USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Groton > Three historical addresses at Groton, Massachusetts > Part 4
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The subject was referred the same day to a Committee consisting of John Read, of Boston, William Fairfield, of Wenham, Thomas Wells, of Deerfield, Benjamin Browne, of Salem, and Job Almy, of Tiverton. On the next day, April 21, - as we read in the printed Journal of the House of Representatives, - the chairman of -
the Committee appointed to consider that Paragraph in His Excellency's SPEECH relating to the Encouragement of two English Captives from Canada, viz. John Tharbell and Zecha- riah Tharbell, made report thereon, which he read in his Place, and then delivered it at the Table; and after some debate thereon, the House did not accept the Report; and having con- sidered the same Article by Article, the House came into a Vote thereon, and sent the same up to the honourable Board for Concurrence.
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On the 23d we find -
A Petition of Thomas Tharbell of Groton, Elder Brother of the two Mr. Tharbells lately returned from Captivity in Canada, praying he may be allowed the Loan of some Money to enable him to pay William Rogers, jun. his Account of Charges in bringing his Brethren to Boston. Read and Ordered, That the Petition be considered to morrow morning.
On the next day -
T HE House pass'd a Vote on the Petition of Thomas Thar- bell of Groton, praying as entred the 23d current, and sent the same up to the honourable Board for Concurrence.
All these efforts, however, to reclaim the two men from savage life proved unavailing; for it is known that they remained with the Indians and became naturalized, if I may use the expression. They married Indian wives, and were afterward made chiefs at Caughnawaga and St. Regis, vil- lages in Canada. Their descendants are still living among the Indians, and the Tarbells of the present day, in this town, are their collateral kindred. Nearly forty years after their capture, Governor Hutchinson met them in New York State, and refers to them thus: -
I saw at Albany two or three men, in the year 1744, who came in with the Indians to trade, and who had been taken at Groton in this, that is called Queen Ann's war. One of them Tarbell, was said to be one of the wealthiest of the Cag- nawaga tribe. He made a visit in his Indian dress and with his Indian complexion ( for by means of grease and paints but little difference could be discerned) to his relations at Groton, but had no inclination to remain there. (Hutchinson's His- tory of Massachusetts, ii. 139.)
This is another account : -
It is related that, about a century and a half ago, while a couple of boys and a girl were playing in a barn at Groton, Mas- sachusetts, some Indians suddenly appeared, seized the boys and fled, carrying them to the village of Caughnawaga, nine miles above Montreal. They grew up with Indian habits, man-
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ners, and language, being finally adopted as members of the tribe; and married Indian brides selected from the daughters of the principal chiefs. ("The Galaxy," for January, 1870, p. 124.)
I have been told that the name " Caughnawaga " is a cor- ruption of Kaknawaka, which in the Indian tongue means " The Rapids."
The people must have lived in constant dread of the In- dians during the period of Queen Anne's War. Sometimes an outlying farmhouse was attacked and burned, some of the inmates killed and others carried away in captivity ; sometimes the farmer was shot down while at labor in the field, or while going or coming. This was the fate of John Shattuck and his eldest son, John, a young man eighteen years of age, who were killed on May 8, 1709.
At another time, the date of which is not recorded, but probably in the attack of July, 1694, the house of John Shepley was burned, and himself and all his family were massacred, except his young son, John. There may have been some special spite against him, because some years before he had killed an Indian; for which act he received from the General Court a bounty of four pounds. ( Archives, xxx. 496, 497.) This boy John the savages carried away with them and held as captive during several years. But as is often said, where there is great loss, there is some little gain. The knowledge which he obtained of their lan- guage and customs while a prisoner was of much use to him in dealing with them in after-life. Tradition relates that, when buying furs and skins of the Indians, he used to put his foot in one scale of the balance instead of a pound weight. He is the direct ancestor of the Honorable Ether Shepley, formerly Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of . the State of Maine, and of General George F. Shepley, now a Justice of the Circuit Court of the First Circuit of the United States.
Near the end of Queen Anne's War, we find a list of eighteen garrisons in this town containing, in all, fifty-eight families, or three hundred and seventy-eight souls. Of
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these, seventeen were soldiers in the public service. (Ar- chives, 1xxi. 874.)
