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About Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922 | View Entire Issue (Oct. 24, 1915)
The Omaha Sunday Bee Magazine Page Newly Discovered Facts About the Indian Princess Whose Blood Flows in the Veins of President Wilson's Bride-Elect T fHE announcement that Mrs. Norman Gait, who ia to be come the wife of President Wilson, la a descendant of Poca hontas lends peculiar interest at this time to newly discovered facts concerning that unhappy Indian princess, Every native American treasures memories of school days bright ened by the Fourth Reader ro mance of brave Captain John Smith and tha lovely and heroic daughter of Chief Powhatan. How the gallant Knglish officer of a Vir ginia regiment was praised and honored for his soldierly qualities by tho great chief, yet was tried and condemned to death at a coun cil of braves for the good of the confederated tribes; how he calmly bowed his head to receive the blow from the savage executioner's club that was to dash out his brains, and how the tender and loving Pocahontas rushed from her fath er's side and laid her own head upon that of the condemned officer barely In time to stay the fatal stroke and save Captain Smith's life this, in history and in legend, is one of our country's proudest Historical possessions. In spite of doubt expressed by some historians that Poca hontas actually saved the life of Captain Smith In the man ner described in the legend, there is no doubt at all that she was the loveliest, tenderest, most Intelligent and greatest of all native American Indian princesses. Her father, the great Powhatan, lives In the history of Colonial times as the ablest and most noble of all the celebrated rulers of confederated Indian tribes. His personal demeanor, his customs and his court were, in fact, little short of regal. All these attributes his favorite daughter, Pocahontas, inherited and adorned with her beauty and ber fine personality. Until she met, and loved, Captain John Smith, her pros pects were those of a princess royal, beloved by a whole nation barbarous, but still a great and powerful nation. In her own natural right no royal princess ever bad better prospects of a useful and happy life. But the mingling of the white and the colored races has always proved disastrous to the latter. The very superiority of Pocahontas caused her aspirations in that direction to bring the greater and swifter misfortune upon her. The brave and gallant soldier whom she loved and saved did not love her. He treated her with the utmost consideration; but went away to England and forgot her. Then came the second misfortune of this unhappy prin cess. Another gallant English officer in that same Virginia regiment fell deeply ia love with her. She could not love him as she had loved the other. But the spell of the domi nating white race had seized upon her fine mind and heart. In April, 1614, she formally espoused the Christian faith and was married to the English officer, John Rolfe. following are the known essential facts about Pocahontas and her descendants: The Princess Pocahontas was daughter of Powhatan, Werowance (chief mystery man) and ruler of all the Indian tribes of the Potomac region. Pocahontas (born about 1595) is supposed to have been nineten years old when, in 1614, she married John Rolfe, first secretary of the Colony of Virginia. She died in Eng land in 1617, leaving one child, a son named Thomas. Thomas Rolfe married Jane Poythress, the issue being one child, a daughter named Jane. Jane Rolfe married, in 1676, Robert Boiling, the first of his name in Virginia, who had come to the Colony as a boy of fourteen. He was twenty-nine years old at the time of his marriage. He was a son of John and Mary Boiling, of Tower street, London. Jane (Rolfe) Boiling died within a year after her mar riage, leaving one child, a son named John. John Boiling lived and died at Cobbs, on the Appomatox, below Petersburg. He left one son and five daughters. This son's great grandson, Archibald Boiling, was the father of William Holcomb Boiling. . Mrs. Gait, the President's fiancee, is a daughter of Wil liam Holcomh Boiling. The new discoveries about Pocahontas above referred to will be seen to bear out in quite a marvellous manner the existing records of her death and burial in England the com pletion of the tragedy of her life which has all the inevit ableneBS of the tragic plays of the old Greek dramatists. Two years after her marriage to John Rolfe Pocahontas went to England with her husband. Her beauty, her intelli gence and her great personal charm gave her instant social success In aristocratic English circles. She was presented at the Court of St. James by Lord and Lady Delaware, and the Bishop of London gave a great reception in her honor. Not only was she a distinguished princess, but she was the first native American Indian to be baptised a Christian and brought into the fold of the English Church. She became the idol of English aristocratic social life, in fact was treated in every way like a princess royal. Captain John Smith was a distinguished hero of the Eng lish colony of Virginia. He was also basking In .the favors of aristocratic English society which undoubtedly was some what disappointed that he had not proved