Priscilla Estes (ca1770-ca1863) and Jacob Miller III (ca1763-ca1840), married 1788
Jacob Miller III was of German descent, his grandparents Jacob Mueller (ca1702-ca1768) and Catherine Mueller (ca1704-after 16 Aug 1768) having immigrated from present Germany and married in Pennsylvania before eventually migrating to Virginia's Shenandoah Valley and settling near the present city of Harrisonburg. Lilla's great grandfather, Abraham Estes Sr (ca1647-1720) was born in Nonington, Kent, England and migrated to Virginia where he married a woman named Barbara (ca1667-ca1720).
Priscilla was perhaps born in Lunenburg County, Virginia, where her parents Elisha Estes and Mary Stone Townsend appear to have married. A death record for George W Miller (ca1804-1872), son of Jacob and Prasilla Miller born in Estill County, Kentucky, gives his mother's birthplace as 'Green Brier,' possibly in reference to Greenbrier County formed from Virginia's Botecourt and Montgomery counties in 1778 or to Greenbrier Country as the area around the Greenbrier River was referred to in the days of European exploration and early settlement.
Monroe County was created from part of Greenbrier County in 1799. Estill County was formed from Clark and Madison counties in 1808.
Jacob Miller III was born in present Rockingham County, Virginia, then part of Augusta County, to Jacob Miller Jr and Elizabeth Fudge. He crossed the Alleghenies westward in 1775 with an expedition that included members of his extended family, settling on Rich Creek near the present city of Lindside, Monroe County, West Virginia. Elizabeth died 13 March 1777 and was buried on Rich Creek. Jacob Jr married secondly Margaret Sullivan and the family continued to grow.
Oren F Morton describes the pattern of migration taken by the Miller family in his History of Monroe County: 'It was but another step to push over the rampart west of the Shenandoah Valley, and occupy, one by one, the narrow but fertile valleys beyond. Thus the early settlers of Monroe were very largely the people from Ulster. Usually there was first a sojourn east of the Alleghany, and often it was the children of the immigrant families who were the first to move beyond the mountain barrier. . . . Among them were the Germans from the families who did so much to occupy the lower part of the Shenandoah.'
The marriage bond for 'Jacob Miller and Priscilla Estes both of Madison County' is dated 28 January 1788 and is signed by Jacob Miller and Joshua Townsend, Priscilla's older half brother. The couple were married in present Madison County, Kentucky in February 1788. Madison was formed in 1785 as Madison County, Virginia.
Jacob Miller III was a surety in marriage bonds for his daughter Elizabeth Miller's marriage to William Stufflebean (Estill Co KY, 23 Feb 1812), his son Jacob Miller's marriage to Anna Kincaid (Estill Co KY, 25 Sep 1816) and his daughter Ailsey (also spelled Elsie) Miller's marriage to James Chambers (Estill Co KY, 5 June 1824), signing with his mark. He gave his permission by proxy for the marriage of his son John Miller to Margaret Melton (Estill Co KY, May 1814) and he gave permission for his daughter Sarah Miller to marry Alford Willcockson (Estill Co KY, 29 Jan 1818). Jacob Miller requested the clerk of Estill County on 14 September 1822 to give license to marry to his daughter Pega (Margaret 'Peggy' Miller) and Ross Wilkerson in a document signed: Given under my own hand, Jacob Miller. See Kentucky, County Marriages, 1797-1954.
Jacob and Priscilla's daughters Delilah Miller Akers (1802-1868) and Elsie Miller Chambers Harlow Smoot (1810-1878) lived last in California (California, U.S., Pioneer and Immigrant Files. 1790-1950).
'The Original Roll and Muster of Scouts in the service of the United States, ordered by Brig. Gen. Charles Scott, of Ky., on the frontiers of Madison county, from May 1, 1792, to Aug. 22, 1792, embraces six names [including] Jacob Miller.' (Collins's History of Kentucky, Vol 2, 1874). A Scouts and Spies, Kentucky, 1790-1794 muster roll dated 9 July 1793 gives Jacob's residence as Madison and his age as 30 (U.S., Compiled Service Records, Post-Revolutionary War Volunteer Soldiers, 1784-1811).
'The Family of Jacob Miller, Jr., by his son Peter' is included as Chapter 3 of Genealogy of Jacob Miller and His Descendants by Everett W Miller. Peter, son of Jacob Jr and Margaret, writes 'Jacob, III, married an Estill [Note: The Estills were among the first settlers in Monroe County, one family settling on Indian Creek just below the mouth of Dropping Lick some years before the Millers and Manns settled there, according to Land Grants and Morton's History of Monroe County] and went to Kentucky where he raised a large family. At an advanced age he moved to Illinois where he died from bleeding at the nose. . . . This ends the story of Jacob Miller's (Junior) children, all of whom, that reached maturity, are members of the church, and nearly all are of the Methodist and have the characteristics of very industrious and quiet people.'
The bracketed material appears to have been inserted by Everett W Miller. Estill is perhaps a variant of Estes. Jacob's uncle John Miller Sr lived on Indian Creek in present Monroe County adjacent to early settler Wallace Estill in a house built by Jacob Miller Jr. Wallace's son Isaac was an executor of Jacob Jr's Will.
Jacob III sold his father 133 of 380 acres for $200 in 1797. See the chapter Early Land Conveyances Mostly Under Greenbrier, p 98, in Morton's History of Monroe County. Surveys of 800 and 400 acres on Station Camp Creek in Madison County were made for Jacob Miller 22 September 1796 and 24 September 1796, respectively, and a survey of 400 acres on Drowning Creek in Madison County was made for him 18 December 1797. See Kentucky, U.S., Land Grants, 1782-1924.
Station Camp Creek, in present Estill County, Kentucky, was the site of Daniel Boone's base camp for his 1769 exploration of Kentucky.
William Townsend mentions his wife Mary and sons Joshua and Thomas in his Will (Mecklenburg County Virginia, 12 April 1765). Mary Stone Townsend married Elisha Estes, Lilla's father, after William died.
Lilla and Jacob's fathers were both Revolutionary War patriots. The SAR application of Carey Wallace Dobbs gives the dates of Elisha Estis as 1739-1807 and cites a 'certificate done in Lunenburg Co. Va.; "waggoning" "Adding in getting Waggons" and for pasturage and feeding cattle."' The SAR application of Homer Basil Maddy records that Jacob Miller, 2nd (1726-1808) was in Capt. Mathias Cook's Company, that he gave supplies to the army according to Greenbrier County records and that he was a 'Ranger on the Frontier.'
'The inhabitants of Monroe and Greenbrier County saw little of the war except the trouble with the Indians,' according to Morton.
The Will of Jacob Miller Jr (Monroe County Virginia, 13 October 1800) mentions his 'son Jacob now living in the State of Kentucky.'
'Jacob Miller & Lilla his wife [were present] at a court continued and held for Lunenburg County [Virginia] the 12th of June 1812.' The record states that 'Joshua, Thomas, Nancy, Lilla, Mary, Sally, John and Andrew were children of Mary Estes, deceased, a daughter of Richard Stone, Senior, deceased.'
As a girl Priscilla was either taken by the Indians (likely the Shawnee) or asked to join them and she lived with them for several years. Initially unrecognized as White she appears to have been cut deeply in the head during Logan's Raid in 1786. Kentucky militia under General Benjamin Logan raided several undefended Shawnee villages along the Little Miami and Mad rivers in the Ohio Country while the warriors were away defending the villages of Chief Little Turtle from a force being led up the Wabash River by General George Rogers Clark. Chief Moluntha was murdered by one of Logan's men.
An 1843 letter from General Henry Lee of Kentucky to Lyman Draper (Draper Manuscript Papers 9BB) describes an event with an unidentified girl who was 'badly cut on the side of the head, exposing her brain to view . . . she was discovered to be a white girl who when a child of perhaps six years had been taken a prisoner from the Greenbrier country . . . she finally recovered . . . was taken to Lexington, where she was recognized by some friends there . . . her parents were notified of her and came and took her home' (transcript by Fonda Baselt). This account in Lee's letter (filed among correspondence titled Logan's Campaign of 1786) is similar to Priscilla's story as told by her descendants.
David Powell's 'The Amazing Story of Priscilla Estes' (2001) includes contributions from Lilla's descendants.
Descendant Cheri Dohnal shares this story:
It is said that when Priscilla was a child, her parents left all but the youngest child(ren) at home under the care of the oldest daughter, who was then about 12 years old. There were two young girls of about 6 and 8 (one of those was Priscilla), a boy about 10 I think, plus the 12 year old. The parents took the tiniest tot(s) with them and went "into town" to the mill to have their grain milled and would be gone for a few days. They told the children at home to stay close to the house and keep an eye out for Indians, who were still making occasional raids on families in the area at that time (about 1775-ish). One day the boy was out drawing water from the nearby creek, his gun right next to him. He saw Indians approaching and panicked, taking his rifle and shooting one of the Indians. This of course infuriated the rest of the Indians, who then killed the boy and headed for the house to raid it. The girls inside heard the commotion and ran for their hiding places. The oldest girl was found by the Indians and although she put up a good fight by jabbing at the Indians with pegs from her loom, they killed her and scalped her while the smaller girls hid away in the corn crib, which was behind or beside the parents' bed. (I have always wondered if this might have been the firewood crib, which would seem more logical). Amazingly, the Indians didn't find them, the story goes, but the youngest (Priscilla) crawled out of her hiding place as the Indians got back outside, and ran after them, saying she wanted to go with them. The Indians started to come after her with apparent intent to kill, until a squaw that was with them stopped them in their tracks. She carried on a very emotional conversation with the males until they finally agreed to let her have the child. She took Priscilla by the hand then and they rode away from the site of the massacre, but had to walk most of the long way to the tribal grounds while the warriors rode horseback.
