Benjamin and Thankful Nims Munn home. 58 Old Main St. Deerfield, MA. Photo by Jeff Nims

Thankful Nims was born August 29, 1684, in Deerfield, the fourth surviving child of Godfrey and Mary Nims. She married carpenter Benjamin Munn (born 1683 in Westfield), on January 12, 1703, in a joint wedding with sister Rebecca and Philip Mattoon. Thankful and Ben settled into a small one-story home built into the side of the hill that overlooked the South Meadow. The home may have been built by Godfrey before the 1675 Indian raid on Northfield that caused the abandonment of Deerfield. 

The hillside home was buried under snow as Thankful, Ben and their one-year-old daughter slept through most of the February 29, 1704, French and Indian raid. After they awoke, they faced the horror of death and destruction inflicted on the settlement. One dozen Nims family members were dead, six were taken captive and Godfrey’s home was destroyed. Only Thankful, Ben, their daughter Thankful and Godfrey remained.

Ben’s step-father’s home was also destroyed, and his step-sister had been taken captive. He rebuilt the home and bought it in 1709 when his step-father and mother left Deerfield. John Sheldon wrote that the home burned at night in 1738-9 and their cat awakened the sleeping Munn family “by running across their faces, just in time for them to escape.” The cat was never seen again. Ben rebuilt the home for a second time and Thankful lived there until her death in 1746. The house still stands today at 58 Old Main St. in Deerfield. Thankful and Ben had 11 children in all. Two died within two years of their birth. Ben died February 5, 1774, in Northfield. - Jeff Nims

Thankful Nims Munn Family Migrations

Thankful’s family is the most diverse of the children with descendants spread to every state. They stayed in the Deerfield area for the first three generations then started migrations to other locations in the 1780’s. Migrations at that time moved west to the Berkshires, south to Hampshire County and east to the Worcester area with most going north into Windham and Windsor counties in Vermont and then up the river to Montpelier and thence to the Burlington area.

Probably as a result of the 1810 weather conditions in New England the next generation moved west from Vermont to western New York, northeast Ohio and northwest Pennsylvania. There was also a large migration to the Susquehanna Valley in northeast Pennsylvania. These settlers named both a town in Ohio and a township in Pennsylvania after Deerfield. A group also moved up to northern New York in the St. Lawrence area.

David William Church (b. 1821, Pennsylvania) took his family in 1864 to western Iowa which has accounted for a large grouping of Thankful’s descendants. This group has spread around western Iowa and South Dakota. Our past president, Ronald Graham, descended from this part of the family.

Daniel Arms (b. 1766, Conway, Massachusetts) took his family about 1820 to western New York. His grandson Myron Israel Arms went on to Youngstown, Ohio in 1843 and was a co-founder of the steel industry in Youngstown. In 1863 he was named one of the wealthiest men in Ohio. His mansion still stands on Wick Avenue and is a historical site. There is a large concentration of Thankful’s descendants in the areas around Youngstown.

Henry Frances Sanford (b. 1820, Middlebury, Vermont) , great-grandson of Thankful Munn showed up in Tahiti (French Polynesia) about 1840. He left the ship and married into the Polynesian culture. He has left hundreds of descendants in French Polynesia. One of his great-granddaughters married into the royal family and her descendant if there was still a monarchy would be the king of Tahiti.

Philinda Clark Eldridge (b. 1807, Weybridge, Vermont), great-granddaughter of Mercy Nims Munn moved to Green County, Illinois in 1830 with her new husband. In 1832 she and her husband became affiliated with the Mormon Church. In October 1838 they traveled to be with the church members in Far West, Missouri. As they approached Far West they stopped for the night in a village called Haun’s Mill. Early the next morning the village was attacked by a mob and her husband and son were killed along with many others. Philinda was forced to leave Missouri and took her family to Nauvoo, Illinois where she later remarried. She and her husband went to St. Louis until 1850 when they had collected enough funds to follow the church to Utah. She died on the trail in Fort Laramie, Wyoming. Her husband went on to Utah with the children. There are many hundreds of descendants of Philinda in Utah and California.