Robert HANDY

                   M-Husband #(1) Robert HANDY
M-Husband #(2) Gideon MOSHER / MOSHEN

Sources:
DAR Patriot Index
Pub. Gen "James Cole, Plymouth 1633" by Edwin Cole
Quit-claim Deed, Sharon, Vt. Deeds, Vol 3, p 297
Day Dist Cemetery near Old Ladd Farm, Sharon, Vt.
Vital Records of Sharon Vt. Woodstock, Vt. Probates Vol. 1 pg 88
Voluntown, Conn. Vital Rec. GS Film 1452 Pt. 95, Vol. 1, p. 77 (Barbour)
William Vol 2 pg 28,Mary,Hannah,Larkin, Lucretta, Thankful Vol.1 pg 77.

Vital Records of Sharon, Vt. William Hunter d. 6 Mar 1784 age 64
Cemetery stone inscription: William Hunter d. 6 Mar 1782 age 64
Sharon Vital Records Vol 1 p 12:
William Hunter died in Sharon, Killed by fall of a tree 3-6-1784
Administration of Estate by son Larkin Hunter 5 Apr 1784
William possibly being the son of William Hunter b. 1681 at Sandwich but proof is needed. Seems certain he is a descendant of William and Rebecca (Besse) Hunter. Many of the Court Records were burned.
History of Royalton, Vermont, with Family Genealogies 1769-1911, by Evelyn M.
       Wood Lovejoy, pub. 1911, Vol. 2, pp. 810-811
Sharon, Vermont Deeds, Vol. 3, p. 174, Hannah Handy of Sharon for #25 to
     Matthew Harrington of Sharon, 50 acres of land.  William Handy was the original
     grantee, 9 Feb. 1787

       Hannah possibly died at Hoosic Falls and it was believed she was buried on the David Barnhart farm (son-in-law.)


HISTORY OF ROYALTON, VERMONT,
Account of Hannah Hunter Handy, Rev. War, Burning of Royalton, 7 Oct 1780:

       Mr. Steele says that Mr. Handy, when warned by Mr. Chafee, told his wife to take the children and seek one of the neighbors.  They could have had little expectation that the savages would be upon them so quickly, for it is said that Mrs. Handy had gone but a short distance when she met Indians on the run, who took away her seven year old boy, Michael.  When the Indian told her he would make a soldier of him, she spiritedly replied, "A good deal you will.  The tomahawk is all you will give him.  I will follow you to Canada before I will give up my boy."  According to tradition of the descendants of Lucretia, the little daughter was some years younger than Michael.  Mrs. Handy recognized among the Indians one whom they had fed and kindly treated at one time, and it was he who carried her over the river, and who interceded in her behalf in the release of the children.
       Mrs. Handy is said to have been about 27 years of age at this time, and from a description of her as she appeared in old age, there is no doubt that she was a young  woman of attractive personality.  Young Lieut. Houghton could not withstand the charm of the agonized mother, beautiful in the strength and courage of her mother-love, and his better nature was awakened by her unselfish and fearless pleading for her neighbors' children.  This surrender to the higher dictates of his conscience, and the kind act of the Indian in aiding Mrs. Handy across the river, are almost the only touches that relieve the brutal savagery of the events of this day.  One cannot easily picture the joy of each household, scattered here and there, as she restored to the sorrowing parents their children, or they received word that their loved ones were safe through the heroism of this noble woman.
       Tradition says that she did receive a brooch or medal in honor of her heroism, but patient and long inquiry fails to verify it, or find any trace of its existence.  Tradition also says that she was buried in the old cemetery in the lower part of Sharon village, on the supposition that she died in Sharon.
       She married for her second husband Gideon Mosher, and lived in Sharon.  Mr Mosher died about 1818.  Her daughter Lucretia had married David Barnhart of Hoosick Falls, who was a man of considerable property, and she went to live with this daughter some time after the death of Mr. Moser, which occurred evidently at the home of his son-in-law, James Carpenter of Sharon.
       Mr. Mosher had children by his first wife, but none by Mrs. Handy, so far as can be learned.  The descendants of Lucretia are sure that "Granny Mosher," as she was affectionately called, died in Hoosick Falls.  Whether she was buried there or brought to Sharon they do not know, and no records can be found that throw any light on the subject.  Some lasting monument to her memory should be reared, and as her resting place is unknown and likely to remain so, no more fitting place for a monument can be found than in the vicinity of South Royalton, where her imperishable deed was performed.  But one article is known to exist that belonged to her.  It is a spool holder and is the property of Miss Belle Gregory of Sandgate, a greatgranddaughter of Mrs. Hannah (Hunter) Handy-Mosher.
                                        History of Royalton, Vt. p. 164-167

