Person:Elizabeth Graham (41)

Account of the Kidnapping and rescue of Elizabeth Graham:

When the morning dawned upon the Graham [93] home, it was found that their ten-year-old boy, John; their neighbor and friend, McDonald (or Caldwell); and their faithful servant, Sharp, were dead and that their seven-year-old daughter, Elizabeth, was missing. The feeling of despair, gloom and sadness, doubtless mixed with a desire for revenge, that now rested upon the hearts of these sturdy pioneers can better be imagined than told. There could be no speculation or guessing about the fate of those who lay dead. Their suffering was over; but the missing one! Where was she? Dead or alive? Was her mangled form floating down the river, or was it left in the deep forest to be devoured by wild beasts? or, perchance, was she living, half naked, with bleeding limbs, treading through brier and bramble at the mercy of some unfeeling savage? These must have been the thoughts that crowded the minds of the half distracted parents; but unrelenting search and untiring efforts finally disclosed the fact that she had been carried off a prisoner. During the night of this massacre, William, the [94] oldest son, a lad of about twelve years, was not well, and being restless, had come in from the out house and, on his coming in, his mother remarked to him that he “had better go back to bed with the other children”. He replied that as it was nearly daylight he would lie down on the floor till morning, which, luckily for him, he did. otherwise, he no doubt, would have met the same sad fate of his younger brother. A few years after this occurrence an Indian skeleton was found about two miles from the scene of the tragedy, on a small run near where E. D. Alderson now lives, called Indian Draft, which was believed to be the same Indian killed by Graham. Graham secured the jaw bone of this skeleton and used it for a gunrack for a number of years.

After becoming thoroughly convinced that Elizabeth had been carried into captivity, the next task of Col. Graham was to locate her whereabouts and, if possible, secure her return. Months of anxious and unceasing search located her among the Shawnee tribes, whose wigwams were [95] situated at what is now Chillicothe, Ohio. She had been adopted by a squaw of one of the chiefs of the Cornstalk family of that tribe and, while it was doubtless a source of great jo’.y to those fond parents to find their long-lost child alive and well and well cared for, though in the home of a savage chief, yet a new anxiety awaited them, but little less terrible than that which they had already experienced, the work of rescuing and seeing her once more around the hearthstone of their own home. To this task Col. Graham directed his energies and several times visited the Shawnee towns and as often met with new obstacles and disappointments, none of which were probably more heart-rending to him than to know that his child had learned to love her savage home, and that in turn she was loved and doted on by her adopted mother. As the tender twig is easily bent and made to grow in new directions, so were the inclinations of this innocent child readily diverted from the scenes of the past and made to love the passing events which surrounded [96] her, and she being well cared for and never mistreated by the Indians, it was but natural that she loved them. It is also said that before her return a love more passionate than that for her adopted tribe or mother had seized her youthful breast and that a young warrior would soon have claimed her for his “white” squaw. As to the truth of the story, that she had an Indian lover, we do not vouch, but having learned it from her own descendants, we think it worthy of mention. After fruitless efforts and at least two contracts, which were violated and backed down from by the Indians, Col. Graham finally succeeded in 1785 in ransoming and bring his daughter back home, after an absence of about eight years. The price paid for her release was the release of an Indian prisoner whom the whites held, thirty saddles and a lot of beads and other trinkets, and, according to the summing up of the various traditions, about $300 in silver.

 The exchange took place at Limestone creek, where is now Maysville, Ky. It is said that af- [97] ter the exchange was made that the rescuing party consisting of Colonel Graham and some of his friends, who had accompanied him, reversed the shoes on their horses, so if pursued by the Indians, the horses’ tracks would seem to be traveling in an opposite direction. This precaution was doubtless taken on account of a failure to secure his daughter on a former trip, at which time every necessary arrangement for her ransom seems to have been made, when he was counseled by the Indian agent to go without her, as he saw in the conduct of the young warriors that they were determined to follow him and either recapture or kill his daughter. 

Upon the return of Elizabeth to her home, the customs she met there were new and strange to her. On one occasion when her mother asked her to “soak the bread” and afterwards asked her how it was getting on, she replied, “very well” that she had taken two loaves and “thrown them in the river and put a rock on them”. To this new mode of life she could not easily be [98] reconciled and ever and anon would clamor for the wild life of the wigwam. At one time when she threatened to return to the Indians, her mother told her sister, Jane, to pretend as if she would go with her to see whether or not she would actually make the attempt. She readily accepted Jane’s proposal to accompany her to the Shawnee towns and the two sisters crossed the river in a canoe and proceeded but a short distance, when Jane inquired of her what they would eat on their journey, to which she replied by pulling up some bulb root herbs from the ground and eating them saying they could find plenty of the same kind along the way to keep them from starving. Jane remonstrated with her, saying that she had not been accustomed to eating herbs and would starve and finally succeeded in persuading her to return home. This account was given the writer substantially as stated by David W. Jarrett, who is a son of Elizabeth’s sister, Jane, and he says he has it from the lips of his mother.

