A Veteran of Four Wars. The Autobiography of F. C. M. Boggess. A Record of Pioneer Life and Adventure, And Heretofore Unwritten History of the Florida Seminole Indian Wars, (Chapter 4, pages 19 to 23)

by F. C. M. Boggess; printed at the Champion Job Rooms, Arcadia, Florida, 1900 (available at the Special Collections Dept., University of South Florida, Tampa, Florida [catalog number E83.855.B67 1900a]).

When the author landed in Fort Brooke the country had but few settlers and it was impossible to get employment. He had no money but found a gentleman and lady from Alabama and lived with them as one of the family. Mr. Gideon Tyner>, who lived at Fort Dade came down to Tampa to catch a supply of mullet. He had no school in his vicinity and he prevailed on Mr. Boggess to go and teach school for them.

School teaching was repugnant to him but as there was nothing else to do he accepted and went home with him.

The school house had only one door in the end, had no benches to sit on or to write. With the aid of the young man, as there were several older than the teacher, benches were made and he taught a successful school for three months making thirty-five dollars a month.

After school was out he returned to his old Alabama friends, Mr. and Mrs. Oats and James Stanfield, on whose boat he had come from Key West to Tampa, had accepted to get out two sets of maple tenpins for John Grillon, of Key West. Mr. Boggess went with him in the woods, got out the timber and turned them and with Captain Dick Turner went over carrying some chickens, potatoes and the tenpins whch were sold for forty dollars.

The life of a sailor suited Mr. Boggess and they went back again and by exposure he contracted a severe case of imflammatory rheumatism, which lasted until winter, when all of his money was gone. Mr. Tyner came for him again and he went up to Fort Dade and taught there three months more. There seeming to be nothing better than teaching, he took a school on the Alafia River and taught almost continuously for three years in the same neighborhood, and taught the first free school, for forty days, that was ever taught in South Florida.

He found two young men that had been schoolmates of his near Huntsville, Alabama and went to their place and remained some time and got acquainted with Mr. John Carney, who was a whole souled Irishman. He has served in the U. S. Army for five years; he had an estimable wife and children, two of them now live in Arcadia, Florida, and own and run the Arcadia Hotel. Ed. Carney has also bought a fine orange grove. Neither Miss Julia nor Ed. have been married.

Mr. Boggess was married in 1852. His wife died and he has one son living, Capt. Thos. C. Boggess. He is married and has four children. He is engaged in the oyster business and makes his living on his boat, carrying fruits, as he is well acquainted with all the waters of this section.

Mr. Boggess visited his mother in Mobile, after a long absence. As he had failed in his expectations he was ashamed to let her know where he lived.

When he returned to Florida the Indians had lately been on the war path. A man by the name of Payne opened up a store to trade with the Indians. He had employed Dempsey Whitton and had employed Wm. McCullough and wife to keep house and cook for him.

The Indians came in and began to drink and Payne refused to let them have any more whisky. While at supper they shot a volley killing Payne and Whitton, McCullough sprang for his shot gun and he and his wife left. Mrs. McCullough was wounded by the Indians while running and McCullough had to fight the Indians back and then run up to his wife. The Indians were too cowardly to rush on him and when he could see one he pointed his gun and the Indian would jump behind a tree. They followed him for some miles and went back to rob and burn the store.

McCullough and wife had to travel fifty miles with nothing to eat except birds without salt. He had to carry the baby and gun and lead his wife. The whole country fled to forts and a party went and took up Payne and Whidden's bones and buried them. A tombstone now marks the site of the store and remains of Payne and Whidden. Mrs. McCullough soon recovered.

Capt. John Parker, who had been through the seven year's war with the Seminoles from 1835 to 1842 at once began to recruit a company to fight the Indians at his own expense. He mounted and equipped a company and began to scout for the Indians. There is no question but his prompt action in enlisting and equipping a company and hunting the Indians prevented a general outbreak and a long and bloddy war.

Captain Parker was a great Indian fighter and he was always among the first to respond if any fighting was to be done and he has led several detachments of volunteers to the relief of the whites that were penned up in houses or forts. The government opened up a new road from Fort Brooke, (now Tampa,) to Fort King, a distance of one hundred miles through the Indian settlements. Major Dade, in command of one hundred men with a wagon train of supplies marched from Tampa. He had an Indian negro as guide and interpreter. Major Dade took no precaution against an attach or ambuscade, the negro guide telling him that there were no signs of Indians. The command crossed the Withlacoochee river and encamped beyond the Little Withlacoochee river in a pine barren, as they had come safely through all swamps they were completely taken by surprise.

At daybreak the Indians attacked them from all sides. At the first shot the negro guide fell down and then the Indians rushed on them as they came out of their tents and they had no time to get their guns. Major Dade was killed at the beginning and the whole command was killed except one man who made his escape by outrunning the Indians. That old negro no doubt betrayed them, and he saw and planned with the Indians the time and place for the massacre.

The soldier that escaped went back to Tampa and troops were at once sent to bury the dead. This massacre emboldened the Indians and they were always lying around forts, ready to scalp any one who would venture outside of the stockades.

General Clinch, with one thousand regulars was attacked at the Withlacoochee River and he had to make breastworks of his wagons until they could build a stockade. The whole tribe of Indians were surrounding his men. Their rations became exhausted and they had to eat their horses. Without reinforcements they could not dare to leave the stockade as the Indians outnumbered the army ten to one. The Indians fired on them day and night.

