The Story of Maconaqua, the Lost Sister of Wyoming
      A number of years ago when I was a small boy, occupying the home where I
now reside, Mr. George Winter, a near neighbor, was a frequent visitor to our
house, and I have often heard him relate to my grandmother the story of the
abduction by the Indians of a little white girl named Frances Slocum, a few months
after the massacre of Wyoming and her subsequent life among the Indians, first
as the wife of a Delaware chief, and afterwards as Queen of the Miamis.
The story of I am about to relate made a deep impression on my youthful ima-
gination, coming as it did from one who had it from the lips of  Ma-con-a-qua herself, the 
name given on her adoption into the Miami tribe.
The story was well known in Indiana about 1840, the early history of the Slocum 
family having been published by the brothers and sisters who escaped death at the 
massacre and the romantic narrative of her life among the Indians was told by Frances 
during the few years preceding her death in 1847. Several slightly differing ac-
counts have been given of her life and the means taken by her relatives to discover 
this lost sister.

After a lapse of more than 50 years, it is possible that my own story may con-
tain some inconsistencies through fault of memory on minor details, yet it should be 
of interest coming directly from one who learned it from one who knew her intimately.

As my information on this historic and romantic episode came through Mr. George 
Winter, it will not be amiss at this time to say something of his life’s history, 
the impression he made upon my youthful mind and to give a short sketch of his early 
training and subsequent career as an artist.

George Winter was born in Portsea, England, in the year 1810. Early in life he 
showed a predelection [predilection] for art and took such instruction as was available in his home
city. Meeting with some encouragement from finished artists, he went to London where 
he became a pupil of George Heneburn in miniature portraiture, and Robertson in 
sculpture, both of them distinguished members of the Royal Academy.

In 1830 he came to New York where he attended for several years the Academy of 
Design. While devoting himself to the study of art in this institution, Winter learned 
that the United States government had decided to remove all Indian tribes located on 
reservations in Indiana to territory west of the Mississippi, in order to make room 
for the infIux of white settlers constantly pouring into the state from the country 
of the Atlantic seaboard.