Mary Campbell

Memorial to Mary Campbell, placed just outside Mary Campbell Cave.

Mary Campbell (later Mary Campbell Willford) was an American colonial settler who was known for her abduction by Native Americans during the French and Indian War and being the first white child to travel to the Western Reserve. Born in 1747 or 1748, Campbell was taken captive by the Lenape tribe at the age of ten in 1758. It is believed that she lived with the Lenape, possibly under the care of their chief, Netawatwees, in locations near Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio, and Newcomerstown, eastern Ohio. Campbell's return to her family in Pennsylvania in 1764 was facilitated by British military pressure on the Native Americans. She was among a group of captives released to British forces and transported to Fort Pitt.

As an emblematic figure, her abduction and release shed light on the complicated dynamics and moral implications surrounding the colonization of Native American territories by Euro-American settlers.

Early life Campbell was born in 1747 or 1748. According to oral tradition among her descendants, her family identified themselves as Scotch-Irish.

Abduction On May 21, 1758, According to local tradition, this Native American group brought her to a cliff cavity now known as Mary Campbell Cave near the Cuyahoga River in present-day Cuyahoga Falls, Ohio. After a reportedly brief residence in the cave, she is said to have moved to a nearby Lenape village,

Some writers have suggested that Campbell may have been adopted by Netawatwees. The adoption into an Indian family, of captives taken in raids, was common practice among the Native Americans of that time period, and Campbell most probably was adopted into a Lenape family according to this custom. Nevertheless, although it seems certain she was a member of the tribal group which followed and moved with Netawatwees, it cannot be definitely established that she was adopted into his own household.

Return Campbell's return to her family in Pennsylvania in 1764 was a result of British military pressure on the Native Americans of southern Ohio by troops under Colonel Henry Bouquet. Over two days, August 5 and August 6, Bouquet's forces prevailed against Native American irregulars in the Battle of Bushy Run, a key battle that turned the tide of Pontiac's Rebellion. While armed conflict became rare after the battle, no formal peace had been made. Starting from Fort Niagara on August 6, 1764, Colonel John Bradstreet and 1,200 of his soldiers moved through northern Ohio on their way to Fort Detroit. Bradstreet concluded a peace treaty with a number of tribes on August 12, which would have prohibited an expedition by Bouquet to the south. General Thomas Gage rejected Bradstreet's treaty on the grounds that the Colonel had exceeded his authority in making it.

On October 1, 1764, Bouquet held meetings with Shawnee and Delaware leaders at Fort Pitt. The Indians tried to convince Bouquet that their numbers were great, and that he should not move into their territory because his army could not survive. Apparently the Indians were bluffing, because within a day or two, they had agreed to give up their white captives to Bouquet and his forces. On October 3, Bouquet and 1,500 soldiers departed Fort Pitt, arriving at a place called Tuscarawas on October 13. The next day, Bouquet met with leaders of Native American groups including those of the Delaware. The meetings lasted until October 20, when Bouquet issued an ultimatum and demanded the return of captives. Captives were turned over to Bouquet's forces at different times during and after these proceedings, Mary Campbell was among those who returned.

Campbell's name is included in a list of 60 former captives who were transferred by Captain Lewis Durry to Captain Charles Lewis for transportation to Fort Pitt. Although it is estimated that approximately half of the captives turned over to Bouquet attempted to return to their Native captors, a development which reportedly puzzled both the army and the communities to which the captives were being returned, it is not known whether Campbell was one of them.

