WINDER, Martha [12969]

   Cause of her death was Blood poisoning.¹

  General Notes:

It is at some point between 1818 and 1829 that the dramatic events retold by his great grandchild Hazel (Winder) McKenzie transpired:

"…Some time after coming to this country he [JBW] was married. The identity of his first wife cannot now be established. It is known that two children were born to this marriage, a boy and a girl. One day, when the children were yet quite small, they were stolen by a band of Indians. The boy, being crippled, was not able to keep up with the Indians on their way back to camp. The next morning when they broke camp, two of the Indians kept the boy back, and after the band had gone some distance the two Indians overtook them, but the boy was not with them. It is supposed that they killed him. They did not harm the girl, and she lived with the Indians for many years. When she had become a young woman she was rescued by a fur-trader. All of the Indians had left camp this day except a blind squaw and the girl. The fur-trader told her that if she wanted to go back to her people that he would take her. So he covered her up in the boat with the furs and started to row back across the lake. The Indians, returning to camp, discovered the girl was gone. They tracked her to the edge of the lake, and as they had not gone far from shore the Indians shouted to the fur trader, asking if he had seen the girl. He told them she was in camp when he was there. Returning to his home the fur trader sent word to her father to come for Martha, as that was her name. Her father brought her home and she lived there for some time. One story of Martha's experiences with the Indians has been retold many times. One summer the white people destroyed their corn and they were short of food. One substitute was roasted grasshoppers. They dug a hole in the center of a large clearing. Then they surrounded the clearing, and with branches of trees in their hands they drove the grasshoppers into the hole. When this was accomplished they threw the brush over the hole and set fire to it. When it had burned, they picked the grasshoppers out with their fingers and ate them. According to Martha's report, roasted grasshoppers are quite good, especially if you are hungry. While washing the clothes one day, Martha scratched her hand on a pin, and she died from the effects of blood poisoning. ¹