A man offered to run the risk and to go to Black Creek where the volunteers were stationed, and one rainy night crawled out and through the line of Indians and succeeded reaching Black Creek. Lieut. John Parker at once called for volunteers to go to General Clinch's relief. He soon had one hundred men and they mounted their horses and rode without stopping until they reached the stockade. They at once made a charge and with the yell of the cowboy. The Indians fired a few scattering shots and fled.

The men were nearly starved and completely exhausted for want of sleep and rest. There was great rejoicing among General Clinch's men. The Indians had killed and wounded several, shooting them over the stockade by climbing up trees.

The whole country was in forts and if any one ventured out they were shot. Volunteers were mustered in the service as the Indians did not fear the regulars.

Moses Barber, his sons and sons-in-law left the fort and built one as there was enough of them to have one on guard all the time. Moses Barber saddled his horse, took his gun and pack of dogs to pen up a steer for beef. He had very savage dogs and Indians are afraid of dogs. When searching his stockade the dogs run in the bushes and the Indians rushed out and began firing at him. The Indians had him cut off from the stockade as they were at the mouth of a lane and Barber screamed to his dogs and began firing on the Indians at the same time, he put spurs to his horse and ran through them. By the dogs trying to bite the Indians Barber got through but he had several bullets through his clothes and was alightly wounded in several places. They kept the Indians off by shooting when they saw one. The Indians would light a torch and run up and throw it against the stockade but it being built out of green pine it did not burn.

The men in the fort heard the firing and the next morning Lieutenant Parker took fifty men and when he arrived at Barbers they were out of powder and would have to surrender and all of them would have been killed and scalped.

Of the approach of Lieutenant Parker and his men the Indians retreated to the river swamp. Although they had a large force. The whites took Barber and his family and retreated to the fort. The Indians falling behind them. There were no regular engagements as the Indians always sought to ambush. Occasionally some man would get tired of living in a fort and hostilities would cease for a while although scouting parties were out all of the time. And the Indians would appear in first one locality and then move to another.

Flemming Johns had a place near where the town of Baldwin now stands and he decided as his place was so near the fort and no Indians had been seen lately that he would move home he and wife. About ten days after he got up one morning and went out to cut some wood for his wife to cook breakfast. He had cut the wood and picked it up and started to the house when the Indians yelled and fired on him wounding him. He got in the house shut the door and reached for his rifle which was in a rack above the door he fall with the gun and broke the hammer off. He plead with the Indians as he knew some of them wel to spare his life they only laughed at him and broke the door down ans shot him down by the side of his wife. One old Indian took hold of her and he pointed to the door telling her to go. As she turned to go she looked back and saw him level his gun to shoot. She threw up her arm and he fired, hitting her arm and on through her neck. The shot knocked her down and she fell face down on her arm. The Indian at once pulled out his knife and began scalping her. She came to her senses and lay perfectly still until they finished scalping her and cutting the bed tick open, emptying the feathers out and putting what things in the tick they wanted. They set the house on fire and hurried away.

As soon as she knew they were gome she got up and pulled her husband to the door, fainted and fell out of doors but caught the bucket of water that was on a shelf by the side of the door and it emptied the water on her and it brought her back to her senses. She got up and had to leave as the house was burning. She had to leave her husband. She started for Baldwin but becoming so faint from loss of blood she went in a pond and sat down, putting a towel on top of her head to prevent the sun from shining on the place they scalped.

The people at the fort heard the firing and Lieut. John Parker gathered together a few volunteers and mounting their horses rode in the direction of the house. They soon discovered smoke and rode at the top of their speed. Mr. Johns, the father of the man killed was one of the party. As they rode by the pond some of the party saw Mrs. Johns and thought she was an Indian, as the blood covered her face, and they were about to shoot her. She also saw them but she said she was so overcome that she could not speak, Mr. Johns exclaimed, "It is Jane, don't shoot!" just in time to prevent the men from shooting her. She told them of the death of her husband. Some of the men assisted her on a horse and rode to the fort, while the balance went on to the burning house. The roof fell in just as they got there, making it impossible to get his body out and it was burned with the house.

Mrs. Johns, after the death of her husband, married a man by the name of James C. Mathews, of Savannah, Georgia. A crazy man stabbed him and after a few months he died from the effects. Mrs. Jane Mathews was sent for to go to Washington City, and she was a great show to the people. A woman who was shot and then scalped and to live through it all was something remarkable. She was given a pension but by some means it was cut off. She said that their house was burned in Savannah, and her pension certificate was also burned and that she never made an effort to have it restored.

She lived with the author of this book for many years, being a sister of his first wife. When they lived on Josh's creek, DeSoto County, the Indians often came to their place. At one time there came about twenty of the Indians; they were old warriors. They would point at her and make signs as if scalping a person and jabber to one another. She said she recognized two of the Indians, and the one that made her go and shot her. His name was Tallahassee, one of the chiefs, and one who never became friendly with the whites. Ossian, another chief, was another she recognized. He was never friendly to the white people.

Mrs. Jane Mathews died and is buried in the Fort Ogden cemetery. She was a Christian lady, could not endure the looks of an Indian. The Indians no doubt recognized her and none of those old warriors ever came back again while she lived. Whether through superstition of killing of Fleming Johns, scalping his wife and burning the house.