NKyTribune staff
The woman whose statue guards the entrance to the Boone County Public Library main branch in Burlington will soon have a similar representation on display in Radford, Virginia.
Mary Draper Ingles was a strong, courageous woman best-known for escaping from American Indian captivity at Big Bone Lick in Boone County.
The 1700s colonial heroine will soon have a sculpture erected in her honor on a point just above one of the rivers that played a major role in her grueling journey back home to Virginia’s New River Valley.
An 8-foot-tall bronze statue of Ingles, created by artist Matt Langford, will be unveiled and dedicated on Friday, Oct. 21 at the Glencoe Museum & Gallery Grounds in Radford, Virginia.
Ceremonies begin at 2 p.m. as part of Mary Draper Ingles Weekend.
“She’s a woman who showed undeniable determination and remarkable skill and physicality to escape and trek her way back home, and the story continues to capture interest more than 260 years later,” says Deborah Cooney, director of tourism for the City of Radford.
The result of that interest has included a “New York Times” bestseller, numerous other books and articles, a long-running outdoor drama, a couple of movies and documentaries and even a song on YouTube.
Most of what is known about Ingles comes from a narrative account of the Ingles family written by Mary’s son, Colonel John Ingles.
Mary Draper Ingles lived with her husband in a place called Draper’s Meadows, a small settlement of ten people in August County, Virginia. On Wednesday, July 30, 1755, the Shawnee attacked Draper’s Meadow.
Ingles was taken prisoner along with her two sons, Thomas and George. Her husband was away at the time and was not captured.
The Shawnee headed for the Ohio River and the Shawnee town of Sonnontio.
When they reached the town, the two boys were taken from Ingles and adopted into the tribe. Ingles was taken to Big Bone Lick, more than 100 miles further west, to help make salt.
Sometime in October, she decided to escape.
Because the prisoners were allowed to roam the camp at will, Ingles and another woman simply left camp taking with them two blankets and two tomahawks.
After four or five days, the women reached the junction of the Ohio and Licking Rivers, near present-day Cincinnati. There they found an abandoned cabin, which contained a supply of corn.
According to the narrative, when the corn ran out, they survived on “black walnuts, grapes, pawpaws, etc.”
The women crossed at least 145 creeks and rivers and traveled five to six hundred miles. They separated near the end of the journey and Ingles arrived home on or about December 1, 1755.
She reunited with her husband and had four more children before she died in 1815 at the age of 83.
The Ingles statue at the Boone County Public Library is the source of much discussion, especially among children.
Library staff members say kids are really concerned about her in the winter and they worry about her bare feet being cold.
A lot of them also comment on the size of her feet and they want to know if the real Mary Ingles had feet that big.
Most often, however, people ask who she is and then want to know if the library has a book about her.
The library has several books about Ingles, the most popular of which is probably the historical novel, Follow the River, by James Alexander Thom.
Thom will be among several authors on hand at the dedication ceremony in Radford.
The Radford Tourism Commission and the Radford Heritage Foundation raised $75,000 to place the statue on land donated by Norfolk Southern Corp.
“Mr. Langford has created an elegant bronze sculpture, which will be the second placed along the trail back home,” Cooney said.
The Mary Draper Ingles sculpture at the Boone County Public Library was created by Matthew Scott Langford.
Largely self-taught, Langford has been a professional sculptor since 1991.
He lives in Union, with his wife and two daughters, in an antebellum log cabin, not far from the site of Mary Ingles’ escape.
The Boone County Public Library provided historical information for this story