Wednesday, May. 26, 2010

Twist In Time: Tragedy In The Desert

News of the discovery of gold in California sent thousands scurrying across the plains, including Royce Oatman, even though his wife didn't want to go because she was pregnant. Nevertheless, Royce insisted, and they hit the trail in the spring of 1850. As things turned out, however, they should have stayed at home.

The Oatmans traveled the southern trail to California through Apache country along the Gila River. Near Yuma they reached a hill up which it was impossible to take their loaded wagons, so the men proceeded to unload their supplies and carry them over by hand.

Suddenly the pangs of childbirth hit Mrs. Oatman, and while she was being tended to, no one noticed the approach of seventeen Apache braves.

They seated themselves in a circle around the frightened little family, which included fourteen year old Lorenzo, 12 year old Olive, and seven year old Mary Ann. Finally, seeing that Mrs. Oatman was about to deliver, the chief got up and struck her in the head with a war club. Lorenzo sprang to his mother's defense, for which he received a quick slash of a knife across his scalp, whereupon the lad's mind went mercifully blank.

When consciousness returned the next morning, every one had vanished, so the lad went in search of his family. It didn't take him long. He found the mutilated bodies of Royce Oatman, Mrs. Oatman, and the newborn infant, but his sisters were nowhere to be found.

Lorenzo somehow made it to California and lived to tell this gruesome gold rush tale and the loss of his entire family. Then when he was 20 years old, he got the surprise of his life. While visiting the San Gabriel Mission in 1856, Lorenzo stumbled upon his sisters, Olive and Mary Ann!

After the Apaches had killed their parents and the newborn infant, they carried the sisters off and sold them to the Mojaves. There the Oatman girls remained until some pioneers traveling to California were able to ransom them in 1856 and take them to the mission. In a poignant twist in time, the sisters survived the Apache massacre and the Mojave captivity to join their brother in telling the sad tale of their mother who, while awaiting the blow from a war club, gave birth to a child in the desert sand simply because their father wanted to strike it rich.