Jane Clendenin Davis' gloves
By Marsha Moses Although the Clendenins who figure in the Massacre at the Big Levels in Greenbrier County are not my direct ancestors, I feel the need to include this in my family history narrative because I am quite convinced that this tragedy was a major factor in Charles (brother or uncle to Archibald Jr.), and his children’s decision to persevere in their efforts to construct a fort at the present site of Charleston WV and without a doubt it was a major factor causing them to fight in the battle of Point Pleasant. I can imagine that the massacre put fear in the hearts of these families and added to their desire to provide forts to protect white settlers from further atrocities from the hands of what they must have considered savages after an incident of such violence.
Before coming to Greenbrier, Archibald, about 1756, had married Anne McSwain (born 1732), and they had three children—the eldest, Jane, who was about four years old, a son, and an infant born either just before or just after their arrival. Anne McSwain’s father had died when she was a baby, and her mother had then married a Mr. Ewing, to which union was born a son John Ewing, who evidently accompanied the Clendenins, making his home with them, and who has been frequently thought to have been one of their own children. 1
Remember that this was the most western outpost of civilization for these people at this time. In 1745 twelve individuals, under the name of the Greenbrier Land Company had made application to the Governor’s Council of Virginia for permission to take up 100,000 acres of land on “the waters of the Greenbrier” . John Lewis made some of the surveys after November 1750. Of the one hundred or more surveys made by the Lewises in the Greenbrier Valley, was one for 360 acres in the name of Archibald Clendenin Sr. and another for the same acreage in the name of George See. These tracts were adjoining, and both were eventually acquired by Archibald Clendenin, Jr.—the first by inheritance from his father and the second by assignment from See. Archibald and his family were living on the survey by 1759 and by 1762, Archibald had been appointed constable by the Augusta County Court. By June 1763, there were more than thirty families living on Muddy Creek and in the Big Levels area. 2
Archibald Clendenin, a brave man and mighty hunter, had taken particular pains to exhibit all possible signs of friendliness to the bands of Indians constantly roaming through this rich hunting ground. Having lived in the region a year, with no indication of Indian hostility to arouse his fears, he felt he was succeeding in his efforts to win their friendship. But the Indians were only waiting for the opportune moment.3 The Indians came apparently as friends, and the French war having been terminated by the treaty of the preceding spring, the whites did not for an instant doubt their sincerity. They were entertained in small parties at different houses, and every civility and act of kindness were extended to them. On June 27, 1763, Mr. Clendenin had just returned from a very successful hunting trip on which he had killed three fine elk, when a band of sixty Shawnoes (Shawnees), a particularly cruel tribe, led by their young chief, Cornstalk, appeared. 4
The Indians began at Muddy Creek and killed Yokum and several others, captured the women and children, plundered the houses and burnt them to ashes. After this, they came to Clendening’s who had heard nothing of the hostility. When the came into the house, they asked for something to eat; but Mrs. Clendening was suspicious of them, from the circumstances of their being painted different form what she had ever seen before. She expressed her fears to her husband in a low voice, but he replied “No danger.” Mrs. Clendening was in the process of boiling the bones from the game that Archibald had brought home from his hunt in a large pot under a shed or scaffold, constructed near the house, for that purpose. She therefore gave her infant to her husband, and taking a large pewter dish and flesh-fork in her hand, repaired thither to bring some for the Indians. But just as she turned the corner of the house, she heard Archibald exclaim “Lord have mercy on me.” She dropped the dish and fork, and turning back saw an Indian with the scalp of her husband in his hand; he held it by the long hair, and was shaking the blood from it. She rushed upon him, and in a fit of “phrenzy”, requested him to kill her, likewise, spitting in his face to provoke him to do so.5 Mrs. Clendenin was a woman of little fear and long on courage. She began to lash out at the Indians with her tongue, although the tomahawk was drawn back and held over her head, and she was lashed about the face with the bloody scalp of her dead husband, she showed no fear and remained defiant. 6
Dr. Handley tells the story a bit differently. 7 Clendenin had returned the afternoon before from a successful hunt on which he had bagged a fat elk, and as was the custom in that frontier community the word had gone around to the neighbors that come noontime boiled elk meat with all the “fixins” could be had by one and all. This was no excuse for shirking the day’s chores and the three teenaged boys, John Ewing, who was Ann’s half-brother, Conrad Yolkham and a Negro boy named Dick Pointer, were sent out to the cornfield a quarter mile away from the cabin to chop weeds until the arrival of the guests.
