Lover’s Leap

Estimated reading time: 3 minutes

“Jack Chadwick lived in the wild country near Negro mountain with his mother and little brother Jesse. He was a great hunter and feared nothing. In one of his excursions he came across an Indian chief, who lived in the break in Will’s Mountain a mile or two up the creek with his white wife and daughter, the latter just blooming into womanhood.

“The chief had sided with the whites against the protest of his tribe, and they forsook him. He took up his residence in the hollow. Jack fell in love with the daughter and it was reciprocated. But the chief wanted her to marry an officer at the fort and told Jack he was too poor. Disheartened but still determined, Jack left for his home. Stopping at a spring to drink he turned over a stone and uncovered a glistening ledge of rock, which he found to be rich silver ore.

“Returning to the home of his love, he told the chief what he had found, and proposed to show him the mine if he would give him his daughter. The Chief agreed, the silver mine was shown him, and the young man went home to prepare for the wedding. Returning, he brought his brother with him. The Chief, however, had changed his mind at the instigation of the officer of the fort, and declined to give his daughter to young Chadwick.

“All day Jack protested, but the old chief was obdurate, and finally the lover seemed to acquiesce and asked for a few moments talk with the maid, which was granted.

“Sauntering among the trees and talking of the harshness of the parent, the lovers finally agreed to make for the fort and get married, and soon they slipped out of sight of the old home. The old Chief was watching, however and when he missed them he went in pursuit, overtaking them back of the cliff. He was very angry and attacked Jack with a club. The latter threw a stone at the Chief and unfortunately killed him.

“The daughter loved her Indian parent dearly, and amid her wailing declared she could die with Jack but could not live with him, now that he had killed her father. ‘Then let us leap off the cliff yonder together and end our trouble,’ said he. She consented, and arm-in-arm they walked to the cliff, where they clasped hands and leaped off together.”

source: http://archiver.rootsweb.ancestry.com/th/read/MDGARRET/2001-09/0999818266

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