Saco Valley settlements and families. Historical, biographical, genealogical, traditional, and legendary, Part 5

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 5
USA > New Hampshire > Saco Valley settlements and families. Historical, biographical, genealogical, traditional, and legendary > Part 5

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 following petition was copied from the original document in the office of the Secretary of State in Boston, and speaks for itself :

"The humble memorial of John Lovewell, Josiah Farwell, and Jonathan Robbins, all of Dunstable, sheweth:

That your petitioners, with near forty or fifty others, are inclined to range and keep out in the woods for several months together, in order to kill and destroy their enemy Indians, provided they can meet incouragement suitable. And your petitioners are Imployed and desired by many others Humbly to propose and submit to your Honors consideration, that if such soldiers may be allowed five shillings per day, in case they kill any enemy Indian, and pos- sess his scalp, they will Imploy themselves in Indian hunting one whole year;

THE PEQUAWRET EXPEDITION.

and if within that time they do not kill any, they are content to be allowed nothing for their wages, time, and trouble.

JOHN LOVEWELL,

DUNSTABLE, Nov., 1724.

JOSIAH FARWELL, JONATHAN ROBBINS."

This petition was granted, but the compensation was changed to a bounty of one hundred pounds for every Indian scalp. It was a cold-blooded preparation for the commission of wholesale murder, but with such financial inducements held out by the government Lovewell found plenty of volunteers ready to rally about his standard and to embark in the hazardous undertaking. After two successful initiatory experiments at Indian killing, " just to get his hand in." which were rewarded with eleven hundred pounds for scalps, he and his comrades in arms found the business " paid." and enlarged the scope of their operations. Having heard that the Sokokis had a settlement at Pequawket, on the upper reaches of the Saco river, Captain Lovewell devised the scheme of an attack upon them in their village. Undoubtedly he under- estimated the dangers and hardships of the expedition. It was one hundred and thirty miles to the l'equawket settlement, through a pathless wilderness, in a section of the country with which the party was unfamiliar .*

On April 16th the company bade farewell to their friends and kindred, left Salmon brook, and took up their line of march for Pequawket. The company. led by Captain Lovewell, consisted of forty-six men. When they had reached Contoocook, William Cummings became disabled from an old wound and was permitted to return, with a kinsman to assist him. They then proceeded to the west shore of Ossipee lake, where Benjamin Kidder fell sick. flere Captain Lovewell called a halt and built a fort, having the lake

. From Lovewell's journal we learn that he had made a journey to the Pequawket country the year previous (1720), and going from the easterly part of the White Mountains had encamped upon a branch of the Saco river. On the isth February he traveled twenty miles and encamped at a great pond upon Saco river. (Walkers pond?) If Lovewell reached Pequawket in the fol- lowing year (1725), in which the battle occurred, by this ronte on the west side of Winnepiseogee. thence to Ossipee pond, he went by a circuitons course much farther than was necessary. It is only about eighty miles on an air line from Dunstable to Fryeburg on a N. by N. E. course.

NOTE. - Did he actually build any fort here? Some time between 1650 and 1660 the Sokokis Indians apprehended an invasion by the Mohawks, and employed English workmen to build two extensive stockaded forts, fourteen feet in height. One of these was for the protection of that branch of the tribe settled on Ossipre lake, and the other at the junction of the Great Ossj- ju'e river with the Saco, below the present village of Cornish. The first mentioned was on the south side of Lovewell's river, near Ossipee lake. It was said to have enclosed nearly an acre of ground. The Indians occupied this structure untit hostilities between them and the whites commenced. In 1676 this was demolished by English soldiers under Captain Hawthorn. The site was subsequently occupied by Massachusetts and New Hampshire troops, Tradition makes tler fort built by Lovewell's party, in 1725, stand on the same plot. In an extensive meadow of about two hundred aeres may still be seen the remains of a stockade of considerable dimen sions. It fronted the lake. The trench in which the stockades were set may still be traced around the whole enclosure. This ruin is situated upon a ridge that extends from Lovewett's river southerly. At the north and south ends of the fort considerable excavations are visible. They may have been collars for storing food. That on the north is much the larger and extends nearly to the river, and by it water was probably procured for those within the fort.