Priscilla was raised by the tribe for the next 7 or 8 years, until one day a group of white men raided the Indian village, slaying many of its occupants including women and children. Priscilla got caught amidst a battle involving a large, machete type knife, getting her head sliced once in the process. Although only a flesh wound, it was a deep one that left a scar. The white men brought her back to their own village and society, where she eventually assimilated back into the white man's world and married Jacob. . . Her granddaughter (my ggggrandmother) Lucinda Stufflebeam later used to love to brush her grandmother's long hair, and passed this story down because she learned the story while combing Priscilla's hair. The comb would often "catch" a bit at the place where that scar remained. So Lucinda, who married Mason Eveland passed that story down to her children, one of whom was my gggrandfather, Henry J. Eveland, who passed it down to his daughter Della, who passed it down to her daughter Beulah, who passed it down to my mother Marjorie, and then to me.
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Descendant Marilyn Merritt writes 'My 2x great-grandmother tried to leave some history and as she could barely read or write (she was born in 1842) her daughter wrote the history.'
Here is what my gggrandmother wrote:
"Now listen to a little tale, told mother (Priscilla Ross Dealy) by her grandmother who had suffered so much in her early life, her name was Priscilla, of Greenbrier, her father was an early settler in Kentucky, the indians were very bad, so one day her father and mother went some distance to work in their cornfield and left their children in the care of a young married couple. The indians came but before they got there, they hid the children under sheltered tree trunks, my grandmother, she was seven years old, she feared the Indians and what they do to whites, she crawled out and told them that she would go with them, to save her sisters. They took her. She was raised by the indians untill she was eighteen years old. They entered a terrible battle which she received a terrible head wound from the white captain, he cut many of the squaws heads open. She had the back of her head split but did not enter the brain. She was taken care of by an old indian doctor. She learned nearly everything from the indians, their ways of doctrine and what to eat of wild vegetables. My mother learned of them their ways. When we had no food while father was gone, she went to the woods and gathered acorns, elm bark, crab apples, wild gog potatoes, artichokes and other stuff, so we did not starve." (IOWA 1851)
"We children had no shoes, only one garment to wear but plenty to eat of wild meat and honey, cornbread and pork, vegetables and good pies, we lived here until 1851 gradually prospered. But the California goldmines were discovered in 1849, father made up his mind to fix and go, there was a little sister borned for which my mother almost lost her life, layed sick a long time, my great grandmother came with grave clothes, she is the one the indians raised, she lived to be very old. My mother recovered, her babe's name was Anna Elizabeth. Father did not start until July 6, 1851, sold our home and moved to Taylor Co, IA. and was left in care of my mothers brother. One month before she gave birth to a son June 6 1851, she called him John Miller Dealy. Miller was my grandmothers maiden name, Nancy Miller."
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Priscilla's second great grandson, Earnest Willey Eveland (1889-1968), told his daughter Effie Eveland (1920-2006) family stories that he wanted to pass on and she typed them for him. I wrote to Cindy Foster, Priscilla's fourth great granddaughter, to ask her about the original manuscript, which is in her possession, and she replied 15 April 2023: 'Attached is a copy of Earnest Willey Eveland's manuscript. The original copy I have is on a nonstandard size paper (15" long) and I've never been able to scan it. The copy came to me from Earnest's cousin, my grandfather Floyd Selensky, who was close to Earnest. Floyd's sister, Kate, and Earnest were nearly the same age. Their parents farmed near each other in Lafayette Township, Bremer County, Iowa. The kids attended school together in a schoolhouse built by the neighbors.'
I inserted the bracketed material in the following excerpt.
My name is Earnest Willey Eveland. My first name was given to me for my looks. My middle name was my grandmother's maiden name, my mother's mother, Irish of course. I am the youngest son of Austin Eveland and Elizabeth Stufflebean. For many years it has been called "Stufflebeam," but it was originally "Stufflebean." My father's mother said so and so did my mother's father for both were Stufflebeans. My father and mother were cousins as you can see.
I was born in Bremer County, Iowa, close to the town of Waverly. We lived with my Grandmother Eveland [Lucinda Stufflebeam Eveland] when I can first remember. She lived in one end of the big, old-fashioned house and my parents in the other. When I was between five and ten years of age, I used to do her little chores, such as gathering eggs and carrying in her wood and water. I often ate supper with her and after supper, she would sit down by the fire, get her old, long-stemmed pipe going (for she smoked), put her feet on the footrest of the heater, and I would sit on her old foot-stool by her chair, and she would tell me the most wonderful stories, true stories, that she had experienced, known of, or that had been handed down to her. The one that I am about to relate is the most important and the most interesting. She said that she was born in the mountains of Kentucky near Boonesboro, and lived there until she was about eight years old. Then her father made a wagon all by himself, ironed it and all, and left Kentucky and came out to Illinois or Missouri, I am not quite sure which. I know that they did live in Missouri for a time, but settled permanently in Illinois, in what is now Fulton County, but I am getting ahead of my story.
Grandmother Eveland said that her grandmother's family lived somewhere in Kentucky and that when her grandmother was about eight years old something happened that was to affect the family for many generations.
When my Grandmother Eveland's grandmother was about eight years old, her mother and father and one or two small children took the ox team and went to the mill to get some corn ground, for practically the only bread they had in those days was bread from corn, leaving her and another girl about twelve years old, a grown girl and a grown boy about sixteen and eighteen years old, respectively. The parents would not be back for several days and warned them to keep a sharp lookout for Indians. It was the next day after the parents had left to go to the mill, that the grown boy was hoeing potatoes a short distance from the house. He had his gun with him. A small band of about fifty Indians in full war paint came out of the woods nearby and attacked him. He shot and killed one Indian, which of course enraged the rest of the Indians. They immediately killed and scalped him. This the girls of eight and twelve saw from the house and when the Indians started toward the house, they hid in an old-fashioned cradle, made from a hollow log, which was pushed far back under the high, old, four-poster cord bedstead, next to the outside wall of the log cabin. Somehow the Indians failed to find them there. She said that they watched from between a crack in the logs to see what the Indians would do next. A lone Indian attacked her, but she fought him so desperately with a big hunting knife, that she used to make pegs for her loom, that he was obliged to call another Indian. Between them, they killed and scalped her. Then they started to leave without burning the buildings, where at, this girl of eight said, "I want to go with them." The older girl said, "Well, go on if you do." She immediately got out of her hiding place and ran after the Indians. There was a commotion among the Indians and an old squaw stepped out and took hold of her hand and started to lead her toward the band. Then a warrior leaped at her with a raised tomahawk and would have killed her, but the old squaw threw a blanket around her and protected her. The warrior was determined to kill her and probably would have succeeded in doing so, but just then another Indian, apparently the leader of the band, interfered. After listening to the old squaw's babble for a moment, he spoke sharply to the other Indian who put up his tomahawk. The band moved on taking the little girl with them. After going a short distance, they came to a creek. People in those days usually built houses near a creek or river for water. They entered the creek and walked up it for some distance until they came to where they could step out on a solid rock ledge where they would leave no foot-prints. They travelled for several days until they came to an Indian village situated in a fertile valley between the hills where the Indians had some corn, pumpkins, beans and squashes growing. The valley was dotted with wigwams, the small fry were playing with the dogs and ponies were grazing peacefully. A peaceful scene which appealed even to those savages for they stood for a little time gazing down upon it before descending into the valley to their homes. Here the white girl lived for eight years. Then one fine morning when the Indians apparently least expected it, white soldiers accompanied by scouts, hunters, trappers, and Indians, on the order of Louis Wetzel [According to William Hintzen, 'When Col. Benjamin Logan destroyed the Shawnee villages at Wapatimoca (Logan County, Ohio) in 1786, it was Lewis Wetzel who was selected to return to Fort Harmar (Marietta, Ohio), to give the news of the expedition.'], poured down onto the Indian village from all sides, yelling, cursing, as savage as any Indians, and some of them just as blood-thirsty. A hand-to-hand battle ensued. They killed bucks, squaws, and papoose alike, this girl was struck across the head with a saber and thought at first to be dead. It was a glancing blow, however, and only stunned her, but left a deep scar across the top of her head. My grandmother said that in later years she combed her grandmother's hair many times and that the comb would always drop into this old saber cut. Great, great grandmother Miller said that the first thing she remembered after she came to, was an army physician working over her, some army officers, and some of those old, fire-easomeg Indian fighters standing by, and hearing an officer say, "Well, you've done it again, you fools. I told you not to start killing women and children. I talked to a trader a short time ago that had been trading with these Indians and he said that there were white women among them." As soon as she was able to travel, they took her back to the white settlement where she married a man by the name of Miller and raised a family. . .
As I myself am going on seventy-five years old, I want to get this finished and in readable form to give to any of the near relatives who may be interested in knowing the background of our family. In the foregoing, I have told the story of a family, which sprang from one who was picked up and thought at one time to be dead.
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'Akers family — they arrived in flood, but stayed to build' (The Fresno Guide, 9 June 1971) by Elizabeth Fiske and Donna Hull records a story as written into her husband's Bible by Mary Jane Akers Hazelton (1840-1910), Priscilla's granddaughter: "Grandmother Miller was rescued from the Indians about the year 1770 in a battle between the whites and the Indians in the State of Kentucky. She had been taken prisoner by the Indians when a child and had no recollection of her parents. She was about 14 or 15 at the time she was taken from the Indians. The whites were in pursuit of the Indians, and rushing upon them, took them by surprise. They scattered and ran. The Americans being on horseback killed a good many of the Indians, and after the battle, in looking over the battlefield, found this girl, wounded, with a deep sword cut in the head. They dressed her wound, saved her life, and took care of her. She had blue eyes and fair skin."
The Akers family left Kentucky for Austin, Texas and later migrated to California. The stone for Harvey Akers, Priscilla's grandson, gives his dates as 1826-1911 and is inscribed 'One of the first settlers on the King River in 1852.' The article continues 'Harvey Akers often recalled their leaving, when he was a boy of twelve. He remembered his Grandmother Miller who remained in Kentucky, as he last saw her, sitting in her rocking chair, the old sabre scar still visible on her forehead. She was about eighty years old at that time, and she lived many years after that.'
