Mary 'Deh-he-wä-mis' Jemison

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Mary 'Deh-he-wä-mis' Jemison

Also Known As: "White Woman of the Genesee"
Birthdate:
Birthplace: Aboard the ship William & Mary, Atlantic Ocean
Death: September 19, 1833 (89)
Buffalo Creek Reservation, Erie County, New York, United States
Place of Burial: Castile, Wyoming County, New York, United States
Immediate Family:

Daughter of Thomas Jemison and Mary Jane Jemison
Wife of Sheninjee; Chief Hiokatoo "Big Lance", Seneca and Chief Sheinjee of the Lenape Delaware
Mother of Thomas "Teahdowaingqua" Jemison; John 'Hiokatoo' Jemison; Nancy Green; Betsey Green; Polly Shongo and 4 others
Sister of Robert Jemison; John Jemison; Thomas Jemison Jr; Betsey Jemison and Matthew Jemison

Also known as: De-ga-wa-nis
Managed by: Private User
Last Updated:

About Mary 'Deh-he-wä-mis' Jemison

Scots-Irish - adopted into the Delaware and the Seneca



https://nativeheritageproject.com/2013/05/21/mary-jemison-white-ind...
https://archive.org/details/diaryofmaryjemis00mary


Sheninjee married Mary in the Ohio country. He fell ill and died during their long trek to New York. See: http://womenshistory.about.com/library/etext/bl_nlmj03.htm
https://www.thoughtco.com/about-mary-jemison-3529396
https://www.thoughtco.com/narrative-of-mrs-mary-jemison-life-4050403
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"Legendary Colonial Frontierswoman. Known as "The White Woman of the Genesee." Born on the ship William and Mary en route from Northern Ireland to America, Mary was the daughter of Thomas and Jane Jemison. The family settled in Pennsylvania, near modern day Gettysburg. The French and Indian War shattered her world when, in the spring of 1758, a raiding party of Shawnee warriors and French soldiers raided the settlement. 15-year-old Mary and the rest of her family, except for two older brothers who managed to escape, were taken captive. En route to Fort Duquesne the captives were killed, but Mary and a young neighbor boy were spared. At the fort, Mary was sold to a party of Senecas. She was renamed De-Ge-Wa-Nis, or "Two Falling Voices", and taken down the Ohio River. Mary learned the ways of the Seneca, and was given in marrige to a Lenape (Delaware) brave named Sheninjee. In 1762 she gave birth to a son whom she named Thomas after her father. That summer, the couple began a remarkable walk of nearly 700 miles to the Genesee River valley, Sheninjee's homeland. Mary and her son arrived alone in the dead of winter, her husband having died during the journey. She was received with open arms by her husband's clan and settled to a happy life among the Seneca in Sehgehunda, or "Vale of the Three Falls". She married Seneca chief Hiokatoo, and she had six more children. In 1823 Mary gave an interview to a local doctor, and he published "The Life and Times of Mrs. Mary Jemison". When the Senecas gave up most of their Genesee Valley lands, Mary sold the two square miles left to her and moved to the Buffalo Creek reservation. She died there at the age of 90. When the reservation was closed and the burial ground there threatened, her grandchildren turned to William Pryor Letchworth, whose estate, Glen Iris, encompassed the land where Sehgehunda had been. He immediately invited them to bring Mary home. Her remains were placed in a new walnut coffin and taken back to the Genesee Valley. A full ceremony was held at the old Seneca council house, and she was laid to rest in March of 1874. Letchworth erected a granite marker, on top of which is a statue which he dedicated in 1910, after his estate had been incorporated into Letchworth State Park."
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/545/mary-jemison


https://www.historyandwomen.com/2010/01/mary-jemison-1743-1833.html

Born to Thomas and Jane Jemison aboard the ship William and Mary in the fall of 1743 while en route from Northern Ireland to America. Upon our arrival in America, the family joined other Irish American immigrants and headed west from Philadelphia, Pennsylvania to what was then the western frontier (now central Pennsylvania) and squatted on territory that was under the authority of the Iroquois Confederacy.

During the time the family was establishing their home, the French and Indian War was raging. One morning in 1755, a capturing party consisting of six Shawnee Indians and four Frenchmen captured all but the two older brothers, and Davy Wheelock a boy from another family.

On route to Fort Duquesne (where the Allegheny and Monongahela Rivers meet to create the Ohio River in modern-day Pittsburgh), the Jamison family were killed and scalped but Mary and Davy Wheelock were spared. Once the party reached the Fort, Mary was given to two Seneca Indians, who took her downriver. The Senecas adopted her, calling her Deh-he-wä-mis, which means - a pretty girl, a handsome girl, or a pleasant, good thing. She was later renamed "little woman of great courage" by the Indians

Mary married a Delaware named Sheninjee and had a son named Thomas after her father. Concerned that the end of the war would mean the return of captives, Sheninjee took his family on a 700-mile (1,100 km) journey to the Sehgahunda Valley along the Genesee River. Although Mary and her son reached this destination, Sheninjee did not. He had left in order to hunt, had taken ill and died.

Now a widow, Mary was taken in by Sheninjee's clan relatives and made her home at the Little Beard's Town (present-day Cuylerville, New York). She married a Seneca named Hiakatoo and had six more children.

Much of the land at Little Beard's Town was sold by the Senecas to white settlers in 1797. At that time, during negotiations with the Holland Land Company held at Genesee, New York, Mary proved to be an able negotiator for the Seneca tribe and helped win more favorable terms for giving up their rights to the land at the Treaty of Big Tree.

In 1823, most of the remainder of the land was sold, except for a 2-acre (8,100 m2) tract of land reserved for Mary's use. Known locally as the "White Woman of the Genesee", she lived on the tract until she sold it in 1831 and moved to the Buffalo Creek Reservation.

Mary lived the rest of her life with the people of the Seneca Nation until she died on September 19, 1833. She was initially buried on the Buffalo Creek Reservation, but in 1874 was reintered at William Pryor Letchworth's Glen Iris Estate (now Letchworth State Park in present day Castile, New York). A bronze statue of her, created in 1910, marks her grave.



1765
Mary is married to the Seneca Hiokatoo. "Hiokatoo was an old man when I first saw him; but he was by no means enervated. During the term of nearly fifty years that I lived with him, I received, according to Indian customs, all the kindness and attention that was my due as his wife...he uniformly treated me with tenderness, and never offered an insult...." -http://www.letchworthparkhistory.com/mjtimeline.html


GEDCOM Note

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mary_Jemison

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Mary 'Deh-he-wä-mis' Jemison's Timeline

1743
October 6, 1743
Aboard the ship William & Mary, Atlantic Ocean
1761
1761
Scioto, Ohio Territory, New France
1762
April 1762
Scioto, Ohio, New France
1763
1763
Canandaigua, New York, United States
1766
1766
Genesee Reserve, Livingston County, New York, United States
1773
May 1773
Genesee Reserve, Genesee County, New York
1775
May 1775
Genesee Reserve, Little Beard's Town, Genesee County, New York, United States
1779
1779
1782
1782