Monday, February 17, 2014

Will the Real Jenny Wiley Please Tell Her Story! Mystery Mondays

This post I have worked on for almost a year. When it is published it is a plea to all historical researchers. I don't mean as I am these days...the Internet variety, though if I have missed something please bring it to my attention. I mean researchers who can help go out and dig into old, dusty, dirty, courthouses, from libraries to quaint archives and look for actual factual records. It is finally time to leave no stone unturned to tell the story of Jenny Wiley. I have pulled some very interesting documents that tell a different version of her story. I hope there are others out there that can help me complete it.

The story of Jenny Sellards Wiley is one of great Appalachian lore. She was a pioneer woman who with her husband Thomas Wiley resided in what became Bland County, Virginia, was taken captive by American Indians in 1789 and taken to Kentucky. According to the story, several of her children and her brother were killed at the time. She then lost 2 more children while in captivity before she could escape.

Her story, in the past, has sparked a popularity that has mythical proportions especially in Kentucky where she and her husband moved to after her release. She has been written about in so many ways, from plays to fictional and non fictional books. There are various accounts that try to tell the facts, while others border on the plausible but really embellished.
Cover Letter of Lt. J.D. Smith of Russell County, VA to Gov.
Beverly Randolph, dated July 4th, 1790, that states Jenny's
 captivity was only a few months.

Todd Pack in his book, "The Stories of Jenny Wiley: Exploring the History and the Legends", states there are at least 20 versions of the Jenny Wiley story. In researching the various accounts I found that most accounts rely on oral histories, historical books written from oral histories and stories handed down from generation to generation. I was shocked that not many rely on actual primary documents to tell her story. Elias Howard Sellards, "The Sellards through two Centuries" tried in 1949, but even his version didn't research land documents.

In many instances various works about Jenny Wiley can be categorized in what is known as "captivity narratives".  They embellish the factual story with elements that create a sort of horror, romance narrative, that sounds great and plausible, but very rarely rely on historical research.

I began this search when I was still employed by Wolf Creek Indian Village and Museum. The county's goal was to have a marker placed at the site of the cabin and have the museum create a display about Jenny Wiley and the different people of the frontier, which included the Native Americans in that story.

The problem started for me at the very beginning with reading the various stories and just trying to create a display map of her journey from Bland and the supposed route her captors traveled to take her to Kentucky. Not only were there extremely different embellished accounts of her journey, that didn't agree on the details of her journey at all, the accounts did not agree with where her cabin was located either.
Lt. J. D. Smith July 4th, 1790 letter to Gov. Randolph
Page 1

The accounts also differ in how long she was in captivity. William Easley Connelly's version in his History of Kentucky and the founding of Harman's Station, has her held captive about 11 months. Connelly claims one of his main sources was Adam Wiley, Jenny and Thomas Wiley's son, and it is this claim that gave his version more weight. While other versions has her held captive until 1792. (see the newspaper article photo) Hint: neither of those are true. I've posted J.D. Smith's correspondence to Governor Beverly Randolph dated July 4th, 1790 that states Jenny Wiley was only in captivity a few months.

It transcribes as: His Excellency Beverley Randolph Esq. Governor of Virginia Richmond

Letter from Russell County July 4th 1790

I cannot but think it my duty to trouble your Excellency with the following accounts. Early last Month a party of hostile Indians is said through this narrow County and fell on the House of a certain Capt. Newland in Washington County near this County line, plundered his house and all that was valuable that they could carry away, burned many of his goods that they could not carry and took his wife and three children prisoners, but being quickly pursued and like to be over taken they kill’d and scalped the women & children in this County & made there escape.

Last Spring John Frazier Esq had his son (a little boy) taken prisoner & I am well inform’d, that unfortunate man has since had the rest of his family killed on the Kentucky road.

I doubt not but your Excellency has been inform’d of Mrs Wiley’s oath who was taken prisoner last fall and runaway from the Indian late last winter, I am credibly informed that her deposition was taken in Montgomery County & reports that the Indians informed her they would bring four hundred Indians against Clinch River & Bluestone this summer. There has lately been much of Indians sign recovered on Big Sandy River. We keep out twenty five rangers & four scouts, but as our County is about 150 miles in length that small body is insufficient to guard it. Should our distressed situation incline your Excellency tender feelings to address, men at least be appointed to range on our Frontier until the Fall. I find it exceeding difficult to get men to range, as the whole of this county from it’s narrowness is considered as frontier, a man will choose rather to submit to a fine than have his helpless family exposed to danger while he performs a tour of duty. If such a number of men as your Excellency may Judge necessary for our defense should be order to be raised in Washington with this County covers in it’s whole length, it would be the best & most natural defence that our frontier at this interim can expect, in all probability it would secure us from such frequent and cruel barbarities as this County has lately experienced.

