Saco Valley settlements and families. Historical, biographical, genealogical, traditional, and legendary, Part 4

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 4
USA > New Hampshire > Saco Valley settlements and families. Historical, biographical, genealogical, traditional, and legendary > Part 4

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 curtain of history falls before a sad scene. A popular author has written : "Long and valiantly did they contend for the inheritance received from their ancestors, but fate had decided against them. With unavailing regret these children of the forest looked upon the ruins of their once pleasant homes for the last time, and turned their faces away." From time immemorial the tribe had held undisputed possession of the Saco valley where, upon the rich and mellow intervales, they had harvested their ripened corn. They were brave, great hunters, and ready for war. Before the battle with Lovewell they had been prosperous, and might have survived to multiply their numbers and perpetuate their name, but this conflict convinced them that nothing less than absolute extermination, and the possession of the last acre of their land, would satisfy the avarice of the whites, and, broken in spirit, they scattered the smoking brands of their camp-fire and sadly, silently vanished away.

AN INDIAN BURIAL MOUND.

On the west side of Ossipee lake and south of Lovewell's river, situated upon a beautiful intervale, may be seen a remarkable prehistoric mound which was filled with the skeletons of many thousands of Indians. This elevation was, when first discovered by white men, about twenty-five feet in height seventy-five in length, and fifty in width. As the mound had been protected by a wall at the base to prevent washing, the circumference remains about the same. Soon after the Revolution, Daniel Smith, Esq., commenced to clear a farm here, and was probably the first white man who saw the singular mound. When its existence became known great curiosity was excited and hundreds went to view the place. At length two physicians went there for the purpose of procuring some skeletons, if any could be found sufficiently preserved to be of any value. But they found the proprietor of the land averse to this, and he positively refused to have anything removed. After much persuasion he consented to have an excavation made sufficiently large to ascertain the character of the internal structure of the mound ; a work he watchfully superin- tended. It had been supposed that each warrior's pipe, tomahawk, and wampum, had been buried at his side, but so far as has been revealed, only one tomahawk was found. All the bodies were found to be in a sitting position, reclining around a common centre, facing outward. From the appearance of the remains it seemed evident that the bodies were packed hard against each other, leaving

THE SOROKIS INDIAANS.

but little space between them to be filled with earth. Having begun at the middle, when one circle had been filled another was started on the outside of it, and so on until the base tier had reached a sufficient circumference ; then a second tier was begun above it. There is no means of ascertaining how long this mound had been used as a place of interment by the tribe inhabiting that region. Either the tribe must have numbered many thousand at an early day. or their dead had been buried here for thousands of years. Judging from the space occupied by each skeleton, those present when the excavation was made estimated that no less than eight or ten thousand bodies must have been deposited within the mound. The outer covering of the elevation was of coarse sand taken from the plains about one hundred rods distant on the west side of Lovewell's river, and seems to have been about two feet in thickness originally. The stones laid about the base to prevent the mound from being washed down by rains, are round, smooth, and water-worn ; these were carried from the bed of the river and their exact counterpart may be seen there to-day. Here we find a prehistoric problem suggestive of much thought. About it the contemplative mind finds much obscurity. Unanswerable questions will arise. Had the scat- tered families of the great tribe inhabiting the territory adjacent carried their dead through the deep, dark forest pathways for many a weary league to this great tribal tomb ? What tradition of ancestors, superstition, or religious senti- ment, could have impelled these sons of the wilderness to do this? What solemn burial ceremonies attended the mounding of these bodies of their departed kindred as they were deposited in this thickly populated chamber of mortality? What must have been the emotions of these dusky warriors as they viewed the sepulcher of their fathers; the place where they, too, must take their position in the silent circle of the dead!

To us there is a weird fascination about this singular burial mound, this voiceless monument of antiquity, and we can only wish some record of its origin, and the number of years it had been used, as definite as that found in the sacred volume concerning the cave of Machpelah purchased by Abraham for a place of burial, had been left. But all our speculations must be unavail- ing and we allow the curtain to fall and hide from the mental view that which must remain a mystery "until the day dawns and the shadows flee away."

