Escape of John Slover

[Matthew S. Schweitzer]

I couldn't find much on John Slover online, but I did come across this page, taken also from Newton's History, which briefly chronicles the story of John Slover, the former Indian captive who escaped, joined Colonel Crawford's expedition against the Sandusky towns in 1782, was recaptured, and facing a rather brutal death at the stake, managed to escape yet again. Slover's tale was legend on the Ohio frontier in his time and his account was later published by Hugh Brackenridge in 1783 under the title Indian Atrocities: Narratives of the Perils and Sufferings of Dr. Knight and John Slover, among the Indians.

www.rootsweb.com/~indian/slobal.htm

[ronnie gunn]

John Slover
not too much is known about john. he wa captured when a lad, and spent several years with the shawnee. did he escape, and was he released, im not sure right now. but he surely learned the shawnee language, and all his skills as a scout and frontiersman.
i have a personal story about him that i can relate. back in 1996 or 7, i heard about two indians buried in a small cem. in mercer county, pa. so i tracked them down. traveling north on rt. 19 north of the town of mercer, you pass delaware grove and turn right on st. john's road. a short ways down on the left is the old ball farm, now owned by don shipton. i talked to him, and he told me to go ahead up to the cem. it contains about 20 graves from the ball family. it has a stone wall built around it, and built into this wall are the tombstones of the two indians. one is gos-ma-rota, the other is o-much-sadego. no date is on the stones. but in between them is none other than the grave of john slover. he was born in 1752 and died in 1797. just 45 years old. how did he die? how did he end up here? who are the indians? what tribe? this discovery presents many questions that may never be answered. but surely, some of the old families in the area have some answeres. most likely jon slover died first, and the indians wanted to be buried beside him. perhaps they were shawnees who adopted him as a young lad. in the near future i will be submitting this cem to the pa. historical com. to have a historical marker placed nearby.