Former captive woman’s descendants meet for first time

ELIZABETHTOWN, Ky. (AP) - A shared history brought Brenda Harris of North Carolina to the Hardin County History Museum last Thursday.

She visited in the spring of last year to learn more about her family and returned to meet some of her relatives, including Wilma Martin, 90.

“It’s my dream,” Harris said of meeting her distant family.

Their shared ancestor had a tragic past.

They are both fourth-great-granddaughters of Elizabeth Rawlings Hart Gunterman. Harris was a descendant of Gunterman’s youngest child and Martin, the oldest.

Gunterman also is related to Joseph Van Meter, who was among Elizabethtown’s earliest settlers.

Gunterman’s first husband, Miles Hart, was killed by American Indians and Gunterman and three of her children were captured. Two of the children were killed and one was separated from his mother and later rescued by his uncles, Harris said.

While in captivity, Gunterman had another child who died six months later, family history says.

She was captured around 1790, used as a slave by American Indians for many years and returned to Elizabethtown around 1796, the family discovered.

According to stories passed down, she was taken to what now is Detroit and met a fur trader who traded the American Indians a bottle of wine for Gunterman. He returned her home for a reward.

When she came home, she allegedly was wearing moccasins that now have become a piece of the family’s history. The top piece from one of the moccasins has been passed down to the oldest daughter in Martin’s family for many years, she said.

Martin brought the piece for Harris to see during her visit.

Harris began to tear up as she saw it and was allowed to hold the piece of moccasin.

When Gunterman returned to Hardin County, she remarried and started a new family, allowing for the descendants who met Thursday in Elizabethtown.

Anytime Harris experiences hardship, she said she thinks about Gunterman and what she experienced in captivity.

It was Harris’ grandmother Lela Durham’s stories of Elizabethtown that prompted her to go to Ancestry.com and to call the Hardin County Historical Society for more information. She then put pieces together of her family’s connection to the town, she said.

At first, she didn’t want to go overboard with contacting relatives in Hardin County.

“I didn’t want you to think I was a stalker,” Harris said.

But they remained in contact and on Thursday, shared family stories and letters.

Harris’ grandmother, Lela, helped raise her and told her two main stories about Elizabethtown when she was a child. One was about the adventures of twins Lela and Lula Durham and the bottling company their father owned. The second was of the story of Gunterman.

“She made me fall in love with Elizabethtown,” Harris said.

On her visit, local historian Kenny Tabb gave Harris a bottle from Durham Bottling Works that once was in downtown Elizabethtown.

Harris said she now is able to enjoy learning more about Hardin County and making new family connections.

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Information from: The News-Enterprise, http://www.thenewsenterprise.com