Sadly, I know precious little of Amanda. If I were to write an hundred pages, the first would mention her birth on about August 10,1827... |
| BUT, HER BECKONING DREW MY ATTENTION AND PROVIDED ME GUIDANCE TO FILL THE PAGES IN BETWEEN.... First posted Nov. 10, 2006 |
A cemetery in Vermont in the autumn of 1984. I arrived in this village having just delivered a Denver friend , his 35 foot RV towing a 16 foot boat and trailer to Orlando, Florida. He was ill and sought a warmer clime. It was nearly Thanksgiving so I took advantage of Sam's offer of airfare to anywhere, in exchange of chauffeur services, to visit my son Christopher. On Turkey Day I took a walk, found a Colonial/ American graveyard and Amanda. Her headstone lay broken on the grass while that of her Mother's stood one empty site-space away. Both where cut of the same stone and the inscriptions rendered in the same style. Unlike most of the markers from the mid-1800's and earlier, their's were still quite readable. My guess is that the empty space between them may have belonged to her Father Zenas who along with her Mother Polly are mentioned on Amanda's. I can't establish that as the cemetery records, I learned later, were destroyed in a fire in the late 1880's. It all grabbed my attention and I wrote the information on the inside cover of a match book... Somehow I felt that Polly had died of a broken heart shortly after her daughter passed---and grass growing up through the crack concealed the last A of her name. Some months later, having returned home, I went to the main Denver Public Library where I found Joanne the Librarian in Genealogy who looked up Vermont Merrifields and so my Amanda odyssey began. I have visited the graveyard three times, encountered descendants in Vermont, discovered her grandfather Abraham and know a descendant of Gen. Ebenezer Learned his Commanding Officer during the Battle of the Boston Light-who lives now in Denver. I have gathered numerous documents; including wonderfully poetic letters to his wife Bethiah, copious correspondence from the US War Department, discovered much to my amazement that I possessed association copies of two books belonging to William Ellery of Rhode Island a signer of The Declaration of Independence- a true patriot of the time- (which I donated to the Library of Congress recently), am in contact with a direct descendant who established Abraham's record with the DAR, have a photo of Amanda's aunt and more... but, I've only a few traces of Zenas-a court document dated 1854-which would suggest that the family tree seen above placing his death on the same day as Amanda's is erroneous and haven't yet located the grave site of Abraham 'tho I've evidence pointing to Plattsburg, NY. But, please allow me to relate to you the details of their journeys and mine in pursuit of the Great American Dream. |
| AMANDA ...THE MERRIFIELD STORY by PAUL T. KAY |
...a true tale of part of the life of Amanda Merrifield whose grandfather Abraham Merrifield of Massachusetts and Vermont fought and was wounded during the American Revolutionary War- and bits and pieces of the lives of some of those connected to and touched by that event to this very day... |
| ALL THIS IS UNDER CONSTRUCTION, BUT I PLAN TO POST THE PIECES AS I GO ALONG... it's a long and convoluted journey... |
| in a letter written by her Uncle John Merrifield to his mother Bethiah (Leach) Merrifield "St. Armand(QC) 10th Sept 1827 Dear Mother Sister Brother..." |
| where John mentions his brother Zenas and his wife having a healthy daughter. "...I saw Zenas and Abraham about a fortnight since, Zenas wife I learnt had a fine daughter 4 weeks old at this time, all doing well..." |
| On page 50. Amanda appears in the household on the 1850 U.S. Census record. Zenas Merrifield 63, Mary 63(Polly) and Amanda 23 and Phoebe Douglass 83 |
...then the last page---her headstone. |
| WITH UTMOST APPRECIATION TO -Robert G. Holt (deceased) -Darlene Chidley Vogt -Donald G. Learned -Rachel Purpel WHOSE EFFORTS BREATHED NEW LIFE TO Abraham Merrifield 1749-1819 PATRIOT |
| ############################################## |
| A SYNOPSIS |
| about 1865 Stephen Hildreth Adaline Hildreth Adaline is Abraham's daughter/Amanda's aunt |
X
X
| X marks The Boston Light |
| THE BOSTON LIGHT, REBUILT BY AMERICANS IN 1783, AS IT APPEARS TODAY. |