equal to the de mands of established romance and married the heroine who had saved his life. The emotions of Pocahontas upon suddenly meeting Cap tain Smith can readily be imagined. Being a princess, all the social distinctions showered upon her had not in the least turned her bead. Of a barbarous race, her natural emotions had not been sapped away by the hollow conventionalities of civilized social life. Was the shock of again meeting the man whom she had s perfectly loved the beginning of the tragic end? At anj rate we know that in 1617, little more than a year after her arrival In England, Pocahontas's life ended in a most la mentable manner. Old accounts agree that she went into a sudden decline, and so longed for the scenes of her girlhood that her husband started with her back to Virginia. They got as far as the sailing port of Oravesend, where Pocahontas was stricken with that then most dreaded of diseases, smallpox, which was epidemic at the time. She lived only a few days. A tablet placed in St George's Church, at Gravesend, per petuated the leading facts of her life and burial in the inscription reproduced on this page. The body of Pocahontas was supposed to have been in terred in the chancel of the church. But now we have excellent reasons for believing that the circumstances of ber actual burial were in keeping with the lamentable tragedy of her life. The disease of smallpox was then so virulent and so dreaded that its victim; were put under ground as hastily as possible and without ceremony. And this custom is borne out by the recent discovery of what archaeologists believe to be the actual bones of the ill-fated princess in an uncared- Tht Sfonr Commrmorairi PRINCESS POCAHONTAS or METOAKA DAUCHTCR Or The Michty amiricab indiah Chup powhattam. gentle alto humane, she was the friend of the earliest struccliiic encuih colonists whom she nobly rescued, protected, and helped. on her conversion to christianity in 1613, she received in baptism the name rebecca, and shortly afterwards became the wife of thomas rolfe, a settler in virginia. she visited enclano with her husband in i6is.was graciously received by queen anne wife of james i. inthe twenty second year of her ace she died at crave send, while preparing to revisit her native country, and was buried near this spot on march xiv 1617. Memorial Tablet to Pocahontas in St. George's Church, Gravesend, England. for spot at soma distance from the church in which the tablet to her memory was placed. Pocahontas was the only Indian woman In England at the time this graveyard was in use. The bones were accompanied by many small relics, such as beads, which might have belonged to an Indian woman. The workmen who discovered the bones were excavating for the foundation of a new building near the old White Post Inn. A man digging a hole came upon what at lirst be took to be a curious smooth stone. His pick struck against it and the second blow drove a hole in it. Then he picked the object up and found it was a human skeleton. The earth was carefully removed In the Immed iate vicinity and the entire skele ton was brought to light. The spot was a few yards to the west of an old path which ran through to the Lennox road, and the body had lain on its face with the feet to the northeast, and close to a very old hedge. Mr. Hotter, of the firm of Clem ents & Hotter, who were in charge of the work, laughed when he was told of the skeleton and remarked jocularly, "Why, here is Pocahon tas." Mr. Tucker, a friend of Mr. Hotter, was a dabbler in phrenology, and to him Mr. Hotter presented the find. Mr. Tucker, as soon as he had made a casual examination, de cided that the skull was that of an Indian, and forthwith he took it to London and called on a famous archaeologist. "It is the skull of a woman," said this man, "and she was undoubtedly an Indian woman." Without the least hint of where the skull came from the expert went on to demonstrate the reasons of his belief, and even went so far as to add a very decided opinion that the original owner of the skull in question must have been pos sessed of rather more than the average share of brain power and character. Forthwith Mr. Tucker hied him home to Gravesend and quietly went to making further excavations at the spot where the skeleton was unearthed, hoping to And other things that might give some definite clue to the identity of the dead woman. Careful, detailed search within a radius of several feet brought to light various articles, including several nails, some bits of iridescent glass or pearl, a thin tile backed with Roman cement, a small piece of gold wire woven Into an ornamental pattern, to which was at' tached a strand of straight black hair. They are such articles as- would prob ably have been buried with Pocahontas. All these circumstances point very strongly to the probability tuat the a ele ton is that of Pocahontas herself, de spite the doubt cast on its identity by those who claim St. George'e chancel as her place of burial.. Canon Gedge, the rector of St. George's thinks It probable that the skeleton Is that of the Indian princess, who holds Captain John Smith as "Admiral of . New England." I , v i;ii, i . i .4.U, - ... h-W . til' . .? f$' )ts wi- v x K V- . t r - . ,, W1 v " ' . . V I ;..;.' ,A .