This temporary hunting campsite is similar to one that Joe and Molly would have made in Danville, Newbury, or around Derby. Sketch by Bea Nelson
Joe’s Pond in Danville carries the name of Indian Joe, and holds his history for posterity. Newbury also claims his history—but so does the town of Derby. Although the physical evidence is scanty for this claim to history, we do have Timothy Hinman’s accounting books and documentation (both historic and archaeological) of a Hinman Pond campsite. Joe and Molly’s (his not-really wife) history is sketchy, exaggerated, and distorted in myth-memory—but, is an interesting example of cross-cultural connections in Northeastern Vermont.
Joe was born a Wabanaki, Eastern Abenaki. His family name has not been researched but the Abenaki word for Joseph is Sozap, sometimes spelled Suzap. According to historians, he was born around 1739 near Louisburg, Nova Scotia, to a land-owning farmer and could have been a descendant of mixed French and Indian Arcadian heritage. More than likely Sozap was baptized Catholic and given the biblical name of Joseph as were many other Native Americans living in New France. Louisburg was captured by a contingent of British colonial troops (New Englanders) and British regulars in 1745. The British then displaced and drove out the French and Metis landholders by herding them onto ships and sending them into exile to southern parts of the colonies. Still others escaped by moving up the St Lawrence River into areas of New France, still held by the French. According to oral accounts, it is believed that Joe’s father resisted removal and was shot by the British along with the rest of his family.
Young Sozap, Joseph, was left an orphan at six years old, a situation he never forgot and the reason for his deep hatred of the British for the rest of his life. Sozap, Joseph, was either adopted or taken in by another Wabanaki family that eventually made their way to Odanak, the refuge village of the St Francis Indians near what is now Phillipsburg, Quebec, south of the mouth of the St Francis River.
Most of the Abenaki of Odanak were allies of the French during the French and Indian Wars and participated in forays into the grants for hit and run attacks on the colonies. Joseph was among these warriors. Around Newbury, what was called the Cowas intervales, was the site of Coos, a major Abenaki village on the Connecticut River, that had been occupied for generations as planting and fishing grounds. The village was abandoned, or so the British claimed, around the 1740s. More than likely the Abenaki were off on seasonal rounds when the first settlers arrived.
By 1755 the colonists had established the small and thriving town of Newbury. When on one of the French and Indian attacks near Newbury, Sozap, Joseph, was badly wounded and left behind because he couldn’t travel. Even though Newbury colonists were cautious of Indians, they were familiar with, and traded some with them. So when they found “Joe,” then a young warrior in his teens and very near death, they took care of his wounds and nursed him back to health. He eventually was allowed to return, in full health, back into New France territory and his people. Joseph became a friend to the people of Newbury, and in return for their help and care, persuaded the Abenaki from ever attacking the town. He would visit the town quite often on hunting and fishing trips, alternating between there and Odanak.
In 1759, when Robert Rogers attacked the village of St Francis (Odanak), Sozap, Joseph, was probably fighting with the Indian military for the defense of Quebec and was not present. Soon after this Joe moved into northern Vermont with Mali, his not-really wife. Mali was baptized Marie and because the Abenaki language does not have an “r” sound was called Mali, which became Molly in the English language. Her family was from Odanak and she was married and had two sons, Muxa Muxel and Toomalek. (Muxa was a peaceful hunter and fisherman, Toomalek a troublemaker, but that is another story for another time). Anyhow, Mali left her husband and family to come to northern Vermont with Joe. This arrangement led to years of pursuit by Mali’s husband’s family in hopes of taking her back even though she chose to leave and live with Joe as his wife. They lived and hunted over a wide territory throughout northeastern Vermont, from Lake Memphremagog southwest to the Lamoille River and southeast to Newbury, establishing commercial trapping, hunting, and fishing over most of the area, and dealing with the local townspeople. The local settlers knew and respected these two Abenakis and often had dealings with them. Joe had warned the towns in and around Greensboro, Danville, and Cabot of possible Indian attacks, so, in appreciation, they named the two ponds in Danville and Cabot where Joe and Molly were said to camp, to honor this piece of local history.
