USA > Connecticut > Historic towns of the Connecticut River Valley > Part 32
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Captain Newton was the adviser of his neighbors in most of the matters in dispute between them, for his wisdom and sense · of justice were held in great respect. Captain Newton's early education was limited to the little his mother had the time at her disposal to impart, and to two weeks under the Rev. Dr. Good- rich, of Durham. In later life it was obtained from Nature; in the woods, the fields and the rivers; and by going through life with his eyes and his ears open. He. served his country in the Revolution and received his commission as captain on July I, 1781. In civil life he held office for twenty-one years, as assessor, selectman, overseer of the poor and member of the Legislature. His death occurred in December, 1824, at the age of seventy-five.
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Rejoice Newton, a son of Captain Newton, became a man of prominence. He was a graduate of Dartmouth College, in 1807, and studied for the bar with Judge Newcomb and E. H. Mills. After being admitted to practice, in 1810, he moved to Worcester and began to practice with Mr. F. Blake. He was attorney for the County for several years and for four years was in the Legis- lature as Representative and Senator.
GILL.
N that portion of the Town of Deerfield which became Gill, by incorporation in 1793, occurred the greatest Indian fight of Colonial days in New England; a fight in which the English turned the Indians' style of fighting upon themselves by surprising them and destroying hundreds before they had recov- ered from their fright. This was the famous "Falls Fight " on the Connecticut River, at what was for many years known as Millers Falls, but sometime in the first quarter of the nineteenth century the name was changed to Turners Falls, in honor of Captain Turner the hero of the fight.
Turners Falls was a favorite resort of the Indians, for the river was alive with shad below the falls and with salmon both below and above, at certain seasons of the year, while in the woods were to be found game and fur-bearing animals in great numbers. It was at Turners Falls where Eber Atherton, Greenfield's humor- ist of the old days, said that he walked on snow-shoes across the backs of the shad from the bank to the island.
The surprise and attack upon the Indians was deliberately planned, and was due to information given by two boys, named Stebbins and Gilbert, who had been captured by a small party of the great band of Indians then at the Falls fishing, and had succeeded in making their escape. It seems that on account of their own number and the smallness of the settlements in the vicinity of Hadley, the Indians had become careless and did not have sentinels on duty at night. As soon as the conditions became known, the settlers determined upon a surprise. One hundred and sixty mounted men, under command of Captain Turner, with Captain Holyoke, of Springfield, and Ensign Lyman, of North- ampton, assembled at Hatfield, and on the evening of May 17,
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1676, led by two experienced hunters, the little army set out for the Falls.
Deerfield had already been destroyed by the Indians, and when the soldiers passed by the ruins of that settlement and arrived at the place called Cheapside, they were heard by a few Indians who were. in camp there. They made an investigation, but they felt so secure that they were careless and thinking the noise was caused by moose or deer, returned to their lodge. At a point half a mile from the Indian camp Turner dismounted his men and made a careful investigation. He found that several hundred of the Indians were on an elevation on the right bank of the river and that smaller encampments were on the left bank and on Smeads Island, a mile below the Falls.
Just before dawn, Captain Turner and his men entered the largest encampment and found the Indians asleep, but a volley aroused all who were not killed and they, not believing the small number of English at the settlements would dare to attack them, thought the Mohawks were upon them. As they ran toward the river they shouted, " Mohawks! Mohawks "! The English shot straight and fast. One hundred Indians were killed on the spot and 140, who tried to escape in canoes or by swimming the river, were either shot or carried over the falls to death. Only one of those who went over the falls escaped drowning. Others were shot so that the total loss to the Indians was about 300, while only one of the English had been killed.
The Indians of the two smaller encampments now joined in the fight and were met by Captain Holyoke who kept them back. One of the captured Indians told the English that King Philip was approaching with 1,000 Indians. This caused a panic, the command broke up into several small bands and retreated in disorder. Two of the bands were cut off by the Indians, and the members of one of them were all burnt to death. The most disastrous part of the disorderly retreat was through what later became Greenfield. Captain Turner was killed in Greenfield meadow near the brook that flows through it, and the command devolved upon Captain Holyoke, who,. after fierce fighting on both sides, arrived at Hatfield, the Indians giving up the pursuit at the southern end of Deerfield Meadow. The English lost thirty-eight men and the Indians about three hundred.
