It Was All Meant To Be, Biography of Timothy Wood-worth

I am in the process of writing a biography of my third great grandfather the Reverend Timothy Woodworth. A New England Planter, Nova Scotia Patriot, American Revolution soldier, Mohawk Indian captive, and a proponent of "religious athleticism" in the Great Awakening, he is certainly worthy of being cited in our Woodworth family history as more than a chronic pensioner following the American Revolution.

It took me 55 years of genealogical research and four months of writing, editing, and compiling Chapter 5 of Timothy's biography. I will start Chapter 3. Siege of Ft. Cumberland next, and then work myself back and forth on Chapter One, Lebanon Crank, Chapter 2 New England Planter Chapter 4 First Connecticut Regiment Chapter 6 Indian Captivity Chapter 7 Royalton Chapter 8 Great Awakening and Religious Athleticism Chapter 9 Apostle of God 10. Last Words. if my fate is to do so.

There's a lot to learn from this Woodworth Ancestor - He was truly a heroto me and in our country's history, I think far more than most folks realize and I hope to memorialize his great feats in his biography.

I invite your comments at Rodger@aol.com if you only want me to read them or the Woodworth family link if they are newsworthy for our Woodworth family.

Thanks all!

Rodger

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It Was All Meant To Be,

Biography of Timothy Wood-worth

Chapter 5. Indian Captive

In her “History of Royalton Vermont with Family Genealogies, 1769 -1911,” Evelyn M. Wood Lovejoy wrote, “There is a tradition in the family that during the Revolutionary War, Timothy Woodworth was taken prisoner by the Indians, and while in captivity he so ingratiated himself into their favor that he was allowed to participate in their games. He was very fleet of foot, but

concealed this fact. On one occasion the games consisted of jumping and running and at the first trial he allowed the Indian pitted against him to win the race but on the second trial he exerted himself to the utmost and made his escape.”1

If this family tradition is for real, Timothy’s captivity would have occurred between the start of the American Revolution at the Battle of Concord on April 18, 1775 and its end with the ratification of the Treaty of Paris on September 3, 1783. On the day of the Battle of Concord, he lived on his father’s farm in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia. On November 4, 1776, he signed up at Macias, Maine with Jonathan Eddy to fight with Nova Scotia patriots at the siege of Ft. Cumberland, which lasted from November 10, 1776 to November 28, 1776. After the Canadien patriots’ defeat, he hightailed it from angry Cumberland loyalists back to Macias, where he was discharged from Continental service with the Nova Scotia patriots on December 21, 1776. He then headed to his grandfather’s farm in Lebanon Crank, Connecticut where still feeling a patriotic urging, he set off for Providence, Rhode Island to enlist on February 2, 1777 for three years in Captain Eley’s Company in the First Connecticut Regiment . 2 -3

During his three years in the Continental Army, February 2, 1777 - February 2, 1780, he was accounted for at every monthly pay muster. Also, there is no evidence that he got leave from the First Connecticut to travel and attend the funeral of his Grandfather Jedediah Woodworth who died at Lebanon Crank on November 11, 1777. Except for a brief period during the Valley Forge encampment when he was absent without leave (AWOL) in December, 1777, he was clearly present at all First Connecticut musters.

The two - year spread between his discharge from the Continental Army on February 2, 1780 and his marriage to Eunice Lyman in Lebanon Crank on March 6, 1782 is the only period during the American Revolution that we do not know Timothy’s whereabouts. After his discharge, his first likely destination would have been Lebanon Crank, however, just twenty years old, it would not be long before he stopped celebrating his discharge and got serious about acquiring some land and settling down.

The lure of land in Vermont and Nova Scotia was beckoning settlers in 1780. Timothy had family members. who had acquired land and settled down in both areas. Remembering, however, he was not a British loyalist and how he had to flee the anger of citizens after the patriots’ defeat at Ft. Cumberland, he would have felt persona non gratis in the Nova Scotia province and would not want to return there. 4

He would have been more likely to go to Vermont. Two of his uncles had settled east of the Green Mountains in Vermont, William Blackmer in the Barnard/Royalton area in 1779, and his Aunt Amey’s husband,Timothy Clarke in Rockingham in 1778. Discharged from the First Connecticut and living in Lebanon Crank at the same time, his Army buddies, Ezekiel, and Daniel Lyman would be talking it up to him about settling in Royalton, as they would in 1783. Connecticut was running out of arable land, and the folks in Lebanon along with members of the Woodworth family would all be talking about the land opportunities in Vermont They most certainly would have been encouraging a young man like Timothy to check out that area. 5

