Facts and Events
The following is based on Johnston, David E., 1906. Johnstone's works is probably based on the Margaret Handley Erksine's account of her captivity. This account is supposed to be included in the Draper MSC, but I have not seen it directly. The same basic story is told on the website of Randall J. Handly (http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.com/~vlwest/ha-10.htm). The two presentations are largely identical, but differ in a few ways, including most importantly, the name of Margaret's husband. The Johnston account gives his name as "John Pauley", while the Handly account gives it as "James Pauley". In either event, both John and James Pauley were killed in the same Indian attack that left their wives captives. The story of Margaret's captivity is included in the article Indian Captivity Stories.
Margaret Handley married either James or John Pauley about 1777. By 1779 they had a young son, and Margaret was with child again. In the fall of that year the Pauley's set out for Kentucky from Handley's Fort near Union, VA. Their party consisted of two brothers, James and John Pauley, their wives, the young son of Margaret, a Mr. Wallace, and Bruce Miller. They followed the East River south from the point where it enters the New River, and were attacked by Native Americans about five miles upstream.
One of the Pauley men was killed outright; the other was mortally wounded by made it back to Wood's Fort, where he died the next day. Margaret's child was killed, and she herself made prisoner, along with the wife of her husband's brother. The Indians took them north to the Indian towns on the Miami, where she gave birth to the child she was carrying. According to one source she was "adopted by Chief White Bark". Eventually Margaret was released and returned to her people at Union, Va., around 1785. She remarried to a Michael Tridly Erskin.