Samuel Allen Jr. (1738 - 1833)

Born 21 Apr 1738 in Deerfield, Hampshire, Massachusetts Bay

Ancestors

Husband of Zilpah (Hawks) Allen — married about 24 May 1764 in Deerfield, Massachusetts [uncertain]

Descendants

Died 11 Feb 1833 at age 94 in North Hero, Grand Isle, Vermont, United States

Problems/Questions Profile manager: Michael Campbell [send private message]

Biography

Lieutenant Samuel Allen Jr. served with 9th Massachusetts Regiment (1777), Continental Army during the American Revolution.

Samuel Allen Jr. is a DAR Patriot Ancestor, A001815.

Samuel Allen Jr. is an NSSAR Patriot Ancestor.
NSSAR Ancestor #: 100626
Rank: Lieutenant

"Monday morning August 25th the hay makers went to their fate. As far as known the party were Samuel Allen, aged 44, his children, Eunice, 13, Caleb, 9, and Samuel, 8. Oliver Amsden, 18 and Simeon, 9, orphan sons of John Amsden.

The Allen and Amsden families lived at the Bars on the table land just south, but had deserted their homes to lodge in the forts at Wapping, or at the Street. Two soldiers seem to have been sent out with them as a guard: John Saddler, a townsman, and Adonijah Gillett from Colchester, Conn. With the party was Eleazer Hawks, brother-in-law to Allen who, being out of health, was on a fowling excursion. He was the unconscious marplot of the occasion.

The news of the assault on Fort Massachusetts had not yet been received by the commander here, and presumably he was ignorant of the attack at Colrain, or a larger guard would have been sent out, and a more vigilant watch kept. Capt. Holson (or Hopkins, by another account), a Connecticut man, was stationed here with a party of Connecticut soldiers who were the "standing guard."

The hay makers went to work in the very jaws of the enemy, with no examination of the thicket and, so far as appears, no precautions against surprise. Had not prisoners instead of scalps been their object, the Indians might have killed the whole party at a single volley. They were waiting, however, for a favorable moment for stealing between the men and their guns when the whole party would become an easy prey. Their action was precipitated by Hawks, who going into the copse in search of partridges, stumbled upon the ambush. He was shot, the war whoop given, and a rush made for their victims.

The astounded men did the best they could. They urged the children to fly to the fort while they tried to check the pursuit by a fighting retreat to the mill. They were so hard pressed, however, they could not reach it but took shelter under the bank of the river near it on the flank of the line of pursuit. Here they made a stand hoping to divert the attention of the enemy from the fleeing children. The odds were too great. Allen shot the foremost Indian, but he and Gillett were soon overpowered and killed. Saddler, amid a shower of bullets, dashed through the water to a thicket on an island in their rear, and so escaped across the river. Meanwhile part of the assailants had been busy with the children. Oliver Amsden fell early in the attack. He was scalped and his head severed from his body.

His brother Simeon was overtaken and killed after a brave defence, his hands and arms being cut in pieces by the knives of his captors. Caleb Allen escaped by dodging about and hiding in a field of corn. Samuel was caught by a young Scatacook Indian, his pursuer, and after a sharp resistance with teeth, nails, and feet, was secured, unhurt, as a prisoner, and carried to St. Francis. Eunice was the last to be overtaken, but finally an Indian split her skull with his hatchet and left her for dead, not stopping, however, in his haste, to secure her scalp. Eunice survived the blow for seventy two years but she never fully recovered.

But a few moments were occupied by the Indians in the bloody work, when they made a hasty retreat with their captive boy up the river. and reached De Vaudreuil at Crown Point about noon, August 31st, with the scalps of the five killed at the Bars and that of Constance Bliss. The following concise account of the tragedy is given by Dea. Noah Wright, who was doubtless on the spot at the first alarm:

Aug 25 1746. In the southwest corner of Deerfield Meadows a number of Indians came upon our men at work, killed and scalped Samuel Allen, Eleazer Hawks, and one of Capt. Holson s soldiers named Jillet, and two of the Widow Amsden's children, taken captive, one boy of Samuel Allen's, and chopped a hatchet into the brains of one of his girls. They are in hopes she will recover. One man killed one of the Indians, who got one gun from them and lost three guns by them."

