TOLD BY A DAUGHTER-IN-LAW
OF HYRUM NELSON
     A group of Apaches had camped in the Sierra Madre mountains near the home of Hyrum Nelson in Mexico. They stole horses and cattle and would go into the fields at night, helping themselves to corn and potatoes. Later on, however, two Apaches and a squaw, who were on a cliff above Pratt's ranch where the Thompson family was living, shot and killed one of the Thompson boys as he came home to do the morning chores. They also shot the mother and thought they had killed another boy, Elmer. The Apaches came to the house and discovered the mother was not dead, so they dragged her by the hair to the side of the house, set her against it, and beat her to death with rocks.
     The five-year-old girl, Annie, was not hurt because the Apaches intended to take her with them when they left the ranch after plundering the house. They ripped open all the pillows and feather beds. There was such a terrible whirlwind of feathers through the house that Annie took a chance on not being seen if she tried to escape. She went to the chicken coop to hide, and Elmer was in the coop. Most surely a divine power was protecting Elmer and Annie from the clutches of the savage Apaches, for when they discovered that both Annie and Elmer had gone, they started hunting for them. One Apache looked in the coop but did not see them. The Apaches were somewhat superstitious about the disappearance of Annie and Elmer and left the ranch in a hurry. After Elmer and Annie were sure the Apaches had left, they started for Cave Valley, but Elmer was bleeding so badly he could not go far. Annie ran on as fast as she could until she met my father-in-law, Hyrum Nelson, who came to Elmer's rescue.
     Hyrum and his family left the area shortly after this experience but returned after the situation with the Apaches settled down (from Stalwarts South of the Border, p. 514).

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