INDIAN WIGWAMS AND VILLAGES.

The American aborigines were fine students of nature and were familiar with natural phenomena. When they built their houses they displayed more wisdom than the white man who boasted of superior skill. These wigwams were never erected on land that would be reached by the swelling streams in spring-flood. Some have assumed that the whole community of the Pequawkets lived together in a compact village on the intervale at Fryeburg, but this was

THE SOKOKIS INDIANS.

not true ; these keen warriors had their outposts some distance above and below to guard against surprise. Had Lovewell known the habits of these Indians better, he would not have been drawn into the trap as he was. While the larger body of the Indians lived on the great water-loop, there were clusters of houses in various places down the Saco valley. One of these hamlets was situated just south of Indian Hill in North Conway, and consisted of about twenty lodges. In what is now the town of Hiram, not far from the mouth of the Great Ossipee river, there is a high bluff upon the top of which there is a nearly level plateau of about two acres in extent where several families of the Sokokis Indians once lived, and there the elevated circles, covered annually with rank grass, long marked the places where their wigwams stood.

From the number of stone weapons and implements found in other local- ities on the river, it is evident that there were at some time either villages or solitary lodges there. At the falls where the West Buxton village now stands the Indians of this tribe came at stated seasons to spear salmon with which the Saco then abounded; and when the first settlers in the upper section of the Little Falls Plantation came there to hew down the forest and populate the town, they found a well-worn trail that followed the river bank to a point near the well-known Decker Landing, and thence turned abruptly westward over the ridge near the present highway, and down across the Thornton lot, so called, thence near the farm afterwards owned by Cyrus Bean to the foot of the Killick pond, and so on across the plains to the Little Ossipee. On the line of this old trail, and on the Joseph Decker farm, there were many indications of a settlement of Indians when the land was cleared ; subsequently some remarkably fine stone axes, tomahawks, pestles, and arrow-heads were ploughed up. These were accidentally lost by a gentleman to whom they had been presented. Not far from the site of this Indian village one or two bodies were found one hundred years ago.

The Indians constructed their houses with a light frame of poles con- verging at the top, and covered these with bark and skins. Within this circular enclosure men, women, children, dogs, and some small cattle domiciled pro- miscuously. The fires were kindled in the centre against a flat stone that leaned against the middle pole, and the smoke, carried by the draft from the door, emerged at the top of the hut and floated away. Here the cooking was done by the squaws, and here the men, when not on the war-path, or engaged in the chase, dressed the skins of animals for their clothing and packed their peltry for the trading post. Lodges owned and occupied by the chiefs and medicine men were usually larger, more pretentious, and ornamented without with rude figures of wild animals. These were the red man's council rooms and here the wise and grave old fathers sat in a circle and smoked their carved stone pipes and determined the action to be taken by the braves when menaced by the insolent pale-face.

THE SOKOKIS INDELYS.

INDIAN WEAPONS AND IMPLEMENTS.

Many of these were made from materials that have not decayed, and we have a fair collection of local discovery to aid us in our description. Their stone axes were of various forms and sizes. Nearly all, however, had a deep groove cut below the poll for the handle. It has been supposed, by the farmers along the river who have found these, that the Indians twisted strong withes around them which served for a handle, but this is not the fact. The axes were driven through a small sapling of some firm wood and allowed to remain until it had grown so closely into the groove cut for the purpose that the stone was immovable; then the tree was cut down, and a section worked to the proper size for the handle. If the handle was split, the axe must be driven through another sapling, or was laid aside. A few such have been found, almost overgrown by the wood of large forest trees in which they had been left by the Indians, and for some reason were never afterwards put to use. These axes and hatchets were usually made from a very hard and greenish colored stone, now seldom found in the Saco valley. We have examined specimens that were eight inches in length and nearly four in width at the edge. These had at the top a nearly round poll : weight about four pounds. We have no means of knowing how these stone axes were dressed into such symmetrical form, save by the tradition related by Captain Francis of the Oldtown tribe. A farmer at whose home he had dined, when returning from a hunting excursion, handed him one of these large stone axes and asked him how it was reduced from the rough piece to its perfect form. The old fellow shrugged his shoulders, laughed, and said: "Dunno; mighty big rub." We could fancy the patient red man slowly hewing this with the still harder flint tool, but when we ask how that was moulded into regular form, we are lost in wonder. The result is good evidence of the possibility, but the process must be catalogued with the " lost arts."

