Mary Jemison was taken as a captive by a band of Seneca Indians at March Creek, Pennsylvania in 1776. She was carried down the Ohio River where she was adopted into a Seneca Indian family. In 1759 she moved with the Senecas to the Genesee River Country. She was aged 91 years when she died, Sept. 13, 1833. When offered her freedom, this white woman refused, preferring to live and die with her Seneca People. On one occasion she said, that the life of the old time Indian, before he was given liquor and crowded by the white man, was the happiest life known. She defended her adopted people on many occasions and preferred to be an Iroquois to the end.
Over her grave is an impressive monument. It bears the inscription: “To the memory or Mary Jemison, whose home during more than 70 years of a life of strange vicissitude was among the Senecas upon the banks of this river and whose history inseparably connected with that of this valley has caused her to be known as the white woman of the Genesee. Her bones lie beneath this monument.”
Near her grave the warriors saw an ancient Seneca Indian Long House.