Laura Secord

Laura Secord was a Canadian heroine of the War of 1812. She is known for having walkedmiles out of Americanoccupied territory in 1813 to warn British forces of an impending American attack. Her contribution to the war was little known during her lifetime, but since her death she has been frequently honoured in Canada. Though Secord had no relation to it, most Canadians associate her with the Laura Secord Chocolates company, named after her on the centennial of her walk.

Thomas Ingersoll married the seventeenyearold Elizabeth Dewey onFebruary 1775. Their first child, Laura, was born in Great Barrington in the colonial Province of Massachusetts Bay onSeptember 1775. Thomass family had lived in Massachusetts for five generations. He was descended from Richard Ingersoll, who had arrived in Salem, Massachusetts, from Bedfordshire, England, in 1629. Thomas was born in 1749 in Westfield, Massachusetts. Elizabeth, daughter of Israel Dewey, was also born in Westfield, onJanuary 1758. Thomas moved to Great Barrington in 1774, where he settled into a house on a small piece of land by the Housatonic River. Over the next several years, his success as a hatmaker allowed him to increase his landholdings and expand his house as his family grew. He spent much time away from home, as he rose through the ranks in the military on the side of the American revolutionaries during the American Revolutionary War. Upon his return to Great Barrington, he was made a

Source: Wikipedia