THIE PEQUAWKET EXPEDITION.

shore in front to the east and the river on the north side. This was designed for a place of refuge and a base of supplies. Leaving a sick man, the surgeon, and a guard of eight, Lovewell boldly took up his march with the remaining thirty-four from Ossipee lake to Pequawket, a distance of nearly forty miles.

On Tuesday, two days before the battle, the party were suspicious that the enemy had discovered them, and on Friday night the guard heard them creeping through the under-brush about their encampment. At an early hour Saturday morning, the 8th of May, while they were at their devotions, the report of a gun was heard, and soon after an Indian was discovered standing upon a point of land extending into Saco pond. Those acquainted with the stratagems of the savages supposed this lone Indian was a decoy stationed there to draw them into an ambush. This was a mistaken inference and re- sulted in a terrible fatality to Lovewell's men. A conference was immedi- ately called to determine what course to pursue. Should they take the risk of an engagement or beat a hasty retreat? The men answered that they had prayed all the way that they might find the enemy and they had rather trust Providence with their lives than return without meeting them and be called cowards for their conduct.

Captain Lovewell seems to have advised to the contrary, but assented to the wishes of his men. Assuming that the foe was still in front, he ordered the men to lay down their packs that they might advance with greater caution and act with unimpeded readiness. When the party had proceeded slowly for about one mile they discovered an Indian approaching amongst the trees, and as he drew near where they had concealed themselves, several discharged their pieces at him. He returned the fire and seriously wounded Captain Lovewell with a load of buckshot. Ensign Wyman then shot the Indian dead and Chaplain Frye scalped him.

During all this time the crafty Paugus and his eighty braves had been in the rear watching every movement of Lovewell's men ; he had discovered the hidden packs and by counting them learned the whites were outnumbered by his own warriors two to one. When Lovewell's company returned to secure their provisions and had reached a tract of land covered with pines a little way back from the pond, the Indians rose from their ambush in their front and rear in two parties with guns aimed; the whites also presented their guns and advanced to meet the foe.

Approaching within twenty yards of each other both parties fired. The Indians were badly cut to pieces and took shelter in a clump of low-growing pines where they could scarcely be seen ; this was the Indian's method of war- fare and placed the whites at a disadvantage ; their shots made terrible havoc among them. Already nine of their number, nearly one-third of their party, had fallen dead, and three were fatally wounded. Numbered among the dead were Captain Lovewell and Ensign Harwood, while Lieutenants Farwell and

THE PEQUAWRET EXPEDITION.

Robbins were wounded beyond hope of recovery. Ensign Wyman ordered the remaining soldiers to retreat to the pond, where, being protected in the rear, they were saved from utter annihilation.

Until the going down of the sun the battle went on with desperation. The savages behind trees howled, yelled, and barked like dogs, while the whites made the woods ring with their lusty huzzahs. Some of the Indians held up ropes and asked Lovewell's soldiers if they would have quarter, but they bravely replied "only at the muzzle of your guns."

About the middle of the afternoon Chaplain Frye fell, seriously wounded. He had fought bravely through the hottest of the battle. After falling, he was heard to pray for the preservation of his comrades. For eight hours the fight had continued and at times was vehement. The whites were obliged to adopt the Indian mode of warfare ; they kept near together but each selected such a position as would best secure his own safety and admit of reaching any of the enemy who might be exposed within range. There were intervals of a half hour when scarcely a shot was fired: during such lulls in the battle the savages took advantage of the time to seek for better positions by crawl- ing and skulking about under cover of the thick under-brush. At the same time the sokliers were vigilant to seize upon any chance to send a bullet on its errand of death. While the savages seemed to be holding a council, Ensign Wyman crept up behind some bushes, and by careful aim shot their leader. Thus died Paugus without washing his gun by the pond-side.

When darkness fell the Indians withdrew, and, contrary to their custom, left their dead upon the battle ground. According to the census of the Indians taken by Captain Giles, the next year, only twenty-four fighting men were left of the Pequawket tribe after this battle. Some of these survivors carried serious wounds received in the fight."

