Elizabeth (Waggoner) Hardman (1779 - 1854)

Born 5 Nov 1779 in Harrison, Virginia, United States

Ancestors

Wife of John Dexter Hardman — married 21 Nov 1798 in Lewis County, (West) Virginia

Descendants

Died 1 Feb 1854 at age 74 in Lewis, Virginia, United States

Biography

Elizabeth Waggoner, daughter of John Michael and Margaret Bonnett Waggoner, was born November 5 1779 in Harrison County, WV and died February 1 1854. After the massacre of her mother, her father married Susanna Richards who gave birth to twelve children, Elizabeth's half-siblings. She married Rev John Dexter Hardman November 21 1798. ^[1][2]

Elizabeth Waggoner was captured about the middle of May 1792 by a band of Tecumseh's Shawnee Indians. Her story may be found here and the irony of the story is that Peterman Hardman who tried to help her father would one day be her father-in-law. ^{[3] [4]}

Research Note

This writer is in possession of a copy of Elizabeth Waggoner Hardman's obituary which was acquired by Lora Cutright, the writer's aunt, daughter of (John) William Hardman (my grandfather) and great 1 grandaughter of Perry W Hardman, (my great 2 grandfather) in 1946 in Lost Creek, West Virginia. It was written by Perry W Hardman, her son, who acquired a typed copy February 17 1920 in Lewis County, West Virginia. It is a biography of his grandmother in which he recounts the story of her family's massacre and the capture of a sister, brother and herself.

On the 6th day of May, 1792, a party of Shawanese Indians, with the since justly celebrated General Tecumseh at their head, approached the little mansion where Mr. Waggoner's family was quietly domiciled. Mr. Waggoner, who was at some distance from the house, was observed by Tecumseh, who immediately discharged at him the contents of his gun, but fortunately, the leaden messenger of death failed of its errand and left him (Waggoner) uninjured, and who, looking in the direction of the house, beheld it already surrounded by the residue of the Indians. Knowing that resistance would be in vain and only tend to excite the savage fiends to greater acts of cruelty, he made use of the only means left him whereby he might escape the hart fate of his family, and fled from before his wily adversary, who, finding himself out stripped by the swift-footed hunter soon gave up the pursuit and joined the party at the house,who after, killing and scalping a child that they found in the yard, had made prisoners of Mrs. Waggoner (Margaret Bonnett) and her children, then about twelve years old. They not only departed with all possible dispatch, but finding that a portion of their captives were not able to travel with much speed, and wishing to be stripped of every impediment to a swift retreat, they fell upon them with their tomahawks and murdered them with every aggravation of savage cruelty, leaving their mangled bodies strewed promiscuously along the way, weltering in crimson gore.

Mrs. Hardman, who witnessed this horrid deed, by which she was robbed of an affectionate mother, a dear little brother, and a lovely sister, was now borned far away from her native land to the Indian towns on the Maumee River, where, agreeable to the custom of the Indians, she was exposed to sale, and purchased by a squaw, who exacted of her the hardest kind of servitude.

It may not be improper here to say something in relation to Tecumseh, who, though a savage, was yet a magnanimous chief. Although an inveterate enemy of the whites, he did much to alleviate the sufferings of the prisoners.

Observing one day, Mrs. Hardman's tyrannical mistress beating her in a most shocking and cruel manner, he immediately interposed, and with menacing gestures and commanding voice, bade her to abandon not only for the present, but in time to come, such detestable acts of barbarity. This was only one among the many instances in which he manifested a regard for the welfare of prisoners...."

The obituary continues to tell of her escape and another captive (Miss Sallie Johnson) in the fall of 1793. They were overtaken by two white men who took them to a settlement at Detroit where she lived with a Mr Sisney until the Treaty was made in 1795. He took her to Wheeling where her Uncle Lewis Bonnett lived who took her to her father.

Sources

1. ↑ "Hacker's Creek Journal", Joy Gilchrist, Ed., Vol 12, Iss 1, 1994, page 49 https://www.hackerscreek.org/resources/HCPD%20Publications/HCPD%20Journals/12-Issue%201.pdf
2. ↑ West Virginia Vital Statistics marriage record http://archive.wvculture.org/vrr/va_view.aspx?Id=39042&Type=Marriage
3. ↑ A history of Lewis County, West Virginia by Smith, Edward Conrad Smith, 1920, pages 77-78 https://archive.org/stream/historyoflewisco00smit#page/77/mode/1up
4. ↑ Chronicles of border warfare, Alexander Scott, Withers, et al, 1915, pages 408-411 https://archive.org/stream/chronborderwarfa00withrich#page/408/mode/1up