We have seen stone pestles as round and symmetrical as if turned in the cabinet-maker's lathe, three inches in diameter at the larger end and a foot in length: gouges, two inches broad, concaved and convexed, with the edge a perfect segment of the circle, armed with a formidable handle from the same piece of stone. War clubs, spears, and arrows were pointed with scales of flint and bits of hard sea-shell; some of them were wrought into ingenious forms, having a shank, or start. that was driven into the wood of spear shaft, or arrow. We take pleasure in illustrating this chapter with plate views, hav- ing fac-similes of a collection of these Indian weapons and tools that were found on the banks of the Saco river.

MEMORIALS OF THE SOKOKIS INDIANS.

THE SOKOKIS INDIANS.

HOSTILITIES ON THE SACO.

At the breaking out of hostilities, the principal settlement was at the mouth of the river. Mills had been put up at the lower falls and a few dwell- ings, and a large house for the mill men employed there. Half a mile below the falls, on the eastern side of the river, stood the fortified dwelling-house of John Bonython. At this time Major William Phillips, a wealthy mill and land owner, had built a more substantial and defensible dwelling, called a garrison-house, upon the opposite side of the Saco, near where the present bridge crosses.

A friendly Indian of the Sokokis tribe came to the home of John Bonython one day and informed him that a party of hostiles had visited his wigwam and were trying to induce his tribe to raise the hatchet against the white set- tlers; that these warriors had gone eastward, but would return in a few days with a large force. This warning prompted about fifty, then in the settlement, to take refuge in the garrison of Major Phillips. Almost as soon as they had taken this wise step, flames were seen arising from the house of John Bony- thon. As Phillips approached a window, to get a view of the burning building, he received a bullet in his shoulder from a savage in ambush near his house. As he quickly withdrew, to avoid a second shot, a large number of Indians who had secreted themselves near, supposing the commander of the garrison had been killed, instantly exposed themselves and with demoniac yells made a determined attack. At the same instant they were fired upon through loop- holes, and by men stationed within the flankers, with such precision of aim that several were wounded, the leader of the party so badly that he died. They continued the siege till nearly morning, but failing to take the garrison by assault they secured a large cart, loaded it with brush, and, shielding them- selves behind the head boards, pushed it toward the house, all aflame. This scheme proved worse than a failure, as will appear. The cart had received a considerable momentum when one of the wheels suddenly fell into a ditch which they attempted to cross, causing it to turn to one side, thus exposing the Indians to the range of those within the stockades. The opportunity was instantly made available and a fatal fire poured into their ranks. Six were killed and fifteen wounded in this engagement, and the remainder became so disheartened by their defeat that they soon withdrew. Finding his supplies of provisions and ammunition nearly gone, Major Phillips and those who had taken shelter in his garrison removed to Winter Harbor. His house, being left unoccupied, was soon reduced to ashes by the Indians. They also destroyed all the houses about the Harbor and carried a Mrs. Hitchcock away captive. She did not return, and the savages reported that she had died from eating poisonous roots which she had supposed to be ground

THE SOROKIS INDIANS.

nuts. About this time five men were killed by Indians on the river bank. Hearing of the defenseless condition of the settlers at Saco, t'aptain Win- coll of Newichawanock, with a company of sixteen men, proceeded by water around the coast to their assistance. On landing at Winter Harbor they were instantly fired upon by ambushed savages, and several of the party were killed. These Indians then gave the alarm to a larger number, who had tarried in the rear, and Wincoll and his handful of brave men were immedi- ately confronted by a hundred and fifty well-armed warriors. Finding himself overpowered by numbers, he took refuge behind a pile of shingle bolts, and from this extemporized breastwork he and his men fought with such despera- tion that the dusky foe was forced to retire with considerable loss. Again in IGS9 the savages menaced the settlements at Saco, but no lives are known to have been lost. A short time afterwards, however, four young men, looking for their horses for the purpose of joining some scouts under Captain Wincoll, were killed. A company, consisting of twenty-four men, was raised to search for their bodies, and having discovered the Indians, pursued them into the great heath, but were forced to retire with the loss of six of their number.

