Statue of Mary Jemison
It is fitting that beautiful Letchworth State Park, which stretches over 17 miles of Livingston and Wyoming Counties, is the final resting place of Mary Jemison, the White Woman of the Genesee.
As a young woman, she took a Delaware husband named Sheninjee and gave birth to a daughter who died in infancy, followed by a son she named Thomas, after her father. In the 700 mile trek from their home in Ohio to the banks of the Genesee river, her first husband died. The widow was taken in by her husband’s family, and she eventually remarried a Seneca named Hiakatoo, giving birth to six more children.
Mary Jemison's House
After the Revolutionary War broke out, and as settlers began to take more and more of the land that was once home to the Native American, life became increasingly difficult for Mary’s adopted people. Through negotiations at the Treaty of Big Tree, Mary was instrumental in helping safeguard almost 18,000 acres of land known as the Gardeau Reservation.
In 1874, after being contacted by her grandchildren, William P. Letchworth invited them to bring Mary’s remains “back home” to his Glen Iris estate on the banks of the Genesee. In 1910, he mounted a bronze statue atop the granite marker erected on the site in tribute to “the White Woman of the Genesee.”
Seneca Council House
Today, on a bluff above the Middle Falls, visitors can find her marker and statue next to an original cabin built by Mary Jemison for her daughter Nancy. Across the grove is the 50′ x 20′ Revolutionary War-era Seneca Council House, discovered in Canadea, NY, preserved by Willaim Letchworth and moved to its current location in 1871.
CLICK HERE for a map of the park. Mary’s statue and the Council House are nearest the Castile Entrance.