42 Facts About Laura Secord

Laura Secord was a Canadian heroine of the War of 1812.

Laura Secord is known for having walked 20 miles out of American-occupied territory in 1813 to warn British forces of an impending American attack.

Shortly after, Laura married Loyalist James Secord, who was later seriously wounded at the Battle of Queenston Heights early in the War of 1812.

The story of Laura Secord has taken on mythic overtones in Canada.

Laura Secord's tale has been the subject of books, plays, and poetry, often with many embellishments.

Laura Secord 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.

Laura Secord has been credited with teaching her stepdaughters to read and do needlework before her death from tuberculosis in 1789.

Laura Secord realized that in the depressed economic conditions that followed the Revolutionary War, and with his own deep debts, he was unlikely to see his former prosperity again.

The Laura Secord family originated in France, where the name was spelled D'Secor or Sicar.

The Laura Secord couple lived in a house built in St Davids, the first floor of which was a shop.

Laura Secord gave birth to her first child, Mary, in St Davids in 1799.

James Laura Secord served in the 1st Lincoln Militia under Isaac Brock when the War of 1812 broke out.

Laura Secord was among those who helped carry away Brock's body after Brock was killed in the first attack of the Battle of Queenston Heights in October 1812.

Laura Secord heard of his predicament and rushed to his side.

Laura Secord begged them to save her husband's life, reportedly offering her own in return, when American Captain John E Wool happened upon the situation and reprimanded the soldiers.

Men of military age were sent as prisoners to the US, though the still-recuperating James Laura Secord was not among them.

Laura Secord reportedly walked 20 miles from present-day Queenston through St Davids, Homer, Shipman's Corners and Short Hills at the Niagara Escarpment before she arrived at the camp of allied Mohawk warriors, who led her the rest of the way to FitzGibbon's headquarters at the DeCew House.

The Secords' sixth child, Laura Anne, was born in October 1815, and their last child, Hannah, was born in 1817.

Laura Secord asked her to be in charge of the yet-to-be-completed Brock's Monument.

When Brock's Monument opened in 1831, Laura Secord learned the new Lieutenant-Governor, John Colborne, intended to give the keys to the widow of a member of the monument committee who had died in an accident.

On 17 July 1831, Laura Secord petitioned Colborne to honour Maitland's promise, and included another certificate from FitzGibbon attesting her contribution to the war.

Laura Secord was promoted to judge in 1833, and his son Charles Badeau Secord took over the registrar position.

Charles Badeau Laura Secord's first son, Charles Forsyth Laura Secord, was born 9 May 1833.

Laura Secord's is the only line of Secords that survived into the 21st century.

Laura Secord was buried, according to his wishes, at Drummond Hill.

Possibly with help from better-off members of the family, Laura Secord moved to a red brick cottage on Water Street in November 1841.

In 1860, when Laura Secord was 85, the Prince of Wales heard of her story while travelling in Canada.

Laura Secord was interred next to her husband in the Drummond Hill Cemetery in Niagara Falls.

Laura Secord's grave is marked by a monument with a bust on top, and is close to a monument marking the Battle of Lundy's Lane.

Laura Secord first wrote of Secord in a certificate dated 26 February 1820, in support of a petition by her husband for a licence to operate a stone quarry in Queenston.

Colonel Boerstler, their commander, in a conversation with me confirmed fully the information communicated to me by Mrs Laura Secord and accounted for the attempt not having been made on the 23rd.

FitzGibbon wrote in a certificate dated 23 February 1837 that Laura Secord did "acquaint" him with the Americans' intentions, but does not state whether he used the information.

Laura Secord wrote two accounts of her walk, the first in 1853, and the second in 1861.

Laura Secord told FitzGibbon that her husband had learned about it from an American officer, but years later told her granddaughter that she had overheard the plans directly from the American soldiers billeted in her home.

Historian George Ingram contended in his 1965 book The Story of Laura Secord Revisited that Secord's debunking had been taken too far.

Historian Cecilia Morgan argues that the Laura Secord story became famous in the 1880s when upper-class women sought to strengthen the emotional ties between Canadian women and the British Empire.

Laura Secord writes that they needed a female heroine to validate their claims for women's suffrage.

The play was a catalyst for "a deluge of articles and entries on Laura Secord that filled Canadian histories and school textbooks at the turn of the 20th century".

Laura Secord has been compared to French-Canadian heroine Madeleine de Vercheres and to American Revolution hero Paul Revere.

Laura Secord's story has been retold and commemorated by generations of biographers, playwrights, poets, novelists and journalists.

Laura Secord tracked down information from Laura's relatives as far away as Great Barrington, and published a biographical account in 1900 called The Story of Laura Secord.

Thomas Ingersoll's old home on Main Street in Great Barrington, Massachusetts, Laura Secord's birthplace, was used as the town's Free Library from 1896 until 1913.