The 3-barrelled gun of Nate AUTEN
As told by Roy Kent, Hickory Corners, Michigan
He was here visiting the Leppers, probably looking over the Lepper girl he later married, when he went into the "creek" (Battle Creek). He had a 3 barrelled gun made in Battle Creek which is now in the possession of a family up in Montcalm Co., MI last I knew.
He had a shotgun barrell and I think 2 rifles, or 2 shotguns and a rifle on the same gun. An Indian approached him in the fields west of where he lived, raised his hand axe and yelled at him. There were a couple trees there and the Indian stayed in back of one of them. He would jump out and holler and then jump in back of the tree again. Finally Auten had enough and shot into the edge of a tree, missing the Indian. So the Indian came out and jumped back again and Auten took another shot. The Indian knew he was out of ammunition after firing 2 barrells, so he jumped out and walked slowly towards Mr. Auten, smiling as he touched the blade of his axe. Ole Nate aimed again and the Indian just laughed. Auten shot him in the chest and killed him, said he sure looked surprised when the third shot went off, so ended the fight. Nate had to bury him, took the axe home and never told anyone for years for fear of trouble with Indians.
TKS NOTE:
As told to me by Nathaniel Auten's great-granddaughter, Glema (Lee) Prentice. In later years during a hunting outing, Nathaniel accidentally killed himself when his gun discharged while falling off a fence he was climbing over.
How ironic it would be if this was the same gun that killed the Indian years earlier?
