DRAPER MSS: Interviews with Rhoda Long GROUND & Joseph CONWAY FROM: Margaret Bates DATE: 08 Apr 2000 18:30 Draper MSS, Volume 29, Series Jp18 Birds Expeddition - Ruddles and Martins Forts Taken 1780 From Mrs. Rhoda Ground, Warren County, Kentucky. Trans. Form 325393, October 1844, Icde. (* marks paragraphs that are not part of Draper MSS, but explanatory in nature) Ruddles station taken June __ 1780 - The Indians first came and attacked the station, were repulsed. Sometime afterward they caime again, with canon and attacked, with the canon. An old man Goodnight was killed - Simon Girth and Miajah Calloway were with the enemy. Capt. Ruddles family - John Longs family consisting of himself, wife and five children, John Conaway, wife and seven children -- one of the latter a small boy was scalped, John Denton, wife and one daughter, recollects and perhaps other children; also a family of Sellars. ********************* *Simon Girty was born in Pa. in 1741. At the age of 15 he was captured by the Senecas and lived with them as a prisoner for three years. He was a loyalist and for some reason the Americans regarded him with greater detestation than for other of their foes, and he seems to have returned their feeling in full measure. Micajah Callaway was the brother of Daniel Boone's son-in-law, Flanders Callaway, and nephew of Col. Richard Callaway. Flanders Callaway was married to Jemima Boone, one of the girls who were kidnaped by the Shawnee Indians in 1776 and soon after, saved by her father, Daniel Boone. This kidnapping was an inspiration for a story in "The Last of the Mohicans." Micajah Callaway was captured at Blue Licks with Daniel Boone and several others of their salt-making party. Boone escaped a year later, and Micajah remained in captivity for five years and five months. It was common for Indians to bring their prisoners with them when they attacked the settlers, as was the case with Micajah when he was at Ruddell's Station. (Information on Micajah Callaway obtained in Daniel Boone's biography written by John Bakeless, sent by James Sellars -- sellarsj@hotmail.com -- September 1998.) ******************** Some of the prisenors were shortly after released: others were kept in captivity til Wayne's treaty of 1785. Mrs. Ground, one of the children of J. W. Long, was a small girl when taken, and can give no further particulars. ******************* *{Note: In Scott Hamilton Goodnight's history of the family he states that George Goodnight was massacreed at Fort Ruddle in the most barbous manner while his children were scattered among the Indians. The father of S. W. Goodnight was taken to Detroit and sold to the French and taken to Canada, while Elizabeth didn't get back to her people until she was 22 years old. This 'old man Goodnight' that Rhoda referred to must have been George Goodnight.} ******************* * Denotes exerpts from "Destruction of Ruddle's and Martin's Forts in the Revolutionary War" by Maude Ward Lafferty, subtitle, The Trail From Fort Ruddle to Fort Detroit. The rest of the data is direct from Draper MSS 24S169. Ruddle's Station Taken 1780 Ruddle's Station, taken 1780, Joseph conway (informant's father) was born in Green briar Co., Va., in 1763 -- Removed to Kentucky with his fathers family, and settled in Ruddle's Station. Henry Greffore Pursley & others also resided there. About 200 Indians came and attacked the fort -- found one end of the fort unfinished; and the whites hastened & finished it, putting up pickets; & that evening the Indians made a violent attack & whites returned the fire; none were injured in the fort, & not certain that they killed nay Indians. Next morning retired, & the whites found many articles which they had dropped. The Indians continued to hover around for a couple of weeks, & then retired. Jos Conway and two others went out about a mile and a half reconnoitering, when Conway was shot by a party of three Indians, and wounded in the left side, and was caught and tomakawked breaking his skull, & scalped, & left for dead. The others escaped unharmed. The reports of the guns were heard at the fort, & a party went out and met the two fugutives returning, who reported that Conway was killed' they went on & brought in Conway, who was graduly recovering, when the Indians sent to Detroit for reenforcements & canon. Two weeks after Conway was wounded, Col. Bird and a party appeared with canon. They first fired a cannon shot and missed, then a second shot, which knocked out a corner of a blockhouse, & then the inmates concluded the British & Indians could take the place, & listened to terms. The British pledged protection to the prisonors & they & property were not to be surrendered to the Indians; but no effort was made by the British to fulfil their pledge. ******************* *Joseph Conway, who had been scalped by the Indians two weeks before, was claimed by an old Indian whose daughter was allowed to travel with him to dress his bandaged head. *Conway with his head bandaged was taken by an old Indian and his son who were really kind to him; thay