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Page 34 May 2018 The Catoctin Banner Newspaper www.TheCatoctinBanner.com Published by www.EPlusPromotes.com
1758
by James Rada, Jr.
Indians Captur e a Fair field Family
Editor’s Note: This is the first in a series of columns about Richard Bard’s escape from captivity and the rescue of his wife.
Hannah McBride, a young his own. While the Indian went to
girl who was at Bard’s Mill, near recover it, Bard crossed the creek.
Fairfield, Pennsylvania, on April 13, The Indian returned and saw Bard
1758, happened to glance out the had crossed. He was so angry that
door of the house. She screamed he pistol-whipped Bard and nearly
when she saw men running toward disabled him.
her. She turned to call out a warning “And now reflecting that he
to the others in the house, but it was could not possibly travel much
too late. further, and that if this was the case,
Nineteen Delaware Indians he would be immediately put to
rushed the house. Richard Bard, the death, he determined to attempt his
mill owner, grabbed a pistol from its escape that night,” Bard wrote after
peg on the wall and fired at one of the ordeal.
the Indians. The pistol misfired, but The Bard Plantation. Photo scanned from the 1908 book, The Bard Family. Another thing pushing his
the sight of it must have frightened decision was that half of his face had
the Indian, and he ran off. Another However, there were just too their captors. Potter was killed and been painted red two days earlier.
Indian attacked Bard’s cousin, many Indians. Bard, his wife, and scalped, most likely because he had “This denoted that a council had
Thomas Potter, with a knife. The son; Potter; Hannah; Frederick injured one of the Delawares. The been held and that an equal number
two men struggled over the knife Ferrick, an indentured servant; two Indians also burned the mill down. were for putting him to death and
and Potter managed to cut the field hands; and a young boy were About four miles from the mill, for keeping him alive, and that
Indian on the hand. all captured and forced to follow the Indians killed Bard’s son without another council was to have taken
warning. The party moved over place to determine the question,”
South Mountain to the head of Bard wrote.
Falling Spring. They moved north After the Indians laid down
of Fort Chambers and onto Rocky to rest, one of them dressed in
Spring, and camped for the night Catherine Bard’s gown to amuse his
near Fort McCord in present-day companions. While the Delawares
Franklin County, Pennsylvania. The relaxed, Richard Bard was sent to
prisoners had walked forty miles get water without his captors paying
that first day. too close attention to him. When
As they entered Path Valley Bard got about 100 yards away,
on the second day, the Delawares the Delawares realized that he was
discovered that a group of white getting away.
men was pursuing them. The They chased after him, but he
Delawares and their prisoners was gone.
moved to the top of Tuscarora The Indians spent two days
Mountain and threatened to kill looking for him, but Richard Bard
the prisoners if the white pursuers had made his getaway.
reached them.
Bard and Samuel Hunter, one
of the field hands, sat down to rest
at the top of the mountain “when
an Indian without any previous
warning sunk a tomahawk into the
forehead of Samuel Hunter, who
was seated by my father, and by
repeated blows put an end to his
existence. He was then scalped and
the Indians proceeding on their
journey encamped that evening
some miles on the north of Sideling
Hill,” Archibald Bard, one of Bard’s
children, wrote years later.
The group hiked on to Blair Gap
in Blair County, Pennsylvania, and
while crossing Stoney Creek, the
wind blew Bard’s hat from the head
of the Indian who had taken it for
