990 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 
‘“Squawkie Hill, was a frequent visitor at the house of 
the McNairs, 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 McNair, 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 liberty, 
