In July 1755, the Draper's Meadow settlement in southwest
Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
, at the site of present day
Blacksburg, was raided by a group of
Shawnee
The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky a ...
warriors, who killed at least four people including an infant, and captured five more.
The Indians brought their hostages to
Lower Shawneetown
Lower Shawneetown, also known as Shannoah or Sonnontio, was an 18th-century Shawnee village located within the Lower Shawneetown Archeological District, near South Portsmouth in Greenup County, Kentucky and Lewis County, Kentucky. The population ...
, a Shawnee village in
Kentucky
Kentucky ( , ), officially the Commonwealth of Kentucky, is a state in the Southeastern region of the United States and one of the states of the Upper South. It borders Illinois, Indiana, and Ohio to the north; West Virginia and Virginia to ...
. One of the captives,
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 ...
, later escaped and returned home on foot through the wilderness. Although many of the circumstances of the massacre are uncertain, including the date of the attack, the event remains a dramatic story in the history of Virginia.
Location
The original 7,500 acre (30 km²) tract that became known as Draper's Meadow was awarded on 20 June 1753 to
Colonel James Patton, an Irish sea captain turned
land speculator
In finance, speculation is the purchase of an asset (a commodity, goods, or real estate) with the hope that it will become more valuable shortly. (It can also refer to short sales in which the speculator hopes for a decline in value.)
Many s ...
, by
Governor Robert Dinwiddie.
This land was bordered by Tom's Creek on the north,
Stroubles Creek on the south and the
Mississippi watershed
The Mississippi River is the second-longest river and chief river of the second-largest drainage system in North America, second only to the Hudson Bay drainage system. From its traditional source of Lake Itasca in northern Minnesota, it ...
(modern-day
U.S. Route 460
U.S. Route 460 (US 460) is a spur route of U.S. Route 60. It currently runs for 655 miles (1,054 km) from Norfolk, Virginia, at its parent route U.S. Route 60 at Ocean View to Frankfort, Kentucky, intersecting its parent route once ...
) on the east; it approached the
New River on the west. In early 1754 Patton sold 17 subdivisions to 18 settlers, including John Draper and
William Ingles
William Ingles (1729 – September, 1782), also spelled Inglis, Ingliss, Engels, or English, was a colonist and soldier in colonial Virginia. He participated in the Sandy Creek Expedition and was a signatory of the Fincastle Resolutions. He was ...
, although the Drapers had established a homestead on the land as early as 1746, and William Ingles had started farming in the area after marrying
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 ...
in 1750.
[Ryan S. Mays, "The Draper's Meadows Settlement (1746-1756)," Part I, ''The Smithfield Review,'' Volume 18, 2014](_blank)
/ref> The settlement was situated on the present-day campus of Virginia Tech
Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also ...
in Blacksburg, Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
. At the time of the attack, the area had been populated by a group of around twenty settlers who were a mix of migrants from Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
of Irish and Germanic origin,[ some of whom were landowners and others ]tenant farmers
A tenant farmer is a person (farmer or farmworker) who resides on land owned by a landlord. Tenant farming is an agricultural production system in which landowners contribute their land and often a measure of operating capital and management, ...
. A marker commemorating the massacre is located near the Duck Pond on the Virginia Tech campus.
Massacre
Rising tensions between the natives and western settlers were exacerbated by fighting in the French and Indian War
The French and Indian War (1754–1763) was a theater of the Seven Years' War, which pitted the North American colonies of the British Empire against those of the French, each side being supported by various Native American tribes. At the ...
and the encroachment on tribal hunting grounds. Recent victories by the French over the British
British may refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* British people, nationals or natives of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories, and Crown Dependencies.
** Britishness, the British identity and common culture
* British English, ...
, although north of Virginia
Virginia, officially the Commonwealth of Virginia, is a state in the Mid-Atlantic and Southeastern regions of the United States, between the Atlantic Coast and the Appalachian Mountains. The geography and climate of the Commonwealth ar ...
