Wedding
Carl, Mary, Irene, Maxine, Don, Franklin, Alice, Francis and Sandy in the front age 6.
The Clay Massacre
**This may not be correct, Maxine may be the descendant of Nancy STOVER not Nancy FRENCH. There is no proof for either woman but I am leaning toward Nancy STOVER now which would mean Maxine is not a descendant of Mitchell Clay***
Don and Maxine are both descendents of Mitchell Clay and Phoebe Belcher, Don via Patience Clay who m George Chapman, and Maxine via Phoebe Clay who m John French. Phoebe Clay is my direct female ancestor; thus she is one of all my mama's. There is a statue of her in Princeton that depicts her sorrow at the loss of her children to Indians. Just think, if either Patience or Phoebe had been killed this wedding would never have taken place. I often wonder if anything I do as a mother and a woman was handed down the chain of women to me?
The Indian attack was on the children of Mitchell and Phoebe Belcher Clay, told in Johnston's HISTORY OF NEW RIVER SETTLEMENTS. Mitchell and the older boys were gone for the day, Phoebe and the babies were at the cabin entertaining Liggon Blankenship, the other [six] children were at the river's edge [Bluestone] with 16 year old Tabitha. A small band of Indians stuck killing Bartley and capturing Ezekiel and some horses. Phoebe hearing the commotion called to Liggon, who was armed, to come to the aid of the children, instead he left to "go to town" where he announced that all the Clays had been killed. Tabitha had gotten a knife from her attacker, she struck him several times before he regained his weapon, he struck her again and again until she fell beside her brother, the Indians left with Ezekiel and the horses. Phoebe took the two bodies to the cabin and left to seek help. Mitchell returned to find two dead children in the empty cabin. Several rescue groups went out, and killed some of the Indians, but the other group had Ezekiel, they took him to Chillicothe where they burned him at the stake, he was sixteen [?]. If Nancy, Noah's wife is a French she might be the dil of one of these children, Obedience Clay who married John French s/o Matthew. Clay Family.
SOURCE: The Georgia Branch Of The Virginia CLAYs And Their Celebrated Cousins by L.W. Rigsby, 1926./ Virginia Rahal- Descendant of Mitchell CLAY & Phoebe BELCHER through their daughter Sarah/Sally who married John PETERS, Jr./ " A History of the Middle New River Settlements and Contiguous Territory by David E. Johnston, 1906.
The Indians appear to have become angered at CLAY & his family by reason of the aid given by them to the scouts & militia during the Revolution. In August 1783, after CLAY had harvested his crops, & while he was absent from home on a hunting expedition to secure game for the family larder, a party of Indians crept in & attacked the family. At the time, Bartley & Ezekiel were building a fence around some stacks of grain. The older sons had not returned from the Revolution. Tabitha & some of the girls were at the river washing, while Mrs. CLAY & the smaller children seem to have been in the house. (Sarah, also known as Sally, presumably was born in 1783, so she would have been an infant, or her mother was still pregnant at the time of this massacre.) " The first they knew of the Indians was when one of them shot Bartley from ambush. This frightened the girls, but Tabitha, seeing an Indian about to scalp her brother, rushed to his assistance & engaged the Indian in a hand to hand conflict, she being without any weapon. It seemed for awhile that she might be victorious, but the Indian resorted to his hunting knife & literally cut her into pieces. Mrs. CLAY undertook to secure the aid of one BLANKENSHIP at this time, but he being a coward ran off & left the family to it's fate. After killing Tabitha & Bartley, the Indians captured Ezekiel CLAY & for some cause left the premises with him, perhaps in search of the elder Mitchell CLAY. Mrs. CLAY with her small children secured the bodies of Bartley & Tabitha & placed them on the bed, when she & her small children left home, going to the New River Settlements. Mitchell CLAY wounded a deer, which he followed for sometime & late in returning home, when he found the bodies of his 2 children on the bed & his wife & small children gone. Imagine his horror & grief, not only for the dead children, but for those members of his family whose fate was at yet unknown to him. There being nothing he could do at home, he made his way to the New River Settlements, pursued by the Indians into the settlements. Here, the settlers appearing too strong, the Indians stole some horses & made their way back to the Ohio River. A party was soon made up to follow them, consisting of Charles CLAY, Mitchell CLAY, Jr., James BAILEY, William WILEY, Edward HALE, Isaac HARE, John FRENCH & Capt. James MOORE. They first went to the CLAY cabin & buried the CLAY children. The Indians had divided, which fact was not discovered by the pursuers until after they had come up with the party that had the horses. In the ensuing battle between the whites & the Indians, several Indians were killed. Charles CLAY, only a mere boy, killed one of the Indians himself in the encounter. Mitchell CLAY Jr. at the time too small to handle a gun well, shot at one of the Indians, but missed him, the Indian being killed by another member of the party. The party of Indians carrying Ezekiel CLAY was not overtaken. They took him down the West fork of the river to their own town Chillicothe, where he was burned at the stake. The whites were so incensed at this conduct of the Indians that Edward HALE & William WILEY stripped the skin from the backs of 2 of the Indians & took the hide home & made razor straps from it, which were kept in the family for many years as a souvenir of the battle. Links page
