Notes for: Charity HEADY

We do not actually know that much about Charity, but we’re fairly sure she only had one son, by her first marriage. All of our information seems to point in the direction that she lost both husbands to the tomahawk.
JOHN McINDOO was her first husband. He was born in 1753 Scotland and he and his brother, Milton, migrated to PA in 1771 and settled in Franklin County. John was in the Revolutionary War and is listed with Captain James Poe’s Third Company, Eighth Battalion from Antrim Township in Cumberland County Militia, It has been suggested that John accompanied Daniel Boone on one of his trips to KY. John and Charity came to KY about 1787 and he was reported killed by the Indians about 1788. They had one son, JACOB McINDOO born 1786 in PA.
One can see from the chain of events that she had a baby about 1786, moved from PA to KY about 1787 and her husband was killed about a year later.
Charity’s second husband was ROBERT STURGEON and from the Sturgeon expert, Mrs. M. C. Wright of Louisville, KY, we are told it is doubtful that they had children. At least none are known thus far. Stillwell Heady, brother of Charity, was the bondsman for this marriage.
As for Robert Sturgeon, there are varying articles as to his fate. Even though he is not directly connected with our Heady group, we thought you might like to know some early history – so here is a copy of one article sent by Mrs. Wright.
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One Hundred Years Ago. By H. W. CHADWICK. The Brownstown Banner, Brownstown, Indiana, 1928.
Reminiscences of David Sturgeon, an old Pioneer, compiled by H. W. Chadwick as taken from the Banner Files of 1877 and republished 1928.
This pamphlet narrates some of the experiences of the pioneers of Southern Indiana with Indians in the period from 1810 to 1815. It is a reprint of a series of letters written for The Brownstown Banner in 1877. The writer of the letters obtained most of his material from David Sturgeon who participated in the events and scenes of the years before and during the War of 1812 and described them to Mr. Chadwick.
When a young man Mr. Sturgeon made flat-boat trips to New Orleans. This was prior to the War of 1812. It was on one of these trips that he had his first encounter with hostile Indians, in which he narrowly escaped death. A short time afterward, he joined a company of rangers, recruited to patrol the district in which he lived. As a member of this organization, he had many hazardous contacts with red men, and saw much destruction of property and considerable loss of life.
In the latter part of the story, the writer takes up various phases of life during and after the War of 1812. He gives an account of the wedding of David Sturgeon and Nancy Hutchin- son and describes a log-rolling along with other incidents of the pioneer life of the time. He discusses the beginnings of civilization in Jackson County where he lived. The booklet is interesting. It reveals the strong conviction of the early settlers that the Indians should be exterminated. The accounts of fights and massacres are particularly vivid. The descriptions of customs and habits are valuable to students of the history of the frontier period. The chronological sequence of events cannot be depended upon. Some of the statements in this connection are clearly inaccurate.
HENRY L. McHARGUE.
Next Victims:
In the meantime a detail had carried Buskirk to the fort which at the time was defended only by the woman and one man, Robert Sturgeon, the uncle of David Sturgeon. Sturgeon upon beholding the lifeless form and mangled scalp of Buskirk stroked the bloody head and exclaimed, “Oh, God, will this be my fate?” Little did he realize how near he stood to the dark chamber of death, at the hand of the same of the same foe. The next day Buskirk was buried near Brownstown, in a burying ground which he had established near Kitcham’s fort. After the burial, the party all left Hutchinson’s fort except Robert Sturgeon. He tarried for a time at Kitcham’s fort and was drinking. Late in the evening he started to the Valonia fort, to which he was attached. When at the foot of the hill now known as Fislar Hill, at the half mile branch at Vallonia, he was waylaid and shot by the Indians, who, perhaps fearing that others were just behind, left him without scalping. The firing of the guns and arrival of Sturgeon’s horse at the fort, alarmed the inmates, and convinced them that Sturgeon was killed. It was near sunset, Jesse Durham, Captain of the citizens forces called for volunteers to go and bring Sturgeon in, and seven brave men immediately came forward, determined to bring his body to the fort, or perish in the attempt. The women of the fort refused to let Durham go, desiring him to remain and assist them in the defense of the fort in the event the Indians should make an attack. But the other seven went, among whom were two of the Beams, Adam Miller, Thomas Ewing, father of Samuel and Columbus, Joseph Brighton and two others whose names were not given, and brought him to the fort. That the Indians stole several horses, among the rest David Sturgeon’s and made off with them in the direction of Indianapolis. All was excitement and confusion. Two of their comrades, one a citizen and the other a Ranger, in as many days had fallen victims to the rifle and scalping knife and on the same evening that Sturgeon was killed another party of two or three citizens were fired on in a corn patch near Vallonia though they escaped unharmed and made the fort. Men and women alike armed themselves for a combat which they deemed inevitable, and through the long hours of the night with beating hearts they waited the approach of the enemy.