NORTHFIELD.
N ORTHFIELD is one of the oldest towns in Franklin County, only Deerfield being older. John Pynchon, of Springfield, and a company of men obtained a grant from the General Court of Massachusetts in 1672, for a township at Squakheag, as the Indians called the country which became Northfield. The town was about six by twelve miles in area and was on both sides of the Connecticut River. It extended northward several miles into Vermont and New Hampshire, it was found when the boundary between those Provinces and Massachu- setts was finally fixed, but at the time of the grant it was believed that the whole town was in Massachusetts. The deed from the Indians was obtained in August, 1687, by the agents of the pro- prietors, William Clark and John King, of Northampton. The price paid was 1,200 feet (200 fathoms) of wampum and goods of value to Indians. worth £57.
In 1673, the settlement was begun by families from North- ampton, Hatfield and Hadley who built small thatched-roof cabins, a building for public worship and a fort with a stockade. This settlement was greatly afflicted by the Indians, especially in King Philip's War, in 1675. Early in September of that year, nine or ten persons were killed by Indians in the woods, not far from the settlement, and the few who escaped the Indians fled to the fort, which was garrisoned by a small company of soldiers.
The day following these murders in Northfield, Captain Beers, with thirty-six mounted soldiers, started from Hadley for North- field with provisions for the garrison, the news of the murders of the day before not then being known in Hadley. Captain Beers and his men had a journey through dense woods and swamps, over little more than a trail and a part of the way not even that. Many places favorable for an ambush were passed in safety. At Millers River they left the horses, and continued on foot with the provisions to a point in a marshy ravine, about two miles from the fort in Northfield. The Indians, becoming aware of the approach of Beers, lay in ambush in this ravine and when the soldiers had entered it, they fired and killed a large part of the little command.
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This demoralized the soldiers who broke in disorder and retreated to a level spot, later known as Beers' Plain, with the Indians in hot pursuit. The attack being too strong for them, Beers and the survivors retreated to a low, steep hill, called since that day Beers' Mountain, about a mile to the south where a stand was made, the few men who were left fighting with desperation against a greatly superior force. Captain Beers was shot and the men being without a commander fled to the woods, only sixteen of the company of thirty-six reaching Hadley. The Indians tortured the living, murdered the wounded and mutilated the bodies of all. Many of the bodies had been decapitated and one body was found suspended by the chin from an iron hook at the end of a chain, that was fastened to the limb of a tree. Two days after this horror, Major Treat with 100 men arrived in Northfield from Hadley, and took the garrison and settlers back to Hadley with him. The Indians burned the abandoned settlement and fort and stole or destroyed everything of value.
Northfield was again occupied by settlers and a few soldiers many years after the abandonment, but in King William's War, in 1690, the settlement was again abandoned and again destroyed by Indians. In 1713, after the war was over, the settlers returned and built new homes and a rude church. In 1718, they settled the Rev. Benjamin Doolittle, of Wallingford, Connecticut, as the first minister. At this time, Northfield contained about thirty families - probably about 200 inhabitants. Mr. Doolittle was the doctor, as well as the minister of the settlement. His death oc- curred in the fifty-fourth year of his age and the thirtieth of his pastorate, in 1748. Two years before his death, Northfield was again harassed by Indians, in King George's War of 1744, and many persons were killed. The Rev. John Hubbard was minister in 1750; the Rev. Samuel C. Allen, in 1795 ; and the Rev. Thomas Mason, in 1799.
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VERMONT AND NEW HAMPSHIRE.
T HE settlement of the Valley of the Connecticut in Ver- mont and New Hampshire, was nearly 125 years later than in Connecticut and Massachusetts. This was chiefly due to the fact that the greater proximity to Canada made the danger from the French and Indians very much greater and besides, it was through the valley that the French might be ex- pected to pass on their way to the settlements further down the river. The several routes by which the French and their Indian allies reached the Connecticut River were as follows.
One was by St. Francis River and Lake Memphremagog, thence by portage to the Passumsic River to its mouth at the Connecticut River, near Barnet, Vermont, and from that point down the Connecticut to the settlements.
