Women In My Family History: Part 8

Mary Draper Ingles

1732-1815

Mary Draper was born in 1732 to Irish Immigrant parents in Pennsylvania.  In 1750 she married William Ingles and they migrated to a small Scots Irish settlement in the Shenandoah Valley of Virginia.  In July of 1755 while she was heavily pregnant with her third child and the men were out in the fields the community was raided by Shawnee.   Some of the settlers were killed and some were taken captive.  Mary was one that was taken captive.  The Shawnee took their captives 500 miles away.  One day Mary grabbed her chance to escape.  Using the Ohio River as her guide she walked home.   You can learn more about Mary's ordeal HERE.  An Indiana author named James Alexander Thong wrote a book about her.  To prepare for the book he donned his back pack and walked in her foot steps.  It is a wonderful book which I reviewed a few years ago HERE.  There has also been a TV movie made about Mary Draper Ingles.   She deserves to be honored in this blog for her courage and her amazing survival story.   She is not a direct ancestor of mine.  She is very indirectly related to my children.  But I am proud to have her information included in my family history even if the connection is very remote.  My children's father's paternal grandmother, Hazel Fan Coffman Lyle,  has many famous lines in her tree which have interesting historical men.  This is the line that also traces indirectly to Mary Draper Ingles.   Hazel's mother was Emma Norvell,   Emma was the daughter of Isabella Givens Duffield and she was the daughter of Mary Polly Givens.  The father of Mary was Robert Givens and he was the son of William Givens.  Captain John Givens was William's father.  John was the brother of Elizabeth Givens and she was married to Brigadier General Andrew Lewis. whose brother was Thomas Lewis.  Thomas had a daughter named Agatha and she married Colonel John Stuart.  One of their daughters was Jennie Lewis Stuart who married Major Robert Crockett.   Robert Crockett's sister was Jane Crockett and she married John Draper  whose father's name was also John Draper and he was the brother of Mary Draper Ingles.  Please take time to follow the two links in the text above and enjoy the video that follows and can also be found HERE.