Laura Secord's father, Thomas Ingersoll, lived in Massachusetts and fought on the side of the Patriots during the Revolutionary War (1775–1783).

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

Laura's father, Thomas Ingersoll, married seventeen-year-old Elizabeth Dewey on 28 February 1775 in Great Barrington, Massachusetts.

[4] During the American Revolutionary War, Thomas spent much time away from home as a militia officer serving on the Patriot side.

[9] Thomas remarried four months after Mercy's death, on 20 September 1789, to Sarah "Sally" Backus (née Whiting), a widow with a daughter, Nancy.

[13] In 1793, Thomas met in New York City with Mohawk leader Joseph Brant, who offered to show him the best land for settlement in Upper Canada, where the British Crown was encouraging development.

They received 66,000 acres (27,000 ha; 103 sq mi) in the Thames River valley, and founded Oxford-on-the-Thames (later known as Ingersoll, Ontario), on condition that they populate it with forty other families within seven years.

[14] Thomas Ingersoll supported his family in their early years in Upper Canada by running a tavern in Queenston while land was being cleared and roads built in the settlement.

Feeling cheated, in 1805 he moved the family to Credit River, close to York (present-day Toronto), where he successfully ran an inn until his 1812 death following a stroke.

An American officer, Captain John E. Wool, intervened, sent the three back across the river under guard, and ordered his men to carry James to his house in Queenston.

[22] This story has been dismissed by later biographers as the Americans had surrendered well before Laura arrived on the battlefield, while Captain Wool had been ordered back across the river hours earlier to have his wounds treated.

She reportedly walked 20 miles (32 km) from present-day Queenston through St. Davids,[b] 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.

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

She wrote that Colonel Thomas Clarke had been told by Maitland, "it was too late to think of [the committee member's widow] Mrs. Nichol as I have pledged my word to Mrs. Secord that as soon as possible she should have the key.

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

[46] Though she lacked training, for a short time Laura Secord ran a small school out of the home in an effort to support herself.

[54] The inscription on her grave marker reads: To perpetuate the name and fame of Laura Secord, who walked alone nearly 20 miles by a circuitous difficult and perilous route, through woods and swamps and over miry roads to warn a British outpost at DeCew's Falls of an intended attack and thereby enabled Lt. FitzGibbon on 24 June 1813, with fewer than 50 men of the H.M. 49th Regt., about 15 militiamen and a small force of Six Nations and other Indians under Capt.

William Johnson Kerr and Dominique Ducharme to surprise and attack the enemy at Beechwoods (or Beaver Dams) and after a short engagement, to capture Col. Bosler of the U.S. Army and his entire force of 542 men with two field pieces.

[46] According to biographer Peggy Dymond Leavey, her many grandchildren enjoyed hearing their grandmother tell stories of her early life,[46] and her Anglican[58] faith increased with age.

[59] In his report of the battle, FitzGibbon stated only that he "received information" about the threat; it is possible he omitted mention of Secord to protect her family during wartime.

He 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.

[66] In the 1860s, as Secord's story gained prominence, historian William Foster Coffin added new details, which included the claim that Laura had brought a cow with her as an excuse to leave her home in case the American patrols questioned her.

[69] Historian Ernest Cruikshank wrote in 1895 that "Scarcely had Mrs Secord concluded her narrative, when [Ducharme's] scouts came in ... they had encountered the advance guard of the enemy.

[71] She has often been depicted as "a lone figure bravely travelling through approximately 30 km of wilderness from her home at Queenston to a British military detachment camped in DeCew House in what is today Thorold, Ontario.

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

[77] After discovering a newspaper clipping of the events, early feminist Emma Currie began a lifelong interest in Secord's life.

[87] The Laura Secord Legacy Trail covers the 32 kilometer route of the journey she undertook from her homestead in Queenston to DeCew House in Thorold where she delivered her message to Lt. FitzGibbon on 22 June 1813.

[88] 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.

[89] The Great Barrington Historic District Commission made 18 October 1997 Laura Secord Day, and dedicated a plaque in her honour at the site of the Mason Library.

[96] To commemorate the 200th anniversary of her walk, Secord's image adorned a circulation quarter issued by the Royal Canadian Mint[f] and a postage stamp from Canada Post.