|
During the year of 1868, Nancy Wyman draped white bedsheets over interior walls of the small dugout house encompassing the living quarters she shared with three small sons. For protection against intruders, the pioneer woman kept a stange-looking rock, which was perhaps some fragment of a meteorite, along with her trusty shotgun just inside the front entrance to her primitive Pawnee county farm home. But when Indians stopped by on their semi-annual pilgrimages, the lady homesteader was forewarned to conceal the firearm in order to avert any display which could be interpreted as being hostile. On one occasion, the benevolent leader of a visiting tribe proceeded to gather ingredients for a medicinal herbal tea, venturing into the nearby fields and woods. The Indian chief wasn't able to locate the specific native plants he proposed would properly alleviate the young widow's chronic headaches, but instead brought back the best available foliage he could find. On a return trip six months later, the friendly chief was able to fetch the appropriate greenery and presented Nancy with a new improved Indian remedy. Irish McCalla told me that Echinacea was discovered by a physician in Pawnee City. Further investigation revealed that Dr H. C. F. Meyer acquired the knowledge from local Indians in Pawnee County before sharing with the civilized medical world later in 1885. Perhaps these were the same benevolent Indians who had helped Nancy (Kerns) Wyman almost two decades earlier. |
| Copyright © 2000 Dick Taylor All Rights Reserved |