Mr. Pursley
 
Subject: Pursley
From: RPurs25331@aol.com
Date: Sun, 14 Jun 1998 10:21:15 EDT
 

Is there any thing more known about this family that was supposedly to have been captured at Ruddles ..Where were the captives taken ?? Any info appreciated as every thing so far is just supposition..Over the years I have heard from people related to a Jacob, Elizabeth and my John George Pursley as have been captured.


From: RPurs25331@aol.com
 
Hello Bob

I've got no real proof of my relation as really being there but in my research I keep coming across different Pursleys that claim to have been there.. I found that Lyman Drapers manuscript of the event also had "a man named Pursley" .. I've had claims that there was a Jacob,Elizabeth and my 4th grandfather John George Pursley was alo there and J.G was in captivity for seven years..Do you have anything on them??J.G Pursley migrated to Missouri with the Boone group and settled in the St. Charles Co, femme osage township and died in Franklin Co in 1852 at 82 years of age ..He was a vet of the war of 1812 under Sharsell Coopers command.

Ron Pursley


 From: Thompson <redwolf@shadowlink.net>
To: RUDDLESFORT-L@rootsweb.com

I am looking for information on Jacob, John George and Elizabeth Pursley. Elizabeth Ann Pursley born 5 July 1763/4 in Va. She married George Ludwig Ruppert on 1 Jan. 1785 near Lexington , Ky. She was taken captive at Ruddles Fort Station in 1780 or so.

Jacob & John George Pursley were said to have been taken captive , too. These people are believed to be siblings. Anyway, Elizabeth, it is said was held captive about 6 months. The Indians were a little afraid of her for she had an arm that ended at the elbow with finger-like appendages. They thought if they harmed her their gods would be angry.

The others were held for 6 years or so. Elizabeth was released at the Falls of the Ohio.

Thank you. Suzette Thompson


Subject: Captive Mrs. McFall mentioned...
Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2000 07:49:38 EST
From: Jsellars3@aol.com
To: RUDDLESFORT-L@rootsweb.com

Bob, You may want to add this to the archives. This is probably John McFall's wife who was not with him in Canada.
Jim

1846 History of Ohio, Miami County. Henry Howe. 1888.

REMINISCENCES OF CLARKE'S EXPEDITION.

Prior to the settlement of Ohio, Gen. George Rogers Clarke led an expedition from Kentucky against the Indians in this region, an account of which follows from the reminiscences of Abraham Thomas, originally published in the Troy Times. Mr. Thomas, it is said, cut the first sapling on the site of Cincinnati:

In the year 1782, after corn planting, I again volunteered in an expedition under General Clarke with the object of destroying some Indian villages about Piqua, on the Great Miami river. On this occasion nearly 1,000 men marched out of Kentucky by the route of Licking river. We crossed the Ohio at the present site of Cincinnati where our last year's stockade bad been kept up, and a few people then resided in log cabins. We proceeded immediately onward through the woods without regard to our former trail, and crossed Mad River not far from the present site of Dayton; we kept up the east side of the Miami and crossed it about four miles below the Piqua Towns. Shortly after gaining the bottom on the west side of the river, a party of Indians on horseback with their squaws came out of a trace that led to some Indian villages near the present site of Granville. They were going on a frolic, or powwow, to be held at Piqua, and had with them a Mrs. McFALL, who was some time before taken prisoner from Kentucky; the Indians escaped into the woods leaving their women, with Mrs. McFALL, to the mercy of our company. We took those along with us to Piqua and Mrs.McFALL returned to Kentucky. On arriving at Piqua we found that the Indians had fled from the villages, leaving most of their effects behind. During the following night I joined a party to break up an encampment of Indians said to be lying about what was called their French store. We soon caught a Frenchman, tied him on horseback for our guide and arrived at the place in the night. The Indians had taken alarm and cleared out; we, however, broke up and burned the Frenchman's store, which for a long time been a place of outfit for Indian marauders and returned to the main body early in the morning, many of our men well stocked with plunder. After burning and otherwise destroying everything about upper and lower Piqua towns we commenced our return march.

In this attack five Indians were killed during the night the expedition lay at Piqua; the Indians lurked around the camp, firing random sbots from the hazel thickets without doing us an injury; but two men who were in search of their stray horses were fired upon and severely wounded; one of those died shortly after and was buried at what is now called "Coe's Ford," where we recrossed the Miami on our return. The other, Capt.McCracken, lived until we reached the site of Cincinnati, where he was buried. On this expedition we had with us Capt. Barbee, afterwards Judge Barbee, one of my primitive neighbors in Miami county, Ohio, a most worthy and brave man, with whom I have hunted, marched and watched through many a long day, and finally removed with him to Ohio.


