From the Book The Ancesry of Betsey Emerson Wright By: Jeffrey Rehm © 1996 On March 14, 1697, Thomas and Hannah Duston lived in a house on the west side of the Sawhill River in the town of Haverhill. This house was located on a short street leading off the east side of Hilldale Avenue now known as Eudora Street. Their twenty years of married life had brought them material prosperity and of the twelve children who had been born to them during this period, eight were living. Thomas, who was quite a remarkable man - a bricklayer and farmer who, according to tradition, even wrote his own almanacs - was beginning to have time to devote to town affairs, and had just completed a term as Constable for the "west end" of the town of Haverhill. He was at this time engaged in the construction (with bricks from his own brickyard) of a new brick house about a half mile to the northwest of his home to provide for the needs of his still growing family, for Baby Martha had just been born on March 9. Under the care of Mrs. Mary Neff, both mother and child were doing well, the rest of the family were in good health, his material affairs were prospering, and it was with a rather contented feeling that Thomas retired to rest on the eve of that fateful March 15, 1697, little knowing what horrors the morrow was to bring. Of course, there was always the fear of Indians. However, since the capture in August of the preceding year of Jonathan Haynes and family, nothing had happened. Besides, a mile away, on Peckers Hill, the garrison of Onesiphorus Marsh, one of six established by the town, contained a small body of soldiers. It was believed that there was little ground for uneasiness. Count Fronntenac, the Colonial Governor of Canada, was using every means at his disposal in incite the Indians against the English as part of his campaign to win the New World for the French King. The French Governor had allied the Indian tribes to the French cause and had set bounties on English scalps and prisoners. Every roving band of Indians was determined to get their share. The next morning, Thomas had arisen and was at work near the house, attending to the morning chores when he spied the approaching Indians. Instantly seizing his gun, he mounted his horse and hastened to the house. He shouted a warning which started the children toward the garrison house. He dashed into the house hoping to save his wife and six day old daughter, Martha. Realizing this was impossible and urged by Hannah, he rode after the children hoping to save them. A few of the Indians had pursued the band of children. Thomas, upon overtaking them, dismounted and guarded the group from behind his horse, threatening to shoot whenever one of the Indians exposed himself. Had he discharged his gun, they would have closed in on him at once, for reloading took considerable time. He was successful in his attempt, and all reached the garrison safely. Meanwhile, a fearful scene was being enacted in the home. Mrs. Neff, trying to escape with the baby, was easily captured. Invading the house, the savages forced Hannah to rise and dress herself. She watched them rifle the house of all they could carry away. She was then dragged outside, losing one shoe in the shuffle, while they fired the house. A few of the Indians then dragged Hannah and Mrs. Neff, who carried the baby, towards the woods, while the rest of the band, rejoined by those who had been pursuing Thomas and the children, attacked other houses in the village, killing twenty-seven and capturing thirteen of the inhabitants. Finding that carrying the baby was making it hard for Mrs. Neff to keep up, one of the Indians seized it from her and before its mother's eyes, dashed out its brains against a tree. The Indians, forcing the two women to their utmost pace, at last reached the woods and joined the squaws and children who had been left behind the night before. Here they were soon joined by the rest of the redskins with their plunder and other captives. Fearing a prompt pursuit, the Indians immediately set out for Canada with their booty. Some of the weaker captives were callously knocked on the head and scalped, but in spite of her condition, poorly clad and partly shod, Hannah managed to keep up, and by her own account marched that day "about a dozen miles." During the next few days they traveled about a hundred miles through the unbroken wilderness, over rough trails, in places still covered with the winter's snow, sometimes deep with mud, and across icy brooks, while rocks tore their half shod feet and their poorly clad bodies suffered from the cold -- a terrible journey. Near the junction of the Contocook and Merrimack rivers, twelve of the Indians, two men, three women, and seven children, taking with them Hannah, Mrs. Neff, and a boy of fourteen years, Samuel Lennardson (who had been taken prisoner near Worcester about eighteen months before), left the main party and proceeded toward what is now Dustin Island, situated where the two rivers unite, near the present town of Penacook, New Hampshire. This island was the home of the Indian who claimed the women as his captives, and