The Cavalcade of America, starring Irene Dunn, presented by the DuPont Company, makers of better things for better living through chemistry. Good evening. This is Irene Dunn. Tonight our Cavalcade story is called Bryant Station. This is a romantic and exciting story of what happened to Prudence Potter during an Indian attack on a pioneer outpost in the Kentucky wilderness. Now, Bryant Station, starring Irene Dunn as Mrs. Potter on the DuPont Cavalcade of America. The Kentucky wilderness of Daniel Boone, 1782. The dark and bloody ground. A year of terror in the frontier settlements. A year of savagery. Captain Griggs. Huh? Captain Griggs. I found Corrigan in a ravine back of the stockade. Alive? Just about. What about Potter? He was with him. He ain't now. Come on. What is it you want to tell us, Corrigan? Simon Gurdy done this. Gurdy, that white renegade, leading a big war party. Burned Potter at stake. Gurdy threatens his Indians will kill every white settler in Kentucky. Has Corrigan any family? No. Potter had. Wife and three youngins. Anybody told her? We kind of figured you'd do that, Captain. I'm not full of you. Well, if I must, I must. Look, Ma, Elizabeth can stand up. What a big girl she's getting to be. Let go of her, Jane. See if she can stand by herself. It'll give her room, then. No, it won't. Will it, Ma? It will. It will. It will. It will. It will. It will. It will. It will. It will. It will. It will. It will. It will. It will. It will. It will. It will. It will. It will. It will. It won't. It won't. It won't. Will it, Ma? Well, I don't think so. Oh, Papa's going to be so proud of his baby. Come here to Mama Elizabeth. Come on, protecting. Ma, when is Pa coming back? Anytime now. Will he bring us something good from Hutton, Ma? Well, he always does, doesn't he? Look! Somebody's coming! Maybe it's Pa! The Be kijken. Gotta get what I heard off of her. I don't think he will. Come on, let's go see. You either get me to the exatamente location, construction Blue was the right either. It's a pretty crude Bas看看. Well, let go open the door and see. It could beApply some Won't you sit down, Captain? Well, I haven't time to stay, ma'am. Well, could I see you in private a moment? Certainly, Captain. Tommy, take the girls outside. All right, Ma. Come on, Jane. Look, Captain Greg, I can carry Elizabeth all by myself. Yeah, fine. Fine. Yes, that's wonderful. Now then, Captain. Mrs. Potter. Is there something about John? Yes, there is. Is there something bad? Very. What is it? John ain't coming back to Brian Station, ma'am. Oh, no. No. I'm sorry, Mrs. Potter. If I can do anything, I... Oh, my poor Johnny. Now, please, Mrs. Potter. All the set rules will do anything to help you, ma'am. Yes, I know. I know, Captain Greg. Thank you. Well, I'll go now, Mrs. Potter, and... You'll be all right, ma'am. I want to go outside. Well, it's a beautiful night. Moon. Yes, Captain. I'll be all right. Ma. Oh, John. I had a bad dream. I couldn't get back to sleep, so I came out here. Come here, honey. Get up on my lap. You been sitting out here long, ma? Seems so. The valley looks pretty in the moonlight. Look at that corn field down there. Your father and I planted that in the spring. Ma, when is Pa coming back from hunting? Tell me. I don't know, son. Aw, heck. Come on now, honey. We're going to the cabin and to bed. Ma, first sing me the song about Pa. You always sing me that song when I can't sleep. Now, Tommy, you mustn't ask me to sing now. Won't you, ma? Please won't you? Well, if I do, son, will you promise me something? Sure, ma. What? Grow up so your father will be proud of you. Uh-huh. Sure, ma. Pa soon. All right, honey. Oh, my, I loved him so Broke my heart to see him go And only time will heal my woe Johnny has gone from the soup to home Stand up, Elizabeth. No. Stand up. You've got to mind me. Now that we ain't got a Pa, you've got to do as I tell you. Well, where's your ma, Jane? Behind the cabin, Captain Greg. Tommy's helping to weed the garden, and I'm taking care of Elizabeth. Well, that's good. I'll just go round back and say howdy. All right, Captain Greg. Howdy, Miss Potty. Good morning, Captain Greg. Thought I'd stop by, see how things are for you. Well, we're getting on right fine, aren't we, Tommy? I killed 12 bugs and a snake. Well, here, Tom, give me that hoe. Now, you go mind the baby with your sister. I'll help you by the end. All right. Isn't that necessary for you to help us with our work, Captain? Now, it's no reflection on your gardening abilities, ma'am, but this is a lot of work for a woman and three little women. Well, we'll manage. Can I speak frankly, ma'am? About what, Captain? Your plans. Oh. Now, it's not my affair I know, except I'm in charge of the station here, and I feel kind of