Subject: Captive Elizabeth Ann Pursley
Resent-Date: Sun, 13 Feb 2000 13:25:11 -0800 (PST)
Resent-From: RUDDLESFORT-L@rootsweb.com
Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2000 15:24:44 -0600
From: scotsman@fidnet.com
To: RUDDLESFORT-L@rootsweb.com

Jim,
Thanks for the account of Mrs. McFall. My own Elizabeth Pursley was probably rescued in a similar way, I'm very sure by Clark's men. Her future husband, George Ludwig Rupert was with General Clark's forces when she was rescued, and that is how they met. He admired her, courted her and then they married. She was taken back to Bryan's Station, one of the few 'Stations' that survived until then. I belive she was never far from the area either, like Mrs. McFall. Obviously, when the Indians were confronted, they deliberately left Mrs. McFall in the rear to be captured to delay the soldiers, and effect there getaway. Here's a copy of Elizabeth Ann Pursley Rupert's 1857 obituary clearly mentioning her experiences at Ruddles:

The following obituary is quoted directly from a photocopy of it from The Washington Register, published at Washington Court House, Ohio, Fayette County, Ohio, 12 February 1857. David Alan Bilter transcribed it in 1999 because the ink of the photocopy was fading and the paper was yellowing. A photostatic copy of the obituary is available in the LDS file, I personally have a photo-copy of the LDS original.

OBITUARY OF ELIZABETH PURSLEY RUPERT:
"Died, recently, at the residence of her son, Henry Rupert, ELIZABETH RUPERT, aged about 100 years.

Mrs. Rupert was taken prisoner by the Indians, at Riddle's Station, Kentucky, when quite a small girl - about twelve years old. Although some of her friends who were captured at the same time were cruelly treated and killed, yet she was treated kindly by them, and after six months was taken to Detroit and exchanged. She then returned to her friends.

Mrs. R. was, in many respects, a remarkable woman. She raised a family of eleven children. Although she had but one arm, she was able to do most all kinds of labor usually pertaining to house-keeping; was a kind mother and useful woman. She lived before the Revolutionary War, in the days of Daniel Boone, and was personally acquainted with some of the daring adventures of the pioneers of those perilous days.

How often were her ears saluted by the shout and terrible war-whoop of the Indian! She lived to see the red-man driven from the graves of his loved fathers and descendants driven before the mighty tread of the pale-face, till they have scarcely a place left to spread their blankets on all this vast continent, which they once owned and inhabited, from the shores of the Atlantic to the Pacific. She lived in the times that tried men's souls. She remembered seeing some of the distinguished men of the Revolution: many thrilling scenes of those times were fresh in her recollection.

What wonderful changes she lived to witness! Where, in her recollection, stood the camp of the Indians, and she oft heard the growl of the wolf and the terrific screams of the panther, she lived to see the school-house and comfort-able dwelling, the cultivated fields and hear the music of the church-going bell and the snort of the iron horse, as he sweeps along with the speed of the wind, bearing in his train a hundred cars loaded with the products of agriculture, manu-factures, &c. But I forbear. Peace to her shade! -- J.L. -- Jasper Township, Jan 12, 1857"

David Bilter's Notes on Obituary: "Quoted from a photocopy of The Washington Register, published at Washington Court House, Ohio, Fayette County, Ohio, 12 February 1857. The raid mentioned occurred on June, 1780. Ruddle's Station was named for Captain Isaac Ruddle, who, with his family, was also captured. He later escaped, to be captured again. Elizabeth had one complete arm and hand; the other arm terminated at the elbow with a couple of rudimentary fingers. She had been born thusly deformed. She was one of the adventurous pioneers and she triumphed over the perils."

According to the LDS File of the Evans and Rupert Family: "William Henry Benjamin Rupert, spent many years with his grandparents, William Henry and Rachel (Faint) Rupert, and told a number of anecdotes he remembered his grandfather telling around the fireside. Among other things he said the Indians never molested Elizabeth while she was a captive because of a superstitious awe inspired by her deformed arm. He said George rescued her and married her. According to George H. King, Fredericksburg, Virginia, Rachel (Rupert) Harrison told her daughter-in-law Mrs. Francis M. Harrison that she and her mother Elizabeth both had a child born after they were fifty years of age.

All the following is from my file (William Baker): The accounts written up after the incident, including the Draper Manuscript, list their father as "Mr. Pursley" but do not list his first name. Research is continuing to obtain his first name. It is quite possible that due to the stress of captivity, Elizabeth actually forgot her father's name, perhaps just remembering him as 'papa' or 'daddy'. This compiler thinks that is possible and may explain why posterity has not yielded Mr. Pursley's first name to us. Elizabeth's brother Jacob is thought to be the father of yet another Jacob (d.Feb. 17, 1856), William (Dec.16, 1796-Aug.4, 1834) and Henry Pursley, all of Fayette County, Ohio.