Good evening.  This is Lee Mason in Sharon, Vermont responding on tape to the - - with the information you wanted on William Hunter.
       There really is not too much known of William himself, but quite a good deal about his children.
       William evidently was one of the first settlers here in town and he is buried in the little cemetery only a few hundred yards from my home.  When the spring comes, I will endeavor to get a picture of his grave stone and send it to you.  His exact homesite is not known but his son was one of the early settlers here and carved this piece of land where I am situated now, out of the wilderness.
       His cabin site is known by no one but myself back here in the woods and it, as I will explain later, - - it burned.  My brother and I, when we were children, had heard about the earliest cabin that was situated in a certain section of the woods and we spent our Sundays hunting for it and eventually found it.  And we dug down where the foundation was and even dug up some charcoal from the burned cabin.
       William was a surveyor by trade and undoubtedly laid out the early town roads, many of which are still in use today.  He was the moderator at the town's first town meeting.  There were only 17 voters at that time and there were only a very few of the 17 who were capable of holding a town office.  He ended up with holding five of the town offices.  As I say he is buried in the little cemetery not far from here.  And his son is buried in the same cemetery.
       That is really about all that I have on William,  himself.  It seems that, like so many of the early settlers in this section here, that they came up from Connecticut.  Many people did at that time--came here to settle from Connecticut.
       There is a family living only a half mile from here that is a direct descendant through the mother's side of William Hunter.  They are about, I forget, just how, I have figured it out before but they are about 7th or 8th generation removed.  But they know very little about the family background.  In fact, I think that I know more about it than they do.  I got my information from a descendant way back when I was a young man.  He used to come here from somewhere down country visiting and he liked to talk about the family and so forth and it stuck in my memory all these years and that is why that I have what little information that is available.  I don't know what you really need or want or are interested in but I will -- if you let me know, I will try to dig into it further and see what I can come up with.
       Now I will tell you the story that the man told -- as he told it to me back in probably the early 1920s.
       This William's son, Larkin Hunter was the one that was one of the early settlers.  Built the cabin up here, as I mentioned before, here in the woods.  He had a rather extensive family, I guess, and  he had his cabin built and he had cleared the land.  In his process of clearing it and every Sunday he and his family would walk 12 miles one way to church at South Royalton, the next town above us here.  It was the nearest church and that was the thing to do and he did it.
       They came back from church one Sunday, late in the fall and found the place was burned to the ground with all their goods, possessions, provisions for winter gone.  He removed from up there and down to a rather high ledge that is in sight of my house here and built a lean-to of logs against the ledge and that is where he and his family spent the winter.  Their supplies were all gone and other supplies were notavailable and they lived through the winter on just what he could get by hunting.  He shot himself a moose and a bear and some smaller animals and that is what they subsisted on through the winter.
       This neighbor of mine; he does have one interesting, to me at least, article that -- he showed to me years ago -- it is the butt of the gun that Larkin Hunter used when he settled here.  And in the stock of the gun are the teeth mark of a bear that nearly killed him.  He had shot it but did not kill it and it attacked him and the only way he saved his life was by ramming the butt of the gun into the bear's mouth and supposedly choking him to death and the bear's teeth mark are still in the butt of the gun.  That's all he has is just the wooden part of the butt.  Nothing very much to look at except from a historical point of view.
       Then Larkin Hunter, when spring came, he came down probably right near my present house is and built another log cabin, clearing the land here, which was much better land than where his original cabin had been and he lived here and raised his family.
       And my neighbor here is an old man.  His mind is not good at all.  It's very hard to get any information out of him.  His mind wanders.  But I have talked with him and way back when I was a child, I think I might have been 7 or 8, I stayed with my grandmother while her family, the rest of her family, and my family went to a funeral, a local funeral.  She was an old, old lady and she couldn't go and they didn't want to leave her entirely alone so they got me to come down and spend the afternoon with her.
