Story about Elizabeth Yeary Ball
Courtesy of Bashie Kincaid, Rose Hill, Virginia

Elizabeth Yeary, wife of Moses Ball, daughter of Henry Yeary, who came with the Balls and lived just below where Harry Fugate now lives, was carried off by Indians. When the men were away the Indians came in on the women. Jeremia climbed up the chimney with some of their few knives, forks, spoons and money. They killed the Negro slave and carried Elizabeth away. The following story has been told for generations and is related by Mrs. Florence Harris Jackson, a great-great-granddaughter of Moses and Elizabeth Yeary Ball.

"I don't remember my parents telling me just how Elizabeth was captured, but I do remember very vividly of them telling me that she sneaked and tried to mark her trail by tearing off pieces of her apron and left them on brush and bushes as she went along in order to assist those who might be searching for her.

Her family and those interested have conjectured that the Indians must have taken Elizabeth as far north as some place in Michigan (or into what is now known as Michigan) because of the fact when she escaped from the Indians, she traveled for two weeks before she came to the home of white settlers in Indiana. I was told by my parents that this is how she made her escape.

One day Elizabeth was left with an old Indian man while all the others of the family went hunting. This old Indian went to sleep as he sat by the camp fire. Elizabeth took advantage of this opportunity and quickly grabbed some stripped venison (smoked and dried) and buttoned it in the bodice of her dress. Then she began picking up sticks of wood for the camp fire. As she did she was walking away from the old Indian and carefully watching him. When a safe distance away she quietly laid down the wood and began to run, and to quote my parents ; she rand and ran and ran.' After running as far as she could and fearing the Indians would return to camp and follow her, she crawled into a hollow log. The Indians did follow her and she heard them coming when they loudly called her name. Finally some of the Indians stood on the log in which she was hiding. They called her name long and loud. The dog with which she was well acquainted came to the end of the log and sniffed and wagged his tail in a friendly manner.

As the time of day grew late, the Indians turned back toward the camp still calling Elizabeth's name as loudly as possible. After spending the night in the hollow log, Elizabeth began her travels early the next morning.

For two weeks she traveled through heavily timbered country, sometimes climbing ridges and wading streams, forcing her way through dense thickets and underbrush until most of the clothing was torn from her body.

Once she came upon two paths made by deer and other animals. She stopped and considered which path to take. Finally she made a prayer asking God to lead her on the right path. As she prayed a little bird flew down and fluttered near her feet and then flew down one of those paths. To Elizabeth this was God's answer to her prayer and she followed the bird's signal. While in the forest she ate wild berries when she could find them. She also chewed leaves and twigs and drank water from the streams.

One day she heard the tinkling of a cowbell. She followed the sound until she found the cow. She knew that driving the cow would take her to where people lived, and sure enough she was soon in a clearing and in sight of a cabin or cabins. Elizabeth was so near naked that she was ashamed to be seen, so she hid behind something and called until she was heard. A woman came to her and seeing her plight, she wrapped her body in a piece of clothing and brought her into the cabin.

Elizabeth was so starved for lack of food and exhausted from travel and exposure that these kind settlers or pioneers with whom Elizabeth found herself broke her fast by giving her only one spoonful of sweet milk at a time until it was safe for her to have more.

These settlers kept Elizabeth and treated her very kindly until they could send word to her people in Virginia who came and brought her home. These settlers were in a settlement somewhere in Indiana. It took a long time to get word to Elizabeth's folks and a long time for them to come for her. Judging from Elizabeth's two-weeks traveling getting to the settlement in Indiana, it must have taken her and her Indian captors weeks to travel by foot to what was thought could have been Michigan where they took her.

This tale was told my sister by her grandmother and it was her grandmother who was captured and she told her granddaughter about it and it was passed down through the family."