Hannah Dustin, Indian Captive

Hannah Duston is believed to be the first American woman honored with a statue.
(also spelled Dustin, Dustan, Durstan, Dustun, Dunstun, or Durstun)
(born Hannah Emerson, December 23, 1657 – March 6, 1736,[1] 1737 or 1738[2])

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hannah_Duston

Hannah Emerson, the eldest of fifteen children of Michael and Hannah Webster, was born 23 December 1657. She died 6 March 1736. She married Thomas Dustin (1652 - 1732) on 3 December 1677; they had thirteen children.

Marriage and Children

1. Hannah Webster Emerson married Thomas Dustin (1652 - 17 November 1732) on 3 December 1677.
   1. Hannah Dustin (born 22 August 1678) - eighteen years old at the time of the attack
   2. Elizabeth Dustin (born 7 May 1680)
   3. Mary Dustin, d.s.p. (4 November 1681 - 18 October 1696)
   4. Thomas Dustin (born 5 January 1683)
   5. Nathaniel Dustin (born 16 May 1685)
   6. John Dustin, d.s.p. (2 February 1686 - 28 January 1690)
   7. Sarah Dustin (born 4 July 1688)
   8. Abigail Dustin (born October 1690)
   9. Jonathan Dustin (born 15 January 1691o.s.)
   10. Timothy Dustin, twin (born 14 September 1694)
   11. Mehitable Dustin, twin (14 September 1694 - 16 December 1694)
   12. Martha Dustin, d.s.p. (9 March 1697 - 15 March 1697), killed by Indians
   13. Lydia Dustin (born 4 October 1698)

Biographical Sketch

In 1697, Thomas and Hannah Dustin were living in a house on the west side of the Sawmill River in the town of Haverhill. This house was located near the great Dustin Boulder and on the opposite side of Monument Street. They had been married for twenty years, were financially stable, and eight of their twelve children were living. Thomas, who was a bricklayer and farmer, and who 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 building, with bricks from his own brickyard, a new house about a half mile to the northwest of their current home.

On 9 March 1697, Hannah Dustin had their twelfth child, Martha. A neighbor, Mary Neff, was staying with them to help care for mother and child. There had been no local trouble with the Indians since thekidnapped Jonathan Haynes and his four children while picking peas in a field at Bradley's Mills, near Haverhill, the previous summer. However, the Colonial Governor of Canada was using every means at his disposal to incite the Indians against the English as part of his campaign to win the New World for the French King. The French Governor had set a bounty on English scalps and prisoners. Just six days after Martha's birth, on 15 March, Indians attacked the Dustin home.

Raid on Haverhill

Thomas had risen early and was attending to the morning chores, when he suddenly spied the approaching Indians. Seizing his gun, he mounted his horse and raced for the house, shouting a warning which started the children towards the garrison, while he dashed into the house hoping to save his wife and the baby. Quickly seeing that he was too late, he rode after the children. A few of the Indians pursued the little band of fugitives, firing at them from behind trees and boulders. Thomas, dismounting and guarding the rear, threatened to shoot whenever one of them exposed himself. Had he discharged his gun they would have closed in at once, for reloading took considerable time. He was successful in his attempt, and all reached the garrison safely.

Meanwhile, Mrs. Neff was trying to escape with the baby, but was easily captured. Invading the house, the savages forced Hannah to rise and dress herself while they stole all they could carry away. She hadn't yet managed to put on her second shoe when they set fire to the house and she was dragged outside. A few of the Indians then dragged Hannah and Mrs. Neff, who carried the baby, towards the woods, while the rest of the band 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 horrified eyes dashed out its brains against an apple tree. The Indians forced the two women to their utmost pace, and at last reached the woods and joined the squaws and children who had been left behind the night before. Here they were soon after joined by the rest of the Indians with their plunder and other captives.

A Terrible Journey

Fearing a prompt pursuit, the Indians immediately set out for Canada with their booty. Some of the weaker captives were killed and scalped, but in spite of her condition, poorly clad and only partly shod, Hannah managed to keep up. By her own account she marched “about a dozen miles” that day, truly a remarkable feat. 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 feet and they suffered terribly from the cold.

Near the junction of the Contoocook and Merrimack rivers, twelve of the Indians took Hannah, Mrs. Neff and a boy of fourteen years, Samuel Lennardson (who had been taken prisoner near Worcester about eighteen months before), and left the main party. They proceeded toward what is now Dustin Island, 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 they planned to rest for a while before continuing on the long journey to Canada.