Indian raids were occurring in Vermont during the time Timothy’s whereabouts is not documented, Barnard on August 9, 1780, Bethel on September 21, 1780, and Royalton on October 16, 1780. There are three first hand accounts which provide an abundance of information about the experiences of the Indian captives in the Royalton Raid. In “The Indian Captive, or A Narrative of the Captivity and Suffering,” Zadock Steele, wrote about his experience as a captive in 1818, 6 K.M. Hutchinson recorded his grandfather’s experience in “Memoir of Abijah Hutchinson, a Soldier of the Revolution,” in 1846, and George Avery in the “Narrative” in Evelyn Lovejoy’s History of Royalton, Vermont in 1846. 7 The Rev. William Monroe Newton described the Barnard Raid in his work, “Richard Newton of Sudbury, Massachusetts 1638 - 9” While none of these commentaries Identified Timothy specifically by name as one of the captives taken by the Indians at Bethel and Barnard, the three works about the Royalton Raid identified by name only twenty - two of the thirty - two captives that the British Lt. Richard Houghton reported to his commanding officer, General Frederick Haldimand as taken in the Royalton Raid.. 8 New to the area, the authors and many other Royalton residents would not have been acquainted with Timothy or been able to have identified him in their commentaries. The value of the commentaries as a resource is that they describe the horrifying experiences. Timothy would have experienced on the trail from Royalton to the Indians’. settlement at Kahnawake.

There is other information that collaborated Timothy’s identity as one of the captives. His family spoke about his captivity during the American Revolution and their talk became a family tradition years after he left this world. He would have been encouraged by his family to go to Vermont. His family owned property there. Recently discharged, he may have been wearing his First Connecticut continental jacket. Some of his family members back in Lebanon Crank would have been known by the Indian raiders and one of them may have been his protector. He was a young buck physically ready for a hard trek from Royalton to Quebec. In summary, there is enough other evidence unearthed in my fifty - five years of genealogical research and these commentaries to collaborate that the family tradition was accurate. My third great grandfather, Timothy Woodworth was indeed a captive taken at Royalton, who was taken back, adopted and lived as a Mohawk Indian at Kahnawake until he had a chance to escape them. In this chapter, I will describe his experience in the Royalton Raid and rigorous trek back to Quebec and in Chapter 6, his “captivity” with the Mohawk Indians.

In his twilight years, Timothy used to preach that his captivity with the Mohawk Indians during the American Revolution was God’s doing. His suffering was not happen chance. The ordeal, he learned to believe, was a result of divine providence, a penance for his sins and a deliverance from evil. Almighty God had ordained him for a purpose in life which fit in with His. design of a universal order. The captivity had purified his soul so he could preach God’s word. Any mercy the savages showed him, opportunity they afforded him to escape, and the foot speed that made his escape possible were due to divine intervention. 9

The bright red leaves whispering quietly as they fell to the ground were the only sounds Timothy heard as he caught his breath while sitting down on a big tree stump in the middle of a small clearing in the woods, west of Royalton. On this beautiful but brisk autumn October day in October, 1780, he was helping his Uncle William clear some trees out near his log cabin. Staring out at the distant Green Mountains, he became quickly absorbed in thought about what the future held in store for him. Working alone, and uninterrupted in his thought, he thanked his lucky stars he could finally stop remembering the misery of the past four years he spent in the army and learn again how to enjoy a colorful day in this beautiful Vermont paradise.

The brutal 1779/80 winter encampment at Morristown, New Jersey, had been the final straw that slowed down the beat of his heart for defending the American colonies. Locals said it was the coldest winter they had ever experienced, far worse than the previous winter the soldiers had experienced at Valley Forge. At times, food was so closely rationed that he had to hunt in the nearby woods to find a raccoon, squirrel, deer or not catching any of those animals, forage for birch bark or anything else edible, just to stop his stomach from growling. If he was not fortunate enough to trap anything, he would be desperate enough to rustle and butcher a farmer’s cow or chicken for meat to bring back to the camp. In spite of Governor Trumbull’s deference for providing the Connecticut Regiments the best clothing available and other states’ troops a lesser quality, he also had to learn to mend his tattered uniforms by making a pair of pants, shirt, or even coat from old blankets to keep from freezing. 10

After his discharge in February, 1780, Timothy went to Lebanon, Connecticut to visit family and friends. Although his parents had moved to Nova Scotia in 1760, his grandfather, Uncle Constant and Benjamin had passed away, his Aunt Amey had moved to Vermont, and his Uncle Jedediah was on duty with the First Connecticut Regiment in Peekskill, New York, most of their children, his thirteen first cousins, still lived there. 11 Also, he wanted to check out his Army buddies, the Lyman Brothers’ Aunt Eunice, and other young ladies in town who might be a good marriage match for him.

