Interpreting History Mystery Mondays

This is a former post I wrote on January 15, 2012. It was before I had to quit my job because of all my illnesses 2 years ago. I am posting it again. Why? This post referred to some research I was working on at the time of a woman named Jenny Wiley and her being taken captive by Native Americans in 1789. The county officials were trying to get a historical marker dedicated to her in our county. I was interested because having been aware of some Native American ancestry in our family, as a child hearing and reading local history books, I couldn't understand the barbarity of these stories. How could anyone do that to a family? We were taught about these incidents in school. In school, Indians = "massacre", savages scalping and all the ugly these stories produced. When I talked to my mother, she said that there were two sides to every story and one day I would understand it was a war and wars are never pretty.  I saw Jenny Wiley's story as a way to finally understand, and to learn the why.

For the last year, I have been renewing my interest in the story of Jenny Wiley (it never went away!) and it is a real conundrum to tell her story. The basic true history is that on October 1st, 1789,  Native American Indians descended on her cabin, in what is now Bland County, Virginia, killed 4 of her family members and captured Jenny Wiley. She was held captive in Kentucky, where 2 more of her children died and she escaped. She and her husband Thomas Wiley later move to Kentucky and have five more children. Those are the accepted facts. It's the details and the why that need further research.

There are so many versions of her story!!!  I had been working on trying to prove or disprove all the pieces of these various stories using primary documents for the display at the museum.  I really wanted to know what was true and to understand why this happened to her family and this time period in Appalachian history. What I had uncovered is that the real people connected to this story are much more complicated and so much more interesting than the history books have written about to date. But with each piece of evidence the mystery of Jenny Wiley for me grew. I am more than ever determined to inspire research to go deeper to understand her story, discover as much of the real story as we can and of ALL the people of this time period in Appalachia in which she lived.

In the next couple of weeks, I will be writing several posts about Jenny Wiley. The first will be what the different versions of the stories are and then what I have uncovered in the primary documents to date. What I can say is that she was a very remarkable woman (more than the history books give her credit for) and through just her story alone, I think are all the elements to understand the "why" and the truth of the time period in which she lived.

But there is SO MUCH more research work to do. I hope there are some researchers, Wiley family researchers, Harman family researchers, or families connected to this specific area out there that can help to pull actual primary records and put the pieces together further. This is the importance of genealogists. Genealogist are interested in every document related to their ancestor and it is those documents that tell usually the official story. You combine that with oral history, popular belief and even tell the controversies to at least get a rounded picture of the events. I have most of all the "historical" written articles. I'm hoping researchers will look for primary documents that prove as much of the articles claims that we can. I would also welcome some help from Native American researchers and historians. Seems there is a belief that Jenny was descended from Native Americans. Doesn't that change the story a bit if it is true?

I am disabled and limited so much. No energy and brain fog is a big problem plus in traveling for the research. There is a lot on line but much more is NOT!  I will be posting every source I found and scans of primary documents that we have uncovered here in Virginia. That is why I am posting this again about interpreting history. Because 2 years ago I was having trouble proving some of the written "official" versions of her story. Several things appear quite contradictory in the primary documents with new documents just deepening the mystery. But to me, the real mystery and history emerging is much more compelling and exciting.

I will also use the Geneablogger's guidelines. Jenny Wiley will be Mystery Monday posts and I don't know how many it will take.  I finally found my list for the Geneabloggers format that I printed out. It is now in a file folder next to where I work. I love their format though my illness prevents me from being so prolific a blogger! This is going to be a big push on what little energy I have to get these posts out about Jenny Wiley. So please bear with me and if something is not clear or a problem, please feel free to contact me.

It is my understanding the county is still looking to put a marker up and Wolf Creek Indian Village and Museum wanted to work on a display dedicated to Jenny Wiley and that time period.

Interpreting History Originally Posted January 12, 2012

Historians discover, collect organize and present information about past events. I am a historian. I have a passion for history. But it is a passion rooted in my own family tree which expands to tell the story of others. I research to understand what my ancestors lived through. To understand how our world became what it is today. Today research is much easier than when I first began. In the beginning I chased census records on microfilm and reference books at different libraries. A trip to Richmond was always on the agenda for Virginia Census because all the microfilm was in one place. Today with Ancestry.com all the census records are available in one spot, reference works are online and you can access all of them at 3 in the morning! Libraries are digitizing collections and making them available more and more on line. I love it. But all of this is coming together and in the process primary documents are surfacing that tell a different view of history than what was first written or believed.