here it was planned to rest for a while before continuing on the long journey to Canada. During the journey, Hannah was planning to escape at the first opportunity, spurred on by the tales with which the Indians had entertained the captives on the march, picturing how they would be treated after arriving in Canada, stripped and made to "run the gauntler;" jeered at and beaten and made targets for the young Indians' tomahawks; how many of the English prisoners had fainted under these tortures; and how they were often sold as slaves to the French. These stories, added to her desire for avenging the death of her baby and the cruel treatment of their captors while on the march, made this desire stronger. When she learned where they were going, a plan took definite shape in her mind, and was secretly communicated to Mrs. Neff and Samuel Lennardson. Samuel, who was growing tired of living with the Indians, and in whom a longing for home had been stirred by the presence of the two women, the next day casually asked his master, Bampico, how he had killed the English. "Strike 'em dere," said Bampico, touching his temple, and the proceeded to show the boy how to take a scalp. This information was communicated to the women, and they quickly agreed on the details of the plan. They arrived at the island some time before March 30, 1697. After reaching the island, the Indians grew careless. The river was in flood, Samuel was considered one of the family, and the two women were considered too worn out to attempt escape, so no watch was set that night and the Indians slept soundly. Hannah decided that the time had come. Shortly after midnight she woke Mrs. Neff and Samuel. Each armed with a hatchet, they crept to a position near the heads of the sleeping Indians. At a signal from Hannah the hatches fell, and so swiftly and surely did they perform their work of destruction that ten of the twelve Indians were killed outright, only two, a wounded squaw and a boy, escaped into the woods. According to a deposition of Hannah Bradley in 1739, "above penny cook the Deponent was forced to travel farther then the rest of the captives, and the next night there came to us one Squaw who said that Hannah Dustan and the aforesaid Mary Neff assisted in killing the Indians of her wigwam except herself and a boy, herself escaping very narrowly, shewing to myself & others seven wounds as she said with a Hatchet on her head which wounds were given her when the rest were killed." Hastily piling food and weapons into a canoe, including the gun of Hannah's late master and the hatchet with which she had killed him, they scuttled the rest of the canoes and set out down the Merrimack River. Suddenly realizing that without proof, their story would seem incredible, Hannah ordered a return to the island. With the knife of her master, she scalped their victims, wrapped the trophies and knife in the cloth which had been cut from Hannah's loom at the time of the capture, and again set out down the river. Traveling by night and hiding by day, they finally reached the home of John Lovewell in old Dunstable, now part of Nashusa, New Hampshire. Here they spent the night, and a monument was erected here in 1902 commemorating the event. The following morning the journey was resumed and the weary voyagers at last beached their canoe at Bradley's Cove, where Creek Brook flows into the Merrimack. Continuing their journey on foot, they at last reached Haverhill in safety. Their reunion with loved ones who had given them up for lost can better be imagined than described. Doubtless Samuel was the hero of the younger generation for many days. Thomas took his wife and the others to the new house which he had been building at the time of the massacre and which was now completed. In 1694 a bounty of fifty pounds had been placed on Indian scalps, reduced to twenty five pounds in 1695 and revoked on December 16, 1696. Thomas Duston believed that the act of the two women and the boy had been great value in destroying enemies of the colony, who had been murdering innocent women and children, and decided that the bounty should be claimed. So he took the two women and the boy to Boston, where a bounty of twenty five pounds to Hannah and 12 pounds, 10 shillings each to Mary Neff and Samuel. The exploit of Hannah Duston was received with amazement throughout the colonies, and Governor Sir Francis Nicholson of Maryland had a set of pewter plates made in London, and later presented them to Hannah. A pewter tankard, suitably inscribed, was present by the Great and General Court of Massachusetts as a tribute to her courage. These plates and tankard are on display in the Duston Exhibit at the "Buttonswoods" home of the Haverhill Historical Society. Monuments have been erected on Duston Island in Penacook, New Hampshire (1874) and in G.A.R. Park, in Haverhill, Massachusetts (1879). The first monument commemorating the fame of a women by the United States, was to Hannah Duston. (Note: The tankard may be borrowed for weddings by Emerson descendant brides.) © 1996, Jeffrey Rehm - E-Mail:
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