The military company posted here in the summer of 1724 was made up of soldiers from different towns in this part of the Province, and was commanded by Lieutenant Jabez Fairbanks. Some of them were detailed as guards to protect the more exposed garrisons, and others were scouting in the neighborhood. They were so scattered that the commanding officer found it difficult to drill them as a company. Fortunately, however, they were not engaged in much fighting, though the enemy had been lurking in the vicinity, and threatening the town. Thirteen of Lieu- tenant Fairbanks's company belonged here, and represented some of the most influential families in the place.
Penhallow, in speaking of the Indians at this period, says that, -
The next damage they did, was at Groton, but were so closely pursued, that they left several of their Packs behind (p. 102).
In this paragraph he alludes to the killing of John Ames, on July 9, 1724, who was shot by an Indian, one of a small party that attacked Ames's garrison, near the Nashua River, in the northerly part of the town which comes now in Pepperell. It is said that he was the last person killed by an Indian within the township. The Indian himself was immediately afterward shot by Jacob Ames, one of John's sons. (Archives, lii. 23. )
Governor Saltonstall, of Connecticut, writes from New London, under date of July 23, 1724, that the friendly In- dians of that neighborhood seem inclined to hunt for scalps about Monadnock and the further side of Dunstable and Groton. This was owing to an offer made about this time by the Provincial authorities of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, of a bounty of a hundred pounds for every Indian's scalp taken and shown to the proper officers. This premium stimulated volunteers to scour the wilderness for the purpose of hunting Indians, and Captain John Love-
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well, of Dunstable,* organized a company, which soon be- came famous.
The story of Lovewell's fight was for a long time told in every household in this neighborhood, and there is scarcely a person who has not heard from early infancy the particu- lars of that eventful conflict. It was in the spring of the year 1725 that Captain Lovewell, with thirty-four men, fought a famous Indian chief, named Paugus, at the head of about eighty savages, near the shores of a pond in Pequawket, now within the limits of Fryeburg, Maine. Of this little Spartan band, seven belonged in Groton; and one of them, John Chamberlain by name, distinguished himself by killing the Indian leader. It is fit that a bare reference to this fight should be made on this occasion, though time does not allow me to dwell upon it.
The town, now no longer on the frontiers, was again threatened with danger near the end of King George's war. A company of thirty-two men, under the command of Cap- tain Thomas Tarbell, scouted in this vicinity for six days in July, 1748, but they do not appear to have discovered the enemy. A few days afterward, another company of thirty- six men was sent on a similar expedition, but with no better success. In the rolls of these two companies we find many names that have been prominent in the annals of the town from its very beginning. Among them are the Prescotts, the Ameses, the Bancrofts, the Shepleys, the Parkers, a son of Parson Bradstreet, and a grandson of Parson Hobart.
The military service of Groton men was not confined to this neighborhood. Daniel Farmer, a Groton soldier, was taken prisoner in a skirmish with the Indians, near Fort Dummer, on July 14, 1748. He was carried to Canada and kept till the following October, when he was allowed to return home.
* The Dunstable of early times is not identical with the present town of that name in this State, though situated in the same neighborhood. Old Dunstable was a very large township, containing 128,000 acres of land lying on both sides of the Merrimack. By the running of the new Provincial line, A. D. 1741, it was so cut in two that by far the larger part of her territory came within the jurisdiction of New Hampshire. For fuller details, see pp. 129, 130.
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Fort Dummer was situated on the west bank of the Connecticut River, in the present town of Brattleborough, Vermont. Two of its early commanders had been con- nected with Groton by the ties of kindred. Colonel Josiah Willard, in command of the fort for many years, was a grandson of Parson Willard; and he was succeeded in com- mand by Lieutenant Dudley Bradstreet, a son of Parson Bradstreet, and a native of this place.
Ebenezer Farnsworth, born in Groton, was captured on August 30, 1754, by the St. Francis Indians, at Charles- town, New Hampshire. He was taken to Montreal and held a prisoner during three years. His ransom was paid in the summer of 1755, but he was not then set at liberty. Mrs. Johnson and her sister, Miriam Willard, were taken at the same time. They were both daughters of Moses Willard, who had formerly lived in the south part of this town.
