Saco Valley settlements and families. Historical, biographical, genealogical, traditional, and legendary, Part 3

Author: Ridlon, Gideon Tibbetts, 1841- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Portland, Me., The author
Number of Pages: 1424

USA > Maine > Saco Valley settlements and families. Historical, biographical, genealogical, traditional, and legendary > Part 3
USA > New Hampshire > Saco Valley settlements and families. Historical, biographical, genealogical, traditional, and legendary > Part 3

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

the grant of land was given according to promise, and was named . Nash and Sawyer's Location. "

In 18_3. a roid costing $ 16.005, extending through the Notch, was built and became the thoroughfare by which the farmers of northern New Hampshire and Vermont, carried their produce to the Portland market. A hundred teams have been known to go through the mountain pass on a winter day.

One of the carliest to establish a home in the White Mountain region was Eleazer Rosebrook, a former resident of Groton, Mass., who settled in Lan- ( ister in 1972, removing hence, in a short time, to Monadnock, where he built a house more than thirty miles from any white man, and reached by spotted trees During the Revolution be removed to Vermont and served in the war. In 179, he returned to the wilderness, reaching Nash and Sawyer's Location in nudwinter. Here he began to cut timber for a homestead and soon erected

THE WHITE MOUNTAINS.

a log-house near the "Giant's Grave," not far from the site of the Fabyan House. He built a saw-mill, grist-mill, and large barns, stables and sheds for the accommodation of travelers. Rosebrook was one of nature's noblemen, " renowned for his heroism in war and his enterprise in time of peace." *

Here, under the grim shadows of the templed hills, he gathered around his hospitable fireside the sturdy farmers who, when on their market trip, tarried with him for a night, and thus he extended his acquaintance and friend- ship until his name became the synonym of good-fellowship and generosity. He died in 1817.

Abel Crawford, descended from an ancient Scottish family, was another noted pioneer of the mountain country. He came from Guildhall, Vt., only a few years after Mr. Rosebrook, who was his father-in-law, and settled twelve miles south, near where the famous house named for the family now stands. In 1819, he opened a path to Mt. Washington. In 1822, his son, Ethan Allen Crawford, opened a new path to the hills by another course. When seventy- five years of age, Abel Crawford made his first journey on horseback to the top of Mt. Washington. Previous to this time visitors to the mountains, attended by experienced guides, ascended on foot. For more than sixty years this noble man had entertained strangers at his fireside and guided them along the danger- ous paths cut through the forests to view the scenes of wild grandeur nature had hidden away here, and when venerable years had made it unsafe for him longer to attempt such services, he would cast longing looks upward and sigh for the privilege of standing once more on Mt. Washington's summit, where, like Moses on Nebo, he could "view the landscape o'er." It is said of him that in the spring months during his last years, he would watch for the coming of visitors with the same eagerness with which boys look for the return of the birds. He would sit in his armchair during the mild weather, supported by his dutiful daughter, his snowy hair falling on his shoulders, and watch and wait for the first traveler who might enter the wild mountain pass. Soon after the stage coaches began to pass his door with their numerous passengers, having accom- plished his important mission, he sank down to rest at the age of 85 years.

Ethan Allen Crawford succeeded to the estate of Capt. Rosebrook, but the extensive buildings were soon destroyed by fire. He was known as the "giant of the mountains," and was nearly seven feet in stature. He kept a journal of

* MRS. ROSERROOK was a large, resolute and powerful woman, well qualified to meet the experiences incident to pioneer life. On one occasion, when her husband was absent, a party of drunken ludians came to her house at night and asked to be admitted. She kindly allowed them to enter, and for a time they were civil ; It from the effects of the liquor they continued to drink, became insolent. She determined to be rid of their company and with a voice of authority ordered them out-of-doors. Reluctantly they withdrew save one great squaw who turned upon Mrs. Rosebrook to resist her mandate; but the latter seized her by the hair, dragged her to the threshhold, and thrust her out. In an instant the squaw sent a tomahawk whizzing at her which ent the wooden latch, upon which she held her hand, from the door. On the following day this squaw returned and asked pardon.

