At least five captives taken during raids on American pioneer settlements are known to have lived in or visited Lower Shawneetown . Catherine Gougar ( 1732 – 1801 ) was kidnapped in 1744 from her home in Berks County , Pennsylvania and lived in the town for five years . She was eventually sold to French-Canadian traders and after two more years in Canada , managed to return home in 1751 . Mary Draper Ingles ( 1732 – 1815 ) was kidnapped during the Draper 's Meadow massacre in July 1755 and taken to Lower Shawneetown . French traders were living in the town at that time , selling cloth , and Ingles demonstrated her skill in sewing shirts , for which she was paid " in goods . " She stayed in the town for about three weeks before being taken to Big Bone Lick to make salt by boiling brine . She and another captive escaped in mid-October , 1755 , and walked several hundred miles to return home . An article in the '' New-York Mercury '' of 16 February , 1756 , describing Mary 's capture and escape mentions that , while in Lower Shawneetown , she saw " a considerable Number of English Prisoners , who have been taken Captives from the Frontiers of Virginia . " The same newspaper article states that she saw Captain Samuel Stalnaker , who had been captured during a raid on Holston River in Tennessee on June 18 , 1755 . A letter from Governor Robert Dinwiddie dated 21 June , 1756 , reports that he later escaped , although no details are given
Draper 's Meadow massacre
Draper's Meadow massacre
Lower Shawneetown