Mary Jemison, White Woman of Genesee, Captured April 5, 1758

The thrilling narrative of the life of Mary Jemison, who was captured by the Indians April 5, 1758, when only twelve years old, and who continued to live among them during her long and eventful life, marrying two chiefs of renown, continues to this day to be a wondrous story of one of the most remarkable captivities suffered at the hands of the Indians by the pioneer settlers of this country.

Mary Jemison, who came to be known as “The White Woman of the Genesee,” related her own story of her capture and life among the Indians when eighty years old.

She endured hardship and suffering with astonishing fortitude, and amidst all the surrounding of barbaric life she preserved the sensibilities of a white woman. The story of the captivity may be briefly told as follows: Thomas and Jane Erwin Jemison emigrated from Ireland about the year 1746. Mary, the fourth child, was born on shipboard during the voyage to America.

Thomas Jemison removed his family to the then frontier settlements of Pennsylvania on a tract of excellent land lying on Marsh Creek, in Franklin Township, Adams County. They removed to another place near the confluence of Sharps Run and Conewago Creek, a short distance from their first home.

A few neighbors had come to live with the Jemison family on account of the men being with Washington’s army and their fear of the Indians.

One morning Mary returned from an errand to the mill, and a man took her horse to his house after a bag of grain. Mary’s father was busy 245with the chores, her mother was getting breakfast; the two older brothers were in the barn, and the little ones with Mary and the neighbor woman and her three children in the house.

Breakfast was not yet ready when they were alarmed by the discharge of a number of guns. On opening the door the man and horse lay dead. The Indians captured Mr. Jemison, then rushed into the house and made prisoners of Mrs. Jemison, Robert, Matthew, Betsey and Mary and the other woman and her three children and then plundered the house. The two brothers in the barn escaped and afterward went to Virginia.

In the attacking party were six Indians and four Frenchmen, and after they took everything they wanted and all the food in the house, they set out in great haste with their prisoners, keeping them in single file, using a whip when any one lagged behind. No food or water was given them all that day, and at night, fatigued and hungry, they were compelled to lie upon the ground without fire or shelter. In the morning they were given breakfast from the provisions taken from the Jemison home.

They were made to march a great distance the second day and at night had a meal with bread and meat.

An Indian removed Mary’s shoes and stockings and put a pair of moccasins on her feet which Mrs. Jemison believed meant they intended to spare her life and destroy the other captives. An Indian removed the shoes and stockings from the neighbor boy, and after putting moccasins on him, led him and Mary off from the others some distance into the woods and there laid down with them for the night.

That was the last time Mary ever saw her parents, for during the night, the Indians murdered in most cruel manner the rest of the captives and left their bodies in the swamps to be devoured by wild beasts.

During the next day’s march Mary had to watch them scrape and dry the scalps of her parents, brothers and sisters and neighbors. Her mother’s hair being red, she could easily distinguish it from the others, but she knew them all, and the sight was one which remained with her during all her life.

The boy was given to the French and Mary was given to two Shawnee squaws. They started down the Ohio in canoes, toward their home at Sciota. Upon arrival at the home of the squaws, Mary was given a suit of Indian clothing and formally adopted according to Indian custom, replacing a brother of the squaws, who had been killed in war. She was given the Indian name Dickewamis, which means pretty girl or good thing. She was not allowed to speak English, so soon learned the Indian tongue.

At this time the English had taken Fort Pitt, and as soon as the corn was harvested the Indians went to the fort to make peace with the British and Mary was taken along. She went with a light heart, feeling 246sure she was to be restored to her brothers. The English asked her many questions about herself, and this interest so alarmed her Indian sisters that they hurried her away in their canoe. She learned later that some white people had come to take her away, but could not find her.

Her Indian sisters made her marry a Delaware Indian named Sheninjee. Mary spoke of him as noble, large in stature, elegant in appearance, generous in conduct, courageous in war, a friend to peace and a great lover of justice. Truly a fine tribute for an Indian warrior.

Her first child died soon after birth, but the fourth year she had a son who she named in memory of her father, Thomas Jemison.

She had many hardships traveling with her child to the Genesee country, which was 600 miles through an almost pathless wilderness.

Her husband died while she was en route to her new home. Several times efforts were made to restore her to the English, and on one occasion the chiefs determined she should be given up, but she fought against it herself and her Indian brother helped her in her effort to remain among the Indians.

Several years after the death of her husband she married Hiokatoo, commonly called Gardow, by whom she had four daughters and two sons. Her second husband was the most cruel Indian known.

Mary Jemison continued to live in the German Flats, N. Y., and upon the death of Hiokatoo became possessed of much valuable land.

Two great sorrows were experienced when a feud between her sons resulted in John, a wayward fellow, killing Thomas, who was a great comfort to his mother and a leader among the Indians, and some years later John killed his other brother, Jesse.

This double grief was almost more than the venerable woman could endure and it was not assuaged when John was murdered in a drunken quarrel with two Indians.

She was naturalized April 19, 1817, by which she received a clear title to her reservation. In 1823 she disposed of the major portion of her real estate holdings, reserving a tract two miles long and one mile wide.

She died September 19, 1833, aged ninety-one years, and was buried with Christian service in the cemetery of Seneca Mission Church, Buffalo Creek Reservation. Her body was reinterred on March 7, 1874, in the Indian Council House Grounds at Letchworth Park, where an elegant bronze statue marks the grave of Mary Jemison, “The White Woman of the Genesee.”

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