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- One of Robert and Frances (Clarke) Johns daughters, Eliza (Johns) Hart, told her daughter, Ann (Hart) Buckalew of the perils her family faced on the trip to Alabama. (pp. 37-38 YOUNGBLOOD-ARMSTRONG & ALLIED FAMILIES). Mrs Buckalew wrote what her mother told her and the story was printed in the "LaFayette Sun" in 1902 and re-printed on October 15, 1930. She wrote:
"My parents moved from Edgefield, S.C. with the family of my grandfather, Col. Robert Johns in the fall of 1834. They moved in wagons, camping out at night, landing at Cusseta, Alabama on DEC. 25, 1834.
"When the trouble arose between the whites and the Indians almost every man carried his family over the river to West Point, seeming to think they would be safe. Mr. Daniel carried his family over and my parents moved into the hotel and took charge during his absence. In a short time a family in Russell County was massacred. The husband and father was not dead when found; he was carried to La Fayette and died at the hotel. My mother was the only white woman in town for a long while so great was the excitement and rumors reaching town almost daily that the Indians were crossing the river. My mother preferred to stay with my father and share his fate rather than suffer the uneasiness she knew would be hers away from him. The people had many frights even after their return. At one time the Indians were expected and the women and children were put in the Court House at night while the men stood guard. My mother has often told me that she sat on the floor two nights and held me in her arms with my older sister asleep by her side. After that, for some time, wagons were loaded with the inhabitants most valuable possessions, the women and children, one man with each wagon, going into the most dense forest they could find, having no fire or light and afraid to speak above a whisper. My mother went out one night and the grass was nearly as tall as a man. She said she was more afraid of snakes than of Indians."
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