This Indian family had been converted to Christianity by French priests, and was accustomed to have prayers three times a day, and would not let their children eat or sleep without first saying their prayers. Hannah’s captor, who had lived in the family of Rev. Mr. Rowlandson of Lancaster some years before told her that “when he prayed the English way he thought that it was good, but now he found the French way better.” He would sometimes say to them when he saw them dejected, “What need you trouble yourself? If your God will have you delivered, you shall be so!”

Meanwhile At Haverhill

Meanwhile, the fear induced by the raid caused the Haverhill community to immediately establish several new garrison houses. One of these was the brick house which Thomas was building for his family at the time of the massacre. This was ordered completed, and though the clay pits were not far from the house, a guard of soldiers was placed over those who brought clay to the house. The order establishing Thomas Dustin’s house as a garrison was dated 5 April 1697. He was appointed master of the garrison and assigned Josiah Heath Sr, Josiah Heath Jr, Joseph Bradley, John Heath, Joseph Kingsbury, and Thomas Kingsbury as guards.

During the long journey the Indians had entertained the captives on the march, with stories of how they would be treated after arriving in Canada, stripped and made to “run the gauntlet”; 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 to revenge the killing of her baby and the cruel treatment of their captors while on the march, fueled Hannah's desire to escape. 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 casually asked his captor, Bampico, how he had killed the English. “Strike ‘em dere,” said Bampico, touching his temple, and then proceeded to show the boy how to take a scalp. Samuel shared this information with the women, and they quickly agreed on the details of the plan. They arrived at the island some time before 30 March 1697.

If your God will have you delivered, you shall be so!

After reaching the island, the Indians relaxed. 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 tomahawk, crept silently to a position near the heads of the sleeping Indians. At a signal from Hannah the tomahawks fell, and ten of the twelve Indians were killed outright, only two escaping into the woods. According to a deposition of Hannah Bradley in 1739, “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 Hatched 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 captor and the tomahawk 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, where they scalped their victims, wrapping the trophies in cloth which had been cut from Hannah’s loom at the time of the capture, and again set out down the river, each taking a turn at guiding the frail craft while the others slept.

Home Again

Traveling by night and hiding by day, they finally reached the home of John Lovewell in old Dunstable, now a part of Nashua, New Hampshire, where they spent the night. The following morning the journey was resumed and they at last beached their canoe at Bradley’s Cove, where Creek Brook flows into the Merrimack. Continuing their journey on foot, they finally reached Haverhill in safety.

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. Here for some days they rested.

Diary of Samuel Sewall, 1697

"April 29: Is signalized by the achievement of Hannah Dustun, Mary Neff, and Samuel Lennerson, who killed two men, their masters, and two women and six others, and have brought in ten scalps..."
"May 12:Hannah Dustan came to see us... She said her master, whom she kill'd did formerly live with Mr. Roulandson at Lancaster: He told her, that when he pray'd the English way, he thought that was good: but now he found the French way was better. The single man shewed the night before, to Saml Lenarson, how he used to knock Englishmen on the head and take off their Scalps; little thinking that the Captives would make some of their first experiment upon himself. Sam. Lenarson kill'd him.

Diary of John Marshall, April 1697

"At the latter end of this month two women and a young lad that had been taken captive from Haverhill in March before, watching their opportunity when the Indians were asleep, killed ten of them, scalped them all and came home to Boston. [They] brought a gun with them and some other things. The chief of these Indians took one of the women captive when she had lain in childbed but a few days, and knocked her child in [the] head before her eyes, which woman killed and scalped that very Indian. This was done just about the time the council of this province had concluded on a day of fasting and prayer through the province."

The Merit of the Action Remains

This remarkable exploit of Hannah Dustin, Mary Neff, and Samuel Lennardson was received with amazement throughout the colonies, and Governor Nicholson of Maryland sent her a suitably inscribed silver tankard.

In 1694 a bounty of £50 had been placed on Indian scalps, reduced to £25 in 1695, and revoked completely on 16 December 1696. Thomas Dustin decided that the bounty should be claimed, so he took the two women and the boy to Boston, where they arrived with the trophies on 21 April 1697. He filed a petition to the Governor and Council, which was read on 8 June 1697 in the House, setting forth his belief that the act of the two women and the boy had been of great value in destroying enemies of the colony, and claiming the reward. His petition stated that “ the merit of the Action remains the same” and claimed that “your Petitioner having Lost his Estate in the Calamity wherein his wife was carried into her captivity rendrs him the fitter object for what consideracon the publick Bounty shall judge proper for what hath been herein done”.

On 16 June 1697 the General Court voted payment of a bounty of £25 “unto Thomas Dunston of Haverhill, on behalf of Hannah his wife”, and £12, 10s each to Mary Neff and Samuel.