THE WHITE MOUNTAINS.

his adventures which contain many a quaint entry. Some of the most eminent men of his day were entertained under his roof. It was not uncommon for him to come in from a bear hunt, or fishing excursion, attired in his rough hunting garb, to find a college president, learned judge, or a member of congress at his hearthstone. He once assisted Daniel Webster to the top of Mt. Washington. and recorded the following in his book . .. We went up without meeting anything of note more than was common for me to find, but to him things appeared interesting , and when we arrived there, Mr. Webster said, . Mount Washington ! I have come a long distance, have toiled hard to reach your summit and now you give me a cold reception. I am extremely sorry I cannot stay to view the grand prospect that lies before me, and nothing prevents but this cold, uncom. fortable atmosphere in which you reside.'" When descending a storm of snow began to fall and the cold became so intensified that their blood nearly curdled. Webster was much pleased with his stalwart guide and host, and Ethan adds : " The following morning after paying his bill, he made me a handsome present of twenty dollars." Ethan Allen Crawford was a noble specimen of manhood. brave, and of good moral character.

For many years the Crawford family alone entertained all strangers who visited the White Mountains, and all the bridle paths on the west side were cleared by them. They were bold, fearless men, strong as lions, and their muscular arms have been the support of many an ambitious pilgrim to the mountains when attempting to reach higher altitudes.

TRADITIONS AND LEGENDS.

Nancy Barton is supposed to have been the first white woman who passed through the Notch of the White Hills voluntarily. She was employed to keep a boarding-house for lumbermen in Jefferson ; was industrious, faithful, and toiled early and late for small wages. Her employer was taken captive by the Indians and she served them liquor until they were all helpless; then cut the thongs with which he was bound and secured his liberty. She carefully hus- banded her earnings, and in time had laid down a handsome sum. She was engaged to be married to one of the workmen and arrangements were made for them to proceed to Portsmouth, her native place, where they were to be united and make a home. She trustingly, but unwisely, placed her money in the hands of her affianced, and began making preparations for her journey. This having become known to her employer, he determined not to lose so valuable a house- keeper, and to circumvent the marriage he sent her away on errands to Lancaster. This was meanness beyond description, and the result was tragic. During her absence her professed lover left the locality with a party going south, taking her money away with him. She somehow heard of this affair on the same day. and quickly matured plans for pursuit. With a bundle of clothing she hastened

THE WHITE MOUNTAINS.

down the snow-covered trail, guided by the trees spotted for that purpose, and after a weary journey of thirty miles, having traveled all night through a dark forest, she reached the spot where the party had camped. The fire had gone out. Benumbed with cold, she knelt about the charred brands and tried in vain to blow from them a flame. Again she took up her weary march, fording the icy waters of the Saco several times, until exhausted nature succumbed to cold and fatigue and she sank down to rise no more. Her clothes were coated with ice and loaded with the falling snow; her curdled blood ceased to flow and death released her from her distress. A relief party had been hurried for- ward after the storm of snow came on, but they were too far behind to save her life; her rigid body was found buried under the drifting snow upon the south side of the stream in Bartlett, since known as "Nancy's brook." Her faithless lover learned of her sad fate, and being seized with keen remorse for his crime, became hopelessly insane and ended his days by a miserable death. All the particulars of this affair were related in my presence when a boy, and every recurrence of the sad story has oppressed my mind as I thought of the hell- ish spirit that prompted men to such desperate deeds of wickedness. Grim Justice could find no doom too dark as a penalty for such crime. The early inhabitants believed the ghost of Nancy Barton's betrayer and robber lingered about the brookside where she perished, and that his terrible wailing lamentations were often heard there at night.

The "Crystal Cascade."-On the Ellis river, one of the tributaries of the Saco, among the mountains, there is a beautiful waterfall with which a pathetic legend is connected. When that region was inhabited only by the red men, a chief, according to the custom of his people, had made choice of a brave and stalwart Indian to become the husband of his daughter. Learning that the affections of the maiden had been given to one of a neighboring tribe who was quite worthy of her, the old chief could not fully disregard her wishes. A council was called and the old men decided that the girl should be given to the one most skillful with the bow and arrow. A target was put up and the two young warriors prepared for the contest. When all was ready, the twang of the bow- string rang out on the air, the feathered arrows sped on their errand, and he of her father's choice was declared to be the champion. Before the shouts of his friends had died away, the two loyal-hearted lovers had joined hands and were fleeing through the forest. Swift - footed pursuers were instantly on their trail, and it became a race for life or death. Finding the pursuers likely to overtake them, when the lovers reached the edge of the precipice down which the cataract plunges, clasped in each other's arms they threw themselves into the rushing waters ; and now, as sentimental visitors watch the shining mists arise before the falls, fancy pictures two graceful and etherial forms, hand in hand, standing there. This is the legend.

