Dustin, Hannah
heroine of New England, was born about 1655. She was the mother of thirteen children. When the Indians attacked Haverhill, March 15, 1698, her husband, with the children, escaped, and she, with an infant and her nurse, was captured. After proceeding a short distance, the infant was killed. Mrs.
Duston was taken to an island at the junction of the Merrimack and Contoocook rivers, being assigned to an Indian family of twelve persons. With the aid of a nurse and a boy, also a prisoner, she killed the Indians with a hatchet, all but a favorite boy and a wounded squaw, who escaped, and returned safely to Haverhill with their scalps. Her house, occupied by Thomas Dustin, a descendant, was standing in 1816.