Martinsburg journal. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1920-1977, 1922-09-22
Written BY Alma Bolce Holland for
the West Virginia Publicity
Cop,r1,jeSion

Heinrich Heinie said, Whenever
read history and am impressed with
any great deed, feel as if l should
like to see the woman who is con
cealed behind it as its secret in
celtiye."
History for the most part has
been written about men by men, be.
cause Of the fact that this was in
accord generally with the spirit of
the times when men were dominant
in most worldly events. But always
there have been women who have
loyalty and heroically done their
part in helping onward the pro-
gressiye destinies Of the human
race.
Personal Side CoIorfuI.
1t is the personal. human interest
side which lends color to the bare
chronicle Of events and this is sup.
Piled in the main by woman with
her resourcefulness in the face of
danger, by her fortitude and her
patriotism No state has more no.
able pioneer heroines than the
State of West Virginia.
As an example of the courage
which eharacterizes West Virginia
motherhood there stands out in bold
'elief the story of Mary Draper In
giles, the first white woman 10 sea
the Ohio river.
One Of the first settlements west
If the Alleghenies was that on Ora
per's Meadows on the New River
Fork of the Great Kanawha, now the
leart of West Virginia. A half
lozen Virginia families penetrated
.nto this fertile, hill-surrounded
country In 1747 and three years
alter Mary Draper, then eighteen
Years old, was married to William
Ingles the son of a neighboring
'arner.
1t was said of her that "she could
stand by the side of ller horse and
cap into the saddle unaided, ride
anything on hoofs, and shoot like a
lunter, as we'll as being highly skill
I'd in all housewifely accomplish.
nents."
Settlement Was Caught.
When the war broke out and the
western Indians, won to the side
If the French, were melted to at
ack the English-speaking settlers,
band of marauding Shawnees came
,reeping up the Kanawha, and the
,ntire settlement of Diapers Mea
lows was caught unprepared and
Every member of the little commun'
ty either killed, wounded or cap
.ured. William Ingles was wounded
he children sent north and Mary
Draper Ingles carried away captive
towards the South.
The Indians stopped at the salt
springs above the mouth Of Camp
bell Creek, on the north side of the
Kanawha, where they spent several
days making salt and killing game
1t is an interesting fact that Vary
Ingies' great-grandson John p
Hale, the, West Virginia historian
was for many years salt manu-
facturer within few hundred
yards of the spot where she help
ed the Indians make salt in 1855.
From the salt springs the party
proceeded down the Kanawh9
where Mrs Ingles was the first
white woman to see the Ohio River
or the "River of Many White Caps
as the Indians called i.
Despite the agony which this
pioneer mother suffered, she mask
ed it under an assumed contentment
all the while watching for an op
pertunity to escape. When this
time arrived she was seven hundred
miles from home, husband and chill
dfen. But what really looked like
an unsurmountable obstacle was
not great enough to prevent Mary
Ingles from making the attempt
After getting away from the Indian;
she ate leaves, roots and berries
growing continually weaker ant
thinner from hunger. Her clothing
was soon in tatters. and she bound
the strips about her tired, torn feet
with thongs of leather wood bark
Finally, however, the long, long jour