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lili li
6 May 2023
lili li née Loretta McKay Masters of Clay Masters of Millage Lee Masters Sr of Henry Lee Masters of Marthenas Hinshaw of Nancy Miller of John Miller of Jacob Miller III and Priscilla Estes
Jacob Miller III was of German descent, his grandparents Jacob Mueller (ca1702-ca1768) and Catherine Mueller (ca1704-after 16 Aug 1768) having immigrated from present Germany and married in Pennsylvania before eventually migrating to Virginia's Shenandoah Valley and settling near the present city of Harrisonburg. Lilla's great grandfather, Abraham Estes Sr (ca1647-1720) was born in Nonington, Kent, England and migrated to Virginia where he married a woman named Barbara (ca1667-ca1720).
Priscilla was perhaps born in Lunenburg County, Virginia, where her parents Elisha Estes and Mary Stone Townsend appear to have married. A death record for George W Miller (ca1804-1872), son of Jacob and Prasilla Miller born in Estill County, Kentucky, gives his mother's birthplace as 'Green Brier,' possibly in reference to Greenbrier County formed from Virginia's Botecourt and Montgomery counties in 1778 or to Greenbrier Country as the area around the Greenbrier River was referred to in the days of European exploration and early settlement.
Monroe County was created from part of Greenbrier County in 1799. Estill County was formed from Clark and Madison counties in 1808.
Jacob Miller III was born in present Rockingham County, Virginia, then part of Augusta County, to Jacob Miller Jr and Elizabeth Fudge. He crossed the Alleghenies westward in 1775 with an expedition that included members of his extended family, settling on Rich Creek near the present city of Lindside, Monroe County, West Virginia. Elizabeth died 13 March 1777 and was buried on Rich Creek. Jacob Jr married secondly Margaret Sullivan and the family continued to grow.
Oren F Morton describes the pattern of migration taken by the Miller family in his History of Monroe County: 'It was but another step to push over the rampart west of the Shenandoah Valley, and occupy, one by one, the narrow but fertile valleys beyond. Thus the early settlers of Monroe were very largely the people from Ulster. Usually there was first a sojourn east of the Alleghany, and often it was the children of the immigrant families who were the first to move beyond the mountain barrier. . . . Among them were the Germans from the families who did so much to occupy the lower part of the Shenandoah.'
The marriage bond for 'Jacob Miller and Priscilla Estes both of Madison County' is dated 28 January 1788 and is signed by Jacob Miller and Joshua Townsend, Priscilla's older half brother. The couple were married in present Madison County, Kentucky in February 1788. Madison was formed in 1785 as Madison County, Virginia.
Jacob Miller III was a surety in marriage bonds for his daughter Elizabeth Miller's marriage to William Stufflebean (Estill Co KY, 23 Feb 1812), his son Jacob Miller's marriage to Anna Kincaid (Estill Co KY, 25 Sep 1816) and his daughter Ailsey (also spelled Elsie) Miller's marriage to James Chambers (Estill Co KY, 5 June 1824), signing with his mark. He gave his permission by proxy for the marriage of his son John Miller to Margaret Melton (Estill Co KY, May 1814) and he gave permission for his daughter Sarah Miller to marry Alford Willcockson (Estill Co KY, 29 Jan 1818). Jacob Miller requested the clerk of Estill County on 14 September 1822 to give license to marry to his daughter Pega (Margaret 'Peggy' Miller) and Ross Wilkerson in a document signed: Given under my own hand, Jacob Miller. See Kentucky, County Marriages, 1797-1954.
Jacob and Priscilla's daughters Delilah Miller Akers (1802-1868) and Elsie Miller Chambers Harlow Smoot (1810-1878) lived last in California (California, U.S., Pioneer and Immigrant Files. 1790-1950).
'The Original Roll and Muster of Scouts in the service of the United States, ordered by Brig. Gen. Charles Scott, of Ky., on the frontiers of Madison county, from May 1, 1792, to Aug. 22, 1792, embraces six names [including] Jacob Miller.' (Collins's History of Kentucky, Vol 2, 1874). A Scouts and Spies, Kentucky, 1790-1794 muster roll dated 9 July 1793 gives Jacob's residence as Madison and his age as 30 (U.S., Compiled Service Records, Post-Revolutionary War Volunteer Soldiers, 1784-1811).
'The Family of Jacob Miller, Jr., by his son Peter' is included as Chapter 3 of Genealogy of Jacob Miller and His Descendants by Everett W Miller. Peter, son of Jacob Jr and Margaret, writes 'Jacob, III, married an Estill [Note: The Estills were among the first settlers in Monroe County, one family settling on Indian Creek just below the mouth of Dropping Lick some years before the Millers and Manns settled there, according to Land Grants and Morton's History of Monroe County] and went to Kentucky where he raised a large family. At an advanced age he moved to Illinois where he died from bleeding at the nose. . . . This ends the story of Jacob Miller's (Junior) children, all of whom, that reached maturity, are members of the church, and nearly all are of the Methodist and have the characteristics of very industrious and quiet people.'
The bracketed material appears to have been inserted by Everett W Miller. Estill is perhaps a variant of Estes. Jacob's uncle John Miller Sr lived on Indian Creek in present Monroe County adjacent to early settler Wallace Estill in a house built by Jacob Miller Jr. Wallace's son Isaac was an executor of Jacob Jr's Will.
Jacob III sold his father 133 of 380 acres for $200 in 1797. See the chapter Early Land Conveyances Mostly Under Greenbrier, p 98, in Morton's History of Monroe County. Surveys of 800 and 400 acres on Station Camp Creek in Madison County were made for Jacob Miller 22 September 1796 and 24 September 1796, respectively, and a survey of 400 acres on Drowning Creek in Madison County was made for him 18 December 1797. See Kentucky, U.S., Land Grants, 1782-1924.
Station Camp Creek, in present Estill County, Kentucky, was the site of Daniel Boone's base camp for his 1769 exploration of Kentucky.
William Townsend mentions his wife Mary and sons Joshua and Thomas in his Will (Mecklenburg County Virginia, 12 April 1765). Mary Stone Townsend married Elisha Estes, Lilla's father, after William died.
Lilla and Jacob's fathers were both Revolutionary War patriots. The SAR application of Carey Wallace Dobbs gives the dates of Elisha Estis as 1739-1807 and cites a 'certificate done in Lunenburg Co. Va.; "waggoning" "Adding in getting Waggons" and for pasturage and feeding cattle."' The SAR application of Homer Basil Maddy records that Jacob Miller, 2nd (1726-1808) was in Capt. Mathias Cook's Company, that he gave supplies to the army according to Greenbrier County records and that he was a 'Ranger on the Frontier.'
'The inhabitants of Monroe and Greenbrier County saw little of the war except the trouble with the Indians,' according to Morton.
The Will of Jacob Miller Jr (Monroe County Virginia, 13 October 1800) mentions his 'son Jacob now living in the State of Kentucky.'
'Jacob Miller & Lilla his wife [were present] at a court continued and held for Lunenburg County [Virginia] the 12th of June 1812.' The record states that 'Joshua, Thomas, Nancy, Lilla, Mary, Sally, John and Andrew were children of Mary Estes, deceased, a daughter of Richard Stone, Senior, deceased.'
As a girl Priscilla was either taken by the Indians (likely the Shawnee) or asked to join them and she lived with them for several years. Initially unrecognized as White she appears to have been cut deeply in the head during Logan's Raid in 1786. Kentucky militia under General Benjamin Logan raided several undefended Shawnee villages along the Little Miami and Mad rivers in the Ohio Country while the warriors were away defending the villages of Chief Little Turtle from a force being led up the Wabash River by General George Rogers Clark. Chief Moluntha was murdered by one of Logan's men.
An 1843 letter from General Henry Lee of Kentucky to Lyman Draper (Draper Manuscript Papers 9BB) describes an event with an unidentified girl who was 'badly cut on the side of the head, exposing her brain to view . . . she was discovered to be a white girl who when a child of perhaps six years had been taken a prisoner from the Greenbrier country . . . she finally recovered . . . was taken to Lexington, where she was recognized by some friends there . . . her parents were notified of her and came and took her home' (transcript by Fonda Baselt). This account in Lee's letter (filed among correspondence titled Logan's Campaign of 1786) is similar to Priscilla's story as told by her descendants.
David Powell's 'The Amazing Story of Priscilla Estes' (2001) includes contributions from Lilla's descendants.
Descendant Cheri Dohnal shares this story:
It is said that when Priscilla was a child, her parents left all but the youngest child(ren) at home under the care of the oldest daughter, who was then about 12 years old. There were two young girls of about 6 and 8 (one of those was Priscilla), a boy about 10 I think, plus the 12 year old. The parents took the tiniest tot(s) with them and went "into town" to the mill to have their grain milled and would be gone for a few days. They told the children at home to stay close to the house and keep an eye out for Indians, who were still making occasional raids on families in the area at that time (about 1775-ish). One day the boy was out drawing water from the nearby creek, his gun right next to him. He saw Indians approaching and panicked, taking his rifle and shooting one of the Indians. This of course infuriated the rest of the Indians, who then killed the boy and headed for the house to raid it. The girls inside heard the commotion and ran for their hiding places. The oldest girl was found by the Indians and although she put up a good fight by jabbing at the Indians with pegs from her loom, they killed her and scalped her while the smaller girls hid away in the corn crib, which was behind or beside the parents' bed. (I have always wondered if this might have been the firewood crib, which would seem more logical). Amazingly, the Indians didn't find them, the story goes, but the youngest (Priscilla) crawled out of her hiding place as the Indians got back outside, and ran after them, saying she wanted to go with them. The Indians started to come after her with apparent intent to kill, until a squaw that was with them stopped them in their tracks. She carried on a very emotional conversation with the males until they finally agreed to let her have the child. She took Priscilla by the hand then and they rode away from the site of the massacre, but had to walk most of the long way to the tribal grounds while the warriors rode horseback.
