Elizabeth Henderson

A Patriot of the American Revolution for VIRGINIA. DAR Ancestor # A001142

• Reference: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Capture_and_rescue_of_Jemima_Boone
• Reference: http://www.archive.org/details/familyofcorbetit02corb
• Reference:Alice Corbet

After the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War in 1775, violence increased between American Indians and settlers in Kentucky. American Indians, particularly Shawnee from north of the Ohio River, raided the Kentucky settlements, hoping to drive away the immigrants, whom they regarded as trespassers. The Cherokee, led by Dragging Canoe, frequently attacked isolated settlers and hunters, convincing many to abandon Kentucky. This was part of a 20-year Cherokee resistance to pioneer settlement. By the late spring of 1776, fewer than 200 Americans remained in Kentucky, primarily at the fortified settlements of Boonesborough, Harrodsburg, and Logan's Station in the southeastern part of the state.

On July 14, 1776, a raiding party captured three teenage girls from Boonesborough as they were floating in a canoe on the Kentucky River. They were Jemima, daughter of Daniel Boone, and Elizabeth and Frances, daughters of Colonel Richard Callaway. The Cherokee Hanging Maw led the raiders, two Cherokee and three Shawnee warriors. The girls' settlement raised alarm, and Boone organized a rescue party. Meanwhile the captors hurried the girls north toward the Shawnee towns across the Ohio River. The girls attempted to mark their trail until threatened by the Indians.

The third morning, as the Indians were building a fire for breakfast, the rescuers came up. As one Indian was shot, Jemima said, "That's Father's gun!"[2] He was not immediately killed. Two of the wounded Native American men later died. The Indians retreated, leaving the girls to be taken home by the settlers.

Elizabeth Callaway Henderson was the daughter of Richard and Frances Walton Callaway. She married Col. Samuel Henderson, son of Samuel and Elizabeth Williams Henderson of Granville County NC, on 7 AUG 1776, at Ft. Boonesborough KY. It was the first marriage beyond the Allegheny Mountains.
Samuel and Elizabeth Callaway Henderon had at least 10 children:

-Frances (born JUN 1777; died 07 MAY 1841) who married Rev. James Smiley Gillespie

-Richard (born DEC 1779; died 09 OCT 1814) who married Annie Alves

-Pleasant (born 29 APR 1782; died 26 JUN 1837) who married Agnes Watts Robards

-Susan (born 1784; died 1829) who married Jonathan Spyker

-Sarah "Sally" (born 6 APR 1787; died 15 MAY 1876) who married Edmunds Rivers

-Elizabeth (born 10 AUG 1789; died 1872) who married Dr. Matthew Lyle Dixon

-Baldwin (born about 1791, died 1794)

-Eudocia (born 7 SEP 1794; died 17 AUG 1886) who married James Estill

-Alfred (born 9 MAR 1797; died 19 NOV 1893) who married Sarah "Sallie" Quesenbury

-Julia (born 6 MAY 1801; died 20 MAY 1871) who married Benjamin Spyker Decherd

Contributor #48551670 reports that she has research which states that Elizabeth Callaway Henderson was buried in a southwest suburb of McMinnville, Warren County TN. It is unclear whether this location is the same as Old McMinnville City Cemetery.

• Reference: Find A Grave Memorial - SmartCopy: Nov 23 2020, 20:24:13 UTC

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GEDCOM Note

In Reminiscences and Memoirs of North Carolina, Watauga County on page 461 is the following story about the woman that later became the wife of Samuel. "On July 14, 1776, as three young ladies (two of them daughters of Colonel Calloway and one of them a daughter of Colonel Boone) were strolling in the woods, they were captured by the Indians. At the time Boone was off hunting, but when he returned, without any aid or waiting to collect a force, he followed the trail of the indians, and came in sight of them, and by his unerring rifle killed two, recovered the girls and returned to the fort in safety. One of these married Samuel Henderson, the brother of Judge Henderson and Pleasant Henderson. This romantic incident obtained more notoriety by its mention in The Last of the Mohicans, by James Fennimore Cooper."
Elizabeth Callaway at the age of 16, Fanny "Frances" Callaway, and Jemima Boone daughter of Daniel Boone were captured by the indians on a Sunday afternoon, but were rescued later. Each Teenager soon wed her rescuerer, Elizabeth:s rescuer being Samuel Henderson. Frances married Captain John Holder and Jemima Boone married Flanders Isham Callaway