The orphaned children were nourished, loved, and raised by the Dilbone’s neighbors. Priscilla died at the age of 13, while John, Margaret and William lived into adulthood. John lived to a ripe old age and eventually owned much of the original Dilbone farmland. Margaret married John Lindsay and lived nearby. William moved to Shelby County; buying farm land in Perry Township.
In 1918, when the old Piqua-Urbana Road (U.S. State Route 36) was being paved, excavation uncovered human bones that were proven to be the remains of Henry and Barbara Dilbone. A 4 foot mill wheel memorial marker was erected on the site in 1949, (located on the north side of U.S. Route 36, five miles east of Piqua), during a ceremony remembering the massacre, and can still be seen there today. Leonard U. Hill, a deceased Piqua historian and acclaimed researcher and prolific writer on area history, closed the dedication ceremony with these words: "May all who view this marker be reminded that: the present day comforts of life, the ease of acquiring a living and our assurance of security were not always thus. All of our pioneering ancestors endured many great hardships and a few, as the Dilbones, made the supreme sacrifice."
Hill also records in his writings that there are at least three 19th century accounts of the event, and although they differ in some respects, they are, for the most part, the same in their description of what occurred. An example of one discrepancy, is that the Dilbones were buried quickly and secretly because they had not been scalped, and the settlers, knowing that the British paid the Indians a bounty for American scalps, thought that they would return to take the scalps they had neglected to obtain. Another report, apparently, indicates that Mrs. Dilbone was scalped at the scene.
[Back] [Next] [Up] [New Search] 'Indian' segment written in December, 1997 by David Lodge