History and lore
Catherine was about fourteen when Indians captured her family’s boat on the Ohio River around 1780. She lived among the Shawnee for about four years, then in 1784 married the notorious loyalist Simon Girty near Detroit. (The Dictionary of Canadian Biography calls her a captive of the Delawares.) Girty’s biographers tell it differently: that he returned her from captivity and the two were drawn to each other. They farmed in Malden Township, near Amherstburg. In the War of 1812 American troops nearly burned the farm. The marriage was stormy and she left him more than once, but in his last, nearly blind years she and their children cared for him, and he died in 1818. She died at Colchester, Essex County, Ontario, on 2 January 1852.
Read Bill Marlatt’s full study: Families of Peter Malott and Joseph Malott
Read the story: Captured on the Ohio: The Malott Family’s Ordeal of 1780