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Mary (Unknown) Persinger (abt. 1718 - aft. 1756)

Mary Persinger formerly [surname unknown]
Born about [location unknown]
Daughter of [father unknown] and [mother unknown]
[sibling(s) unknown]
Wife of — married 1736 in Pennsylvaniamap
Descendants descendants
Mother of , , , , , , and
Died after after about age 38 in Colony of Virginiamap [uncertain]
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Profile last modified | Created 4 Jul 2017
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US Southern Colonies.
Mary (Unknown) Persinger resided in the Southern Colonies in North America before 1776.
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Contents

Biography

Mary (Unknown maiden name) was born about 1718, unknown where. She passed away sometime after mid-September 1756.

Mary and 2 of her children were kidnapped by the Shawnee Indians September 11–14, 1756 in a raid on Jackson's River[1]: "Mrs. Parsinger & 2 children, Jackson's River, prisoners." The Persingers and a few other families had fled to Covington, Virginia, from “the Greenbrier” {river?}[2][3][4]

A list compiled by a Colonel Henry Bouquet, commander at Fort Pitt, in November 1764[5] shows that a "Mary Pringer & two Children" were (or should have still been) captive of the Shawnee Indians. The names on this list compare closely with names on the above-mentioned list taken at the time of the kidnappings. It indicates that Mrs. Persinger's given name was Mary, and not Rebecca as commonly thought by family researchers.[6] Colonel Bouquet’s list indicates that the prisoners were likely kept at the “Lower Shawana Towns” [on the Scioto River].[7]

It’s unknown when or where Mary and her children died or were killed, but they never returned home.

Sources

  1. ↑ The Jackson River, where Mary and her children were kidnapped, flows from its headwaters at Callison, Virginia, south through Covington, then east to Iron Gate. The river starts about 10 miles south of Fort Dinwiddie. Google map, here: https://goo.gl/maps/NvGPw3kySuZxJnPu7
  2. ↑ Waddell’s "Indian Wars," p. 402, at JSTOR here: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4241848?seq=6
  3. ↑ ”Sewell, Persinger, and Swope, and probably two or three other families had fled [to] here [near Covington] from the Greenbrier”; Morton & Dunlap's “Centennial History”, p. 33–34, at Ancestry here: https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/10546/images/dvm_LocHist000197-00020-1
  4. ↑ Waddell’s “Annals of Augusta county,” p. 139, at Internet Archive here: https://archive.org/details/bub_gb_rZbEC1kEdpcC/page/139/mode/2up?q=parsinger
  5. ↑ Col. Henry Bouquet papers, v.18, p. 250, at Hathitrust here: https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.32106005503211&view=1up&seq=274
  6. ↑ Professional genealogist and Persinger descendant Linda Jonas has drafted the comparison, shown in her Ancestry tree here: https://www.ancestry.com/mediaui-viewer/collection/1030/tree/74790083/person/212200239798/media/847df5d4-2352-4625-b405-995418a13632
  7. ↑ Ohio History: “Lower Shawnee Town, here: https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Lower_Shawnee_Town

References

  • Botetourt Heritage Book Committee. The Botetourt County Virginia Heritage Book 1770-2000. Summersville, WV: Wadsworth, 2001. See page 189.
  • Bouquet, Henry. The papers of Col. Henry Bouquet (25 volumes). Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: Department of Public Instruction, Pennsylvania Historical Commission, 1940–1943. Series at Hathitrust, here: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/001262955
  • Waddell, Joseph A. “Indian Wars in Augusta County, Virginia,” in Virginia Magazine of History and Biography, April 1895, Vol. 2, No. 4, pp. 392–404. Material is from the Draper Collection. Article found at JSTOR here: https://www.jstor.org/stable/4241848

Acknowledgements

  • WikiTree profile UNKNOWN-122687 created through the import of Watson Family Tree Large.ged on Oct 21, 2011 by Jonathan Watson. See the Changes page for the details of edits by Jonathan and others.