After the return from Boston, Thomas remembered that while constable the preceding year he had advanced the sum of £10, 14s 8p to Colonel Nathaniel Saltonstall for money due several men as soldiers for service in 1695. He had received an order from the Province Treasurer as security, which order was destroyed in the fire. As his request, Colonel Saltonstall wrote to the Province Treasurer on 31 May 1697, acknowledging receipt of the money in return for the order which was burned in Thomas's house the preceding March, and the order for payment of this sum to Thomas Dustin was approved by the Council on 4 June 1697.

I Desire To Be Thankful

Letter from Hannah Dustin to the elders of the church, applying for admission to the membership of the church:

"I Desire to be Thankful that I was born in a Land of Light & Baptized when I was Young : and had a Good Education by My Father, Tho I took but little Notice of it in the time of it :--I am Thankful for my Captivity, twas the Comfortablest time that ever I had; In my Affliction God made his Word Comfortable to me. I remembred 43d ps. ult and those words came to my mind--ps. 118.17. ... I ave had a great Desire to come to the Ordinance of the Lords Supper a Great while but Unworthiness has kept me aback; reading a Book concerning Suffering Did much awaken me. In the 55th of Isa. Beg. We are invited to come:-- Hearing Mr. Moody preach out of ye 3rd of Mal. 3 last verses it put me upon Consideration. Ye 11th of Matthew has been Encouraging to me-- I have been resolving to offer me Self from time to time ever since the Settlement of the present Ministry: I was awakened by first Sacram'l Sermon (Luke 14.17) But Delays and fears prevailed upon me:-- But I desire to Delay no longer, being Sensible it is My Duty--. I desire the Church to receive me tho' it be at the Eleventh hour; & pray for me--that I may hon'r God and obtain the Salvation of my Soul."
"Hannah Duston wife of Thomas A. '67"

Hannah Dustin survived her husband some years, and after his death went to reside with her son, Jonathan, who lived on the southwest part of the original Thomas Dustin farm. She died 6 March 1736, and her will was proven in Ipswich on 10 March 1736; and recorded in Salem Registry of Essex Probate. Her eldest daughter, Hannah Dustin Cheney, served as her executor.

Killed in the Raid on Haverhill

Twenty-seven persons were slaughtered (fifteen of them children), and thirteen captured. Hannah Dustin’s nurse Mary Neff, was carried away and helped in the escape by hatcheting her captors. Another captive who later wrote about the adventure and was kidnapped a second time ten years later was Hannah Heath Bradley. The following is a list of those killed:

• Daniel Bradley
• Hannah Bradley, wife of Daniel
• Mary Bradley, daughter of Daniel and Hannah
• Hannah Bradley, daughter of Daniel and Hannah
• Joseph Bradley, son of Joseph Bradley (brother of Daniel Bradley)
• Martha Bradley, daughter of Joseph Bradley (brother of Daniel Bradley)
• Sarah Bradley, daughter of Joseph Bradley (brother of Daniel Bradley)
• Martha Dow, daughter of Stephen Dow
• Martha Dustin, infant daughter of Thomas and Hannah
• Sarah Eastman, daughter of Deborah Corliss
• Thomas Kingsbury (son of Deborah Corliss)
• Mehitable Kingsbury (son of Deborah Corliss)
• Thomas Eaton
• Thomas Emerson
• Elizabeth Emerson, wife of Thomas
• Timothy Emerson, son of Thomas and Elizabeth
• Sarah Emerson, daughter of Thomas and Elizabeth
• John Keezar
• John Keezar's father
• John Keezar's son, George Keezar
• John Kimball
• John Kimball's mother, Hannah
• Thomas Wood
• Susannah Wood, daughter of Thomas Wood
• John Woodman
• Susannah Woodman, daughter of John Woodman
• Zechariah White

Dustin Monument

The Duston Monument Association, which originated in the West Parish, was organized in early October 1855, for the purpose of purchasing, enclosing, and improving the site of the house from which Hannah Dustin was taken by the Indians in 1697, and erecting thereon a monument in her memory. The site was purchased on 15 October 1855. In January 1856 a benefit was held in the Town Hall, which was realized the handsome sum of $523.39 for the Association. Among the articles on exhibition at the levee, were the gun which Hannah Dustin took from the Indians at the time of her escape; the scalping knife said to have been used on the occasion; the tankard presented to Hannah Dustin and Mrs. Neffe by Governor Nicholson of Maryland; a pair of tongs and a platter that belonged to Hannah Dustin; and the pocketbook of Thomas Dustin.