Free, single and disengaged, out of the military, and just in his early twenties,, he had to feel like he did not have a care in the world. He could do almost anything he wanted within reason and did not have to explain it to anyone. Although he did not have any particular sense of purpose, just the same, he often thought about what he was going to do the rest of his life and frequently asked his family for suggestions. His father and brothers encouraged him.to farm on the St. John River in New Brunswick, where they had lived since 1776. His army buddies, Ezekiel and Daniel Lyman suggested he settle down in Lebanon Crank and marry their twenty eight - year old spinster Aunt Eunice. Aunt Amey and his mother’s brother, his Uncle William Blackmer suggested he check out the opportunities in Vermont, where there was still plenty of free land for the taking. Uncle Jedediah told him to stay single and head far away from Connecticut to Western New York.

After considering the alternatives, Timothy chose to go to Eastern Vermont, which seemed to him like it was becoming a mecca for farmers needing their own land. His Uncle William, who owned nine hundred acres near Barnard, and laid claim to another three hundred acres fourteen miles away in Royalton, convinced him to check out the White River Valley. Enraptured by this area’s beauty and abundance of free land ever since he marched through the area with the British army to Crown Point in 1755, his uncle had decided to return to settle down there after he was discharged in December, 1779. 12 His uncle offered to pay him to help clear the land while promising to give him plenty of time off to check out the area. If he decided to settle there, he would not be the only family member settling there. Two of William’s brothers, his uncles, Timothy and Holland Blackmer, were planning to buy one hundred acres from his uncle and settle down there after they were discharged from the military. Also, his Aunt Amey lived only fifty miles away in Rockingham. 13

While many Vermonters were still talking about the big battles that took place in Charleston, Camden, and Kings Mountain the summer of 1780, they were also very aware the British had started sending small Indian raiding parties into central Vermont, first to Barnard in August, then to Bethel in September. They remembered the British had attacked Bennington and other locations in northern Vermont every year since 1775. An independent republic since 1777, no longer subject to New Hampshire, New York, and Massachusetts claims on its autonomy, many Vermonters were patriots who wanted Vermont to become the fourteenth state. They supported the colonies in the American Revolution and collectively they were a big “thorn in the British side. “ 14

Anticipating more British raids, the new Vermont Republic had built several forts in the Champlain Valley stretching from the southern end of Lake Champlain to Newbury on the Connecticut River, which stood strong on Vermont’s northern border, blocking British war parties’ way to the Connecticut Valley, and New England settlements.. They fortified Pittsford, Bethel, Barnard, Royalton, Newbury and other garrison towns. His uncle had told him the local militia had set up alarm posts to warn the settlers of any attack, but since the British led Indians had just attacked the Barnard/Royalton area two months ago, Timothy did not think they would choose to return there a second time so soon. Just the same, he cautioned himself to move quickly to hide deep in the forest far away from the river and trails if he heard war cries or a lookout shouting that the Indians were coming.

Suddenly, his thoughts were interrupted by a dog’s bark, followed by a sound like sheep splashing through the river. 15 He looked in the direction of the river, anxious he would have to hurry down to the water to scare off a wolf or a grizzly bear attacking his uncle’s sheep. His musket was back at the cabin but he could not call for help from his uncle. who had gone to Royalton that morning. Springing to his feet, he started to run toward the cabin, but suddenly froze in his tracks when he spotted what seemed like a thousand Indians running out of the woods, a few spilling off into the cabin, the main party rushing off in the direction of the nearest neighbor’s homestead a half mile away. Confused by Indians running all around him, he did not know if he should run towards the forest or down to the river to get away.

