Elizabeth Dragoo
Born April 29, 1774
Died July 7, 1848
Father: John Dragoo (1747 – 1823)
Mother: Elizabeth (Betsy) Straight (1748 – 1786)
Husband: James Hays, born October 15, 1772, died June 8, 1860
Son: Levi Hays, born in 1793
Daughter: Elizabeth Hays, born August 24, 1797
Daughter: Susannah Hays, born September 27, 1799
Daughter: Sallie Hays, born January 12, 1801, died August 6, 1824
Son: John Evans Hays, born May 8, 1803, died in 1883
Daughter: Gilly E. Hays, born February 2, 1807
Son: James Michlin Hays
Son: Edmund W. Hays, born October 8, 1814
Daughter: Malinda Hays, born August 14, 1816

Elizabeth was the daughter of John and Betsy (Elizabeth) Dragoo. Elizabeth was born on April 29, 1774 in Pricketts Fort, which was a fort constructed in the 1770s at the confluence of Pricketts Creek and the Monongahela River in West Virginia. The fort provided a place of refuge from American Indian attacks for early settlers.

Elizabeth’s parents were both of French descent, believed to be descendants of Pierre Dragaud, a French Huguenot refugee fleeing religious persecution. From France he fled to Holland and then to England before crossing the Atlantic. Pierre settled in Staten Island, New York.

Elizabeth was 12 years old when her mother Betsy was killed by Indians on October 3, 1786.