By mid-morning Clendenin had a large iron kettle containing the elk meat boiling briskly in the yard as he had cut more wood to replenish the fire. Little Jane and her three year old brother John played near by, and Ann was in the cabin tending the baby and talking to an old lady guest who had arrived early and was sitting on the doorstep as she stirred the batter for the corn pone which was to be cooked and eaten hot along with the elk meat, and dried fruit and buttermilk fresh from the spring house under the hill.
The scene became tense upon the arrival of the Indians. As Ann came into the courtyard to see what was happening an Indian killed the old woman . Then Clendenin grabbed his small son and tried to clear a rail fence. One of the Indians fired a shot, which passed through his body and killed both him and his small son. Ann was seized , tied and gagged. The boys in the cornfield came in and John Ewing and Dick Pointer were seized. Conrad Yolkham being a bit older and more suspicious made his way to his horse which was hobbled in the woods some distance away and rode away as fast as possible upon realizing what was happening , not stopping until he reached Fort Young, now Covington VA. where he reported that the Indians had ambushed the Clendenins and all were killed, and only he had escaped.
And still other sources, ( Chronicles of Border Warfare and Indian Warfare and Dayton’s book) have a large group of people gathered at the Clendenin’s home to partake in the feast and with curiosity to see the “friendly Indians”. Ruth Dayton says that as many as 75-100 people had gathered and as many as fifty died. Withers says that the roasting elks and the novelty of being with Friendly Indians soon drew the whole settlement to Clendenin’s house. I have not done enough research to have an opinion on this as yet—the first question that pops into my mind is has Charles and his family moved to this area yet? If they have, and there is a large gathering why were they not in attendance. Perhaps they were still back at Cowpasture at this time and thus spared.
During the massacre, while Ann Clendenin was berating an Indian, he flouted the scalp of her husband in her face, she asked him to kill her also—even spitting in his face to provoke him to do so. So he raised his tomahawk to strike a fatal blow. Her brother, John Ewing, among the prisoners said to the Indian: “Oh, never mind her, she is a foolish woman.” “Yes, responded the Indian—She damn fool, too.” The Indians then plundered and fired the house, and departed taking prisoners. Among the prisoners were Ann, her three children, and her half-brother, John Ewing. 8
The account given in a Bible in the possession of one of the descendants of Ann McSwain by her second husband, John Rodgers, is as follows: “John Ewing was captured with his half-sister when Archibald Clendenin was killed. Samuel Ewing and Dick Pointer (col) escaped, being in the field at work when the gun was fired that killed Clendennin giving them notice of the approach of the Indians." 9
Ewing has since said that Clendening might have saved his life, had he not been encumbered with the child; he started to run, and was making an effort to cross a fence that was near the door, which separated the house from a field of Indian Corn, which had he gained, he would have eluded the pursuit of the Indians; it being the month of June, the corn was high enough to have concealed him, but was killed while in the act of rising the fence; he fell on one side and the child on the other. 10
After the terrible carnage of fifty or more victims at the Clendenin home and the firing of the cabins, the Shawanoes assembled those of the women and children who had not been killed and made their way over Muddy Creek Mountain to Muddy Creek where they joined another small band of Indians and the survivors of the Muddy Creek massacre the day before. The Indians made camp and busied themselves with chores and hunting to await the return of the Indians who had continued their raid to Carr’s Crossing, in Rockbridge County. 11
