Where was the Cabin of Thomas and Jenny Wiley in Bland County? Mystery Monday Post for Sure!

This post is going to be a long one just with the documents! I was going to set the stage with a lot of historical background. But I instead will just mention as I go along a few items that affected land grants.

Folks, please forgive any errors. This little foray into Jenny Wiley has sapped all my energy, taken all my spoons and will take me a great while to recover from. Seriously I'm not going into great detail of the actual background history but will post a short bibliography for those that should pursue more information to understand how your ancestor could be on the frontier in central Appalachia in the 1750's and yet not get a land grant until the 1780's and beyond. If I get my strength back and my mind will work, I will try to do a couple of more in-depth posts about the Loyal Company grants, the impact of war and treaties on the settlers here in our part of Appalachia. But I want to get to what I promised, because I want others to take it and continue on with the research that I can no longer do.

If I don’t do anything else before I leave this old world, I want to inspire others to get the history right about Native Americans in Appalachia, the settlers in Appalachia and the relationships between the two. That to me would be a lasting worthwhile accomplishment.  I hope these posts will inspire others to get out there and accomplish the research of the real Jenny Wiley history.

The capture of Jenny Wiley and many other attacks on the settlers in our area occurred long AFTER the Revolutionary War. England has lost, and the westward expansion goes into high gear.

The lands where Jenny Wiley and my ancestors settled were thought to be under treaty to be ceded by the Indians early on.  The Indians obviously disagreed. In simplest terms, in many cases, someone forgot to inquire of the true Indians that held claim to these lands to give them up or they did and they said, "NO".

In the middle of that fight you have settlers Thomas and Jenny Wiley and the Indians who attacked them. Both protecting what they considered was their right to protect.

Before the Indian Wars in the 1750's, men such as Thomas Walker, who is the namesake of Walkers Mountain, (Big and Little) Walker's Creek and the Walker's Creek Settlement, had petitioned the colonial government for land. Thomas Walker's Loyal Company was issued a grant for 800,000 acres that spread from West Virginia to North Carolina.

It's real fuzzy the boundaries of these land company claims because no one had actually surveyed the entire lot. There was a certain process you had to go through to get the land grants. A survey had to be taken, (which means you had to hire a surveyor license by the courts), it had to be recorded, you had to pay money, live on the lands and develop them and ...then you could get a grant issued at the county or state level. The whole process for the Loyal Company was interrupted by the Indian Wars, the Proclamation of 1763 (which threatened to make the Loyal Company Grants null and void), and the Revolutionary War.  Another problem occurred because there were other competing land company speculators that claimed the same acreage. Add treasury warrants for military service and it's a wonder we didn't have a second war on the frontier after the Revolutionary War.  Later these claims after the Revolutionary War would be held up in court of appeals and land commission cases FOR YEARS to settle ownership.

That is why many of our earliest land grant deeds will mention these cases. It shows how it is hard to determine just how long a European settler would have been here on the frontier using just land records. Some folks such as Henry Harman had his surveys recorded in 1754, but waited 45 years to get his grants in 1789.

Others settlers living on the lands before the Revolutionary War, didn't get even a survey accomplished until the 1780's. Many had actually moved on and had sold or assigned their rights to someone else before getting their own original claim recognized which left the assignees having to prove they had purchased the original claim in courts.

In this time period in Appalachia, you can't go just by the deeds or grants to determine when someone arrived in a specific area on the frontier or where they lived at while waiting for courts to determine land ownership. You have to dig for other primary documents to tell their story.

That is the case in looking for where the cabin of Thomas and Jenny Wiley was located.

As I posted in an earlier post, I was trying to create a map for a museum display to mark the route Jenny Wiley took from Bland County, Virginia to where she was held captive in Kentucky. All I found were conflicting accounts in the written sources everyone referred to that claimed to be the actual, factual accounts of Jenny Wiley.

David E. Johnston's wrote in his History of the Middle New River Settlements that he interviewed William Stowers who claimed that the Thomas Wiley cabin was on the old Dill's Place on Clear Fork Creek. You can find his very embellished text version here on pages 98, 105, 107 and 148. Text Version History of Middle New River Settlements by David E. Johnston 1906
It's an amusing account but just like Connelly's version not researched much in primary documents. (and really? Indians adapted the leather hunting shirts from the Europeans? He has that backwards!)