I have resided in this County during the last war, and I’d not think that during the whole war I heard of more cruel or more frequent acts of Cruelty than has been within a year past. Permit me in to instance one act committed last fall on the line dividing this County & Montgomery, on the person of a certain Mr. Whitley who went after miles in the wood hunting his horses when the Indians fell on him, killed him & cut him into small pieces, cut out his guts & strung them on the bushes, cut out his heart & flung it on the ground with such violence that it covered itself in the soil.

The bearer Mr. Fletcher having some business in Before I have prevailed on him to carry this express; I hope your Excellency will be pleased to order him such reward as you may adjudge him for his trouble. I have the Honor to be

Your Excellency obed nt

Hble Servt

J. D. Smith Commanding


In some versions she is led to the blockhouse at Harman's Station by a dream vision of a man that was killed while she was in captivity. In other versions she escaped with a man named Samuel Lusk and followed the river as in Mary Ingles escape in 1755.

In some versions Jenny Wiley is wading and swimming rivers to escape, resettles in Kentucky years after her capture, and is buried there. Other versions have her in a canoe paddling down a river, towards home, then settled and buried in Giles County, Virginia.

The easiest solution would have been to just pick a version, the more popular one I guess, and just build a display around it. I decided that Connelly's version could possibly be relied on since he said he based most of it on the son's account his mother Jenny had told him. Our own Historical Society had used excerpts of Connelly's in their History of Bland County in 1961. This being a county project I thought that would be acceptable, less controversial (at least to those who believed his version) and easy.

Lt. J.D. Smith July 4th 1790 letter to Governor Beverly Randolph
Page 2
But something in me, the researcher in me, said, "Something is not right". When I was trying to develop the map...I know this area...I know most of the old roads. There are maps that exist of the old road system. I also know that the roads and paths we use today were used by Native Americans before us. The version of the trip Connelly gave matched up on a map...but not so much in the real terrain.

So I decided that there needed to be more research and that if I at least searched primary documents for the location of the cabin then they could use that for the documentation for the marker if they asked for it. Little did I realize that just performing that research was going to tell an entirely different story than Connelly's version.  I was performing this work while very ill, but I loved the researching part of my job. I didn't get to do that part often in my job duties. It was my passion and really this research kept me on the job longer than I think I should have stayed.

What I discovered in the primary document research I did get accomplished were most all the versions, especially Connelly's, were very fictionalized, embellished versions of the actual event. Trying to discover just what is true and what is .....well...forgive my reference... plain old BS...is going to take a lot more research.

There are some who fear I am going to make the colonist look bad and that I should realize we can't project our thoughts today with what the people of the frontier did or thought in their time.  I'm not trying to do that. I'm trying to correct the records and identify each person in this story. The settlers and the Indians. We have the advantage today to look back on an event and can pull primary documents to look at the accounts of all sides of the people living through them. Hind sight is 20/20. That is not to judge them but to understand what happened by what was occurring at the time that caused this event. You cannot do that with what I call, hit and run history.
Beckley Post Herald, Beckley, WV Tues. April 17, 1956
Article ties Jenny Wiley to Samuel Lusk to escape in 1792

Two cars collide.  One of the drivers, even though his car is damaged, doesn't stop and drives away. What you have left is the damage of one car but with no understanding as to what happened, how it happened or why it happened. What was going on with the other car that caused this to happen? Telling the story of Jenny Wiley from the perspective of only the settlers is a hit and run history.

There are accounts that say one of the chiefs that attacked Jenny Wiley was the Shawnee Black Wolf, one of the sons of Chief Cornstalk. If this is true, his own family had it's own tragic loss of family members in this war. The Jenny Wiley accounts do not go into the death of Black Wolf's father Chief Cornstalk and his brother, at the hands of the militia under a flag of truce. For more information Click Here or Here

The point being made that both sides committed atrocities and both sides had their own reasons and beliefs for doing so. Both sides believed they had a right to the land and in that conflict it was a war.