While the women and children were for a while entrusted to a single old warrior Mrs. Clendenin conceived the idea of escaping, and thought before broaching the matter to her sister prisoners, she would ascertain whether this old Indian understood English. (Ann Royall’s version says that the Indians took Ewing with them. And that they were gone three days.) And as he made no response, she concluded that he was ignorant of the English language. (Ann Royall’s version says that she tried to get the other women to assist her to kill the old Indian and make their escape. But they refused to aid her) And so she spoke freely to the other women prisoners, but they were too timid to take any such risk. At length they heard the noise of an approaching party. The old Indian having charge of the prisoners, sprang to his feet and exclaimed in English at his joy in hearing his comrades returning with the spoils of their attack on Kerr’s Creek in now Rockbridge County; and Mrs. Clendenin discovering by this exclamation that the old Indian had by his silence deceived her as to his knowledge of the English language, now expected to be killed, in perhaps some horrible manner, for her plot to escape. But no allusion was made to the matter. She resolved to watch an opportunity to escape. 12
After return with more captives and booty, the Indians placed the prisoners in the center, with Indians in the front, the belled horses and one guard in the rear, and started on the exhausting journey of 175 miles or more over the mountains back to the Indian towns in Ohio, leaving the Greenbrier region completely depopulated for about seven years. 13
When the party had traveled about ten miles and as they were crossing Keeney’s Knob, Mrs. Clendenin asked a woman near her to carry her child for a little while. She thought the child would be spared; she knew that if she took it along and were caught, they would doubtless both be killed.14 (Handley says Keeney’s Mountain and Draper says Keely’s Knob) she, unobserved, darted to one side, and hid herself under a shelving rock. Soon after the Indians had passed, she heard some heavy footsteps; and expecting she had been missed, and was now pursued, and would be discovered she bent her head forward to receive the expected fatal stroke. In imagination, she already felt the fatal tomahawk on her head. And timidly making her eyes to her foe, she beheld a large bear standing over her, who seemed quite as much alarmed as herself—the animal gave a great snort, and darted off at full speed. it explains that the opportunity was rendered more favorable by the manner in which the Indians at the time were marching. They had placed the prisoners in the center, and dividing themselves into two companies, one marched before them and the other followed in the rear, having each flank open, and this gave her the desired chance of escape. 15
The Indians missing her after some time, laid her child on the ground, and would go off from it for some distance, thinking its cries would induce her to return; they would torture and beat it, saying “make the calf bawl and the cow will come.” At length they killed it and went on without her. 16 She remained under the rock until dark, when she sought her way back. Other sources say that an Indian grabbed the child by its heels and brutally killed it against a tree, throwing its body on the ground to be trampled by the horses. Withers says the Indian grabbed the child by the heels, beat out its brains against a tree and the narrative mentioned in footnote #15 says “...and taking the infant by the heels, dashed out its brains against a tree! and as though this was not enough, the miscreant throwing it down into the van, the whole company marched over it, the hoofs of the horses tearing out its bowels, and the feet of the Indians tracked the ground as they went with its blood!”
All of the versions seem to have a bear incident in them at this next point. Ann Royall’s version retold above has Ann Clendenin remain under the rock after the bear goes off until dark when she starts on her trip back towards home. Ruth Dayton also has Ann hiding under a rock. She then says that the Indians pursue her until their attention is diverted by a bear when they abandon their search for her in their eagerness to hunt and kill the bear. Handley’s version says that the Indians followed her and just as she was in despair, she saw ahead of her a hollow tree which as she approached a large bear ran from the hollow and took off into the woods. Quickly she crawled into the hollow left by the bear and lay quietly. In a matter of moments she heard the Indians. One Indian even stood on the fallen trunk. But all went swiftly after the bear whose trail they had mistakenly taken for hers. She lay for a long time fearing the Indians would return and pick up her own trail if she left the log, but eventually night came on and she decided she could get away unnoticed.