The Association was incorporated in March 1856 by a special act of Legislature. On 1 June 1861, a marble monument, five feet square and twenty-four feet high, was erected by the Association, at an expense of about $1200. The tablets contain the following inscriptions:

"Hannah, dau of Michael and Hannah Emerson, wife of Thomas Dustin, born in the town Dec 23, 1657. Captured by the Indians March 15, 1697, (at which time her babe, then but six days old, was barborously murdered, by having its brains dashed out against a tree) and taken to an island in the Merrimack, at Pennacock, now Concord, N.H. On the night of April 29, 1697, assisted by Mary Neff, and Samuel Lennardson, she killed ten of the twelve savages in the wigwam, and taking their scalps and her captor's gun, all trophies of her remarkable exploit, she embarked on the waters of the Merrimack, and after much suffering arrived at her home in safety."
"Thomas Dustin on the memorable 16th of March, 1697, when his house was attacked and burned , and his wife captured, by the savages, heroically defended his seven children and successfully covered their retreat to a garrison."

In Pop Culture

While in Boston, Hannah told her story to Reverend Cotton Mather, who perceived it as a miracle and included an extraordinary version of it in his “Magnalia Christi Americana”.

Hannah's story was retold in a chapter entitled "Mother's Revenge" in Legends of New England by John Greenleaf Whittier. This was the poet's first book, published in 1831.

Dustin's captivity became famous more than a hundred years after she died. She became the first woman honored in the United States with a statue. During the nineteenth century, she was referred to as "a folk hero" and the "mother of the American tradition of scalp hunting". Some scholars assert that her story only became legend because it could be used to define violence against native Americans as defensive and virtuous.

An interesting, albeit glamorized and fictionalized, version of Dustin's story was featured in "Fabulous Females including Hannah Dustin, Amelia Earhart and Rosie the Riveter", Wonder Woman Comic Issue 89, 1957.

Dustin House

The Dustin House or Dustin Garrison House is a historic First Period house at 665 Hilldale Avenue in Haverhill, Massachusetts. It was under construction by farmer and brick-maker Thomas Dustin at the time of the 1697 attack on Haverhill during King William's War. It was during this raid that his wife, Hannah Dustin, in bed at their existing home a half mile away, was captured by Native Americans. The house is one of a very small number of brick houses to survive from that time.

Sources

• Wiki Profile
• Britannica Profile
• http://minerdescent.com/page/7/
• Hawthorne in Salem
• H. D. Kilgore. "The Story of Hannah Duston", Duston-Dustin Family Association: June 1940.
• Rev. Charles Henry Pope. "The Cheney Genealogy". 1897.
• Essex Reg. Book 420, page 287
• George Wingate Chase. "The History of Haverhill, Ma. From Its First Settlement, in 1640, to the Year 1860". pp. 308-309.
• Mass. Archives Vol 70, p. 350

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The Story of Hannah Duston

Published by the Duston-Dustin Family Association, H. D. Kilgore Historian

Haverhill Tercentenary - June, 1940

On March 14, 1697, Thomas and Hannah Duston lived in a house on the west side of the Sawmill River in the town of Haverhill. This house was located near the great Duston Boulder and on the opposite side of Monument 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, and wrote them on rainy days, - 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 made her appearance 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 undoubtedly with a rather contented feeling that Thomas, to say nothing of his family, 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 his four children while picking peas in a field at Bradley's Mills, near Haverhill, nothing had happened, and apprehensions of any further attacks were gradually being lulled. Besides, less than a mile on Pecker's Hill, was the garrison of Onesiphorus Marsh, one of six established by the town containing a small body of soldiers. It was believed that there was little ground for uneasiness.

But this was only a false security. Count Frontenac, the Colonial Governor of Canada, was using every means at his disposal to incite the Indians against the English as part of his campaign to win the New World for the French King. The latter, due to the need for troops in Europe, where the war known as King William's War was going on, was unable to send many to help Frontenac. So, with propaganda and gifts, the French Governor had allied the tribes to the French cause and bounties had been set on English scalps and prisoners. Every roving band of Indians was determined to get its share of these, and even now, such a band was in the woods near Haverhill, preparing for a lightning raid on the town with the first light of dawn. The squaws and children were left in the forest to guard their possessions, while the savage warriors moved stealthily towards the house of Thomas and Hannah Duston, the first attacked.

Thomas, like all good farmers, had risen and was at work near the house, attending to the morning chores, when he suddenly spied the approaching Indians. Instantly seizing his gun, he mounted his horse and raced for the house, shouting a warning which started the children toward the garrison, while he dashed into the house hoping to save his wife and baby. Quickly realizing that this was impossible, and urged by Hannah, he rode after the children, resolving to escape with at least one.

