I5844: Carrie Estelle CONEY (ABT 1890

Notes

Re: Alice Thompson [Collinsworth] kidnapped, Posted by: Patricia Mason Harris (ID*****6658) Date: May 22, 2002
In Reply to: Alice Thompson [Collinsworth] kidnapped by Shannan Foster Hanna of 17746
From a letter written by Abram Mason in 1860, son of Isaac Mason/Parthena Hall:

"About this time the indians came in and killed Mr. James Thompson, wife and daughter; and took another prisoner and a marraid lady by the name of Espy; and carried them to the nation and kept them some time. When they came back, this young Miss Thompson married a Mr. Edward Collinsworth, and became the mother of a family. Her oldest son, James Collinsworth, a noted lawyer in Nashville went to Texas and died there. A younger son became my son in law and is living close to me now."
**Note from Pat Harris: Benjamin Franklin Collinsworth married daughter of Abram Mason, Elizabeth Mason, called Betsy.

"James Thompson, an old man of ample means and good repute, with his [p.207] wife and two charming daughters just blooming into womanhood, lived in a chinked and daubed log cabin, about four miles south of Nashville. There also lived with him, perhaps for protection against the Indians, Peter Caffrey, with his wife and only child, a little boy about two years of age. It was the twenty-fifth of February, 1792, the weather was cold and the ground was covered with snow. As evening approached, Caffrey sallied forth to feed and care for the stock; and Thompson went to the woodpile to chop and bring in firewood for the night. A bright, glowing wood fire was the one luxury every pioneer could afford, and they indulged it without stint. So Thompson chopped his firewood, and carried it by great armfuls and threw it over the yard fence near the door.
While he was thus engaged a party of Creek Indians, who were awaiting this opportunity, fired upon him from ambush. Though severely wounded, he succeeded in getting into the house and barring the door. The Indians then pulled out the chinking and shot between the logs at the defenseless family. Poor Caffrey was powerless to relieve them. After they had killed Thompson and his wife, and wounded his younger daughter, they broke down the door and took the two Misses Thompson, Mrs. Caffrey and her little boy, captive. The younger Miss Thompson was so badly hurt that she could not keep up with the party, and after they had gone some distance, they scalped her and left her on the wayside. Though she lay all night in the snow, she was still alive when the neighbors found her next morning, and survived, though unconscious, until carried to a house, when the poor girl expired.1

The Indians made straight for the Creek nation with Miss Alice Thompson, Mrs. Caffrey and her little boy. A few days later some gentlemen met with them on the path that leads from the Cherokees to the Creeks. They dared not ask the women their names, nor offer them a horse to relieve their fatigue, which they would gladly have done, lest they should offend their captors and render their unhappy condition still more precarious. One of the women complained that she was tired of walking, to which her captor replied that he would get briars and scratch her thighs, and that would make her walk fast.2

The captives were carried to Kialigee, a Creek town on the Tallapoosa River. Here John Riley, a good natured Irish trader, offered to ransom them at the price of a negro each, but the Indians indignantly refused, saying they did not bring them there to let them go back to the Virginians; that they brought them to punish by making them work. They put the two women in the field; but Miss Alice Thompson cried, and even the obdurate heart of a savage was not proof against the tears of a handsome young woman, so they put her back in the house again to pound meal. The little boy was taken from his mother and carried to another town, where he was committed to the care of Mrs. Williams, who had for some years been a prisoner with the Creeks.3

Footnote
This prohably was not intended as punishment. Col. Joseph Brown, who was for nearly a year prisoner among the Chickamaugas, says they performed this operation twice a year, both on themselves and on their prisoners. They called it “Scratching to keep them healthy.” Colonel Brown's Narrative, Southwestern Monthly, Vol. I, p. 72.

Miss Thompson's tears seem also to have touched the heart of the generous Riley, for she did not remain long at Kialigee before he struck a separate bargain for her freedom, paying a ransom of 800 weight of dressed deer skins, valued at $266. From that time she was shown every consideration, and made as comfortable as circumstances would permit. Mrs. Caffrey, on the contrary, remained a slave to her captors, hoeing corn and pounding meal for them; and [p.208] was frequently punished by having her back and limbs scratched with gar teeth, the marks of which she still bore when delivered up.4

Mrs. Caffrey and Miss Thompson were brought in to the American agency at Rock Landing early in May, 1794, after a captivity of more than two years, but did not reach the seat of government at Knoxville until about the first of the following October. Even then they were under the painful necessity of leaving Mrs. Caffrey's little boy still in the hands of the Creeks.5 In the meantime the little fellow became quite an Indian in his feelings, and, after he had been in the nation five years, it was with difficulty that old Abram Mordecai could separate him from his Indian playmates, to carry him to Superintendent Seagrove. That gentleman sent him to Governor Blount, and he finally reached his mother's arms.6
After their return from captivity, Miss Alice Thompson married Edward Collinsworth, and became the mother of an influential family. Her oldest son, James Collinsworth, was distinguished at the bar of Tennessee and also Texas, in which latter state he died.7

Source information: Ancestry.com: Moore, John Trotwood and Austin P. Foster. Tennessee, The Volunteer State, 1769-1923, Vol. 1. Chicago: S. J. Clarke Publishing Co., 1923.

My Southern Family

Carrie Estelle CONEY

ABT 1890 - ____

ID Number: I5844

Sources

GERALD FitzMaurice FITZ GERALD 3rd Earl of Desmond

ABT 1340 - ____

ID Number: I35913

Notes

Sources

Evander Roderick MCIVER

1791 - 26 Jun 1837

ID Number: I100228

Sources

Johnathan E. MONTGOMERY

____ - ____

ID Number: I87213

Sources

Sarah "Sally" SHEPHERD

25 May 1776 - 1849

ID Number: I48517

Sources

Thomas J. SMITH

ABT 1850 - ____

ID Number: I39234

Sources

Hezekiah STONE

ABT 1735 - ____

ID Number: I43150

Notes

Sources

James THOMPSON

ABT 1730 - 25 Feb 1792

ID Number: I64438

Notes

Sources

Jean VEREUL

20 Feb 1607 - ABT 1691

ID Number: I20375

Sources

Louisa Elizabeth WASH

6 Dec 1828 - 27 Jul 1830

ID Number: I89583

Notes

Sources

-