Early life and capture

Rhoda Boyd was born in rural Cumberland County, Pennsylvania

Cumberland County, Pennsylvania

Cumberland County is a county located in the U.S. state of Pennsylvania and is one of three counties comprising the Harrisburg–Carlisle Metropolitan Statistical Area. As of 2010, the population was 235,406.-History:...

 in 1748 to John Boyd, immigrant from Ulster

Ulster

Ulster is one of the four provinces of Ireland, located in the north of the island. In ancient Ireland, it was one of the fifths ruled by a "king of over-kings" . Following the Norman invasion of Ireland, the ancient kingdoms were shired into a number of counties for administrative and judicial...

 and Nancy Urie, immigrant from Scotland. Rhoda and her siblings were captured by 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...

 Indians on 10 Feb 1756. They killed her mother and youngest brother during the attack.

Fates of family members

• Nancy (Urie) Boyd (mother), killed after the attack
• infant, possibly George Boyd, killed in the attack
• John Boyd Sr. (father), not present at the attack, escaped. He re-married, and died in 1788.
• William Boyd, oldest son, with his father and not present for the raid, escaped. He was a blacksmith in Perry County, Pennsylvania
  Perry County, Pennsylvania
  As of the census of 2000, there were 43,602 people, 16,695 households, and 12,320 families residing in the county. The population density was 79 people per square mile . There were 18,941 housing units at an average density of 34 per square mile...
  
  .
• John Boyd, Jr., captured and adopted by the Delaware; returned from the Delaware in later years to visit relatives, but continued to live as an Indian.
• David Boyd returned to his father by his Indian foster father, who originally captured him.
• Sarah (Sallie) Boyd, take captive and lived with Delaware for several years, was returned to Fort Pitt, 1764

Later life

Taken captive at age eight, Rhoda lived with the Delaware for eight years, from the age of eight to sixteen, by which time she was assimilated to the band. Liberated by Colonel Henry Bouquet

Henry Bouquet

Henry Bouquet was a prominent British Army officer in the French and Indian War and Pontiac's War. Bouquet is best known for his victory over Native Americans at the Battle of Bushy Run, lifting the siege of Fort Pitt during Pontiac's War.-Early life:Bouquet was born into a moderately wealthy...

 at the forks of the

Coshocton, Ohio

Coshocton is a city in and the county seat of Coshocton County, Ohio, United States. The population of the city was 11,682 at the 2000 census. The Walhonding River and the Tuscarawas River meet in Coshocton to form the Muskingum River....

 Muskingum River

Muskingum River

The Muskingum River is a tributary of the Ohio River, approximately 111 miles long, in southeastern Ohio in the United States. An important commercial route in the 19th century, it flows generally southward through the eastern hill country of Ohio...

, she and Elizabeth Studebaker, another English colonist adopted by the Delaware, escaped from his custody on their way to Fort Pitt

Fort Pitt (Pennsylvania)

Fort Pitt was a fort built at the location of Pittsburgh, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.-French and Indian War:The fort was built from 1759 to 1761 during the French and Indian War , next to the site of former Fort Duquesne, at the confluence the Allegheny River and the Monongahela River...

 in Pittsburgh, and returned to the Delaware. United States historians such as Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich

Laurel Thatcher Ulrich , is a historian of early America and the history of women and a university professor at Harvard University...

 have found that the younger children were when taken captive, the more likely they were to become assimilated to the tribe. Girls and young women who married into the tribe also wanted to stay with their new people, rather than making another adjustment to return to colonial British culture. This was the case with Eunice Williams, the daughter of John Williams

John Williams (Reverend)

John Williams was a New England Puritan minister who became famous for The Redeemed Captive, his account of his captivity by the Mohawk after the Deerfield Massacre during Queen Anne's War. He was an uncle of the notable pastor and theologian Jonathan Edwards. His first wife Eunice Mather was a...

, the minister of Deerfield, Massachusetts

Deerfield, Massachusetts

Deerfield is a town in Franklin County, Massachusetts, United States. The population was 4,750 as of the 2000 census. Deerfield is part of the Springfield, Massachusetts Metropolitan Statistical Area in Western Massachusetts, lying only north of the city of Springfield.Deerfield includes the...

; after being taken to Canada and adopted by the Mohawk, she married a Mohawk husband at age 16 and never returned full-time to her New England family.

Rhoda Boyd was ransomed in Detroit in 1764 and taken back to the British colonists.
Bouquet took her to Carlisle, Pennsylvania

Carlisle, Pennsylvania

Carlisle is a borough in and the county seat of Cumberland County, Pennsylvania, United States. The name is traditionally pronounced with emphasis on the second syllable. Carlisle is located within the Cumberland Valley, a highly productive agricultural region. As of the 2010 census, the borough...

 in 1764. There she married 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...

 soldier Thomas Robert Smiley. They had children together, and the family later moved to Somerset, Pennsylvania

Somerset, Pennsylvania

-Demographics:As of the census of 2000, there were 6,762 people, 3,035 households, and 1,717 families residing in the borough. The population density was 2,466.0 people per square mile . There were 3,313 housing units at an average density of 1,208.2 per square mile...

. They eventually moved to Tuscarawas County, Ohio

Tuscarawas County, Ohio

Tuscarawas County is a county located in the eastern part of the state of Ohio. As of the 2010 census, the population was 92,582. Its county seat is New Philadelphia...

, where there was a settlement of Christianized Delaware. Rhoda Boyd Smiley died there in 1823.