This is a memorial to Mary Draper Ingles (1732-1815) that is located in the West End Cemetery in Radford, Virginia. She was my fifth-great grandmother, wife of William Ingles.  She is also one of the ancestors that I grew up hearing about from my relatives.  My grandmother and her sister were both named after her (Janet Ingles and Mary Draper).  

Mary and her husband and several other people were early settlers in a place called Drapers Meadow (near the present location of Virginia Tech).  In July 1755, Shawnee Indians raided Mary's settlement, killed several residents, and took Mary and others with them as hostages.  This action was part of the French & Indian Wars. Mary's husband & brother were working in the fields at the time of the attack and escaped injury and capture.

The Indians traveled up the New River to a village that was in present day Ohio.  Her two sons were taken from her and given to Indian families. Eventually, Mary escaped and walked back to Virginia where she rejoined her husband. 

Mary & William had more children after her return, one of which is my fourth-great grandfather John Ingles.  She told her story to her children and, after her death, her son John documented her story in writing.  The original manuscript is now in the University of Virginia Library.  I have not seen the original but I own a copy of a transcript of it.  Also, the story was in the 4th grade Virginia history books when I was in the 4th grade.  That was cool to study my own ancestor!  

Mary's story was turned into historical fiction in James Alexander Thom's Follow the River (1981),  into an ABC television movie Follow the River (1995), and another movie called The Captives (2004).  There is a Mary Draper Ingles bridge on I-64 west of I-81.  And there is a Mary Draper Ingles Trail in West Virginia.  And there may be other remembrances of her elsewhere.  On the Virginia Tech campus near the duck pond is a memorial to the Drapers Meadow massacre.