U.S. Data Repository http://www.us-data.org/ -- USGenNet Inc. -- Please read the U.S. Data Repository Copyright Statement on the following page: --------------------------------------------------------------------- History of Wetzel County, West Virginia by John C. McEldowney, Jr., 1901 Pages 41-42 THE DRYGOOS, OR THE TWO HALF INDIANS. John Hays came to what is known as Lot in the year of 1805, and with him he brought his wife, Mrs. Elizabeth Hays, who was born the same day as her husband, which was in the year of 1748, in Pricket's Fort, Monongalia county. They were but eleven years old when the latter's mother, Mrs. Drygoo, was killed by the Indians. The following is an incident which fell from the lips of Mrs. Hays, told to her daughter, Mrs. Malinda Anderson: It was in a fort situated on Clinton's run, Monongalia county, known as Prickett's fort. The Drygoo family were some of its occupants. There was a garden about half a mile from the fort, and Mrs. Drygoo and her son, Charles, who was but four years of age, went to the garden to pick beans, when the Indians came upon them unawares and made them prisoners before giving them time to call for help. They tied Mrs. Drygoo to a tree near the fort, but not in sight, and returned to the garden to see if they could catch some more in the same way. In a little while Mrs. Hays and her sister came out of the fort and started toward the garden to help their mother (Mrs. Drygoo) pick beans, and as they neared the garden started to call for their mother, but she did not answer. Fortunately they got scared at something (not the Indians) and started toward the fort at full speed, and on reaching it informed the occupants that their mother, Mrs. Drygoo, and their brother, Charles Drygoo, started out in the garden some time ago to pick beans and that they were not in the garden now. The men immediately suspicioned that which was correct and soon raised a company under Captain David Morgan and went in pursuit. The Indians, seeing that they had been discovered, beat a hasty retreat. They untied Mrs. Drygoo and put her on a pony, which was very wild, and made off with great speed. After traveling for about ten miles the pony she was on jumped a run. The calf of one of her legs was torn open, having caught on a sharp limb of a tree. They stopped and bandaged the wound up the best way they could, after which they continued their journey, but the bandage did no good, and she became very weak from loss of blood. The Indians, seeing that it was delaying their journey, decided to kill her. When they began to untie her from the pony Charles began to cry and a big Indian picked him up and said "Don't cry," that they wouldn't kill his mother, but she couldn't travel and that he could be his boy after this. They killed and scalped her near the place known as Betsy's run, which was named from her, and made off with Charles into Ohio, where he lived with them until he was twenty-seven years old. While with them he was one of them, and when very young married an Indian squaw, and from her had four children, two boys and two girls. At the Morgan treaty at the mouth of the Little Muskingum, James Hays was one of the men under Levi Morgan, and inquired of the Indians as to the whereabouts of his brother, Charles Drygoo, on which he was informed that he was dead, but that he had some children. He asked for them and he was given the two boys. He brought them to where the town of Lot stands, where they lived and died in the cabin built by James Hays in 1805. There are a number of people in Wetzel county who are proud to say that the blood of Charles Drygoo and his Indian squaw floats in their veins. ------------------------------------------------------------------- If you've reached this file through a SEARCH, you can access other articles in this book by going to the following URL which contains a linked index for the book. http://www.us-data.org/wv/wetzel/history/mceldowney.html -------------------------------------------------------------------