The Lost Maiden .- An Indian family living on the head waters of the

THE WHITE HOUSE IS.

Saco, had a daughter more beautiful than any maiden of their tribe, and who was accomplished in all the arts known to her people. When she had reached maturity, her parents sought in vain to find a young brave suitable for her husband, but none could be found worthy of so peerless a creature. Suddenly this wild flower of the mountains disappeared. Diligent was the search, and loud the mourning when no trace of her light moccasin could be found in forest or glade. By her tribe she was given up as lost. But some hunters who had penetrated tar into the mountain fastnesses, discovered the missing maiden in company with a beautiful youth whose hair, like her own, slowed down to his willst. They were on the border of a lumpid stream. On the approach of the intruders, the pair vanished out of sight. The parents of the maiden knew her companion to be one of the pure spirits of the mountains, and henceforth con- sidered him to be their son. To him they called when game was scarce, and when by the streamside they signified their wishes, lo! the creatures came swimming toward them. So runs our legend, which we have taken, in part. from an early author.

The Pale-Faer Captive. A wandering hunter of the Sokokis tribe had struck the trail of a party of Mohawk warriors who were returning from battle. and learned by occasional footprints found in the brookside sands that a white captive was being carried away. Following at a distance during the day the Sokokis watched the Mohawks camp behind a lofty boulder, and after they had eaten saw them bind the white girl to a tree in a sitting posture and then lie down in their blankets to sleep. Waiting until their fire had burned out, the young hunter cautiously crept behind the tree where the poor maiden was tied, and whispering assurance of safety he quickly cut the thongs from her swollen wrists and led her away. Before the morning dawned, they had covered so great a distance, and had so hidden their trail by wading in the shallow water of streams, that their pursuers did not overtake them and they reached the Indian village at the mouth of the Ossipee unharmed. Here the maiden, then quite a little girl, was treated with kindness and adopted the Indian mode of life. But tradition chiims that the Mohawks knew by the broken trail of the Sokokis to what tribe he belonged, and ever after watched for opportunity to wreak vengeance upon them. This pale faced exile never left the wigwam of the young brave who had rescued her from the bloody Mohawks, and when old and bent with the weight of years, was often seen in company with the " up-river Inchians " when going down the Saco in their canoes. She reported that she was an only child and that her parents had both been slain at the time she was taken captive.

The Sohohis OIndians.

HE best authorities now attribute to our North American aborig- ines an Asiatic origin. In physical appearance, language, and traditions, the western tribes resemble the northeastern Asiatics, while the Eskimo and his cousin on the Asiatic side understand each other perfectly. The Mongolian cast of features is much more marked in the tribes on the Pacific than in those on the Atlantic coast, while the earliest traditions handed down from time immemorial by the ancient fathers, and held by the chiefs of the eastern tribes, indicate that they came by stages from the westward; and those of the western tribes, that their remote ancestors came from regions farther west.

When the early explorers came to the mouth of the Saco, they found the valley inhabited by these free-born denizens of our western hemisphere. How long these lords of the soil had held their vast inheritance when the white man came, no writer on the origin of nations, or of the prehistoric period, has attempted to state in terms with any claim to definiteness. A modern author, who has given this subject much attention, believes that the era of their existence as a distinct and insulated race should be dated back to the time when, as related in sacred history, the inhabitants of the world were separated into nations and each branch of the human family received its language and individuality.

One of the most eloquent and statesman-like of the Saco valley chiefs once said in council : "We received our lands from the Great Father of Life ; we hold only from Him." Their right to the soil bequeathed by the Creator none could justly challenge, and in defending their claims against the encroach- ments of the insulting settlers they doubtless felt that they had the sanction of the Great Spirit. It certainly was a remarkable condescension that allowed the intrusive white man, without the shadow of a title, to find a foot-rest upon these shores, and greater wonder, that they were permitted to plant their homes upon the soil.

