Cuyahoga Falls Chapter, D.A.R.

A report to the Cuyahoga Falls Chapter, D.A.R., June 1934 by Mrs. J. B. McPherson.
The story of Mary Campbell has been known for many many years. The President of the Summit County Historical Society, Mr. Stephen Gladwin, has been acquainted with the story, according to his own words, for sixty years. An aged member of the Stow family has known it all his life.
The story seems to have been first put down in print by Perrin, in 1881, and Cherry in 1911, Penn in his “Summit County History”, and Cherry in his “Portage Path”. It is indeed unfortunate that Mr. Cherry cannot remember where he obtained his detail. Mr. Cherry tells the story very prettily in his “Portage Path”, a copy of which is in the Falls Library and the Akron Public Library. According to his version, following an Indian raid in Pennsylvania, The Turtle Tribe of the Delaware Indians, under Chief Netawatees, carried away certain persons, including Mary Campbell, then a young girl of twelve years, together with a Mrs. Stewart and her baby. Mrs. Stewart’s baby was killed during the flight. This event occurred in 1759, and the Indians that same year were forced to leave their usual haunts, and were compelled to take refuge elsewhere against the steadily increasing pressure being brought to bear on them by the expansion of white civilization. They settled here in Cuyahoga Falls and built a village above the Great Falls of the Cuyahoga. Mary Campbell and Mrs. Stewart were brought with the Indians on this migration, suffering the usual hardships of Indian travel; and on their arrival here the two white captives, together with the Indian women, lived temporarily in the large cave immediately above the Great Falls, now concealed by the Ohio Edison Dam. Thus Mary Campbell became the first white child resident on the Western Reserve.
Here, Mary lived, and played, and worked, and grew, until 1764. She was kindly treated by the Indians and showed some reluctance at being returned to her family by the British troops under Bouquet, who came here in that year to establish the English claim to this territory, and to properly impress the Indians with the dignity of the British throne. Mary Campbell and Mrs. Stewart, however, were returned to their people, and Mary ultimately became Mrs. Joseph Willford. some of her descendants came to Wayne County, Ohio.
This legend has been repeated and re-told so ninny times, and for so many years, in Summit County, that its truth was never questioned.
In 1930, the Falls Society of the Children of the American Revolution was formed. Mrs. Ruth Evans was the leading spirit in the formation of this Society, and in casting about for a name, quite naturally and properly, chose to call it after the heroine of the well know Mary Campbell legend; thus, the local organization became the Mary Campbell Society, of the Children of the American Revolution.
Early in the 1933-34 regime, the children of the Society sought a worth-while project to claim their efforts for the year, and the perpetuation of the name of Mary Campbell, through the placing of a bronze tablet at the Mary Campbell cave, telling the story of her adventure, and advertising her as the first white child on the Western Reserve, was selected. You will note that the cave is now, and probably will henceforth, be known as Mary Campbell’s Cave, rather than the Old Maid’s Kitchen.
The Congressional Library states that the Bouquet papers, in Add. MSS .21655, near the end of the volume, there is a “List of Prisoners going to Fort Pitt under the command of Capt. Lewis, November 15, 1764,” in which the second name entered in the column, devoted to female captives is “Mary Campbell”, without any additional word relating to her. The Maryland Gazette, published Thursday, January 31, 1765, (#1030), a list of Pennsylvanians, females and children, delivered to Colonel Bouquet by the Mingoes, Delawares, Shawnees, Wyondots, and Mohicans, at Tuscarawas and Muskingham, In November, 1764, which includes the name of Mary Campbell and Mrs. Stewart. This proves that Mary Campbell existed, and confirms the legend both as to year, and as to her fellow captive, Mrs. Stewart (probably mis-spelled in the legend).
The Ohio State Archaeological and Historical Society finds a description of this return of prisoners with Mary Campbell’s name included on Page 387 of Chas. A Hanna’s “Wilderness Trail”, N.Y G.P. Putnam’s Sons, 1911, Vol #2. Our own State Historical Society also confirms, as mentioned in the legend, that the Turtle Tribe of the Delaware were here at that period; this they found in the Smithsonian Institution, Bureau of American Ethnology, Bulletin #30, Part 2, Page 58, which states in the sketch of Netawatwees (mentioned in the legend) that the Turtle Tribe of the Delaware “were forced to leave Pennsylvania and retire to Ohio where they settled on the Cayuga River”. Our own State Historical Society also states that John Geckwelder’s “A Narrative of the Mission of the United Brethren Among the Delaware and Mohegan Indians, Page 230, in a sketch of Netawatwees, “he settled, by advice of the Wyandots, on the Cayahaga (Cuyahoga) River, leaving the Big Beaver and Muskingum for those of his people who should come into the country later.”
