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Conservation in NH / Hannah Duston's Sister
By Shay Zeller on Wednesday, February 8, 2006.
After twenty-five years of service, Marjorie Swope, the executive director of the New Hampshire Association of Conservation Commissions has decided to step down. We'll look at the conservation efforts in New Hampshire during her tenure.
And, we'll talk with Sybil Smith, the author of Hannah Duston's Sister, a novel that outlines the tragic life of colonialist Elizabeth Emerson, who was hanged in Boston.
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Bruce Neff
Moultonborough
Is it true that Mary Neff is related to Hannah Dustin? As a descendant of Mary Neff our family documents never mentioned that.
Both Mary Neff and Samuel Leonardsen were minimized in their roles (maybe that's a good thing), why was Hannah the heroine?
Bruce Neff
I also am a decendant of Mary Neff and the storey is true.
If you go to this web page you canfind Mary Neffs Revenge too.
http://users.rcn.com/smartin.javanet/index.htm
To remind readers, Mary Neff was the Haverhill midwife who had helped Hannah Dustin deliver her baby a few days before they were both captured by Indians. And four years earlier, she is part of the “search party†that examined Elizabeth Emerson’s body and determined that she had, in fact, recently given birth.
According to our guest's Yankee Magazine article, "Judging Hannah," Mary Neff was also aunt to Elizabeth and Hannah. As for Mary Neff's role in the murder of their Indians captors and subsequent escape, Sybil Smith writes, "Most accounts say that Hannah killed nine of the Indians, and Samuel* one. One badly wounded squaw escaped with the young boy Hannah intended to spare. I believe Mary was given the less arduous task of killing one of the three Indian women, and that this was the one who survived. She was not so good at killing, it would seem."
Bruce, thank you so much for writing in. I hope this answers some of your questions. And please feel free to continue the conversation if you have additional or conflicting information.
*Samuel Leonardson (of Worchester, MA): The adolescent boy who was abducted by the tribe 18 months prior.
Mary Neff was my 8th great grandmother. I wish I had known this when I was a kid, I could have used it as an excuse when I was bad. I could have blamed it as bad blood coming from my "scalping grandmother".
Hannah is my husband's 8th great grandmother and Mary is my husband's 1st cousin 9 times removed. I thought this was just a "family story" about an Indian killing Grandma, until I looked up Hannah and Mary on the internet. In 2005 we took a history trip to the North East (We are from Wyoming) and was able to go to both Haverhill and the island where the kidnapping Indians took the ladies. I was surprised to see these ladies called murder's in anothre comment. I don't think killing the murder's of Hannah's baby when her life was also in danger is murder, that is self defence. Even my brother-in-law who is 100% American Indian said the same thing. He laughed and said it sounds like the author of the comment who called the two ladies, and the 14 year old kidnapped boy murderers was trying to be "politicily correct" and instead just made a fool of himself.
My mother was Olive (Corliss) Roy. Mary Neff, as I recall, was the oldest child of George Corliss. His Corliss ancestors were Belgians who became Huguenots, fled Ghent to escape persecution and eventually reached England, became Puritans, hence to Haverhill, MA. I recall the Dustin-Neff story from childhood, when we had mixed feelings. We heard that Mary probably did more to kill the Native Americans than Hannah because Hannah had so recently delivered another child. Was her role minimized in the saga because she was a widow, and widows were 'valued' less than women with husbands in that patriarchal society? On the other hand, while greatly admiring their courage, that they killed so many Native Americans, even in self-defense, was somewhat troubling. If any kinfolk are interested in pursuing further conversation, I welcome contact. I am a retired minister. Our wing of the Corliss family settled in the St. Albans area of northwest Vermont, where I was raised. Of the seven siblings of Grandpa Corliss six of them left Vermont to settle in the Midwest, where their descendants hold a Corliss reunion attracting 100-plus each Labor Day weekend.