{"id":1084,"date":"2010-08-30T22:05:30","date_gmt":"2010-08-31T04:05:30","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/asylumeclectica.com\/grim\/?p=1084"},"modified":"2010-08-30T22:05:30","modified_gmt":"2010-08-31T04:05:30","slug":"morbid-fact-du-jour-for-august-30-2010","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/?p=1084","title":{"rendered":"Morbid Fact Du Jour For August 30, 2010"},"content":{"rendered":"

It’s always a rare occasion when I can feature a morbid fact that has personal significance to me and today’s fact is just such one occasion. I grew up in Butte County, California, and, as you might expect, frequented the cemeteries of the area. One of my favorites is Clear Creek Cemetery – a tiny pioneer-era graveyard along Clark Road just south of my hometown of Paradise. One of the gravestones in the cemetery has always intrigued me – a modern stone that commemorates the Lewis children, Jimmy and Johnny, with the inscription, “Killed by Mill Creek Indians”. I always wondered the full story of the 1863 murders and my friend, author David Kulczyk, satiated my curiosity by detailing the tale in his excellent 2009 tome, Death In California<\/a>. <\/p>\n

Today’s Notorious Yet Truly Morbid Fact!<\/strong><\/p>\n

The notorious Mill Creek Indians, led by a cruel, six-toed native called Bigfoot, began vicious attacks in the early summer of 1863; the most despicable was the abduction and subsequent murder of the Lewis children on July 5 or 6 of that year. <\/p>\n

Sam Lewis owned a ranch near Dry Creek off Cherokee Road. His children – eleven-year-old Jimmy, nine-year-old Arenia, and six-year-old Johnny – left their school together, along with their teacher and a couple of other students. They parted ways at Littlefield Creek. Little Johnny wasn’t old enough to go to school, but Mrs. Lewis had allowed the little boy to go with his siblings that day.<\/p>\n

Stopping for a drink of water, Jimmy was shot and fell face first into the water. Natives sprung out of the bushes and threw heavy rocks onto his lifeless body, while his sister and little brother trembled in fear.<\/p>\n

A group of ten natives grabbed the surviving two children and headed for the hills, with Chief Bigfoot leading them. They forced the barefooted children to run through the rocky terrain, until they came to Nance Canyon, where they camped for the night. Arenia cuddled her little brother throughout the chilly night.<\/p>\n

They left the camp early in the morning, and when Johnny started crying, four of the Mill Creek Indians took the little boy away and killed him. They rejoined the band, wearing his clothes.<\/p>\n

After crossing several creeks, the band came across some of Captain Bidwell’s cattle. They killed one and ate strips of meat raw. After making moccasins from the cowhide, the natives were ready to start hiking again, taking much of the beef along with them, but only after two of the natives expressed their desire to tear Arenia’s two gold earrings out of her ear. The girl took the earrings out, causing the two natives to fight over who would get them. Arenia settled the matter by handing each of them an earring.<\/p>\n

The native in charge of Arenia was crippled, and he was additionally encumbered by the stolen meat. He told the girl that he had been shot by a white man. The two lagged farther and farther behind the rest of the group and when they got to Big Chico Creek, Arenia asked if she could sit down. The lame native told her yes, but he told her he would shoot her if she moved off the boulder that she was sitting on. As soon as the natives were out of sight, Arenia rolled off the rock and scurried through the brush and down a creek. As she hid in the water, she could hear the natives looking for her. They eventually gave up and Arenia ran to the nearby Thomasson Ranch and safety.<\/p>\n

After her ordeal, Arenia Lewis changed her name to Thankful. She lived to a ripe old age, marrying three times.<\/p>\n

Culled from: Death In California<\/a> by David Kulczyk<\/p>\n

While I was back home visiting my family last February, I took an excursion to the cemetery with my Holga and took a shot of the Lewis grave. Unfortunately, the focus was off so the gravestone is not legible, but you can get a sense of the beautiful, lonely atmosphere of the cemetery, in any event. Next time I go back home, I’ll be sure to get a better shot of the grave.<\/p>\n

\"Lewis<\/a><\/p>\n

Oh, and I’ll have a full review of Death In California<\/a> tomorrow. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

It’s always a rare occasion when I can feature a morbid fact that has personal significance to me and today’s fact is just such one occasion. I grew up in Butte County, California, and, as you might expect, frequented the cemeteries of the area. One of my favorites is Clear Creek Cemetery – a tiny […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1084","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-facts"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1084","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1084"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1084\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1084"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=1084"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.decidedlygrim.net\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=1084"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}