General Notes

Although Ann is not Part of our family history , her life history is connected thru marriage included her other two husbands and her children by her first marriage because they like her should be remembered. They helped defined what made this country what it has become. So I start her story with a history report by a school girl named Sheena Strada. Her sources: Canfield, Dorothy: "FOUR -SQUARE, Fuller, Edmund: VERMONT A HISTORY OF THE GREEN MOUNTAIN STATE, Hahn, Michael : ANN STORY VERMONT's HEROINE OF INDEPENDENCE. Ann was 14 when she married . in 1775 Her husband Amos was killed by a fallen tree while clearing land for a new farm for his family.  Ann brought her five children form Norwich Connecticut to Salisbury when her son brought the news of his fathers death . She wish to live in the home he had built for them and be near the place of his internment. 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.  The family 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 see 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.  Royalist 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 and the location and defenses of Vermont settlements, and movements, resources, and organization of Vermont guerrilla fighters, like the Breen Mountain Boy7s. they went at night, while the Story family was sleeping in the 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 a Jenny and told him she had no fears of being shot by 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