"...In a subsequent exchange of prisoners, it was arranged that Samuel Allen, Jr. and one other should be exchanged for a young French cadet, Pierre Raimbault St. Blein grandson of the Governor-General of Montreal. Sergeant Hawks, the hero of Fort Massachusetts, was sent by Gov. Shirley from Deerfield, 8 Feb. 1747 /8 to Montreal to effect the exchange, but it was found that young Samuel Allen was averse to returning: that he at first refused to speak to Hawks, who was his uncle, and with whom he had been well acquainted, that it was only by force that he was brought away; and that, living to be an old man he always maintained his preference for the Indian mode of life.

The Last of His Race. There can be no doubt that the Bars was a favorite resort, if not the headquarters, of the Pocumtuck clans -- the lords of the Connecticut valley. It is at the Bars that is found the last trace of their peaceful footsteps and it was at the Bars where the last hostile blow was struck within the borders of Deerfield."^[1]

Name

Name: Samuel /Allen/^[2]

Samuel Allen Jr. was born on 21 April 1738 and passed away on 11 February 1833. (See the extensive narrative bio from the recent merger)

Son of Abel Allen and Elizabeth Chapin

Sources

1. ↑ Some of the Ancestors and Descendants of Samuel Converse, Jr: Of Thompson Parish, Killingly, Conn.; Major James Convers, of Woburn, Mass.; Hon. Heman Allen, M. C., of Milton and Burlington, Vermont; Captain Jonathan Bixby, Sr. of Killingly, Conn, Volume 2; edited by Charles Allen Converse; E. Putnam; USA; 1905, p. 693.
2. ↑ Source: #S176 Page: Ancestry Family Trees Data: Text: http://trees.ancestry.com/pt/AMTCitationRedir.aspx?tid=1101691&pid=-1160550647 Note: @N2342@

• The Redeemed Captive Returning to Zion, by John Williams and Stephen West Williams, and Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association; Applewood Books; USA; 1987, p. 164."

• Pastkeepers in a Small Place: Five Centuries in Deerfield, Massachusetts, by Michael C. Batinski; University of Massachusetts Press; USA; 2004, p. 51.

• WikiTree profile Allen-4389 created through the import of MaryStamperMcKague2011-08-06_01.ged on Aug 7, 2011 by Masm x. See the Changes page for the details of edits by Masm and others.

• Source: S176 Author: Ancestry.com Title: Public Member Trees Publication: Name: Online publication - Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 2006.Original data - Family trees submitted by Ancestry members.Original data: Family trees submitted by Ancestry members.; Repository: #R1 NOTEThis information comes from 1 or more individual Ancestry Family Tree files. This source citation points you to a current version of those files. Note: The owners of these tree files may have removed or changed information since this source citation was created.

• Repository: R1 Name: Ancestry.com Address: 360 West 4800 North, Provo, UT 84604 E-Mail Address: Phone Number:
• Vital Records of Groton, MA to the end of the year 1849 Birth Record

Vital Records of Groton, MA to the end of the year 1849. Marriage Record

• Kemp Family History "http://www.kempfamilyhistory.com/getperson.php?personID=I91524&tree=adkemp"
• History of the town of Whately, Mass., including a narrative of leading events from the first planting of Hatfield: 1661-1899 by James M. Crafts 1817-1903; Josiah H. Temple, 1815-1893

"https://archive.org/stream/historyoftownofw00craf#page/n631/mode/2up"

• familysearch.org/tree/pedigree/landscape/LY53-TTL
• Ancestry.com and Find A Grave: Memorial #132266247

• Daughters of the American Revolution, DAR Genealogical Research Databases, database online, (http://www.dar.org/ : accessed 2022-09-12), "Record of Samuel Allen", Ancestor # A001815.
• Heitman, Francis Bernard. Historical Register of Officers of the Continental Army During the War of the Revolution (W.H. Lowdermilk & Co., Washington, DC, 1893); p. 68
• Massachusetts Soldiers and Sailors of the Revolutionary War (Wright & Potter Printing Co., Boston, 1896); Vol. 1, p. 186