Pennell Institute - Whirlpool Yearbook (Gray, ME)

Page 14 text:

12 THE WHIRLPOOL tively small man with long haiv and beard. His life was devoted principally to hunting and trapping and he was a great woodsman. When the war broke out, he was very cager to pit his skill against that of the Indians. He tried to enlist and was laughed at and told he was too old. He went out angrily and wrote a letter to an old friend of his, Major Estabrooke, and told him of his desire to go to war and of the action of the recruiting officers. The major wrote to the recruiting officers and told them that in spite of his age Henry would show some of the younger soldiers a few things. THe also told them that Henry was a great woodsman and the right sort for such a method of warfare as the Indians would employ. The result was that IHlenry was made a soldier and sent to Fort Madawaska near the river bearing the same name. Henry soon proved himself to be a soldier of great ability and lis advice was often asked even by the officers. Ile was a oman of few words, one who did more thinking than talking. Respeet and adimir- ation increased for him every day. Finally, after he had been in service about a month, an incident happened that terminated Henry's popularity and made him disliked and scorned by all the soldiers. The reason was this: one day, after having defeated a party of Indians, the soldiers came upon an aban- doned camp formerly occupied by the Indians. In this camp they found an Indian child left there by the Indians in their haste to escape. The soldiers were at a loss to know what to do with it. Some wished to take it with them, while others argued that it would be better to leave it there, so that the Indians might return for it. Their dispute was abruptly ended by the arrival of Henry, who cooly drew his dagger and dispatched the child with no more feeling than one would have in killing a snake. This act hurt his reputation more than any other could have done. Some of the soldiers would have nothing to do with him and the rest kept away from him as much as possible. He realized only too Jate the folly and cruelty of his deed and the unpopularity it had gained for him, He repented, but what good did that do him? What he must do was to redeen himself in some way. How to bring this about he did not know. At last, however, an op- portunity presented itself. It was very dangerous and the chance of coming out alive slight. Tis chance was this: On a certain spot just on the outskirts of the fort a picket had been killed and scalped every hight for nearly a week. Ht was an important post and must be euarded. Henry would prohably never be called on to guard this

Page 13 text:

THT WITTRLPOOL 11 Thought he saw a brave concealed there, And he hurried there to kill him. Changed were his impassive features, When he saw Waneta’s pictures. Thus he found his daughter's paintings And his lovely, sweet young daughter; There she lay in all her beauty Close beside her lover's likeness. Round her hair were bands of wampum; All her dress of whitest doeskin Was inwrought with beads of wampuin ; On her feet were shoes of deerskin Wrought with beads and quills of porcupine Shaped and dyed in many colors. Thus she lay there in the moonlight, But her spirit had departed To the land of the Ilereafter. Tn his grief Madockawando Made the ground quite sacred to her; Tmages he called her pictures. All remained as she had left it. Now we sce Waneta's pictures Standing guard down through the ages O’er the shining deep blue water Of the lovely Lake Sebago. CrciLte Leavitt, ’21 Henry Straffords Soldiering Henry StratYord's life as a soldier was passed in the region about the Madawaska River in the northern part of Maine. A dispute over a tract of territory in that region between the French and the Ameri- ‘ans was ended for a period by the French ceding the property to the Americans. The French living thereabout, however, were not satis- fied with the action of their government, and with the assistance of some Indians, whom they bribed, they started trouble, which resulted in a series of skirmishes and minor battles known as the Madawaska war. In the end the American were victorious and took possession of the territory mndisturbed. Henry Stratford, a life-long resident of Gray, was at the time of his inspiration to go te war, sixty-eight years old. Ie was a compara-

Page 15 text:

Ww TH WHIRLPOOL 13 post, as he was too good a man to lose. Tf he should volunteer for duty on this post and contrive to bring down the Indian or Indians who had been killing the picket every night, he would regain the re- spect of his fellow soldiers. He must do it. That night he volunteered to guard this post and was accepted. He made his regular rounds, back and forth, until it began to grow dark; then he dropped back behind a clump of bushes with a tree to his back and watched. In a few moments he thought he saw some bushes move just slightly about fiftv yards in front of him. He watched the bushes where he had seen the movement, and about every minute he would see them move. Tle also noticed that nearly every time the bushes moved, he would hear a fox bark. As the time went by, he realized by the direction of the barking that the would-be fox was making a cirele and now must be about a hundred vards behind him, Tle waited a few moments and then fired into the clump of bushes, which had just moved, and behind which he had just perceived the dusky outline of a redskin, With a vell and Indian fell ont of the chip of bushes, and at the same time another leaped toward Tenry from behind, Henry, however, was ready for him, knowing by the circling of the barking fox what the trick was and met him with clubbed musket. One blow was enough to put the redskin into ever: lasting sleep. In the morning when a detachment of soldiers came to bury Henry's remains, they found him calmly seated on a stump with a dead redskin on either side of him. He told them of his night’s ex- periences, and inunediately they congratulated hint and shook hands with him. Two days later an orderly told him that the captain and his stat! wished to see him, Henry innnediately reported, not having the slight- est idea of what was going to happen. He was addressed by the cap- tain thus: “Private Stralford, von have, by safely guarding a post where six men have been killed in six consecutive nights, and by killing the In- dians who did the trick, proved yourself a soldier of great ability. Not only that, but your skill and wisdom have several times relieved strenuous circumstances. Lieutenant Harvey, as you know, has been killed; and after a conference we have decided that you are the man to succeed him. Will vou accept? Henry accepted and again was held in greatest regard by his fellow-soldiers, He proved himself as capable an officer as he had a scout. A short time later, one afternoon, when an encampment of Indians had been defeated and their wigwams set fire to, Henry and a few others heard a noise like that of a child crving. He realized