Laura Secord :: essays research papers

Laura Secord was originally an American. She was born in Massachusetts on September 13, 1775. Her father was Thomas Ingersoll. He was a major in the American army. They were well known because Laura's father was a clever man. In her family there were inventors, mechanics, merchants, magistrates, teachers and soldiers. Laura had three sisters. When she was eight her mother had died and her father had gone off to war, so Laura had to look after them. After two years or so Laura's father married someone else. A month later she got ill and died. Three years later he remarried a woman named Sarah Whiting. After Thomas Ingersoll became a young Republican and saw excessive violence in Massachusetts, he moved his family to Upper Canada. When Laura was eighteen they moved again to Bustling Port, which is near the Niagara River below the falls. After Laura had moved there she met a young man named James Secord. After dating for a long period of time, James asked Laura to marry him. They married in 1797 at the Church of England. They were very wealthy. Laura was a big help to James in his business since she came from such an affluent family. By 1812, the Secord's had five children, two servants, a small pleasant house and a wealthy store. When they first got married, they lived in St. Davids and after being married for a while they moved to Queenston. Laura did not work but James was a Merchant. Life was good for Laura, James and their family, and it seemed the future held nothing but happiness. On June 18, 1812, war was officially declared. It was Great Britain with the Native Americans against the United States. Queenston and Niagara Falls were long awaiting the attack of the US forces from across the Niagara River. James had already left to fight in the battle in which Sir Isaac Brock was killed. After Laura found out that her husband was missing, she went to Queenston Heights to search among the dead and wounded. James was there with gunshot wounds to his knee and shoulder. After his wounds were dressed, enemy soldiers demanded food and stay at the Secord homestead. The Niagara Peninsula became a hostile territory. Lieutenant James FitzGibbon's special force of fifty men and one hundred and fifty Indians were stationed at Fort George, the present-day Niagara-On-The-Lake.