Breckenridge News, 1882, Centennial Celebration/ Hardin County Historical Society./ Research of Joe Tucker
There is a story of Mrs. John BRUNER's capture in what would become Hardin Co., Kentucky. This was first published in Breckenridge News in 1882 as part of a Centennial Celebration. The capture was late 1700's. Several were killed including her baby. Her life was saved by the Chief who took her as his wife. Mrs. BRUNER bore a child with the Chief before being rescued. This may be my ancestor...by Joe TUCKER.
Joe Tucker : From the Breckinridge County Archives, Breckinridge County, Kentucky. Who Was Who in Hardin County. By Hardin County Historical Society MRS.
JOHN BRUNER (Headnote: In this series we have included some sketches of settlers and early residents of more than usual interest, where the scene of the incidents related was within territory which later became or then was a part of the original Hardin county and before it was cut off into another county. The following sketch was written by Wallses Gruelle as part of a paper read by him at the centennial celebration held at Hardinsburg in 1882, and published in the Breckinridge News, of which Mr. Gruelle was then editor and publisher.)
Among the families who came out from Virginia to unite their fortunes with those of their old friends and neighbors at Hardin's Fort, were those of John Bruner and William McDaniels. They entered a flatboat at the mouth of the Great Kanawha and made their long and perilous voyage to the mouth of Sinking: entered that stream and proceeded up it to the falls where the two men left the boat and women in charge of a negro man, the slave of McDaniels, while they journeyed to the Fort to procure conveyance of some sort to carry the few basics and household plunder to that point. They had not been gone more than an hour when a party of Indians, supposed to have followed them for some distance, attacked the boat, firing upon the inmates. Mrs. McDaniels, in an effort to escape, fell into the water and was drowned. The Indians could have rescued her, but refused to do so.
The savages then started with Mrs. Bruner and her babe, and the negro, to their settlement in Illinois, not far from Vincennes. While hurrying off with their prisoners and the plunder secured from the boat, making all the speed possible to get beyond the reach of pursuit, the red devils became angered at Mrs. Bruner because she, burdened with the weight of her child, could not travel fast enough to suit them; and when they stopped to rest, while she went to a branch nearby to wash some soiled clothing for her babe, the inhuman monsters seized the helpless innocent, split the limb of a tree with their hatchets, inserted the wrists of the babe in the split, and permitted the wood to close upon them, thus suspending it in the air from the primitive vise. The outcry of the babe reached the mother's ears, and she hastened to the spot only to witness the monsters shooting arrows into the tender body. The distracted woman sprang screaming among them, imploring them not to kill her babe. They paid no heed to her prayers, but threatened to kill her if she did not cease her noise. But she cared not for their threats, the mother instinct and pity for her helpless child being aroused to that degree that her nature was impervious to any feeling of fear. The result was the murder of her babe before her eyes, and one of the cruel wretches seized her by her long and luxuriant hair and relieved her of her scalp, while another plunged his knife into her thigh.
An old Indian, who was a chief, now interfered and prevented them from completing her murder, declaring that it was his intention to make her his wife. Determined to have their revenge on some one for the woman's obstinacy, the savages then killed the unoffending nego, after which the party proceeded in their flight, leaving the body of the infant hanging to the tree and the corpse of the negro on the ground. The chief did take Mrs. Bruner to wife and she became the mother of a child by him. A few miles distant from their village was a trading post kept by white men. The latter hearing the story of Mrs. Bruner from some of the more communicative of the Indians, pursuaded them to bring the white woman to do some trading with them. When she came they concealed her in a room and turned the key upon her, sending a messenger to her husband at Hardin's Fort with intelligence of her whereabouts. Mr. Bruner at once went for her and brought her back. They lived together many years and reared a large family of children. She was the aunt of our respected fellow- citizen, and of the late distinguished Hon. John B. Bruner.