SALISBURY, Vt. — One of Addison County's greatest Revolutionary War heroes will be honored locally as we enter this season of celebrating the 250th anniversary of the Declaration of Independence. Ann Story was a strong young widow and a mother of five children who earned the honorific "mother of the Green Mountain Boys." A free public event to commemorate the remarkable accomplishments and epic life of Ann Story will be held Saturday, May 30 at the site of her log cabin in west Salisbury.
Hannah "Ann" Reynolds Story was born in the mid-1730s in Connecticut, became a frontier settler of Salisbury in the wilderness along Otter Creek in the New Hampshire Grants, and was buried in 1817 in Farmingdale Veterans Cemetery on Three Mile Bridge Road in Middlebury. To honor patriot Ann Story, the public is invited to an outdoor program, starting at 11 a.m., at the lower end of quiet Story Drive, which runs west from Shard Villa Road, on the western side of the town of Salisbury.
Selectboard member Kip Andres will welcome guests to the town-owned property where the Story family cabin stood. To honor the historical significance of Ann Story, Vermont's state historic preservation officer, Laura Trieschmann, will lead the dedication of the new state roadside historic site marker. Award-winning playwright James Thatch of Bennington will be on hand for the world premiere live performance of his new play, "Ann Story: A Place Among You." A cast of seven is directed by Kevin Commins of Weybridge.
Following the ceremony and the one-act play, guests will be welcome to picnic on the lawns and to visit the information tables for the Friends of Ann Story, Descendants of the Green Mountain Boys, Crown Point Road Association, Daughters of the American Revolution, and Sons of the American Revolution.
Ann Story was quite able to use a flintlock musket and handle an ax. For years, the Green Mountain Boys relied on Ann Story for gathering intelligence on enemy Tory and Indian movements during the War for American Independence from Great Britain. Ann Story's cave was used as a hiding place for military supplies, including gunpowder. Accounts of Ann Story are of great interest this year because they represent her documented and useful military leadership on behalf of the militia during the 1770s, even though she was not a uniformed male soldier.
There have been three log cabins at the "Ann Story cabin site" over the centuries, but there is none standing today. There is a stone monument, dedicated by the Colonial Dames in 1905, to mark the location of the 1775 original cabin. During the past six years, the immediate area surrounding the monument has been cleared of a twenty-year overgrowth of weeds and brush. Friends of Ann Story have also added a Green Mountain Boys flag and flagstaff and have installed an outdoor interpretive sign. The Town of Salisbury has a legal right-of-way along Story Drive and maintains public access.
At 1 p.m., the Ann Story play, first performed on the lawn at the cabin site in West Salisbury, will be performed indoors, in the sanctuary of the Congregational Church of Salisbury at 853 Maple Street, a mile east of U.S. Route 7. This venue enjoys pleasing acoustics and is wheelchair accessible. This final performance is also admission-free.
From the Friends of Ann Story
Photo by Don Shall, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0