Priscilla was raised by the tribe for the next 7 or 8 years, until one day a group of white men raided the Indian village, slaying many of its occupants including women and children. Priscilla got caught amidst a battle involving a large, machete type knife, getting her head sliced once in the process. Although only a flesh wound, it was a deep one that left a scar. The white men brought her back to their own village and society, where she eventually assimilated back into the white man's world and married Jacob. . . Her granddaughter (my ggggrandmother) Lucinda Stufflebeam later used to love to brush her grandmother's long hair, and passed this story down because she learned the story while combing Priscilla's hair. The comb would often "catch" a bit at the place where that scar remained. So Lucinda, who married Mason Eveland passed that story down to her children, one of whom was my gggrandfather, Henry J. Eveland, who passed it down to his daughter Della, who passed it down to her daughter Beulah, who passed it down to my mother Marjorie, and then to me.
~
Descendant Marilyn Merritt writes 'My 2x great-grandmother tried to leave some history and as she could barely read or write (she was born in 1842) her daughter wrote the history.'
Here is what my gggrandmother wrote:
"Now listen to a little tale, told mother (Priscilla Ross Dealy) by her grandmother who had suffered so much in her early life, her name was Priscilla, of Greenbrier, her father was an early settler in Kentucky, the indians were very bad, so one day her father and mother went some distance to work in their cornfield and left their children in the care of a young married couple. The indians came but before they got there, they hid the children under sheltered tree trunks, my grandmother, she was seven years old, she feared the Indians and what they do to whites, she crawled out and told them that she would go with them, to save her sisters. They took her. She was raised by the indians untill she was eighteen years old. They entered a terrible battle which she received a terrible head wound from the white captain, he cut many of the squaws heads open. She had the back of her head split but did not enter the brain. She was taken care of by an old indian doctor. She learned nearly everything from the indians, their ways of doctrine and what to eat of wild vegetables. My mother learned of them their ways. When we had no food while father was gone, she went to the woods and gathered acorns, elm bark, crab apples, wild gog potatoes, artichokes and other stuff, so we did not starve." (IOWA 1851)
"We children had no shoes, only one garment to wear but plenty to eat of wild meat and honey, cornbread and pork, vegetables and good pies, we lived here until 1851 gradually prospered. But the California goldmines were discovered in 1849, father made up his mind to fix and go, there was a little sister borned for which my mother almost lost her life, layed sick a long time, my great grandmother came with grave clothes, she is the one the indians raised, she lived to be very old. My mother recovered, her babe's name was Anna Elizabeth. Father did not start until July 6, 1851, sold our home and moved to Taylor Co, IA. and was left in care of my mothers brother. One month before she gave birth to a son June 6 1851, she called him John Miller Dealy. Miller was my grandmothers maiden name, Nancy Miller."
~
Priscilla's second great grandson, Earnest Willey Eveland (1889-1968), told his daughter Effie Eveland (1920-2006) family stories that he wanted to pass on and she typed them for him. I wrote to Cindy Foster, Priscilla's fourth great granddaughter, to ask her about the original manuscript, which is in her possession, and she replied 15 April 2023: 'Attached is a copy of Earnest Willey Eveland's manuscript. The original copy I have is on a nonstandard size paper (15" long) and I've never been able to scan it. The copy came to me from Earnest's cousin, my grandfather Floyd Selensky, who was close to Earnest. Floyd's sister, Kate, and Earnest were nearly the same age. Their parents farmed near each other in Lafayette Township, Bremer County, Iowa. The kids attended school together in a schoolhouse built by the neighbors.'
I inserted the bracketed material in the following excerpt.
My name is Earnest Willey Eveland. My first name was given to me for my looks. My middle name was my grandmother's maiden name, my mother's mother, Irish of course. I am the youngest son of Austin Eveland and Elizabeth Stufflebean. For many years it has been called "Stufflebeam," but it was originally "Stufflebean." My father's mother said so and so did my mother's father for both were Stufflebeans. My father and mother were cousins as you can see.
I was born in Bremer County, Iowa, close to the town of Waverly. We lived with my Grandmother Eveland [Lucinda Stufflebeam Eveland] when I can first remember. She lived in one end of the big, old-fashioned house and my parents in the other. When I was between five and ten years of age, I used to do her little chores, such as gathering eggs and carrying in her wood and water. I often ate supper with her and after supper, she would sit down by the fire, get her old, long-stemmed pipe going (for she smoked), put her feet on the footrest of the heater, and I would sit on her old foot-stool by her chair, and she would tell me the most wonderful stories, true stories, that she had experienced, known of, or that had been handed down to her. The one that I am about to relate is the most important and the most interesting. She said that she was born in the mountains of Kentucky near Boonesboro, and lived there until she was about eight years old. Then her father made a wagon all by himself, ironed it and all, and left Kentucky and came out to Illinois or Missouri, I am not quite sure which. I know that they did live in Missouri for a time, but settled permanently in Illinois, in what is now Fulton County, but I am getting ahead of my story.
Grandmother Eveland said that her grandmother's family lived somewhere in Kentucky and that when her grandmother was about eight years old something happened that was to affect the family for many generations.
When my Grandmother Eveland's grandmother was about eight years old, her mother and father and one or two small children took the ox team and went to the mill to get some corn ground, for practically the only bread they had in those days was bread from corn, leaving her and another girl about twelve years old, a grown girl and a grown boy about sixteen and eighteen years old, respectively. The parents would not be back for several days and warned them to keep a sharp lookout for Indians. It was the next day after the parents had left to go to the mill, that the grown boy was hoeing potatoes a short distance from the house. He had his gun with him. A small band of about fifty Indians in full war paint came out of the woods nearby and attacked him. He shot and killed one Indian, which of course enraged the rest of the Indians. They immediately killed and scalped him. This the girls of eight and twelve saw from the house and when the Indians started toward the house, they hid in an old-fashioned cradle, made from a hollow log, which was pushed far back under the high, old, four-poster cord bedstead, next to the outside wall of the log cabin. Somehow the Indians failed to find them there. She said that they watched from between a crack in the logs to see what the Indians would do next. A lone Indian attacked her, but she fought him so desperately with a big hunting knife, that she used to make pegs for her loom, that he was obliged to call another Indian. Between them, they killed and scalped her. Then they started to leave without burning the buildings, where at, this girl of eight said, "I want to go with them." The older girl said, "Well, go on if you do." She immediately got out of her hiding place and ran after the Indians. There was a commotion among the Indians and an old squaw stepped out and took hold of her hand and started to lead her toward the band. Then a warrior leaped at her with a raised tomahawk and would have killed her, but the old squaw threw a blanket around her and protected her. The warrior was determined to kill her and probably would have succeeded in doing so, but just then another Indian, apparently the leader of the band, interfered. After listening to the old squaw's babble for a moment, he spoke sharply to the other Indian who put up his tomahawk. The band moved on taking the little girl with them. After going a short distance, they came to a creek. People in those days usually built houses near a creek or river for water. They entered the creek and walked up it for some distance until they came to where they could step out on a solid rock ledge where they would leave no foot-prints. They travelled for several days until they came to an Indian village situated in a fertile valley between the hills where the Indians had some corn, pumpkins, beans and squashes growing. The valley was dotted with wigwams, the small fry were playing with the dogs and ponies were grazing peacefully. A peaceful scene which appealed even to those savages for they stood for a little time gazing down upon it before descending into the valley to their homes. Here the white girl lived for eight years. Then one fine morning when the Indians apparently least expected it, white soldiers accompanied by scouts, hunters, trappers, and Indians, on the order of Louis Wetzel [According to William Hintzen, 'When Col. Benjamin Logan destroyed the Shawnee villages at Wapatimoca (Logan County, Ohio) in 1786, it was Lewis Wetzel who was selected to return to Fort Harmar (Marietta, Ohio), to give the news of the expedition.'], poured down onto the Indian village from all sides, yelling, cursing, as savage as any Indians, and some of them just as blood-thirsty. A hand-to-hand battle ensued. They killed bucks, squaws, and papoose alike, this girl was struck across the head with a saber and thought at first to be dead. It was a glancing blow, however, and only stunned her, but left a deep scar across the top of her head. My grandmother said that in later years she combed her grandmother's hair many times and that the comb would always drop into this old saber cut. Great, great grandmother Miller said that the first thing she remembered after she came to, was an army physician working over her, some army officers, and some of those old, fire-easomeg Indian fighters standing by, and hearing an officer say, "Well, you've done it again, you fools. I told you not to start killing women and children. I talked to a trader a short time ago that had been trading with these Indians and he said that there were white women among them." As soon as she was able to travel, they took her back to the white settlement where she married a man by the name of Miller and raised a family. . .
As I myself am going on seventy-five years old, I want to get this finished and in readable form to give to any of the near relatives who may be interested in knowing the background of our family. In the foregoing, I have told the story of a family, which sprang from one who was picked up and thought at one time to be dead.
~
'Akers family — they arrived in flood, but stayed to build' (The Fresno Guide, 9 June 1971) by Elizabeth Fiske and Donna Hull records a story as written into her husband's Bible by Mary Jane Akers Hazelton (1840-1910), Priscilla's granddaughter: "Grandmother Miller was rescued from the Indians about the year 1770 in a battle between the whites and the Indians in the State of Kentucky. She had been taken prisoner by the Indians when a child and had no recollection of her parents. She was about 14 or 15 at the time she was taken from the Indians. The whites were in pursuit of the Indians, and rushing upon them, took them by surprise. They scattered and ran. The Americans being on horseback killed a good many of the Indians, and after the battle, in looking over the battlefield, found this girl, wounded, with a deep sword cut in the head. They dressed her wound, saved her life, and took care of her. She had blue eyes and fair skin."
The Akers family left Kentucky for Austin, Texas and later migrated to California. The stone for Harvey Akers, Priscilla's grandson, gives his dates as 1826-1911 and is inscribed 'One of the first settlers on the King River in 1852.' The article continues 'Harvey Akers often recalled their leaving, when he was a boy of twelve. He remembered his Grandmother Miller who remained in Kentucky, as he last saw her, sitting in her rocking chair, the old sabre scar still visible on her forehead. She was about eighty years old at that time, and she lived many years after that.'
