Where the Lilies Cry

Where the Lilies Cry

A story of life on the early American frontier.

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Little Buck Town

Old Town

James Letart's
Trading Post

Jacques Letart's
Trading Post

Beginning of the Warrior's
Trail to the Cherokee Country

To Tu Endie Wei

The Great Bend Area of the Ohio River

18th Century

Another great story from this author. I am looking forward to the next one.
Roger Schumaker, Philadelphia, Pa.

I know this book contains some fiction, but the way it is written, the whole thing is absolutely believable! I highly recommend this
book to anyone who has an interest in history. I now have a whole different perspective on the native Americans from the Ohio
Country.
Charley Harris, Columbus, Ohio

What a great story, this one should definitely be made into a movie.
Terri Campbell, Grove City, Ohio

The ability of this author to combine fact and fiction into a very readable story is amazing. I found it very hard to put down. I
highly recommend this book.
Phillip Jenkins, Tulsa, Oklahoma

This book will run you through the whole gamut of emotions. You'll laugh, you'll cry and you'll sometimes get angry! Very well
written. Where the Lilies Cry holds top spot in my library.
John Renshaw, Whitehall, Ohio

I borrowed this book from a friend. I have read it twice already. He wants it back. Either him or I will have to buy another copy. I
definately want this book in my collection..
Terry Patterson, Ocala, Fla.

I grew up in Ohio. I had no idea what it was like back then until I read your book Where the Lilies Cry. I really enjoyed reading
your book and my husband bought your other novel Arcadia when he was at the Columbus terminal last week. I am really looking
forward to reading that one too.
Carol Hartwicke, Phoenix, AZ

Comments from readers

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Long before the State of Ohio existed, the lands there were considered “wilderness” by the colonists in the east, inhabited by
“ignorant savages” and wild animals. The people of the Ohio Country were far from being ignorant and the term savage could be
applied to both Indians and whites as they both committed horrible acts against one another.

Along the beautiful Ohio River just below the falls in the Great Bend was a small village named Quenolapay Ohtenatit or Little
Buck Town.   It was inhabited by people of the Shawnee Nation and the Lenape or Delaware Nation. The Shawnee considered the
Lenape their grandfathers.

Across the river on the Virginia side was a trading post set up and ran by James Letort with the backing of the West Jersey
Trading Company in Philadelphia.

James Letort Sr. was the son of James I and Ann Letort, pioneers of the trading business in Pennsylvania.   The older James had
come to America with his father to escape persecution in France. They were protestant Huguenots and declared their loyalty to
the British Crown. The older James died and his sons carried on the trading business under the auspices of their mother Ann.

James Letort Sr. was an exceptional trader who had a reputation of dealing fair with all Indians. As a young man he was adopted
into the Shawnee nation.   He married a Shawnee woman and had a son whom they named James Letart Jr. His Shawnee name was
Cahiktodo (Ka-heek-toe-doe). The spelling of the name Letort was changed to Letart by James Sr and many of his relatives,
probably because of the constant mispronunciation of the name by the English.

The part of the river above the village and down past the falls became known as Letart's Rapids and in later years was knows as a
very treacherous place for settlers travelling down the river in flatboats to Kentucky.   Simon Kenton, the famous frontiersman,
nearly met his end in these rapids. George Washington knew of this peril and during his expedition down the Ohio he and his
young friend William Crawford (captured and burned at the stake during the Revolution) left the expedition as it approached the
Great Bend area and walked across the "Boot of Ohio" to rejoin it below the rapids.

James Sr. wanted his son to take over his trading business but James Jr. seemed to be far more Shawnee than French. As a
young boy, he spent most of his time in the village across the river and eventually married a Delaware maiden named Cheokoplis
or Blue Bird. He was torn between loyalty between his father and his Shawnee and Delaware people. He worked for his father in
the beginning but when Dunmore's men came down the river and burned the village he became totally Shawnee and joined his
brothers in their fight against the mass of white settlers pouring down the Ohio River.

Cahiktodo and Blue Bird had a son whom they named Chingwe or The Bobcat. Now being forced by the white government to
move out of the state, Chingwe, an old man, takes his grandchildren on a final journey back to the place where he grew up. He
relates to them the story of his Grandfather and his parents and their lives in that once peaceful little village below the falls.

ISBN 978-0-6152-2382-7

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I just finished reading Where the Lilies Cry and Arcadia. I feel it is a miracle that someone could put into writing so much that has
involved so much of my life. The content or your accounts of the happenings is supreme. Thanks so much for some wonderful
books that I have been fortunate enough to enjoy!
Garen Roush, 98 years old, McKinney, Texas

I grew up in Letart Falls, Ohio. I never knew the background of my hometown until now. We have several arrowheads, maybe
some are from Cahiktodo! I like the book. Very informative. I really liked how you separated the fact from the fiction in the back
of the book. I think as long as I live I will never look at another lily without remembering Bluebird.
Jenny Young, New Haven, WV

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