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 with 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.