Another was by way of Lake Champlain to Whitehall, New York, thence up Pawlet River to its source, and then over the Green Mountains at Dorset and East Dorset, to West River, at South Londonderry, thence down that river to the Connecticut at Brattleboro.
The third, and most used route was down Lake Champlain to the mouth of Otter Creek - where Fort Cassin was built in the Revolution - and up the creek to the neighborhood of South Wallingford, Vermont, and across the hills to Ludlow on the Black River, and down that river to the Connecticut nearly opposite Charlestown, New Hampshire.
In 1724, the General Court of Massachusetts built Fort Dum- mer in the southeast corner of what later became the Town of Brattleboro, and although there may have been a very few bold, pioneer hunters and trappers who had built log cabins to the west of the Connecticut River, Fort Dummer has always been regarded as the first white settlement in the State of Vermont. At the time the fort was built, for the protection of the western set- tlements of Massachusetts, all the territory was then within the northern limits of the Colony of Massachusetts. To the north and west of Fort Dummer was a vast territory that was covered by a
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primitive wilderness ; grand and wild, with an interminable forest of gigantic trees, full streams and rivers and lovely lakes.
Deer and moose and caribou roamed the forest in even greater number than are the domestic cattle of the present time. Their only enemies were their natural enemies; bear, wolves, "cata- mounts " and Indians. So long as they had but these to contend with their number increased rather than diminished. Their wild fellow " four-foots" only killed for food, and the Indian only for food and clothing. The craft and speed of the deer and their
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OLD MORGAN HOMESTEAD, BELLOWS FALLS.
brothers, the moose and caribou, made the hunting of them by their natural enemies a sport, as exciting for the hunted as for the hunters, for the chances were equal and only he who dis- played the greater cunning and skill was the winner. There was nothing in this natural warfare to frighten the timid deer and their brothers away.
But with the advent of civilized, Christianized white men, all the natural conditions were upset. It is a pitful axiom that God's people have ever been the chief instrument for the destruction of His natural beauties and grandeur. The covetousness of the white settlers caused them to slaughter wild animal life for profit, and
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to destroy the noble forests for gain. The same conditions exist to-day, only, the unnecessary slaughter of wild animals not desired for food, is called sport, and the destruction of the remnants of the forest, is called good business.
In 1728, four years after the building of Fort Dummer, there was but one Governor for Massachusetts and New Hampshire, but each Colony had a Lieutenant Governor and its own Assembly. These facts no doubt hastened and may have been the chief cause of the independence of New Hampshire and its separation from Massachusetts. The long absence of Governor Shute was the direct cause of the trouble which resulted in the separation of New Hampshire and Massachusetts, for it was uncertain whether Governor Shute would return and resume the executive chair, or if Jonathan Belcher would be appointed Governor. The reason this uncertainty brought about trouble was, that Lieutenant Gov- ernor Wentworth, of New Hampshire, liked public office and of- ficial life and as he did not know which of the two men would be Governor, he wrote letters of a flattering nature to both, in the hope, that the pleasure he believed each would derive from his letters would cause them to regard him with favor.
It so happened, that while on a brief visit to New Hampshire, Lieutenant Governor Belcher discovered what he regarded as Wentworth's dishonorable conduct. This so far aroused his anger that he snubbed and insulted Wentworth. He refused to dine with Wentworth while he was in Portsmouth, dismissed all of Went- worth's friends and relatives from office, and cut off the perquisites of his office. After the death of Lieutenant Governor Wentworth, which occurred soon after this trouble started, his son, Benning Wentworth, determined to punish Belcher. Wentworth and Theo- dore Atkinson, his brother-in-law, with a number of influential friends, organized a strong opposition party. They succeeded in depriving Governor Belcher of that portion of his territory com- prised in the bounds of New Hampshire and succeeded in bringing about the appointment of a separate Governor for New Hampshire. This appointment was given to Benning Wentworth in 1741, and his brother-in-law, Theodore Atkinson, was appointed to the of- fice of Secretary.
