The Iron Pot

 The Story of the Big Iron Pot

The Royalton (Vermont) Raid took place on 18 October 1780.  The previous link gives an overview of the Raid.  Zadock Steele, a young man living in Randolph, became one of the prisoners.  He, in his later years, wrote the story of the Burning of Royalton which he entitled "The Indian Captive".  As a child in the sixth grade where we studied local history with Mrs. Bird, we read the story that Zadock Steele wrote. This was such an exciting story, one we kids always loved to hear.

Several times during my growing up years, there was a pageant on the high school ball field where the Burning of Royalton was dramatized.  To this day I can hear the screams of the women and see the painted faces of the Indians.  Very memorable... 

Where our family comes into the picture is that in the early 1800's members of our family came into possession of the property which was the second place the Indians entered that early morning in October 1780, the home of Robert Havens across the river from the Hutchinsons.  Quite a few years ago I was researching the deeds of property of that parcel in the Town Clerk's office.  I traced it back to 1830 before I had to leave for the day and never got back to go all the way to Robert Havens.  Sad.  There were several different families, all connected to us, though not our surname, who owned the property.

So finally we get to the pot.  There was a forty-acre field behind the house on Route 110 where my father was born and raised, and which, in fact, he also died in after many year on Jigger Hill where he had a large dairy farm.  One year when he was plowing that field in preparation for planting corn for silage for the cows he uncovered an iron pot right at the spot where the Havens house had been.  At some point a new house was built on the small plateau above the field which was subject to flooding in tempestuous springs.  Even so, it was "known" where the Robert Havens house was.  

Having told that rendition of our family history, it strikes me that it was not plowing the field which unearthed the pot (actually there were two pots our father found, this one and a black one without legs) but when he was digging in the field for a small gravel pit.  I will need to clarify with my sister.  Either story is okay with me.  This just goes to show that we need to write down family stories when there is still an older generation to clear up any misconceptions...!  (To do this, I suggest everyone starts a family tree on FamilySearch.org which it totally free and which has the option of sharing Memories which can be photos, documents, even audio recordings. I LOVE that site! Plus you can research your own family as you build your tree. And yes, I have added memories of a variety of types to our family tree.  You can put my father's name in, if you know it, and see some things.)

The story that has come to be known about that pot, at least which we choose to believe was the actual pot, was that when the Indians were crossing the First Branch, Mrs. Havens saw them crossing the field and put her two very young children under the pot, thereby saving them from the Indians who soon entered their home.

The pot was near the wood stove in our home growing up.  Somehow I managed to become the caretaker of that pot many years ago.  We had it beside our wood stove and put firewood in it during the winter.  It was a great place for wood chunks because often in the winter the wood came into the house covered with ice and snow.  To avoid the snow melting all over the pine plank floor we put the wood into the pot.

This is a closer-up picture that shows the heavy handle.  This would have been the laundry pot that hung over the fire filled with water to heat the water or perhaps even for soap-making/rendering fat to make soap.  It is VERY heavy and has three legs on the bottom.

When we moved to South Carolina about the only treasure from my side of the family that made the cut to come south was that pot.  It now sits in our garage where it is the repository of several garden tools, a ham radio antenna which is waiting for permission to be installed (HOA's have rules, don't you know...), and two folded-up chairs that we take when we go to meetings in the neighborhood where there is no seating.  I love this pot and will one day give it to our daughter.