, had left much of the frontier unprotected. In the summer of 1755 several settlements had been ravaged by the Indians. On 9 July a force of about 1300 British soldiers under the command of General Edward Braddock
Major-general (United Kingdom), Major-General Edward Braddock (January 1695 – 13 July 1755) was a British officer and commander-in-chief for the Thirteen Colonies during the start of the French and Indian War (1754–1763), the North American f ...
had been decisively defeated by French troops and Shawnees
The Shawnee are an Algonquian-speaking indigenous people of the Northeastern Woodlands. In the 17th century they lived in Pennsylvania, and in the 18th century they were in Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois, with some bands in Kentucky an ...
at the Battle of the Monongahela
The Battle of the Monongahela (also known as the Battle of Braddock's Field and the Battle of the Wilderness) took place on 9 July 1755, at the beginning of the French and Indian War, at Braddock's Field in what is now Braddock, Pennsylvania, ea ...
, which encouraged further violence against settlers in the region.
On Wednesday, 30 July (see below regarding disagreement of sources about the date) a group of Shawnee (then allies of the French) entered the sparsely populated settlement. One source says there were sixteen Shawnee warriors. They killed at least four people, wounded at least two persons and set fire to the cabins.["A Register of the Persons Who Have Been Either Killed, Wounded, or Taken Prisoners by the Enemy, in Augusta County, as also such as Have Made Their Escape,"](_blank)
in ''The Virginia Magazine of History and Biography,'' Vol. II, June 1895, published by the Virginia Historical Society, Richmond, Virginia. Among the dead were Colonel James Patton, Caspar Barger, and two people in 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 ...
' family: her mother (Eleanor Draper), and her sister-in-law Bettie Robertson Draper's infant daughter, who was killed by dashing her head against the wall of a cabin.[Floyd, Letitia Preston, "Memoirs of Letitia Preston Floyd, written Feb. 22, 1843 to her son Benjamin Rush Floyd," transcribed from the original by Jim Glanville and Ryan Mays; in ''Smithfield Review,'' vol. 20, 2016](_blank)
/ref> In an account of the massacre written in 1843, Letitia Preston Floyd, a descendant of one of the massacre's survivors, claimed that two other children were killed, but there is no additional evidence to support this. Bettie Draper was shot through the arm and a man named James Cull was wounded in his foot during the attack. Colonel William Preston (Colonel Patton's nephew) and John Draper (Bettie Draper's husband, Mary's brother) were not at the settlement at the time of the attack, and survived. William Ingles
William Ingles (1729 – September, 1782), also spelled Inglis, Ingliss, Engels, or English, was a colonist and soldier in colonial Virginia. He participated in the Sandy Creek Expedition and was a signatory of the Fincastle Resolutions. He was ...
(Mary's husband) was attacked and nearly killed but managed to flee into the forest.[Transcript of John Ingles' manuscript "The Narrative of Col. John Ingles Relating to Mary Ingles and the Escape from Big Bone Lick," 1824.](_blank)
/ref>
One of the victims, Phillip Barger, described by Letitia Preston Floyd as "a very old man", was decapitated by the Indians, who delivered his head in a bag to the Lybrook home at Sinking Creek, telling Mrs. Lybrook that "they had killed two men one woman and three children," and "to look in the bag and she would see an old friend." Five settlers were captured and taken back to Lower Shawneetown
Lower Shawneetown, also known as Shannoah or Sonnontio, was an 18th-century Shawnee village located within the Lower Shawneetown Archeological District, near South Portsmouth in Greenup County, Kentucky and Lewis County, Kentucky. The population ...
in Ohio, as captives to live among the tribe: Mary Draper Ingles and her two sons, Thomas, age 4, and George, age 2,[ Mary's sister-in-law Bettie Robertson Draper, and Mary's neighbor Henry Lenard (also spelled Leonard).]
Estimates of casualties
Only four persons have been definitively identified as having been killed at Draper's Meadow: Colonel Patton, Caspar (or Phillip) Barger (sometimes written Barrier), Eleanor Draper, and Bettie Robertson Draper's baby. Letitia Preston Floyd's letter says that the Indians reported to Mrs. Lybrook that "they had killed two men one woman and three children," and Floyd further identifies two of the dead children as belonging to William Ingles, although there is no evidence that Ingles had any children in 1755 aside from his sons George and Thomas. William Preston compiled "Preston's Register," titled "A Register of the Persons Who Have Been Either Killed, Wounded, or Taken Prisoners by the Enemy, in Augusta County, as also such as Have Made Their Escape," but it lists only the four confirmed deaths noted above. John Ingles says that the Shawnee "killed severale," and refers to Patton's death and "some other persons not recollected." The ''Virginia Gazette'' article of 8 August reports Patton's death "and eight more Men, Women, and Children," for a total of nine deaths. Floyd, Ingles and Preston's Register all agree that James Cull and Bettie Draper were wounded. The number and identities of the captives are consistently reported in all sources. Letitia Preston Floyd's letter is the only source mentioning the deaths of two Shawnee warriors, killed by Colonel Patton.