responsible with the folks in it. What, you needn't be responsible for us? I'm just wondering what you were going to do next. The frontier's no place for a widow woman. Well, what are you suggesting, Captain? Have you got people you can go to? My husband and I left Virginia to give our young ones a chance they ought to have in life. They can get it in Kentucky, and they're going to have it. Oh, then you're figuring to marry again? No, Captain, I am not. No one could ever take my husband's place. Well, I don't say that, ma'am, but there's two or three single boys here at the station, any one of whom would be glad and lucky to have you. There's Tom Ashley, there's Lewis Boyd, then there's that widower Morrison. They're all mighty fine men. Have they appointed you their marriage broker, Captain? Well, ma'am, old bachelor like me, well, he's the last person who would know anything about marriage. Well, then let me explain to you one thing. When it's been right once, you don't want marriage anyway but that way again. Now, you tell that to Mr. Ashley, Mr. Boyd, Mr. Morrison, with my compliments. Well, I'm only trying to be helpful, ma'am. And my advice would be to go back to Virginia. Never. You say that, but the truth is we may all be going soon. What do you mean? The way the Indians have been carrying on this year, it's got even Dan Boone worried. You heard about the settlement up the Blue Ridge being massacred. Yes, sir. Well, many more of those, you won't be able to pay the settlers to stay here. Well, I'll stay. And tell me the girls are going to stay too and they're going to have their chance. Captain Drake! Captain Drake! Who's that? Hawkins and Tom Ashley. Come in. Doors unlocked. I'm sorry to wake you, Captain, but Tom here's got something to tell you. Where is Tom? Well, there's a bear that's been wild as my star. Great big critter. Seen him but never got a shot at him before today. Well, sir, long about sundown, I did. Hit him too. Only the critter wouldn't drop. No, sir. You wake me up just to yap about a bear. So I says to myself, I says, that old bear ain't going to get away from me if I have to follow him clear to kingdom come. Which I did, only a couple miles short of. Then what do you think happened? What? That old bear got away, darn it. And that's my story. All of it, except that coming back from the stockade tonight, I ran smack into the biggest Indian war party I ever met up with. What? Must be hundreds of them. Where? Surrounding the stockade, hiding back in the woods. But on all sides. Took me three hours to sneak in here. Could you sneak back through their lines, do you think, Ash? Yes, sir. Go ahead then. Get to Boonesboro as fast as you can. Have them send every man they can spare and tell them all you can about the war party. I'll tell them everything. Just leave out about the bear. I want that relief here, this year. Well, what next, Captain? It's set for a dawn attack. See that everybody has plenty of ammunition. And whatever else you do, don't show any lights. I don't want our red friends to know we're expecting their little cause. Here I am, already in waiting with my rifle, Captain. Where are them Indians you promised I could shoot? They're out there, all right. Yeah, but why don't they attack? It's past dawn now. Yeah, just wondering that myself. Captain Greg. Huh? We got a lady here wondering just who she should load guns for during the fighting. Well, Mrs. Johnson, just tell that lady to stand right by her husband like a good wife should. Oh, it's you, Mrs. Potter. I didn't realize who Mrs. Johnson meant. I'm sorry. That's all right, Captain, but I would like to help. Got more spunk than all of us put together, this girl has. Well, I got no one to load my rifles for me, Mrs. Potter. If you'd help me, I'd like it fine. Whatever you want, Captain. Captain Greg, yes, what's the matter, Banner? Well, during the night that leak developed in the water barrel again. Why? Yes, we've got me a drop left. Can't hold out long without water. Yeah, but how are we going to get it? Can't we send a bunch of our men to the spring? Oh, no, that'd be ambush, sure. Besides, it'll tell how much we need water. Yeah. All they have to do is lay siege to us for a few days. That's right, Captain. There ought to be a better way of getting it than that. Why are the Indians waiting now before they attack? Well, they probably figure we don't know they're here. They're waiting for the men to go outside the stockade and work in the fields, and then they'll attack. Well, in that case, I know how to get the water. How, Mrs. Potter? The way we always get it. Let the women and children go. And have you all cut down in cold blood? It's our only chance, Captain. We've got to have water, and they'd never let the men