On overtaking them, and finding it impossible to choose between them, he determined, if possible, to save them all. A few of the Indians had pursued the little band of fugitives, firing at them from behind treees and boulders, but Thomas, dismounting, and guarding the rear from behind his horse, held back the savages by threatening to shoot whenever one of them exposed himself. Had he discharged his gun, they would have closed on him at once, for reloading took considerable time. He was successful in his attempt, and all reached the garrison safely, the older children hurrying the younger along, probably carrying them at times. This was probably the garrison of Onesiphorus Marsh on Pecker's Hill.

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. Sitting despairingly in the chimney, she watched them rifle the house of all they could carry away, and was then dragged outside while they fired the house, in her haste forgetting one shoe. 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 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 siezed from her, and before its mother's horrified eyes dashed out its brains against an apple 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 after 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, doubtless assisted by Mrs. Neff, managed to keep up, and by her own account marched that day "about a dozen miles", truly a remarkable feat. 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 have shod feet and their poorly clad bodies suffered from the cold - a terrible journey.

Near the junction of the Contoocook 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, N.H. 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.

This Indian family, stange as it may seem, had been converted by the French priests at some time in the past, and was accustomed to have prayers three times a day - in the morning, at noon, and at eveing - and ordinarily would not let their children eat or sleep without first saying their prayers. Hannah's master, who had lived in the family of Rev. Mr. Rowlandson of Lancaster some years before, told her that "when he prayed the English way he thought that it was good, but now he found the French way better." They tried however, to prevent the two women from praying, but without success, for as they were engaged on the tasks set by their master, they often found opportunities. Their Indian master would sometimes say to them when he saw them dejected. "What need you trouble yourself? If your God will have you delivered, you shall be so!"

During the long journey Hannah was secretly 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 gauntlet;" 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 revenging 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 then 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 had decided that the time had come.

Shortly after midnight she woke Mrs. Neff and Samuel. Each, armed with a tomahawk, crept silently to a position near the heads of the the sleeping Indians - Samuel near Bampico and Hannah near her master. At a signal for Hannah the tomahawks fell, and so swiftly and surely did they perform their work of destruction that ten of the twelve Indians were killed outright, only town - a severly wounded squaw and a boy whom they had intended to take captive - escaping into the woods. According to a deposition of Hannah Bradley in 1739 (History of Haverhill, Chase pp.308-309), "above penny cook the Deponent was forced to travel farther than the rest of the captives, and the next night but one there came to use 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 Hatched 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 tomahawk 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, where they scalped their victims, wrapping the trophies in cloth which had been cut from Hannah's loom at the time of the capture, and again set out down the river each taking a turn at guiding the frail craft while the others slept.

Thus, traveling by night and hiding by day, they finally reached the home of John Lovewell in old Dunstable, now a part of Nashua, N.H. 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. Here for some days they rested.

In 1694 a bounty of fifty pounds had been placed on Indian scalps, reduced to twenty-five pounds in 1695, and revoked completely on Dec. 16, 1696. Thomas Duston believed that the act of the two women and the boy had been of great valuein 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 they arrived with the trophies on April 21, 1697. Here he filed a petition to the Governor and Council, which was read on June 8, 1697 in the House (Mass. Archives, Vol. 70, p. 350), setting forth the above belief and claiming the reward, pleading that "the merit of the Action remains the same" and claiming that "your Petitioner haveing Lost his Estate in that Calamity wherein his wife was carryed into her captivity redrs him the fitter object for what consideracon the publick Bounty shall judge proper for what hath been herein done," etc.

The same day the General Court voted payment of a bounty of twenty-five pounds "unto Thomas Dunston of Haverhill, on behalf of Hannah his wife," and twelve pounds ten shillings each to Mary Neff and Samuel. This was approved on June 16, 1697, and the order in Council for the payment of the several allowances was passed Dec. 4, 1697. (Chapter 10, Province laws, Mass. Archives.)

While in Boston Hannah told her story to Rev. Cotton Mather, whose morbid mind was stirred to its depths. He perceived her escape in the nature of a miracle, and his description of it in his "Magnalia Christi Americana" is extraordinary, though in the facts doubtless quite correct and corroborated by the evidence.

In Samuel Sewall's Diary, Volume 1, pages 452 and 453, we find the following entry on May 12, 1697:

"Fourth-day, May 12 . . . . Hannah Dustan came to see us; . . . She said her master, whom she kill'd did formerly live with Mr. Roulandson at Lancaster: He told her, that when he pray'd the English way, he thought that was good: but now he found the French way was better. The single man shewed the night before, to Saml Lenarson, how he used to knock Englishmen on the head and take off their Scalps; little thinking that the Captives would make some of their first experiment upon himself. Sam. Lenarson kill'd him."

