MRS. LAVINA EASTLICK (May 28, 1833 - October 9th, 1923) was a survivor of the massacre at Lake Shetek, Minnesota in August 1862.
Born in 1833 in the State of New York, Mrs. Eastlick grew up in Joh...visualizza altroMRS. LAVINA EASTLICK (May 28, 1833 - October 9th, 1923) was a survivor of the massacre at Lake Shetek, Minnesota in August 1862.
Born in 1833 in the State of New York, Mrs. Eastlick grew up in Johnsonville, Ohio from the age of one, where she remained until she was married to John Eastlick in 1850 and moved to Minnesota.
On August 20, 1862, a Sioux Indian tribe broke out and took the white settlements by surprise and storm. During the ensuing massacre, Mrs. Eastlick lost her husband and two of their five children, all of whom were shot by the Sioux Indians. Their third child was also never seen or heard of again.
Recovering her senses after the shooting affray, during which she had been shot three times, she crawled in the long grass to hunt for her family, when she was seen by the Indians and again brutally beaten about the head with a rifle which turned out to belong to her husband. Her long, thick hair was all that broke the force of the blows from her assailants.
The Eastlicks’ oldest son, Merton, aged eleven years, carried Johnny, the fifteen-month-old baby, 40 miles in the flight from the Indians and reached a place of safety in another white settlement. There he was reunited with his mother, who had crawled around the battlefield after being left for dead by the enemy.
Mrs. Eastlick and her surviving children were rescued by a mail driver who chanced along the road and took them all to a white settlement where they remained about a week until relief came from the soldiers. She remained in the hospital for many weeks, and then settled in Ohio and Minnesota.
She died at her daughter’s home in Lougheed, Alberta in 1923 at the age of 90.visualizza meno