Mary Jemison
Encyclopedia
born:1743
Adams County, Pennsylvania
died:September 19,1833 (age 90)
Buffalo Creek Reservation
buried:Castile, New York
Mary Jemison (Deh-he-wä-mis) (1743–1833) was an American frontierswoman and an adopted Seneca
. When she was in her teens, she was captured in what is now Adams County, Pennsylvania
, from her home along Marsh Creek
, and later chose to remain a Seneca.
to America. Upon their arrival in America, the couple and their new child joined other Scots-Irish immigrants and headed west from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
, to what was then the western frontier (now central Pennsylvania). They "squatted" on territory that was under the authority of the Iroquois Confederacy
.
During the time the Jemisons were establishing their home, the French and Indian War
(Seven Years War) was raging. One morning in 1755, a raiding party consisting of six Shawnee
Indians and four Frenchmen
captured Mary, her family (except two older brothers) and Davy Wheelock, a boy from another family. On route to Fort Duquesne
(present-day Pittsburgh), Mary’s mother, father, and siblings were killed and scalped
. Mary and the other young boy were spared. Once the party reached the Fort, Mary was given to two Seneca Indians, who took Mary downriver. The Seneca adopted Mary, renaming her Deh-he-wä-mis, which she learned meant, "... a pretty girl, a handsome girl, or a pleasant, good thing." She was later renamed "little woman of great courage" by the Indians.
She married a Delaware
named Sheninjee. They had a son whom she named Thomas after her father. Concerned that the end of the war would mean the return of captives and the loss of his young wife, Sheninjee took her on a 700 miles (1,126.5 km) journey to the Sehgahunda Valley
along the Genesee River
in present-day New York
state. Although Jemison and their son reached this destination, her husband did not. Leaving his wife to hunt, he had taken ill and died.
Now a widow, Mary was taken in by Sheninjee's clan relatives and made her home at the Little Beard's Town
(present-day Cuylerville, New York
). She later married a Seneca named Hiakatoo and had six more children with him. During the American Revolutionary War
, the Seneca were allies of the British. Jemison's account of her life includes some observations during this time, as she and others in the Seneca town helped Joseph Brant
and Iroquois warriors who fought against the colonists.
After the war, the Seneca sold much of their land at Little Beard's Town to European-American settlers in 1797. At that time, during negotiations with the Holland Land Company
held at Geneseo, New York
, Mary Jemison proved to be an able negotiator for the Seneca tribe. She helped win more favorable terms for giving up their rights to the land at the Treaty of Big Tree
(1797).
Late in life, she told her story to the minister James E. Seaver, who published it as a classic "captivity narrative
", Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison (1824; latest ed. 1967). Many history scholars consider it to be a reasonably accurate narrative.
In 1823, the tribe sold most of the remainder of the land, except for a 2 acres (8,093.7 m²) tract of land reserved for Jemison's use. Known locally as the "White Woman of the Genesee", she lived on the tract until she sold it in 1831 and moved to the Buffalo Creek Reservation
. Jemison lived the rest of her life with the Seneca Nation. She died on September 19, 1833, aged 90. She was initially buried on the Buffalo Creek Reservation.
In 1874 her remains were reinterred at William Pryor Letchworth
's Glen Iris Estate (now Letchworth State Park
in present-day Castile, New York
). A bronze statue of Mary Jemison, created in 1910, marks her grave. Dr. George F. Kunz helped with the 1910 memorial to Jemison, “The White Indian of the Genesee”, who is buried at “the ancient Indian Council House of the Senecas.” Dr. Kunz always was fascinated by Native Americans, and contributed much to their memorials in New York.
Other
Adams County, Pennsylvania
Adams County, Pennsylvania
Adams County is a county in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 census, the population was 101,407. It was created on January 22, 1800, from part of York County and named in honor of the second President of the United States, John Adams...
died:September 19,1833 (age 90)
Buffalo Creek Reservation
Buffalo Creek Reservation
The Buffalo Creek Reservation was a tract of land surrounding Buffalo Creek in the central portion of Erie County, New York. It contained approximately of land and was set aside for the Native Americans of the region...
buried:Castile, New York
Mary Jemison (Deh-he-wä-mis) (1743–1833) was an American frontierswoman and an adopted Seneca
Seneca Nation of New York
The Seneca Nation of New York, also known as the Seneca Nation of Indians is a federally recognized tribe of Seneca people in New York...
. When she was in her teens, she was captured in what is now Adams County, Pennsylvania
Adams County, Pennsylvania
Adams County is a county in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania. As of the 2010 census, the population was 101,407. It was created on January 22, 1800, from part of York County and named in honor of the second President of the United States, John Adams...
, from her home along Marsh Creek
Marsh Creek (Monocacy River)
Marsh Creek is a tributary of the Monocacy River in south-central Pennsylvania and north-central Maryland in the United States. Marsh Creek and Rock Creek join below Gettysburg and the Gettysburg Battlefield to form the Monocacy River...