Not hearing a shout or war cry, and like the other settlers downstream, Timothy was caught off guard by the sudden raid. A band of two hundred sixty- five Kahnawake Mohawk and Abenaki warriors, three French Canadien interpreters, commanded by a British Lieutenant Richard Houghton and 21st Regiment grenadier Richard Hamilton was sweeping through the area, burning down the widely spread homesteads, slaughtering livestock, taking prisoners and killing some settlers. Some historians have concluded that the Royalton/Barnard area was not the initial target of the raid. Lt. Richard Houghton and his men had orders to travel down Lake Champlain and cut across northern Vermont along the Onion River to Newbury, where they hoped to find Benjamin Whitcomb, who had taken up George Washington’s offer in 1776 to kill a British general. Near Montpelier, Houghton had supposedly mentioned his destination to a man he believed was a Loyalist, but who in reality was an American scout. More believably, lookouts spotted a large raiding party marching down one of the main routes across the state and surmised that the British planned an attack on Newbury or another settlement upstream. Fearing a large American militia would be waiting for them in Newbury, Houghton changed his plans, and ordered his men over the hills to Chelsea, down the First Branch of the White River through Tunbridge, and into Royalton. 16

Timothy saw there was no way for him to escape this horde of locusts buzzing around him. He talked to himself, “Damn, I just got away from fighting the British in the army, now I have to face the Indians here..” Although very frightened by the scene in front of him, he kept his composure and tried to weigh out his options before he was discovered. He was very fast afoot but did not think he could outrun the warriors’ arrows, hatchets and spears. He did not have time to fetch his gun. There were too many warriors to fend off with his axe. He would just have to stand where he was and hope for a good outcome. Recalling his Micmac friends back home in Nova Scotia had told him once that Indians were more apt nowadays to adopt captives into their tribes or sell them to the British then to kill them outright, he was a bit comforted.

Spotting him kneeling behind a big elm, several Indians, hooting and howling, ran over to surround him. Their leader came up, asked his name, and told him he was a captive who would have to go with them to a destination he did not specify. Surprised the Indian was speaking good English, he arrogantly thought, “I bet Canada, if they do not kill me first,” The idea flashed through his mind that he should tell the warrior he was from Nova Scotia and a loyalist on the same side as him. but then it dawned on him he was wearing his old First Connecticut coat, which would give him away. He best tell the truth.

The warrior’s eye brows raised and his eyes opened wide in apparent recognition of his prisoner when he heard him answer, “Woodworth and Lebanon,” but then getting his stern face back again, the warrior asked.his frightened prisoner if there were any people, cattle, sheep, pigs, or other livestock nearby. Knowing he would find out anyhow, Timothy told the warrior there were a few cows, sheep and a dog down by the river, but he was the only person on the homestead grounds. Apparently leery of his answer, the Indian ordered his warriors to check out the area. It was not long before they found the cows, a few of which they butchered and the rest they slaughtered into bloody corpses. They then set the cabin on fire.

As the sun was setting, the Indians returned from their meanderings to a predesignated meeting spot in a forested location at the mouth of the White River. Once settled in, Lt. Houghton summoned the prisoners forward to take a head count, give them his instructions, warnings and reassurance they would be killed only if they attempted to flee.. Each prisoner was assigned a different leader and taken to one of the twenty or so camp fires that were spread throughout the area. Timothy thought he was very fortunate when the Indian capturing him that afternoon came over and led him off a short distance to his campfire. 17

As Timothy passed by, he heard a captive whisper softly, “He will be going to a different world,” Hearing the admonition, he was puzzled at first but then realized the regimental coat he was wearing would identify him as an enemy soldier who the Indians may treat more harshly than they would an ordinary settler. Looking back at the captive, he whispered defensively, “This is the only coat I own.” 18

At the newly assigned campfire, the captives, surrounded by braves, huddled by a high tower of tree branches and leaves suitable for a camp fire. Timothy’s leader came over to him, offering him a pair of moccasins in exchange for his captive’s shoes, which, smiling, he took off without hesitation and gave him, hoping to please the warrior with his quick generosity. The chief then stepped back and ordered the captives to take off and give their outer clothing to the Indian in front of them. The Indians then bartered and divided the apparel among themselves while the chief said nothing, and just watched the other braves excitedly trying on shoes, coats, trousers, and other clothing items to make sure they were a good fit. The warrior who obtained his coat, held it up beating his chest. laughing heartily and proudly showing it off to the other Indians. In trade for their clothes, the Chief ordered the warriors to give the captives blankets to protect them from the cold. 19

