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Ann Story |
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Ann married Amos Story in Norwich, Connecticut on the 17th of September 1755. They had five children, Solomon, Ephraim, Samuel, Susanna, and Hannah. Wanting a better life for their children, Ann and Amos decided to move north to the New Hampshire Grants. There land was plentiful and the Story children could have good lives. In 1774 Amos and their 13-year-old son Solomon left Connecticut to go north and build a home for the family. They decided upon a clearing in the small town of Salisbury. Together they built a cabin large enough for the whole family. They were finished with the cabin by the spring of 1775, but they still needed to clear land to plant wheat so the family would have bread the next winter. While they were doing this, a large maple twisted and pinned Amos to the ground, killing him instantly. Frantically, Solomon chopped the tree away and freed his father's body. Then he ran all the way to Middlebury and the home of Benjamin Smalley. Smalley and his two sons, Imri and Alfred, went with Solomon to the Salisbury clearing and they brought Amos's body back to the Middlebury burial plot where Smalley's two daughters were buried. There Amos Story was laid to rest. When her son returned with the sad news of her husband's death, Ann decided she had to bring her children to the home their father built for them. One spring day in 1776, one of Ann's young sons saw Indians burn their neighbors deserted cabin. When he told his mother, she had the children grab all of their belongings they could carry, and they hid in the family's canoe among dense trees. The Indians set fire to the Story's cabin as the family watched from their hiding place. Once the Indians had left, Ann and her children returned to the place their cabin had been. Without hesitation, they rebuilt the cabin with logs small enough that she and the children could lift them. Finally they had an adequate cabin, with an escape route through the floor to a crevice in a granite ledge and then a thicket of prickly ash. Ann knew she had to hide her children in case of another surprise Indian attack. Then she got an idea. They dug a tunnel into the high banks over the Otter Creek. The canoe could pass into the opening, if all the passengers laid flat. A place to sleep was dug at one side, well above the water level. Tree roots formed an arch to hold up dirt over the underground room. This is where Ann and her children spent their nights. One day one of the Story boys was returning from an expedition into the woods when he heard someone crying. Curiously he peeked through the leaves and saw a white girl sitting on the ground sobbing. He went back to tell his mother, who thought it might be an Indian trick. With her musket on her shoulder Ann followed the little-boy back to the spot he had seen the girl. Seeing it was no trick, Ann stepped forward. The girl was from a settlement that had been raided by an Indian war-party, servicing the British. The prisoners were forced to walk a trail to Canada, but this girl was far along in a pregnancy and could not keep up. Finally she fell so far behind she was out of their sight, so they left her to starve. Ann had five children and she knew this girl was close to delivering, so she took her in. She had her baby with Ann acting as midwife. Royalists and Anti-Americans were leaving Vermont to go to Canada and join the British Army. They were to bring information to the British and their Indian allies about the location and defenses of Vermont settlements, and movements, resources, and organization of Vermont guerrilla fighters, like the Green Mountain Boys. They went at night, while the Story family was sleeping in their underground cave. Early one morning a royalist named Ezekiel Jenny was walking past the cave when the baby began to cry. Jenny stopped in his tracks. Now he knew the secret about the Story's vanishing at nightfall. He hid in the bushes and before long the canoe emerged from the opening of the cave. Jenny waited until Ann was out of the canoe, then he emerged from his hiding place. He pointed his musket at her in an attempt to make her talk and betray her allies, but Ann would not. She glared at Jenny and told him she had no fears of being shot by a coward like him. Jenny threatened and yelled at her, but Ann was firm and finally he passed along down the creek. After this Ann sent one of her sons to the Green Mountain Boys with the news of Jenny and where she thought he was going next. The Green Mountain Boys attacked the Anti-American camp, killing no one, but taking prisoners. They marched their prisoners over to Fort Ticonderoga, which was in then in American hands, and gave their prisoners up to the proper authorities. Ann Story was a valued aid and advisor to the Green Mountain Boys. She said to them: " I cannot live to see my children murdered before my eyes - give me a place among you and see if I am the first to desert my post." The patriots used her cabin for rest and shelter, and as a message drop where information could be passed along. Years later, at the age of 51, Ann married the widower Benjamin Smalley and moved to Middlebury. Thirteen years later, when Benjamin was 67, his health took a turn for the worst and they moved back to his original homestead where Benjamin's son Imri still lived. Benjamin died in 1807, at the age of 82. Five years later Ann married Captain Stephen Goodrich. She moved to his two-hundred acre farm east of Middlebury, where she died on April 5, 1817. She was 75 years old.
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by Sheena Strada |
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Ann
Story was born in Preston, Connecticut in 1741. Since she had five brothers and
one sister in a hard working poor family, based in a tight-knit community, Ann
became a tomboy. She loved to play with her brothers and go on boyish pursuits.