Picture this. It’s wartime. A band of marauders from the Other Side attacks your farmstead, kills your husband, and kidnaps your five Children. Six years pass; you receive no information on the whereabouts of your kids. Are they alive? Dead? Then, a political treaty is negotiated for the release of prisoners. You learn that one of your daughters is on the list of those to be returned. 

You travel 300 miles from home, alone, to the place designated for the exchange. The group of 16 captives includes 7 girls. You scan their faces, and call out your daughter’s name anxiously. No answer. You’re startled that your daughter can’t see her own mother standing right in front of her! Has she been brainwashed by her abductors?

This daughter was only 10 when she was stolen away. Her face has changed a lot in 6 years. You can’t be sure which one is her just by looking at the lineup. The other 6 girls are all about her age. 

Furthermore, several of the girls have lost their memory of their own native tongue, and now answer questions in the language of their captors. The few girls who still speak your language don’t acknowledge you as their mother.

You can’t recognize her, you can’t converse with her, and she can’t seem to recognize you. Yet, she’s right here in this room. Her name is on the list clear as day. What do you do?

This is the story of Barbara Walter and her daughter Rebecca. 

On August 8, 1756, “while [Reverend John Steel was] in the midst of his discourse, someone stepped into the church quietly and called out a member of the congregation, and related to him the fact of the murder of a family by the name of Walter, at Rankin’s mill, near Greencastle [western Pennsylvania],” begins William P. Schell in his ‘Ancestry of Ellen Schell Garber’ (1898).

“This tragic story was soon whispered from one to another. As soon as Mr. Steel discovered what had taken place, he brought the services to a close, took his hat and rifle, and at the head of the members of the congregation went in pursuit of the Indians.

“Mrs. [Barbara] Walter and some of her neighbors had gone to church, while her children and also those of some of the neighbors (as was the custom), were at her house in the care of Mr. [Caspar Joseph] Walter. 

“While Mrs. Walter was at church the Indians [Delaware tribe] stealthily approached the house of Mr. Walter. He was reading the Bible. The children were playing in the yard, near the house. They screamed. He grasped his rifle and walked to the door. 

“There was a sharp report from an Indian’s rifle and he fell dead in the doorway. The Indians then killed a neighbor of the family and perhaps some of the neighbors’ children and scalped them. They set fire to the house and other buildings. 

“They took Rebecca Walter, who was then about ten years of age, and two younger brothers, one of them almost a babe. They also took some of the other children captive.” [Other accounts say they took Rebecca, her sister Mary, brothers John & Ephraim, and an unnamed younger brother.]

“When Mrs. Walter returned from the church, she found her husband dead, the children gone and the house burned. Rebecca says the Indians compelled her to carry her little brother, but after going some distance they got tired worrying about him and they dashed his head against a tree and killed him. 

“After some time they scalped Rebecca, and they were about to kill her also, when a squaw, who had taken a fancy to her (tradition says she was a beautiful little girl with piercing black eyes) saved her life, and kept her until she was surrendered in 1762. 

“Local leaders and militia immediately pursued the raiding band,” continues Rhonda Whetstone in “A Compiled History of Casper Statler and Rebecca Regina Walter.”

“The band with the children first retreated to Kittanning Village, some 50 miles west of Fort Duquesne [modern day Pittsburgh]; but when that camp was attacked by rescue forces in September 1756, some of the Indians escaped with the captives and retreated another 150 miles to a camp near what is today Muskingham, Ohio. 

“There, they were kept and integrated into the Indian community, forgetting their English language and upbringing, replacing them with the native language and customs.

“A treaty [The Treaty of Easton] was forged in 1762 to return Rebecca, her siblings, and other white captives to British hands. 

“Some of the captives, including Rebecca, were returned at Fort Bedford, Pennsylvania on July 16, 1762, at which time families who had lost children in the prior decade were invited to come and try to identify any of their lost dependents. [Schell’s account states the Delaware party did indeed stop at Ft Bedford on that date, but continued on to Lancaster, where they released the prisoners on August 13.] 

“Barbara Baer Walter came to find her children,” says Whetstone, “but was unable to recognize Rebecca, and Rebecca did not recognize her. 

“In desperation, Barbara recalled having sung her children an old German hymn at bedtime when they were small, and she started singing this hymn again in front of the returned children. When Rebecca heard this tune, she recognized it and came running to her mother to be rejoined.”

The tune was “Allein, und doch nicht ganz allein” (Alone, yet not alone), written by German Lutheran composer of hymns Benjamin Schmolck (1672-1737).

Here’s a modern day recording of it, in English:

Postscript: Rebecca’s sister Mary and her brothers were returned some time later, Mary about a month later, brothers Ephraim and John not until November 1764.

Sources: “The Ancestry of Ellen Schell Garber,” By Hon. William P. Schell, Madison, Ind. : Courier Co., [1898]

“A Compiled History of Casper Statler and Rebecca Regina Walter,” by Rhonda Whetstone, self published 1999  

More articles on Native American raids:

I closed my eyes and bent my head to receive the stroke of the tomahawk(Opens in a new browser tab)

Charles saw her-his face became pale(Opens in a new browser tab)

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