Scouting parties employed to range the woods between the Piscataqua and Casco during the summer, restrained the savages from committing serious depredations. Colonel Church had put to death a number of defenseless women and children, and held captive the wives of two chiefs, hoping thereby to effect the release of several white captives. He came by vessel into Winter Harbor. On the following morning smoke was seen arising in the direction of Scamman's garrison. Church sent forward sixty men at once, and pres- ently followed with his whole force. This garrison was about three miles below the falls, on the eastern side of the Saco. When the soldiers approached the burning house they saw the Indians upon the bank on the other side of the river. Three of the number had crossed over, and having discovered the detachment of whites ran to their canoes; but in their haste to recross one of them, who stood up to use his paddle, was shot down and, falling forward. so injured the canoe that it almost instantly sank, and all who were within it perished. The report of muskets so alarmed the remaining savages that they retreated, leaving their canoes upon the river bank. Old Doney, a noted Indian belonging to the Sokokis tribe, was at the falls with a prisoner. Thomas Baker from Scarborough, at the time, and hearing the firing of guns hastened down the river in a canoe; but on discovering the soldiers put ashore and. springing over Baker's head, joined the other Indians, thus leaving his canoe in possession of him who had been, only a moment before, his prisoner.

Such extensive preparations were made for war in 1693 that the Indians became alarmed and sued for peace; and at the treaty held at Pemaquid the sagamores from nearly every tribe in Maine were present, ready to sign the articles. Robin Doney, and three other leaders who had showed a hostile

THIE SOKOKIS INDIANS.

attitude the following summer, were seized when visiting the fort at Saco. On the following March two soldiers belonging to the fort fell into the hands of the Indians. One was put to death and the other carried into captivity. These savages were constantly lurking about the settlements, watching from their places of ambush for any opportunity to do mischief. Sargeant Haley carelessly ventured from the fort and was cut off. The following year five soldiers lost their lives in the same way. These discovered the enemy in time to have escaped, but a hurried consultation respecting the best course to take resulted in a disagreement, and being a considerable distance from the fort, their delay proved fatal. They fell into an ambush and were all killed.

In 1697, Lieut. Fletcher and his two sons were captured at Saco. They had gone to Cow Island to guard three soldiers while cutting firewood for the fort, but thinking there were no savages about, wandered away after wild fowl, and fell into a snare. As the Indians were taking these captives down the river in their canoes they were waylaid by Lieut. Larrabee, who was out on a scouting expedition. These scouts opened fire upon the foremost canoe, which contained three Indians, and all were killed. Several were killed in the other canoe and the remainder put ashore on the other side. One of the Fletchers, when all the Indians who were with him had been killed, made his escape.

About this time Humphrey Scamman and his family were carried into captivity. An aged lady, descended from the family, described the occurrence as follows : When Samuel Scamman was about ten years old, as I have often heard him relate, he was sent one day by his mother with a mug of beer to his father and brother who were at work on a piece of marsh near the lower ferry. He had not proceeded far when he saw a number of Indians at a dis- tance and immediately ran back to inform his mother. He regained the house and wished to fasten the doors and windows, but his mother prevented him, telling him that the Indians would certainly kill them if he did. The savages soon entered the house and asked Mrs. Scamman where her "sanup" was, meaning her husband. At first she refused to tell them, and they threatened to carry her off alone, but promised if she would discover where he was to take them together without harm. She then told them. After destroying much of the furniture, breaking many articles on the door-stone, and empty- ing all the feather-beds to secure the sacks, they went away with the prisoners toward the marsh, where they took Mr. Scamman and the other son.