When the moon arose about midnight, the survivors of Lovewell's party assembled, faint, exhausted, and wounded, and considered their situation. Jacob Farrar was found to be dying : Lieutenants Robbins and Robert Usher unable to rise ; four others dangerously wounded; seven seriously wounded. and but nine unhurt. Not knowing the number of the Indians who might come to renew the battle in the morning, the soldiers decided to start for the fort. Being unable to leave the spot where he had fallen, Lieutenant Robbins requested his companions to load his gun, saying "the Indians will come to scalp me in the morning and I will kill one more if I can." Solomon Keyes could not be found. When he became so weak from three wounds that he could no longer stand, he crawled to Ensign Wyman and said : " I am a dead man, but if possible I will get out of the way so the Indians shall not have

" In Walter Bryant's journal kept when running the line between Maine and New Hamp shire, in 1741, le mentions an old l'equasket Indian, named Sentur, who came to his camp; he had been wounded and lost an eye in the lovewell tight.

THIE PEQUAWKET EXPEDITION.

my scalp." Creeping down to the lake shore where grew some rushes, he found a canoe into which he managed to climb, and was wafted by a gentle north wind three miles southward and stranded on the beach nearest the fort .*

Recovering strength, he worked his way to the fort and joined his com- panions. The dead were left where they fell and the weary, exhausted, and nearly famished men started on their return to their fort before the dawn of day. In all the annals of war we can scarcely find the record of a trans- action attended with such distressing circumstances as we find here. The prospect of the able-bodied survivors was prophetic of danger and terrible suffering from fatigue and hunger, but what can we say of those wounded, bleeding, dying comrades who had fallen in the battle? Weak and faint from fasting and loss of blood, they must be forsaken and left in the midst of the wilderness, exposed to dire vengeance from the Indians or to die alone far from any of their kindred. We can scarcely bring our minds to realize that this is no picture of the imagination, or that such things actually occurred. What must have been their thoughts when facing the grim messenger alone in the solitudes of the deep, dark forest! There was no medicinal cordial for their painful wounds, no soothing draught for their parched lips. With antici- pation of the mutilating scalping knife, and feasting wild beasts, they closed their eyes and gave up the ghost.

When the returning survivors had gone something more than a mile, four of the wounded - Lieutenant Farwell, Chaplain Frye, and Privates Jones and Davis -could no longer move forward, and importuned their comrades to push toward their stockade and secure a rescuing party to carry them in. Thus these four were left to their fate, and when the men hastened to the fort, where they had expected to find the eight who had been left as a guard, to their consternation they found the place deserted and nearly all of the pro- vision gone. It was subsequently learned that a cowardly soldier, in the early part of the battle at Pequawket, frightened at the slaughter, had deserted his company and hastened back to the fort where he gave such a discouraging account of the fight that all joined him in his flight. Here was another try- ing experience for the nine soldiers. They had left their wounded comrades cheered in their distress by the expectation of succor, and now to abandon them to suspense and starvation was a most cruel and melancholy action. But there was no other alternative. To go back was to meet death without saving their comrades by the sacrifice, and they decided to press forward. Their sufferings from hunger and fatigue were terrible. For four days they did not taste food ; after that some partridges and squirrels were brought down

* After an examination of the maps to find the air-line between Ossipee pond and the spot designated as the Pequawket battle ground, the story of Solomon Keyes appears irreconcilable with statements about the location of the fort. How could Keyes be carried by a northerly wind some miles (Goodale) southward toward a fort at Ossipee pond? Some writers have sup- posed that Keyes made his way to the Indian fort on the Saco at the mouth of the Great Ossipee.

THE PEQUAWRET EXPEDITION.

and roasted, which greatly sustained them during the remainder of their jour- ney. They succeeded in reaching Dunstable, the major part, on May 13th, the others two days afterwards.

Two of the wounded who had been left near the scene of the battle, Eleazer Davis and Josiah Jones, survived, and by almost superhuman efforts reached Berwick. They reported that after waiting for several days (how did they obtain sustenance?), hoping for relief from the fort at Ossipee, they all pro- ceeded slowly several miles. Then poor Chaplain Frye laid down and probably survived but a few hours. Lieutenant Farwell held out until they had almost reached the fort, but sank down and was not afterwards heard from.

