wife of John Gibson

Do not confuse with Koonay ‘Ann’ Shikellamy who was killed in 1774. This woman, the wife of John Gibson, of Sugar Creek, was killed in an Indian raid in possibly March of 1780 or April of 1781.

http://hackerscreek.com/norman/GIBSON/JOHN.htm

1.JOHN GIBSON

John Gibson was born about 1750 and was among the first settlers on Sugar Creek in present day Barbour County WV. His entire family was captured by raiding Indians in 1781 or 1782. Only Nicholas survived. On February 22, 1790, the Randolph County Court bound "Nicholas Gibson, an orphan boy of the age thirteen years the eight day of May next, to William Gibson, until he arrives to the age of 21 years ..."

Known children of John Gibson.

• 2. (1). Nicholas b.May 8 1777 d.Jan 5 1858 m.Lydia Sinks 1795
• 3. (2). John
• 4. (3). Elliot

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By Phyllis Slater (PSlater113 @ aol.com):

In the spring of 17-- (1780 or 1781) the family of a Mr. Gibson were engaged in making sugar at a camp near where the Beverly and Morgantown turnpike crosses Sugar Creek (from which it took its name) and while Mr. Gibson was absent at the Westfall Fort at Beverly, there were a party of indians made an attack upon the family and captured all but one boy named John who made his escape by some way. The indians murdered two or three of the children and set out for Detroit, Mich. with the mother and an infant child at her breast and a small boy named Nicholas. After a few days the indians dashed out the brains of the child against a tree. The mother died a short time after reaching Detroit, from the exposure and the milk in her breast, which left the boy still in the hands of the indians. The father died in a few years of grief. Several years since there was to be seen the sign of a hog's nest in the meadow now owned by M. L. Nestor, of Meadowville, that was owned by this family abd stayed at that place for several years and had made a large mound of alder brush for its bed, that is remembered by many of our citizens. ...

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http://wvpioneers.com/getperson.php?personID=I86024&tree=WVP

Hu Maxwell's "History of Randolph County", page 185 states the following after a paragraph about Indians attacking the settlers in Tygart's Valley in March of 1780:

Soon after this, Indians attacked John Gibson's family on a branch of the Valley River. Mrs. Gibson was tomahawked in the presence of her children, and the other members of the family were carried into captivity. About the same time, and probably by the same Indians, Bernard Sims was killed at his cabin on Cheat River, four miles above St. George. When they saw that he had smallpox, they fled without scalping him.

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https://www.angelfire.com/va3/valleywar/places/barbour_county.html

There have only been two recorded incidences of Indians attacking European settlers in Barbour County. The first occurred in either 1781 or 1782. John Gibson and his family, possibly the first settlers on Sugar Creek, were at their sugar camp when Indians surprised and attacked them. The Indians took the family prisoner and, before they had gone far, killed Mrs. Gibson in front of her children. One of her sons later escaped to tell the tale. He never found out what happened to the rest of his family.

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This John Gibson?

http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~bobbistockton/gib...

5. John GIBSON (Robert) Born 1740, died in Carter Co., Virginia.

"I believe this is the Gibson who married Chief Cornstalk (Logan) daughter. Chief Logan is the Indian who addressed the Continental Congress and brought the Assemblage to tears (about white man treatment of Chief Cornstalk's tribe). John Gibson went west but later returned to and died in Carter County, Virginia. Had no issue." From Gibson Family Research Paper done by Stephen D. Gibson

John married the Daughter of Chief Cornstalk (Logan) No children.

The following account appears to have an ominous ending for John Gibson:

Account of Cornstalk's killing at Fort Randolph in 1778: http://www.fortrandolph.org/index_files/facts.htm

Henry Aleshite was part of Gen. Hand's Indian campaign, and he was present at Fort Randolph when Cornstalk was killed. He stated that one of the murdered Indians was a white man who was married to Cornstalk's daughter.

References

1. https://www.familysearch.org/memories/memory/1161689
2. https://www.werelate.org/wiki/Person:John_Gibson_%2875%29
3. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:Rivers_of_Barbour_County,_We...
4. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sugar_Creek_(Laurel_Creek_tributary) Sugar Creek was named for the sugar maple trees which grow near its course.
5. Maxwell, Hu (1899). The History of Barbour County, West Virginia: From Its Earliest Exploration and Settlement to the Present Time. Acme publishing Company. p. 326. < Archive.Org > "John Hill, a Revolutionary soldier, who went to the army as a substitute for his brother, was an early settler on Sugar Creek, but the Gibson family and the Hunter family were there before him, and the ruins of their cabins are still pointed out." Page 182. < Archive.Org > "In 1780, savages came again and raided Tygart's Valley, above the mouth of Elkwater, where they set an ambuscade and attacked a party of men on their way to Greenbrier County. The fight occurred about a mile above Haddan's fort. John McLain, John Nelson and James Ralston were killed, and James Crouch was wounded. Soon after this, Mrs. John Gibson was murdered and her children carried into captivity, probably by these same Indians who escaped without punishment. ...:" Page 321. < Archive.Org > John Gibson with his wife and several children was among the first, if not the very first, to settle on Sugar Creek. The first mention of them there is the record of their murder by Indians, believed to have been about 1782, although it may have been at the time of the Leading Creek massacre in April, 1781. They were at their sugar camp when Indians surprised them and took them prisoners, and before proceeding far, they murdered Mrs. Gibson in the presence of her children. One son afterwards came back. Nothing is known of the fate of the other members of the family." Page 322. "Mrs. Gibson was the first citizen of what is now Barbour County to be killed by Indians. It was then part of Monongalia County."
6. https://elkinsrandolphwv.com/place/tygart-river-headwaters Tygart Valley River Tygart Valley River, Valley Head, WV 26294 Also known as the Tygart River, the Tygart Valley River rises in Randolph County in the Allegheny Mountains. The Tygart Valley River is named for its source in the Tygart Valley, a pocket of level farmland that had been settled by the Tygart family in 1753.