Laura (Ingersoll) Secord (1775 - 1868)

Ancestors Descendants

Biography

Laura Ingersoll Secord was a Canadian heroine of the War of 1812, famous for her twenty-mile walk through enemy lines to warn the British command of a pending American attack.

Born September 13, 1775 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Laura was the eldest daughter of Thomas Ingersoll and Elizabeth Dewey. Her family emigrated to Upper Canada (Ontario) after the American War of Independence and, as loyalists, obtained a land grant. About 1797, Laura married James Secord and in the years that followed they had six daughters and a son.

James worked as a merchant in Queenston. When the War of 1812 broke out, he served as a sergeant in the 1st Lincoln Militia and was wounded at the Battle of Queenston Heights. Laura rescued him from the battlefield and while he was recovering at home, she overheard some American officers talking of plans for a surprise attack on the British outpost at Beaver Dams (Thorold). With James unable to travel, she decided to go herself to warn the outpost. She walked 20 miles before she arrived at a camp of First Nations warriors who led her the rest of the way to Lieutenant James FitzGibbon's headquarters. After First Nations scouts confirmed Laura’s report, FitzGibbon’s small British force and a large number of Caughnawaga and Mohawk warriors ambushed the American troops at the Battle of Beaver Dams on June 24, 1813. Laura Secord was not mentioned in official reports of the battle. She was 85 before her heroism was widely acknowledged.^[1][2]

"Mrs. Katherine DeCou and her daughter, Catharine, did what they could to relieve the exhaustion of Laura Secord. Food was set before her, her bare and lacerated feet and limbs were bathed and bandaged and the shoes and stockings of the daughter, Catharine DeCou, replaced those lost in the woods and bog. Mrs. DeCou and her children were resolved to remain in their home until it should be actually assailed by the approaching foe, but Mrs. Secord was unequal to facing any additional trials of strength or courage that day, and she desired to be taken to the home of her friends, the Turneys, below the mountain, a mile or so distant. Her exhausted body was incapable of any further exertion, so a hammock was made by fastening a long blanket to a pole, two Indians took her light weight upon their shoulders and one of the DeCou boys ( probably the 12-year-old John Junior) walked beside, as guide and protector. So Laura Secord went to a place of comparative safety while the inmates of DeCou's house trembled at the boom of artillery, rolling through the woods and fields from the direction of the Beaverdams...." from Ernest Green's John DeCou, Pioneer" in Ontario Historical Society Papers and Records Vol. XXII, Toronto, 1925, p 101 as reported in ^[3]

After the war, James tried to make ends meet as best he could with various government appointments and a small pension awarded to wounded militiamen. He died in 1841. In the 1842 Census of Canada West, Laura is recorded as a widow living in a rented property in Chippawa, Willoughby Township, Niagara District.^[4]

Laura Secord's Chippawa home

The family had moved there from St. David's in 1835. Nine years later Laura was still living in Chippawa^[5] where she remained until her death in 1868.^[6] She was buried at Drummond Hill Cemetery, Niagara Falls, Ontario.^[7]

A number of Canadian schools have been named for Laura Secord. In 1992 Canada Post released a commemorative stamp and in 2003 she was declared a Person of National Historical Significance.^[8]

Sources

1. ↑ Ruth McKenzie, “Ingersoll, Laura,” in Dictionary of Canadian Biography, vol. 9, University of Toronto/Université Laval, 2003–, accessed May 3, 2014, http://www.biographi.ca/en/bio/ingersoll_laura_9E.html.
2. ↑ War of 1812 Website, entry for Laura Secord
3. ↑ McBride, Robert Collins. Captain John B. DeCou: Pioneer and Entrepreneur, Ontario Genealogy Society, Families Vol. 37, No. 4, 1998
4. ↑ Census of Canada West, 1842, Willoughby, Niagara
5. ↑ Library and Archives Canada - 1851 census (http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/1851/Pages/item.aspx?itemid=1264256)
6. ↑ Library and Archives Canada - 1861 census (http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/1861/Pages/item.aspx?itemid=2052834).
7. ↑ Find A Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 11 September 2019), memorial page for Laura Ingersoll Secord (13 Sep 1775–17 Oct 1868), Find A Grave: Memorial #7275749, citing Drummond Hill Cemetery, Niagara Falls, Niagara Regional Municipality, Ontario, Canada ; Maintained by Find A Grave .
8. ↑ Wikipedia entry for Laura Secord.