Adelaide Exervia

One hundred years ago on October 23rd, 1838 at Fort Laramie, Wyoming, an Indian reservation at the time, a child was born to Battice [Batiste] and Sally Exervid. The father was a French trader who was very friendly with the Shoshone Indians and met Sally while stopping at this post on business.    

Sally was an orphan girl who was a full-blooded Shoshone Indian. Not much of her history is known because of the sad circumstances which shadowed her life. When she was only a baby, in the early part of 1800, a terrific battle took place at Battle Creek, Wyoming, between the Indians and a party of white soldiers who had been sent to this locality to investigate some Indian thefts.

As was so often the case, instead of trying to make peace with the Red Man, these self-righteous defenders of the law, took it upon themselves to settle the trouble by killing every one of this little band. But some kind fate had decreed a different ending for one soul, for as the victors were preparing to leave the field of battle, someone noticed a slight movement on the ground. On closer scrutiny, a wee infant was discovered suckling at its dead mother's breast.

Some brave full grown man exclaimed, "Nit's make lice, hit it in the head." But another spoke up and said, "No, let me have it, I will take it home with me, it will be quite a curiosity." And so the life of little Sally of the Shoshones was spared.

She was taken to St. Louis and adopted by some merchant with whom she lived for several years. Knowing that she was a native of the west, she longed to be reunited with her own people. When she was only a young girl she ran away from this unhappy home and began her search for her native tribe. It is told that she wandered for many days, at one time swimming a tributary of the Mississippi River before she reached the western ranges, where she finally found and settled with the Indians living at Fort Laramie, Wyoming.

After she was married to Battice Exervid, she traveled with him all over this western country. To them was born two children, Adeliette, or Adelaide as she was known, and [Ishamana] John [later known as Indian John or Shoshoni John]. Then the dreaded scourge of the pioneer days fell upon them and her husband Battice died from spotted fever. 

Still only a young woman, she was now a widow with two children to care for, facing the loneliness and dangerous life of the wild west, with such courage as only her race can have. 

            She returned to Wyoming, which was by this time being colonized by the Mormon Pioneers. The girl Adelaide, was taken into the home of President Brigham Young where she learned the ways of the refined white people. She learned to read and write and was very quick at figures. She learned the arts of good housekeeping and her French lineage asserted its talents, as she became proficient in cooking and fine sewing.

On the Fourth of July in 1855, young Jim Brown, nineteen years old to be exact, saw Adelaide Exervia for the first time. She had returned from Brigham Young's home in Salt Lake City with a party of pioneers bringing supplies to the reservation, to visit her mother and sisters, and as yet had not met the missionary who was stationed there. She was an attractive girl, slim and straight as an arrow, with sparkling black eyes and dark curly hair. A little celebration was in progress, and this young miss sat, or perched, on the top rail of the corral fence, swinging her bare legs, all unconscious of the admiring glances of young Brown. Inquiring from some of the others as to who she was, young Brown, without hesitation said, "Well I want to meet her right now, that is the girl I am going to marry." On the 24th of July, 1855, just twenty days later, they were married by James S. Brown, an uncle of Jimmies, then President of the Branch.