The last few months I've been researching a very local event to tell the story of the relationship of Native Americans and Europeans in Appalachia especially during the Indian Wars before, during, and after the Revolutionary War. Most like to avoid this time period. It's difficult. Historians of the past recorded "Massacres", with heroes and heroines usually not Native American. Most of the written story themes usually go, "The savage Indians descended upon unknowing colonial settlers for no reason and murdered them."

In my research what I am finding is the relationships between Native Americans and Europeans in the East and especially Appalachia were much more complicated than that. Different tribes in the East could be allies or enemies of both the French, English and the newly formed American colonial government. Certain factions of the same tribe could be allied with two different sides of a war in the same battle.  Depending on the year and events alliances in Appalachia, (and I'm sure this occurred elsewhere) could change depending on treaties or on the atrocities committed. Add to the fact that there were many intermarriages with Europeans, and it becomes a very difficult story to tell. Everything is not Red or White.  Before the removal of the Cherokee there was this attempt by many on both sides to work out the problems of Europeans taking Native lands. After the removal of the Cherokee and movement further west, the attitude definitely became more "the only good Indian, is a dead Indian" and round them all up on a reservation if they are allowed to exist.

What is more upsetting is the passion people feel when you change the history written by former historians and long held beliefs. Especially by historians of the 19th century. Many take much of this history written about Appalachia as gospel truth and have repeated and cited popular stories over and over again. We are learning with all this new evidence made available because of the Internet with more sources, which also helps to lead researchers to archives and courthouse primary documents not on line, many times it is not the complete story and many times not even the truth.

But a popular story provokes quite a bit of emotion if a present day historian tries to correct the record. This happened to Mary Kegley in her research of a story of local heroine, Molly Tynes. Molly Tynes was a young girl who supposedly rode a horse during the Civil War from Tazewell, Virginia to Wytheville, Virginia to warn Confederate Soldiers of a Yankee invasion. It was so popular a legend that folks in our area formed and enjoyed Molly Tyne rides following the supposed route. People just loved that story.  Mary published a book, "I Like Molly Tynes, whether she rode or not", thoroughly researching the event and the beginnings of the story. In her research, Mary could cite no real evidence that the young lady ever took the ride other than one newspaper article in the late 1800's written by her brother who liked writing embellished stories. Many in our area were in an uproar over her research and she is considered one of the top historians in our area. They accused her of historical revisionism.

Historical revisionism is a valid practice of history. As a historian reexamines past events and uncovers new documents, new primary sources, new interpretations can be told.  But it's hard because what was once the standard belief becomes discredited.

Yes revisionism is sometimes used in a negative way. There are those unsavory historians who invent sources as a type of propaganda for a biased history. But true constant revision of history is a part of the normal scholarly process of writing history. New evidence such as a diary or letters that had been in a family or primary documents buried in court houses or archives for years surfaces, to shed a different light on an event. For a historian to ignore them and go with the popular story is irresponsible of a true historian.

This is where I am today.  I'm finding many inaccuracies that were written especially concerning events related to the relationship between Native American actions and European actions in Appalachia throughout the wars between them. There are two sides to every story.  Being in a profession (museum curator) where it is important to tell as accurate an interpretation as you can, as unbiased as you can, this is going to be a task and a half. I can think of a few who might be upset. I'm going to rely on the records and let them speak for themselves. I'm going to tell as much about the individuals of the events as we know through the primary sources as we can glean and let it tell the story.   I'm thinking of the beginnings of the movie Braveheart when the narrator says, "I shall tell you of William Wallace. Historians from England will say I am a liar, but history is written by those who have hanged heroes."

Put Your Back Into It, Save your Strength!

The other day I was looking at something on the internet and came across my OWN blog! YES, it's been that long since I've even thought about it. I sort of forgot I had one. Which for me is normal these days. My illness does keep me in a "brain fog" most of the time.  As a matter of fact my illness (s), (there are more than one) have taken up most of my life these days....and to tell the truth...I'm tired of sickness taking everything.

I am a shadow of my former self. I've spent my time trying to figure out how to live with these disabilities. What can I do now that my body is really messed up? What can I not do, that I used to do so easily? I am learning I can do things, just in small chunks not long marathons. If I try to do a marathon....well then it's going to be a marathon recovery for DAYS. I can work eight hours as long as I'm given 24 to 36 hours to do the eight in! 

My days are full of trying to accomplish one or two things, then rest, do something else, then rest and hopefully at the end of the day not be in any pain so I can sleep which is a whole other problem. So many symptoms it's boring, daunting and sometimes downright depressing.