In 1846 at the age of eighty-eight, in “The Narrative of the Captive,” another captive in the Royalton Raid, George Avery, described what happened to him and the captives that first night. “An Indian brought a strong belt to bind around me, then took me to a shelter, laid me down under it, pounded stakes into the ground on each side of me, tied my belt to the stakes and staked him to the ground.” They fed the captives dinner afterwards but before they settled down for the night, cautioned the captives in no uncertain terms, that if they tried to escape, they would be killed on the spot Four Indians laid on the belt that tied him to the stakes, two upon each side of him so he could not move without them feeling the belt move They placed Indians all around the camp to prevent anyone from moving around unnoticed. There were more guards by the fire. On this frigid night, all of the captives were spiked to the ground near the different campfires fires that were kept burning all night by the guards.” 20

The war party knew their trail would not be hard to follow. The glow of their camp fire could be seen for miles. They expected a militia to pursue them so they set up a perimeter guard and settled down for the night ready to move on at dawn or sooner if followed by a Vermont militia. The Indians’ worst fear came true when at two am the morning of October 17th, nearly three hundred sixty - four men under the command of Colonel House of Hanover, New Hampshire closed in on the raiders’ campfires. Not knowing how close they were to the Indians, the soldiers clashed with the Indians rear guard. Hearing the gunfire, the Indians upfront reacted ferociously rushing to make ready to fight or retreat. The militia continued to rout the Indians’ and knowing they should get ready to flee, the Indians unleashed the prisoners, put their belts around the captives’ necks and tied them to a tree while they packed up. They chatted ominously words that meant “death was at end.” 21

Like they were an omen the combatants should stop fighting, streaks of lightning bolts lit up the sky, thunder roared to the ground and a heavy downpour burst out of the sky. Blinded by the heavy rain, both sides had to take a break in the fight. The warriors in the rear guard hid behind big trees and waited for the militia soldiers to advance. The short break in fire gave the rest of the war party a chance to get organized. They gathered and put their packs filled with heavy equipment and plunder onto their captives backs and got ready for a quick retreat. 22

At one of the campfires, witnesses later described the experience of seeing two captives savagely scalped and killed. Mistakenly thinking the militia nearby would rescue him momentarily, Joseph Kneeland refused his leader’s order to walk and paid the ultimate price of his life for his insubordination. In a revengeful retaliation for a warrior being wounded in the exchange, Giles Gibbs, with the hatchet supposedly still sticking out of the back of his head, was brutally scalped. 23 Word got around to the other campfires about the Indians’ savage behavior, so the captives quickly knew upsetting their captors would have grave consequences.

Frightened by the Indians’ violence, and upset by a life which took him through a past dangerous four year war experience, he worried about his well being, Timothy knew that if he could survive the first couple days of his captivity, the further he got away from Royalton, the more apt the Indians would be to let him live. If he was uncooperative as the two victims, they would kill him too. He planned to be even more submissive to each and every one of his captors’ whims and wishes and accepted his fate..

Concerned there were more captives killed, a sole militia soldier walked around inspecting the Indians’ camps. Finding no other victims, he stopped, looked up at the sky, shook his head and cried softly, “Thank the Lord! My nephew is not among the victims.” On the alarm, worried about Timothy Woodworth, who, he knew was visiting in the Royalton area, Timothy Clarke had marched sixty miles in two days with the Rockingham Militia to rescue a family member who was there in harm’s way. 24

Anxious the Americans were still close behind, the raiding party hurried down the First Branch of the White River north to Berlin and the Dog River until the sun started setting. The captives knew their chances of escaping were slim, and they would be killed instantly if caught trying. The further they got away from Royalton, however, the better they thought their chances for survival were. The Indians in 1780 preferred to keep their captives for adoption, slavery and revenge. They were more valuable to them alive than dead. Any captives unsuitable for adoption or enslavement would be kept alive to be sold to the British for money or exchanged for supplies, weapons, and rum. 25

Before the raiding party started off the morning of October 18th, Timothy’s leader, ordered the captives to eat all of their breakfast, even urging them to eat as much as they wanted, although the Indians had lost half of their provisions two nights ago at Randolph and had only half a ration each for themselves. Thinking their food tasted terrible, Timothy learned to eat the Indian food only when he was very hungry and needed an energy boost. Taught by their parents the Indians were savages, intent only on killing them, most of the captives were shocked at this generosity. The Puritans believed the very hint of Indian decency was due to divine intervention, not a credit to their innate goodness. Growing up in Nova Scotia and familiar only with the Micmacs and other local Indians, he took an exception to that thinking, attributing their generosity to wanting to keep the captives strong enough to continue carrying their packs, which were ladened down with mirrors, pots, frying pans, and saddles pillaged from the settlers houses, He did not understand why the Indians relished those stupid mirrors so much, particularly because they broke many times from bouncing up and down on the bumpy trail, became useless, and were discarded.