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DNA Connections
It may be possible to confirm family relationships with Mary by comparing test results with other carriers of her mitochondrial DNA. However, there are no known mtDNA test-takers in her direct maternal line. It is likely that these autosomal DNA test-takers will share some percentage of DNA with Mary:

Have you taken a DNA test? If so, login to add it. If not, see our friends at Ancestry DNA.



Comments: 6

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Bright-1984 Billie (Bright) Keaffaber
Hi has anyone ever went into the Pershinger Journeals for information

https://sah-archipedia.org/buildings/VA-02-AL16

https://www.genealogy.com/forum/surnames/topics/persinger/775/

These people might be able to help. https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100064383171380&mibextid=LQQJ4d

https://www.dhr.virginia.gov/historic-registers/003-0018/

Billie

posted by Billie (Bright) Keaffaber
edited by Billie (Bright) Keaffaber
Kast-241 Linda Kast
Has anyone seen evidence that her name is Rebecca? I have seen a pretty well-reasoned argument that her given name is Mary. In the Glassburn genealogy (David Glassburn — Virginia Pioneer, His Ten Children & Related Families), pp. 117–119, author Oma Glasburn Robinson writes:

"In 'The Papers of Col. Henry Bouquet' published by the Pennsylvania Historical Commission, (Harrisburg, 1943) on p. 250, there is 'A list of prisoners at the Lower Shawana Towns,' which includes a 'Mary Pringers and two children.' I have checked the indices of the books of the early records of Augusta County and find no Pringers. Since all of those pioneer records were in handwriting and easily misinterpreted, this name given as Pringer was, I believe, Persinger.

"In the first place, there is such a similarity—the first letter is identical and the last five are identical. The small letter 'r' in early writing was one of the most difficult to be interpreted, for it was made with a varied number of curves—sometimes almost none, sometimes with one or sometimes with two or three.

"In the second place, and this is the most likely explanation—in the early days when writing was a tedious task, it was the custom to use the apostrophe to shorten words. This was especially done after the letter 'p,' and meant 'par' or 'per'. For example, p’ty = party; p’annum = per annum; p’form = perform. So in all probability this is what happened in the Henry Bouquet manuscript, the word 'Persinger' being written with the 'P' followed by an apostrophe, thus: P’singer. But the 's' has been misread as an 'r' and the apostrophe has been ignored altogether. Hence, we have Pringer instead of Persinger for which it was intended.

"In the third place, all known facts surrounding the story are identical: The time of her disappearance, her being accompanied by two children, and being taken by the Shawnee Indians. Therefore this 'Mary Pringer' mentioned in the records of Henry Bouquet is beyond question Mary Persinger, the first wife of the Immigrant, Jacob Persinger. Tradition always mentioned her just as 'Mrs. Persinger,' never giving her first name, but this excerpt from Henry Bouquet, whose records are the most authoritative in existence concerning those early Indian raids, lets us know beyond doubt that her first name was Mary. Her last name (her maiden name) will probably never be known since so many early records have been destroyed, but her first name, Mary, will always be of keen interest to her many descendants. The probabilities are very great that my grandmother, Mary (Persinger) Glasburn, was named for her, since she was the oldest daughter of Andrew Persinger who was well acquainted with the family story of his grandmother having been carried away by the Indians."

posted by Linda Kast
edited by Linda Kast
Ken Spratlin
US Southern Colonies Project Managed Profiles Team adding PMP/PPP—frequently duplicated. Please continue to manage normally.
posted by Ken Spratlin
Smith-32867 Jillaine Smith
1716 seems too early for Botetourt. Wikipedia says the county wasn't formed until 1770. Therefore, I doubt Rebecca was born there...
posted by Jillaine Smith
Kast-241 Linda Kast
Yeah, I also don't think she was born in Virginia and married in Pennsylvania. My theory is that she was a German or Swiss immigrant like her husband was, and they married in Pennsylvania before heading to Virginia.
posted by Linda Kast
edited by Linda Kast
Smith-32867 Jillaine Smith
UNKNOWN-122687 and Unknown-376035 appear to represent the same person because: Same wife of Jacob persinger; same death year (or close)
posted by Jillaine Smith

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