The Jersey City news. (Jersey City [N.J.]) 1889-1906, 1889-09-06
TIE WOMEN WERE BRAVE
STIRRING INCIDENTS or TIE OLD
COLONY III rs IN VIRGINI-t.

N N H ---
A Mothers Memorable Journey The
Train Waited while They Kissed
Java Dancing Girls in P~aris-Giris a.
White sulphur Springs.
When the first commissioner went 10
the frontier near james River Cap 10
confirm the title to "corn-right" lands, he
found no less than thirty cabins, which
had been built by a young unmarried
woman named Mulhollin, who claimed
and was allowed the land around each Oh
them. She had dressed herself in mems
clothes and done all the work herself.
The very first women west of the Ale
ghanles were Mrs. John Draper n her
daughter Mary who became the wife CT
William Ingles), when, about LAS, several
families moved just over the crest OF the
low Allegheny divide, where now stanas
Blacksburg, Virginia, and made d sevtle-
ment called Diapers Meadows. !
Having no sister, Mary Mrs. lnglles)
had played altogether with her brother
and grown up like a boy. She could run
as we'll as he. She could stand aud jump
straight up nearly as high as her head;
could leap into the saddle unaided; could
stand IN the floor and jump over a CHAIR
DdCkJ ana 20 on. his aStltJg anu eACH
stood her in good stead when, in no, she,
with other women and children, We're
captured by the Shawnees, and d
indians began a haSty retreat 70 gheIr
homes beyond the Ohio. On the night OF
the third day out Mrs. Ingles gave blrtn
to an infant daughter, but this Fact caused
nc delay, which would have meant the
death of both mother and child, for the
next morning she was able to ride on. AL
the Shawnee town the prisoners were
divided up and scattered, but Mrs. lngles
and her baby were kept there, where she
made herself so useful that after a lew
weeks she was taken along with a COM
pany of Shawnees to help make salt at the
Big Bone Lick, south of the Ohio. Thus
she was the first white woman to enter
Kentucky, long ~ante-dating the ARRIVAL
there Of Mrs. Daniel Boone, who is usually
given that distinction.
From here she resolved to escape. n
abandoning her babe to the Indians
started with an old Dutch woman who
had more recently been brought TO the
Lick. With nothing to eat bu berries,
roots and mussels, with no weapon OF de-
fence, nor any protection from the weather
beyond their ragged clothes, ~barefooted
and guided only by Mrs. Ingles' hope OF
recognizing again the mouth of a large
river, which she had descended all the
way from her home, the two women
forced their way eastward along the for
aested bank of the Ohio. AT last hope be
came certainty, for the picture OF the
river mouth printed on her memory dld
not fail her. 1t was the Great kanawha,
and its sources were the streams winch
flowed through Diapers Meadows. They
turned up its course, but were often in
~terrupted by large streams, which they
were obliged to ascend for miles before
they could cross and retrace their chan
nels to the main river that was their only
guide. AS they got up to where the noun
tainS are high and close together, great
cliffs, bordering what is now the canyon
of the New, down which the Chesapeake
and Ohio Railway makes its adventurous
way, they were often obliged toscale their
heights, only to find d worse Il just
ahead. The old woman nearly gave out,
became quarrelSome, and finally at
tempted to kill her companion for food,
Mrs. Ingles only escaping after q fright
full encounter. Through such almost
superhuman trials did she persist, until at
last she came to her home. She had
travelled in forty days probably live hun
dred miles.
Had this simply been a story of human
maintenance under dreadful circun-
stances, it could be matched by many
another woman's story of that period;
but it amounted to q most valuable
ploratiOn, since, until then, nobody knew
that their waters gathered into a great
river, or emptied into the Ohio, nor what
was the Ohio's lower course, nor that
| saline springs existed in the Western
valleys. When Mrs. Ingles stopped near
where Charleston, the capital of West
Virginia, now stands, and made salt foI
her captors in her own kettles, she was
laying the foundation of the long race OF
| Kanawha salt makers and of one of the
most extensive local industries in the
West. This woman lived to be very old
and saw turnpike stages and steamboats,
affording a quick passage over the route
came one of the main of emigra-
ton and gives today the shortest railway
route between Chicago and the sea
board.