, and later chose to remain a Seneca.
Biography
Lornell Mary Jemison was born to Thomas and Jane Jemison aboard the ship William and Mary in the fall of 1743 while en route from what is now Northern IrelandIreland
Ireland is an island to the northwest of continental Europe. It is the third-largest island in Europe and the twentieth-largest island on Earth...
to America. Upon their arrival in America, the couple and their new child joined other Scots-Irish immigrants and headed west from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania
The Commonwealth of Pennsylvania is a U.S. state that is located in the Northeastern and Mid-Atlantic regions of the United States. The state borders Delaware and Maryland to the south, West Virginia to the southwest, Ohio to the west, New York and Ontario, Canada, to the north, and New Jersey to...
, to what was then the western frontier (now central Pennsylvania). They "squatted" on territory that was under the authority of the Iroquois Confederacy
Iroquois
The Iroquois , also known as the Haudenosaunee or the "People of the Longhouse", are an association of several tribes of indigenous people of North America...
.
During the time the Jemisons were establishing their home, the French and Indian War
French and Indian War
The French and Indian War is the common American name for the war between Great Britain and France in North America from 1754 to 1763. In 1756, the war erupted into the world-wide conflict known as the Seven Years' War and thus came to be regarded as the North American theater of that war...
(Seven Years War) was raging. One morning in 1755, a raiding party consisting of six Shawnee
Shawnee
The Shawnee, Shaawanwaki, Shaawanooki and Shaawanowi lenaweeki, are an Algonquian-speaking people native to North America. Historically they inhabited the areas of Ohio, Virginia, West Virginia, Western Maryland, Kentucky, Indiana, and Pennsylvania...
Indians and four Frenchmen
French people
The French are a nation that share a common French culture and speak the French language as a mother tongue. Historically, the French population are descended from peoples of Celtic, Latin and Germanic origin, and are today a mixture of several ethnic groups...
captured Mary, her family (except two older brothers) and Davy Wheelock, a boy from another family. On route to Fort Duquesne
Fort Duquesne
Fort Duquesne was a fort established by the French in 1754, at the junction of the Allegheny and Monongahela rivers in what is now downtown Pittsburgh in the state of Pennsylvania....
(present-day Pittsburgh), Mary’s mother, father, and siblings were killed and scalped
Scalping
Scalping is the act of removing another person's scalp or a portion of their scalp, either from a dead body or from a living person. The initial purpose of scalping was to provide a trophy of battle or portable proof of a combatant's prowess in war...
. Mary and the other young boy were spared. Once the party reached the Fort, Mary was given to two Seneca Indians, who took Mary downriver. The Seneca adopted Mary, renaming her Deh-he-wä-mis, which she learned meant, "... a pretty girl, a handsome girl, or a pleasant, good thing." She was later renamed "little woman of great courage" by the Indians.
She married a Delaware
Lenape
The Lenape are an Algonquian group of Native Americans of the Northeastern Woodlands. They are also called Delaware Indians. As a result of the American Revolutionary War and later Indian removals from the eastern United States, today the main groups live in Canada, where they are enrolled in the...
named Sheninjee. They had a son whom she named Thomas after her father. Concerned that the end of the war would mean the return of captives and the loss of his young wife, Sheninjee took her on a 700 miles (1,126.5 km) journey to the Sehgahunda Valley
Letchworth State Park
Letchworth State Park is a New York state park located 35 miles southwest of Rochester and 60 miles southeast of Buffalo in Livingston and Wyoming counties. The park is roughly 17 miles long, covering of land along the Genesee River...
along the Genesee River
Genesee River
The Genesee River is a North American river flowing northward through the Twin Tiers of Pennsylvania and New York. The river provided the original power for the Rochester area's 19th century mills and still provides hydroelectric power for downtown Rochester....
in present-day New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
state. Although Jemison and their son reached this destination, her husband did not. Leaving his wife to hunt, he had taken ill and died.
Now a widow, Mary was taken in by Sheninjee's clan relatives and made her home at the Little Beard's Town
Little Beard's Town
Little Beard's Town, also known as Chenussio and "Genesee Castle", was a powerful Seneca town in the Genesee River Valley near modern Leicester in Livingston County, New York, where Cuylerville stands today. It was named after its founder, Little Beard, a prominent Seneca sachem in the late 18th...
(present-day Cuylerville, New York
Cuylerville, New York
Cuylerville is a hamlet in Livingston County, New York.The latitude of Cuylerville is 42.776N. The longitude is -77.871W.The community was named for William Cuyler....
). She later married a Seneca named Hiakatoo and had six more children with him. During the American Revolutionary War
American Revolutionary War
The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...
, the Seneca were allies of the British. Jemison's account of her life includes some observations during this time, as she and others in the Seneca town helped Joseph Brant
Joseph Brant
Thayendanegea or Joseph Brant was a Mohawk military and political leader, based in present-day New York, who was closely associated with Great Britain during and after the American Revolution. He was perhaps the most well-known American Indian of his generation...
and Iroquois warriors who fought against the colonists.