She traveled all night, and concealed herself by day. The second day she reached her desolate habitation. When she came in sight of the farm, she heard (or thought she heard) wild beasts, howling in every direction; she thought she heard voices of all sorts, and saw images of all shapes moving through the cornfield; in short, these sights and sounds so intimidated her, that she withdrew to a spring in the forest, and remained there till morning. She then approached the place, and found the body of her husband with his eyes picked out, lying where it was when the Indians left him. She threw a buffalo hide over it, and vainly tried to cover it with earth; but her strength was so much exhausted for want of food and sleep that she found herself unequal to the task. She continued her route toward the settled part of the country, travelling at night only; in nine days she arrived at Dickinson’s on the Cowpasture river with very little to eat. 17
When she got as far as Howard’s Creek, not more than ten miles from where Lewisburg now is, she met several white men. These men had heard that every soul was killed, and were coming to drive away the cattle and whatever else was left by the Indians. Among these men was one who was heir in-law of her family; he was displeased that she had escaped. This wretch offered her no sort of consolation, nor any relief, whatever. Some of the men gave her a piece of bread, and a cold duck but she lost it before eating it. 18 Handley says that at the ford on the Greenbrier River she paused to rest and bathe her bruised and brier scratched body, and was wondering if she could survive starvation and fatigue for the thirty miles which still lay between her and civilization. ....she was roused by the sound of approaching horses. Hiding behind some bushes until they came into view, she was overjoyed at the sight of some of her late husband’s relatives among the group of riders. She...was taken back when they showed disappointment at finding her alive. Relying on Conrad Yolkham’s report that Clendenin and all his immediate family were dead, they had come to take possession of his farms, and were disconcerted on finding his wife still alive. Somewhat reluctantly, they gave her food and permitted her to share a ride on one of the horses back to Fort Young. This is the only account, however, which alludes to their actually helping her on her way at all.
One can imagine the thoughts of this lone woman, her stark terror of what lay behind, her distorted imagination picturing every sound a footfall and every shadow an Indian. Fear, grief, thirst, hunger, exhaustion, exposure, sleeping without shelter—all these she must have experienced, but she fought them all and won, and after nine days of travel, reached a settlement on Cowpasture River in safety. 19
Unknown to Ann, a Negro man and his wife, working in the Clendenin fields at the time of the massacre, had made their escape, the woman in her fright and panic killing her young infant for fear its cries would lead to their capture. Reaching safety at the Jackson River settlement, they spread the news of the massacre. The story soon reached the ears of Clendenin relatives, and a party composed of the “heirs-at-law”—the phrase is Anne Royall’s—and others lost on time in setting out for the scene. Thinking the family destroyed, their chief objective was the salvage of any cattle or belongings that might have been spared by the Indians. 20 Mrs. Clendening arrived safe in her old neighborhood. She married a Mr. Rogers, the father of Mrs. Maiz (Ann’s daughter by this second marriage who was the main informant for Ann Royall’s version of the narrative—Ruth Woods Dayton refers to her as Mrs. Mays [Mayse]. Later they moved back to where her first husband was killed—peace being restored; and on looking about the old premises, she found the dish and flesh-fork where she dropped it, on the day her husband was killed. 21
Ann’s half-brother returned before the general ransom of the prisoners. He informed Ann that an old Indian and woman, who had lost all their children, adopted her little son, and was very fond of it, the child likewise being fond of them. But one day, the old man displeased with his wife, on some account, told the child, whom she was sending for water, not to go, if he did he would kill him; the squaw said she would kill him if he did not. The child stood still no knowing what to do; at length, the old man went out to the field, and the child , glad of an opportunity to please its mother, picked up the vessel and set off to the spring, but the old man seeing him from where he was, walked up behind him, and knocked out his brains.