But in the mean time, the quarrel between Wentworth and Belcher increased to such an extent that it passed out of the per- sonal and became general, and involved the boundary between 26
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Massachusetts and New Hampshire. The Wentworth party sup- ported John Tomlinson in his successful effort to obtain, by royal authority, a board of commissioners to settle the boundary dispute. This commission was composed of Councilors of the Provinces and was given full power to settle the location of the boundary. The commissioners met in August, 1737, at Hampton, New Hampshire, near the coast, and in a few days the Legislature of New Hampshire met at Hampton Falls, not far from the meeting
OLD MORGAN TAVERN, BELLOWS FALLS.
place of the Commission, and the Legislature of Massachusetts met at Salisbury. The session was long and the remarks and speeches sulphurous, but finally, the eastern boundary of New Hampshire was fixed as it is to-day. But the boundary between the Colony of Massachusetts and the Province of New Hampshire was a different matter and it was found necessary to submit the question to the King.
As a consequence, a royal commission was appointed to run the line between the two governments, in 1738. The Commission be- gan the line at the coast, three miles to the north of the mouth
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of the Merrimac River. The line followed a curve to Pawtucket Falls and from that place it was continued due west to New York. In this, Wentworth was again successful and Belcher disappointed, for the area was greater than it was expected it would be. This line occasioned considerable discontent as Governor Belcher, of Massachusetts, had made a great many grants on both sides of the Connecticut River as far north as Charlestown, New Hamp- shire. The titles to them being worthless, the persons to whom the grants had been made tried to have the territory in which they lived re-annexed to Massachusetts, but without success.
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In 1735, three years before the boundary between New Hamp- shire and Massachusetts had been fixed, Governor Belcher induced the Legislature of Massachusetts to permit him to lay out two 1,000-acre plots of the unoccupied lands. The Governor based his request upon the services of his brother, Andrew Belcher, in the troubles .with Canada in 1690. The Legislature granted the desired permission and two plots of 1,000 acres cach were laid out ; one at Cold River in New Hampshire, nearly opposite Bel- lows Falls, and the other across the Connecticut in Vermont. This J,000-acre town in Vermont was first called Great Falls, later Bellowston, and finally Bellows Falls. In the following year, 1736, Walpole and Charlestown, New Hampshire, and Rocking- ham, and Westminster, Vermont, were surveyed and laid out as towns on the banks of the Connecticut River. Hinsdale was originally settled in 1683, Chesterfield, in 1736, Keen, in 1739, Charlestown, in 1740, and Westmoreland, in 1741. From these dates it is seen that the south-western Connecticut River towns of New Hampshire were settled earlier than were the river towns in the south-eastern portion of Vermont, with the exception of Fort Dummer.
The patriotism of the men of Vermont and New Hampshire during the Revolution was peculiar, characteristic and, in many instances, sublime. In the southern tier of towns the conditions were not so very different from the conditions in the more thickly settled portions of New England, in Massachusetts and Connecti- cut. But there was a vast territory, in both states, where there were no villages, such as were common in the two states to the south. There were hamlets of five or six homes, with isolated clearings between them. Further in the wilderness were to be found the even more isolated, but not lonely, homes of hardy,
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fearless pioneer hunters and trappers, of whom Roland Robinson has written poems in prose. These men were not lonely for they loved Nature and lived in its midst. The peculiar and sublime characteristics of these Northern Yankees' patriotism was shown in the way they responded to the call of their country, unde- livered by human lips.
The people of the southern tier of towns, and of the more populous towns of Massachusetts and Connecticut had the stirring sound of rattling drums and shrill fife ; of patriotic speeches ; and the contagion of numbers, to stimulate them to immediate action, and when red-hot proclamations were read in public places, call- ing upon them to rally around the leaders, they responded in com- panies. But the Northern Yankees heard nothing of this, nor were they aroused by the sight of flashing eyes and brilliantly uni- formed officers. The news of the Battle of Lexington reached those tiny hamlets of three or four homes, the scattered clearings and the remote log cabins of the hunters slowly, and the only call to the defence of their country which they heard, was the silent call of conscience to duty.
To this call they responded, not in companies, but in twos or threes and singly. Scores, yes hundreds, of these Northern Noble- men - and the Courts of Europe never produced finer - deliber- ately went to work to cast bullets, fill powderhorns and desert their homes, to tramp alone, 300 miles through a trackless forest the greater part of the way, that they might give their lives to the Cause of the United Colonies. Is sublime too strong a word for such patriotism ; is there cause for wonder that Washington's of- ficers were anxious to have at least one company of these North- ern Yankees in their commands, whose patriotism was so fine and whose markmanship was so perfect that they considered it a disgrace to shoot a squirrel in any other part of the body than the head, at 100 yards?