also took an unmarried sister of Conway's older than he was, who dressed his head. Before leaving Ruddle's, one Indian tore off the bandage, but he was repelled by the old Indian and his son as interfering with their prisoner. *Over that narrow trail, the largest body of people ever gathered together in the wilderness of Kentucky, wended their way into Indian country, about 1,200 of these consisting of the invading force, and about 470 miserable prisoners, loaded down with household plunder from their own cabin homes. Captain Bird himself reported the miserable northward trek in a letter to Major DePeyster, written July 1, 1780: "I marched the poor wemen & children 20 miles in one day over very high mountains, frightening them with frequent alarms to push them forward, in short. Sir, by water & land we came with all our cannon & c., 40 miles in 4 days...rowing fifty miles the last day -- we have no meat and must subsist on flour if there is nothing for us at Lorimiers (Lorimers)." *A kettle on the head of a gentlewoman, Mrs. Peter Smith, so injured her scalp that the hair never grew on her head again, and she wore a cap the rest of her days. *Mrs. Honn and her daughter, Katherine, were among the captives from Ruddle's. Katherine, a fleet-footed girl of eighteen, was chased by the Indians a half a mile while running the gauntlet and was knocked down by an Indian club. *Captain Hare was very kind. Would stay behind out of Byrd's sight to give Mahan, the old man, an opportunity of riding his horse. *The Indians killed and scalped a number of children because they could not keep up on the march. They seemed, however to have taken a fancy to little Johnie Lail, two years old, and decided if he would make a "Good Indian," rolling him rapidly down the river bank. He didn't cry, thus securing his own adoption and that of his brother, George, three years older. Johnnie came back to Kentucky after Wayne's treaty and lived to be an old and useful citizen of Harrison County. George married an Indian and lived among the Indians many years. Finally, however, he came back to the home of his childhood, but his Indian wife deserted him and went back to her people. *They were taken directly to Detroit, and turned over to the British there, & remaind there four years. Conway was placed in the hospital, where he recovered, was placed on the limits & permitted to work as he could get employment. The rest of the Conway family, father & mother & two daughters, with two sons & daughters already there, all got together in Detroit. (Here, material from "The Leonhard Kratz Story" by John Helmut Merz, September 1998, is inserted.) *"(The women prisoners) were separated (from their husbands). They traveled by water in canoes, going north by day and resting on the river's shore by night. The captive men were herded north to Detroit on a strenuous overland march, burdened with whatever possessions the Indians saw fit to appropriate as spoils of war. They were heavily burdened, and would have starved except for the random kindness of some of the Indian women. *Maj. DePeyster wrote to LtCol. Mason Bolton on 4 Aug 1780 that Capt. Bird had arrived at Detroit that morning with 150 prisoners, mostly Germans who speak English. The remainder coming (the whole about 350). Capt. Bird's enclosure dated 24 Jul 1780 says that "many of the prisoners would not take the oath to the (American) Congress. I do not believe we have more than two famlies who are really rebels. The rest are desirous of being settled in Detroit with some land. They fled, they say, from persecution and declare if the Government will assist them to get them on foot as farmers, they will, as Militia, faithfully defent the country that affords them protection..." *The male prisoners were turned over to Detroit landowners, Alexander and William Macomb, sons of John Macomb from Albany, New York. John had purchased land from the Potawatomi Indians 6 Jul 1776, which included several islands in the Detroit River, among which were Hog Island, later renamed Belle Island, and Gross Ile. The same year, Lt. Governor Henry Hamilton granted William Macomb permission to occupy Gross Ile. In 1780, the original deed was acknowledged as a "volunteer act of the chiefs of the Potawatomi Nation" before Arent DePeyster, the newly appointed commander at Detroit. *The Macombs were friendly with the Indians, and claimed to have "bought" the prisoners. There is no evidence of such a sale, but the Indians may have received gifts in appreciation for bringing the prisoners to Detroit. *Leonhard Kratz, for one, was released, and watched for the arrival of the women down at the boat docks along the river. Finally, his wife Mary arrived, but without the infant with whom she began the trip. She had fallen and struck the baby's head on a tree, killing it instantly. She buried the child on the banks of the river, digging the grave with her bare hands. *The Kratz' accepted Macomb's offer to farm for them on Hog Island, and in 1781, a son Peter was born, named for Leonhard's father. *Capt. Isaac Ruddle