Arthur S. Colyar Biographical Files

Fort Mimms, at Tallushatches (now known as Tallahassee), or the Ten Islanders, killing every warrior engaged in the battle, the battle being fought in the town - an Indian woman was accidentally killed, and when found by General Coffee after the battle there was on her breast an infant only a few days old. All the women and children, and among them this infant, were taken to General Jackson's headquarters. The story given him by General Coffee touched his great big heart. In his chest was a small supply of sugar, with which he kept the child alive. The Indian women refused to nurse him, saying: "All his kin are dead; let him die." In a few days General Jackson sent the child back to Huntsville, perhaps a hundred miles, with instructions to employ a nurse at his expense. This was early in November 1813, and so the Indian boy was nursed and kept alive until General Jackson came home in 1815, the acknowledged victor over the British army, and a great nation singing his praises in every home. But he remembered the Indian baby and sent for it; had it brought to the Hermitage, where he became to object of tender care by both General and Mrs. Jackson. The General named the boy Lincoyer. For fifteen years the Indian boy was the pet at the Hermitage; then the General took him to the city and put him at a trade, the same trade that he had learned when a boy, that of harnessmaker. The Indian boy worked in the shop, but spent his Sundays at the Hermitage, until his health failed. The he went back to the home and care of Mrs. Jackson, who nursed him until he died of consumption, at the age of seventeen. When he died the great conqueror of Packinham wept as if the boy had been his own son."