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HINSDALE AND VERNON.
T HE history of Hinsdale, New Hampshire, and Vernon, Vermont, is practically the same from the settlement in 1736, to the incorporation of Vernon, in 1753. Under the caption of Northfield, it was mentioned, that when the General Court of Massachusetts granted the territory called by the Indians Squakheag to John Pynchon, of Springfield, Massachusetts, and his associates, in 1672, a considerable portion of the grant - which became the Town of Northfield, Massachusetts - extended into that portion of New England, that became parts of Vermont and New Hampshire after the northern boundary of Massachusetts had been fixed by King George. This territory lying to the north of Massachusetts, on both sides of the Connecticut River, became Hinsdale in 1753, and in 1802, the portion of that town lying on the west side of the river became Vernon, Vermont.
The combinations of boundary disputes having to do with Squakheag, even when read about at this late day, are sufficiently mixed up to give the reader an acute attack of strabismus. The particular disease from which the inhabitants of the district im- mediately concerned in the several boundary disputes suffered may only be guessed at.
That portion of Squakheag lying to the north of the northern line of Massachusetts was called Northfield from 1672 till 1741. That portion of Northfield lying to the west of the Connecticut River was called Bridgeman's Fort from 1741, to 1753, and the eastern portion was called Northfield from 1672 till 1753.
In 1753, Squakheag-Northfield-Bridgeman's Fort, and Squak- heag-Northfield, became Hinsdale. In other words, the two parts of the original township that was granted to John Pynchon in 1672, were united and given the name of Hinsdale, in 1753.
In 1802, Hinsdale was divided and Squakheag-Northfield- Bridgeman's Fort-Hinsdale, became Vernon, Vermont; and Squaklieag-Northfield-Hinsdale, retained the last part of its hyphenated name and is still known as Hinsdale, New Hamp- shire. Thus, the western portion of Northfield became Vernon, Vermont, and the eastern portion became Hinsdale, New Hamp. shire.
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But Vernon has had a much more varied and complex career, than even that in which Hinsdale was mixed up, for, by reason of the many boundary disputes, the full Post Office addresses of the residents of Vernon were, at different times between the years 1672, and 1802:
Northfield, Hampshire County, Massachusetts.
Hinsdale, Cheshire County, New Hampshire.
Hinsdale, Cumberland County, New York.
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HOWE HOUSE, SOUTH VERNON (ON THE VERMONT SIDE).
Hinsdale, Windham County, Vermont.
Vernon, Windham County, Vermont.
From this it may be seen that Vernon has been at different times in Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New York and Vermont. The result is, that the people of Vernon of the present generation must have grave doubts, whether they are descended from a New York family or from families of one.of the three New England States.
The first settlement in the present Town of Hinsdale was made by Daniel Shattuck, in 1736. He built his house of niassive hewn timber, on the brook bearing his name. Sometime later, probably
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just before King George's War of 1744, he added to the house and made a fort of it. The addition was built on the other side of Shattucks Brook from the original house. The two parts were connected and the whole was surrounded by palisades. This fort was situated on the farm that was known in 1885, as the Sterns farm. Robert Cooper built his house in 1737, near the site of the old meeting-house and in 1738, Josiah Sartwell, of Northfield, obtained a grant from the General Court of 100 acres, in that portion of Hinsdale on the west side of the Connecticut River. Sartwell built a house-fort on his farm, in 1740, and in 1742, Or- lando Bridgeman built the historical blockhouse known as Bridge- man's Fort, about a half mile south of Sartwell's Fort. In 1741, John Evans built his house to the south of Ashuelot River on his farm, that many years later was known as the Stebbins-farm.
The Rev. Ebenezer Hinsdell, who had been appointed chaplain of Fort Dummer, on the western side of the Connecticut River, was induced by the settlers in 1742, to build a blockhouse upon his property bordering Ash-swamp Brook, and a gristmill on the little brook not far from the blockhouse. The gristmill was patronized by the settlers and in it the grain was ground for the garrison at Fort Dummer ..
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