Aracoma Cornstalk

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

Aracoma married Bolin Baker, Sr. 1762. Bolin was born 04 May 1738, Ashe Co. NC; died 26 Aug 1840, North Salem, Linn Co. MO. [Group Sheet]

Pattie married Justice Bolling 08 Jan 1782, Wilkes Co. NC. Justice was born 1760, Rowan Co. NC.; died 1841, Shelby Gap, Pike Co. KY. [Group Sheet]

Notes:

Died:
May have died from the plague [possibly smallpox]

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]

Notes:

Died:
May have died from the plague [possibly smallpox]

Notes:

Died:
May have died from the plague [possibly smallpox]

Notes:

Died:
May have died from the plague [possibly smallpox]

Notes:

Died:
May have died from the plague [possibly smallpox]