Biography:

Frances Slocum, a young Quaker girl who was kidnapped by native Americans. Frances was one of nine children of Mr. And Mrs. Johnathan Slocum. On the night of November 2, 1778, Delaware braves entered the Slocum home which was located where North Street is now in Wilkes-Barre. The Indians carried away Frances who was then just five years old. The first night after her abduction was spent in a crude shelter under a rock ledge along Abraham Creek, believed to be within the park boundary. It was during the first night that the girl tried to escape but she was soon recaptured. Frances was taken along as the Indians moved westward and spent the rest of her life with them. Fifty years after her abduction she was found by her brothers who had never given up the search. She was living on a reservation in New Reserve, Indiana, and had been married twice to chieftains and had four children. Mocanaquah was her Indian name. Mocanaquah refused the pleas of her brothers to return to Pennsylvania, her childhood home. The brothers wrote to her and learned many of the details of her abduction and life with native Americans. Frances Slocum died in New Reserve, Indiana, in 1838 at the age of 68. Near Peru, Indiana, there is anotehr state park named for her. Along the Mississinewa River in Indiana there is a monument which marks the final resting place of Frances Slocum who became Mocanaquah the "Indian Princess."