After the war, the Seneca sold much of their land at Little Beard's Town to European-American settlers in 1797. At that time, during negotiations with the Holland Land Company
Holland Land Company
The Holland Land Company was a purchaser of the western two-thirds of the western New York land tract known as the Phelps and Gorham Purchase. This tract was known thereafter as The Holland Purchase...
held at Geneseo, New York
Geneseo, New York
Geneseo is the name of a town and its village in Livingston County in the Finger Lakes region of New York, USA, outside of Rochester, New York. The town's population is approximately 9,600, of which about 7,600 live in the village...
, Mary Jemison proved to be an able negotiator for the Seneca tribe. She helped win more favorable terms for giving up their rights to the land at the Treaty of Big Tree
Treaty of Big Tree
Treaty of Big Tree was a formal treaty, held from August 20, 1797 until September 16, 1797, between the Seneca nation and the United States of America. The delegates for both parties met at the residence of William Wadsworth, an early pioneer of the area and Captain of the local militia, in what is...
(1797).
Late in life, she told her story to the minister James E. Seaver, who published it as a classic "captivity narrative
Captivity narrative
Captivity narratives are stories of people captured by "uncivilized" enemies. The narratives often include a theme of redemption by faith in the face of the threats and temptations of an alien way of life. Barbary captivity narratives, stories of Englishmen captured by Barbary pirates, were popular...
", Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison (1824; latest ed. 1967). Many history scholars consider it to be a reasonably accurate narrative.
In 1823, the tribe sold most of the remainder of the land, except for a 2 acres (8,093.7 m²) tract of land reserved for Jemison's use. Known locally as the "White Woman of the Genesee", she lived on the tract until she sold it in 1831 and moved to the Buffalo Creek Reservation
Buffalo Creek Reservation
The Buffalo Creek Reservation was a tract of land surrounding Buffalo Creek in the central portion of Erie County, New York. It contained approximately of land and was set aside for the Native Americans of the region...
. Jemison lived the rest of her life with the Seneca Nation. She died on September 19, 1833, aged 90. She was initially buried on the Buffalo Creek Reservation.
In 1874 her remains were reinterred at William Pryor Letchworth
William Pryor Letchworth
William Pryor Letchworth was an American businessman notable for his charitable work.-Early years:William was born in Brownville, New York on May 26, 1823, the fourth of eight children born to Josiah and Ann Hance Letchworth...
's Glen Iris Estate (now Letchworth State Park
Letchworth State Park
Letchworth State Park is a New York state park located 35 miles southwest of Rochester and 60 miles southeast of Buffalo in Livingston and Wyoming counties. The park is roughly 17 miles long, covering of land along the Genesee River...
in present-day Castile, New York
Castile (town), New York
Castile is a town in Wyoming County, New York, USA. The population was 2,873 at the 2000 census. The town is named after Castile in Spain.The Town of Castile is on the east border of the county...
). A bronze statue of Mary Jemison, created in 1910, marks her grave. Dr. George F. Kunz helped with the 1910 memorial to Jemison, “The White Indian of the Genesee”, who is buried at “the ancient Indian Council House of the Senecas.” Dr. Kunz always was fascinated by Native Americans, and contributed much to their memorials in New York.
In popular culture
- Indian Captive: The Story of Mary Jemison (1941) is a fictionalized version of Mary's story for young readers, written and illustrated by Lois LenskiLois LenskiLois Lenski was a popular and prolific American writer of children's and young adult fiction.One of her projects was a collection of regional novels about children across the United States...
. - Deborah Larsen's The White (2002) is a fictionalized version of Mary's story, containing well-researched information about the Native American culture in which she lived.
Further reading
- Namias, June. White Captives: Gender and Ethnicity on the American Frontier. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press. 1993.
- Seaver, James. A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison. New York: American Scenic & Historical Preservation Society. 1942 edition.
- Larsen, Deborah. "The White". New York: Alfred A. Knopf, a Division of Random House. 2002
External links
Sources- Swarthmore College, Mary Jemison, Partial text of a Captivity Narrative from the 1750s transcribed in 1824
- A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison, by James E. Seaver, via Project GutenbergProject GutenbergProject Gutenberg is a volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks". Founded in 1971 by Michael S. Hart, it is the oldest digital library. Most of the items in its collection are the full texts of public domain books...
(plain text) - A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison, via Internet ArchiveInternet ArchiveThe Internet Archive is a non-profit digital library with the stated mission of "universal access to all knowledge". It offers permanent storage and access to collections of digitized materials, including websites, music, moving images, and nearly 3 million public domain books. The Internet Archive...
(scanned books, color illustrated) - A Narrative of the Life of Mrs. Mary Jemison, via Google Books (scanned books)
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