Aftermath
Colonel John Buchanan sent a party of soldiers from the Augusta County militia after the Shawnees, but they failed to locate them and returned empty-handed. On 11 August Governor Robert Dinwiddie wrote to Buchanan: "I am sorry the Men You sent after the Murderers did not come up with them."[ Dinwiddie, Robert. ''The Official Records of Robert Dinwiddie, Lieutenant-governor of the Colony of Virginia, 1751-1758.'' Vol. II. Robert Alonzo Brock, ed. Richmond: Virginia Historical Society, 1884.](_blank)
/ref>
Letitia Preston Floyd reported in her 1843 letter that when William Preston and John Draper returned to Draper's Meadow, on either the same day or the next day, "they found Patton, Mrs. Draper, the mother of Mrs. Ingles, and the children buried." The location of the graves of those killed in the massacre remains unknown, but it is believed to be in the vicinity of the Duck Pond
A duck pond is a pond for ducks and other waterfowl. Duck ponds provide habitats for water fowl and other birds, who use the water to bathe in and drink.
Typically, such ponds are round, oval or kidney-shaped. An example is the lily pond in th ...
on the campus of Virginia Tech
The main campus of Virginia Tech is located in Blacksburg, Virginia; the central campus is roughly bordered by Prices Fork Road to the northwest, Plantation Road to the west, Main Street to the east, and U.S. Route 460 bypass to the south, althou ...
. There is no record of their burial site among documents by William Preston and other members of his family.
In mid-October Mary escaped from Big Bone, Kentucky
Big Bone is an unincorporated community in southern Boone County, Kentucky, United States. It is bounded on the west by the Ohio River, and Rabbit Hash, on the south by Big Bone Creek, which empties into the river at Big Bone Landing. The ...
, without her children, and made a 42-day journey of more than across the Appalachian Mountains
The Appalachian Mountains, often called the Appalachians, (french: Appalaches), are a system of mountains in eastern to northeastern North America. The Appalachians first formed roughly 480 million years ago during the Ordovician Period. They ...
together with another woman, reaching Draper's Meadow on 1 December, 1755. Letitia Preston Floyd claimed that Mary was pregnant when captured and gave birth "3 months after her capture" to a daughter, and that she abandoned her baby when she decided to escape,[John Peter Hale, ''Trans-Allegheny Pioneers: Historical Sketches of the First White Settlements West of the Alleghenies'', 1886.](_blank)
/ref> however there is evidence to the contrary.[
In February 1756, the ]Sandy Creek Expedition
The Sandy Creek Expedition, also referred to as the Sandy Expedition or sometimes the Big Sandy Expedition, (not to be confused with the Big Sandy Expedition of 1851) was a 1756 campaign of Virginia soldiers and Cherokee warriors into what is no ...
was sent to attack Lower Shawneetown
Lower Shawneetown, also known as Shannoah or Sonnontio, was an 18th-century Shawnee village located within the Lower Shawneetown Archeological District, near South Portsmouth in Greenup County, Kentucky and Lewis County, Kentucky. The population ...
, where Mary Ingles had briefly been held prisoner, however the expedition was forced to turn back before reaching the town, due to harsh weather and lack of food.[Lyman C. Draper, "The expedition of the Virginians against the Shawanoe Indians, 1756," ''Virginia Historical Register and Literary Companion,'' Vol. V, Number II. Richmond: McFarlane & Fergusson, April 1852](_blank)
/ref>
Survivors relocated in 1757 to Blockhouse Bottom near what is now East Point, Kentucky. Draper's Meadow was abandoned, as was much of the frontier for the duration of the French and Indian War. Of the original settlers who survived the massacre, only the Bargers returned later to reclaim their land and settle. William Preston, who had been in Draper's Meadow on the morning of the attack but was sent by Colonel Patton to assist with the harvest at Sinking Creek and so was saved, purchased the property on 24 May 1773, and completed the construction of his Smithfield Plantation home in 1774. The neighboring community of Blacksburg was established in the 1790s by Samuel Black and his sons John and William.
