Enoch Brown school massacre
On July 26, 1764, four Delaware (Lenape) Native Americans entered a settlers' log schoolhouse in the Province of Pennsylvania in what is now Franklin County, near the present-day city of Greencastle. Inside were the schoolmaster, Enoch Brown, and a number of young students. Brown pleaded with the warriors to spare the children; nonetheless he was beaten with a club and scalped.[4] The warriors then clubbed and scalped the children. Brown and ten children were killed.[3][4] One scalped child, Archie McCullough, survived his wounds.[4] [3]
A child survivor recounted "Two old Indians and a young Indian rushed up to the door soon after the opening of the morning session. The master, surmising their objective, prayed them only to take his life and spare the children, but all were brutally knocked in the head with an Indian maul and scalped."[5]
A day earlier, the warriors had encountered a pregnant woman, Susan King Cunningham, on the road. She was beaten to death, scalped, and the baby was cut out of her body.[4] When the warriors returned to their village on the Muskingum River in the Ohio Country and showed the scalps, an elder Delaware chief rebuked them as cowards for attacking children.[4] John McCullough, a settler who had been held prisoner by the Delaware since 1756,[6] later described the return of the raiding party in his captivity narrative:
I saw the Indians when they returned home with the scalps; some of the old Indians were very much displeased at them for killing so many children, especially Neep-paugh'-whese, or Night Walker, an old chief, or half king,—he ascribed it to cowardice, which was the greatest affront he could offer them.[7]
Being the first recorded school massacre in history, the Enoch Brown school massacre was one of the most notorious events of Pontiac’s war. On July 26, 1764, four Delaware American Indians entered a schoolhouse for settlers. The schoolmaster, Enoch Brown and a number of students inhabited the school at this time. Ignoring Enoch’s pleads to spare the children, the American Indians shot and scalped him. Then proceeded to tomahawk and scalp most of the children, two of those scalped children survived, and the other four were taken as prisoners and held hostage
The previous day those same warriors had come across a pregnant woman named Susan King Cunningham. After beating her to the death, the warriors scalped her and proceeded to cut the baby out of her womb. When they returned to their village to show their elder chief the scalps, he rebuked them for attacking children. John McCullough, a settler who had been held prisoner since 1756 described the return after the raid by saying: “Some of the old Indians were very much displeased at them for killing so many children, especially Neep-paugh’-whese, or Night Walker, an old chief, or half king,—he ascribed it to cowardice, which was the greatest affront he could offer them.
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