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stationed at the Canadian frontier. Elliott and a company of 10 other volunteers from Shoreham were among
those assuming these responsibilities during the disturbances that preceded the war. The engagement was for a
period of six months and a portion of the service was in gunboats. Three of the volunteers from Shoreham
54a – pages 104 & 107
served on the Growler, sloop-of-war prior to the capture of that vessel on June 21, 1813 .

In the spring of 1814, a sufficient number of men to form a company volunteered from Shoreham and Bridport,
as part of the force required to protect the building of American naval vessels at Vergennes, VT (approximately
20 miles north of Shoreham). This company was commanded by Captain James Gray of Bridport (Sumner's
Regiment), and was mobilized on two occasions. Some of the Shoreham volunteers were also present at an
54 - page 107
encounter at the mouth of Otter Creek. Although not listed, Elliott's second son, Chester, also served as
a volunteer with Capt. Gray's infantry. Both he and Chauncey are shown as having served from April 12, 1814, to
May 20, 1814.

It appears that Grandfather Elliot remained physically vigorous and active well into his later years. Although he
lived most of his life in Shoreham, he was a man of varied interests and the first of Martin's line to turn his sights
toward the pioneer West. We know that even in his late 50’s, the Armstrong wanderlust that many of our
bloodline have experienced, was still strong within him as he is known to have spent several years in the wilds of
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Michigan, building a farm four miles north of the eventual site of Parma, MI). He does not appear in the 1830
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census in Shoreham and disappears from Shoreham Tax Records for four years from 1830 through 1833, so it
is believed that he was in Michigan during this period.

Some family researchers believed that Elliott's youngest daughter, Eleanor, married in Parma in 1835, 9, CR-3 but I
never came across any evidence to support this theory (records I found showed she was first married in 1838).
At the time Elliot left for Michigan he had two children who were potentially of school age; Elliot Orlando who
was 17, and Eleanor who would have been only 12/13 at the time. We also know that Spencer’s first born Orville
was born in 1829, yet in 1829 two school-age children are shown jointly under both Elliot’s and Spencer’s
names. In 1830 and 1831, Elliot’s name is missing and one child is shown under Spencer’s name as a student in
the Shoreham school system. As his first two children were still toddlers at this time, the student shown under
his care must have been a younger sibling. It is anyone’s guess whether this “student” was Elliot Orlando or
Eleanor, but if Eleanor was taken out of school and accompanied her family to Michigan, it appears likely that
she returned with them to Shoreham and that her marriage to William Derby occurred there, not in Michigan.

Although no record of land ownership in Elliot's name has been found in Jackson County, MI, we know he owned
property there and that his son David Wing and family settled on the farm that he built, in the fall of 1848. It is
interesting to note that the first land in Parma Township was not officially registered until 1831, and that the
first settler, Elihu M. Goold, did not arrive until the fall of 1832. Mr. Goold actually transferred his family to the
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area on June 19, 1833. For a man of Elliot’s age to build a home in the wilderness and pioneer an unsettled
area was a remarkable accomplishment. No record or family folklore has been handed down that I know of that
would explain why Elliot ultimately decided to return to Vermont. What is known is that his time there
ultimately inspired his offspring to make similar, but more permanent migrations.

In the previous chapter on Martin Armstrong, we quoted from a letter written in 1912, where Henry Ransom
Armstrong describes how he received a Masonic apron from his stepmother, who had found it among his Aunt
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Irene's things several years after her death. From this letter it appears that this apron may have been in the
Armstrong family for some time; possibly even before they left Ireland for the United States. I contacted the
Grand Lodge of Vermont, and they were able to provide records that showed that both Elliott and his son,
Spencer, had been members of Independence Lodge No. 10 in Orwell, VT, located a few miles down the road
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from Shoreham. These type-written records show that both men were initiated on May 25, 1858, and passed

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