Mary Jemison - White Woman of the Genesee

There is a remarkable and rather famous, yet sad and true story about a young white girl, 14 years old, named Mary Jemison, who in 1758 was captured and raised by Indians after they had raided her home in what is now Franklin Township, Adam's County, Pennsylvania, during the French and Indian War. Her parents, most of her siblings and others were slaughtered, but she was spared and given to an Indian woman in retaliation, to replace the life of a brother who had been killed the year before. Mary, who took the Indian name Deh-he-wä-nis, lived thereafter and for all her life, with the Indians.

Mary is said to have been born aboard the ship William & Mary in 1743 during a voyage from Belfast, when her parents and other parts of the family were emigrating from Ireland to America. They arrived on these shores at Philadelphia in October of that year and soon made their way to the Pennsylvania frontier, which at that time was about half way into the state. Here they settled near what became Gettysburg, in Adams County.[1]

Mary was known as the white woman of the Genesee. She married, raised her children and lived peacefully to the age of 90 amongst her adopted Seneca Nation people in the Genesee Valley region of western New York State, then the frontier. Her cabin on the Grandeau Flats, just north of the Genesee River Falls, was her home for many years. The log structures located here were preserved by William Pryor Letchworth as part of his ongoing endeavor to preserve the Seneca culture and is now, along with the statute pictured to the left, part of Letchworth State Park.[2]

The Mary Jemison story has been immortalized in many ways over the years. Essays, books, theatre and even movies have been made, based on her story. Anyone interested in a more complete accounting of her story is encouraged to pursue it elsewhere.[3]

We know of no verifiable connections between that Jemison/Jameson family and any other Jam?son family, although it is probable that there might be some very old ties, as of yet unknown. However, because Mary spent much of her life in western New York state, dying there in 1833 on the Buffalo Creek Reservation, in Erie County, New York,[4] many people wonder if she was part of our particular Jameson family, who could also be found in that part of New York state, in the early 1800s. There is even a legend of amongst our Jamesons from the Ontario County area of New York, that Mary was a frequent guest at the Hugh Jameson house in Canandaigua, where "she slept on front of the fireplace in the cellar."[5] Native Americans were friendly to these Jamesons and it is said that "on several occasions they warned Janet, Hugh's wife, of bears on the riding paths and snakes over their door."

It is however doubtful that Mary was related to these Jamesons. Her parents were Thomas and Mary Jane (Erwin) Jemison. They are thought to be from a Jameson family who lived in Carrickmacross, County Monaghan, Ulster, Ireland. These Jemisons, like so many others, were originally from Scotland, some of whom are said to have earlier emigrated to America and settled in Virginia and Pennsylvania. It should be noted that the spelling of her name and that of her father Thomas, seemed to have changed, from Jameson to Jemison, at about the time of their immigration.