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The Commonwealth
MURDER OF AN ENTIRE FAMILY
On Saturday afternoon, the buildings on the ranche of Mr. Van Wormer, of this city, on Living Creek, thirty miles south-east of Denver, were burned down by Indians, as were the buildings of the next ranche. Mr. Hungate and family, who occupied Mr. Van Wormer's ranche, were barbarously murdered by the Indians. The bodies of Mrs. H. and two children were found near the house.---They had been scalped, and their throats cut. A later report brings news of the discovery of Mr. Hungate's body, about a mile from the same place. Mocassins, arrows, and other Indian signs sere found in the vicinity. The bodies of these will be brought to the city this afternoon, and will, at the ringing of the Seminary bell, be placed where our citizens can all see them.
A HORRIBLE SIGHT!---The bodies of those four people that were massacred by the Cheyennes (later said to have been Arapahoe) on Van Wormer's ranch, thirty miles down Cut-off, were brought to town this morning, and a coroner's inquest held over them. It was a most solemn sight indeed, to see the mutilated corpses, stretched in the stiffness of death, upon the wagon bed, first the father, Nathan Hungate, about 30 years of age, with his head scalped and his either cheeks and eyes chopped in as with an ax or tomahawk. Next lay his wife, Ellen, with her head also scalped through from ear to ear. Along side of her lie two small children, one at her right arm and one at her left, with their throats severed completely, so that their handsome little heads and pale, innocent countenances had to be stuck on, as it were, to preserve the humanity of form. Those that perpetrate such unnatural, brutal butchery, as this ought to be hunted down to the farthest bounds of these broad plains and bound at the stake alive, was the general remark of the hundreds of spectators this afternoon. Mr. Hungate's body was found about a mile and a half from Van Wormer's ranch, where he was residing as herder, and his family were found close to the house, which was burned. They were from the state of Illinois. The deepest feeling pervaded the people of town to-day as they returned from viewing the mangled bodies of the cruelly murdered family. Let us take warning and keep prepared for the future, both in town and in the ranches through the territory, where Indians are wont to visit or pass by.
for more information on the Hungate's see Dr. Jeff Broome's information on our reading list page.
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