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Awaiting Her Chance About this time several settlements were made on the headwaters of the Big Sandy, and the Indians decided to kill their captive, and accordingly prepared for the execution, but just when the awful hour had come, an old Cherokee chief, who in the meantime had joined the party, proposed to buy her from the others on the condition that she would teach his squaws to make cloth like the dress she wore. Thus was her life saved, but she was reduced to the most abject slavery and was made to carry water, wood, and build fires. For some time they bound her when they were out hunting, but as time wore on they relaxed their vigilance, and at last permitted her to remain unbound. The Escape On one occasion when all were out from camp, they were belated, and at nightfall did not return, and Mrs. Wiley now resolved to carry intoeffect a long cherished object -- that of making her escape and returning to her friends. The rain was falling fast, and the night was intensely dark, but she glided way from the camp fire and set out her lonely and perilous journey. Her dog, the same one that had followed the party through all their wanderings,started to follow her, but she drove him back lest by his barkings he might betray her into the hands of her pursuers. She followed the course of Mud Lick Creek to its mouth, and then crossing Main Point Creek, journeyed up a stream (ever since known as Jenny's Creek), a distance of six or eight miles, to its source, thence over a ridge and down a stream now called Little Point Creek, which empties into the Louisa Fork of Big Sandy River. When she reached its mouth, it was day-break and on the opposite side of the river, a short distance below the mouth of John's Creek, she could hear and see men at work erecting a block house. To them she called and informed them that she was a captive escaping from the Indians and urged them to hasten to her rescue, as she believed her pursuers to be close upon her. The men had no boat, but hastily rolling some logs into the river and lashing them together with grape vines, pushed the raft over the stream and carried her back with them. As they were ascending the bank, the old chief who had claimed Jenny as his property, preceded by the dog, appeared upon the opposite bank, and striking his hands upon his breast, exclaimed in broken English, "Honor, Jenny, honor!" and then disappeared in the forest. Returned To Her Home That was the last she ever saw of the old chief or her dog. She remained here a day or two to rest from her fatigue, and then with a guide made her way back to her home, having been in captivity more than eleven months. Here she rejoined her husband, who had long supposed her dead, and together, nine years after -- in the year 1809 -- they abandoned their home in the Old Dominion and found another near the mouth of Tom's Creek on the banks of the Louisa Fork of Big Sandy. Here her husband died in the year 1810. She survived him 21 years and died of paralysis in 1831. The Indians had killed her brother and five of her children, but after her return from captivity, five others were born, namely: Hezekiah, Jane, Sally, Adam and William. Hezekiah married Miss Christine Nelson of George's Creek, Kentucky, and settled on Twelve Pole in Wayne County, where he lived for many years; he died in 1832 (Some say 1845.) while on a visit to friends in Kentucky. Jane married Richard Williamson, who also settled on Twelve Pole. Sally first married Christian Yost of Kentucky and after his death was united in marriage with Samuel Murray; she died March 10, 1871. William reared a family in the valley of Tom's Creek, and Adam also in that state. |