The news of the disastrous termination of this expedition was productive of wide-spread grief at Dunstable, and other localities from which the volun- teers had come to join Lovewell's company. AA party was immediately dis- patched to the battle ground and the bodies of the captain and ten of his men were buried at the foot of an ancient pine. . A monument has since been erected to mark the spot. The General Court appropriated fifteen hundred pounds to the widows and orphans, and a liberal bounty of lands to the sur- vivors.

This may be properly called " Lovewell's Defeat." He and his company had been impelled to their hazardous undertaking by a mercenary, rather than a patriotic, motive. They hated the Indians for their cruelty and yet proposed to practice the same atrocities. Scalps were the prizes sought for, and the religious and prayerful Chaplain Frye vied with his comrades in scalping the first of the savages who had fallen. They found " Indian hunt- ing " was dangerous business, and also the statement true, that " they who take the sword shall perish by the sword." Their campaign plan was to surprise Paugus in his village at Pequawket and to butcher defenseless women and children for their scalps. In this they were disappointed. Providence, in whom Lovewell's brave men trusted, did not protect them in their murderous designs when attempting to disposses and exterminate those to whom the soil had been given. Paugus is said to have been down the Saco with eighty of his warriors, and when returning by the old Indian trail struck the tracks of the invading party. Hon. John H. Goodale says, in the history of Nashua: " For forty hours they stealthily followed t and saw the soldiers dispose of

. There was a tradition held by the early settlers on the Saco that lovewell's party came through Berwick, Sanford, Waterborough, and Hollis to the Killick brook, back of the William West place, where they crossed and encamped by a cool fountain of water, afterwards pointed out by the pioneers and called " Lovewell's spring." By this route he would have struck the Saco somewhere about Bonnie Eagle Falls, and Paugus on his return to Pequawket would have found their tracks. I do not think this theory can be correct, as there are official documents that prove, beyond reasonable doubt, that Lovewell built a stockade at Ossipee lake, to which a part of the survivors made their way after the battle.

t How could Paugus and his eighty warriors stealthily follow Lovewell's party for " forty hours " when returning from a trip down the Saco, unless that party struck the old Indian trait

THE PEQUAWKET EXPEDITION.

their packs, so that all the provisions and blankets fell into their hands, with the knowledge of their small force."

Thus ended the Pequawket expedition. It was a source of rejoicing that the courage of the brave Sokokis had been crushed; that their numbers had been so reduced that there would be little trouble in dispossessing the remnant of their lands. The spot where this wilderness battle was fought, one hun- dred and seventy years ago, has been visited by thousands, and the tragic event has been commemorated in story and song at the firesides of the Saco valley from the mountains to the sea.

In the earth's verdant bosom, still, crumbling, and cold, Sleep the soldiers who mingled in battle of old ; They rushed to the slaughter, they struggled and fell, And the clarion of glory was heard as their knell.

Those brave men have long been unconscious and dead ; The pines murmur sadly above their green bed, And the owl and the raven chant loudly and drear, When the moonbeams o'er Lovewell's pond shine on their bier.

The light of the sun has just sunk in the wave. Oh! in billows of blood sat the sun of the brave ;

The waters complain as they roll o'er the stones, And the rank grass encircles a few scattered bones.

The eye that was sparkling no longer is bright, The arın of the mighty, death conquered its might ; The bosoms that once for their country beat high, To those bosoms the sods of the valley are nigh.

The shout of the hunter is loud on the hills, And sounds softly echo o'er forest and rill, But the jangling of arms shall be heard of no more Where the heroes of Lovewell's pond slumber in gore.

that followed the course of that river as far south as the outlet of Great Ossipee at Cornish? If Lovewell's party went by the direct route from Ossipee pond to Pequawket, Paugus would not have touched his trail until near the spot where the battle was fought. It seems probable that Lovewell's company followed down the valley of the Great Ossipee on the old Indian trail to the fording place near the junction of that river with the Saco, and from that point went due north to Peqnawket. In coming up the Saco from below, Paugus and his men would cross the Great Ossipee at the same place and thins strike the tracks of Lovewell's party.

Garrisons. Bloch- Houses, Forts.