The settlers gathered a large and intimidating militia together to reclaim many of the whites that had been taken captive in the Ruddle's Station and earlier raids by the Indians, they sent troops among the Indians in Kentucky and demanded their people back. Without the backing of the British, who were cut off from reaching their Indian allies, the Indians had no choice but to bow before superior force. Elizabeth was either kept by the Delawares or was sold to other Indians, but she was in the general Kentucky area when the Militia rescued her and her brothers. Elizabeth reportedly was reticent to go with the settlers. George Ludwig Rupert was one of the militia from the new and bustling frontier settlement of Bryan's Station (Lexington), Kentucky that rescued her and admired her pluck. (Bryan's Station was founded a few years earlier by Daniel Boone and Boone's Bryan family in-laws and was more heavily fortified which made Col. Byrd decide not to attack it).

George courted and married her in January 1786, after Elizabeth was released, they were to have nine children. Many of Elizabeth's fellow captives were reunited with the remnants of their scattered families throughout the western settlements. According to tradition in this compiler's family, there was some trading involved for Elizabeth, amounting to a number of furs. This was probably done between the Delaware (Lenai Lennape) allies of the British who initially captured Elizabeth, and the tribe who ended up with her. The Delaware had inhabited the Kentucky-Ohio border regions for some decades after being pushed out from their ancestral home of Delaware. Andrew Jackson Jeffries was the source of this report. He told Clarence V. Griffin and others, who told this compiler. Andrew married a grandaughter of George and Elizabeth's. Andrew was born in Ohio in 1832 and died in Decatur County, Iowa in 1934 to 1936, at over 100 years of age.

Hours after the initial massacre, Elizabeth and her brothers Ben, George and Jacob were captured by the Indians and not harmed. Elizabeth was claimed by some Indians, who valued her deformed arm, they viewed her as spirtually sacred because of her deformity. According to my family's tradition, She implored them to let her have Jacob to care for, knowing he would be slaughtered by the Indians as a weakling, unable to keep up with the van of Indians and their captives, like so many other young, sick or lame children were as an expediency. Elizabeth saw many infants grabbed by Indians and dashed to rocks. Elizabeth must have been claimed by a kindly Indian, because she was allowed to care for Jacob. One account has it that Jacob was released to settlers 6 months later and others have it that he was released in Quebec 6 years later. This compiler leans towards the 6 month figure. That Jacob survived so young is a testament to Elizabeth's protection of him in the hostile Indian camp. Jacob owed his life to his sister Elizabeth.

Thus, Elizabeth was captured by Native Americans. She was in captivity from 1780 to as soon as 1783 or even as long as 1785 (probably '82 or '83), from the ages of 17 to maybe as old as 22. Elizabeth had a deformity, one arm ended at the elbow with fingerlike appendages attached to the end of her arm. The Indians viewed any deformities like that as being the mark of someone's being touched by the Great Spirit. The Indians viewed her as sacred and thus let her live and didn't mistreat her. This is undoubtably why she survived when the other women her age were killed. It is also why they let her sibling, baby (John) George, live as she no doubt cradled him.

Elizabeth was born on July 05, 1763 in Virginia. It is quite possible that she was born in 1768. Most family legends, including the important Evans-Rupert LDS File, have her as 12 years old when she was taken captive in 1780 at Ruddles Station. This would mean that she was 18 when she married George, not 23. This compiler leans towards the birthdate of 1768 for Elizabeth. Another argument to be made in favor of the later date is that a younger child would be more likely to be spared the inhumanities that victorious Indians inflicted on their older female captives.

Sincerely,
William Baker mailto:scotsman@fidnet.com or mailto:scotsman_2001@yahoo.com


Subject: Re: Captive Elizabeth Ann Pursley addenum
Date: Mon, 14 Feb 2000 15:35:20 -0600
From: scotsman@fidnet.com
To: RUDDLESFORT-L@rootsweb.com

I wanted to add to my just posted message, that the printed 1857 obituary disagrees with my family's tradition in two ways:
1. Whether Elizabeth went to Detroit or stayed in the area.
2. Length of her captivity.

The obituary says six months and released in Detroit. I believe that this is a mixup, that the writer (a grandchild) of this meant six months for her infant brother, and that her friends went to Detroit, but Elizabeth definately did not, she stayed in Kentucky.

Sincerely,
William Baker mailto:scotsman@fidnet.com
or mailto:scotsman_2001@yahoo.com