About 1770 a treaty was signed with the Indians and the captives were released. Ann Clendenin’s daughter, Jane was returned to her. The daughter was seven years with the Indians; when she was brought to her mother as her child, she disowned her, saying “it was not hers,” and the child was leaving when Ann thought to check for a mark on her body that convinced her that indeed it was her child. But it was a long time before she felt any attachment for this child. 22
There are a few more narratives that I have read reference to that I hope to read at some time: The massacre is graphically described by Hon. H.L. Holcomb, of Portsmouth Ohio. This narrative told by John Ewing after his captivity has been preserved in the Ewing family. Also I am in the process of reading the Statement made by James Wade that is recorded in the Draper Manuscript MSS 12CC 11-12 in which Archibald is described as So “scarified by past encounters with Indians that he looked like an old raccoon dog.
In addition I am going to add the following story that could be the beginning of the story of the Clendenin Massacre. In the summer of 1763, Thomas Athol and three other men arrived at the house of Archibald Clendenin. Under their protection was Hannah Dennis who had been captured three years before by a party of Shawnees and taken to Ohio. The Clendenins gave her shelter and cared for her. When she was able to travel they put her on a packhorse and sent her on to her relatives at Fort Young on the Jackson River. 23 Mr. Hale24 gives a very good account of Hannah Dennis’ escape from the Indians. He then narrates the tale of the Clendenin massacre and concludes: “These melancholy events, occurring so immediately after the escape of Mrs. Hannah Dennis, whom they (the Indians) were so unwilling to lose, induced the supposition that the raid was made in pursuit of her and another source that I fail to identify tonight suggested that Ann Clendenin’s determination to escape had been in part caused by the stories that Hannah Dennis had told. The only other source that I read but did not use in this narrative is that found in Memoir of Indian Wars, and other occurrences; by the late Colonel Stuart, of Greenbrier. Presented to the Virginia Historic and Philosophical Society, by Chas. A. Stuart of Augusta, son of the narrator. With an Introduction by Otis Rice Reprinted by McClain Printing Company Parsons WV 1971. This was presented on January 15, 1833 by the son. The father, Col. John Stuart, had settled in the Greenbrier region in 1769 about ten miles northwest of Lewisburg. He served as County Clerk of the newly formed Greenbrier County (1778) from 1780 until 1807. The first meeting was held in his home. When he resigned, he was succeeded by his son Lewis. So this account is written by a man who was living in the area of the massacre as early as 6 years after the event. Remember that Ann Clendenin returned to the area to live with her second husband, so probably this man actually knew Ann. In one part of the narrative he says “She told me she returned that night, in the dark, to her own house, a distance of more than ten miles, and covered her husband’s corpse with rails, which lay in the yard, where he was killed in endeavoring to escape over the fence, with one of his children in his arms.” So it is quite possible that he had heard the story first hand.
His narrative is fairly short and not as painted with details as Ann Royall’s and Ruth Dayton’s, and I have chosen to outline it here at the end. He says: The chief settlements were on Muddy Creek. About sixty Indians introduced themselves under the mask of friendship at Muddy Creek and after accepting their hospitality, killed the men and made prisoners of the women and children. Thence they passed over into the Levels, where some families were collected at the house of Archibald Clendenin. There were between fifty and one hundred persons gathered. Again they accepted hospitality and proceeded to kill the men and take prisoners of the women and children. Conrad Yolkhom only escaped, by being some distance from the house, when the outcries of the women alarmed him. At Clendenin’s a scene of much cruelty was performed; and a Negro woman, who was endeavoring to escape, killed her own child, who was pursuing her crying, lest she might be discovered by its cries. The rest pretty much agrees with the other tales—including the part where they lash her with her husband’s scalp and that she escapes at Keeney’s Knob when she gives her infant to a fellow prisoner to carry. There is no bear in this version—she just hides in a thicket until they pass. However, the infant is taken by the heels and thrown against a tree and then thrown into the path to be trampled. The story then ends with the quote above in the introduction to this narrative. [CLENDINEN-L] Footnotes for Massacre Narrative 1. Greenbrier Pioneers and Their Homes by Ruth Woods Dayton Published by West Virginia Publishing Company , Charleston WV 1942 pp.225-235. 