There are even those that believe that Jenny Wiley had a Native American child by Black Wolf, when she returned from captivity. I first posted a link explaining their research and beliefs, but the page has since been removed. So here is another link for Chief Cornstalk and his ancestry.  Click Here.  This part of the story in the day of DNA testing would not be hard to prove or disprove. I would love for the descendants of Jenny Wiley and the people on this website to get their DNA tested for their common ancestor.

In the story of Jenny Wiley, the length of her captivity, is going to play a role as to when this would have happened. Very few cite the true amount of time she was held captive.  In reality it was only a few months. In that short time period she had one baby and became pregnant again? If these two groups have a DNA test or begin a Thomas and Jenny Sellards Wiley DNA data bank, that could weed out the truth and also show how they are related.

It is examples such as these that mean each component in the Jenny Wiley story (s) has to be questioned in my mind and proven to get at the real Jenny Wiley story. In Connelly's version of the story Jenny Wiley was pregnant when she was captured. She had the child prematurely. The Indians treated her well during her childbirth and afterwards but then the story says they gave the baby a test by strapping him to a board and placing him in cold water. The child cried and the warriors supposedly killed him and scalped him. She supposedly buried him in the rock shelter she was staying in.

First, whose tribal tradition is that? Secondly, I've read where the rock house location is thought to be known. How about an archeology dig to prove or disprove this? The remains, if found could be reburied next to his parents a few miles up the road. Leave no stone unturned.

What if the child she had in captivity wasn't killed but left behind? According to the story, Jenny was carrying another baby at the beginning of her capture and it was killed on the path because they were on the run and she was falling behind. So she knew how hard it would be to escape with another child.  Come on folks get that DNA tested!!

I will be taking sections of the Jenny Wiley story and breaking it down using the primary documents and the research yet to be accomplished. So please bear with me.

The next post will be where the cabin was located. This will deal with land claims and grants of the Wiley family on the frontier. It's amazing how much the process for the Wiley's and other settlers on the frontier to claim land and get a deed had to do with land speculation, Indian treaties, the Indian wars, Proclamation of 1763 and the Revolutionary War. It took Henry Harman 45 years to get his land grants.

I believe I have real definite primary document proof the cabin was NOT on Walker's Creek but was in fact as some stories claim on Clear Fork Creek.  I welcome all the proof to say otherwise. If you have proof to refute anything in these posts...PLEASE for all the Jenny Wiley descendants and family, let's get it on here and tell her true story. You won't hurt my feelings a bit!

The time period in which Jenny Wiley lived was a pivotal time period in American history and definitely Appalachia.  The story of her capture was a true story and she was a very STRONG woman to have survived and still thrived on the frontier. I know through her real story we can get a better understanding of this time period in Appalachia, who she was, and the people connected to this story through the events in her life.
Click here for the post," Where was-cabin-of Thomas and Jenny Wiley"

For a overview of captives and the captivity narratives this YouTube video is a good overview.  The sound is really low though.




17 comments:

  1. This story is "quickly" becoming lost. In the late 1970's, I remember attending a dedication ceremony at the US Grant Bridge in Greenup at the "end/turnaround" of the Jenny Wiley Trail. We even planted a Coffee Tree during the dedication.

    Now, that place has been erradicated +30 years


    How can we instill pride in the pioneer spirit or even instill pride in the rebellious spirit of Kentucky Natives if we Do not teach, portray, artistically exhibit our history?

    Who we are today is a genetic soup of those events over 220 years ago.

    I want to be part of this research.

    Randy Bentley

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  2. I just recently came across your blogs on Jenny Wiley and very much admire your dedication to documented history. It was handed down in my family that an ancestor was fathered by an Indian, and decades later I connected this tale with Jenny Wiley and her daughter, Mary Jane Wiley Williamson, my 3rd great grandmother. With one exception, census records are consistent with Mary Jane Wiley having been born before July 1790, which would be consistent with her having been conceived during the captivity of her mother. But we know census records are not entirely reliable, and as you say, DNA testing may be the only approach to learning the truth. This is not easy, however, because Indians are generally reluctant to provide DNA samples for comparison, and because of the number of generations that have passed. Seven generations separate me from the supposed Indian ancestor, so I would carry only about 0.8% of his DNA. For every succeeding generation the expected amount will be reduced by half, so those in my generation may well be the last for which a DNA test can provide any evidence. So I join you in urging descendants of Jenny Wiley to get the DNA test for ethnicity.

