Source: History of the Pan-Handle, WV, pg. 71-72, Another letter from Valentine Crawford to Washington, Jacob's Creek, 1774.
" On the 12th day of July, as William ROBINSON, Thomas HELLEN & Coleman BROWN were pulling flax in a field opposite the mouth of Simpson's creek, LOGAN & his party approached unperceived & fired at them. BROWN fell instantly; his body perforated by several balls, & HELLEN & ROBINSON unscathed, sought safety in flight. HELLEN being then an old man, was soon overtaken & made captive; but ROBINSON with the elasticity of youth, ran a considerable distance before he was overtaken; & but for an untoward accident might have effected an escape. Believing that he was outstripping hsi pursuers, & anxious to ascertain the fact, he looked over his shoulder, but before he discovered the Indian giving chase, he ran with such violence against a tree that he fell, stunned by the shock & lay powerless & insensible. In this situation he was secured with a cord; & when he revived, was taken back to the place where the Indians had HELLEN in confinement & where lay the lifeless body of BROWN.
" When they approached near enough to be distinctly heard, LOGAN (as is usual with them after a successful scout) gave the scalp halloo, & several warriors came out to meet them, & conducted the prisoners into the village. Here they passed through the accustomed ceremony of running the gauntlet, but with far different fortunes. ROBINSON having been previously instructed by LOGAN (who from the time he made him his prisoner, manifested a kindly feeling towards him), made his way with but little interuption to the council house; but poor HELLEN from the decrepitude of age, & his ignorance of the fact that it was a place of refuge, was sadly beaten before he arrived at it; & when he at length came near enough, he was knocked down with a war-club before he could enter. After he had fallen they continued to beat & to strike him with such unmerciful severity, that he would assuredly have fallen a victim to their barbarous usage, but that ROBINSON (at some peril for the interference) reached forth his hand & drew him within the sanctuary. When he had, however, recovered from the effects of the violent beating which he had received, he was relieved from the apprehension of further suffering by being adopted into an Indian family.
A council was convoked to determine the fate of ROBINSON. A description of what occurred will be found in ROBINSON's statement, taken from JEFFERSON's Notes on Virginia, given in another part of this chapter.
The place where LOGAN struck the first blow on the west fork of the Monongahela, was then called West Augusta County, & as related by WITHERS, was a part of the country where no one expected to see an enemy. He had left the settlements on the Ohio river undisturbed, notwithstanding every one had expected that they would be the first to feel the burden of war, & he had gone instead where no one expected him, where no one was prepared to recieve him, & where his blows would be most keenly felt & most disastrous.
ROBINSON in his statement concerning his capture of himself & HELLEN says: " The principal Indian of the party which took them was Capt. LOGAN who soon manifested a friendly disposition to this subscriber (ROBINSON) & told him to be of good heart; that he would not be killed, but must go with him to his town where he would probably be adopted in one of their families; that when he had been condemned & tied to a stake to be burned, LOGAN saved him, tied a belt of wampum around him as a mark of adoption, loosed him from the post & carried him to the cabin of an old squaw, where LOGAN pointed out a person who he said was this subscriber's cousin, & he afterwards understood that the old woman was his aunt, & the 2 others his brothers & he now stood in the place of a warrior of the family who had been slain at Yellow creek.
The meaning of this is that he doubtless stood in the place of LOGAN's brother, who fell in the massacre of that place.
As will be seen by ROBINSONS's statement, LOGAN got him to write a letter (the ink for which was made from gunpowder)which the chief stated he meant to carry & leave in some house where he could somebody. ROBINSON says he signed the letter with LOGAN's name & that the latter then took the letter "& set out again to war".
khall@freenet.columbus.oh.us All information was sent to me by others. Thomas Hellen b abt 1734 York county PA. Married Nancy Coon d of Philip Coon. Thomas & Nancy were bulit first cabin in Lincoln District Marion 1770, now Worthington Marion WV. Thomas died 1797 Marion. Thomas & Nancy only one known child Anne Nancy Hellen Who m Anthony Coon a cousin. Helens Run in Marion is named after Thomas. Thomas was A Ranger in Rev War SAR number 132564 Thomas in Now & Long Ago by lough pg 304, 388, 484 History of Worthington by Fortney pg 355 Hardesty's Marion County pg 74 Do not know year Thomas was captured or name of Indains. Kenneth Hall
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