-. '. . '.; 9ocahontas Saving the Life of Captain John Smith- From the Familiar Old Painting. t. . u ' :" ,n V tit 1 . - 2 I , ' - V , r- ? ! " '1 f '. , - ' 'I X" y f A i I V1. : 1 t ' - ,. i t:. . W -. . . I - .T Ji-iaVi"-"f' - .1 ,t.m..t,.. .--ft. ifciiiota. tiy r f,ff x , .1 111 .iii. - ibii. ya( ;:.Hk.- ijttf ...fe jsk-jsw1 jaNW.'-iioafa. .'.r, i'xft,i smuwnw IVfcaf theStarsFore tell for November T Pocahontas From a Portrait Believed to Have Been Painted in Virginia. Old Prints of It Are Inscribed "Pocahontas, First Colonia) Dame of America." such a high place In the history of Virginia. The pot where the skeleton was found Is right on a line between St George's and St Mary's churchyards. That she was lying face downwards was only another link in the chain of evidence, for those who deposited her body under the sod would have made great haste, and mizht even hav tnmhi.H her into the Brave without regard to decorum, anxious only to get av.ay from danger of contagion from the disease of which she had diad. The nhallowness of the grave Is explained by the fact that It Is almost on a line of a path that has been Pocahontas and Her Little Son, Thomas Rolfe, From the Portrait Discovered at King'. Lynn, Norfolk, England. In use from time Immemorial, and that the earth has probably been washed away during the centuries which have elapsed since the interment. That the skeleton should be In such a good state of preservation Is due to the chalky soil, the gravel bed above the solid chalk being ouly a few feet thick, in fact Just exactly the sort of formation In which the bones of many Roman soldiers have been found well preserved in a neighboring part of Eng land. appy Princess Pocahontas! For years after her death of her father, the great Chief Powhatan, was still undiminished. Hut for the spell of the white man, she might nuve fulfilled the career of a princess so beautiful and gifted Perhaps she might have Influenced a lasting peace between nor native nation and the white colonics. Her fine qualities or mind and heart Justify that assumption. Instead she failed of a woman's greatrst desire, died miserably when hardly past the period of girlhcod, and suf fered a form of burial that w virtually an lndini HQ November lunation forms a triangle with Jupiter and Saturn, the latter elevated at the Important angle of the figure, and the luminaries afflicted by Mars. Disorder ramifies through various channels of the body politic, and widespread dissensions per vado both national and local Issuob, with a re actionary spirit in eloctlon results. In New York the new Constitution falls of endorsement in many of Uh essential features, and the woman suffrage Question Is very probably fated to rejection. Mars rises with place of the August eclipse In the quarterly chart, preceding the election, and many of the portents there hinted at will be In evidence in the present period. This will be especially noted near the 10th, with Mars square Sun exactly on that point: Frightful accidents on land and pea, fires and explosions, strikes and casualties in war munition factories, earthquake shocks and destruction through tidal waves are concomitants of this aspect. An early and sevcro Winter may be expected. Eastern and coast regions will experience dis agreeable phenomena between the iith and 10th, beginning with ciectrlc sharpness and ending with east winds and a severe cold snap. Northwest winds and a clear atmosphere will mark the 11th and- 12th. Tha third week brings a higher tem perature, a falling baromoter and considerable rain. Cold follows on the 22d, with blltzardlo con ditions about the 24th. Rain and eloct may be expected at the close of the moulh. with earth quakes In various quarters. Specific incidents predlted by ths scrs In clude the following: November 4 Snort-circuiting rn electric lines; a serious acriJent on an elevated railway. A traffic company In difficulties. Serious trouble for war munitions plants.- The criminal classes very active. November 8-0 Aa important diplomatic trans action effected and the Mexican problem clarified. A nejv development In the Naval Advisory Board. jNovemoer iu KartnquaKe shocks In the East November 1314 Accident to a school or niovtug picture theatre. Money centres benefited at thl time, alia shloplng and foreign interests. November 23-20 Traffic Impeded by weather conditions. Stock market unsettled. Death ot an ogod financier. Perseus born between Iho 6 tU and 9th of January, April and July, or between the Otli and 11th of October of auy year will have Saturn afflicting their Sun during Novembor. They will be affected by colds, rheumatism and spicule troubles, as well as by tedium in business affairs. The same holds true li born In the Fall of 1S50. Winter of 1851. Summer of 1857, first nine months of 1864, Winter of 186G, Fall of 1808, first hall of 18C9, Fall of 1872. Summer of 1879 or 1S6. 1888, or Fall of 1 892 Those born between the 8th and 12th of March, May of November of any year are under the favorable auspices ol Jupiter. New opportunities will open for them and thef should seek promotion and advancement of Interests. Tb stars hold out like promise if bora lu Spring of 1848, Sum mer of 1852, Winters of J856. 1S38 or 1860. Winters of 186$ or 1870. Fall of 1875, Winter or Fall of 1887, Summer of 1891,
