Dustin Ebenezer Kimball

Dustin Kimball, was a farmer and the son of Jesse and Susan (Dustin) Kimball. He was born at Enfield, New Hampshire, August 24, 1830, and his parents came to Vermont when he was three years of age. Dustin married Huldah Jilson January 13, 1857. Dustin and Huldah Jilson Kimball resided in Burke, Caledonia County, Vermont, and had two children, Finnette Sophia, born April 29, 1864, and Charlie Jesse, born June 7, 1872.

Dustin's mother, Susan Dustin Kimball, was a lineal descendant of the brave Hannah Dustin, of Haverhill, Massachusetts, who, with her nurse and infant, were taken captive by the Indians, March 15, 1697. She was the mother of eight young children, the youngest but a few days old. Her husband caught the alarm and flew from his labor to save them and their mother, who, with her nurse, were within doors. Hurrying away his seven eldest children, he succeeded in making good their escape to a fortified house.

Meanwhile, the mother, with her nurse and infant were taken by Indians, but before they had gone many steps they dashed out the brains of the infant against a tree. The mother's heart would have sunk, but she thought of her surviving children and summoned strength to march with the savages towards the Canadian frontier.

One night on an island in the Merrimack River, a little before daybreak, while the Indians were heavy with sleep, she encouraged the nurse, and a captive lad, to nerve themselves to the work of retribution. They armed themselves with tomahawks ans struck with convulsive energy, until the twelve sleepers, ten lay dead, and at their feet, only one squaw, already wounded, and a boy escaping into the forest.

They then took the scalps of the ten Indians, threw themselves into a canoe, and descended the river to the settlements, where they were received with the honor due to weak women, who knew how to rise superior to the natural infirmity of their sex.

SOURCE: North America, Family Histories, for the Genealogy of the Gillson and Jilson families, as found on Ancestry.com

In the 1860 census for Newark, Caledonia, Vermont, Dustin, 29, and Huldah, 22, were farming, and his real estate was valued at $2,000 and his personal estate at $700. A 20-year old farm laborer was living with them named Fairbanks Deming. By 1870, they were living in Burke, Vermont, and Dustin was still farming. Also living with them were two farm laborers, Lemuel Kimball, 16, and John Johnson, 16.

By 1880 Dustin, 48, and Huldah, 42, were listed with a daughter listed as Phinette, 16, and a son, Charlie J., 8 years old. Also living with them was Dustin's brother, James D. Kimball, 19. Why daughter Finnette Sophia Kimball was not listed in the 1870 census is unknown, because she would have been only 6 years old then. Also living in their home was a servant by the name of Cealia Hannett, 18, who was working as a house maid. Dustin was still farming and Finette was working as a school teacher.

By the 1900 census, Dustin was a 69-year old widower, his wife Huldah having passed away in 1897. Dustin was living in the home of his married daughter, Finnette, listed as Nettie S. Stoddard, 36, and her husband, Elmer E. Stoddard, 39 years old, and their daughter, Beula C. Stoddard, 14. Also in their home was Elmer's mother, Anna A. Stoddard, 77, and Finnette's brother, Charley J. Kimball, 26, who was divorced. Nettie and Elmer had been married for 16 years and had given birth to just one child.

Dustin passed away later that year on September 10, 1900, and was buried in the Hillside Cemetery in West Burke, Caledonia County, Vermont, with his wife Huldah.