Bolling Baker, Jr.

Notes:

Died:
Alternate DOD 1812 in Clay Co. KY

Bolling married Martha (Patsey) Morris 1784. Martha was born 1765, North Carolina; died 1833, Clay Co. KY. [Group Sheet]

1. Anna Baker
2. Ruben Baker was born 1812, Clay Co. KY; died 04 Jun 1878, Clay Co. KY.
3. Nancy Baker was born 1813, Clay Co. KY; died 1893.

Notes:

Bolin Baker was captured by the Shawnee in 1755 while serving as a scout in General Benjamin Braddock's army in Western PA during the French and Indian War. He is thought to have been a deserter from Braddock?s army that attempted to take Fort Duquesne in July 1755. Supposedly he made raft and was floating on the Ohio River and was captured where the the Kanawha and Ohio rivers meet. He was taken to Chief Cornstalk's village and held by them for a period of time. Oral tradition says that he had to run the gauntlet and his courage gained him the admiration of Chief Cornstalk's daughter Aracoma. She persuaded her father to make him a member of the Shawnee.

After the Revolutionary War, Bolin lived with the Cherokee Indians where he was as known as a renegade white man and renowned horse thief.

Logan County tradition says that Aracoma and Baker moved into the valley sometime close to the year 1760 and lived in peace on the island in today's city of Logan until 1780.

Bolin married Aracoma Cornstalk 1762. Aracoma (daughter of Hokoleskwa Peter Cornstalk and Helizikinopo) was born 1742, Shawnee Nation, OH; died 1780, Logan, Logan Co. WV. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Her story is similar to the one of Pocahontas and Captain John Smith. This romantic legend is based on fact, the story of Shawnee chief's daughter marrying a British soldier. Oral tradition says that Bolin Baker was captured by the Shawnee in 1756 while serving in General Benjamin Braddock's army during the French and Indian War and taken to Chief Cornstalk's village. He was forced to run the gauntlet and his courage gained him the admiration of Chief Cornstalk's daughter Aracoma. She persuaded her father to make him a member of the Shawnee. They were married.

Logan County tradition says that Aracoma and Baker moved into Logan County, WV sometime close to the year 1760 and lived in peace on Midelburg Island in the Guyandotte River in what is today's city of Logan until 1780.

Aracoma is credited with settling the conflict between the native population and the settlers through her marriage to a white man, Boling Baker.

An Indian raid on the frontier settlement on the Bluestone River in the western part of Virginia in 1780 led to a pursuit, resulting in a battle within the present site of the city of Logan.

She was killed by white men led by John Breckenridge and William Madison during the Revolutionary War, perhaps in the spring of 1780 after Baker led Indians to steal horses from New River Valley settlers.

Aracoma received fatal wounds. She asked to be buried with her children who died of a plague. They had been buried in a location just above the bend in the Guyandotte river.

In 1915, when the Abdoney building was being constructed on the 100 block of Stratton Street in Logan, the workmen uncovered a grave. In it was a skeleton of a young woman and a necklace of buckhorn beads. The string had rotted away, but the necklace was still arranged around the neck. The odd and haunting irony was that the skeleton was buried at the bend of the Guyandotte, almost exactly where the old and half forgotten traditions claimed was the final resting place of Aracoma.

When Logan County Courthouse was chartered by the Virginia General Assembly in 1852, the town was named Aracoma, in her honor, but the name was changed to Logan in 1907 to conform with the name of the local post office.

The story of Aracoma and Bolin Baker is reenacted every summer in an outdoor drama in Logan Co. WV.
http://www.chiefloganstatepark.com/amphitheater.html

Notes:

The story of Cornstalk's seizure and murder is one of the dark spots in American history.

Born about 1735 in what is now Ohio, the future chieftain was named "Hokoleskwa," meaning "maize plant"hence the English name "Cornstalk." He was also known as Keigh-tugh-qua and Wynepuechsika.

He may have had at least 8 wives and possibly as many as 30 children.

Little is known of his early life, but by 1763 he had become a Shawnee tribal chieftain and led war parties against several white settlements. He was described as being over 6 ft 6 in. tall with flowing white hair. He was spoke English well and was known for eloquent speeches before colonists.

In 1764, soldiers raided his tribal town and took him captive. He was carried to Fort Pitt as a hostage, but escaped the following year. In the following years, he became Sachem of all Shawnee tribes and finally king of the northern confederacy of Indian tribes, composed of the Shawnees, Delawares, Mingoes, Wyandottes and Cayugas.

On Oct. 10, 1774, he led 1,100 of his braves against an equal number of Colonial troops at Pt. Pleasant and after a violent battle, was defeated. Following his defeat, Cornstalk pursued a peace policy and forbade his braves to molest whites.

But in 1777, with the American Revolution at its height, he returned to Pt. Pleasant with two companions to warn settlers that the British were trying to incite his tribesmen to attack them. Fearing an attack, Colonial soldiers seized Cornstalk and his companions and imprisoned them in Fort Randolph as hostages.

A month later, Cornstalk's son, Ellinipsico, came to the fort to see his father. During his visit, a soldier walking near the fort was killed by an Indian, and other soldiers rushed to Cornstalk's quarters to kill him in revenge.

During the American Revolution the British tried to build a coalition of Indians to fight against the colonists. Chief Cornstalk alone refused to join, although many members of his tribe opposed him. Chief Cornstalk, however, had come to believe that his people's survival depended on their friendly relations with the Virginians. In the spring of 1777, he visited the garrison at Point Pleasant with a small contingent of Indians, and he informed the colonials of the coalition that was forming. While the Virginians waited for reinforcements, the Indians were held as hostages. Following the killing of a white man outside the fort by other Indians, Chief Cornstalk and his men (including his son, Elinipsico) were murdered by the soldiers.

Chief Cornstalk was admired, even by his enemies, as a fine orator and courageous warrior.

Cornstalk, who is described by historians as a handsome, intelligent, and highly honorable man, stood calmly in the doorway to his room and faced his slayers. He was felled by nearly a dozen rifle shots. The soldiers then entered the room and killed Cornstalk's son and two companions. The murder of their chieftain turned the Shawnees from a neutral people into the most implacable warriors, who raided Virginia settlements for 20 years after the incident.

More detailed information:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornstalk


Died:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cornstalk

In the fall of 1777, Cornstalk made a diplomatic visit to Fort Randolph, an American fort at present-day Point Pleasant, seeking as always to maintain his faction's neutrality. Cornstalk was detained by the fort commander, who had decided on his own initiative to take hostage any Shawnees who fell into his hands. When, on November 10, an American militiaman from the fort was killed nearby by unknown Indians, angry soldiers brutally executed Cornstalk, his son Elinipsico, and two other Shawnees.

Hokoleskwa married Helizikinopo ca 1739. Helizikinopo was born 1715, Pennsylvania; died Aft 1809, Ohio. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Claim made by Shawnee Heritage By Don Greene. This is a fraud.

https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Category:Shawnee_Heritage_Fraud