On being questioned, he appeared too weak to give much of an account of himself, but drank of the milk. Word was immediately sent to General William Irvine, commandant of the garrison of Fort Pitt, who sent a guard and had him taken to the fort.
When questioned, he said that he had been trapping along Beaver River, and had a difference with a Mingo Indian who shot him in the leg, because he had said he wished to come to the white people. This story was not believed, especially by some who thought they recognized him as an Indian known as Davy. He was told to tell the truth, he would fare better, and he gave an account of the attack on the Walthour settlement, April 24, in which the following facts were related:
Five or six men were working in Christopher Walthour’s field, about eight miles west of the present Greensburg. Among the workers was a son-in-law, named Willard, whose daughter, sixteen years old, was carrying water to the men.
The workers were surprised by the appearance of a band of Delaware who captured the girl. The men reached their guns, which were a short distance away, and made a running fight as they retired toward the fort. Old man Walthour and Willard were killed, the latter falling not far from the stockade. An Indian rushed out of the bushes to scalp Willard, and was just in the act of twisting his fingers in the white man’s long hair, when a well-directed rifle shot, fired from the fort, struck the savage in the leg, who gave a horrid yell and made off toward the woods, leaving his gun beside his victim.
As soon as a band of frontiersmen could be collected they pursued the Indians, following their trail as far as the Allegheny River.
Almost two months after the attack the badly decomposed body of the Willard girl was found in the woods not far from Negley’s Run. Her head had been crushed in with a tomahawk and her scalp was gone.
The lame Indian after relating many horrid details told that he lay three days without moving from the first place he threw himself in the bushes fearing pursuit; then he crawled on hands and one foot until he found the pole in a marsh, which he used to assist him, and in the meantime lived on berries and roots. He lay all day on a hill overlooking a garrison of militiamen, thinking of giving himself up, but as they were not regulars he did not venture. Driven to desperation by hunger, he decided to make his way to Fort Pitt, and give himself up to regular soldiers.
Davy was confined in the guard house in the fort, but the news of his capture and his identity reached the settlement of Brush Creek and caused considerable excitement there.
Kindred and friends of the victims were hot for revenge and the chance presented itself. Mrs. Mary Willard, the widow of the man Davy killed and mother of the girl killed and scalped by his companions, accompanied by a deputation of her neighbors, arrived at Fort Pitt and asked General Irvine to deliver up the prisoner.
At first the request was refused, but when the body of the Willard girl was afterward found, a mass-meeting was held and a committee chosen to go to Fort Pitt and renew negotiations with General Irvine for the surrender of Davy.