During the French and Indian War, the territory of Acadia, or Nova Scotia, fell under British authority; and the conquest was followed by a terrible act of cruelty and violence. The simple Acadians, unsuspicious of the de- signs of the English leaders, were assembled in their churches, in obedience to military proclamation, and thence, without being allowed to return to their homes, were driven at the point of the bayonet on board ships, to be scattered over all the English colonies in America. This was done with so little regard to humanity that, in many instances, wives were separated from husbands, and children from parents, never to see one another again. Many an Evange- line waited in vain expectation of being reunited to her Gabriel, thus torn away from her. Two of these French families, ten persons in all, were sent to Groton, where one of the mothers died, not many months after her arrival, perhaps from the rude transplanting. A few years later a French family - perhaps one of these two - is men- tioned as living here; but the household had become divided, some of the little children being sent to the neighboring towns. Our pity for these unfortunate people will be
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stronger when we reflect that they were miserably poor, among a race who spoke a strange language, followed other customs, and abominated their religion. Under these cir- cumstances their homesickness must indeed have been bitter ; but we have reason to believe that they were treated with tender care by the people here. We are glad to learn from the records that they were furnished with medical attend- ance, and articles necessary for their bodily comfort.
Another struggle was now impending, harder than any the Colonists had been engaged in. Almost immediately
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Stamp and Counter-stamp 1765.
after the French and Indian War, the odious Stamp Act was passed, which did much to hasten public opinion toward the Revolution.
I hold in my hand a stamp issued under the authority of this Act. On a public occasion, many years ago, Mr. Everett said, in speaking of a similar one, that "this bit of dingy blue paper, stamped with the two-and-sixpence sterling, created the United States of America, and cost Great Britain the brightest jewel in her crown."
The Stamp Act was followed by the Boston Massacre, the Boston Tea Party, and the Boston Port Bill, - all too familiar to be particularized. These acts excited through- out the land a deep feeling for the capital of New England. The eyes of all the colonies were now turned toward Bos- ton, and she received the hearty sympathy of the whole country. The sentiments of the people of this town are
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shown in the following letter from the Town Clerk, which is printed in the Massachusetts Historical Collections ( fourth series, iv. 7, 8) : -
GROTON, June 28th, 1774.
GENTLEMEN, - The inhabitants of the Town of Groton, in general, are deeply affected with a sense of our public calami- ties, and more especially the distresses of our brethren in the Capital of the Province, as we esteem the act of blocking up the harbor of Boston replete with injustice and cruelty, and evi- dently designed to compel the inhabitants thereof to submis- sion of taxes imposed upon them without their consent, and threatens the total destruction of the liberties of all British America. We ardently desire a happy union with Great Britain and the Colonies, and shall gladly adopt every measure con- sistent with the dignity and safety of British subjects for that purpose.
In full confidence that the inhabitants of the Town of Boston will, in general, exhibit examples of patience, fortitude and perseverance, while they are called to endure this oppression for the preservation of the liberties of their country, and in token of our willingness to afford all suitable relief to them in our power, a number of the inhabitants of this Town have sub- scribed, and this day sent forty bushels of grain, part rye and part Indian corn, to be delivered to the Overseers of the Poor of said Town of Boston, not doubting but the same will be suitably applied for that purpose; and we earnestly desire you will use your utmost endeavor to prevent and avoid all mobs, riots, and tumults, and the insulting of private persons and property. And while the farmers are cheerfully resigning part of their substance for your relief, we trust the merchants will not oppress them by raising upon the goods which they have now on hand and heretofore purchased. And may God prosper every undertaking which tends to the salvation of the people.
We are, gentlemen, your friends and fellow-countrymen. In the name and by order of the Committee of Correspondence for the Town of Groton.
OLIVER PRESCOTT, Clerk.
TO THE OVERSEERS OF THE TOWN OF BOSTON.
The reply, printed in the same volume of Collections, is as follows : -
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BOSTON, July 5th, 1774.
