- From Three Hundred Colonial Ancestors: " When Deerfield was destroyed by the French and Indians, 29 Feb., 1704, he and four of his children, Martin, Joseph, Joanna and Rebecca, were taken prisoners and carried to Canada. His son, Jonathan, was killed. Mrs. Kellogg escaped. There is a tradition that at the time of the attack upon the house (which was at night), Mrs. Kellogg "escaped from her bed with her infant, a few days old, to the cellar, and after secreting her infant, turned a large tub over herself; the cries of the child attracted the attention of the Indians, who immediately siezed it and dashed it against the wall. They afterward feasted upon the stores which they found in the cellar, sitting upon the tub which concealed the wretched mother. On their departure, they set fire to the dwelling. She rushed from the house, almost naked and, with bare feet, fled through the deep snow for two miles to the house then used as a fort." The youngest child of Martin Kellogg was Jonathan, b. 17 Dec., 1698, and, as recorded in the Hampshire County Recorder's book at Hatfield, he "was slain in the fort," which seems to dispose of the tradition of the infant, a few days old, carried to the cellar and secreted by his mother. How much truth there is in the rest of the tradition is unknown.
The father and his four children were separated, as the Indians, after their depredations, divided into as many parties, each taking a prisoner. It is not know when he returned. In Oct., 1705, eleven of the Deerfield captives came home; the names of only three are known... In 1706 forty-four English captive were returned from Canada. The names of but few of them are known. It is probable that in one of these parties Martin Kellogg, Sr., came."
From Unredeemed Captive:
"Early on the morning of February 29, 1704, before the settlers of Deerfield, Massachusetts, had stirred from their beds, a French and Indian war party opened fire, weilding hatchets and torches, on the lightly fortified town. The Kelloggs...had been major sufferers in the Deerfield massacre: a boy killed, the father (Martin, Sr.) and four other children (Martin, Jr., Joseph, Joanna, and Rebecca) taken prisoner, the mother "escaped." Martin, Sr. returned to New England in one of the first prisoner exchanges. Martin, Jr. fled (apparently from Kahnawake) with three other boys in 1705 and made his way back to Deerfield - only to be recaptured, and repatriated for good, in 1708. After the peace of 1713, he returned to Canada to retrieve his brother Joseph. And Joseph would subsequently undertake the same errand - several times- on behalf of his captive sisters. The latter, however, chose to remain; Joanna, indeed, would subsequently marry a Kahnawake chief."
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