Eunice Cooley

1732 - 1829  (97 years)

• Name	Eunice Cooley  [1]
  Birth	2 Oct 1732	Brimfield, Hampshire Co, Province of Massachusetts Bay   [1, 2]
  Gender	Female
  Death	30 Dec 1829	Dana, Worcester Co, Massachusetts
  Person ID	I489	Cooley Miller Sears Barnhouse
  Last Modified	17 Oct 2017

  
  

  Father	Benjamin4 Cooley,   b. 5 Nov 1701, Springfield, Hampshire Co, Massachusetts d. 1 Apr 1790, Pittsford, Rutland Co, Republic of Vermont (Age 88 years)
  Mother	Elisabeth Charles,   b. 15 Feb 1709/10, Springfield, Hampshire Co, Massachusetts d. 26 Oct 1743, Brimfield, Hampshire Co, Massachusetts (Age 33 years)
  Marriage	1 Sep 1730	Brimfield, Hampshire Co, Massachusetts   [3, 4, 5]
  Family ID	F187	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart

  
  

  Family 1	Benjamin Garfield,   b. 6 May 1718, Marlborough, Province of Massachusetts Bay d. 5 Jun 1755, Vernon, Province of Massachusetts Bay (Age 37 years)
  Marriage	2 Sep 1752	Leicester, Worcester Co, Province of Massachusetts Bay   [6]
  	From Massachusetts Town and Vital Records and the 1857 transcription of marriages in Leicester Mass the date of the Benjamin and Eunice marriage is 2 Sep 1752. As respects the note below about the "Old Stile" date, the 2nd of September 1752 is still an Old Style date, it was the last date of the Julian calender in Britain and the British Colonies. At midnight on what would have been the 3rd, 11 days were added resulting in the new date of September 14th, 1752. Some sources have their date of marriage 2 Sep 1752 "Old Stile" but this is surely wrong since the date of conversion to the Gregorian Calendar by England and the American Colonies was the very same day, 2 Sep 1752 so the next day was 14 Sep 1752. Confusion abounded at the time just as today so the 16 Aug 1752 date seems most likely from the Mass Vitals source. As a refereence, the Cooley Genealogy states: "On Apr. 13, 1752 [Eunice Cooley's] intention to wed was filed in Leicester, Mass., and on May 2, 1752 she was married to Benjamin Garfield of Leicester."
  Family ID	F711	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	17 Oct 2017

  
  

  Family 2	Ephraim Pratt,   b. Abt 1732, Massachusetts d. Yes, date unknown
  Marriage	Bef 1757	Hardwick, Worcester Co, Massachusetts   [7]
  Family ID	F729	Group Sheet  |  Family Chart
  Last Modified	23 Apr 2017

  
  