This remarkable exploit of Hannah Duston, Mary Neff, and Samuel Lennardson was received with amazement throughout the colonies, and Governor Sir Francis Nicholson of Maryland, after reading Cotton Mather's account of her escape, had a silver tankard, suitably inscribed, made in London, and later presented it to Hannah Duston. Monuments have been erected on the island (1874) and in G. A. R. Park, Haverhill (1861), commemorating the exploit, and an enormous boulder marks the site of the house on Monument Street, Haverhill, where she died.

The first monument, commemorating the fame of a woman, to be erected in the United States was one to Hannah Duston on June 1, 1861, in Haverhill.

Samuel Lennardson, on his return to Worcester, found that his father had removed to Preston, Conn., and there he grew to manhood, married Lydia -----, and died May 11, 1718, leaving three sons and two daughters.

Little is known of Hannah's life or that of Mary Neff after this event.

And now, let us return to Thomas Duston after his escape with the children. The fear induced by the massacre caused Haverhill to at once establish several new harrison houses. One of these was the brick house which Thomas was building for his family at the time of the massacre. This was ordered completed, and though the clay pits were not far from the home, a guard of soldiers was placed over those who brought clay to the house. The order establishing Thomas Duston's house as a garrison was dated April 5, 1697. He was appointed master of the garrison and assigned Josiah Heath, Sen., Josiah Heath Jun., Josep Bradley, John Heath, Joseph Kingsbury, and Thomas Kingsbury as a guard.

It was about this time that Hannah returned home. After the return from Boston, Thomas remembered that while constable the preceding year he had advanced the sum of ten pounds, fourteen shillings, and eight pence to Col. Nathaniel Saltonstall for money due several men as soldiers under the latter for service in 1695, and received an order from the Province Treasurer as security, which order was destroyed in the fire. As his request, Colonel Saltonstall wrote to the Province Treasurer on May 31, 1697, acknowledging receipt of the money in return for the order which was burned in Thomas's house the preceding March, and the order for payment of this sum to Thomas Dustonwas approved by the Council on Jone 4, 1697. (Mass. Archives.)

The details of an adventure of such an extraordinary character as that just described soon became public property, but little is known of Hannah's life after she settled down again to her accustomed round of household duties on her return home.

In fact, except for the record of the birth of her thirteenth child, Lydia, on October 4 1698, and the knowledge that she died early in 1736, -her will being proven in Ipswich on March 10 of that year and recorded in Salem Registry of Essex Probate, -nothing further was known until 1929, some two hundred and thitry-two years after her escape from captivity.

But in March, 1929, behind an old gallery pew in the Haverhill Center Congregational Church, the sexton, Marchus C. Jean, found several papers over two hundred years old. Among these was a letter from Hannah Duston to the elders of the church, applying for admission to the membership of the church. This letter is so unusual in character that it is presented here in full, as follows:

I Desire to be Thankful that I was born in a Land of Light & Baptized when I was Young : and had a Good Education by My Father, Tho I took but little Notice of it in the time of it :--I am Thankful for my Captivity, twas the Comfortablest time that ever I had; In my Affliction God made his Word Comfortable to me. I remembred 43d ps. ult-and those words came to my mind--ps. 118.17. ... I ave had a great Desire to come to the Ordinance of the Lords Supper a Great while but Unworthiness has kept me aback; reading a Book concerning +s Suffering Did much awaken me. In the 55th of Isa. Beg. We are invited to come:-- Hearing Mr. Moody preach out of ye 3rd of Mal. 3 last verses it put me upon Consideration. Ye 11th of Matthew has been Encouraging to me-- I have been resolving to offer me Self from time to time ever since the Settlement of the present Ministry: I was awakened by first Sacram'l Sermon (Luke 14.17) But Delays and fears prevailed upon me:-- But I desire to Delay no longer, being Sensible it is My Duty--. I desire the Church to receive me tho' it be at the Eleventh hour; & pray for me--that I may hon'r God and obtain the Salvation of my Soul.

Hannah Duston wife of Thomas AEtat 67.

And so ends the story of the escape from captivity of one of America's greatest heroines, Hannah Duston.

