Pocahontas
Celebrated Indian Princess
1595 – 1617 A.D.

Pocahontas, a celebrated Indian princess daughter of the chief Powhatan, who figures prominently in the narrative of Captain John Smith, in connection with the part in the history of the early English colonists in Virginia.

In 1607, in one of the expeditions for food, Smith was taken prisoner, brought before the chief Powhatan, and his head laid on a stone preparatory to having his brains beaten out with clubs. At this juncture Pocahontas, then a young girl, when no entreaty would prevail, got his head in her arms and laid her own upon his to save him from death.

She again saved Smith’s life in 1609 by informing him of a plot by her father against him.

Some historians have expressed doubts as to Smith’s veracity, but Prof. Edward Arber, in his reprint of Smith’s works, holds implicitly to the truth of the story, which he declares is a solid historical fact.

In 1613 Pocahontas was brought a prisoner to Jamestown, and the following year married an Englishman, John Rolfe. She is said to have embraced Christianity, and went to England with her husband in 1616, where she was received with great enthusiasm, as the daughter of an American king.

Pocahontas and Rolfe had one son, Thomas, who, after living for many years in England, migrated to Virginia. From him many Virginia families, including the Bollings (Mrs. Edith Bolling Galt was married to President Woodrow Wilson in 1915) trace their descent.

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Reference: Famous Women; An Outline of Feminine Achievement Through the Ages With Life Stories of Five Hundred Noted Women By Joseph Adelman. Copyright, 1926 by Ellis M. Lonow Company.