William Easley Connelly's version in the, "History of Kentucky, The Founding of Harman's Station", has been over the years considered the gold standard for telling the story of Jenny Wiley. Because he states he relied on interviews with Jenny Wiley's son, Adam Wiley. His goes into great elaborate detail of a trip from a cabin supposedly near Mathias and Henry Harman on Walker's Creek.

(Is it just me or were Connelly's footnotes in this story an entire book to itself?)

His version though is very embellished. I also have a problem that he prints his version long after Adam Wiley is dead. Adam Wiley would not be able to refute anything he wrote. He gets confused the Mathias Harmans. There were 3. Mathias Harman, Henry Harman's brother, Mathias Harman, Henry Harman's son, and Mathias Harman, Daniel Harman's son. That family repeated names a bunch!

When I began 2 or 3 years ago I started trying to verify his claims by looking first for the land sale Connelly mentioned of Mathias or Henry Harman's to Thomas Wiley. I collected copies of every Harman grant and found NOTHING. No boundaries that mention Thomas Wiley as even being a neighbor... NOTHING.

I found the Mathias that built the block house at Harman's Station was Mathias Harman, Henry Harman's brother, and his land grants were with his other brother Daniel Harman on the Clinch River...no where near Walker's Creek. Henry Harman does assign his son Mathias, a land grant on Walker's Creek and it's recorded after 1790 in Wythe County but this Mathias doesn't sell Thomas Wiley land.

Even the Harman story of the hunting camp incident in Connelley's version, the reason the Indians are attacking the Wiley cabin by mistake. is hard to place in the Jenny Wiley saga. Henry Harman and his son's are attacked at a hunting camp in which Henry is wounded. They also killed a chief's son. The story is they are going to race back to the Walker's Creek Settlement because they know these Indians are going to want retribution.

The problem is not that the incident didn't occur it's tying it to the Jenny Wiley story. One version has it occurred in November 1784. If that is the case it is five years before the event. Another that it occurred in November 1788, then it took them a year to get back. If it occurred in November 1789, then they were a month too late but all versions agree it happened in November. Makes me question if whether this part of the story, though it may be a true event, was just added to embellish the story to make it a more exciting captivity narrative.

But even the story of Henry Harman deserves much further research. It is said the chief, whom Henry had killed his son, were once serving together against a common foe. The story even says they were once friends. The Native Americans knew Henry Harman, they called him Skuguska. A whole area of research could be opened up just on this man and his times to see, if the story is true, how allies became enemies.

What I did find was a deed to Thomas Wiley for 110 acres of land on Clear Fork Creek issued in 1795.  Thomas was an assignee of Robert Smith and in the grant it mentions that it was an "adjustment to lands in Washington and Montgomery counties", telling me this was settled in a court case. The grant doesn't prove exactly WHEN Thomas and Jenny moved to Clear Fork Creek.....yet. A search, which I did not get to accomplished, for land commissioners records (if they still exist) for this case might produce the actual date. But other records show they were on Clear Fork prior to 1795 and I believe prior to the attack on their cabin.

Robert Smith's original survey was for 300 acres and dated March 5, 1784 and at the bottom of that page it gives the assignment for Thomas Wiley for 110 acres and the survey for 110 acres.

Montgomery Co. Va Record of Plots Book D Part 1 1-286 

It is funny how you jump around in research. After finding all this suspect history in the written accounts, beginning with J. D. Smith's letter to Governor Randolph giving the timeline for Jenny Wiley's captivity as being much less than Connelly or any of the other writers claimed, I started looking for Jenny Wiley's actual deposition. Connelly mentions it and says he relies heavily on it. Jasper Newton Harman mentions it in his Harman Genealogy, even J.D. Smith mentions her deposition in the letter to the Governor which to me makes it official there was a depostion.

I haven't found the deposition but a search is ongoing for it. Wouldn't it be great to have Jenny Wiley be able to tell us in her own words through the actual deposition? Which begs the question, why has no one found this deposition or affidavit? If we find Jenny's affidavit it might clear up the whole question of where the cabin was or where she was when captured! She may have been on Walker's Creek when she was captured for some weird reason, despite the primary documents saying her cabin was on Clear Fork Creek. LET'S PROVE IT!

In that search, I ordered rolls and rolls of microfilm from the Library of Virginia. I was going through Court Order books, specifically Montgomery County Court order books for the 1790s, since that is where J. D. Smith says the deposition was taken. I didn't find any reference to Jenny Wiley. What has been found were very curious court order entries.  Two pages of note, with the first page dated August 4th, 1789, 3 months before the attack on the Wiley cabin. The second page is for the repair and maintenance for a road to the Cove Road up Wolf Creek to Clear Fork Creek.