H. D. Kilgore, Historian

Duston-Dustin Family Association

adapted for web use by jdustin@usm.maine.edu

http://people.usm.maine.edu/jdustin/hannah/hannah-story.html

Hannah Duston (Dustin, Dustan, and Durstan) (born Hannah Emerson, December 23, 1657 – c. 1736) was a colonial Massachusetts Puritan mother of nine who was taken captive by Abenaki Native Americans during King William's War with her newborn daughter during the Raid on Haverhill (1697), in which 27 colonists were killed. While detained on an island in the Merrimack River in present-day Boscawen, New Hampshire, she killed and scalped ten of the Native American family members holding them hostage, with the assistance of two other captives.

Duston's captivity narrative became famous more than 100 years after she died. Duston is the first woman honored in the United States with a statue. During the 19th century, she was referred to as "a folk hero" and the "mother of the American tradition of scalp hunting". At the same time, scholars assert Duston's story only became legend in the 19th century because America used her story to define its violence against native Americans as innocent, defensive and virtuous.

1697 Raid on Haverhill

During King William's War, Hannah, her husband Thomas and their nine children were residents of Haverhill, Massachusetts in March 1697 when the town was attacked by a group of Abenaki Native American from Quebec. (In this attack, 27 colonists were killed and 13 were taken captive to be either adopted or held as hostages for the French.) When their farm was attacked, Thomas fled with eight children, but Hannah, her newborn daughter Martha, and her nurse Mary Neff (nee Corliss) were captured and forced to march into the wilderness. According to Cotton Mather's account, along the way, the Native Americans killed the six-day-old Martha by smashing her against a tree. Modern Abanaki representatives claim this is unlikely.

Hannah and Mary were assigned to a Native American family group of 13 persons and taken north. The group included Samuel Lennardson, a 14-year-old captured in Worcester, Massachusetts the year before.

Six weeks later, at an island in the Merrimack River at the mouth of the Contoocook River near what is now Penacook, New Hampshire, Hannah led Mary and Samuel in a revolt. She used a tomahawk to attack the sleeping Native Americans, killing one of the two grown men (Lennardson killed the second), two adult women, and six children. One severely wounded Native American woman and a young boy managed to escape the attack.

The former captives immediately left in a canoe, but not before taking scalps from the dead as proof of the incident and to collect a bounty. They traveled down the river only during the night and after several days reached Haverhill. The Massachusetts General Court later gave them a reward for killing Native Americans; Hannah Duston received 25 pounds, and Neff and Lennardson split another 25 pounds (various accounts say 50 or 25 pounds, and some accounts mention only Duston's receiving an award).

Hannah lived for nearly 40 more years.

Hannah Duston Memorials

The first memorial that was actually executed was by sculptor William Andrews, a marble worker from Lowell, and erected in 1874 on the island in Boscawen, New Hampshire where she killed her captors. Huge crowds overwhelmed the island on the day of its dedication, with speeches presented all day long. It was the first publicly funded statue in New Hampshire.

In 1879, a bronze statue of Hannah Duston grasping a tomahawk was created by Calvin H. Weeks (1834–1907) in Haverhill town square (now Grand Army Park), where it still stands. The monument stands on the site of the Second Church, of which Hannah Duston became a member in 1724. The original small axe or hatchet held by Hannah Duston can be found today in the Haverhill Historical Society. The Duston hatchet is not a tomahawk. It is usually called a biscayan or biscayenne, a common trade item of the late seventeenth-century New England frontier.

The third Memorial was created in 1908 when there was an inscription put on a boulder in Memorial to both Hannah and Martha. The boulder was placed on the site of Hannah's son Jonathan's home, where Hannah lived her final years. Hannah Duston died at this location in 1736.

Fourth Memorial: A mill stone placed on the shores of the Merrimack River where Hannah, Mary and Samuel beached their canoe upon their return to Haverhill.

Fifth Memorial: The Site of James Lovewell's Home, where Hannah, Mary and Samuel rested on their way home from captivity.

Other commemorations include: Hannah Dustin Health Care Center, a Hannah Dustin Rest Home, and a Hannah Dustin Elementary School,

The Dustin House, in which she lived in the years after the raid, is listed on the U.S. National Register of Historic Places.

Family of Thomas and Hannah Dutton

Emerson was the oldest of the 15 children born to her parents. At age 20, she married Thomas Duston, a local bricklayer and farmer. The Emerson family had previously been the subject of attention when Elizabeth Emerson, Hannah's younger sister, was hanged for infanticide.