URING the Indian wars various kinds of fortifications were built by the settlers along the Saco river. Some of these were put up by individuals for the better protection of their own families, and others were built by authority of the Provincial Government and paid for from appropriations voted "for the defense of the frontier." When the Indians threatened the settlement along the coast the people importuned the Great and General Court for funds to erect forts and block-houses." These were to be built of stockades, or square timber, in such places as would best accommodate the inhabitants in each settlement, and at such distances from each other as would be most convenient for accommodation of such scouts as might be employed in ranging the woods, and such forces as, in case of war. might be sent out for the annoyance of the enemy in any of their settlements. The commissioners appointed in 1747 by Governor Shirley to have charge of establishing these frontier defenses, "must take care to purchase the materials and agree with the workmen in the best and clearest manner."

In 1693, a very strong stone fort was built on the river bank at Saco Falls. where the Waterpower Machine Company's works now stand, and remains of the structure were removed when the grading for this plant was in progress in 1840. This fortification was built by Captain Hill and Major Hook, under direction of Major Converse, the noted Indian fighter. The existence of so strong a place of refuge was a great guarantee for the safety of the inhabitants. but from imprudence and reckless exposure outside the walls several were cut off. The soldiers stationed at the stone fort were under the command of Capt. George Turfrey and Lieut. Pendleton Fletcher. We have a record of fourteen persons who lost their lives, or were captured, while venturing away from the fort. The Indians could not subdue the forces kept stationed there by direct attack, but lurked about in the adjacent woodlands, watching every movement of the soldiers and settlers who lived there, ready to intercept them or shoot them down when they ventured outside. Soldiers were stationed in

"BLOCK HOUSES were not thus named because built of timbers, but from blocks of wood fitted to the tray-shaped loop holes in the stockades and flankers for the use of muskets. One such block was supplied for each opening in the timber walls; had a long wooden handle, and was connected with the stockade by a piece of coral. While the men within were loading their pieces the block was thrust into the loop hole; when realy to fire, it was removed and allowed to hang within easy reach.

A5P

SACO FORT IN 1699-

GARRISONS, BLOCK-HOUSES, FORTS.

the stone fort until 1708, when they were removed down river to the new fort built at Winter Harbor, the remains of which are visible on the point at the entrance to the Pool, called Fort Hill. The General Court voted an appro- priation of three hundred pounds for the erection of this structure which was built under the supervision of Capt. Lewis Bane and Maj. Joseph Hammond. This sum was found insufficient, and in 1710 an additional £100 was granted for its completion. It was named Fort Mary, and became a noted landmark on the coast. A garrison had been built at the Harbor long before this, but had been taken by the Indians, an event which, no doubt, stimulated the inhab- itants to ask assistance from the government to build Fort Mary, which was evidently a place of considerable strength for the times. A supply of snow-shoes and moccasins were voted for the use of those stationed there.

In 1723, when hostilities were again threatened, the forts and garrisons were supplied with men, ammunition, and provisions. At this time Captain Ward was in command at Fort Mary. There were fourteen garrisons between Saco Falls and the mouth of the river, many of them dwelling-houses protected by stockades. The localities where some of these stood are still pointed out. Scamman's garrison was about three miles below the falls; Captain Sharp's garrison was at Rendezvous Point ; here four men were stationed. Hill's garri- son on Ferry Lane was allowed three men. The garrisons of Dyer and Tarbox were at the Pool; here three and four men, respectively, were stationed. Five men were placed in Richard Stimpson's garrison, four at Stackpole's, and four at Saco Falls in the garrison of John Brown. The same year a sergeant and fifteen men were stationed in garrisons about the falls. Major Phillips had a strong fortified house below the falls, where he was wounded in the shoulder 'as he exposed himself at a window in the loft. Magnus Redland did not settle in Saco until 1729-30, but his house on Rendezvous Point was garrisoned.

Some of the structures called forts were simple stockades built of hewed timber entrenched in the ground and rising from ten to fourteen feet. These enclosed an area of sufficient extent for the erection of a strong interior building, called a block-house, with over-jutting second story, for the soldiers' quarters and the stores. Sometimes the settlers who owned land in the immediate vicinity erected small cabins within the stockade for occupancy when compelled to resort thither in time of danger. Others built their dwellings near at hand on the outside so they could, in case of attack, quickly remove their families within the fort.

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 5

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