SIR, - Your obliging letter directed to the Overseers of the Poor of this Town, together with a generous present from a number of the inhabitants of the Town of Groton, for the relief of such inhabitants of this Town as may be sufferers by the Port Bill, is come to hand. In behalf of the Committee of this Town, appointed for the reception of such kind donations, I am now to return to you and the rest of our benefactors the most sincere thanks. The gentlemen may be assured their donations will be applied to the purpose they intend. We are much obliged to you for the wise cautions given in your letter ; and we shall use our best endeavors that the inhabitants of this Town may endure their sufferings with dignity, that the glori- ous cause for which they suffer may not be reproached. We trust that the non-consumption agreement, which we hear is making progress in the country, will put it out of the power of any of the merchants to take unreasonable advantage of raising the prices of their goods. You will, however, remember that many heavy articles, such as nails, &c., will be attended with considerable charge in transporting them from Salem. As the bearer is in haste, I must conclude, with great regard for your Committee of Correspondence and the inhabitants of the Town of Groton.
Sir, your friend and fellow-countryman,
Signed by order of the Overseers of the Poor,
SAM. PARTRIDGE.
TO THE COMMITTEE OF THE TOWN OF GROTON, IN MASSACHUSETTS.
The times that tried men's souls were now rapidly ap- proaching; and the rights of the Colonies were the uppermost subject in the minds of most people. Groton sympathized warmly with this feeling, and prepared to do her part in the struggle. A considerable number of her inhabitants had received their military schooling in the French war, as their fathers before them had received theirs in the Indian war. Such persons did not now enter upon camp life as inexperienced or undisciplined soldiers. The town had men willing to serve and able to command. Within a quarter of a mile of this very spot the man was born, who commanded the American forces on Bunker Hill;
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and, as long as the story of that battle is told, the name of Prescott will be familiar .*
Before the beginning of actual hostilities, two companies of minute-men had been organized in this place; and, at the desire of the officers, on February 21, 1775, the Reverend Samuel Webster, of Temple, New Hampshire, preached a sermon before them, which was afterward printed. It is there stated that a large majority of the town had engaged to hold themselves, agreeably to the plan of the Provincial Council, in prompt readiness to act in the service of their country. The sermon is singularly meagre in details which would interest us at this time, and is made up largely of theological opinion, perhaps as valuable now as then, though not so highly prized.
At this period the Reverend Samuel Dana was the min- ister of the town, but, unfortunately for him, he was too much in sympathy with the Crown in the great struggle now going on for human rights. Mr. Dana may not have been a Tory; but he did not espouse the cause of the Revolution. The state of public feeling was such that everybody was distrusted who was not on the side of polit- ical liberty. The people said, "He who is not for us is against us"; and the confidence of his flock was converted into distrust. It was easy to see that his influence was gone; and almost every minister in New England who held similar opinions shared the same fate. It was im- portant that the public teacher and preacher should be in sympathy with the popular mind on the great political questions of the day. This was a period of big events; and no man could stand against their crushing force. It was evident that his usefulness was ended; and the rela- tions between him and his parish were severed without the intervention of a regular ecclesiastical council.
Mr. Dana was a conscientious man; and it was his mis- fortune rather than his fault, that he was not more happily
* On the night of May 21, 1775, the countersign at the camp in Cambridge was " Pepperell," and the parole, " Groton." This was undoubtedly in compli- ment to Colonel Prescott.
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situated in regard to his people. It is but justice to his memory to say that, after Burgoyne's surrender, in the year 1777, Mr. Dana felt that the Colonial cause was the winning one; while before this event he thought that the want of success on the part of the Colonists would result in their greater misery. He then became satisfied that the power of the country was sufficient to sustain the Declara- tion of Independence; and ever after he was the uniform supporter of all measures looking to its acknowledgment by the enemy. It is a little remarkable that Mr. Dana, who had such a Tory bias that he was obliged to leave the min- istry in Groton, should have been a candidate in 1782 for the convention to form a constitution for New Hampshire, " as a sovereign and independent body politic."