After breakfast, the raiding party followed a path along the Dog River, then northeasterly on the Onion River until they reached a steep mountain in the county of Chittenden near a place later called Bolton. Struggling to the top of the mountain, the Indians found a store of grain they had left on the way to Royalton, replenished their food store, mixed some of the grain into batter, and baked it on the fire into some delicious bread, which unlike the other Indian food, Timothy relished and ate in abundance. Less fearful that they would be overtaken by the Vermonters that night, the Indians became more relaxed and the captives feared less that they would be put to death. 26

Passing through the Onion River Valley, the raiding party saw the devastation of lands that were settled and thriving in the 1770s. In the twenty-eight years between 1763 - 1793, the non- Indian population of Vermont rose from three hundred to eighty-five thousand settlers. A fort at Crown Point had been built in 1759, and the Crown Point Military Road stretched across the Green Mountains from Springfield to Chimney Point making traveling from the neighboring British colonies of New York, Massachusetts, and New Hampshire that much easier. Particularly Ira Allen but also his brothers, Ethan, and Levi, and Seth Warner recruited an informal militia, the Green Mountain Boys, and fostered a thriving land selling business, the Onion River Valley Company. 27

As part of Carleton’s Raid, October 24 - November 14, 1778, the British sent out a series of raiding parties from Crown Point that threatened Vermont settlements from the shores of Lake Champlain all the way north to the Green Mountains. Lt. Houghton and some of the same Indians following him that day were with him on the same path as two years before, burning out the settlers’ cabins, slaughtering their livestock, and destroying the area. Abandoning their many homesteads, the settlers fled south and the Vermont legislature told others they could not protect them north of the Green Mountains anymore. Major Carleton said the raids in Vermont had destroyed enough supplies for twelve thousand men for a four - month campaign, and included destruction of one saw mill, one grist mill, forty-seven houses, forty eight barns, twenty-eight stacks of wheat, seventy-five stacks of hay. Over eighty head of cattle were captured, and brought back to Quebec, thirty - nine prisoners were taken to Saint Jean Sur Richelieu and forty to Quebec City. 28

In an account of the march the fourth day out, one of the captives, Abijah Hutchinson described an incident, which Timothy may have witnessed. Exhausted from carrying a heavy, bulky pack tied to his back for two days, Abijah’s knees buckled. An Indian watching him ran up and tried to force the fallen captive to drink a pint of rum to make him strong enough to carry the load. Abijah refused the rum and the Indian started grappling with him, thrusting the bottle toward his mouth. While extremely fatigued, Abijah tried to fight back, and a struggle ensued. The Indian grabbed Abijah by the throat, took out a tomahawk with his other hand and forced the overpowered captive to the ground. The tomahawk flashed down toward the captive’s head, but suddenly knocked out of his hand by another Indian, missed its mark, and struck a rock beside Abijah’s head. The almost fatal blow had been deflected by the hand of another Indian who had been following Abijah and his combatant on the trail. Looking up at his protector, Abijah recognized the face of a boyhood friend, who had attended Moor’s Indian Charity School in his hometown, Lebanon Crank, between 1766 and 1772. He guessed that his old friend had recognized him earlier, and knowing his friend’s life was in grave jeopardy, decided to watch out for his friend’s back. His protector then reprimanded Abijah’s assailant, redistributed his load, and made sure he and the other captives were given a decent meal. 29

While Timothy and Abijah did not know each other back in Lebanon Crank and may have met for the first time as captives, their Woodworth and Hutchinson families back in Connecticut knew each other well. They lived near each other and were neighbors since their families’ patriarchs, Jedediah Woodworth and Dr. Timothy Hutchinson settled in town in 1728. Abijah went to school with Samuel and Benjamin Woodworth, and fought the British off Breed’s Hill with his Uncle Jedediah Woodworth in 1776. His uncle, Constant Woodworth, married Abijah’s distant cousin Rebecca Hutchinson. Abijah’s father Timothy was a doctor who treated both the members of the Woodworth Family and the young Indians at the school. Members of both families were serious communicants at the Second Congregational Church and saw each most every Sunday. Members of both families were buried in the Second Congregational Church Cemetery.