But they were, in many respects, a noble people who evinced unmistak- able evidence of having descended from a higher state, and still retained a fine sense of honor and great personal dignity. Of majestic form and graceful carriage, the typical son of the forest was an object of interest who challenged the attention of every considerate beholder.

1-4

THE SORORIS INDLINS.

The Sokokis family was one of the most ancient in what is now the State of Maine, and were quite distinct from those living on the Salmon Falls and Piscataqua rivers farther westward. Just where the territorial line of division was cannot be determined with certainty. There is evidence to show that those several tribes recognized a code of laws by which they were governed in their relations to each other. There were, anciently, according to the relations of the chiefs, great councils hell in the wilderness in which each family, or tribe, was represented by its delegated head and here the boundary of their territorial possessions and hunting grounds were prescribed, and any disputes arising from questions relating to trespass amicably adjusted.

From the Saco river eastward all the branches of the great tribal family used the same language with slight variations peculiar to certain localities. All who inhabited this wide expanse of territory between the Saco valley and New Brunswick could readily understand each other ; and yet, with one excep- tion. not a word of their language could be found in Eliot's Indian Bible printed in 1664. Captain Francis, an Indian of the Penobscot tribe, who was not only intelligent but well-informed in all matters relating to the history of the Maine Indians, said the Saco tribe was the parent of all the eastern families : "they are all one brother," the old man used to say. Each tribe was younger as we proceed eastward from Saco river, and those at Passama- quoddy the youngest of all. Francis once said, "Always I could understand these brothers when they speak, but when the Mickmacks, Algonquins, and Canadian Indians speak I cannot tell all what they say." Governor Neptune and members of the Newell family confirmed this statement.

The Sokokis were once so numerous that they could call nine hundred warriors to arms, but wars and pestilence reduced their numbers to a mere handful. Their original principal settlement and the headquarters of their important chiefs was about the lower waters of the river.

The residence of the sagamores was on Indian Island above the lower falls. Among the names of the chiefs who dwelt hereabout were those of Capt. Sunday, the two Heagons, and Squando who succeeded Fluellen. For some years these Indians lived with the white settlers in peace and quietness, some of them acquiring a fair knowledge of the English language by their inter- course. When the increasing number of colonists encroached upon their lands, and hatred and discontent had been engendered by the ill-treatment of the whites. these Indians gradually moved up river and joined their brethren who lived in the villages at Pequawket and on the Ossipee.

We have found no evidence of hostility on the Indians' part until they had been provoked to retaliate by some of the most inexcusable insults that could have been thought of. According to the early historians a party of rude sailors from one of the vessels lying in the harbor hailed the wife of Squando, who, with her infant child, was passing down the river in a canoe. Taking no notice

THIE SOKOKIS INDIANS.

of this she would have peacefully proceeded on her way, but they approached her and maliciously overturned the canoe to see, as afterwards stated, if young Indians could swim naturally like wild animals. The child instantly sank but the mother by diving brought it up alive. This babe soon after died and the parents attributed the fatality to an injury caused by the white men.

This insult and injury so exasperated Squando that he thirsted for revenge, and he determined to exert himself to the uttermost to arouse his followers and the neighboring tribes to arm themselves for a war of extermination against the whites. But this was not the only reason why the savages should hate the English settlers. Some of the early speculators who conducted a private busi- ness with the Indians, or had charge of the regular truck-houses along the coast, influenced more by their greed than any principle of honor, just as modern white men have been, by misrepresenting goods bartered for the red man's valuable furs, and by defrauding them when under the influence of liquor, had driven them to desperation. These acts of injustice were not forgotten, and some of the aggressors were made to suffer for their wrongs at the hands of the Indians, when the knife was drawn, as will hereafter appear.

As early as 1615, there were two branches of the Sokokis tribe under the government of two subordinate chiefs. One of these communities was settled on the great bend of the Saco at Pequawket, now in Fryeburg, and the other at the mouth of the Great Ossipee, where, before King Philip's war, they employed English carpenters from the settlements down river to build them a strong timber fort, having stockaded walls fourteen feet in height, to protect them against the blood-thirsty Mohawks whose coming these Indians antici- pated and dreaded. (See the particulars in article on garrisons, etc.)