But in trying to deal with this new life situation something came to mind. I'm the family historian and I've still work to do. How do I do it in this shape?  I remember my mother loved to rearrange furniture at least once a year. I might rearrange once in a blue moon and I think that is because in my childhood, being a military family, we moved all the time. Add mother like to move furniture just for kicks and there you go.... once in a blue moon was enough for me. I have scars for life because in doing this task she would require all us children to help.

Dad did not participate in the moving but would notice this moving of furniture when he came home late at night and tripped over something that had been somewhere else when he left. 

Yet I remembered in the moving of the furniture my mother was quite creative. She would use blankets placed under heavy furniture on a wood floor and we would slide things in place. She would take anything on rollers and use it as a dolly. One plant stand comes to mind because we would have to wrestle the tree off of it and use it and then it took three of us to put it back!

But one thing she would tell us instead of using our arms to push something heavy was to, "Put your back into it, save your strength". Meaning place your back against the furniture and push or use your hip not your arms.  Well with these disabilities, I feel as if it is like moving heavy furniture with even the most mundane tasks.  I just have to learn how to put my back into it and save my strength. Do what I can do the best way I can. Find my blankets and roller plant stands and not to worry about how it looks just as long as things move!! 

We are an OLD Appalachian family with many, many stories. The blog has a draft mode and I can use that. But I have boxes of stories to tell. Thousands of pictures to share. Piles of research I've accomplished in 30 years. Tons of topics to explore.

I started this blog with the intention of telling those stories of family and places I know. Well I still want to do that. So what if I only get out a post a month or every other month? It's the effort that matters. I'm not dead yet...just sick. I can still live with that!

Appalachian Politics

Pictured is Flora "Mae" Perdue Burress & Stewart Burress behind the old home place. Courtesy of my Aunt Judy Boyles.

We are having a Governor's election here in Virginia and yesterday I went to one of those political rally's where each party tries to get the people out there to garner votes.

It caused me to reflect on politics in the mountains. Mountain folk are not much different from anywhere else except our politics have effected families for years and our memories go way, way BACK.

My family are all from the area right on the border of West Virginia. During the Civil War I had a grandfather that refused to serve for either side. He had a brother on the Confederate side and one on the Union and he said he refused to fight against either. He was conscripted into the Confederacy but kept deserting. He deserted one time too many and they shot him in the back of the head, letting him fall back into his own coffin. Then the family sent an Aunt and a black neighbor to go get him and bury him in the family cemetery.

We remember that the Methodist Church split on the issue of slavery in 1845.

Appalachian Ghost Stories

I can remember a few of those that my great grandparents Stewart & Flora "Mae" Burress related to us when we were very young. Grandpa Burress used to sit in his chair outside and tell us stories. I was always facinated by his being able to hand roll a cigarette with one hand while he talked and shared with us so many things he knew.

 

The Haunted Rocking Chair

Grandpa Burress used to work for the city of Bluefield, West Virginia. He was a blacksmith by trade and made sure metal tools were kept sharp or made items they needed by welding etc.

 

He said one day he was delivering a couple of tools to some fellers working on some city street project and passed by a house where he noticed that someone had put out in the garbage a perfectly good rocking chair to be picked up. He delivered the tools and on the way back stopped and knocked on the door of the house to ask about the rocker in the trash. A man answered the door and grandpa said if they minded if he took the chair home with him. The man told him he could take "the infernal thing anywhere he wanted" and slammed the door. Grandpa thought the whole thing odd but it was a good chair.

What to Post on a Blog?

As I see this the world has much in common but Appalachian people definitely have their own take or view of it. We are said to be "funny turned" referring to creating a spindle or leg of wood on a lathe that doesn't quite fit with the other legs of a chair. Good enough analogy. I just realized this endeavor is going to be some work to it. This is not as easy as I thought it might be. But it will be interesting.

I will try to focus on one subject at a time but life crosses over and it's amazing what you learn while doing something else. Maybe it would be best to create an outline and see what works and what doesn't. Might sit down tonight and tell a couple of the old scary stories I remember (if I can remember them) that grand daddy Burress told sitting under his hickory tree since it's Halloween this weekend.

Later this weekend I will start with a craft. How about good ol' Corn husk dolls? It's fall. Then maybe the Civil War since I'm trying to unravel this story of a grandfather that is pretty tragic. Then how about an article on old versus new Appalachia? This high speed is awesome though we did not get access to it until last Fall.