| A DOCUMENT ATTESTING TO ABRAHAM MERRIFIELD AND THE BOSTON LIGHT CAMPAIGN, ETC. |
| x |
On or about Saturday July 19th, 1775 ten whaleboats left the beach at the foot of Dorchester Heights headed south-eastward. A contingency of about 300 Massachusetts militia were sailing to Beacon Island (now named Little Brewster Island) in outer Boston Harbor, a trip of about 6 miles. Their mission was to halt the British from repair work on the Boston Light. According to Francis Ross Holland "...General George Washington dispatched 300 troops under the command of Major Benjamin Tupper to halt the work. Landing on the island from whaleboats, the Americans defeated the guard and destroyed the repair work. The British sent reinforcements to drive Tupper and his men from the island, but the Americans would not be deprived of their objective, and Tupper and his men held their ground and defeated this force also. Later, Washington commended Tupper and his troops for their good work..." Tomlinson reports that "...Major Tupper brought his party off with the loss of one killed and two or three wounded..." Abraham Merrifield was one of the wounded having taken a shot in the thigh. This injury later earned him a pension of $8 per month. |
| Each boat was about 32 ft. long with sail. |
| THE BOSTON LIGHT CAMPAIGN JULY 21, 1775 |
| BOSTON HARBOR 1775 |
BOSTON
X marks The Boston Light
| X |
| ######################################## |
| Dorchester Neck and Roxbury Camp Locale |
| WHEN THE BRITISH RETREATED IN 1776 FROM BOSTON THEY BLEW-UP THE BOSTON LIGHT |
| Abraham recovered from his wound and served the balance of his enlistment in the commissary... and while recuperating married Bethiah Leach... |
| Bethiah bore 10 children in 22 years...but, at the time of Amanda's death, only two survived. |
2 TRAVELLING MEN... |
| PROVIDED BY ROBERT G. HOLT |
| TO THE FRENCH- FORT PRESENTATION SAME PLACE-DIFFERENT NAMES TO THE AMERICANS- FORT OSWEGATCHIE |
| US FORT OSWEGATCHIE 1812 |
| July 4, 1836 "...and appears by the state papers that he was wounded in the attack on the Light House near Boston, July 21,1775..." S G Dodge Examining Clerk |
| THE SYMBOL OF A CITIZEN SOLDIER- he brought his own gun... |
| A PORTION OF THE MERRIFIELD FAMILY BIBLE RECORD |
| THEN... |
| ...NOW |
| Meanwhile, back in Denver during the autumn of 1984, I learned of Chester Merrifield's suicide. I had come across the matchbook cover with my notations from the village cemetery and decided to go to Denver Public Library's Genealogy collection. In a matter of minutes, Joanne the Librarian had retrieved a gazetteer containing a reference to the death of one Chester Merrifield from that village in 1822. This stunned me somewhat, but was a clue-perhaps a good lead. No further information could be located at DPL, but Joanne told me of the Mormon family records which were in Denver. Well, my subsequent visit to their library resulted in my learning that there sure were a lot of Merrifields in Vermont in the 1700s and that names like Ichabod, Isaiah and Elijah were commonplace so maybe Zenas would be an opener. Back to painting and plastering to pay my way. 1985 was a busy year for the 'project junkie' that I am. |
| JUNE 17, 1775 |
| Actually, this event should be called "THE BATTLE OF BUNKER HILL"... as this was an emplacement on Breed's Hill- NOT a person. |
Nat Archives A. H. Ritchie 200(S)-JH-3
| -then there was the War of 1812 |
| AN 1808 MAP SHOWING HIGHWAYS AND TRAILS many of which were primitive during Abraham's youth. --use insets below to ZOOM-- |
| I provide you with a guide as we now follow Abraham's long journey. |
| Abraham was born in Denham in 1749 shown on the map above as Deadham-just southwest of Boston. |
| At age 21, the record shows him in Oxford, Mass., southwest of Denham on the main travelway from Boston which passes through his hometown. There he declared intentions with Ester Town(e). |
| By 1775 as conditions in the Concord area worsened and the circumstances required... |
Abraham, with resolution, went off to battle |
| in Capt. John Town(e)'s Co. |
XXXXXXXXXXXXXXXXX
| Within several days of that alarm, he continued duty with Col. Ebenezar Learned's regiment and was then engaged in battle at Bunker Hill, and later the Boston Light while stationed at Roxbury Camp. |
