The Indian Wars, 1784-1787 157 



arm and one thigh broken, as he stood by the open 

 door, and fell calling out to his wife to close it. 

 This she did ; but the Indians chopped a hole in the 

 stout planks with their tomahawks, and tried to 

 crawl through. The woman, however, stood to one 

 side and struck at the head of each as it appeared, 

 maiming or killing the first two or three. Enraged 

 at being thus baffled by a woman, two of the In 

 dians clambered on the roof of the cabin, and pre 

 pared to drop down the wide chimney ; for at night 

 the fire in such a cabin was allowed to smoulder, 

 the coals being kept alive in the ashes. But Mrs. 

 Merrill seized a feather-bed and, tearing it open, 

 threw it on the embers ; the flame and stifling smoke 

 leaped up the chimney, and in a moment both In 

 dians came down, blinded and half smothered, and 

 were killed by the big resolute woman before they 

 could recover themselves. No further attempt was 

 made to molest the cabin or its inmates. 



One of the incidents which became most widely 

 noised along the borders was the escape of the two 

 Johnson boys, in the fall of 1788. Their father was 

 one of the restless pioneers along the upper Ohio, 

 who were always striving to take up claims across 

 the river, heedless of the Indian treaties. The two 

 boys, John and Henry, were at the time thirteen 

 and eleven years old respectively. One Sunday, 

 about noon, they went to find a hat which they had 

 lost the day before at the spot where they had been 

 working, three quarters of a mile from the house. 

 Having found the hat they sat down by the road- 