***
lili li
6 May 2023
lili li née Loretta McKay Masters of Clay Masters of Millage Lee Masters Sr of Henry Lee Masters of Marthenas Hinshaw of Nancy Miller of John Miller of Jacob Miller III and Priscilla Estes
Priscilla Estes (ca1770-ca1863) and Jacob Miller III (ca1763-ca1840), married 1788
Jacob Miller III was of German descent, his grandparents Jacob Mueller (ca1702-ca1768) and Catherine Mueller (ca1704-after 16 Aug 1768) having immigrated from present Germany and married in Pennsylvania before eventually migrating to Virginia's Shenandoah Valley and settling near the present city of Harrisonburg. Lilla's great grandfather, Abraham Estes Sr (ca1647-1720) was born in Nonington, Kent, England and migrated to Virginia where he married a woman named Barbara (ca1667-ca1720).
Priscilla was perhaps born in Lunenburg County, Virginia, where her parents Elisha Estes and Mary Stone Townsend appear to have married. A death record for George W Miller (ca1804-1872), son of Jacob and Prasilla Miller born in Estill County, Kentucky, gives his mother's birthplace as 'Green Brier,' possibly in reference to Greenbrier County formed from Virginia's Botecourt and Montgomery counties in 1778 or to Greenbrier Country as the area around the Greenbrier River was referred to in the days of European exploration and early settlement.
Monroe County was created from part of Greenbrier County in 1799. Estill County was formed from Clark and Madison counties in 1808.
Jacob Miller III was born in present Rockingham County, Virginia, then part of Augusta County, to Jacob Miller Jr and Elizabeth Fudge. He crossed the Alleghenies westward in 1775 with an expedition that included members of his extended family, settling on Rich Creek near the present city of Lindside, Monroe County, West Virginia. Elizabeth died 13 March 1777 and was buried on Rich Creek. Jacob Jr married secondly Margaret Sullivan and the family continued to grow.
Oren F Morton describes the pattern of migration taken by the Miller family in his History of Monroe County: 'It was but another step to push over the rampart west of the Shenandoah Valley, and occupy, one by one, the narrow but fertile valleys beyond. Thus the early settlers of Monroe were very largely the people from Ulster. Usually there was first a sojourn east of the Alleghany, and often it was the children of the immigrant families who were the first to move beyond the mountain barrier. . . . Among them were the Germans from the families who did so much to occupy the lower part of the Shenandoah.'
The marriage bond for 'Jacob Miller and Priscilla Estes both of Madison County' is dated 28 January 1788 and is signed by Jacob Miller and Joshua Townsend, Priscilla's older half brother. The couple were married in present Madison County, Kentucky in February 1788. Madison was formed in 1785 as Madison County, Virginia.
Jacob Miller III was a surety in marriage bonds for his daughter Elizabeth Miller's marriage to William Stufflebean (Estill Co KY, 23 Feb 1812), his son Jacob Miller's marriage to Anna Kincaid (Estill Co KY, 25 Sep 1816) and his daughter Ailsey (also spelled Elsie) Miller's marriage to James Chambers (Estill Co KY, 5 June 1824), signing with his mark. He gave his permission by proxy for the marriage of his son John Miller to Margaret Melton (Estill Co KY, May 1814) and he gave permission for his daughter Sarah Miller to marry Alford Willcockson (Estill Co KY, 29 Jan 1818). Jacob Miller requested the clerk of Estill County on 14 September 1822 to give license to marry to his daughter Pega (Margaret 'Peggy' Miller) and Ross Wilkerson in a document signed: Given under my own hand, Jacob Miller. See Kentucky, County Marriages, 1797-1954.
Jacob and Priscilla's daughters Delilah Miller Akers (1802-1868) and Elsie Miller Chambers Harlow Smoot (1810-1878) lived last in California (California, U.S., Pioneer and Immigrant Files. 1790-1950).
'The Original Roll and Muster of Scouts in the service of the United States, ordered by Brig. Gen. Charles Scott, of Ky., on the frontiers of Madison county, from May 1, 1792, to Aug. 22, 1792, embraces six names [including] Jacob Miller.' (Collins's History of Kentucky, Vol 2, 1874). A Scouts and Spies, Kentucky, 1790-1794 muster roll dated 9 July 1793 gives Jacob's residence as Madison and his age as 30 (U.S., Compiled Service Records, Post-Revolutionary War Volunteer Soldiers, 1784-1811).
'The Family of Jacob Miller, Jr., by his son Peter' is included as Chapter 3 of Genealogy of Jacob Miller and His Descendants by Everett W Miller. Peter, son of Jacob Jr and Margaret, writes 'Jacob, III, married an Estill [Note: The Estills were among the first settlers in Monroe County, one family settling on Indian Creek just below the mouth of Dropping Lick some years before the Millers and Manns settled there, according to Land Grants and Morton's History of Monroe County] and went to Kentucky where he raised a large family. At an advanced age he moved to Illinois where he died from bleeding at the nose. . . . This ends the story of Jacob Miller's (Junior) children, all of whom, that reached maturity, are members of the church, and nearly all are of the Methodist and have the characteristics of very industrious and quiet people.'
The bracketed material appears to have been inserted by Everett W Miller. Estill is perhaps a variant of Estes. Jacob's uncle John Miller Sr lived on Indian Creek in present Monroe County adjacent to early settler Wallace Estill in a house built by Jacob Miller Jr. Wallace's son Isaac was an executor of Jacob Jr's Will.
Jacob III sold his father 133 of 380 acres for $200 in 1797. See the chapter Early Land Conveyances Mostly Under Greenbrier, p 98, in Morton's History of Monroe County. Surveys of 800 and 400 acres on Station Camp Creek in Madison County were made for Jacob Miller 22 September 1796 and 24 September 1796, respectively, and a survey of 400 acres on Drowning Creek in Madison County was made for him 18 December 1797. See Kentucky, U.S., Land Grants, 1782-1924.
Station Camp Creek, in present Estill County, Kentucky, was the site of Daniel Boone's base camp for his 1769 exploration of Kentucky.
William Townsend mentions his wife Mary and sons Joshua and Thomas in his Will (Mecklenburg County Virginia, 12 April 1765). Mary Stone Townsend married Elisha Estes, Lilla's father, after William died.
Lilla and Jacob's fathers were both Revolutionary War patriots. The SAR application of Carey Wallace Dobbs gives the dates of Elisha Estis as 1739-1807 and cites a 'certificate done in Lunenburg Co. Va.; "waggoning" "Adding in getting Waggons" and for pasturage and feeding cattle."' The SAR application of Homer Basil Maddy records that Jacob Miller, 2nd (1726-1808) was in Capt. Mathias Cook's Company, that he gave supplies to the army according to Greenbrier County records and that he was a 'Ranger on the Frontier.'
'The inhabitants of Monroe and Greenbrier County saw little of the war except the trouble with the Indians,' according to Morton.
The Will of Jacob Miller Jr (Monroe County Virginia, 13 October 1800) mentions his 'son Jacob now living in the State of Kentucky.'
'Jacob Miller & Lilla his wife [were present] at a court continued and held for Lunenburg County [Virginia] the 12th of June 1812.' The record states that 'Joshua, Thomas, Nancy, Lilla, Mary, Sally, John and Andrew were children of Mary Estes, deceased, a daughter of Richard Stone, Senior, deceased.'
As a girl Priscilla was either taken by the Indians (likely the Shawnee) or asked to join them and she lived with them for several years. Initially unrecognized as White she appears to have been cut deeply in the head during Logan's Raid in 1786. Kentucky militia under General Benjamin Logan raided several undefended Shawnee villages along the Little Miami and Mad rivers in the Ohio Country while the warriors were away defending the villages of Chief Little Turtle from a force being led up the Wabash River by General George Rogers Clark. Chief Moluntha was murdered by one of Logan's men.
An 1843 letter from General Henry Lee of Kentucky to Lyman Draper (Draper Manuscript Papers 9BB) describes an event with an unidentified girl who was 'badly cut on the side of the head, exposing her brain to view . . . she was discovered to be a white girl who when a child of perhaps six years had been taken a prisoner from the Greenbrier country . . . she finally recovered . . . was taken to Lexington, where she was recognized by some friends there . . . her parents were notified of her and came and took her home' (transcript by Fonda Baselt). This account in Lee's letter (filed among correspondence titled Logan's Campaign of 1786) is similar to Priscilla's story as told by her descendants.
David Powell's 'The Amazing Story of Priscilla Estes' (2001) includes contributions from Lilla's descendants.
Descendant Cheri Dohnal shares this story:
It is said that when Priscilla was a child, her parents left all but the youngest child(ren) at home under the care of the oldest daughter, who was then about 12 years old. There were two young girls of about 6 and 8 (one of those was Priscilla), a boy about 10 I think, plus the 12 year old. The parents took the tiniest tot(s) with them and went "into town" to the mill to have their grain milled and would be gone for a few days. They told the children at home to stay close to the house and keep an eye out for Indians, who were still making occasional raids on families in the area at that time (about 1775-ish). One day the boy was out drawing water from the nearby creek, his gun right next to him. He saw Indians approaching and panicked, taking his rifle and shooting one of the Indians. This of course infuriated the rest of the Indians, who then killed the boy and headed for the house to raid it. The girls inside heard the commotion and ran for their hiding places. The oldest girl was found by the Indians and although she put up a good fight by jabbing at the Indians with pegs from her loom, they killed her and scalped her while the smaller girls hid away in the corn crib, which was behind or beside the parents' bed. (I have always wondered if this might have been the firewood crib, which would seem more logical). Amazingly, the Indians didn't find them, the story goes, but the youngest (Priscilla) crawled out of her hiding place as the Indians got back outside, and ran after them, saying she wanted to go with them. The Indians started to come after her with apparent intent to kill, until a squaw that was with them stopped them in their tracks. She carried on a very emotional conversation with the males until they finally agreed to let her have the child. She took Priscilla by the hand then and they rode away from the site of the massacre, but had to walk most of the long way to the tribal grounds while the warriors rode horseback.