       She was a very nice little old lady and during the course of our conversation in the afternoon she says: "Sonny, I want you to do something.  You come over and sit on my knee just for a second.  You're a big boy and I'm not too big myself.  Because I want you to be able to say that you sat on the knee of the woman that sat on the knee of the man that carved this country out of the wilderness."
       It seems that Larkin had no sons but several daughters.  And one of his daughters married a man by the name of Hayden and the other ones that had inherited this place from Larkin, they lived here until -- the Hayden Family lived here until the mid-20s when my father bought the place.  And that is about all that I can tell you on Larkin Hunter other than that the -- my neighbor who was a direct descendant from William Hunter through the maternal line.  He knows very little about the family background, evidently never was much interested, and what little that he did know has slipped from his memory.  He himself has grandchildren now that must be 7th or 8th generation removed from William Hunter.  that is about all I can give you on Larkin Hunter.  But William Hunter had a daughter, Larkin's sister that has a very interesting story about her life.
       She married a man by the name of Hendy and they lived at Royalton at the time of the locally famous Indian Raid of 1780 in which the British and Indians came down from Canada and burned the town and took many captives back to Canada.  Hannah Hunter Hendy's husband was among those that was taken to Canada.
       They not only killed a number of the men in the town but they rounded up the rest of them and also the -- some of the children and were going to take them to Canada also.  And this Hannah managed to talk to the Officer in Charge and got him to relinguish the ten children into her custody and therefore she saved them from captivity in Canada.
       In South Royalton, they have a nice village green there, and on one side of the village green there's a very good granite arch over a path that was put up in honor of Hannah Hendy.  I have passed it many times but never paid much attention to it any more than to see that the name Hannah Hendy appeared on the arch itself.  But tonight I was talking with a man of a local historical society in Royalton and he says: "On the monument is there telling her -- carved on it it tells of her exploit and the names of the ten children that she rescued from the Indians."  It seems that her husband probably never returned from Canada and it was not long afterwards that she left this part of the country and went to Hoosick Falls, New York to live with her daughter, Lucretia, who married a man by the name of Gideon Mosher.  He died in 1818.
       Now I'm not just certain whether that on this I will have to clear it up later.  It's entirely possible that she may have married a man by the name of Gideon Mosher   who died in 1818 and Lucretia, her daughter, possible married David Barnhart of Hoosick Falls.  But evidently after her death her body was brought back here to Sharon because it's on record that she was, you know, buried here in Sharon.
       Now I would be very pleased if you would give me the information -- as you might say -- of your interest in the family and I would just like to know if you are related to the family and which banch it was.
       The man I was talking with this evening from the historical society says that he will take a photostat from the old history of 1911 pertaining to the History of Royalton and the part about the Indian Raid.  I think he said it's about 4 pages long.  He said he would take a photostat of those 4 pages and send them to me and he thought perhaps that you would like to have them if you haven't already got them.
       Now, that's about all I can tell you at this time until I find out a little more what you're interested in and if I can be of assistance, I would be very pleased to.  I have been very remiss in getting this out but situations that I had no control over prevented it and this is the first chance that I have had to get it on tape.  My health is not good and this winter I am not even driving my car so that I can't get around to find the information that I would have liked to have got.
       But this is a little something that you will find of interest and if you would like, feel free to contact me and I will see if there's anything else I can do for you.
       You said in your letter, I believe, that you were interested in the parentage of William  That of course is beyond my knowledge.  It would seem that they probably came up from Conneticut.  So many of the people did that settled in this area but where I wouldn't know.
       I hope you'll be able to make something out of this tape.  I told you that I could talk better than I could write and quality of the tape, you'll see, that if my speaking is better than my writing that my writing must be rather atrocious.  But it certainly is.
      Well I'll say Good-night to you, possibly I'll hear from you again.