Fanny Kelly

Fanny Kelly (c. 1845–1904 ) was a North American pioneer woman captured by the Sioux and freed five months later. She later wrote a book about her experiences called Narrative of My Captivity among the Sioux Indians in 1871.

Early life Fanny Wiggins was born in Orillia in Canada West in about 1845. In 1856, her parents, James and Margaret Wiggins, relocated their family to the new town of Geneva in the soon-to-be state of Kansas. Along the way, her father died of cholera, leaving the family to settle in Geneva on their own. The party was later joined by Noah Daniel Taylor, who drove the Larimers' wagon. By Kelly's account, vastly outnumbered, the immigrants tried to placate the warriors. By the one Sioux account, the Indians had gone to see the white man's "Holy Road" (the Oregon Trail) that they had heard about, met some whites, and ate and smoked with them. While they were eating, a Sioux messenger arrived, reporting that U.S. soldiers had killed some of their relatives on the Missouri River, apparently putting their heads on poles. The Sioux, agitated, then shot some of the emigrants, with Sharp, Taylor, and Franklin being killed immediately. They were reunited with William Larimer at Deer Creek Station. When he had recovered from his wound, the family returned to Kansas. So pleased was he with her docile demeanor, especially compared to Sioux women, that he named her "Real Woman", and it was only with great difficulty that Fanny was prised away from him by no less than Sitting Bull. Fanny had to resort to litigation.