Stephen Farnsworth was born in 1715 in Groton, Massachusetts. He
married Eunice Hastings who was born in Watertown Massachusetts in
1722. Eunice's sister, Hannah, married Stephen's brother David and
her other sister, Susannah, married Stephen and David' stepbrother,
Lieutenant Moses Willard. David and Moses were also settlers at No
4. Stephen and Eunice were married on December 22, 1741. This means
that they came to No 4 as newlyweds. Stephen was 27 when they moved
to No. 4, and Eunice was 20. Their first child was Oliver, who was
born in 1742, the first child born at No.
4.
Stephen and Eunice had been married for four and a half years when
Stephen was taken captive by the Indians. Oliver was four years old
at the time. After Stephen was captured, Eunice went back to
Lunenburg with Oliver. It must have been a horrifying trip.
,
After Stephen was captured, Indian attacks occurred every month that Spring and Summer. In April, Seth Putnam was killed when he went to his barn in the morning. In May, twenty men went out from the fort to see where Seth was killed, and they were ambushed by Indians in the same spot. Stephen's brother Samuel was killed during that attack. Five men were killed, four were wounded and one was taken prisoner. At the end of August, the attacks stopped, but the settlers had not been able to leave the fort. They hadn't been able to grow crops, they couldn't hunt, and they were bereft in the face of their losses of family and friends. The fort was abandoned. Most families returned to Groton, Lunenburg, or Deerfield, their original homes. They took what they could carry and buried everything else in hopes of coming back and starting again in the spring. (Bruce, Nona "The
Fort at No 4" Old Fort No 4 Associates 1990 page 5)
Eunice traveled with her sisters and brother-in-law. They had lost Samuel and Stephen was in captivity. It isn't clear if they knew whether or not Stephen was still alive. How did they
travel? By canoe? Probably not, with the little guy with them.
Did they walk? That would have been an awfully long way with a four
year old. The best bet is probably an oxcart, even though it is
certain the roads were rudimentary at best. Stephen was driving an
oxcart when he was captured, so we know there were roads leading at
least out of the settlement to the lumber mill.
Even with an oxcart, it must have been supremely difficult. They
were traveling through what amounted to a war zone, through thick,
dark, forests. I can imagine Eunice jumping at every sound,
imagining Indians jumping out of the thickets along the way. Normally an oxcart can make about 5 miles an hour, but that is on a good pathway. As an estimate, they probably averaged about 3 miles an hour. Even as
they made their way south, they probably did not encounter many
English settlers. Lunenburg, Massachusetts is right across the New
Hampshire border, near Rindge, NH. Rindge was settled in 1738, but
abandoned in 1744. It seems bad enough to drive through the dense
forests thinking an Indian might kill you at any moment, but it would
have been even scarier to drive through empty settlements that had
been deserted by English settlers afraid of being killed by Indians.
Amazingly enough, Eunice and little Oliver made it to Lunenburg
alive. She was there when Stephen was released. The Farnsworth
family history says “she very
reluctant, after his return, to take up her abode again at No. 4.”
Wow, I can imagine that after making all the way to Lunenburg in one
piece, the last thing she would have wanted to do was make that trip
again, even less to return to the place where her husband was kidnapped and she lived in daily fear for her life. Regardless, the history goes on to say, “But she at length yielded to
his importunity” In other words, he begged her to go back to No. 4.
You have to wonder how this
all played out. Did Stephen go home to No 4, find out Eunice and
Oliver weren't there, and continue on to Lunenburg? Or did he
already know they had left, and so he just went straight to
Lunenburg? Why in the world did he want to go back to No. 4 so
badly?
It's interesting the Stephen
begged Eunice to go back to Fort No. 4. He didn't just order her to
go. She had some say in the matter. We always think that in these
colonial marriages, the husband was the master and gave the orders
and the wives just meekly followed, but it seems that, at least in
this case, things were different. If Eunice had stayed in Lunenburg,
would Stephen have stayed with her? Would he have said, “Tough,
we're going,” if she hadn't eventually given in?
,
If Stephen was captured in
April of 1746, and exchanged 17 months later, then he was released in
September of 1747. We don't know how long it would have taken to
travel from Canada to New England, but we assume that Eunice and
Oliver were reunited with Stephen by January of 1748, at least.
Eunice and Stephen did go back to No. 4, and they had 8 more
children. The first was a girl, named Sarah, born in 1748. The last
was Stephen, Jr, born in 1764. Eunice was 42 years old when Stephen,
Jr was born, Stephen was 49, and Oliver was 22. Stephen died when
Stephen, Jr was 5 years old and Oliver was 27. Oliver married
Elizabeth Wheeler in 1768, when Stephen, Jr was 4 years old. We know that
they moved to Woodstock, Vermont soon after they were married and
Eunice joined them when Stephen, Sr. died. Several of the younger
Farnsworth siblings also moved to Woodstock.
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