    I have had four ethnicity DNA tests with the following results for Indian ancestry:
    ancestrybydna.com: 10% American Indian (This result is almost certainly wrong, since it would require that I had a full-blooded Indian great- or great great grandparent, and I am sure I did not.)
    dna.ancestry.com: no Indian ancestry detected
    FamilyTreeDNA Family Finder: no Indian ancestry detected
    23andme:Native American 0.3%

    The 0.3% detected by 23andme is statistically consistent with the expected value of 0.8% if Mary Jane Wiley was fathered by an Indian. The failure of other tests to detect Indian ancestry is not surprising, because different companies test for different genetic markers, and by chance I may not have inherited the ones that they test for. I am reasonably sure I did not have any other Indian ancestor that would explain the 0.3% result, so I take it as support for the family legend. But the only to be sure is for enough of Mary Jane Wiley Williamson’s descendants to be tested to provide statistically reliable results.

    Leon

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    1. I am also descendant of Richard Williamson and Mary Jan Wiley (Wiley Williamson > Asa Williamson > Charles Williamson > Lindsay Williamson (my Father,) I have high cheekbones along with olive complexion, and many people tell me I must have some American Indian in my lineage. I have not had any DNA testing done, though. However my two full sisters (both of them with quite fair skin, and no high cheek bones) have had DNA testing which showed zero % percent American Indian. I cannot say that I trust the accuracy of many of the DNA testing facilities. As you posted, they look for different genetic markers.

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  3. I’m a descendant of Jane Wiley Williamson and Richard Williamson as well! For me it goes back about six generations. I’ve also taken a dna test through ancestry and no indigenous dna showed up there in my estimate. But, with the possible ancestor being so far back, I’m not sure it even would. That is IF the legends and rumors about Jane Wiley’s parentage are true. I definitely think that the only way we’ll ever really know though is if all of the Jenny Wiley descendants get our dna tested, not just those descended from Jane Wiley’s line.
    ~leah

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    1. I'm a direct descendant of jenny wiley who was my 5x great grandmother. Many of us have had our dna done and none of us have native American dna. We do not in any way believe that she had a child with any of her captores. I do understand why it has been questioned because I questioned it myself and in the end, I came to the conclusion that the story if a child are completely false and made up.

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    2. That's why DNA is encouraged. To tell the TRUE story of Jenny Wiley, much more actual research needs accomplished using ALL the tools available. How many books record her as being held captive for up to a couple of years? When the truth was only over the winter and made her way free in a few months. Your grandmother was a very brave pioneer woman but her true story, which is much more interesting, had become victim to captivity narratives that were used to sell books. She signed her name Jane Wiley I want to know if she was the Jane Wiley that Patrick Henry awarded Kentucky lands to and why? I think her story could be much more fantastic and more powerful as women's history on the frontier than what had been reported about her. Thank you for commenting. I hope more who have Jenny Wiley as an ancestor continue the search for her true story.

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  4. Sorry, the video was no longer available...darn and I can't find another copy. But found one that explains these captivity narratives.

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  5. I am a descendent of Jenny and Thomas Wiley. Through. Mary Jane Wiley Williamson, Amy Emmadora Williamson Smith, Richard B. Smith. Owen Smith. Robert Lee Smith and myself. Me, my brother and many many other relatives have had our DNA tested. No Indian.

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    1. I've heard this but have any of you compared DNA with anyone that claim they are from the Native branch? I think the man's name is John Black Wiley? His descendants?

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  6. I am a 3rd G-Granddaughter of Jenny and Thomas Wiley. Me>Clyde Wiley>Edward Seymour Wiley>Moses Wiley>Hezekiah Wiley, b. abt 1798, son of Jenny and Thomas. I have been doing this research for 49+ years. I have been told by a couple of dentists that I must have Native American ancestry, due to my talon cuspids or eagle talon cuspid teeth. Also, I do have high cheekbones and in my youth I had darker skin. When I first took the Ancestry DNA test, input results in 23 and Me, proceeded from there, the results in Ancestry showed an area of North Africa that Cherokee share DNA with. Now that is no longer in my results.

    I have never bought in to the "Jean Brevard" fantasy that is supposedly Jenny Sellards mother. I find it strange that her father, Hezekiah Sellards' mother was Anna Brevard (still attempting to verify this information), and her father was Jean "John" Paul Brevard, a Huguenot. There is absolutely no record, historical, family bible, etc. that states who the mother is of Jenny and her siblings.