• Notes

  Taken verbatim from the Cooley Genealogy pp 468-470 ii Eunice Cooley da. Benjamin, No. 269 above, b. Sept. 2, 1732, Brimfield, Mass.; d. about 1825-30, place unknown. On Apr. 13, 1752, her intention to wed was filed in Leicester, Mass., and on May 4, 1752, she was married to Benjamin Garfield of Leicester. He may have been the son of Benjamin and Bethia (How) Garfield, b. May 6, 1718, Marlboro, Mass., d. June 27, 1755. Eunice m. (2), prob. in 1756, Ephraim Pratt, res. Hardwick (now Dana) and Wendell, Mass., d. Wendell, Jan. 20, 1809, bur. near Shutesbury and Lock's Village, Mass., prob. s. Phineas and Martha (Puffer), b. Jan. 10, 1732, Sudbury, Mass. Eunice (Cooley) Garfield was his second wife; the name of his first wife is not known. Benjamin Garfield and Eunice (Cooley) lived near Northfield, Mass., and had one or more children, of whom nothing is known. One report cites a son, captured with his mother by the Indians, who visited his mother in later years, but preferred to live like a savage, as he had been brought up as an Indian; another report says she had only a daughter, Eunice Garfield, concerning whose fate Mrs. Garfield was uncertain. It seems likely that the story concerning the son is "historical fiction" rather than fact; such stories were common regarding anyone with children captured by the Indians. Married in 1752, captured in 1755, Eunice Cooley Garfield probably had a two-year-old child and an infant; the infant was probably slain by the Indians; generally, when a long march was intended, the mothers were not permitted to carry small infants with them. In 1742 Orlando Bridgman had built a block-house on his farm, which stood within the then limits of Northfield, Mass. The fort was strongly built and well-picketed, and occupied by three families, those of Caleb How, Hilkiah Grout, and Benjamin Garfield. On the morning of June 27, 1755, three years after the marriage of Benjamin Garfield and Eunice Cooley, these three men, with the two young sons of Caleb How, went to work in a meadow on the bank of the river a little above the fort. About sunset they started to return to the block-house. Mr. How and his sons were on horseback, and a little ahead of the others. Upon reaching the meadow hill north of the fort, they were fired upon from ambush. Caleb How was shot in the thigh and brought to the ground; he was then scalped by the Indians, and struck by a hatchet in the head and left for dead. His boys were taken alive. Grout and Garfield attempted to escape by crossing the river; Grout succeeded, but Benjamin Garfield was drowned. As soon as it grew dark the Indians went to the fort, made the proper signal, which they had learned, and were admitted. They took the women and children prisoners, killing all infant children. The fort was then fired, and the captives started on their long trek to Canada. There is nothing left of old Fort Bridgman. At the spot where the capture took place (now Vernon, Vt.) is a large boulder, commemorating the capture, taken from the old How farm, erected by the town of Vernon and marked with a tablet by the Brattleboro Chapter of D. A. R.; the monument seems to be largely to the memory of Caleb How, as no mention is made of the other two families involved. The Indians took their captives to Canada. Eunice (Cooley) Garfield seems to have been a woman of considerable personal beauty, as well as of fortitude and presence of mind. She adapted herself to the situation by a forced cheerfulness and because of her evident courage gained favor with the Indians, and was thus treated fairly well on the long march. For many days she kept a sharp lookout for aid, expecting to be rescued by her husband, of whose death she learned only on her return. With the other two women she took turns standing all night, to be ready for quick flight, but no help came. After many days and nights of travel, footsore and weary, the captives finally reached a French settlement in Canada. Here the Indians sold them as slaves. Eunice was sold to a French family, of which she quickly became a beloved and trusted member, and was soon entrusted with the purchase of all household goods and supplies. Longing for her freedom, she told her story to one of the tradesmen whose friendship she had gained. He was a kindly man and offered to put $10 with every dollar she could save, to be repaid after she got home, so that she could purchase her liberty; this she eventually did. She was sent to France, and from there to England and thence to Boston. She probably reached Massachusetts some time in 1756. In 1758, she was paid a sum of money by New Hampshire to cover her last year in Canada. On her return to Massachusetts, Eunice learned of her husband's death. Shortly thereafter she became the second wife of Ephraim Pratt, and she lived for nearly half a century in Hardwick (now Dana), where she was widely known and beloved as "Aunt Pratt." People came from a long distance to see the old lady, and to hear the story of her Indian adventures. She lived to be well past 90. The place of her burial is unknown. Old graves in Dana were dug up in the process of building a reservoir for Boston; no record has been found of the old gravestones. Her second husband, Ephraim Pratt, is buried in the Pratt graveyard near Shutesbury and Lock's Village, with his son and grandson. At the time of her death Eunice may easily have been living with one of her numerable descendants, and have been buried in the lot of one of the other members of her family.

  
  

• Sources

  [S289] Mortimer Elwyn Cooley, Cooley Genealogy main, (The Tuttle Publishing Company, Inc., Rutland, Vermont, 1941), p 467 (Reliability: 3). [S474] NEHGS, Mass Town Records, (New England Historic Genealogical Society. Massachusetts Town Birth Records [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: The Generations Network, Inc., 1999. ), - Vital Records of Brimfield (Reliability: 3). [S289] Mortimer Elwyn Cooley, Cooley Genealogy main, (The Tuttle Publishing Company, Inc., Rutland, Vermont, 1941), p467 (Reliability: 3). [S458] Edmund West, comp, Family Data Coll, (Ancestry.com, Provo, UT, 2000). [S459] Bill Yates, Yates Marriage Records, (Yates Publishing, P.O. Box 67, Stevensville, MT, 59870), 1730 (Reliability: 3). [S522] Massachusetts Vital Records Project, Mass Vital Records, Note: Aug 16, 1752 is an Old Style date (Reliability: 3). [S289] Mortimer Elwyn Cooley, Cooley Genealogy main, (The Tuttle Publishing Company, Inc., Rutland, Vermont, 1941), p471 marriage date assumed before birth of first child David in 1757 (Reliability: 3).