Priscilla was raised by the tribe for the next 7 or 8 years, until one day a group of white men raided the Indian village, slaying many of its occupants including women and children. Priscilla got caught amidst a battle involving a large, machete type knife, getting her head sliced once in the process. Although only a flesh wound, it was a deep one that left a scar. The white men brought her back to their own village and society, where she eventually assimilated back into the white man's world and married Jacob. . . Her granddaughter (my ggggrandmother) Lucinda Stufflebeam later used to love to brush her grandmother's long hair, and passed this story down because she learned the story while combing Priscilla's hair. The comb would often "catch" a bit at the place where that scar remained. So Lucinda, who married Mason Eveland passed that story down to her children, one of whom was my gggrandfather, Henry J. Eveland, who passed it down to his daughter Della, who passed it down to her daughter Beulah, who passed it down to my mother Marjorie, and then to me.
~
Descendant Marilyn Merritt writes 'My 2x great-grandmother tried to leave some history and as she could barely read or write (she was born in 1842) her daughter wrote the history.'
Here is what my gggrandmother wrote:
"Now listen to a little tale, told mother (Priscilla Ross Dealy) by her grandmother who had suffered so much in her early life, her name was Priscilla, of Greenbrier, her father was an early settler in Kentucky, the indians were very bad, so one day her father and mother went some distance to work in their cornfield and left their children in the care of a young married couple. The indians came but before they got there, they hid the children under sheltered tree trunks, my grandmother, she was seven years old, she feared the Indians and what they do to whites, she crawled out and told them that she would go with them, to save her sisters. They took her. She was raised by the indians untill she was eighteen years old. They entered a terrible battle which she received a terrible head wound from the white captain, he cut many of the squaws heads open. She had the back of her head split but did not enter the brain. She was taken care of by an old indian doctor. She learned nearly everything from the indians, their ways of doctrine and what to eat of wild vegetables. My mother learned of them their ways. When we had no food while father was gone, she went to the woods and gathered acorns, elm bark, crab apples, wild gog potatoes, artichokes and other stuff, so we did not starve." (IOWA 1851)
"We children had no shoes, only one garment to wear but plenty to eat of wild meat and honey, cornbread and pork, vegetables and good pies, we lived here until 1851 gradually prospered. But the California goldmines were discovered in 1849, father made up his mind to fix and go, there was a little sister borned for which my mother almost lost her life, layed sick a long time, my great grandmother came with grave clothes, she is the one the indians raised, she lived to be very old. My mother recovered, her babe's name was Anna Elizabeth. Father did not start until July 6, 1851, sold our home and moved to Taylor Co, IA. and was left in care of my mothers brother. One month before she gave birth to a son June 6 1851, she called him John Miller Dealy. Miller was my grandmothers maiden name, Nancy Miller."
~
Priscilla's second great grandson, Earnest Willey Eveland (1889-1968), told his daughter Effie Eveland (1920-2006) family stories that he wanted to pass on and she typed them for him. I wrote to Cindy Foster, Priscilla's fourth great granddaughter, to ask her about the original manuscript, which is in her possession, and she replied 15 April 2023: 'Attached is a copy of Earnest Willey Eveland's manuscript. The original copy I have is on a nonstandard size paper (15" long) and I've never been able to scan it. The copy came to me from Earnest's cousin, my grandfather Floyd Selensky, who was close to Earnest. Floyd's sister, Kate, and Earnest were nearly the same age. Their parents farmed near each other in Lafayette Township, Bremer County, Iowa. The kids attended school together in a schoolhouse built by the neighbors.'
I inserted the bracketed material in the following excerpt.
My name is Earnest Willey Eveland. My first name was given to me for my looks. My middle name was my grandmother's maiden name, my mother's mother, Irish of course. I am the youngest son of Austin Eveland and Elizabeth Stufflebean. For many years it has been called "Stufflebeam," but it was originally "Stufflebean." My father's mother said so and so did my mother's father for both were Stufflebeans. My father and mother were cousins as you can see.
I was born in Bremer County, Iowa, close to the town of Waverly. We lived with my Grandmother Eveland [Lucinda Stufflebeam Eveland] when I can first remember. She lived in one end of the big, old-fashioned house and my parents in the other. When I was between five and ten years of age, I used to do her little chores, such as gathering eggs and carrying in her wood and water. I often ate supper with her and after supper, she would sit down by the fire, get her old, long-stemmed pipe going (for she smoked), put her feet on the footrest of the heater, and I would sit on her old foot-stool by her chair, and she would tell me the most wonderful stories, true stories, that she had experienced, known of, or that had been handed down to her. The one that I am about to relate is the most important and the most interesting. She said that she was born in the mountains of Kentucky near Boonesboro, and lived there until she was about eight years old. Then her father made a wagon all by himself, ironed it and all, and left Kentucky and came out to Illinois or Missouri, I am not quite sure which. I know that they did live in Missouri for a time, but settled permanently in Illinois, in what is now Fulton County, but I am getting ahead of my story.
Grandmother Eveland said that her grandmother's family lived somewhere in Kentucky and that when her grandmother was about eight years old something happened that was to affect the family for many generations.
When my Grandmother Eveland's grandmother was about eight years old, her mother and father and one or two small children took the ox team and went to the mill to get some corn ground, for practically the only bread they had in those days was bread from corn, leaving her and another girl about twelve years old, a grown girl and a grown boy about sixteen and eighteen years old, respectively. The parents would not be back for several days and warned them to keep a sharp lookout for Indians. It was the next day after the parents had left to go to the mill, that the grown boy was hoeing potatoes a short distance from the house. He had his gun with him. A small band of about fifty Indians in full war paint came out of the woods nearby and attacked him. He shot and killed one Indian, which of course enraged the rest of the Indians. They immediately killed and scalped him. This the girls of eight and twelve saw from the house and when the Indians started toward the house, they hid in an old-fashioned cradle, made from a hollow log, which was pushed far back under the high, old, four-poster cord bedstead, next to the outside wall of the log cabin. Somehow the Indians failed to find them there. She said that they watched from between a crack in the logs to see what the Indians would do next. A lone Indian attacked her, but she fought him so desperately with a big hunting knife, that she used to make pegs for her loom, that he was obliged to call another Indian. Between them, they killed and scalped her. Then they started to leave without burning the buildings, where at, this girl of eight said, "I want to go with them." The older girl said, "Well, go on if you do." She immediately got out of her hiding place and ran after the Indians. There was a commotion among the Indians and an old squaw stepped out and took hold of her hand and started to lead her toward the band. Then a warrior leaped at her with a raised tomahawk and would have killed her, but the old squaw threw a blanket around her and protected her. The warrior was determined to kill her and probably would have succeeded in doing so, but just then another Indian, apparently the leader of the band, interfered. After listening to the old squaw's babble for a moment, he spoke sharply to the other Indian who put up his tomahawk. The band moved on taking the little girl with them. After going a short distance, they came to a creek. People in those days usually built houses near a creek or river for water. They entered the creek and walked up it for some distance until they came to where they could step out on a solid rock ledge where they would leave no foot-prints. They travelled for several days until they came to an Indian village situated in a fertile valley between the hills where the Indians had some corn, pumpkins, beans and squashes growing. The valley was dotted with wigwams, the small fry were playing with the dogs and ponies were grazing peacefully. A peaceful scene which appealed even to those savages for they stood for a little time gazing down upon it before descending into the valley to their homes. Here the white girl lived for eight years. Then one fine morning when the Indians apparently least expected it, white soldiers accompanied by scouts, hunters, trappers, and Indians, on the order of Louis Wetzel [According to William Hintzen, 'When Col. Benjamin Logan destroyed the Shawnee villages at Wapatimoca (Logan County, Ohio) in 1786, it was Lewis Wetzel who was selected to return to Fort Harmar (Marietta, Ohio), to give the news of the expedition.'], poured down onto the Indian village from all sides, yelling, cursing, as savage as any Indians, and some of them just as blood-thirsty. A hand-to-hand battle ensued. They killed bucks, squaws, and papoose alike, this girl was struck across the head with a saber and thought at first to be dead. It was a glancing blow, however, and only stunned her, but left a deep scar across the top of her head. My grandmother said that in later years she combed her grandmother's hair many times and that the comb would always drop into this old saber cut. Great, great grandmother Miller said that the first thing she remembered after she came to, was an army physician working over her, some army officers, and some of those old, fire-easomeg Indian fighters standing by, and hearing an officer say, "Well, you've done it again, you fools. I told you not to start killing women and children. I talked to a trader a short time ago that had been trading with these Indians and he said that there were white women among them." As soon as she was able to travel, they took her back to the white settlement where she married a man by the name of Miller and raised a family. . .
As I myself am going on seventy-five years old, I want to get this finished and in readable form to give to any of the near relatives who may be interested in knowing the background of our family. In the foregoing, I have told the story of a family, which sprang from one who was picked up and thought at one time to be dead.
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'Akers family — they arrived in flood, but stayed to build' (The Fresno Guide, 9 June 1971) by Elizabeth Fiske and Donna Hull records a story as written into her husband's Bible by Mary Jane Akers Hazelton (1840-1910), Priscilla's granddaughter: "Grandmother Miller was rescued from the Indians about the year 1770 in a battle between the whites and the Indians in the State of Kentucky. She had been taken prisoner by the Indians when a child and had no recollection of her parents. She was about 14 or 15 at the time she was taken from the Indians. The whites were in pursuit of the Indians, and rushing upon them, took them by surprise. They scattered and ran. The Americans being on horseback killed a good many of the Indians, and after the battle, in looking over the battlefield, found this girl, wounded, with a deep sword cut in the head. They dressed her wound, saved her life, and took care of her. She had blue eyes and fair skin."
The Akers family left Kentucky for Austin, Texas and later migrated to California. The stone for Harvey Akers, Priscilla's grandson, gives his dates as 1826-1911 and is inscribed 'One of the first settlers on the King River in 1852.' The article continues 'Harvey Akers often recalled their leaving, when he was a boy of twelve. He remembered his Grandmother Miller who remained in Kentucky, as he last saw her, sitting in her rocking chair, the old sabre scar still visible on her forehead. She was about eighty years old at that time, and she lived many years after that.'
