White Woman of the Genesee

— Letchworth State Park —

Mary Jemison (1743-1833) was born during a voyage from Ireland to the United States [sic]. Captured during the French and Indian War, she was adopted into the Seneca Nation and chose to remain a Seneca, marrying and raising a family in the Genesee Valley. Following the Revolutionary War, Mary was awarded a large reservation at the Gardeau Flats, located in what is now the central part of Letchworth State Park. She lived there until 1831, when she moved to Buffalo Creek Reservation. She died in 1833 and was buried on the reservation. In 1874, William Pryor Letchworth brought her remains back to the Genesee Valley where she had spent most of her life.



Wyoming County artist Carlos Stebbins created this portrait of Mary Jemison based on descriptions provided by her contemporaries. Courtesy of the Wyoming Historical Pioneer Association.



After the Buffalo Creek Reservation was sold and the cemetery was unprotected from vandals, pieces of Mary's gravestone were broken off and taken as souvenirs. Concerned, several of Mary Jemison's grandsons contacted Letchworth and asked his help preserving her grave. Letchworth had her remains moved here to the Council Grounds and placed in a new casket inside a stone sarcophagus.



Letchworth had Mary Jemison's gravestone installed in 1874, when he moved her remains here to the Council Grounds. Arond 1880, he had the gravestone placed in a case and relocated to the Nancy Jemison cabin. It was moved to the William Pryor Letchworth Museum in 1979, where it remains on display today.



Letchworth had a marble monument placed at Mary's grave site soon after her reburial at the Council Grounds in 1874. In 1910, the monument became the base for a seven-foot-high bronze statue of Mary jemison, designed by Henry K. Bush-Brown. The statue depicts Mary as a young woman carrying her first child, Thomas, on her journey between Ohio and the Genesee Valley, which she made her home.



The unveiling of the bronze statue of Mary Jemison occurred only weeks before Letchworth's death in 1910. In this photograph of the event, Mr. Charles D. Wail, a professor from Hobart College, Geneva, NY, addresses the group. To his left, seated at the table is Mr. Charles Dow, Chairman, Letchworth Park Committee of the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society. Caroline Bishop, Letchworth's secretary, is visable just to the right of the speaker. Letchworth is seated fourth from the right and Henry Hagaman Hall, Secretary of the American Scenic and Historic Preservation Society, and Dr. Edward Kunz, President of the society, are seated at the far right of the photograph.



Thomas Jemison and James Shongo were grandsons of Mary Jemison. They attended "The Last Council Fire" in 1872.



To learn more about Mary Jemison, visit the William Pryor Letchworth Museum.

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Welcome to the Seneca Council Grounds
The Council Grounds Ca. 1907...and Under Restoration
Nancy Jemison Log Cabin
To the Memory of Mary Jemison
This Ancient Seneca Council House
In Grateful Memory of William Pryor Letchworth
Genesee Valley Canal
Seh-Ga-Hun-Da
Hornby Lodge
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