Mary Draper Ingles
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, making a trek of 500–600 miles through the frontier, crossing numerous rivers and creeks, and over the Appalachian Mountains to return home.
Biography
Early life
Mary Draper Ingles was born in 1732 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to George and Elenor (Hardin) Draper, who had immigrated to America from Donegal, Ireland in 1729. In 1748, the Draper family and others moved to the western frontier of Virginia, establishing Draper's Meadow, a pioneer settlement on the banks of Stroubles Creek near modern-day Blacksburg.
In 1750 Mary married fellow settler William Ingles (1729-1782). They had two sons together: Thomas, born in 1751, and George in 1753.