After his dismissal from the parish, he officiated during perhaps a year and a half, in 1780 and 1781, as the minister of a Presbyterian society, which had a short existence in this town. This was owing chiefly to some of his old parishioners, who were dissatisfied with Dr. Chaplin, his successor. While living here, Mr. Dana was appointed ex- ecutor of the will of John Bulkley, Esq., an attorney-at-law in Groton. This position brought him in contact with a library, which he used in studying law, though now with no professional eye to business. In the year 1779 Thomas Coleman, who succeeded Mr. Bulkley as a lawyer, had his residence and office in Mr. Dana's house; and this circum- stance helped him in gaining his new profession. He was admitted to the bar in 1781, and began practice at Am- herst, New Hampshire. He soon attained high rank in his new calling, and received many marks of kindness and confidence from his neighbors and fellow-citizens. He was offered the appointment to a judgeship of the Inferior Court of Common Pleas, which he declined. He afterward accepted the office of Judge of Probate, which he kept only for a short time. His success as an advocate before a jury was marked; and this was due in part to the fluency of speech and the clearness of expression resulting from his pulpit experience.
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He died at Amherst, on April 2, 1798, and was buried with masonic honors, when the Honorable Timothy Bige- low, of Groton, delivered a funeral eulogy, which is in print. His name is perpetuated in this town by the Dana School.
During several days before the Battle of Lexington, a hostile incursion by the English soldiers stationed in Boston was expected by the patriots. Its aim was the destruction of stores collected for the use of the Provincial cause; and on this account every movement of the British troops was closely watched. At this time the Committees of Safety and of Supplies voted that some of the stores should be kept at Groton; and, if their plan had been fully carried out, it is among the possibilities of the war that another battle might have been fought in Middlesex County, and Groton have been the scene of the action. But open hos- tilities began so soon afterward that no time was given to make the removal of the stores. It was ordered by these committees, April 17, that the four six-pounders be trans- ported from Concord to Groton, and put under the care of Colonel Oliver Prescott. On the next day it was voted that all the ammunition should be deposited in nine dif- ferent towns of the Province, of which Groton was one, and that one-half of the musket cartridges be removed from Stow to Groton. It was also voted that two " medicinal " chests should be kept at different places in the town, and that eleven hundred tents be deposited in equal quantities in Groton and six other towns. (See Journals of the Committee of Safety and of the Committee of Supplies of the Provincial Congress of Massachusetts, 1774-1775, PP. 516-518.)
In the summer of 1777 the Council of the State recom- mended to the Board of War that the magazine in this town should be enlarged sufficiently to hold five hundred barrels of powder. This recommendation' was carried out within a few days; and a corporal and four privates were detailed to guard it. A caution was given "that no person be in- listed into said Guard that is not known to be attached to
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the American Cause." Later in the autumn, the detail was increased to a sergeant and nine privates. (Archives, clxxiii. 274, 290, 549. )
Two years afterward some glass was wanted for this very building, and for the schoolhouse, as the windows were much broken. The selectmen of the town could obtain the glass only through the Board of War; and to this end they petitioned the Board for leave to buy it. (Archives, clxxv. 647.) The request was duly granted; and I men- tion it as a trivial fact to show one of the little privations common in those days.
It is said in a note-book of the Reverend Dr. Jeremy Belknap, of Boston, printed in the Proceedings of the Massachusetts Historical Society for June, 1875, page 93, that a negro belonging to this town shot Major Pitcairn through the head, while he was rallying the dispersed British troops, at the Battle of Bunker Hill. It is known that Pit- cairn was killed by a negro, but this is, perhaps, the first time that he has ever been connected on good authority with Groton. The loss of life from this town at that battle was larger than that from any other place. One commis- sioned officer and ten enlisted men, residents of Groton, were either killed or mortally wounded. This statement shows the patriotic character of the citizens at that period.
The record of this town during the Revolution was a highly honorable one. Her soldiers achieved distinction in the field, and many of them in after-life filled positions of trust and responsibility.
In the year 1776 an Act was passed removing the No- vember term of the Court of General Sessions of the Peace and Court of Common Pleas, from Charlestown to Groton. It may be conjectured that the change was owing to the disturbances of the war. Two years later, by another Act, this November term was transferred to Cambridge, to take the place of the May term, which in turn was brought to Groton, where it remained till 1787. It is known that the sessions of the Court were held in this meeting-house where we are now assembled; and the Court was sitting here
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