lexington yesterday

i n 1998 I wrote a Lexington Yesterday story about an Indian attack at Ridge Spring. It is remembered in history as the Isaac Cloud family massacre in May of 1751. Mary Cloud escaped, but died months later in Charleston and is buried there. I never knew the location of this massacre but recently had the opportunity to go with the indigenous people’s prayer circle when they performed a blessing on the site to bring a much deserved peace. That is why I return to this story. Though mortally wounded, Mary Cloud made her way from Ridge Spring to Friday’s Ferry at Congarees and eventually Charles Town for treatment. Here is Mary Cloud’s story: “On the fourth instant two Indians came to my house about halfway between the Congarees and Savannah Town. The Indians were Savannas. “They came about dark, and sat down very civilly and my husband, being able to talk their tongue, they talked a great while together. And I gave them supper. “They asked my husband for pipe and tobacco, and he gave it them. We sat up until midnight, and then we all went to sleep, and they lay down too and pulled off their mocassins and boots. . . . “When the cocks began to crow they came, as I suppose, to the bed of my husband and shot my husband through the head. And a young man lying on the floor was shot in the same moment. . . . “The Indians struck me with a tomahawk under my right arm, and afterwards they struck me two cuts upon my left knee. “One of them went and killed both my children, and then they came and plundered the house of all that was valuable. “I lay amongst my dead two days and by the help of providence one of my horses came to the house, and so I came to Martin Friday’s house.” The site is in a peach orchard across from Recovery Works, which has been owned and operated by Flint Thomas for 10 years. Recovery Works is a center for men with alcohol and drug addiction. It gives hope to program participants for a productive, serene life in the real world.