Robinson Genealogy

 Nadene Goldfoot                                                   

 I had read about the burning of Royalton from the Durkee family newsletter from the Spring of 1993 of which Bernice B. Gunderson was the editor and family researcher for the President, Robin K. Durkee.  It was exciting to find we also had Durkee lines running through our veins with all that DNA, so its history was even more impressive.  Now I'm finding reference to this in another form.  https://www.ourherald.com/articles/royalton-raid-revisited.  The burning of this town was most distressful as they were the very 1st settlers of the town that was started in 1779.  There was the settlement before being chartered and the town was thriving.  They had large stocks of cattle.  They were attacked on October 16,  1780.  

My interest today lies in the fact that Abiathar and Julia Ann, married in 1852 in Tunbridge, Orange, Vermont which is next door to Royalton, Windsor, Vermont, moved to Canada and were there for I don't now how long until after the Civil War when I found them in Wenona, Marshall, Illinois.  My question was why would anyone move there?

Canada was luring loyalists to Canada with the promise of free land.  They evidently had reason to think they could apply and get land.  I have no solid proof of who Abiathar's parents were or who they were connected with.  I've been making a lot of educated guesses because Vermont, in fact all of New England was bursting with Robinsons, the 16th most popular surname eventually in the USA.  

                                                               

The well-known heroine of the day is a young mother, Hannah Handy or Hendee, who has escaped capture but who crosses the White River to confront Lt. Houghton, to demand the return of her son. Hendee’s spunk earns her the admiration of the Mohawks, who eventually agree to hand over her son and several other children.                           

The Indians killed Pember and Button and took as prisoners, Joseph Kneeland, Havens, Mesers, Simeon Belknap, Giles Gibbs and Jonathan Brown with Joeph Kneeland and his aged father, Elias Curtis, John Kent and Peter Mason.  They plundered every house they found.  They came upon General Elias Stevens working with his oxen.  He rode home halfway and saw Captain Joseph Parkhurst who told him that the Indians were by river already, so they both rode down river.   when they came to the home of Deacon Daniel Rix where they rescued his wife and 3 of their children with the Deacon.  Again Stevens ran into Indians and veered, coming to his father in law's home, tilly Parkhurst.  General Stevens tried to get people into the woods, out of sight of the Indians.  Many, driven by fear, wound up in Sharon, Vermont and at Captain E. Parkhurst's home.   (I have Pember on our tree.)  

The Indians had gone to the home of Deacon Daniel Rix.  They took Gardner Rix, his son, a boy about 14 years old which his mother witnessed.  They left another house and went up the river as far as Mr. Timothy Durkee's home where they took 2 of his boys prisoners; Adan and Andrew, and carried the former to Canada, who died there in prison.  Adan Durkee died in camp at Montreal.  The family of Timothy Durkee suffered through the burning of Royalton.  Only the eldest son, Heman, remained in Royalton after this attack.  Several had moved to New York, with the grandchildren spreading out to Pennsylvania, Wisconsin, Texas, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Odelltown, Canada, and Iowa.                             

     Clark Walcott Durkee b: 1821 Franklin, Vermont Family who made it to Baker, Oregon.  His wife was Sarah Allen.  Clark is my 4th cousin 4 times removed.  Clark is the 2nd cousin twice removed of Timothy Durkee born in 1776.  My genealogy goes back to Sir William O'Durgy, born 1605 of Platin Hall, Meath, Ireland.  Clark was 4th cousin to our Asenath Durkee.  Asenath is my 2nd great grandmother (gggrandmother).  

 Meanwhile, a militia of some 300 armed settlers has been mustered and comes upon Lt. Houghton and his party at about 2 a.m.  For Zadock Steele and other captives, these trials are only the beginning of two years of hardship. Held first at an Indian village in Canada, Steele and others are eventually sold to the British. For most of the next two years, he is held in a maximum-security prison on an island in the middle of the St. Lawrence River, under conditions of extreme privation.   

In August of 1782, Steele and several other prisoners stage a daring escape, which involves digging a 20-foot tunnel, and then swimming through the dangerous rapids surrounding the island.  The escapees have no way of knowing the Revolutionary War is over, and all prisoners are about to be released.

Abiathar and Julia Ann named their 1st son, born in November 1852,  Edward RIX Robinson.  I guess they knew about the Indian raid, alright.  Deacon Daniel Rix is my 5th great grandfather from Julia's side.  We have a whole slew of  Rix ancestors.  Julia Ann Tuller's mother was Asenith Durkee, born 1814 Timothy Durkee, born May 18, 1776 was Asenith's 2nd cousin twice removed.  

The Rix Family came from Connecticut before the Royalton Raid

Goodbye to Grandparents

http://wwwrobinsongenealogy.blogspot.com/2019/05/two-soldiers-saved-our-family-in.html

https://www.familytreedna.com/groups/rix/about/background

https://www.oregongenealogy.com/baker/durkee/durkee_family.htm

https://www.brpedersen.com/genealogy/getperson.php?personID=I29332&tree=Ancestors

Labels: Asenath Durkee, Canadian land, Clark Walcott Durkee, Durkee, Loyalists, Lt. Houghton, Mohawk Indians, Orange, Pember, Revolutionaries, Rix, Robinson, Royalton, Tuller, Tunbridge, Vermont, Windsor