The way roads were built and maintained at that time period, were by those who were living near or on the road. Settlers would be ordered by the county court to do their part in working on the roads. A surveyor, usually a landowner on the road, would be appointed to make sure to get all the neighbors ordered by the court together, to repair, maintain or build the road. They would also report to the court if someone wasn't pulling their weight or causing problems like putting up an illegal toll.  For more information on the early roads and excellent resource the early lands and roads are the series books, "The Early Adventurers on the Western Waters" Volumes by Mary and F.B. Kegley  Information specifically for roads is in Vol. 1 pages 178-180.

These orders appear to be for a road from Captain Pearis's on New River up Wolf Creek, to the Cove Road on Clear Fork creek. They include Thomas Wiley as working on the road at Clear Fork Creek. Page 71 orders Matthew French as Surveyor and he is to be over the road from Captain Pearis's,  (family the town of Pearisburg is named for), to ten miles up Wolf Creek. Then Charles Hayes Sr. is to be surveyor from Matthew French's up Clear Fork Creek.  Here are the actual scans of the orders.

Montgomery County Virginia Order Book No. 4 1788-1790 Page 70 with the date for page 71

Montgomery County Virginia Order Book No. 4 1788-1790 Page 71

Bottom of Page 71 listing Thomas Wiley and Samuel Sellards with Absalom Stafford.

Montgomery County Virginia Order Book No. 4 1788-1790 Page 71

Matthew French's appointed surveyor for the first group, his lands were on Wolf Creek. Charles Hayes, Sr who was appointed surveyor for the second group, his lands were at the confluence of Clear Fork, Laurel Creek and Wolf Creek at what is called today Rocky Gap.  This county road order in August, 1789 is following what is today Route 61 along Wolf Creek through Giles and Bland County, Virginia to Clear Fork Creek  not Walker's Creek.

In a search for the names in the bottom half of page 71 all of these men had either lands or were related to those who owned lands on Wolf Creek going into Rocky Gap and up Clear Fork Creek to the Cove Road. For example Joseph Baker married Sukie Hayes the daughter of Charles Hayes Sr.  etc. I could list them all but I'm not, I'm tired. The most important one to me is Absalom Stafford.

I found these references in the "Early Adventurers on the Western Waters" Volume II by Mary B. Kegley

Page 49- Commissioners Certificates Book at Montgomery County courthouse on page 86 of that book under the date September 7, 1781 - " Absalom Stafford - Commissioners Certificate 150 Acres on Clear Fork of Wolf Creek bounded by a conditional line made by Thomas Wiley and Thos. Smith."

Page 108 -  In a book at the Virginia State Library Archives entitled " Record of Certificates of Commissioners of Washington and Montgomery Counties 1767 - 1788.  Pg 82 of that book "Absalom Stafford - 150 acres on Clear Fork Creek, bounded by conditional lines made by Thomas Wily & Thomas Smith, settled 1777."

For a really good explanation of these land commissions that were set up to settled land disputes this Vol II EAWW on pages 98-101 is the best!  But it still took Thomas until 1795 to get this land grant. There were further cases after Absalom Stafford and those would have to be tracked down to understand why his was granted in 1795.

What this does show, is that Thomas Wiley's land boundaries were known to land commissioners in 1781 and he is working with Absalom Stafford and Samuel Sellards, his brother in law on the repair of the road to Clear Fork in August 1779.  Part of the condition of these land grants was you had to be living on the lands you claimed.

There are a few folks that will be upset with these revelations. Someone will have to prove to me why Jenny and Thomas Wiley would be on Walker's Creek when they had their own lands on Clear Fork Creek. I have found no instance of Thomas Wiley working on the Walker's Creek road in those years or any other proof he and Jenny were living on Walker's Creek.

So how was it that Walker's Creek became the site of the cabin? Myself and my man were talking about this and we have a theory. In the Montgomery County Court Order books, the Walker's Creek Settlement is mentioned many times. Henry Harman's place at Walker's Creek is listed quite a few times. Walker's Creek Settlement was the place for trade, roads to the Clinch River were ordered from Henry Harman's place and Henry's house was even where you went to vote. Sort of like the folks who live on Wolf Creek at Grapefield today. There address is Bastian but they don't live in Bastian. Walker's Creek I believe was a district address but not where Thomas and Jenny Wiley were living. The stories of them living on Walker's Creek, I don't know their basis in fact. I welcome any evidence to the contrary that they were living on Clear Fork Creek.