2. This information is from a manuscript written by Harry H Handley for the Journal of the Greenbrier Historical Society Volume II, Number 2, October 1970 , PP 5-13. 3. Dayton 4. This information is from Chronicles of Border Warfare or a History of the Settlement of the Whites of North Western Virginia and of the Indian Wars and Massacres in that section of the State with Reflections, Anecdotes, &c. by Alexander Scott Withers a New Edition edited and annotated by Reuben Gold Thwaites, Secretary of the Wisconsin Historical Society, With the addition of a Memoir of the Author, and several Illustrative Notes by the late Lyman Copeland Draper 1908 pp93-96. 5. this account is from a book called Sketches of History, Life, and Manners in the United States by Anne Royall (1826) Anne traveled from Huntsville, Alabama through Virginia and on up through Washington DC, Philadelphia, NY, Boston...with a bit of travel information and stories about the places that she stopped. She begins the narrative with the statement that “Having been advised to try the mineral waters in Virginia for my health, I set out on horseback from St. Stephens, Alabama......” Which makes me think that the reason for her including this narrative of our ancestors, was a stop at the White Sulphur Springs—a renowned spa where southerners gathered to take the waters summer after summer. She credits her story to Mrs. Maiz who she says is a daughter of Ann McSwain Clendenin. She says: “I had the relation from her (Ann Clendening) daughter, Mrs. Maiz, who now lives near this place, which is likewise confirmed by several others. Her relation begins as follows: “ pp.61-66. 6. Indian Warfare and massacres on the Virginia Frontier by Dale Payne p.21 7.This information is from a manuscript written by Harry H Handley for the Journal of the Greenbrier Historical Society Volume II Number 2 October 1970 PP 5-13. 8. This information comes from the Draper Manuscripts. Draper Mss 21 U (microfilm edition 1980) State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Mr. Draper credits Ann McSwain Clendenin’s daughter (I assume this to be the Mrs. Maiz who Anne Royall says was Ann Clendenin’s daughter) from her second marriage with having supplied the information. 9. This information comes from the Draper Manuscripts. Draper Mss 21 U (microfilm edition 1980) State Historical Society of Wisconsin. Mr. Draper credits Ann McSwain Clendenin’s daughter (I assume this to be the Mrs. Maiz who Anne Royall says was Ann Clendenin’s daughter) from her second marriage with having supplied the information. 10. Royall 11. Dayton 12. Draper Manuscripts 13. Dayton 14. Dayton 15. This information was found at the Greenbrier Historical Society Archives. It is labeled Of the Destruction of the settlement of Greenbrier, Virginia together with the capture and surprising conduct of Mrs. Clendenin, who was among those who escaped the tomahawk of the Indians at that Massacre. It then has a note saying “Whether the following was ever in print, except as it stands in Mr. Martin’s Gazateer of Virginia, I have never learned...”...it was extracted from memoirs of Indian wars on the western frontiers of Virginia, communicated to the Philosophical Society of Virginia, by Charles A. Stuart, Esq. of Augusta County...then at the end of the narrative it says “Ref. Indian captiveties or l Life in the Wigwam; being true narratives of captives who have been carried away by the Indians, from the frontier Settlements of the United States, from the Earliest Period to the Present Time. By Samuel G. Drake, Pub, Miller, Orton, and Mullgan 1855 New York and Auburn. (I may want to follow up on this source...) 16. Royall 17. Royall 18. Royall 19. Dayton 20. Dayton 21. Royall 22. Royall 23. Withers 24. Trans-Allegheny Pioneers by John P. Hale Edited by Harold J. Dudley, Historical Sketches of the First White Settlements West of the Alleghenies 1748 and after, Published by Roberta Ingles Steele, Radford, Virginia , 1971 pp.243-246.