In his outstanding history of the Royalton Raid, “We Go As Captives,” Neil Goodwin Identified an Indian who may have been Abijah’s savior. 30 While he said there were other possibilities, the most likely choice was a Mohawk named Paulus or Ograsbuskon, who attended Moor’s Charity Indian School in Lebanon Crank between 1766 -1772. The founder of that school and minister of the Second Congregational Church in Lebanon Crank was the Reverend Eleazer Wheelock, who made sure the young Indians attending the school were taught English as well as assimilated into the Second Congregational Church’s religious and social activities. 31. Abijah and Woodworth family members both formed friendships with the young Mohawks at the Church. If the Hutchinson family members knew Paulus and the other Indians in Lebanon Crank, so did he know the Woodworth family. Hearing the name of a “Woodworth” from Lebanon, Connecticut, Abijah, Paulus and any other young Mohawk attending the Moor Indian School and the Second Congregational Church would also recognize Timothy as the relative of a friend whom he would want to watch out for too.

Marching back and forth miles and miles between northern New Jersey, New York, and Pennsylvania, working many more years on his parents’ farm and hiking all over the Nova Scotia countryside, Timothy was in peak physical condition and would not have faltered on the very rigorous trail. Traveling with the upmost celerity, they would have tested him to see if he could keep up. If he slowed them down, they would have killed him. When he showed them he could keep up with them, he would pass their strength and endurance tests and they would have viewed him with the upmost respect

The Indians also liked to test the captives courage. They liked to intimidate captives and sometimes kill any who slowed them down or tried to escape. They would point a gun or a tomahawk in their faces, threatening to shoot or scalp them. It was surprising that no such incident befell Timothy on the trail, but as he told his family in later years, he went out of his way to be subservient to the Indians, and ingratiated himself by exchanging his pair of shoes for his leader’s moccasins, and graciously doing other favors for his Indian captors. He also told his family an Indian chief looked out for him. That Indian chief, or maybe Paulus, may have been the warrior who captured him the first day . 32

On The fourth day, the raiding party reached Lake Champlain, where the Indians found the long boats they had used on their way to Royalton and hid for their return. The warriors celebrated the find while the British lieutenant and some of the Indian leaders huddled in a conference to decide where they would camp that night. Wearing the Connecticut regimental coat he had given up the first day of his captivity, Timothy’s leader told him before leaving that he and the British leaders were going a different route, but he planned to meet up with Timothy when he reached St. John. The warrior knew his charge would be safe from harm now that the raiding party had reached this well protected British fortress and the warriors would be more protective and concerned with getting their charges dressed up and ready for adoption or sale. Shortly afterwards, he saw their boat sailing toward the watchful eye of a British gunboat waiting out in the Lake. The rest of the Indians boarded the boat and crossed over to camp on the Grand Isle for the night.

The next morning the Indians got up early and embarked for the Isle Aux - Nois, a British military and trading outpost, twelve miles down the Richelieu River from Lake Champlain. On their arrival there, the Indians took their packs off their captives’ backs, unloaded plunder which they proceeded quickly to trade to the merchants for a cache of West Indies rum. Their next priority was bartering and selling other plunder items for clothing apparel, which they later used to dress up their captives. 33

It was a fine time for a celebration - they had just made a treacherous trek to this island where they were protected by a British garrison from attack. And soon they did just that, drinking the rum they just acquired to excess, hooting and howling, and just plain and simply, by letting their hair down and getting rid of their worst fears Guarded by a few of the Indians who remained sober and some watchful British loyalist residents, the captives knew they still did not stand a chance of getting to the boats and making an escape. As Timothy observed, he and the other captives were getting better treatment from their captors with each step they took along the trail. It was a reciprocal relationship, the better the captives accepted their fate and became docile and cooperative, the more concerned the Indians became about their care and well being. The warriors were not oblivious to the rewards they would receive upon their return home for captives who were in good health. 34

The brutal murders of captives Butter, Pember, Kneeland and Gibbs on the first day had inspired the captives to turn to their God for comfort. By the campfire each night, captive Avery read verse from the Holy Bible to them and led the others in singing a hymn from a Watts Hymn Book he had snatched from a burning Royalton house before he was captured. Imbued with a Puritan theology, Avery interpreted David’s Thirty - Eight Psalm as applicable to their situation, “We had nowhere to look but to God in our troubles. Why is it thus with me, was my enquerry.” 35

His faith was shattered by the loss of his mother at age eleven. Although his mother had taught him his prayers at an early age and encouraged him to believe in the God Almighty, he did not recite the prayers along with the other captives. There were no organized church services in the early days of the New England planters in Cornwallis Township, but his mother was an angel of God who tried lo lead him to Christ. All this holiness stopped when she died in childbirth with his brother in1769. He was his mother’s big boy and his father had no time for him and was also not much of a believer after losing his wife. 36