Thomas Wiley's lands would have been near the Cove Road. The Cove Road off of Route 61 still exists in the beginnings are just over the county line in Tazewell County and it crosses back over into Bland County at the top of East River Mountain before crossing over.. It is a gravel road that goes through a gap across two mountains and ends up in Bluefield, Virginia very close to the head waters of the Bluestone River. All the accounts say that Native Americans went after outlying cabins for captives. Walker's Creek Settlement would have been more populated and definitely a better armed settlement. Cove Road would have been easy access in and out quickly, it just makes more sense the Wiley cabin would have been a better target there.

This was the first time I had heard the name Samuel Sellards. There is a chancery Case in Tazewell County of Robert Garrett vs Samuel Sellards concerning a way ward horse.Try this Chancery Case Link. In that case it states that Samuel Sellards is living at his brother in laws John Borders meaning he is a brother to Jenny Sellards Wiley. Which brother was killed in the attack? And WHERE are they BURIED?

John Borders married Jenny Sellards Wiley's sister Catherine. Their lands were on the head waters of Kimberling Creek. There are three forks of Kimberling Creek and the North Fork was placed in Tazewell County, in the division of counties and then became Bland County lands in 1861. In the story he warned Jenny of seeing Indian sign and to come to his cabin. Even the Border's lands were closer to Clear Fork than Walker's Creek.

Sell of John Borders Kimberling Creek Lands to Nehemiah Bonham in Tazewell county, Va
Thanks to John Evans of Kentucky for a copy of this deed. 

Now For Some Mind Blowing Stuff

The location of the cabin is only one reason to open the research up for Jenny Wiley full scale. While searching for deeds I found this land grant in the records. 

It is for 560 acres of Land in Kentucky by survey in 1782, for a Jane Wiley, signed by old Patrick Henry himself.

It included a land survey and on the Kentucky Land database a certificate that states it was once a grant to George Rogers Clark.

John Evan in Kentucky dug up some documents that showed Jenny Sellards Wiley and her sister Catherine Sellards Borders could read and write. They signed their names on several documents. Jenny signed her name "Jane Wiley".  So is this a land grant to our Jenny Wiley before she was attacked? If it were, why would she be getting this land grant? What happened to these lands?

So you see Ladies and Gents....the true story of Jenny Wiley has just begun. I am passing this knowledge on to inspire you to continue where I can not. Jenny Wiley deserves to have her true story told.

Find the real deposition of Jenny Wiley if it exists.

William Connelly Easley's records are scattered across the midwest. I have notes on where. They should be combed for his notes to see if anything exists of his interviews of Adam Wiley.

Discover the Wiley and Sellards family tree in Chancery, court cases, marriage and land records. Where did Jenny and Catherine learn to read and write?

More research on who was the Jane Wiley of the 560 acres Kentucky land grant.

Try to identify the Indians that did this attack and understand the Native American's reason for it.

Take each part of the Jenny Wiley stories and prove or disprove whether it is true or not.

Let me know what you FIND!

One more item. I believe Thomas Stuart Walker's lands that mentions Thomas Wiley's land border, were very close to an old church that the building still exists on 61 called Nebo. That is on the Bland  County side about a 1/2 mile from the Cove Road. Many years ago I researched the Thomas Walker family of Clear Fork (Distant kin to the Thomas Walker of Walker's mountain fame) and located the lands for the family. This Walker family donated lands for the church and here is a deed where his corner is at Thomas Wiley's.

I usually go over this couple of times again.... but folks....I am exhausted. The old ticker is flip flopping and I ache like a toothache. Jenny Wiley needs to be left with those who are in better health. There may be errors just contact me and point them out. I probably won't post again for at least another month or more. It will take me that much time to rest and to recover. Going to take me that much time to clean off the bed and put the books up!!

Books I recommend
"Early Adventurers on the Western Waters" Volumes by Mary B. Kegley and F.B. Kegley, Green Publishers, Inc. Orange, VA

The American Revolution in Indian Country: Crisis and Diversity in Native American communities, by Colin G. Calloway, Cambridge University Press

The Ambiguous Iroquois Empire: The Covenant Chain Confederation of Indian Tribes with English Colonies from its beginnings to the Lancaster Treaty of 1744  By Francis Jennings, W.W. Norton and Company

Stories of Jenny Wiley: Exploring the History and the Legends, by Todd Pack, 2013, Published by Story ATOM Media

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."