***
lili li
6 May 2023
lili li née Loretta McKay Masters of Clay Masters of Millage Lee Masters Sr of Henry Lee Masters of Marthenas Hinshaw of Nancy Miller of John Miller of Jacob Miller III and Priscilla Estes
Jacob Miller III was of German descent, his grandparents Jacob Mueller (ca1702-ca1768) and Catherine Mueller (ca1704-after 16 Aug 1768) having immigrated from present Germany and married in Pennsylvania before eventually migrating to Virginia's Shenandoah Valley and settling near the present city of Harrisonburg. Lilla's great grandfather, Abraham Estes Sr (ca1647-1720) was born in Nonington, Kent, England and migrated to Virginia where he married a woman named Barbara (ca1667-ca1720).
Priscilla was perhaps born in Lunenburg County, Virginia, where her parents Elisha Estes and Mary Stone Townsend appear to have married. A death record for George W Miller (ca1804-1872), son of Jacob and Prasilla Miller born in Estill County, Kentucky, gives his mother's birthplace as 'Green Brier,' possibly in reference to Greenbrier County formed from Virginia's Botecourt and Montgomery counties in 1778 or to Greenbrier Country as the area around the Greenbrier River was referred to in the days of European exploration and early settlement.
Monroe County was created from part of Greenbrier County in 1799. Estill County was formed from Clark and Madison counties in 1808.
Jacob Miller III was born in present Rockingham County, Virginia, then part of Augusta County, to Jacob Miller Jr and Elizabeth Fudge. He crossed the Alleghenies westward in 1775 with an expedition that included members of his extended family, settling on Rich Creek near the present city of Lindside, Monroe County, West Virginia. Elizabeth died 13 March 1777 and was buried on Rich Creek. Jacob Jr married secondly Margaret Sullivan and the family continued to grow.
Oren F Morton describes the pattern of migration taken by the Miller family in his History of Monroe County: 'It was but another step to push over the rampart west of the Shenandoah Valley, and occupy, one by one, the narrow but fertile valleys beyond. Thus the early settlers of Monroe were very largely the people from Ulster. Usually there was first a sojourn east of the Alleghany, and often it was the children of the immigrant families who were the first to move beyond the mountain barrier. . . . Among them were the Germans from the families who did so much to occupy the lower part of the Shenandoah.'
The marriage bond for 'Jacob Miller and Priscilla Estes both of Madison County' is dated 28 January 1788 and is signed by Jacob Miller and Joshua Townsend, Priscilla's older half brother. The couple were married in present Madison County, Kentucky in February 1788. Madison was formed in 1785 as Madison County, Virginia.
Jacob Miller III was a surety in marriage bonds for his daughter Elizabeth Miller's marriage to William Stufflebean (Estill Co KY, 23 Feb 1812), his son Jacob Miller's marriage to Anna Kincaid (Estill Co KY, 25 Sep 1816) and his daughter Ailsey (also spelled Elsie) Miller's marriage to James Chambers (Estill Co KY, 5 June 1824), signing with his mark. He gave his permission by proxy for the marriage of his son John Miller to Margaret Melton (Estill Co KY, May 1814) and he gave permission for his daughter Sarah Miller to marry Alford Willcockson (Estill Co KY, 29 Jan 1818). Jacob Miller requested the clerk of Estill County on 14 September 1822 to give license to marry to his daughter Pega (Margaret 'Peggy' Miller) and Ross Wilkerson in a document signed: Given under my own hand, Jacob Miller. See Kentucky, County Marriages, 1797-1954.
Jacob and Priscilla's daughters Delilah Miller Akers (1802-1868) and Elsie Miller Chambers Harlow Smoot (1810-1878) lived last in California (California, U.S., Pioneer and Immigrant Files. 1790-1950).
'The Original Roll and Muster of Scouts in the service of the United States, ordered by Brig. Gen. Charles Scott, of Ky., on the frontiers of Madison county, from May 1, 1792, to Aug. 22, 1792, embraces six names [including] Jacob Miller.' (Collins's History of Kentucky, Vol 2, 1874). A Scouts and Spies, Kentucky, 1790-1794 muster roll dated 9 July 1793 gives Jacob's residence as Madison and his age as 30 (U.S., Compiled Service Records, Post-Revolutionary War Volunteer Soldiers, 1784-1811).
'The Family of Jacob Miller, Jr., by his son Peter' is included as Chapter 3 of Genealogy of Jacob Miller and His Descendants by Everett W Miller. Peter, son of Jacob Jr and Margaret, writes 'Jacob, III, married an Estill [Note: The Estills were among the first settlers in Monroe County, one family settling on Indian Creek just below the mouth of Dropping Lick some years before the Millers and Manns settled there, according to Land Grants and Morton's History of Monroe County] and went to Kentucky where he raised a large family. At an advanced age he moved to Illinois where he died from bleeding at the nose. . . . This ends the story of Jacob Miller's (Junior) children, all of whom, that reached maturity, are members of the church, and nearly all are of the Methodist and have the characteristics of very industrious and quiet people.'
The bracketed material appears to have been inserted by Everett W Miller. Estill is perhaps a variant of Estes. Jacob's uncle John Miller Sr lived on Indian Creek in present Monroe County adjacent to early settler Wallace Estill in a house built by Jacob Miller Jr. Wallace's son Isaac was an executor of Jacob Jr's Will.
Jacob III sold his father 133 of 380 acres for $200 in 1797. See the chapter Early Land Conveyances Mostly Under Greenbrier, p 98, in Morton's History of Monroe County. Surveys of 800 and 400 acres on Station Camp Creek in Madison County were made for Jacob Miller 22 September 1796 and 24 September 1796, respectively, and a survey of 400 acres on Drowning Creek in Madison County was made for him 18 December 1797. See Kentucky, U.S., Land Grants, 1782-1924.
Station Camp Creek, in present Estill County, Kentucky, was the site of Daniel Boone's base camp for his 1769 exploration of Kentucky.
William Townsend mentions his wife Mary and sons Joshua and Thomas in his Will (Mecklenburg County Virginia, 12 April 1765). Mary Stone Townsend married Elisha Estes, Lilla's father, after William died.
Lilla and Jacob's fathers were both Revolutionary War patriots. The SAR application of Carey Wallace Dobbs gives the dates of Elisha Estis as 1739-1807 and cites a 'certificate done in Lunenburg Co. Va.; "waggoning" "Adding in getting Waggons" and for pasturage and feeding cattle."' The SAR application of Homer Basil Maddy records that Jacob Miller, 2nd (1726-1808) was in Capt. Mathias Cook's Company, that he gave supplies to the army according to Greenbrier County records and that he was a 'Ranger on the Frontier.'
'The inhabitants of Monroe and Greenbrier County saw little of the war except the trouble with the Indians,' according to Morton.
The Will of Jacob Miller Jr (Monroe County Virginia, 13 October 1800) mentions his 'son Jacob now living in the State of Kentucky.'
'Jacob Miller & Lilla his wife [were present] at a court continued and held for Lunenburg County [Virginia] the 12th of June 1812.' The record states that 'Joshua, Thomas, Nancy, Lilla, Mary, Sally, John and Andrew were children of Mary Estes, deceased, a daughter of Richard Stone, Senior, deceased.'
As a girl Priscilla was either taken by the Indians (likely the Shawnee) or asked to join them and she lived with them for several years. Initially unrecognized as White she appears to have been cut deeply in the head during Logan's Raid in 1786. Kentucky militia under General Benjamin Logan raided several undefended Shawnee villages along the Little Miami and Mad rivers in the Ohio Country while the warriors were away defending the villages of Chief Little Turtle from a force being led up the Wabash River by General George Rogers Clark. Chief Moluntha was murdered by one of Logan's men.
An 1843 letter from General Henry Lee of Kentucky to Lyman Draper (Draper Manuscript Papers 9BB) describes an event with an unidentified girl who was 'badly cut on the side of the head, exposing her brain to view . . . she was discovered to be a white girl who when a child of perhaps six years had been taken a prisoner from the Greenbrier country . . . she finally recovered . . . was taken to Lexington, where she was recognized by some friends there . . . her parents were notified of her and came and took her home' (transcript by Fonda Baselt). This account in Lee's letter (filed among correspondence titled Logan's Campaign of 1786) is similar to Priscilla's story as told by her descendants.
David Powell's 'The Amazing Story of Priscilla Estes' (2001) includes contributions from Lilla's descendants.
Descendant Cheri Dohnal shares this story:
It is said that when Priscilla was a child, her parents left all but the youngest child(ren) at home under the care of the oldest daughter, who was then about 12 years old. There were two young girls of about 6 and 8 (one of those was Priscilla), a boy about 10 I think, plus the 12 year old. The parents took the tiniest tot(s) with them and went "into town" to the mill to have their grain milled and would be gone for a few days. They told the children at home to stay close to the house and keep an eye out for Indians, who were still making occasional raids on families in the area at that time (about 1775-ish). One day the boy was out drawing water from the nearby creek, his gun right next to him. He saw Indians approaching and panicked, taking his rifle and shooting one of the Indians. This of course infuriated the rest of the Indians, who then killed the boy and headed for the house to raid it. The girls inside heard the commotion and ran for their hiding places. The oldest girl was found by the Indians and although she put up a good fight by jabbing at the Indians with pegs from her loom, they killed her and scalped her while the smaller girls hid away in the corn crib, which was behind or beside the parents' bed. (I have always wondered if this might have been the firewood crib, which would seem more logical). Amazingly, the Indians didn't find them, the story goes, but the youngest (Priscilla) crawled out of her hiding place as the Indians got back outside, and ran after them, saying she wanted to go with them. The Indians started to come after her with apparent intent to kill, until a squaw that was with them stopped them in their tracks. She carried on a very emotional conversation with the males until they finally agreed to let her have the child. She took Priscilla by the hand then and they rode away from the site of the massacre, but had to walk most of the long way to the tribal grounds while the warriors rode horseback.