In 1761, Mary's sister-in-law Bettie Robertson Draper was found and ransomed by her husband John Draper after six years in captivity. In 1768, Mary's son Thomas Ingles
Thomas Ingles (1751 - 1809) was a Virginia pioneer, frontiersman and soldier. He was the son of William Ingles and Mary Draper Ingles. He, his mother and his younger brother were captured by Shawnee Indians and although his mother escaped, Thomas ...
was ransomed and returned to Virginia at the age of 17.[Luther F. Addington, "Captivity of Mary Draper Ingles," ''Historical "Sketches of Southwest Virginia,'' Southwest Virginia Historical Society, Publication No 2, 1967.](_blank)
/ref> One source states that another captive, Mary's neighbor Henry Leonard, later escaped, although no details are given. Mary's two-year-old son George was taken from her and is believed to have died in captivity.
After her escape, Mary Draper Ingles reunited with her husband and resumed farming at Dunkert Bottom until the following spring. Concerned about continued Shawnee raids on neighboring settlements, they moved to Fort Vause
Fort Vause (also known as "Fort Vass" or "Vass' Fort") was built in 1753 in Montgomery County, Virginia, by Ephraim Vause. The historic site is near the town of Shawsville, Virginia.
The original fort was built in 1753 to protect the Vause ho ...
, where a small garrison safeguarded the residents. Mary remained uneasy, however, and persuaded her husband to move again, this time to Bedford County, Virginia
Bedford County is a United States county located in the Piedmont region of the Commonwealth of Virginia. Its county seat is the town of Bedford, which was an independent city from 1968 until rejoining the county in 2013.
Bedford County was c ...
.[Lewis Preston Summers, ''History of Southwest Virginia, 1746-1786, Washington County, 1777-1870,'' J.L. Hill Print. Company, 1903.](_blank)
/ref> In 1762 they established Ingles Ferry
Ingles Ferry is a historic tavern near the city of Radford in Pulaski County, Virginia, Virginia, United States.
William Ingles and his wife Mary Draper Ingles began developing a farm on the eastern side of the New River a few years after Mary' ...
across the New River, along with a tavern and a blacksmith shop. Mary died there in 1815.
Sources
Except for a few scattered references to these events in contemporary reports and letters, the primary sources
In the study of history as an academic discipline, a primary source (also called an original source) is an artifact, document, diary, manuscript, autobiography, recording, or any other source of information that was created at the time under ...
are:
:1) the 1824 written account by Colonel John Ingles (son of Mary Ingles and William Ingles, born in 1766 after Mary's return). His account is based on stories he had heard from his parents. Written when he was 58.
:2) parts of an 1843 letter by Letitia Preston Floyd (wife of Virginia Governor John Floyd and daughter of Colonel William Preston, a survivor of the Draper's Meadow massacre). Her account is based on Preston family lore and oral tradition. Written when she was 63.
:3) an article in the ''Virginia Gazette'' on 8 August 1755:
:"By an Express this Morning from Augusta County, we have the melancholy Account of the Murder of Col. James Patton, who was killed by a Party of Indians, the last Day of July, on the Head Branches of Roanoke, and eight more Men, Women, and Children. Col. Patton was going out with Ammunition &c. for the Use of the Frontier Inhabitants, and stopping at a Plantation on the Road to refresh himself, the Convoy being about five Miles before, he was beset by 16 Indians, who killed, and stripped him, and then made off with his Horse &c."
There are some differences in the first two narratives, suggesting that the Ingles and Preston families had developed distinct oral traditions
Oral tradition, or oral lore, is a form of human communication wherein knowledge, art, ideas and cultural material is received, preserved, and transmitted orally from one generation to another. Vansina, Jan: ''Oral Tradition as History'' (1985) ...
. The disagreements between these original written sources include the date of the massacre (July 30 vs July 8, according to Ingles and Floyd, respectively), the number of casualties, the ages of Mary Ingles' children, and several other aspects. Evidence supports the July 30 date, as documents confirm that Colonel James Patton was in Williamsburg on July 8.[Richard Osborn, "William Preston and the American Revolution." ''Journal of Backcountry Studies,'' vol. 3, no. 1, July 2010](_blank)
/ref> The article in the ''Virginia Gazette'' reports that Patton's death took place on "the last day of July."[Ryan S. Mays, "The Draper's Meadows Settlement (1746-1756) Part II," ''Smithfield Review,'' vol 19, 2015](_blank)
/ref> Preston's Register gives the date unequivocally as 30 July.