and his wife (and many others) remained prisoners of the British until after the war. They returned to Bourbon County, Kentucky, in 1784. In 1788, Ruddell built a gristmill near nis new home on a branch of the Licking River. He died about 1808 and is buried in the old Presbyterian graveyard located outside Ruddell's Mills. There is a plaque at the cemetery, erected by the Commonwealth of Kentucky which states: "Near his home, Isaac Ruddell built a gristmill in 1788 on the north side of Hinkson bridge, and a sawmill in 1795 to be operated by his son Abram. A 720 spindle cotton mill erected 500 feet west by Thomas and Hugh Brent in 1828, burned 1836. Soon rebuilt by Abram Spears, it also spun wool until about 1855. Ruddell gave land for Stoner Mouth Church and cemetery. *(end Leonhard Kratz insertion) *And so the years passed. After the Ordinance of 1787 Ohio opened up for settlement and "the men who wore hats" began to build homes in the Indian country. Cincinnati and Marietta were laid out as towns, and the Ohio Company of Associates led by Israel Putman and Manasseh Cutler began a colonization scheme which was retarded by Indian atrocities. Notwithstanding the surrender at Yorktown and the end of the Revolution, England still held fast to Niagra and Detroit and continued to incite the Indians against the whites forcing the government to take measures to protect the infant settlements. General Harmer and General St. Clair suffered defeat, but Mad Anthony Wayne with his well trained army and his careful plans won so decisive a victory at the Battle of Fallen Timbers that the Indians sued for peace. The final treaty was signed on August 3, 1795, at Greenville, Ohio. A general exchange of all prisoners still held by the British and Indians took place. Wives and husbands were united who had been separated for years, and Kentucky parents welcomed to their hearthstones little children who had grown up among savages. *What happened to the rest of the captives? Who were they? What became of them after that sorrowful six-week journey to Detroit, Montreal and Makinac? *(summarized--some questions were answered because Lyman Draper became interested and followed up. About 250 names of soldiers and captives have been uncovered.) *Long: John W. Long, his wife (formerly a Conway), and Rhoda, age 6. Rhoda later married a man by the name of Ground and was living in Warren County, Kentucky in 1844. *Conway: John Conway, his wife and seven children. Among the children were Elizabeth, Sallie, six; John, twenty-two; and Joseph, fifteen. Elizabeth later married W.M. Daughterty. Sallie was returned to Kentucky when he was fifteen. *Conway, Samuel, a brother, his wife, two daughters and a son, Joseph. Joseph, born in 1763, had been wounded by Indians two weeks before his capture. (Note that Joseph Conway, brother of Samuel was scalped three days before capture.) *Goodnight: Michael Goodnight, Peter Goodnight, John Goodnight, and some girl children. *John Conway Jr. stated on his pension application that he was born August the 10th, 1758 in Henrico County, Virginia. Joseph Conway was born in Greenbrier County, Virginia Dec. 14th, 1763. Jesse Conway enlisted from Red Island, Montgomery County, Virginia. Samuel Conway, the oldest son, also enlisted from SW Virginia. John Conway served in Capt. William Herrod's Company in the Western Country, later to become Kentucky. He returned to Virginia and persuaded his family to move to the frontier. The ages of the children are given in one account as Samuel as 23, John Jr. as 21, Jesse as 18, Joseph as 16, Nancy as 9 and Sarah as 4 years old. This was in the year 1779. John Conway Sr. in one account is said to be a Latin teacher who had emgrated from Dublin, Ireland to Virginia. This has been neither proved nor disproved. John's wife, Elizabeth Bridgewater Conway was born in Virginia of English parents. She married John Conway ca 1752 and the birth dates of her five daughters and four sons ranged from Jan. 11, 1753 to June 25, 1775. Three of her daughters were married or had died when the family went to what is now Kentucky. While no marriage record has been found of Mary Conway and John Long, separate statements have been found that John Long's wife was a Conway and that her name was Mary. *Joseph Conway returned to Licking River & went on Harmer's & Wayne's Campaign. ***************************************************************** USGENWEB NOTICE: In keeping with our policy of providing free genealogical information on the Internet, data may be freely used for personal research and by non-commercial entities as long as this message remains on all copied material. These electronic pages may not be reproduced in any format or presentation by other organizations or persons. Persons or organizations desiring to use this material for profit or any form of presentation, must obtain the written consent of the file submitter, or his legal representative and then contact the listed USGENWEB archivist with proof of this consent. 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