Clara Blinn (1847 – 1868) was an American settler who, with her two-year-old son Willie, was captured by Indians in October 1868 in Colorado Territory during an attack on the wagon train in which she and her family were traveling. She and her little boy were killed on or about November 27, 1868 during or in the immediate aftermath of the Battle of Washita River, in which the camp of the Cheyenne chief Black Kettle was attacked and destroyed by troops of the Seventh U.S. Cavalry under the command of Lt. Col. George Armstrong Custer. Clara and Willie Blinn's bodies were found some two weeks after the fight in one of several abandoned Indian camps along the Washita River near present-day Cheyenne, Oklahoma. Clara and Willie Blinn remain at the center of a historical controversy over the exact circumstances of their death, the identity of their captors, and the location of their bodies when they were found. Contemporary sources disagree over whether the Blinns were held captive by Kiowas, Cheyennes, or Arapahos and, if by Cheyennes, whether they were held in Black Kettle's camp or in one of the other Cheyenne villages encamped along the Washita River at the time of the attack. Present-day authorities on the Battle of the Washita continue to reflect differing opinions on these questions. Early life and marriage Clara Isabel Harrington was born in Elmore, Ohio on October 21, 1847. Daughter of William T. and Harriet Bosley Harrington, who later became proprietors of the Baird House Hotel in Perrysburg, Ohio. She was described by her family as a "tiny, beautiful girl with dark hair, freckles sprinkled across her nose, a dimple in her chin, and an inveterate joker who exuded exuberance and a joy for living." On August 12, 1865 she married Richard Foote Blinn of Perrysburg. Richard had fought in the American Civil War in the 31st Ohio Cavalry, receiving an early discharge after suffering a wound to his arm from which he never fully recovered. Despite the wound, he later enlisted and served in a "hundred days" volunteer unit. The Blinns were members of the Perrysburg Methodist Episcopal Church. Clara gave birth to a son, William, known as "Willie," in 1866. Colorado Territory In spring of 1868, the Harringtons departed Perrysburg to go west, settling in Ottawa, Franklin County, Kansas. Richard and Clara Blinn, with Willie traveled further west, all the way to