DUANE
Duane's take
The official marker for Todd Mountain tells it this way, and I'll do my best to honor every word of it. Out here in Mason County, this mountain carries a name — and that name carries a weight that doesn't lighten with the telling. The mountain is named for the family of George W.
Todd, the first Mason County clerk. And to understand why this particular piece of ground holds their name, you have to go back to late December of 1864, when the Todd family was traveling — making their way to Mason — and the road brought them right through this site. What happened here was an attack.
Indians struck the party at this very location. A twelve-year-old Black servant girl was killed. Thirteen-year-old Alice Todd was taken captive.
And Dizenia Peters Todd — wife, mother, born in 1826 — was wounded. Wounded severely. Dizenia held on.
About three weeks, she held on. Then, in January of 1865, she was gone. She and the servant girl were buried here — in unmarked graves, a hundred and fifty yards southeast of where you're standing right now.
No stones. No names cut into anything. Just the ground.
Now, somewhere out there, the war was ending. And an older half-brother named James Smith came back from the Civil War and did what a man does when he comes home to find his family shattered — he went looking. For several months, James Smith searched for Alice Todd.
He never found her. That's the whole of it, and it doesn't get easier at the end. Two women in unmarked graves just down that slope.
A girl named Alice, never found. And a mountain that holds the name Todd — so the rest of us don't forget who passed through here, and what it cost them.
What the marker says
Named for family of George W. Todd, first Mason County clerk, which was attacked by Indians at this site while en route to Mason in late Dec. 1864. A 12-year-old Black servant girl was killed, 13-year-old Alice Todd taken captive, and Todd's wife, Dizenia Peters Todd (b.1826), wounded severely. Mrs. Todd died about 3 weeks later, in Jan. 1865. An older half-brother, James Smith, returned from the Civil War and searched for Alice for several months, but she was never found. Mrs. Todd and the servant girl were buried in unmarked graves, (150 yards southeast). (1974)