Another excerpt from "Joys and Tears of Yesteryears" by Anna Luneman Baldwin (see Books and References).
Another sad happening occurred when 14-year-old John, the old son of Jacob and Mae Kloepfer (other sources indicate that John was a brother of Jacob and Louis), failed to return from a scouting party. The Indians used many tricks to lure the travelers from the safety their own group. One trick which they employed was to hide in the bushes some distance away and imitate a wild turkey gobbling, aft which another Indian at a more distant spot would then gobble to lure the intended victim on; then the first Indian would spring upon the unwary investigators. It was the consensus that this was the case as the boy had on several occasions mentioned that he heard turkeys gobbling in the distant woods . General announcements were made from time to time of the various and many unseen dangers and the boys, especially, were warned to be extremely careful. Night was falling and when the boy who had strayed from his group did not return, another searching party was sent out, but they failed to find either him or his horse. It was a sad and grievous time for his parents, as we can well imagine, and also for the other relatives; and sadder still when that which they did not want to believe became a reality, when the horse caught up with the caravan several days later. The horse’s hocks were torn and bleeding, indicating that it had been hobbled, which was the method used by the Indians to hold their ponies.
Also see Indian Attacks on the Oregon-California Trail,
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