When the Treaty of Paris gave control of Canada to the British in 1763, Joe refused to cross over the border. The story goes that even while following a moose that he had been hunting for a few days, he refused to follow it into British occupied Canada. And, at one time when he was living at Hinman Pond, some of Mali’s relatives kidnapped her when Joe was away and took her back to Odanak hoping that Joe would go after her. He refused to follow them into Canada to bring her back, so, after a few days when they realized it wouldn’t work, they allowed her to return.
Joe remained very anti-British and when the Revolutionary War broke out (1775–1783) he was hired as a scout in the Vermont militia. He served under General Jacob Bayley, from Newbury and helped to survey and mark the Bayley-Hazen Road from Newbury to Hazen’s Notch in order to move rebel militia supplies closer to the enemy lines. But, the Continental Congress’s military defense contract with Jacob Bayley was cancelled and the road only reached as far as Lowell. Joe’s ability as a scout and guide was highly praised and he received a letter of commendation and a military pension from George Washington. One of Joe’s favorite anecdotes was the telling of when he and Molly walked to visit George Washington at his headquarters camp on the North River. He was very proud of the fact that they shook his hand and were invited to sit at the General’s table.
Joe’s recorded history in Derby begins with the arrival of Timothy Hinman, one of the original associates. Derby was granted to Timothy Andrus and 59 associates in 1779 and James Whitelaw had been authorized to survey it. Derby was the first town in Orleans County to be surveyed and chartered. In the summer of 1789 (ten years later) Hinman laid his course for Derby. The next year Timothy came to Vermont again by way of Greensboro and marked out a road to Derby through what is now Glover, Barton, Brownington, and Salem via the Brownington Pond Road. It was at this time that he chose his pitch overlooking Hinman Pond (Derby Pond). He had moved his family from Connecticut to Greensboro in 1793 and in 1794 his wife made her first visit to Derby.
When his log cabin was built, in the fall of 1794, Timothy and his two eldest children arrived with supplies. Timothy made many trips between Derby and Greensboro and on one of these trips his wife’s illness during that winter prevented him from returning to Derby and his children. When he finally could return he found them “hearty as bucks and as healthy as savages.” They had been cared for by a band of friendly Indians living nearby in their winter village. More than likely Joe and Molly were among them. (Some stories have Molly being killed around 1792 on an island in the Lamoille River under suspicious circumstances.) Anyhow, we do know that Molly died several years before Joe but in 1792 the Vermont Legislature passed a Relief Act appointing Timothy Hinman to look to the needs of said Indians. Later in 1798 they passed an act “granting relief to an infirm Indian by the name of Joseph” as follows:
“That Timothy Hinman, Esquire of Derby, in the county of Orleans, be and is hereby appointed a guardian to an aged and infirmed Indian by the name of Joseph, residing in said town of Derby.”
Mr. Hinman was provided 30 dollars annually to provide Joe with the appropriate necessities.
Timothy Hinman’s record book, turned to a random page, shows 34 entries out of 39 for spirits. None are recorded for Indian Joe anywhere in the book; his charges are for pork, bread, flour, etc. Joe was a temperance man whereas one man’s name, from one of the best families, appears so often for rum that it is a surprise to find it anywhere else—according to a local newspaper’s 1879 article.
During the year without a summer, 1816, it is recorded that Joe showed local residents how to find food in the woods after snow and heavy frosts destroyed the crops and food was scarce. Joe became more enfeebled and returned to Newbury to spend his last years. He died February 19, 1819 at about the age of 79. The gun that was found loaded by his side was discharged over his grave. His gravestone reads: “Indian Joe, The Friendly Indian.” He is often wrongly referred to in local histories as the last of his race. His birch bark canoe and gun are now housed on exhibit in Newbury. Danville and Cabot have Joe and Molly Ponds and Derby has Timothy Hinman’s record books.
More Stories
If you like what you see here, take a moment to subscribe to Vermont's Northland Journal |
.