In October 1764, the Pennsylvania Gazette carried an advertisement placed by Mary Campbell's family, which read in part:

...Mary Campbell, then in her 10th year, red haired, and much freckled. Her Father hearing that she is now at Albany, and being unable to go so far, begs that she may, by all good People, be helped on her way to him as he and her aged mother, are very desirous of seeing her. The same sources have Mary and Joseph Willford continuing in York/Adams County from 1770 until they moved to Washington (now Greene) County, Pennsylvania. But tax rolls from Lack Township, situated in the Tuscarora Valley, Cumberland (now Juniata) County strongly suggest that they lived in this township from 1766 until at least 1782. A possible candidate for the place of their marriage is a town a few miles southeast of Mifflintown and adjacent to Lack Township which was later (from 1847) known as Mount Pleasant. Some time during or after 1782 they moved to Bald Ridge Farm, Dunkard Township, The story is cited as further evidence of Native American brutality and savagery. and the general facts of her experience are taught in local schools. Mary Campbell's local popularity has led to a number of books, including Song of Courage, Song of Freedom: The Story of the Child, Mary Campbell, Held Captive in Ohio by the Delaware Indians from 1759–1764 by Marilyn Seguin, According to information from Minnie Myrtle Wiley, a great great granddaughter of Campbell, she was taken by Delaware Indians (i.e. the Lenape) from or near a stockade in Penn's Creek, Cumberland County, Pennsylvania where she and others had come for safety. Some sources claim that Campbell was abducted in 1759 at the age of twelve years. If so, her birth would have been in 1747, and her repatriation would have occurred at around 17 years of age. This source also establishes the association between Netawatwees and Mary Campbell. Pennsylvania Gazette, LIST of CAPTIVES taken by the INDIANS, and delivered to Colonel BOUQUET, by the Mingoes, Delawares, Shawanese, Wyondots and Mohickons, at Tuscarawas and Muskingam, in November, 1764, published on January 17, 1765. Part of this notice is reproduced in some documentation for the Fincher family history. Note that the Report to the Cuyahoga Falls Chapter, D.A.R., mentions the same notice as appearing in the Maryland Gazette of the same date. Report to the Cuyahoga Falls Chapter, D.A.R., June 1934, by Mrs. J. B. McPherson entitled "Mary Campbell – The First White Child on the Western Reserve". This report is also available at the Mary Campbell site. Pennsylvania Gazette, advertisement by Mary Campbell's family, published October 11, 1764. This is the source adopted here for Campbell's year of birth and date of abduction. The advertisement is included in a digital image of a photocopied sheet which shows part of a newspaper page. The photocopy from which the image was taken is of poor, but readable, quality. The name of the newspaper and the date have been penciled in at the bottom the photocopy. The October 11, 1764 date is apparently correct since, just above the advertisement, on the same page, is a report on the "last accounts from Pittsburgh" which relate that Colonel Bouquet with forces of his army had crossed the Ohio and awaited volunteers from Virginia to complete their numbers. This would agree with incidents which took place at the end of September and the beginning of October 1764. The Mary Cambell Memorial is a plaque laid by the Mary Campbell Society, Children of the American Revolution of Cuyahoga Falls, in 1934, outside Mary Campbell Cave. William Willford. Genealogy and History of the Willford Family in America. Canton Minnesota: 1916. This history contains recollections of William's grandmother Mary Ann Willford, née Eniex or Enochs. She was the wife of Joseph Wilford Jr. who was one of Campbell's sons. This work is one source of the 1750 birth date for Campbell. Information from the tax rolls of Lack Township, Cumberland (now Juniata) County, Pennsylvania document the presence of Joseph Willford, a William Campbell, a William Campbell Jr., a Daniel Campbell, and a Dougal Campbell. Some family traditions among descendants of Mary Campbell identify Mary's father's name as William and her two brothers as Daniel and William. Others also, or in place of Daniel or William Jr., identify Dougal Campbell as a brother of Mary Campbell. Joseph and Mary Willford named one of their sons as Dougal Campbell Willford (born 1777).

Dougal Campbell also appears in Washington (now Greene) County, Pennsylvania in association with the Willfords during the period between 1788 and the end of the 18th century. That Lack Township coincides with the Tuscarora Valley is also significant since William Willford's Genealogy and History of the Willford Family in America as well as at least one other source identifies the Tuscarora Valley as the area where Joseph Willford settled in Cumberland County.