June 24, 1780, was a momentous day for settlers in the vicinity of Ruddell’s Station, Kentucky. Warnings of possible attack by British-allied Shawnee and other native people had moved them to take shelter in the fort constructed for such threats. The attacking force under the command of Capt. Alexander McKee soon surrounded the fort. Later, Capt. Henry Bird arrived with three- and six-pound cannons. Cannon fire splintered the stockade, and Capt. Isaac Ruddell surrendered the fort. A promise from the British that no one would be harmed soon was broken, and the natives killed many weaker settlers. The British marched captives to Detroit, to be freed years later.
The Shawnee adopted some children and younger adults. Among these was 10-year-old George Lail, son of the German immigrants George and Margaret Lail. Born in North Carolina, George adapted to life with the Shawnee. Most accounts agree that he came with the part of the tribe that moved to Spanish Louisiana, today Missouri, likely between 1780 and 1790. It is possible he was with the Shawnee who settled in a trading settlement, L’Anse à la Graisse, located a short distance from present-day New Madrid.
The first evidence of George in Missouri was his receipt of a Spanish land grant of 750 arpens on Lake Lesieur in the New Madrid District. Testimony presented to the Board of Land Commissioners stated he settled his grant in 1802 or before. The board confirmed only t200 arpens, suggesting he was single and had no family.
George agreed to convey part of the grant (any of it over 200 arpens) to Joshua Humphreys in late 1805. The board confirming only 200 arpens in 1811 likely voided this agreement. Sometime between then and 1815, George moved to Cape Girardeau County. The New Madrid earthquakes and their effects on his land may have prompted the move. Congress enacted legislation in 1815 to allow residents whose land was “injured” by the quakes to obtain certificates to claim land elsewhere in the public domain. George sold the grant and any right to relocation to John Beatty in September 1815. Beatty relocated the land as a 640-acre tract in Howard County, Missouri. George also served in Capt. Daugherty’s militia company in the War of 1812, a unit comprised mostly of Cape Girardeau District men.
In Cape Girardeau County, family stories suggest he lived on land owned by John Summers. This is highly likely because John’s son Andrew married a granddaughter of Capt. Ruddell, and the Ruddells appear in some of the same records in which Lail appears. George married in about 1815, traditionally to Louisa Wolff. His oldest child, Louisa, was born in 1817. Sometime between Louisa’s birth and 1823, the family returned to Kentucky. Family stories suggest George returned to visit his brother John, who had been taken briefly by the Shawnee and released at the end of the Revolutionary War. The birth of three of his sons, John, Robert, and Zenas, occurred in Kentucky, and the family returned to Missouri in about 1827.
Lail paid taxes on land owned by the Summers family beginning in 1828 and purchased a 300-acre portion in 1833. He later received a 40-acre land warrant for his War of 1812 service. Thereafter, he lived a quiet life until his death in 1858 at age 88. It is interesting to think of the stories George Lail might have told about his unique life with the Shawnee, early settlement in Missouri, and his long life as a redeemed captive.