A lad named Robinson had been out after a team and as he was returning discovered the Indians in season to make his escape. Quickly taking off his garters he made a pair of reins and mounting a horse rode to Gray's Point, swam the beast to Cow Island where he left him, and swimming to the oppo- site side of the river, reached the fort in safety. At the time there were only a few old men and women in the fort. The guns were immediately fired to warn

THE SOROKIS INDLINS.

the soldiers belonging there, who were at work some distance away. In the meantime the women dressed themselves in men's clothing and were exposed where they could be seen by the Indians, who had come up to the island opposite. This stratagem proved successful. Supposing the fort to be well armed, as they afterwards acknowledged, they did not make the attack which they had meditated, but withdrew with several prisoners besides the Scamman family. These were all restored after being in captivity about one year. On the return of Mr. Scamman he found his house just as it had been left : even the beer mug, which little Samuel had placed on the dresser, was found there, and is still preserved in the family at Saco as a memorial of the dangers and sufferings to which their ancestors were exposed. This is a handsome article of brown ware with the figure and name of King William stamped upon it. The mug is now more than two hundred years old, and we hope it may be preserved with sacred care for many generations to come.

In our resume of the subject we have briefly treated we are led to ask why the inhabitants in the settlements during those times of danger permitted them- selves to be so often ensnared by the savages. Surely the pioneers were not ignorant of their devices. One would readily assume that the cunning of the Indian could have been circumvented, and all his peculiar arts of warfare countervailed, by the fine intelligence and trained judgment of the English planters. Why, then, when it might be reasonably supposed that the foe was patiently waiting in his ambush for an opportunity to send the whizzing bullet on its errand of death, such foolhardy contempt of danger, and resultant expos- ure, upon the part of the young men who were so much needed for the protection of the aged and infirm? Shall we conclude that the mind had become so used to the anticipation of the contingency of warfare that the settlers valued life less than it was worth ? Whatever the causes that obtained. the results were too often fatal.

From a more considerate view of the times when these scenes were wit- nessed, we shall take into account the wearing restraint of confinement for those robust men, who had been enured to active exercise and pure air, when shut up within the narrow walls of the block-house or garrisoned dwelling ; where a dozen families, consisting of men, women, and children, were herded together in close quarters, breathing vitiated air and chating for their freedom. And this condition of affairs was not limited to a day or week, but often extended to several months. It should also be remembered that provisions must be pro- cured for the maintenance of these scores of persons, and ammunition for their defense. And sometimes, after weary watching for days and weeks, with no sign of an Indian in the neighborhood, hope would rise triumphant in these human breasts and they would emerge from their confinement to procure food and fuel. We suppose these carly settlers did the best they could.

The Dequawhet Expedition.

NTRODUCTORY .- Our grandfathers have related this old fireside story with much animation and circumstantiality. It has been handed down to us upon the historic page attended with many inconsistent, and some contradictory, statements. We have not found one published account of the march, battle, and retreat that would stand the first shock of intelligent criticism. Successive authors have fol- lowed the beaten track; if they discovered inharmonies, and encountered insuperable difficulties, they have been content to repeat the same unreason- able statements formulated by their predecessors without criticism or com- ment. Some writers have ignored geography; others, the cardinal points.

The tradition about John Chamberlain and Chief Paugus is unfounded and was not invented for half a century after the battle. But it has been repeated in song and story. I have personally examined four long muskets of French make said to have been the identical guns with which Chamberlain bored the savage's head. Each of these guns had a history, and their owner- ship could be traced to the original Indian-killer. It was Seth Wyman who shot Paugus, and the Chamberlain tradition, formulated when there were no survivors of the battle to contradict it, may as well be exploded. In my treatment of this subject I shall follow the same beaten track of those who have produced the most comprehensive account of the adventure, and present such criticism and comment as may seem pertinent, as I proceed, in foot-notes.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

Saco Valley settlements and families. Historical, biographical, genealogical, traditional, and legendary, Part 4

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