    It would make sense to me that Hezekiah had children with a Cherokee woman (married or not - I find no record of any marriage) and the "attack" on the Wiley cabin was the Cherokee Chief Benge and the others, taking back something that was "taken from them". But the stories are so tainted and twisted. No one would have wanted to record, in those years, that there was a mixture of blood from European to Native American. That is the perspective that makes the most sense to me. DNA is not yet able to tell us enough about Cherokee or other Native Americans. I will keep on researching. I have been quite excited to see these documents that you have posted. I would love to spend time conversing with you.

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    1. I'm always interested in the Jenny Wiley story. I wish I were healthier to go dig in archives from here to Missouri. William Connelly version is the one most rely on for the Jenny Wiley story...and I proved much of his version is fabricated. But there was a deposition of Jenny Wiley...the official records record it. Someone as unethical as Connelly in research...I wanted to search his papers for this deposition. I searched reams of microfilm, and had folks searching Richmond but no one has found it.

      On the NATIVE side. Jenny may or may not be native. It's going to take more comparisons of DNA..that story is still being told the more DNA tests are taken for comparison.

      I'm still wondering why Patrick Henry awarded a grant of 560 acres of Kentucky lands to a Jane Wiley, several years before Jenny was captured. We know Jenny signed her name in later years Jane Wiley. Is there a connection?

      ALSO, the Cherokee had women chiefs. Beloved women, sat at council, so the patriarchal view of power in original Native political systems does not fit European values of that time or this time of some historians. According to Connelly's version, Henry Harman and his group chase the natives back to Kentucky, while her husband, Thomas, takes out to the Cherokee nations to secure her release. Was Jenny a target for a specified reason? If you ask the natives and I have asked them to read this, the one thing they pointed out to me is that Chiefs did not go on raiding parties. Why are all these chiefs in Connelly's story interested in this woman? That was their question.
      If Thomas was at Point Pleasant, he served with Native Scouts. The people on the frontier lived with Natives. They were NOT gone.. Appalachia wasn't just a "hunting ground" for natives. I've found several deeds in the late 1700s, early 1800s, that mention, the "abandoned Indian fields" in the county where I live. How long were they abandoned? What does "abandoned" mean? There are also marriage records, some of the oldest left though many were destroyed in the purge to prove white ancestry, in Russell Co Virginia of men who were said to be native and had multiple wives. They didn't charge them with bigamy, they charged them with something else and I can't remember the charge and this is in the 1840s. Multiple wives was a practice of certain tribes, long after European contact. Natives were still here. But the narrative of the actual history has been changed. What the Jenny Wiley history can do is tell the actual story of what really was the connections on the frontier. Just about every TREATY in the east had a provision for Natives to remain on the lands...but they had to give up their tribal affiliation and become citizens. Some had lists of people who did just that and others were not recorded except by later example. Not everyone traveled the trail of tears. Historians of the past told a version of history that by all purposes fit a certain narrative that wasn't true. They were really lazy, many didn't research anything just told oral histories and said that was history. They were popular myths passing as history. What needs to happen is the documents need searched and scanned again. Identifying all the people involved. I hope Jenny Wiley's deposition is still out there. A deposition of her OWN voice, not someone else's telling of her story. Not much research doing these days on this. but would love to converse. Fill out the contact form to the left and I will send you my email.

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  7. I am realated on my Mothers side to John Black Wiley. Who settled in Wileys Cove Arkansas. Now Leslie. My Great Great Grandmother was Mary Wiley, her Maiden name.in Fifty Six Ar area. She married a Huffines. Thats the story anyway. My Grandma said she was a Medicine Woman and a Midwife

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  8. I am about to have my DNA tested as well, I am related 8 generations back to Jenny through her daughter, Mary Jane. I used Hezekiah for my son's middle name because I love this intriguing bit in our family.

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  9. I'm a decedent of jenny wiley and marey draper Ingles and everybody knows that jenny wileys story is really made up. Royal colonization war propaganda she got land and they made the Indians look like savages for the crowns benefits my grandparent literally stole my other grandparents story and it worked smh

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  10. So what really happened is they attacked the Indians took some loses then lied about what really happened and used that narrative to get everybody on their side and they copied Mary draper Ingles story lol control the output and input you control the world just more murdering for land by the royal aristocrats world elites look at America now

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  11. Anybody who believes they wouldn't have all been killed or that they could have even possibly gotten away from the best hunters in their environment cmon now lol

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