Phoebe Cunningham: Forgotten American Icon

Video from The Appalachian Storyteller

Phoebe Cunningham: Forgotten American Icon

Cunningham survived capture by Indians

"Phebe Tucker and Thomas Cunningham were married at Prickett’s Fort on the Monongalia River in April 1776.

As a young family, they settled near Thomas’ brother, Edward Cunningham, with their log cabins being 60 feet apart on Bingamon Creek. The nearest settlement was 10 miles away.

One evening in the spring of 1785, while Thomas was away on a trading trip east of the mountains, Phebe called her children to the table where she had laid out bear meat, new potatoes, fresh peas, apple sauce, a fresh baked vinegar pie and sweet milk.

As she was seated at the table with her little ones – Henry, 4; Lidia, 3; Walter, 2; and baby Thomas, 6 months – the shadow of an Indian tomahawk fell across the threshold.

The Indian walked in the cabin and approached the table. Picking up a potato, he said: “Do week dah,” which was “potato” in the Wyandotte tongue. He drank the milk and ate the pie.

He then went to the door of the cabin and saw Edward Cunningham at about the same time Edward saw him. Edward shouted to his wife, Sarah, to get his gun. He fired at the Indian, who also returned fire. Shortly after this, the Indian set the bed ticking on fire, causing smoke, by which he hoped to escape.

Edward, having seen another Indian approach the house, fired at him and the Indian fell to the ground. At this moment, the Indian in Phebe’s house killed little Henry with a tomahawk, throwing his body out into the yard.

Then, pushing Phebe toward the door, he escaped, taking Phebe with her children clinging to her skirts. The smoke was such that Edward did not see the escape from his house.

Thus began the long trek to the Indian’s village. It was located in what later became Madison County, Ohio. On the way, the baby was also killed because Phebe could not feed him, such was her physical condition.

At the Wyandotte village, Phebe was presented to the family of the Indian who had died. She later told that she was not badly treated after she became acquainted with the Indians and their white captives, some of whom became her friends.

She was held captive for three years.

One evening, she noticed unusual activity in the village. She learned that Simon Girty was in the village in preparation for a council to be held between the whites and Indians at the foot of the Maumee Rapids.

Phebe waited for her moment, and as Girty rode by, she grabbed at his stirrup and begged him to help her.

When the council was held, Phebe was taken along, and because of Girty’s intervention was ransomed. From there, she went with two men who had come to the conference from Kentucky in search of their children, who had also been captured by Indians.

From Kentucky, it took Phebe a long time to return to Virginia, but when she arrived home it was to learn that Thomas had headed for Kentucky after learning that Phebe had been freed from captivity.

Some time later, the family was reunited. Thomas and Phebe settled in Ritchie County in 1807, and seven more children were born to them. Thomas died in 1826, with Phebe surviving until 1845.

The story of Phebe Cunningham would be pure folk lore, carried in the Cunningham family, were it not for the fact that Thomas saw service in the Revolutionary War, and as his widow, Phebe, applied for a widow’s pension.

In the pension application, her trials and tribulations as an Indian captive were recorded and became part of the history of what was known as the “Border Wars.” Phebe is buried in Shimer Cemetery, Calhoun County, W. Va.

Now to the connection with Fayette County. Thomas’ brother, Edward Cunningham, and his wife, Sarah, had a daughter named Elizabeth. Following the death of her husband, Elizabeth married a widower, Abraham Muehlner, and moved to Sefton Township.

Elizabeth’s daughter, Victoria, married Henry Reeter, and all of their descendents have a family connection to Elizabeth’s aunt, Phebe Cunningham." from the article: Cunningham survived capture by Indians

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