Jenny Wiley was born to Hezekiah Sellards and a mother whose name is unknown. No records have been located naming the wife of Hezekiah Sellards and mother of Jenny. Her family moved to Walkers Creek area, in what is now Bland County, Virginia. In 1778, Jenny met and married Thomas Wiley, a Scots/Irish immigrant in 1779, near Walker's Station.
Soon after, they built a cabin in which to live to raise a family.
On October 1, 1789,[1] Thomas set out for a trading post with a horse heavy laden with ginseng to barter for domestic necessaries. That afternoon, Jenny's brother-in-law, John Borders, heard owl-call signals in the woods that made him suspect Native Americans were in the area and planning an attack. He warned his sister-in-law to take her children and leave the cabin, but Jenny first wanted to finish some household chores.[2]
A group of eleven Native Americans, composed of two Cherokees, three Shawnees, three Wyandots, and three Delawares, stormed the cabin. Jenny and her brother heard the attackers coming and tried to barricade the door, and also attempted to fight them off. They killed her younger brother of about fifteen years of age and three of her children; they initially spared her youngest child of about fifteen months. Jenny, who was expecting her fifth child, and the surviving child, were then taken captive. There was some dispute amongst her captors about whether to kill her and her baby as they were slowing down the party, but they kept her and her baby alive until the baby became ill. The captors killed the child while Jenny slept. She gave birth shortly thereafter, but that child was also murdered, by scalping. The test was to put the baby on a piece of wood and send it down the river; if it cried, they would scalp it. If it did not cry, it would be allowed to live.[3]
Escape
Gravesite of Jenny Wiley
Jenny was held captive by the Native Americans for several months in what is now Little Mud Lick Creek, Johnson County, Kentucky. She escaped to Harman's Blockhouse in Floyd County (now Johnson County), aided in crossing a major river by longhunterHenry Skaggs. With the help of the settlers at Harman's Blockhouse, Jenny made her way back to Walker's Creek and was reunited with her husband, Thomas.[citation needed][4]
The Native American bands had raided settlements in this area and killed many settlers. Outrage among settlers caused many men to volunteer, along with militia units, to rid the area of these raiding parties.[citation needed]
In approximately 1800, the Wiley family crossed the Big Sandy River, and settled in what is currently Johnson County, Kentucky. Jenny and her husband Thomas started a new family and had five children consisting of the following:
Jenny Wiley lived in Johnson County with her family until her death in 1831. She was buried near the farm in River where she spent her final years.[3][6][7]
^Connelley, William Elsey (1910). "Accounts given by the son of Jennie Wiley: Adam P. Wiley". Eastern Kentucky Papers: The Founding of Harman's Station with an account of the Indian Capture of Mrs. Jennie Wiley. The Torch Press.
^ abHall, C. Mitchell (1972). Jenny Wiley Country: A History of the Big Sandy Valley in Kentucky's Eastern Highlands and Genealogy of the Region's People. Kingsport Press. ASINB0006C4H9M.
^Lewis, Virgil A. (1909). History Of The Battle Of Point Pleasant, page 118. The Tribune Printing Company.
^Scalf, Henry Preston (1964). Jenny Wiley: A Saga of Tragedy and Courage in the Land of Western Waters. Prestonburg Publishing Company. ASINB0007ET6JA.