Children of Thomas and Hannah Dustin:

Hannah Dustin (1678-1732) - md Daniel Cheney

Elizabeth Dustin (1680-1746)

Nathaniel Duston (1685-1764)

Mary Dustin (1681-1696)

John Duston (1686-1690)

Sarah Dustin (1688-1759)

Abigail Dustin (1690-1727)

Jonathan Dustin (1691-)

Mehitable Dustin (1694-)

Timothy Dustin (1694-1775)

Martha Duston (1697-1697) - Baby killed in 1697 Haverhill Indian Raid

Lydia Duston (1698-1764)

• https://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Haverhill/aBirthsE.shtml "(EMMERSON (Emerson)) Hannah, d. Michael and Hannah (Webster), Dec. 23, 1657."
• https://ma-vitalrecords.org/MA/Essex/Haverhill/aMarriagesE.shtml (EMERSON (Emmerson)) Hannah, and Thomas Duston, Dec. 3, 1677."
• There is not a record of her death in the Vital Records Project for Haverhill.

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GEDCOM Note

GIVN Hannah SURN EMERSON _UID 6302465CCD49034C8FB5D92970B87E79D102 DATE 12 MAY 2009 ABBR Ancestral File (R) 1998 TITL The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R) (Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998). Ancestral File is a collection of genealogical information taken from Pedigree Charts and Family Group Records submitted to the Family History Department since 1978. The information has not been verified against any official records. Since the information in Ancestral File is contributed, it is the responsibility of those who use the file to verify its accuracy. ABBR Ancestral File (TM) TITL The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (TM) (June 1998 (c), data as of 5 Jan 1998) REPO _SDATE 1 JUL 1703 AFN 22B6-17 GIVN Hannah SURN EMERSON _UID 6302465CCD49034C8FB5D92970B87E79D102 DATE 12 MAY 2009 ABBR Ancestral File (R) 1998 TITL The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R) (Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998). Ancestral File is a collection of genealogical information taken from Pedigree Charts and Family Group Records submitted to the Family History Department since 1978. The information has not been verified against any official records. Since the information in Ancestral File is contributed, it is the responsibility of those who use the file to verify its accuracy. ABBR Ancestral File (TM) TITL The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (TM) (June 1998 (c), data as of 5 Jan 1998) REPO _SDATE 1 JUL 1703 AFN 22B6-17 GIVN Hannah SURN EMERSON _UID 6302465CCD49034C8FB5D92970B87E79D102 DATE 12 MAY 2009 ABBR Ancestral File (R) 1998 TITL The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (R) (Copyright (c) 1987, June 1998, data as of 5 January 1998). Ancestral File is a collection of genealogical information taken from Pedigree Charts and Family Group Records submitted to the Family History Department since 1978. The information has not been verified against any official records. Since the information in Ancestral File is contributed, it is the responsibility of those who use the file to verify its accuracy. ABBR Ancestral File (TM) TITL The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ancestral File (TM) (June 1998 (c), data as of 5 Jan 1998) REPO @S310350067S310350040S310350067S310350040S310350040S310350067S310350040@

GEDCOM Source

1,70582::622822

GEDCOM Note

Bio notes: m. Thomas Dustin 5 Dec 1677 had 13 children This is the FAMOUS HANNAH DUSTIN...Claires's 8th gg; Emily's 9th gg; Neva's 10th gg

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/4667/hannah-duston

Hannah Emerson Duston Famous memorial

BIRTH
23 Dec 1657
Haverhill, Essex County, Massachusetts, USA

DEATH
1736 (aged 78–79)
Ipswich, Essex County, Massachusetts, USA

BURIAL*
Pentucket Cemetery
Haverhill, Essex County, Massachusetts, USA Show Map GPS-Latitude: 42.7768300, Longitude: -71.0775100

• Alleged or in dispute burial location

MEMORIAL ID
4667 ·

Folk Figure. Born Hannah Emerson, she married Thomas Duston and with him had ten children. Toward the end of King William's War, on March 15, 1697, less than a week after the birth of their ninth child, Martha, the family farmstead was raided by Abnaki who captured Hannah, her aunt, Mary Neff, and the infant girl while the rest of the family fled to the nearby garrison and safety. The Abnaki captors smashed the infant to death against a tree before marching the two women for fifteen days to the north where they were parceled out to another Abnaki group consisting of about half a dozen adults and several children including an adolescent captive boy, Samuel Leonardson, who had been taken from Worcester some eighteen months previously. The band set up camp on an island at the conjunction of …

Bio by: Iola

Family Members

Parents

Michael Emerson
1627–1709

Hannah Webster Emerson
1635–1707

Spouse

Thomas Dustin
1652–1732 (m. 1677)

Siblings

Elizabeth Emerson
1665–1693

Joshua Emerson
1678–1742

Children

Hannah Dustin Cheney
1678–1732

Elizabeth Dustin Emerson
1680–1746

Thomas Duston
1683–1767

Nathaniel Duston
1685–1753

Sarah Duston Watts
1688 – unknown

Timothy Dustin
1694–1733