The New York Public Library tells us that Jas. H. Kennedy, in “The History of the City of Cleveland”, 1896, Page 9, was that about 1756 a white girl named Mary Campbell passed five years in captivity by the Indians near Cuyahoga Falls, not far from the site of Akron. The sources mentioned up to now prove that there was a Mary Campbell, and a Mrs. Stewart, that she was returned by the British Army to her people in 1764, and that the Turtle Tribe of the Delaware Indians were here at that time, all of which is detailed in the printed legend.
As a result of the printing of this story in the “Carlisle Sentinel”, Mary A. Bobb, of Carlisle, Pa., apparently spent a great deal of time in investigating her local sources of information, particularly in the Hamilton Library, of Carlisle, Pa. There, she discovered a volume what was apparently a genealogical exchange, known as Egle’s “Notes and Queries”. In this publication, Series #3, Volume#3, Page 163, published by the Garrisburgh Publishing Company, Harrisburgh, Pa. 1896, appears the following query, which I quote in part:
“Wilford-Campbell”
‘The following query comes to us from Minnesota.’
“** **My Great Grandfather, Joseph Willford***married Mary Campbell in Bucks County
My Great Grandmother, Mary Campbell was, with other children***captured by the
Indians; a portion of the children were killed, but the life of Mary Campbell was spared. She was held captive by the Indians seven years and taken from them at Chillicothe, or Newcomerstown by the Provincial Troops. She was fourteen years of age. She had brothers***Daniel and William. William***died at the residence of his sister Mary Campbell’s oldest son in Wayne County, Ohio***Part of this family, in 1815, migrated to Wayne County, Ohio.”
Although this publication does not give the name of the writer of this letter, it proves the existence of some one who acknowledges Mary Campbell as theirs far removed from Summit County, where the legend was common property. Through the publicity given us by the “Wooster Record”, we learned, through Mr. W. H. Long, of Orville, Ohio, of Near-by Descendants of Mary Campbell and Joseph Willford, and he remembers that the young Willfords were called “Mohawks”. He states that William Campbell, Mary Campbell’s brother, is buried on the Wilford farm. Through contacts directly resulting from the Wooster publicity, I have heard from Mr. Samuel Walter, of Kensington, Kan., who states that he is a descendant of Mary Campbell and Joseph Willford; and he remembers his mother telling the children many times about her grandmother being kidnapped by the Indians, and being held captive two years. Mr. 1. W. Willford is the father of Ward A. Willford, who was killed in the Spanish American War, and after whom the Ward A. Wilford Camp, of the Spanish American War Veterans was named. Mr. Joseph A. Willford, of 151 Westwood Ave., Akron, Ohio, is also directly descended, he being the third “Joseph” Wil]ford. Mrs. Sarah E. Longace, of Wadsworth, Ohio, is the sister of John Willford and Joseph Willford. Mrs. W. W. Miler is also related. We hope that the unveiling of this monument will be done by Richard Willford, Child, twelve years old, of Noble Ave., Akron, and a great-great-grandson of Mary Campbell. Mrs. Pearl Steele of Portland, Oregon, and F.F Geddis of Marshalltown, Ohio, also acknowledge descent from Mary Campbell.
From these descendants, we have very positive proof of the existence of the story through family legend, and they confirm the marriage of Mary Campbell to Joseph Willford, all of which is in the legend; and they also confirm the service of the second Joseph Wilford in the Ohio State Legislature, which is also in Cherry’s version.
Mr. H. S. Wagner, of the Akron Metropolitan Park Board, has a photostat copy of an ancient treaty map, which shows an Indian trail passing right by the entrance of the cave, at which our tablet will be erected. One of the signatories of this treaty being unable to write, affixed his signature of a Turtle; and it was the Turtle Tribe, of the Delaware Indians, that did the kidnapping.
The only two possible points of dispute now remaining, are Mary Campbell’s exact age, and her actual occupation of the cave. It is positive that she was a child and it is quite likely that she did occupy the cave while the village was being built immediately above it.

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