bring it back. Us, they might. Now, what women would be willing to take a chance like that? I would. You, Mrs. Johnson? Well, and so would I, and so would plenty others. You'll see. You mean that all these are going, Mrs. Potter? There wasn't one woman in Brad's station refused, Captain. Well, what are all the children here for? Well, I figure the Indians have probably had their scouts here for days. If so, they know the children always go with us for water. They'd be suspicious if they didn't go this time. Man, think what you're saying. Would you want yours to go? Well, you say they're going, Captain. Aren't you, Tommy? Aren't you, James? I'm not afraid. I am. I'm taking my Betsy along, too. Well, then we'll have men posted on the Starrcade, and if there's any trouble, we'll come out shooting and do what we can. And God bless you all. Already, Mrs. Johnson? Indeed we are, Mrs. Potter. And I think the Captain can open the gate. Yes, ma'am. Open the gate. I'm scared, Ma. Baby. All right. Come. Let's go. You are listening to Bryant Station, starring Irene Dunn as Mrs. Potter on the Cavalcade of America, sponsored by the DuPont Company, maker of better things for better living through chemistry. The Kentucky wilderness, an early morning in 1782. Mrs. Potter and her friend, Jemima Johnson, are leading the women and children of Bryant Station to a spring outside the Starrcade, knowing it's surrounded by hostile Indians. Why does the spring seem so far this morning, Mrs. Potter? We're almost there, Betsy. I saw something moving in the woods, Ma. There's probably 12 million birds in that one little thicket alone. Well, it might be you-know-what. Now we're not going to talk about you-know-what, are we? Mrs. Potter, don't you think we all ought to talk a little more? We usually do, Mrs. Johnson. It's certainly a lovely morning, ladies, isn't it? Never so early. Well, here we are. Pile your buckets, everyone, and keep talking. Keep cheerful. Oh, I'm scared. Stop that child crying. It must sound the way we always do. We do, Ma. One of us kids is always crying. Well, just a little wave from here to the Starrcade now, and we've got water. Don't run. You'll spill the water. But I'm still scared, Ma. Janie, if you run now, you'll give us away. We've got to get back inside the Starrcade. Gee, usually you want me to hurry. Just a few more steps now. Here we are. Captain Gregg, close the gate. Yes, Ma'am. And let me congratulate you all. That was as brave a thing as I ever saw. Those Indians can attack any time now. We're ready. Captain, Ma'am. The engine's in plain sight over to eastward. How many? Oh, not over a dozen or so. Looks like a small raiding party. Maybe Ashley was wrong about how many were around here. No, I don't think so. Whenever an Indian lets himself be seen, there's some purpose in it. If they want us to see 12, there's a purpose in that. They want us to think that's all of them there are, probably. Yeah, but suppose it is only 12. We could finish them off in no time. And while we're out doing that, what happens at the Starrcade? Yeah, yeah, you figure it's a trick. I know it's a trick. Furthermore, it's the same one they used at Boonesboro last year. Well, maybe we can make it work to our advantage. How's that? Take 14 or 15 men. Send them out east, apparently, after the Wyandotte's that way. Make a lot of noise. Fire a lot. Try to sound like the whole force. And then turn around, get back inside just as quickly as you can make it. Join the rest of us at the Westgate wall. We'll be waiting for them there. Why Westgate? Well, that's where I figure the main attack will be. That bunch you saw on the east must be making a feint. And when the main attack comes at the Westgate, there's going to be a mighty surprise bunch of Indians. Well, there go Hawkinsons' boys. Yes, but it does sound like a whole force. Now to see if our bait catches any fish. They're hooked. Here they come west. All right, boys, here they come. Let them have it. That's that cabin. Look at them now. High tailing it for the creek. And that's the last, Adam. That's one Indian trick they won't try again for a while. I still don't see how we're so much better off. We've killed a few years and we've driven them off, but we're still surrounded by windouts. And meanwhile, we've all got our scouts. Look, one of them coming toward the stockades with a white flag. Hold your fire, men. It's a flag of courage. Oh, another Indian trick, probably. Well, let's see what they want to talk about. Look, it's a white man. Ma'am, I wouldn't call him that. It's Simon Gurdy. The Simon Gurdy? Yes, the same. Settlers of Bryant Station. Quiet, men, quiet. I want to hear this. Settlers, you are surrounded. We're very snug, too, Simon Gurdy. But that can't last. We're