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From: "Jerry Lovejoy" <>
Subject: Transcribed: N0.109: Debora Russe - by Charlotte Helen Abbott, from The Townsman, Andover Hist.Series 1901
Date: Thu, 22 Jul 1999 03:15:15 -0400

The following article was transcribed faithfully from a Xerox copy of the
original on 7/22/1999 by Jerry Hersey Lovejoy from:The Townsman Andover
Historical Series by Charlotte Helen Abbott. I will eventually post at my
site.

No. 109
Debora Russe
(A.T. 7/12/1901)

>From Gosnold's visit to the Vineyard in 1602, when he was met by the band of
50 warriors, gay with copper breastplate and ear ring, to smoke the pipe of
peace, to 1899 when, on a December day, alone in the old Charlestown woods
by the sea, where lie the bones of the old Narragansetts, Gideon Ammons.,
last of the pure blood chiefs, lay down to die, at 90, - stretch the years
of brave effort to recover promised rights withheld by Massachusetts from
her wards. Freeman tells the story best of these survivors of that terrible
winter day, when Andover boys helped crush the power of Philip, and gathered
captives to be sold in the West Indies, till
Barnstable protested. "Indian servants are a great success. We cannot do our
work without them. " So the remnants were left at Mashpee and other Cape
settlements to learn to catch whales, while a few were bound out under
guardians to trades, but were not secured by law with schooling, nor extra
clothing, like the white children, and often not as well cared for as the
African refugee from the Guinea Wars. The Mashpee experiment was not so well
managed as was the larger reserve on the Penobscot, nor does it compare
favorably with the Iroquois towns in New York. We have cause to hang our
heads - "We took all and gave naught." In 1776, all were loyal to the new
flag, and in the Canada expedition no other tribe sent such efficient
soldiers. In 1783, there were 70 widows of war, and of 22 who went in one
regiment only one came home. So the young women had to form alliances with
stranded Hessians and mulattos set free by act of 1780. In 1792, 40 or 50
old people of pure blood remained on the reserve, who could speak the
ancient tongue. Among the most noted of the leaders were Daniel Amos, in
the coast trade, a man of power and character, and Israel Amos, one of the
first to be elected selectman and school committee. Many of the old stock
among the youth had gone outside before the Revolution to seek a chance to
get the education or trade denied them at home. Restless as is the Indian
under the routine of civilization, many seem to have failed in ambition, to
make a home under such limitations, and wandered off to the camps along the
Penobscot and other Maine rivers, leaving their homes on the Cape to
gradually pass into the ownership of the mixed blood who now hold the
estates.

Of this class probably were many like Peter Bridges, employed as an Indian
servant under the guardianship of the Bridges' family here. His descendants
say he held the Indian name of Almonach when in his Penobscot home. Of the
same class was very likely the mother of Prince Ames, an Indian also, whose
history has not been recovered, nor does she enter Andover records. Debora
Russe, mentioned in the last article as the last of her name in Andover, in
the year 1766 enters our record as mother of the child Eunice Russe, whose
father was the above Peter, or Almonach. The only fact known in regard to
her residence here is the guardianship of Ebenezer Rand, her brother-in-law,
who was appointed in 1762, possibly on the death of her mother, when Debora
was 18. Why she chose to link her fortune with the Narragansett is a matter
belonging to family history. Her sister and guardian, the church and civil
authority, united to oppose the marriage, honorably sought, so Debora eloped
like the "Little Minister" to the far away camp home of Peter, and was
married Indian fashion. Life in the wilderness at that early date was
unsafe, and to Andover she returned, where her daughter Eunice was born in
1766, and as Indian chiefs, like other royalty, have but the one name, Russe
was the name she carried down to the date of her marriage here. Peter, who
is described as a tall, fine looking man by his daughter, was devotedly
attached to wife and child, but after the mother's death he gave up the
little girl to the care of her aunt, who was bound to bring her up
"civilized." He lived among the Penobscots for years, only once visiting
Eunice when a small child, making the long week's journey to see her. She
was a copy of her Indian father, and I have seen the portrait of her
sagacious dark face and fine head. The early companion of her mother, Eunice
Blanchard, probably gave her the name she bore. As was the custom, she was
placed early in the family of Sergt. Nathan Abbott, whose wife was Abigail
Ames, a sister of Capt. Ben Ames, and of Nathan Ames of Groton, in whose
family was then living the son of an Indian mother and a white father,
called Prince Ames

In the family of Nathan Abbott (4) was his nephew (adopted son) Lea. Abbott
(5), my own great-grandfather, and young Debora James., a neice from Groton.
Years later she used to tell her daughter Clarissa, the late Mrs (? the
lower left corner of this page is blank) of Andover, how dainty and devout
was the little m ? Russe, and how they shared the same room and worked
side by side, Eunice an example to her in every way. ? told
me by her great-granddaughter, we gathered ? interest in the
Word of God and her power ?.
truth. She had many friends among clergy and laity, who delighted to
discuss with this prophetess the great issues of her day, for she was a
woman of rare intelligence, and during
her residence with her daughter, the late Mrs. Davis, whose death has been
noted in our columns, she met the cultured and earnest men and women who
joined in the cause of the oppressed.

