In frontier history, we periodically we find accounts of a musket ball or rifle ball passing through one individual and into another.  Such is the case concerning a shot fired by Elizabeth Moyer Mann… 

The reminisces of Asa Coleman, are found in 1834-5 editions of the Troy Times Newspaper (Miami County Ohio). Coleman, a physician in Miami County, Ohio, provides the reader with the unusual details surrounding  the death of George Mann. George was John and Jacob Mann’s older brother. The story as it is given:

“John Mann, Jacob Mann, Peter Harman. John Mann was Colonel of the Miami County Militia at the commencement of the War of 1812, Jacob commanded a company of riflemen for some time in the government service on the frontier during the same war. There was another brother of the Mann’s killed by the Indians, and his widow married Peter Harman. The three families came to this county from western Virginia, and settled near each other in Staunton and Elizabeth Townships. The circumstances of George Mann’s death, I think worthy of notice. They have been related to me by family members as follows…

The Mann’s lived on Walkers Creek, a branch of New River, near Walkers Mountain, West Virginia. George Mann’s family consisted of a wife (Elizabeth Moyer Mann) and two children, one infant, the other some three years of age (John and Molly). George, in the spring of 1791 or 2, moved up the creek from the station they had wintered, a mile or two, to a cabin and clearing, to cultivate a crop of corn.  They felt safe as to Indians, as there had been no depredations from them for some time. They had not been there many days when, at night, from the barking of his dogs, he suspected there might be some persons wanting to steal his horses. He stepped outside his cabin, into the dark, towards his stable, and a few rods from the cabin, was set upon by Indians, tomahawked and scalped. He not returning, his wife, suspecting some mischief, barred the door. In a short time the Indians approached the door and demanded admittance.  She, knowing by their voices who were at hand, kept the cabin dark, and the door as secure as her means permitted. They commenced forcing an entrance, and were at the point of succeeding, having the door partly open, when she took a rifle and placing it in the dark, against the breast of the foremost Indian, fired.

The Indian fell back and no further attempt was made to enter. After remaining a short time, with one child in her arms, and the other led by the hand, stepped from the door, and escaped to a woody thicket near by, where she remained till daylight, not thinking it safe to attempt an alarm or further escape that night, from the dread scene.

The agony of the brave woman, during the night, can better be imagined than described. Upon returning to the scene, there was the remains of her dead husband and two dead Indians. The shot she had fired had killed two savages, who had happened to be standing one directly behind the other while forcing an entrance. This woman afterwards married Peter Harman, and came to Miami County in 1801 or 2.  The writer was well acquainted with the family, and the story of her killing the two Indians with one shot, he often heard repeated.”

Thanks again to David Wright for sharing the artwork….  Check out his work at davidwright.com