Raddix, a man of great strength and of athletic pro- 

 portions. In the hope of eventually gaining his hberty, 



