Samuel de Champlain (1567?-1635), ''Carte geographique de la Nouvelle France'' Cette image est une reproduction d'une œuvre bidimensionnelle tombée dans le domaine public. Wikimedia Commons

Ebenezer Nims was born March 14, 1687 in Deerfield, the fourth child of Godfrey and Mary Nims. He was sixteen when taken captive during the French and First Nation raid on Deerfield, February 29, 1704. Ebenezer was forced to march to Quebec with 112 captives including his stepmother Mehitable, her daughter Elizabeth and stepsister Abigail Nims, and Deerfield neighbor Sarah Hoyt. Upon arriving in Canada, Elizabeth and Abigail remained in Montreal while Ebenezer and Sarah Hoyt Sarah Hoyt (born May 6, 1686 in Deerfield) were taken to the Huron village of Wendake, 10 miles northwest of Quebec City.

Ebenezer and Sarah became members of the village for 10 years, learning how to live and work like Hurons. In 1712, the local Jesuit Priest tried to convince Sarah to marry a French soldier as she stood outside the small Wendake chapel with Ebenezer and a few other captives. She refused and said, “I will marry any Englishman standing here.” Ebenezer answered, “I will marry you.” The Jesuit reluctantly took them into the chapel to be married. Ebenezer’s brother John visited them sometime that year while on a mission to Quebec to redeem Deerfield captives. The following year, Sarah gave birth to Ebenezer Jr. on February 14th.

The British warship HMS Leopard arrived in Quebec City in 1714 to make a final effort to bring Deerfield captives home. The Jesuit claimed Sarah was not well enough to leave, but a doctor was sent to the village and found her healthy. Ebenezer knew the Leopard would depart for Boston the next day. So, they fled the village in the dark, walked to Quebec City and boarded the Leopard. The matriarch of the Wendake Bear Clan who had adopted them, rushed to the Leopard to protest their departure but they refused to leave the ship, despite her weeping and wailing. Ebenezer and Sarah lived briefly with John and Elizabeth Nims until they could buy land and build a home in the Wapping hamlet of Deerfield, Massachusetts. They had four more children in Wapping. Ebenezer died circa 1746 in Wapping and Sarah died January 11, 1761 in Deerfield. - Jeff Nims

Ebenezer Nims Family Migrations

Ebnezer’s family was the earliest to leave their native Deerfield. His son David was the first, traveling north to Upper Ashuelot (now Keene, New Hampshire) and establishing a homestead in 1736, later to be forced out by Indian raids and then returning in 1749. His posterity is spread throughout southern New Hampshire and Vermont. Ebenezer Jr’s. family was smaller but moved to Indiana in the 1830’s. The families of Moses Nims stayed in the Deerfield area for about three generations and then started their western migration in the 1820’s to western New York and northwest Pennsylvania and then in the next generation to Ohio and Michigan. Another branch of the family went to northeast New York and then subsequently even to Ontario, Canada. Three branches of the Moses line took off in the 1850’s to the south and settled families in northern Florida, Alabama, North Carolina and South Carolina. Descendants of Amasa Nims ended up in northeast Ohio and Michigan.

Albert Sanford Nims (b.1815, Jefferson County, New York) (Joel, Ariel, Moses, Ebenezer) moved to Florida before 1845. His children were born in Tallahassee, Florida. His youngest son, John Jay Nims fathered a racially integrated family with Julia Robinson. They could not be legally married. Their family was raised in Tallahassee and education was the standard of the family. All have proven to be very successful educators, business people and medical doctors. A member of the NFA, Terry Rumsey, is a descendant of this family.

Frederick Boydon Nims (b.1810, Franklin County, Massachusetts) (James, Ariel, Moses, Ebenezer) was hired by the State of Georgia as a railroad construction engineer in 1838. He initially moved to Columbia, South Carolina. Even though he was a New Englander he had sympathies with the South and owned slaves. In 1860, he moved his family to just over the border in Mt. Holly, North Carolina where he added to his family but died in 1857. His descendants are spread over the Mt. Holly, North Carolina and Fort Mill, South Carolina areas.

Rufas Lyman Nims (b. 1815, Deerfield, Massachusetts) (Elisha, Elisha, Moses, Ebenezer) moved to the South before 1850 and married and settled in Baldwin County, Alabama. He set up a stage station near his home. It is said that he avoided being conscripted into the Confederacy by stating that he was from the North and he wanted no part of the war. His descendants settled in Baldwin County, Alabama and Escambia County, Florida, just across the border. Subsequent generations have moved back and forth across the border but have stayed in the same region. 

Three Huron-Wyandot chiefs from the Huron reservation (Lorette) now called Wendake in Quebec, Canada in 1825. At far left is Michel Tsioui (Teachendale), war chief. Centre is Stanislas Coska (Aharathaha), second chief of the council. At far right is André Romain (Tsouhahissen), first chief of the council. Edward Chatfield (Life time: 1802-1839) - Original publication: 1825 Immediate source: Created: J. Dickinson, 114 New Bond Street. 1825. Wikimedia Commons