Mary Draper Ingles

For the American Revolutionary patriot, see Mary Draper.
Mary Draper Ingles
Statue of Mary Draper Ingles included in the Virginia Women's Monument.
Born1732 (1732)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Died1 February 1815(1815-02-01) (aged 82–83)
Ingles Ferry, Virginia, U.S.
Known forEscape from Native American captivity in 1755
SpouseWilliam Ingles
ChildrenThomas Ingles, George, Mary, Susanna, Rhoda, John
Parent(s)George and Elenor (Hardin) Draper

Mary Draper Ingles (1732 – February 1815), also known in records as Mary Inglis or Mary English, was an American pioneer and early settler of western Virginia. In the summer of 1755, she and her two young sons were among several captives taken by Shawnee after the Draper's Meadow Massacre during the French and Indian War. They were taken to Lower Shawneetown at the Ohio and Scioto rivers. Ingles escaped with another woman after two and a half months and trekked 500 to 600 miles, crossing numerous rivers, creeks, and the Appalachian Mountains to return home.[1]

Two somewhat different accounts of Mary Draper Ingles' capture and escape, one written by her son John Ingles,[2][3]: 86–88  and the other by Letitia Preston Floyd,[4]: 79–109  an acquaintance, are the main sources from which the story is known.

The story became well-known following the 1855 publication of William Henry Foote's account in Sketches of Virginia: Historical and Biographical,[5] based on Mary's son's manuscript. It was further publicized in 1886 with the publication of an embellished version in John P. Hale's Trans-Allegheny pioneers: historical sketches of the first white settlements west of the Alleghenies.[6]

  1. ^ Duvall, James (2009). Mary Ingles and the Escape from Big Bone Lick (PDF). Boone County Public Library. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-13. Retrieved 2014-04-03.
  2. ^ Ingles, John (1824). The Narrative of Col. John Ingles Relating to Mary Ingles and the Escape from Big Bone Lick (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2012-03-13. Retrieved 2014-04-03.
  3. ^ Pendleton, William Cecil. History of Tazewell County and Southwest Virginia: 1748-1920. W. C. Hill printing Company, 1920; pp 443-447
  4. ^ Floyd, Letitia Preston, "Memoirs of Letitia Preston Floyd, written Feb. 22, 1843 to her son Benjamin Rush Floyd," transcribed from the original by Jim Glanville and Ryan Mays; in Smithfield Review, vol. 20, 2016
  5. ^ William Henry Foote, Sketches of Virginia: Historical and Biographical, Vol. 2; William S. Martien, 1855; p. 149.
  6. ^ John P. Hale, Trans-Allegheny pioneers: historical sketches of the first white settlements west of the Alleghenies, Cincinnati: The Graphic Press, 1886.