Priscilla was raised by the tribe for the next 7 or 8 years, until one day a group of white men raided the Indian village, slaying many of its occupants including women and children. Priscilla got caught amidst a battle involving a large, machete type knife, getting her head sliced once in the process. Although only a flesh wound, it was a deep one that left a scar. The white men brought her back to their own village and society, where she eventually assimilated back into the white man's world and married Jacob. . . Her granddaughter (my ggggrandmother) Lucinda Stufflebeam later used to love to brush her grandmother's long hair, and passed this story down because she learned the story while combing Priscilla's hair. The comb would often "catch" a bit at the place where that scar remained. So Lucinda, who married Mason Eveland passed that story down to her children, one of whom was my gggrandfather, Henry J. Eveland, who passed it down to his daughter Della, who passed it down to her daughter Beulah, who passed it down to my mother Marjorie, and then to me.
~
Descendant Marilyn Merritt writes 'My 2x great-grandmother tried to leave some history and as she could barely read or write (she was born in 1842) her daughter wrote the history.'
Here is what my gggrandmother wrote:
"Now listen to a little tale, told mother (Priscilla Ross Dealy) by her grandmother who had suffered so much in her early life, her name was Priscilla, of Greenbrier, her father was an early settler in Kentucky, the indians were very bad, so one day her father and mother went some distance to work in their cornfield and left their children in the care of a young married couple. The indians came but before they got there, they hid the children under sheltered tree trunks, my grandmother, she was seven years old, she feared the Indians and what they do to whites, she crawled out and told them that she would go with them, to save her sisters. They took her. She was raised by the indians untill she was eighteen years old. They entered a terrible battle which she received a terrible head wound from the white captain, he cut many of the squaws heads open. She had the back of her head split but did not enter the brain. She was taken care of by an old indian doctor. She learned nearly everything from the indians, their ways of doctrine and what to eat of wild vegetables. My mother learned of them their ways. When we had no food while father was gone, she went to the woods and gathered acorns, elm bark, crab apples, wild gog potatoes, artichokes and other stuff, so we did not starve." (IOWA 1851)
"We children had no shoes, only one garment to wear but plenty to eat of wild meat and honey, cornbread and pork, vegetables and good pies, we lived here until 1851 gradually prospered. But the California goldmines were discovered in 1849, father made up his mind to fix and go, there was a little sister borned for which my mother almost lost her life, layed sick a long time, my great grandmother came with grave clothes, she is the one the indians raised, she lived to be very old. My mother recovered, her babe's name was Anna Elizabeth. Father did not start until July 6, 1851, sold our home and moved to Taylor Co, IA. and was left in care of my mothers brother. One month before she gave birth to a son June 6 1851, she called him John Miller Dealy. Miller was my grandmothers maiden name, Nancy Miller."
~
Priscilla's second great grandson, Earnest Willey Eveland (1889-1968), told his daughter Effie Eveland (1920-2006) family stories that he wanted to pass on and she typed them for him. I wrote to Cindy Foster, Priscilla's fourth great granddaughter, to ask her about the original manuscript, which is in her possession, and she replied 15 April 2023: 'Attached is a copy of Earnest Willey Eveland's manuscript. The original copy I have is on a nonstandard size paper (15" long) and I've never been able to scan it. The copy came to me from Earnest's cousin, my grandfather Floyd Selensky, who was close to Earnest. Floyd's sister, Kate, and Earnest were nearly the same age. Their parents farmed near each other in Lafayette Township, Bremer County, Iowa. The kids attended school together in a schoolhouse built by the neighbors.'
I inserted the bracketed material in the following excerpt.
My name is Earnest Willey Eveland. My first name was given to me for my looks. My middle name was my grandmother's maiden name, my mother's mother, Irish of course. I am the youngest son of Austin Eveland and Elizabeth Stufflebean. For many years it has been called "Stufflebeam," but it was originally "Stufflebean." My father's mother said so and so did my mother's father for both were Stufflebeans. My father and mother were cousins as you can see.
I was born in Bremer County, Iowa, close to the town of Waverly. We lived with my Grandmother Eveland [Lucinda Stufflebeam Eveland] when I can first remember. She lived in one end of the big, old-fashioned house and my parents in the other. When I was between five and ten years of age, I used to do her little chores, such as gathering eggs and carrying in her wood and water. I often ate supper with her and after supper, she would sit down by the fire, get her old, long-stemmed pipe going (for she smoked), put her feet on the footrest of the heater, and I would sit on her old foot-stool by her chair, and she would tell me the most wonderful stories, true stories, that she had experienced, known of, or that had been handed down to her. The one that I am about to relate is the most important and the most interesting. She said that she was born in the mountains of Kentucky near Boonesboro, and lived there until she was about eight years old. Then her father made a wagon all by himself, ironed it and all, and left Kentucky and came out to Illinois or Missouri, I am not quite sure which. I know that they did live in Missouri for a time, but settled permanently in Illinois, in what is now Fulton County, but I am getting ahead of my story.
Grandmother Eveland said that her grandmother's family lived somewhere in Kentucky and that when her grandmother was about eight years old something happened that was to affect the family for many generations.
When my Grandmother Eveland's grandmother was about eight years old, her mother and father and one or two small children took the ox team and went to the mill to get some corn ground, for practically the only bread they had in those days was bread from corn, leaving her and another girl about twelve years old, a grown girl and a grown boy about sixteen and eighteen years old, respectively. The parents would not be back for several days and warned them to keep a sharp lookout for Indians. It was the next day after the parents had left to go to the mill, that the grown boy was hoeing potatoes a short distance from the house. He had his gun with him. A small band of about fifty Indians in full war paint came out of the woods nearby and attacked him. He shot and killed one Indian, which of course enraged the rest of the Indians. They immediately killed and scalped him. This the girls of eight and twelve saw from the house and when the Indians started toward the house, they hid in an old-fashioned cradle, made from a hollow log, which was pushed far back under the high, old, four-poster cord bedstead, next to the outside wall of the log cabin. Somehow the Indians failed to find them there. She said that they watched from between a crack in the logs to see what the Indians would do next. A lone Indian attacked her, but she fought him so desperately with a big hunting knife, that she used to make pegs for her loom, that he was obliged to call another Indian. Between them, they killed and scalped her. Then they started to leave without burning the buildings, where at, this girl of eight said, "I want to go with them." The older girl said, "Well, go on if you do." She immediately got out of her hiding place and ran after the Indians. There was a commotion among the Indians and an old squaw stepped out and took hold of her hand and started to lead her toward the band. Then a warrior leaped at her with a raised tomahawk and would have killed her, but the old squaw threw a blanket around her and protected her. The warrior was determined to kill her and probably would have succeeded in doing so, but just then another Indian, apparently the leader of the band, interfered. After listening to the old squaw's babble for a moment, he spoke sharply to the other Indian who put up his tomahawk. The band moved on taking the little girl with them. After going a short distance, they came to a creek. People in those days usually built houses near a creek or river for water. They entered the creek and walked up it for some distance until they came to where they could step out on a solid rock ledge where they would leave no foot-prints. They travelled for several days until they came to an Indian village situated in a fertile valley between the hills where the Indians had some corn, pumpkins, beans and squashes growing. The valley was dotted with wigwams, the small fry were playing with the dogs and ponies were grazing peacefully. A peaceful scene which appealed even to those savages for they stood for a little time gazing down upon it before descending into the valley to their homes. Here the white girl lived for eight years. Then one fine morning when the Indians apparently least expected it, white soldiers accompanied by scouts, hunters, trappers, and Indians, on the order of Louis Wetzel [According to William Hintzen, 'When Col. Benjamin Logan destroyed the Shawnee villages at Wapatimoca (Logan County, Ohio) in 1786, it was Lewis Wetzel who was selected to return to Fort Harmar (Marietta, Ohio), to give the news of the expedition.'], poured down onto the Indian village from all sides, yelling, cursing, as savage as any Indians, and some of them just as blood-thirsty. A hand-to-hand battle ensued. They killed bucks, squaws, and papoose alike, this girl was struck across the head with a saber and thought at first to be dead. It was a glancing blow, however, and only stunned her, but left a deep scar across the top of her head. My grandmother said that in later years she combed her grandmother's hair many times and that the comb would always drop into this old saber cut. Great, great grandmother Miller said that the first thing she remembered after she came to, was an army physician working over her, some army officers, and some of those old, fire-easomeg Indian fighters standing by, and hearing an officer say, "Well, you've done it again, you fools. I told you not to start killing women and children. I talked to a trader a short time ago that had been trading with these Indians and he said that there were white women among them." As soon as she was able to travel, they took her back to the white settlement where she married a man by the name of Miller and raised a family. . .
As I myself am going on seventy-five years old, I want to get this finished and in readable form to give to any of the near relatives who may be interested in knowing the background of our family. In the foregoing, I have told the story of a family, which sprang from one who was picked up and thought at one time to be dead.
~
'Akers family — they arrived in flood, but stayed to build' (The Fresno Guide, 9 June 1971) by Elizabeth Fiske and Donna Hull records a story as written into her husband's Bible by Mary Jane Akers Hazelton (1840-1910), Priscilla's granddaughter: "Grandmother Miller was rescued from the Indians about the year 1770 in a battle between the whites and the Indians in the State of Kentucky. She had been taken prisoner by the Indians when a child and had no recollection of her parents. She was about 14 or 15 at the time she was taken from the Indians. The whites were in pursuit of the Indians, and rushing upon them, took them by surprise. They scattered and ran. The Americans being on horseback killed a good many of the Indians, and after the battle, in looking over the battlefield, found this girl, wounded, with a deep sword cut in the head. They dressed her wound, saved her life, and took care of her. She had blue eyes and fair skin."
The Akers family left Kentucky for Austin, Texas and later migrated to California. The stone for Harvey Akers, Priscilla's grandson, gives his dates as 1826-1911 and is inscribed 'One of the first settlers on the King River in 1852.' The article continues 'Harvey Akers often recalled their leaving, when he was a boy of twelve. He remembered his Grandmother Miller who remained in Kentucky, as he last saw her, sitting in her rocking chair, the old sabre scar still visible on her forehead. She was about eighty years old at that time, and she lived many years after that.'
***
lili li
6 May 2023
lili li née Loretta McKay Masters of Clay Masters of Millage Lee Masters Sr of Henry Lee Masters of Marthenas Hinshaw of Nancy Miller of John Miller of Jacob Miller III and Priscilla Estes
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