Portal:Indian Captivity Stories/Mary Walker Cowan

MARY WALKER COWAN

There is another set of stories that is sometimes cited as representing these same events, but in fact seems to be presenting an entirely different story. This story is probably most widely known through the letters of JB Cowan. This story is summarized as follows.


 * Indians attacked the homestead of Major John Cowan probably in Blount County TN in the late 1700's or early 1800's
 * Major Cowan was killed
 * His wife Mary Walker, and son James were captured
 * They were separated and taken away by different groups of Indians who had combined for the raid.
 * James was released/gained his freedom within a year or so of capture,
 * Mary was carried north, where she escaped after a captivity of 7 years.
 * A large party of mounted riders went north to "the French Fort" to prevent her from being recaptured, and brought her home

There are obvious similarities between this story, and the Ann Cowan captivity story. In both cases the wife is captured, while the husband is killed (in Ann's case, that was a separate event; in Mary's case, the killing of her husband occurred at the same time as her capture.) In both cases, the woman's maiden name was "Walker". In both cases a young male is also captured, (nephew William in Ann's case, and son James in Mary's case). In both cases they are carried off together, but split up because the radiing party consisted of two separate groups. In both cases the woman is carried north, where she remains a captive for several years before her release/escape.

Given these similarities it is not surprizing that the two stories have come to be intertwinned and confused. The most notable example of this is in Flemings 1971 work "The Cowans of County Down". In this work Fleming assumes that there were indeed two separate events. In his accounting he identifies "Major John" as the son of Samuel Cowan and Ann Walker. Mary Walker, John's wife is identified as his cousin. Neither of these "facts" appears to be true.


 * Samuel Cowan=Ann Walker did have a son John. His history is not clear.  There is a person commonly identified as Major John Cowan, whose first wife was a Mary, but her surname was Adams not Walker.  She is said to have died in 1779, and Major John remarried in 1788 to an Agnes Martin;  both John and Agnes lived to old age, and were decidedly NOT killed by Indians.  In any event, the John Cowan who married Mary Adams would have been too old to have been John son of Samuel and Ann.

The fact that Flemming identifies Mary Walker as a cousin of Major John, also works against this story. If Mary were indeed a Walker, and Major John's cousin, then we would assume that this meant that she was the daughter of one of Ann's brothers. Ann had two brothers: Samuel and John Walker IV. Samuel was killed during the same raid in which Ann Walker Cowan and William Walker were carried into captivity. He is known to have died without heirs, and presumably unmarried, which means he probably did not have a daugher Mary. John Walker IV did in fact have a daughter Mary, but she is known to have married a George Snider, and there seems to no evidence that she was ever carried into captivity.