Person:Sarah McMahon (5)

Information on Sarah 'Sally' McMahon

From "The story of the Robert McMahan Family Indian Massacre", as read to the Troy, Illinois Lyceum in 1855, by the Hon. George Churchill, Published by James T. Hair, 1866:

Robert McMahan, Esq., a native of Virginia, emigrated from that State to Lexington, KY. At Crab Orchard, KY, he married Miss Margaret Clark. In 1793 he removed to Illinois and settled near the New Design, St. Clair County, Illinois.

Robert McMahon made preparations to defend himself and family against an attack. He had a rifle; and only a week before the tragedy, he run two hundred rifle balls. he also had a blunderbuss charged with six charges of powder and nine balls. "When you hear the report of my blunderbuss," said he to his friends at the station, "you may be certain that I am attacked." The door of his house was so constructed that it might be strongly barred, and port holes were made in the walls through which he might shoot any who should attempt to ascend to the roof. On the fatal 26th of Jan. 1795, Mr. McMahan went out to hunt for his oxen; when he perceived that his horse, which was confined in a pen, appeared to be frightened. He case his eye over the prairie in every direction, but saw no enemy.

He entered his house, but had not been there more than two or three minutes when four Indians, frightfully painted black and red, entered the house, two by two, saying "Bon jour! bon jour!" (Good day, good day). They stood motionless a few seconds, when one of them attempted to take down mr. McMahan's rifle from the hook, and Mr. McMahan took down his blunderbuss; but his wife took hold of it, and begged her husband not to resist, as she hoped their lives might be spared if they submitted peaceably, but otherwise they would be killed. The Indians then seized the blunderbuss, and wrenched it from his hands. Every one then made for the door. Mrs. McMahan ran half way around the house, when she was shot in the left breast, and scalped. Mr. McMahan was then pulled back into the house, thrown on the floor, and his hands pinioned close behind him, with deer sinews. Sally McMahan, his eldest daughter, then less than nine years old, remained in the house, and saw one of the Indians knock her brother and two of her sisters on the head with the poll of his tomahawk. It was a light blow, only sufficient to stun them. This Indian was proceeding to open the cradle where lay a female infant, only one month old, when Sally ran out of the house, and once around it, when she was also seized by him.

Let us now return to the Indians and their remaining captive. They pursued their course and reached the home of the Pu-taw-wahs, south-west of Lake Michigan. Sally McMahan was here transferred to an Ot-taw-wah Indian, who had become a chief of the Pu-taw-wahs, and whose wife was a sister of the three Pu-taw-wahs, who had been concerned in the massacre. The name of this chief was Suk-ko-nok, which being translated means Blackbird; but among the whites he went by the name of Leturneau. Here the Indian women cultivated their gardens and "truck patches" with a neatness worthy of commendation and imitation, not permitting a solitary weed to grown therein.

In 1795, General Anthony Wayne, sometimes called "Mad Anthony," obtained a great victory over the Indians in Ohio. This was followed by the Treaty of Greeneville, by which the Indians engaged to bring into the white settlements all the captives in their possession. In accordance with the stipulation, in April, 1796, Suk-ko-nok took Sally McMahan down the Illinois and Mississippi, in a canoe, and landed at Cahokia, and delivered her to the white people. It being court time, a great many people were present. Suk-ko-nok made a speech to them in which he said that he had no hand in the massacre; had paid a considerable sum for the captive, and had brought her a great distance into the white settlements. He therefore appealed to the liberality and sense of justice of the white people to make him just compensation. A subscription paper was drawn up, and circulated, and one hundred and sixty-four dollars subscribed, and that amount, in goods was advanced to Suk-ko-nok by Mr. Ar-un-del, a merchant of Cahokia. "Bill," a slave of Mr. Marney, of the American Bottom, was a few weeks after the massacre of Mr. McMahan's family, carried away captive by two of the Indians engaged in that transaction together with two other Indians. Bill was never restored to his friends; but it was reported that he was poisoned by his misstress, to prevent his restoration according to the Treaty of Greeneville.

Sally McMahan was born March 9th, 1785; was married to Mr. David Gaskill, and raised a large family. She lived in Ridge Prairie, during the greater portion of her life. Towards the close of her life, she removed to the city of Alton, where she died on the 23d of January, 1850, in the sixty-fourth year of her age. To her I am indebted for such of the facts stated in this memoir, as occurred in her presence.

Source: http://genealogytrails.com/ill/madison/massacre.htm