HE WAS A MISCHEVIOUS BOY

That’s what the folks from Bureau County here in Illinois said about a young man they called Wasson, apparently that is the only name the newspaper article could come up.  Now this was written up in The Peoria Democratic Press here in Peoria on February 27, 1850, so a bit of time has passed to actually check on the record.   All Wasson ever wanted to do as soon as he was old enough to understand such things, was to travel West.  He’d heard of the wonderful State of California and his dream was to become old enough to take off on his own.  Well, in 1850 he finally reached that age and how he got the money to depart was never revealed, although he was with his father.  Oh, by the way, he had another dream and that one was a bit more sinister than just traveling to California.

Master Wasson, according to his friends, had often talked about what his secret dream was.  They revealed that to reporters once this tragic story broke.  Wasson told his friends that all he really ever wanted to do was ‘Kill an Indian.’  That was it…his dream was to kill an Indian.  So when the wagon train left Peoria the next stop out on the trail was near Wasson and his father, where they waited anxiously to board their assigned wagon. They hopped aboard a covered wagon and said their good-byes to the State of Illinois.  Master Wasson was off to seek his fortune in California and he kept his secret dream to himself.

As the train moved west Wasson got to be friendly with a few of the younger men on the train and it was to them that he finally admitted that he hoped he would spot an Indian on the way west so he could kill him.  If the boys were shocked enough to notify the wagon master or anyone in authority it was never learned, because one morning Wasson got his chance to fulfill his dream.

I am a fan of WAGON TRAIN and watch it to this day, so I can imagine this as the wagons rolled along, Wasson and a couple of his friends either walking or riding, maybe even doing some choirs. So after about three weeks Wasson spotted his Indian.  Now there is no report of the actual sequence of events, but they are positive that the Indian was shot and killed by young Wasson.  The problem that was brought home with horror as the story unfolded was that the Indian victim was an ‘Old Indian Squaw sitting on a large rock waving at the passing wagon train’.  Wasson simply picked up his rifle aimed and fired.  The poor old woman was instantly killed.

Now this was witnessed by not only Wasson’s new friends but by some ‘old timers’ as well.  Wouldn’t you think that they would have immediately reacted, stopped the train to render aid, something one way or the other?  Instead, reports state that they muttered, shook their heads and allowed the train to continue its movement west. We must remember, however, that this was 1850 in unsettled America.  Can you imagine what Ward Bond would have done?  At any rate perhaps less than a dozen miles away the wagon train was abruptly stopped, completely surrounded by a tribe of very angry Indians.

Quickly the white folks realized that they did not have a chance against this force and immediately sent a few men out to pow wow with the Indian chief and his ranking braves.  The leaders came back and told the terrified wagon members that they were in dire straits, and that there was only one way to get out of the predicament alive.  The chief told the wagon master that if he turned over the killer of the Indian woman they would be able to continue their trip in peace.   The reports state that the wagon members ‘debated among themselves.’ I had to laugh at this because frankly I wonder how many of us would have voted to retain killer Wasson?  That’s what I thought.  So the young man was handed over to the Indian tribe.  A rope was put about his waist and then quickly he was gone, trailing a walking Indian pony.  The folks watched, worried that they may have been tricked, and that they would still be slaughtered.

The newspaper report said that the father protested, but as he stood watching the Indians take his son away, the other members of the wagon train began boarding their respective wagons, which were soon underway.  The father stood and before his horrified eyes the Indians began to ‘Skin the young man alive.’  Can we even begin to imagine the horror?

The father was said to have stood for a long time, not catching up to the train until it had circled its wagons for safety quite a distance down the trail.  Early the next morning as the sun rose, the caravan was on the move once again, leaving young Wasson and the horror far behind them.  Justice…served up Indian style, way back in 1850.