getting some artillery. It'll be here within two hours. A few balls against those gates of yours, you won't be quite so snug. You ain't got cannon. Oh, yes, we have, gentlemen. But all you have to do to save your scouts is to surrender peaceably. Give me a word as one Christian to another. You'll go back to Virginia. I don't believe you got cannon. You can find out any way you choose, gentlemen. You have two hours to make up your minds. Look here, men, we'd best accept Simon Gurdy's terms. Now, we've no choice. And he said if we surrender, we'll save our scouts. But who can trust that renegade Simon Gurdy? We've got to, otherwise we're all dead men in three hours. We don't know for sure they've got cannon. Even if they haven't cannon, we can't hold out forever. There's help coming from Boonesboro. But how do we know that Ashley got through safe? No, let's all go back while we got the chance. No, no, no, help come from Boonesboro, we can see. Who are in favor of going? Who says stay? Well, it seems as if half of us want one thing and half want the other. One minute, please. I've got another vote to cast here. The women can't vote here. Well, I'm not suggesting they do, sir. But I brought my son Thomas here with me to cast his vote. His father was killed in line of duty for this Kentucky frontier, for all of us here at Bryant Station. And I think there's that much inheritance due my son. And so do I, ma'am. How do you vote, son? I say we should tell Simon Gurdy to go to the bad place where he belongs. That's right, ma'am. Did I say right, ma'am? Well, look here, this makes no sense, Thomas. He's probably put the words right in his mouth for him. I put them in yours, Mr. Bannister, to trust Simon Gurdy, the man who watched my husband burned at the stake by the wind-outs and didn't lift a hand to save him. How can you be such fools? Yes, but maybe Gurdy means what he says about sparing us this time. Even if he did, I tell you we've got to stay. We came here for a better chance, all of us. And I'm going to see that my children get that chance. What do you say, men? Do we quit with Bannister or do we fight with the ladies? We fight! Well, looks like they're getting ready to attack. Do you suppose they have the artillery? This is one way to find out. It sure is, Captain. You know, Mrs. Potter, it occurs to me that there are four bachelors at this place. I thought of that myself. Now, I know that I could never take the place of your husband or anything like that, but... Well, maybe, maybe, ma'am, if we pull through here, I could help your young ones get that better chance that you talked about. Captain Briggs. Yes, Mrs. Potter. Captain, I think perhaps you could. Well, I'd consider it a real honor. What's that about? Father drum's starting, Captain. I don't know. What's that? Captain Briggs, do you hear that? I sure do, Hawkins. A militia from Boonesboro, Mrs. Potter. And I was saying that I'd like it fine if you'd...if you'd marry me. I'd like it fine, too, Captain. And that's the story of Bryant Station and of its frontier folk in the Kentucky wilderness of 1782. And the nation they helped secure was one day to be served conspicuously by one of the persons there that day of battle, an infant in a cradle, Richard Mentor Johnson, who grew up to become ninth vice president of the United States. Later on in Washington, people used to say, he must have come from good, courageous stock. If you ask us, we'd say so, too. Next week, Cavalcade will present the popular Hollywood stars Linda Darnell and John Hodiac in an original radio play, The Blue Cockade. It's a love story set against the background of danger at Morristown, New Jersey during the American Revolution. Be sure to join Cavalcade next week then for Linda Darnell and John Hodiac. Tonight's DuPont Cavalcade, Bryant Station, was an original radio play written by Frank Gabrielson and was suggested by a chapter entitled, Jemima Johnson, in the book Women in American History by Grace Humphrey. The program was directed by Jack Zoller. Music was composed by Arden Cornwell and conducted by Donald Ryan. Chuck Webster played Captain Gregg. By uniting the fundraising campaigns of its participating organizations under the sign of the red feather, the Community Chess of America guarantee effective and total distribution of your funds to bring health and welfare to people in every walk of life. Remember, everybody benefits, everybody gives. This is Ted Pearson inviting you to listen next week to The Blue Cockade starring Linda Darnell and John Hodiac. Cavalcade of America comes to you each week from the stage of the Longacre Theater on Broadway in New York and is presented by the DuPont Company of Wilmington, Delaware. This is NBC, the national broadcasting company.
