Elizabeth (Baldwin) Darrah (abt. 1775 - 1852)

Born about 1775 in Berkeley, Colony of Virginia

Wife of Joseph Darrah — married about 1802 in Monongalia, West Virginia, United States

Died 25 Mar 1852 at about age 77 in Muskingum, Ohio, United States

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Biography

[Elizabeth was born about 1775. She passed away in 1852.]

Elizabeth Baldwin was Captured by the Indians

Elizabeth “Betsy” Baldwin Darragh, Daughter of Captain John Baldwin Taken from a written account by Joshua Baldwin 1853 as told to him by his father Jonah Baldwin

It was in the year 1790, the oldest daughter of this family, whose name was Elizabeth, was taken prisoner of Indians on Dunkard Creek, Monongalia County, Virginia. She was hunting cows in the morning in the spring of the year. She outran one Indian, but there was another “undiscovered” by her, so she was captured and taken to northwestern Ohio and to Detroit. They crossed the Muskingum River at the falls, nine miles below Zanesville, passed by Jonathan’s Creek to an Indian town called Bowling Green on the Licking River, near what is now Newark, Ohio. (Today is located in Bowling Green Township in Licking County, Ohio) They went thence to Lake Erie at the Maumee Bay, thence up the Maumee to Fort Wayne where she was purchased by an Indian trader called Captain Wilson, for $40 and she satisfied him by sewing or m_________ up 172 dozen shirts (so imperfectly made that she could make one dozen a day.) When they received the intelligence of the advance of Wayne’s army, she was removed by the trader and the Indians to Detroit. After the Battle of Fallen Timbers and Wayne’s Treaty, her brothers Jonah, aged 20, and Francis, aged 16, descended the Monongahela to Pittsburgh and there hired as boatmen to push the keel boat up the Allegheny as far as navigable - - thence they crossed to Lake Erie where they met with a ship and went on board as hands to Detroit. Not finding their sister there, they hired on as hands on a vessel and went down the lake to a point where they found her. They obtained her and returned to Detroit. They then procured a canoe and passed the south margin of the lake in it, to what is now called Port Clinton, opposite Sandusky Bay. Being fearful of attempting to run aground at the point of land, they abandoned the canoe and carried what they could with them to the bay. They then made a bark canoe and crossed the bay in that. They then took their course through the wilderness toward home and ran out of provisions and were for one week destitute of food and did not see any game or living thing during that time. At the end of that time, they discovered and killed a small bear, and encamped until they ate it up. They then pursued their journey home and soon reached the undulating land in the neighborhood of the Ohio, where game was plentiful. They found one house on the Ohio side, crossed over and passed home by way of Washington, Pennsylvania. One of her brothers was snake bit on the trip. When she returned home she found her father and family greatly delighted to see her. She had been absent four years. Alexander Legg and his two daughters were taken with Elizabeth, but after they got out into Ohio, they were separated and did not see each other again during their captivity. Added Notes: Elizabeth (b, 1775 in Berkeley Co., Va.) married Joseph Darragh (Jonas Dorrah), who was born in 1767 in Pa., and settled on Jonathon Creek, four miles west of Zanesville, Ohio on a tract of land which she had seen while a prisoner. There she raised a large family and where she resided until her death... The Child of Elizabeth Baldwin and Joseph Darrah: Francis (b. 1808 in OH) Copied June 10, 2015 http://trees.ancestry.com/tree/15383654/person/1515851688/story/348169ed-594e-4260-b3dd-fb9763d1bae2?src=search

Sources

• Written account by brother Joshua Baldwin, 1853