Photograph and interview
By Jason Johns

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05062 - Reading, Vt.

Published November 10, 2008
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The Indian Stones, located on the side of Route 106 in Reading, Vt., were erected by Susannah Johnson in 1799 to mark her abduction by Indians on Aug. 30, 1754, and the birth of her child the next day. The inscription on the smaller of the two slabs reads, in part, “If mothers e’er should wander here, they’ll drop a sympathetic tear for her, who in the howling wild, was safe delivered of a child.”

The Indian Stones of Reading, Vt., were listed on the National Registry of Historic Places in 1975. The following is an edited interview with Tony Pikramenos, librarian of the Reading Public Library, who describes their origins and significance.

As I go down Route 106 to Downer’s Corners, there’s a marker on the right. I don’t know if you’ve ever noticed it, a little stone marker, I’ve passed it 500 times. Each time, I’m doing 40 miles an hour and I think, “I’ve got to stop one of these days and read that marker.” I’ve been here for eight years and I’ve never once stopped to read it. I’m sure for most people, that’s how it is with the Indian Stones.

James Johnson and his wife, Susannah, they were stationed at Fort No. 4 in Charlestown. Indians came and raided the fort, taking several people, including Johnson and his wife, who was nine months pregnant.

They got about this far and had to stop for the night. About a mile up the brook from where the stones are now, she delivered the child, Elizabeth Captive Johnson. The next morning, they put them on a horse and kept moving. They marched them up to Canada where they were split up and held for ransom.

Several years later, they were all reunited. Mrs. Johnson came back when she was in her 80s and had the markers put up. They never settled in the region, but Frederick Billings, of Billings Farm, he was a direct descendant of the baby that was born here.

If you asked a lot of people in town about those stones, they probably wouldn’t know much about them, and perhaps have never stopped to take a look at them. They pass them so many times during the week maybe they become part of the scenery. There’s no one in town related in any way to those people, and it happened so long ago that people are ambivalent about it.

But my feeling is that their stories shouldn’t be forgotten. I think the more people know about their town, their neighbors, their history, the more invested in community they’re going to be. Once people die, once we put them in the ground, they take all of their life experiences with them. Once they’re gone, in my mind, something about Vermont will have passed and won’t be coming back. It’s something that's irretrievably lost forever. There’s something extraordinarily sad about that.