FRANCES SLOCUM continued living near Peru, Indiana until 1847 when she died at the age of 74. Pictured is a monument at her grave site erected in 1900. On its four sides is recounted the story of her captivity and life.
The “Lost Sister” has been remembered in both Pennsylvania and Indiana. In Kingston Township, Luzerne County, Pennsylvania, there is Frances Slocum Park. It includes a lake, which is a popular fishing spot, and a rock ledge under which the Indians and Slocum are thought to have spent the night after her capture. There are memorial tablets in Wilkes-Barre, and one of the buildings at Wilkes College is named Slocum Hall. The town of Mocanaqua on the southern side of the Susquehanna River, downstream from Willkes-Barre and and across from Shickshinny, bears the Indian name for Frances Slocum “Ma-con-a-quah” meaning “young bear” or “little bear.”
In Indiana there are an elementary school, a high school, a park, and a trail named after Frances Slocum.
In 1840 a treaty between the United States government required the Miami Indians to leave their home in Indiana, ceding their land to the federal government, and relocate in the Kansas Territory. Slocum’s remaining brothers, joined by others, appealed to Congress asking that an exception be granted to Slocum and her descendants allowing them to continue to live on their land. A Congressional Resolution was passed granting 620 acres to Slocum and the members of her village in Indiana. The remaining Indians were called the Eastern Miamis as opposed to those who had to move—the Western Miamis.
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PS. A word about the city of Wilkes-Barre. Founded in 1769, it was named after two Parliamentarians who supported the cause of the American rebels: John Wilkes and Isaac Barré. Note the accent on the latter’s name. Barré was an Irish citizen and soldier, son of a Huguenot refugee from Dublin, who is said to have coined the phrase “Sons of Liberty.” The accent has been dropped and the city name is pronounced Wilkes-“Bear,” or by some, Wilkes-“Beary.”