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Looking Back – 1758

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Richard Bard Makes Good His Escape

by James Rada, Jr.

Editor’s Note: This is the second in a series of columns about Richard Bard’s escape from captivity and the rescue of his wife.

Richard Bard had made his getaway from the Delaware Indians, who had captured his family at their mill near present-day Fairfield on April 13, 1758. He was one of the lucky ones. Two others had been killed by the Indians for no apparent reason. Six other people were still being held prisoner, including his wife.

When the Indians discovered his escape, they searched for Bard, but he hid in a hollow log. Once the Indians had passed him by and were out of hearing range, Bard climbed out and ran off in the other direction.

“He traveled [across] the mountain pick[ing] berries and herbs to survive. His feet and legs were swollen, and his body was in a weak condition. The snow on the brush and leaves of the laurel made it impossible to walk, and he was [compelled] to creep on his hands and knees under the thick brush,” according to L. Dean Calimer in Franklin County Archives VII.

The Indians and their captives remained in the area for a day and night before making their way another twenty miles until they reached an Indian village. There, Catherine Bard, Richard’s wife, was severely beaten by the squaws in the village.

“Now almost exhausted with fatigue she requested leave to remain at this place but was told she might if she preferred being scalped to proceeding,” Archibald Bard, one of Richard and Catherine’s children, wrote in Incidents of Border Life. Instead, the Indians traveled to another village called, Cususkey. Catherine and the others were beaten in this town as well. One man was even killed. “The Indians formed themselves into a circle round the prisoner and commenced by beating him some with sticks and some with tomahawks. He was then tied to a post near a large fire and after being tortured sometimes with burning coals they scalped him and put the scalp on a pole to bleed before his face. A gun barrel was then heated red hot and passed over his body and with a red hot bayonet they pierced his body with many repetitions. In this manner they continued torturing him singing and shouting until he expired,” Archibald wrote.

Meanwhile, Richard was undergoing his own trials to stay alive. The fifth day after his escape, he got some protein in his diet when he killed and ate a rattlesnake.

Eight days after his escape, he found himself in a stream that he would have to wade. On the other side of the river, he found a path that led him to a settlement. He found himself facing three Indians. Instead of being the Delaware Indians who had captured him, they were friendly Cherokee Indians. They escorted Bard to Fort Lyttletown, where he recovered from his experience.

Meanwhile, Catherine’s ordeals went from being physically abused to being adopted as a sister by two Delaware Indians. Catherine was to replace their actual sister, who had died. Over the next few months, Catherine’s new family traveled so much that she became ill and nearly died.

When she did recover, she got a glimpse of what the future might hold for her when she met a woman she knew. “This woman had been in captivity some years and had an Indian husband by whom she had one child,” Archibald wrote. “My mother reproved her for this but received for answer that before she had consented they had tied her to a stake in order to burn her.”

The woman also told her that once captive women learned the Indian language, they either married one of the Delawares or were killed. Knowing this, Catherine played dumb and did not learn the language. She remained as the sister of the braves and was treated kindly.

Once recovered from his ordeal, Richard set out to free his family. He began seeking information about his wife and the Delawares, making many trips from Franklin County to western Pennsylvania, as he followed up on leads. As the weeks turned into years, he despaired at what had happened to his family, but he did not give up.

This determination was what would finally lead to his family being reunited.

The cover of The Ballad of Richard Bard, a long poem about Bard’s escape from the Indians who captured his family.

On The Wild Side

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Habitat Fragmentation and Land Ownership

In this present time civilization, humans are finding themselves in the midst of more than one environmental quagmire. How to get control of the plastic and junk in the ocean? How to keep air clean enough to breath in China? How to rid old pipes of poisonous lead and our water of pharmaceuticals waste, which go into toilets? Am I getting too personal?

Actually, everything we do and have done in the past are exactly what professional scientists/ecologists are dealing with now. If there ever was a field in which our children will find ready employment, it will be as research problem solvers, and maybe even politicians who care about cleaning up our messes. However, the question we all have is: how did we ever get to this point anyway, and what can we do about it as individual homeowners, as people who care?

To their credit, in 1621, the people native to America, the “Indians”—after prayerful consultations with their elders, dying and weakened due to disease and brought here by previous white explorers, weary of warfare—decided it was in their best interest to make peace with the Pilgrims. In spite of the Mayflower crew robbing them of their seed corn and burial treasures, they made a pact together that would endure long enough to get squash, beans, and that same stolen corn planted, harvested, and then shared.2

Peace for the natives was the best and most productive remedy, even though strangers were encroaching on their land. Interesting…and perhaps something we can learn from during this present time of anxiety about refugees. Unfortunately, back then, that fragile peace did not last very long. There will always be the good mixed with the bad, the greedy mixed with the philanthropists, and I assume this is how it will always be. Nothing seems to have changed since the beginning of time.

Of course, as years passed and more settlers arrived to colonize America, the natives were totally kicked off their land. The settlers had brought with them an entirely different ethic of land ownership from Europe, as well as military hardware, far more effective than the natives hand-crafted bows, arrows, and spears. Over the centuries, their precious land has been stolen, divided, and subdivided, fragmented and sold, and some of it has sadly been misused and polluted.

I am fortunate to live in a sub-division of a beautiful, old 200-plus acre homestead here in the Catoctin Mountain. Due to my love of and concern for diversity in the natural world, I am allowing my 11-plus acres to not only feed me, but to feed all my other “relations.” The native idea of “other relations” extends far beyond human relatives and includes the wonderful diversity of flora and fauna, which most of us care about: bees, butterflies, birds, wildflowers, trees. etc. These are things our children are learning to care about in school, and as wise elders, we should also.

As homeowners, and landowners, we can begin to bring these various fragments of land together by allowing native plants to grow, by creating native wildflower gardens on part of our lawns, and by planting native trees. That way, the habitat fragmentation, which has been going on since the pilgrims settled at Plymouth Rock, can be somewhat remedied. If you ever feel like giving up in despair, there is one very real thing you can do, and the opportunity is right in your own back yard, or front yard, too (why not).

The vision is to create a beautiful tapestry right here where we live, of yards and properties dedicated to the health and well-being of our earth. It already looks like a quilted pattern here in Thurmont, but the work is not yet finished. If anything, the work has just begun!

I belong to the Green Team here in Thurmont, and I am heading up a project along the rail road tracks, which will not only beautify our town with wildflowers, but create habitat for wildlife. I am presently seeking volunteers to clean it up a bit in February and then spread seeds. All this must be done before March, as seeds need the time to stratify (to get the benefit of freezing weather), so as to enhance their germination.

If you are interested in helping me with this project, please get in touch with me at songbirdschant@gmail.com. If not, then consider doing something on your own little fragment of land, no matter how small. As I always say, “Every little bit helps!”