In the family of Nathan Abbott was the young mulatto boy, Philip Abbott,
whose name swells our record as one who lost his life at Bunker Hill.
Prince Ames, like other lads, began his military career as an officer's
servant at that same battle, being with Capt. Tim Ames from Groton. Later
he joined the Andover lists as a three-years' veteran, and was with my
great-grandfather and others at Bennington and other engagements. He
learned the blacksmith's trade somewhere, possibly with Ebenezer Rand at the
finish in Andover. He was a very ingenious and skillful workman, according
to the old neighbors, Nathan Clark, Nehemiah Abbott, Jun., and the aged
grandmother of Henry Boynton, who was Hannah Ames. From various sources,
all confirmed by Mrs. Howard of Dedham, we gather the story of the marriage
of Eunice Russe at 18, in 1784, to Prince Ames, the happy home near Uncle
Ebenezer on Huckleberry Hill, beside an ancient oak, now the site of old
Griffin or Brown estate. Here they raised ten fine children of many shades
and types, to maturity, and all able to make a successful thing of life.
Delightful are the reminiscences of the rides on one horse of the whole
tribe to the South church, a long five miles from "Five Mile Pond," where
Eunice Davis herself a year or two ago told me she skated in girlhood. The
old Blanchard Pond staid longest in her memory of the days of long sermons
and Sunday luncheons, and I only wish I had known her earlier, this ancient
cousin to any of us here, who descends from Ralph Farnum (2) and Elizabeth
Holt. Dea. Nathan and his son, Capt. Job Abbott, being double Farnums in
line, always kept a watchful interest in mother and daughter while the
families of Eunice senior
and junior were growing up.

Prince named his eldest Peter for the chief. He married Martha Clark,
daughter of a widow slightly colored, of Newburyport, who lived awhile in
the mill house in Ballardvale in 1810. They moved to Hudson, N. H., and left
numerous descendants. Anna, perhaps named for Prince's mother, married
Peter Hutchinson of Windsor, Vermont. Philip married Chloe Gerrish of
Dedham. His name, probably given by Eunice in memory of the dead soldier of
her girlhood days, proved unlucky. A neighbor tells of his death from
injury at a broken bridge while leading elephants in a menagerie. George,
who settled in Portsmouth, was the handsomest of the sons, being almost pure
white. Tall and distinguished looking, he returned to Boston after 60 to
die with his sister, Mrs. Davis. He was probably the son who learned the
barber's trade, and had a shop in Portsmouth, visited by accident once by
Mr. Eben Woodbury (who married Mehitable Ames). Attracted by the name on
the sign, he spent a pleasant hour with the white haired old gentleman,
recalling early Andover days. Alexander and James both enlisted as marines
in naval service during the war of 1812 and neither returned. Lavinia, born
1803, was very handsome, with straight hair, according to Mrs. Boynton and
married John Hilton of Philadelphia. Samson was shot accidentally one day
while out hunting with his brother Cyrus by a friend, at 24. Cyrus married,
but had no children.

Prince Ames died suddenly of heart disease in 1816, and in 1819 Eunice, the
second daughter born 1800, married Robert Amos of the Mashpee stock,
resident at the Penobscot Reserve. He had a place on the Merrimac where he
kept boats and bait, and there he was drowned in 1825, leaving a daughter,
who married a Dedham Gerrish and a son, Charles Amos, who was trained in the
family of Nathan Chandler of Concord, N. H., a relative of Mrs. "Capt. Job
Abbott."

Aunt Rand died here in 1818 aged 86 (born in Pennacook in 1732). Her estate
was sold to Jacob Shedd of Tewksbury, and after the second marriage of young
Eunice to Rev. John Davis of the Colored Baptist Church in Boston, the
mother rented her little home on Huckleberry Hill and lived with Eunice till
her death near 98, about1863. Her son, Charles Amos, now deceased, near 80,
recalled the Chandlers with affection and a particularly pleasant memory of
the John L. Abbott estate he visited here when a lad. When I recall the
refined face and energy, the talent and intelligence indicated by the
letters of the great-granddaughter, Mrs. Mary Howard, fall of zeal for the
traditions of her honorable blood of both sides, I take a peculiar
satisfaction in the good work done by those two childless friends of Debora
Russe, Mrs. Priscilla Rand and Abigail Ames, to whose care we owe the rare
character and well trained group whose record would do credit to any Andover
house. No reservation, however well conducted, will ever take the place of
household training by individual families in own homes, and here we worked
out early the problem of a healthy and successful amalgamation of Mongolian
and Caucasian and the proper method of training the new stock for future
citizens. To the women of Andover and other reformers, I call attention to
the record valuable alike to historian and scientist.

C.H.A.

Jerry Lovejoy

http://home.ici.net/~bennabre/bennabre.htm

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• Transcribed: N0.109: Debora Russe - by Charlotte Helen Abbott, from The Townsman, Andover Hist.Series 1901 by "Jerry Lovejoy" <>