Mary Campbell was kidnapped
from her home at Penn's Creek near the banks of the Susquehanna River in
Snyder County, Pennsylvania. That same summer, the British sent the few
Delaware Indians that were still living in the eastern woodlands westward
into the Ohio wilderness. Mary Campbell and neighbor, Mrs. Stewart went
with them as their prisoners. Mary did live in the cave at Cuyahoga Falls,
Ohio that first winter and it is now called Mary Campbell Cave. In real
life Mary did see the Campbell's again. In 1764 the British ordered all
white captives on the western frontier to return to Fort Pitt. In November
of that year a Swiss mercenary named Lt. Col. Henry Bouquet collected
captives on the Tuscawaras River and escorted them to the fort. One
historian said that on the Tuscawaras, Netawatees "wept as he handed Mary
to the commanding officer." In the spring of 1765 some 356 captives were
reunited with their long lost families at Fort Pitt. Almost six years
after her capture, Mary was met by her mother and brother, Dougal
Campbell. Mary was said to be somewhat reluctant at being returned to her
family, but she returned to Penn's Creek, Pennsylvania and later married a
man named Joseph Willford. She had twelve children. In 1778 White Eyes who
was a sachem in his own right, was killed by a seventeen year old
frontiersman named Lewis Wentzel. After the Revolutionary War, the British
lost the Ohio Valley and George Washington opened the area for American
settlers. One of the first settlers was Mary's oldest son. Mary Campbell
Willford died in 1801, two years before Ohio was admitted into the Union
as the seventeenth state. Her descendants still live in Wayne County,
Ohio. The Indian tribes were pushed further west into what is now Indiana.
The only surviving Delawares now reside in Anadarko, Oklahoma.