Little Phil Saves Mother and Sisters
Shanahan’s story is that a short time after leaving the house, being totally unconscious of any danger, he was suddenly shot by an Indian, whom he then saw only about thirty feet away. Picking up a rock and starting for the Indian, Shanahan received another shot from behind that knocked him down, but he was immediately up again and ran back for the house, Bartlett meeting and assisting him in. Shanahan saw but two Indians, and said he could have killed both if he had had a gun. During the time Bartlett was keeping the Indians at bay, realizing the danger of Mrs. Shanahan and her two young daughters, at their home three miles away, he told Phil, Shanahan’s little son, to steal out of the house by a back way and go to his home and notify his mother of their danger and of the shooting of his father. Phil demurred at first, wanting to stay with his father, who was suffering intensely, but being told that unless he went his mother and little sisters would surely be killed, the little fellow courageously said he would try to get to them, and good fortune favoring him, he succeeded in doing so. Finding them in the garden, they all, including Phil, immediately started for the mountains, where they concealed themselves until the following day. In the meantime the Indians had come to the house and carried off or wrecked everything in it, and would undoubtedly have killed Mrs. Shanahan and the two little girls had not brave little Phil, at the risk of his life, warned them of the danger.