Mary E. McDowell

Mary E. McDowell

Female 1711 - 1815  (104 years)

Personal Information    |    Notes    |    Sources    |    All    |    PDF

  • Name Mary E. McDowell  [1
    Birth 1711 
    Gender Female 
    Death 1815 
    Siblings 3 Siblings 
    Person ID I14629  Main Tree
    Last Modified 6 Feb 2018 

    Father Ephriam McDowell 
    Marriage Y  [1
    • Historic Families of KY, 1889

      ??in the deposition of Mrs. Mary E. Greenlee, the daughter of Ephraim, her father, her brother John, her husband, and herself, are designated as composing the party emigrating to Virginia from Pennsylvania, and no mention is anywhere made of her mother, Mr. Foote is probably in error ; and the uniform tradition of the family is more likely to
      be correct?that the wife of Ephraim McDowell died in Ireland, and that John McDowell had never been married
      until he came to America. The exact date of his arrival in Pennsylvania is not known. The journal of Charles Clinton?the founder of the historic family of that name in New York?gives an account of his voyage from the county of Longford, in the good ship George and Ann, in company with the "John of Dublin," having many McDowells aboard as his fellow passengers. The " George and Ann" set sail on the 9th of May, 1729. On the 8th of June, a child of James McDowell died, and was thrown overboard ; several other children of the same afterward died ; also a John McDowell, and the sister, brother and wife of Andrew McDowell. The ship reached land, on the coast of Pennsylvania, on the 4th day of September, 1729. Whether or not the cononjecture that Ephraim McDowell was a passenger with his kindred on board this ship at that time is correct, it is certain that about the same time he and his family, and numerous other McDowells, Irvines, Campbells, McElroys, and Mitchells, came over together, and settled in the same Pennsylvania county.

      In 1737 the family moved from Pennsylvania to Sewell's Creek and eventually to Rockbridge Co., not far from the current Lexington.
      The families entered into an agreement with Burden in exchange for acerage and drew families to also settle, including names such as McClung, McCue, McCown, McElroy, McKee, McCampbell, McPheeters, Campbell, Stuart, Paxton, Lyle, Irvine, Caldwell, Calhonn, Alexander, Cloyd.


      Y
    Family ID F5273  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

    Family James Greenlee 
    Children 
     1. Grizel Greenlee
     2. John Greenlee,   b. 1738   d. Yes, date unknown
     3. James Greenlee,   b. 1740   d. Yes, date unknown
    Last Modified 5 Mar 2011 
    Family ID F5289  Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  • Notes 
    • A woman so remarkable for her intelligence, uncommon sense, unusual strength of character, and great physical endurance that, as tradition reports, the superstitions of her Scotch-Irish neighbors were not without misgivings that her life was lenengthened to the 104 years allotted to her by the powers of witchcraft. It was a deposition taken from her in 1806, when she was 95, that provided the details of the journey through the roadless wilderness into a region then unpeopled and almosost unknown, when Burden approached the parth. And she was the first white woman within "Burden's Grant." She was believed to be in possion of miraculous powers. She aided in redeeming the valley from the Indians, helped to fit out the soldiers of the French & Indian war, made clothing for the heroes of the Revolution.

  • Sources 
    1. [S51] Thomas Marshall Green, Historic Families of Kentucky, (Cincinnati, Ohip: Robert Clarke & Co., 1889.).