But Timothy’s ears still picked up when he heard Avery read these words from God. “Misfortune was visited on the sinful by a wrathful God and it is both our penance and trial. If he was to be delivered from the Indians, it would be by a provident almighty.” He recalled his mother’s teachings and resumed thinking again about God. Why had God put him in this misery. Why was he put on this earth? What should he do with his life? 37

On the sixth day, they reached St. Johns, which was a British processing center for the droves of British loyalist refugees fleeing the northern provinces, prisoners captured in Indian raids, and the thirty - two prisoners captured in the Royalton Raid. They came to the town to be readied for their next stop. Timothy’s leader rejoined the raiding party and immediately came over and told his charge to take off his Indian blanket and change into some clothes he had acquired in trade with other Indians. He painted his face and hands with red streaks and put a pointed cap on top his head, designating that he was an Indian welcome in the tribe. Not knowing the significance of the painted marks, and sitting by the camp fires every night, Timothy thought he had gotten to resemble an Indian. Later when was sitting in the market area next to his leader’s plunder, he felt the loyalists inspecting the articles thought he looked like another article there for sale. Studying the droves of folks there in the market to buy items to set up their new homesteads, the Indians ’ motive for carrying so much plunder became clear to Timothy - they could sell or trade this plunder to the British traders and refugees who were setting up a new homestead in Quebec. 38

In his narrative, “The Indian Captive,” Zadock Steele described an incident happening to him at St. Johns that showed the significance of the hands and face painting by the Indians.“The Indians now began to threaten the lives of all captives, whose faces were not painted, as the face being painted was a distinguishing mark put upon those whom they designated not to kill. As I was not painted, one of the Indians, under the influence of intoxication and brutal rage, like many white people, more sagacious than humane, came up to me and pointing a gun directly at my head, cocked it and was about to fire, when another old Indian, who was my new leader, knocked it aside, pushed him backward upon the ground, and took bottle of rum and putting it to his mouth, turned down his throat a considerable amount, left him and went on. 39

They now procured some paint, and painted my face, which greatly appeased the rage of those, who before had been apparently determined to take my life. I now received their marks of friendship and no longer felt myself in danger of becoming the subject of their fatal enmity. Clothed in an Indian blanket, with my hands and face painted, and possessing activity equal to any of them, they appeared willing I should live with them, and be accounted as one of their number.” 40

Lt. Houghton made his final report at St. Johns: “I burned twenty-eight dwelling houses, thirty-two barns full of grain and one barn not quite finished, one saw and one grain mill, killed all the black cows, sheep, pigs, of which there was a great quantity, there was but very little hay. I got thirty-two prisoners, four scalps, the Country was alarmed by Whitcomb the day before I got there. Except for Abijah Hutchinson, who was taken by the Abenaki to sell to the British, the thirty - one other Royalton captives were decorated in Indian garb for a ceremonial entry into the Indians fortress the next day.” 41

On the seventh and final day,Timothy, the other Royalton raid captives and the raiding party joined forty additional captives from New York taken in the October raids on the northern provinces and a few hundred other braves guarding them and marched to Caughnewaga or Kahnawake, an Indians fortress, on the St. Lawrence River across from Montreal.

On a fiercely cold wintery night in Western New York thirty-two years later in December, 1812, a young boy listened intently as his mother told him the story about his grandfather’s captivity with the Indians. She ended the story with these words, “Grandpa believed he escaped from the Indians because God wanted him to preach His word to the world. His soul was cleansed and eyes opened to the Lord by that ordeal.” The boy thought for a moment and then fell to sleep. 42

On April 14, 1865, Ira Bills tried escaping from the Kalamazoo Insane Asylum, but failing, spent another two years confined in the Michigan State institution. Authorities did not consider him dangerous, he thought only that he owned everything and one day, chopped down his neighbor’s valued cherry tree. Later research indicated perhaps his demon was not insanity, but an addiction to alcohol. 43. During his time confined in the institution, Ira remembered his grandfather’s story. Perhaps, God had cleansed his soul by the insane asylum ordeal and saved him for a divine purpose too. Not long afterwards, residents in the village of Wayne, Michigan started to hear the words, “God is Great” resound on the village’s streets. Like his grandfather, his alcohol addiction and confinement in the insane asylum was his penance. It made his soul ready to preach his Lord's words.