She had to be carefully watched and even at [99] times confined to prevent her wild, wandering nature from reasserting itself, but as the years passed by, her love for Indian habits and customs decreased in the same proportion that her love for civilization increased. She married Joel Stodghill in the year 1792 and settled on Hans Creek, Monroe county, and to them were born five sons and four daughters. She died March 22nd, 1858. William Graham, the oldest son, married Harriet Walker and lived and died on Hans Creek. William was born November 27, 1794, and died December 5, 185 Rhoda S. Stodghill married William Mann. She was born February the 16th, 1795. She had one son with whom we were acquainted. His name was William. He was a dentist by profession. Rhoda S. Mann died March 10th, 1878.

William Graham Stodghill had four daughters and one son. His oldest daughter, Clarinda, married Thomas Johnson and his widow still lives in Iowa.

Rebecca Stodghill married Caperton McNeer, [100] who lives near Linside, Monroe county, West Virginia. They have some children, names not recollected.

Nancy Stodghill married John Mann. Adaline Stodghill married a Livel.y. Christopher Stodghill married a Miss Swope. The three last named are dead. John Stodghill, born April 22nd, 1798, died April 2nd, 1832, unmarried. Flora (Florence) Stodghil.1, born April 17, 1801, married a Mr. Dunn; died March 25, 1878. James Stodghill, born May 12, 1803, married a Miss Johnston; died April 6, 1836. Samuel Stodghill, born October 18, 1805; died October 15, 1850; not married. Nancy Stodghill, born February 22nd, 1808, married Henry Pence November 29, 1829; raised six children, four sons and two daughters. Henry Pence was born in Bath county, Virginia, June 23rd, 1800. Nancy S. Stodghill was born in Monroe county, Virginia, February 22nd, 1808; died June 26, 1880. Their children’s names are Amanda J. Pence, born September 6, 1830; Lewis A. Pence, born March [101] the 28th, 1832; John H. Pence, born December 18th, 1834; William W. Pence, born October 11th, 1837; Andrew P. Pence, born January the 12th, 1840; Harriet E. Pence, born, October 27th, 1844; Elizabeth Stodghill, born September 24th, 1810; died in infancy; Joel Stodghill, Jr., born November 23rd, 1812. He married a McGee.

We are indebted for the above age and death record to Mrs. J. P. Shanklin. Here is what Mrs. Shanklin says: “This was copi.ed from the Stodghill Bible by Ellen (McNeer) Shanklin, a great granddaughter of Joel and Elizabeth (Graham) Stodghill. Joel Stodghill, Sr., was born about the year 1765 and died October 4, 1844. Amanda J. Pence and Richard T. McNeer were married February 28, 1848, by Rev. Gilbert. Their children’s names are: Henry P. McNeer; married E. C. Hunter of Monroe county, West Virginia; Ellen V. McNeer; married John P. Shanklin of Monroe county, West Virginia; Virginia C. McNeer married Dr. C. W. Spangler of Monroe county, West Vi.rginia; Harriet E. McNeer [102] married Theo. Dulaney, Monroe county, West Virginia; Florence May McNeer married Dr. G. A. Flournoy of Louisiana for her first husband and W. M. Jennings of Virginia for her second husband; Dr. Hedly V. McNeer married Minnie Wattsgaver of Virginia and is a practicing physician at Bramwell, West Virginia; R. E. Lee McNeer, lawyer, of Union, West Virginia; Lewis C. McNeer who owns and lives at the old home farm of R. T. McNeer near Salt Sulphur Springs, West Virginia and Dr. Richard L. McNeer of Baltimore.

Lewis A. Pence, born March 28, 1832, married Mary J. Neel. They were married December 8th, 1858, by Rev. R. B. Rose. Four children were born to them, viz: Horatio, Minnie, Nannie and Dewey. Dewey married Ella Arnott; Minnie married Dr. Jim Boone, both of Monroe county, West Virginia.

W. W. Pence has four children. Kate S. Pence, his oldest child, married Ashby Johnson and lives in Alderson. James R. Pence married [103] Miss Ethel Thomas of Lewisburg and lives at the old Pence home on Indian creek. Alice B. and Harriett W. Pence are at home with their mother. W. W. Pence and Sarah J. Shanklin were married December 12th, 1867 by the Rev. M. H. Bittenger. John H. Pence and Jennie Campbell were married January the 8th, 1863 by Rev. M. H. Bittenger. Their children’s names (all single) are: Millard, Minnie, Fint, William, Walter, George and Nannie. Harriett E. Pence and H. J. Farrier were married February 23, 1863 by the Rev. M. H. Bittenger. They have four children, viz: Henry, Mart, Nannie and Frank. Henry married Minnie Porterfield. Mart married a Miss Foote. Nannie married Kelley Groseclose. Frank is at home with his mother near Newport, Giles county, Virginia. A. P. Pence and Sallie A. Lewis were married November 30th, 1871 by the Rev. M. H. Bittenger. Their children’s names are: Dick, Bessie, Silas H., George L. and Nellie. A. P. Pence lives at Buffalo Springs, Summers county, West Virginia.