Middlebury register. (Middlebury, Vt.) 1886-1937, 1905-07-21
WHO WASANN STORY?
HOW MANY KNOW THE
STORY OF ANN STORY?

to honor the memory of Ann Story will
be dedicated in the town of Salisbury,
on Thursday next, July 81. How many
of the Registers readers know the story
of this woman whom the Vermont
Society of the Colonial Danes purposes
to honor with monument of marble?
Who was Ann Story is question that
has been propounded by many since the
announcement was made that monu-
ment was to be raised to the memory of
this woman whose life was so closely
linked with the early history of Vermont
and especially with the history of Sails
bury and Addison county.
She was a pioneer in the town of
Salisbury, which was one of the first
towns chartered under King George III
in Addison county-its charter bearing
date of November 3, 1761. Her husband
Amos Story, was the second settler who
pitched" as the old phrase was, in that
town. He went there in 1774 with his
oldest son, a lad of Ia, leaving his wife
and the rest of his children in Norwich
Conn. He selected hundred acre lot,
built little log house and had begun a
clearing when he was killed by the fall
of a tree. The following year Mrs. Story
went thither with her five growing
children, three sons and two daughters)
occupied the log house and undertook the
task of clearing the land and making
home in the wilderness haunted nightly
by wolves and panthers, and sometimes
visited by hostile Indians. She was a
woman of large stature and remarkable
physical strength, able to swing an axe
and handle lever in rolling logs as well
as any man, and not afraid to fire a
musket in time of need
When the war of the Revolution broke
out most of the few settlers in that part
of the New Hampshire Grants moved
away to the southern counties, where they
would be in less danger from the tories
and from Indian raids; but Mrs. Story
remained and her home was stopping
place and asylum for the patriots who
came that way. In the summer of 1776
"A party of Indians came down from
Canada, pillagng and burning the
abandoned farm houses. Their presence
on the clearing nearest hers was dis
covered by Mrs. Story, and putting her
valuables in canoe which was in the
creek near her door, she padded into
the recesses of big swamp, hidden in
which she saw the flames arise from her
neighbours house and her own.
Undismayed by this transaction Mrs
Story rebuilt her house, using the trunks
of small trees which she could handle
without a team; and she and her sons
dug place of secret refuge in the bank
of the Otter Creek. This was described
in her own language as follows: ave
dug a cave in bank of the creek where
we could retire for the night, cooking
and taking our meals at the house, and
laboring on the farm in the day time.
This cave we made by digging hori-
Zontally into the bank, concealing the
dirt we removed under water. The
|
sufficient only to admit our canoe. so
that all must lie PROSTATE in passing
either in or out. The canoe could float
into the cave quite out of sight. The
place where we slept was an excavation
by the side of and above the passageway
for the canoe and of sufficient size to ac-
comodate the whole family. We stuck
bushes at the mouth of the cave both
when we were in and out of it so that
the place of entrance would look like
the rest of the bank and thus prevent
discovery"
Mrs. Story's retreat was, however,
discovered by tory spy named Jenny
in the following way. The wife of a
settler had been taken captive by the
Indians: but being advanced in preg-
nancy she could not keep up with them
on their return to Canada, and was left
behind on the journey. She found an
asylum with Mrs. Story and was con-
concealed with a new born babe in the
cave. One day the tory, Jenny, was
passing by, on the footpath along the
bank of the creek, when he heard the
crying of the child, coming from under
ground.
He thereupon lurked near and watched
till Mrs. Story pushed out in her canoe,
when he followed her till she landed a
few rods below. He then accosted her
and tried to obtain from her some in
formation in regard to the movements
of the wings, which she refused to give.
Jenny" said Mrs. Story threatened to
shoot me on the spot, but to his threats |
bid defiance, saying that did not fear
being shot by such consummate coward
as he He finally passed ON down the
creek, and Mrs. Story lost no time in
notifying some of her neighbors that
tories were around, whereupon a party of
wings was raised and put upon their
track. Their camp in Mendon was sur