| After the Bunker Hill engagement the company retired to Roxbury Camp, from which it dispatched to Boston Light on July 19,1775 and Abraham was wounded and given convalescence leave. Testimony indicate he finished his enlistment in commissary service and was later (1792) given a pension. |
| Abraham's father was Thomas Merrifield of Boston, MA and his mother was Mary Anderson of Watertown, MA Darlene Vogt, a direct descendant of Abraham's, recently traced the ancestors to the Mayflower Cooke and Warren families to the satisfaction of the DAR. All these generations lived in the MA Bay Colony/Boston Dorchester area until Abraham and his brother TIMOTHY dispersed to Oxford and Worcester, MA as the records show. |
| ################################################## |
| #################################################### |
| Shortly after Bunker Hill we find Abraham in Coventry, Conn. where on May 29, 1775 a church record indicates he married Bethiah (Johnson?) Leach- who may be related to one Zenas Leach who, as the data shows, replaced Abraham in service about October 26, 1775---a common practice of the time. Just what became of Esther Towne remains a complete mystery to me at this time...'tho some iffy data says one Esther Merrifield of the same age married Jonas Bancroft of nearby Ward, MS in 1775. It appears that Abraham returned to Roxbury Camp, fought at Boston Light, was wounded and recovered. Sometime after discharge he and Bethiah found their way to Shutesbury, MA (on a major byway going NW from Worcester to Vermont) where Nathan, their first born, enters the picture-July 7, 1776... |
| Family Bible record entry |
| Family Bible record |
| The Family Bible then lists the following births to this perambulating couple during the first decade of their marriage... |
| and the following year the entrepreneurial Abraham followed with the sale of land in northern Vermont... |
| In the meanwhile, Abraham X bought a house with ample land to the south in Worcester, Mass... |
| His Account Book from the 1780s and 90s also demonstrate his entrepreneurial talents while in the Sunderland, Arlington and Pittsford area... |
| ...and in 1796, documentation shows that along with Andrew Leach and others, he bought founding shares in the Pittsford, Vt library-a testimony to his civic consciousness. Chapter XVI of Caverly's History of the Town of Pittsford, Vermont |
| By 1789 Bethiah and Abraham had 6 surviving children. |
| John-'78, Chester-'81, Asa-'83 and Zenas-'85 |
| Abraham-'87 and Chauncy-'89 |
| Although this document does not indicate a State, records show that Paul Mandell was a Justice of the Peace in Worcester, MA at this time (1783) and Aaron Smith was a contemporary resident- a Patriot Officer at Bunker Hill-perhaps where he and Abraham met. No tax records exist for Abraham, but historical records show that his brother Timothy lived most of his adult life in Worcester, is buried there and created quite a lasting Merrifield legacy...and I suspect lived on the above said land-as Abraham and family resided in Sunderland, VT. |
| Berlin, VT. Historical Society records |
| X |
| Worcester Historical Society data |
| Compiled from Tomlinson ; Dupuy & Hammerman and Holland |
| ###### |
| We find Abraham in Head of Families-Vermont 1790 |
| Two children died during infancy- Truman aged 1 1/2 and Fanny aged 13 days |
On March 10, 1797 Adaline, their last child, was born |
and lived 'til she was 90- Nov. 23, 1887 |
| Richmond, Vermont was founded October 27, 1794 and Bethiah and Abraham gathered up the family sometime after Adaline's birth and began MOVING NORTH... |
| about 1865 |
| ############################# |
| **** Pension and Arrears commenced **** June 29, 1792 $2.22 1/3 per month with $50.00 arrears Pension File and U.S. War Department records. |
| X |
| X |
| THE MERRIFIELD BIBLE RECORD FROM THE U.S. ARCHIVES PENSION FILES PAGE 1 OF 2 |
| The Patriots abhorred the bayonet and did not use it at Bunker Hill. |
| Account Books were regarded as official records during this era. |
| CLICK HERE FOR COLOR ZOOM OF ORIGINAL DOCUMENT |
| ...and where, in 1806, I find him in Dunham, Quebec hunting wolves with Michael Neal... |
| but, allow me to soon fill in some of the details in-between these episodes... |
| to be continued... |