The Waterbury Democrat., 1941-09-04
Patchin Family Group
 ReeIects Mrs. Leggett
Waterbury Woman Chosen Presidsnt at ASsocia- lions Third Annual Reunion Held in New York Interesting History
 Is Recalled.

of them 70 feet high and the other i0l feet, the drives and foot trails and the fine museum with itS many Indian relies, were among the Gt. tractive features of the celebration.
 One of the features of special in- terest was the visit to the grave and statue of Mary Jemison, known as the White Woman of the Geilesee whose Indian son ct the age of IA or ib was instrumental in helping Gen. Brant the notorious Chief of the Six Nations, in the capture of two PatchinS for the British dur. ing the Revolutionary War.
 One was F'reegift Patchin, c ffer, who later became brigadier general in the New ork State Militia In 1904 and served in the War of 1872, captured with his brother, Isaac, and several others, and taken as prisoners to Niagara Canada, where they endured untold suffering for three years.
 Mrs. George r. Crose (May patchin) of Fairlawn avenue, Wat. erbury, great-great-granddaughter of Gen. Freegift, has the original account of Freegifts experiences while being captured and imprison- ed, which tallys almost exactly with Mary Jemison's account as related by her to her narrator, pr. James E. Seaver, years later when she was over 30 years old.
 Family MasEacred
 Mary Jemison herself, was cap- tured by the Indians who massacred her entire family when she was Q child and carried her of to live with their tribe. She was brought up by the Senecas, married twice to Indian husbands, the first one many years her senior, she raised several children and had many grandchildren and great-grand- children, some of whom are still living on the New York state .es- ervationS.
 Much of the land along the gorge In this State park had belonged to the Senecas and Mary Jemison through her own industry and thrift, had developed @ large farm for herself and her children, all of which was confiscated by unprin- cipled agents after the Revolution ary War and she was obliged to spend her declining years with some of her Indian kin in Buffalo, and in poverty.
 Years after her death her body was exhumed,. brought back and buried near her farm home. Near her grave and statue stands the Indian council house of the Sen- ecas and the log home which she built for one of her daughters, both of which had been preserved by Dr. William P. Letchworth who purchased and gave much of the property to Nthe state of New York as a public park. He also erected and enclosed the statue in her memory.
 Scenic Bridge
 This Is also the place where Aaron Darwin Patchin, the banker, of Jamestown and Buffalo, N. Y., 1009- 64, another kinsmayl, sacrificed his fortune to purchase the railroad with its 800 foot long long wooden bridge, the longest in the world, over the Genesse Falls for the Erie railroad, only to have the bridge later burn and plunge him to ruin. The steel bridge which replaced the wooden structure in 1875, and which cost less than half as much, is still being used by the Erie railroad. It contains 6 footpath with railing from which vantage point of 234 feet above the river bed a mar vicious view of the falls and gorge was obtained by e number of the venturesome nnemhsrs q the clan.