When the Sokokis removed from the locality of their early home on the lower waters of the river to the interior, their names were changed to Pequawkets and Ossipees; the former word, meaning the crooked place, expresses exactly the character of the locality where their village stood.

A terribly fatal pestilence, thought to have been the small-pox, which prevailed in 1617 and 1618 among the Indians of this and other tribes, swept them away by thousands, some of the tribes having become extinct from its effects. The dead by hundreds remained unburied, and their bones, scattered through the forest, were found long afterwards by the white men. At a treaty assembled at Sagadahoc in 1702, there were delegates from the Winnesaukes, Ossipees, and Pequawkets. Among those present belonging to this tribe were Watorota-Menton, Heagon, and Adeawando. When the treaty was holden in Portsmouth in 1713, the Pequawket chiefs were present. Adeawando and Scawesco signed the articles of agreement with a cross at the treaty held at Arowsic on the Kennebec in 1717. The ranks of the Pequawkets became so thinned out at the time of Lovewell's fight that they could muster but twenty-four warriors. Capt. John Giles, who commanded the fort at the

THE SORORIS INDIENS.

mouth of the Saco river, and who was well acquainted with the Indian tribes of Maine, took a census of those over sixteen years of age, able to bear arms, in 1726, and reports only twenty-four fighting men. At this time Adeawando was chief.

Many of the tribe had removed to Canada at this time, and had united with the St. Francis Indians there. Adeawando was a man of great intelli- gence, and eloquence as a public speaker, and became very influential in the councils. He became a leading spirit after removing to Canada, where he was a favorite with the Governor General. When Capt. Phineas Stevens visited Quebec in 1752. to redeem captives from the St. Francis Indians, Adeawando was chief speaker at the conference held there and made strong charges against the English planters on the Saco for their trespass upon the lands of his people. In his address he said: "We acknowledge no other lands as yours but your settlements wherever you have built ; and we will not, under any pretext, consent that you pass beyond them. The lands we call our own have been given us by the Great Master of Life: we hold only from Him."

In the beginning of the war with France, the remnant of the Pequawket tribes who had lingered about the home-place of their ancestors on the Saco, went to some fort occupied by the white men and expressed a desire to live with them. These, with the women and children, were permitted to remain for a considerable time in the fort ; but when war had been declared against the Eastern Indians these families were removed to Boston where they were provided for by the government. . \ suitable place was found for them some fifty miles from the city where was good fishing and fowling. The state fur- nished them blankets, clothing, and other necessary provisions. Smith writes in his journal: "About twenty Saco Indians are at Boston pretending to live with us."

When the Eastern Indians sued for peace, and promised to summon all the heads of tribes concerned in the war, these Sokokis or Pequawket Indians were present at the treaty ( 1749) held at Falmouth ; but as it was proved that their tribe had not been involved. it was deemed unnecessary for them to sign the treaty. In 1750, a year later, Douglas wrote : " The Pequawket Indians live in two towns and have only about a dozen fighting men. These often travel to Canada by way of the Connecticut river."

After the fall of Quebec, and white men had pushed their settlements up the Saco valley, a few members of the tribe remained about the head waters of the Connecticut until the beginning of the Revolution. The last mention of the tribe living at Pequawket was in a petition to the General Court dated at Fryeburg, in which the able-bodied men asked for guns, ammunition, and blankets, for fourteen warriors, and these became soldiers on the patriot side: they served faithfully under their commander and were liberally rewarded by

THIE SOROKIS INDIANS.

the government. After the war they came back to Fryeburg and lingered with their families in the vicinity of their old homes where they were well remem- bered by the venerable people of the last generation. Among these were Tom Heagon, Old Philip, and Swanson. Philip, the last known chief of the Pequaw- kets, signed a deed in 1796, conveying northern New Hampshire, and a part of Maine, to Thomas Eames and others.

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Saco Valley settlements and families. Historical, biographical, genealogical, traditional, and legendary, Part 3

Author: Ridlon, Gideon Tibbetts, 1841- [from old catalog] Publication date: 1895 Publisher: Portland, Me., The author Number of Pages: 1424

Author: Ridlon, Gideon Tibbetts, 1841- [from old catalog]
Publication date: 1895
Publisher: Portland, Me., The author
Number of Pages: 1424