Letitia Preston Floyd's 1843 letter to her son Rush, written at the request of historian Lyman Draper
Lyman Copeland Draper (September 4, 1815August 26, 1891) was a librarian and historian who served as secretary for the State Historical Society of Wisconsin at Madison, Wisconsin. Draper also served as Superintendent of Public Instruction of Wisc ...
,[Jim Glanville and Ryan Mays, "A Sketch of Letitia Preston Floyd and Some of Her Letters," ''The Smithfield Review: Studies in the History of the Region West of the Blue Ridge,'' vol 19, pp 77-120, 2015](_blank)
/ref> contains the most complete primary source description of the Draper's Meadow massacre. Preston Davie
Preston Davie (January 31, 1881 – May 21, 1967) was an American lawyer and colonel during World War I. Davie received a Distinguished Service Medal for his efforts.
Early life
Davie was born in Louisville, Kentucky on January 31, 1881, a s ...
(a descendant who spent many years collecting documents in an attempt to establish James Patton's genealogy) dismissed the letter as "replete with errors...Indeed some of the events as described in this letter are such a jumble of inaccurate hearsay and fact as to make them more imaginative than real." Glanville and Mays counter this opinion: "The overall accuracy of Mrs. Floyd’s 'My Dear Rush' letter is surprisingly good...She made minor errors in dates and places. However, it seems to us that Mrs. Floyd did remarkably well for a person aged 63 who was often writing of events about which she learned four or five decades earlier."
John Peter Hale (1824-1902), one of Mary Ingles’ great-grandsons, claimed to have interviewed Letitia Preston Floyd and others who knew Mary Ingles personally, and his 1886 narrative contains numerous details not cited in any previous account.
Popular culture
The story of Mary Draper Ingles' escape and journey home has inspired a number of books, films, and living history programs, including the popular 1981 novel ''Follow the River'' by James Alexander Thom
James Alexander Craig Thom (born May 26, 1933 in Gosport, Indiana) is an American author, best known for his works in the Western genre and colonial American history which are noted for their historical accuracy borne of his painstaking research ...
, a 1995 ABC
ABC are the first three letters of the Latin script known as the alphabet.
ABC or abc may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment, and media Broadcasting
* American Broadcasting Company, a commercial U.S. TV broadcaster
** Disney–ABC Television ...
television movie Follow the River (TV movie)
Follow the River is a 1995 ABC television movie based on the book ''Follow the River'' by James Alexander Thom that told the story of the aftermath of the Draper's Meadow Massacre of 1755.
Cast
*Sheryl Lee as Mary Ingles
*Ellen Burstyn as Grete ...
, and the 2004 film '' The Captives.'' There is an acclaimed outdoor drama performed each summer in Radford, Virginia entitled, "Walk To Freedom: The Mary Draper Ingles Story," which details the events during the attack at Drapers Meadows and Mary Draper Ingles' trek through the wilderness to reach her home in the New River Valley.
Memorialization
A wall on the Virginia Tech
Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also ...
campus, between the golf course clubhouse and the duck pond, commemorates the massacre, with the date "July 8, 1755" inscribed on it.
In 1938, the Alleghany Chapter of the National Society Daughters of the American Revolution (NSDAR) placed a brass memorial plaque at Smithfield Plantation, near the site of the Draper's Meadow Massacre
In July 1755, the Draper's Meadow settlement in southwest Virginia, at the site of present day Blacksburg, was raided by a group of Shawnee warriors, who killed at least four people including an infant, and captured five more. The Indians brough ...
in Blacksburg, on the Virginia Tech
Virginia Tech (formally the Virginia Polytechnic Institute and State University and informally VT, or VPI) is a Public university, public Land-grant college, land-grant research university with its main campus in Blacksburg, Virginia. It also ...
campus, on which is written: "To Colonel James Patton and pioneers who lost their lives in the Draper's Meadow Massacre, July 1755."Charles A. Grymes, "The Impact of the French and Indian War on Settlement West of the Blue Ridge," ''Virginia Places,'' 2020
/ref>
Notes
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Draper's Meadow Massacre
Colony of Virginia
French and Indian War
Blacksburg, Virginia
Massacres by Native Americans
1755 in the Thirteen Colonies
Captives of Native Americans