Finding Your Folks: Reader responds to Price family saga

I don’t know how she found it, but Sarah Sullivan found and responded to a wonderful story we did in September of 2004 on the Price family of Deerfield, Conn., whose descendants ended up here in Fayette and Coweta counties. The story was submitted by Ken Arnold who has been a regular contributor to our genealogy section over the years.

I say I don’t know how she found it because the archived columns are still not on our new and improved Web site. However, I am assured that the problem is being addressed.

Somewhere on our server there are five years’ worth of genealogy columns covering many, many families who settled or passed through the south metro Atlanta area. These columns have been a resource and contact point for many researchers and I appreciate all the responses I have received over the years. I continue to thank you for your patience as we work to get these columns back online where they may be accessed.

In the meantime, I do have all these columns on my home computer and will send you a list of all the titles if you so desire. Just write to me at jkilgore@thecitizen.com or JodieK444@aol.com. If you see a title that interests you, I can send the column via e-mail. Hopefully, the columns will be back online soon.

But, back to the Price family story. It concerned the family of Robert Price and his wife, Sarah Webb Field, who was the widow of Zachariah Field when she married Robert In Deerfield, Mass about 1677.

Problems with the Indians abounded back in those days and the story covered in much detail the massacre and capture of several families in Deerfield by the Abenaki Indians. Sarah and her young son, Samuel Price, were both captured but Robert was spared, although his home was destroyed.

Sarah and Samuel were taken by the Indians on a trek back to Canada, but Sarah was killed along the way. Samuel was spared and was raised by the Abenakis until he was about 21 when he was rescued by his friends.

The story states, “Samuel was said to have been adopted by one of the Abenaki women as her child, since she had lost a child a few days earlier. He lived with the Abenakis until he was about 21, and was eventually rescued by his friends. It is said that it was a long time before he became thoroughly reconciled with civilized society, and sometimes he expressed a desire to return to the Abenakis. But the feeling eventually wore away.”

Samuel married Dorothy Fox about 1714 and had a son, also named Samuel, whose descendants wound their way down through Newberry County, S.C., and eventually to Fayette and Coweta counties in Georgia. They settled in south Fayette and northern Coweta in the Brooks-Senoia-Turin area and many Price descendants are buried in cemeteries in those locations.

There also are records in Newberry showing the activities of this family and other records showing their connections to the Morgan, Summers and Cates families, among others. Local history books yield much information on these families and we have covered them in past columns.

Shirley Sullivan, who contributed this week’s letter, is descended from Sarah Webb and her first husband, Zachariah Field of Deerfield. Shirley writes:

“I am the eighth generation of Sarah Webb-Field, and Zachariah Field. After Zachariah Field died in 1774 in Deerfield, Sarah married Robert Price. I have a full account of the Deerfield Massacre, also that my seventh great-grandmother, Mary Bennett-Field, was captured and held for ransom along with her son. Her daughter Mary, who was also captured and only 4 years of age at the time, was adopted by an Indian family, and stayed behind when John's wife and son were redeemed.

“I liked very much the account of the Price family. I also heard of how they killed any older men or women who couldn't make it through the snowy wilderness. I also heard they killed some babies, too, because they cried too much and held them up on their journey.

“It was a sad time in our history, but the people were so resilient, came back to Deerfield and made their home there again, in spite of the French and Indians.

“Shows that the human spirit will endure.

“Shirley Sullivan, Sullysoil@aol.com.”

Thank you, Shirley, for taking the time to write and share your family with us. Those were difficult times, both for the settlers and the Indians. I can’t even imagine how I would feel if some stranger were to try and take my home away from me — a home where my family had lived for centuries. I’m not trying to justify brutal massacres, but there are two sides to every story.

Next week I’ll tell you about another treasure I found at the auction. It’s a book about “The Bishop of Heard County,” the life of the Rev. Dr. J. C. Adams, a prominent Methodist minister of the early 1900s.

Although time does not permit me to do personal research for others (unless the family connects to my own), I welcome all letters and e-mails about genealogy and info on south metro Atlanta families. Send them to The Citizen, P.O. Drawer 1719, Fayetteville, GA 30214; e-mail jkilgore@thecitizen.com or jodiek444@aol.com. Any letters and/or e-mails I receive are subject to being used in the column.

Until next week, happy hunting!