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GC 974.202 H71h 1417497
M. L.
GENEALOGY COLLECTION
ALLEN COUNTY PUBLIC LIBRARY 3 1833 01096 3731
Digitized by the Internet Archive in 2015
https://archive.org/details/holdernessaccoun00hodg_0
SQUAM LAKE, LOOKING SOUTH
HOLDERNESS 0
AN ACCOUNT OF THE BEGINNINGS OF A NEW HAMPSHIRE TOWN BY GEORGE HODGES
Cout
en
The Riverside Press
THE PUBLIC _ BRARY
BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY The Riverside press, Cambridge 1907
-
COPYRIGHT 1907 BY GEORGE HODGES ALL RIGHTS RESERVED
Published May 1907
TO 1417497
MY NEIGHBOR
The Reverend Frederick Baplies Allen
TO WHOM I OWE MY FIRST ACQUAINTANCE WITH HOLDERNESS
٠٠
"I trust
That some, who sigh, while wandering in thought, Pilgrims of Romance o'er the olden world,
That our broad land, - our sea-like lakes and moun- tains
Piled to the clouds, our rivers overhung By forests which have known no other change For ages than the budding and the fall Of leaves, our valleys lovelier than those Which the old poets sang of, - should but figure On the apocryphal chart of speculation As pastures, wood-lots, mill-sites, with the privileges, Rights, and appurtenances, which make up A Yankee Paradise, unsung, unknown, To beautiful tradition, . .. will look kindly Upon this effort to call up the ghost Of the dim Past."
WHITTIER: The Bridal of Pennacook.
CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION
xi
I.
THE ENDICOTT ROCK
1
II.
THE INDIAN TRAIL .
9
III. THE CHARTER
21
IV. THE NAME
29
v.
THE SETTLEMENT
35
VI. SAMUEL LIVERMORE, THE SQUIRE
60
VII. ROBERT FOWLE, THE PARSON .
67
VIII. THE COUNTRY TOWN
76
APPENDIX: WALKS AND DRIVES
83
INDEX .
101
ILLUSTRATIONS
SQUAM LAKE, LOOKING SOUTH Frontispiece From a photograph by Rev. F. B. Allen.
MAP SHOWING THE NORTHERN BOUND-
ARY OF MASSACHUSETTS 6 From Hubbard's " Narrative," 1677.
THE INDIAN TRAIL . 12
From " A Correct Plan," 1756.
LANE'S PLAN OF THE TOWNSHIP . 22
PLAN OF INTERVALE LOTS, 1752
.
24
THE HOLDERNESS CHARTER 26
THE EARL OF HOLDERNESS 30 From the portrait by Sir Joshua Reynolds.
PLAN OF HUNDRED-ACRE LOTS 36
Drawn from descriptions in the Proprietors" records.
THE WINBORN ADAMS HOUSE 38 By courtesy of Hon. Lucien Thompson.
PLAN OF INTERVALE LOTS, 1762 . 40
THE SAMUEL SHEPARD HOUSE 42
SQUIRE LIVERMORE (from the original by Trumbull) and MRS. LIVERMORE (from the original by Copley) 60
X
ILLUSTRATIONS
THE LIVERMORE HOUSE 64
From a photograph loaned by the Rev. Arthur Browne Livermore.
THE REV. ROBERT FOWLE 70
THE OLD CHURCH: EXTERIOR AND
INTERIOR · 72
THE NEIGHBORHOOD OF HOLDERNESS 86 By permission of the Scarborough Co.
INTRODUCTION
I
T THE Minutes of the meetings of the Pro- prietors of Holderness, from 1762 to 1826, and the Minutes of the Town Meet- ings, from 1771 to 1815, are contained in two manuscript volumes called the Raw- hide Books. They are in the keeping of the town clerk.
The original charter of 1761, under which the town was settled, is in the pos- session of Mr. Lucien Thompson, of Dur- ham, N. H. I am greatly indebted to Mr. Thompson for his courtesy in allowing me to have the charter photographed, and also for many curious and interesting notes con- cerning various persons who were among the grantees.
The original maps showing the division of a part of the township into intervale lots and town lots belong to Mr. John M. Whiton, of Plainfield, N. J., whose father purchased a part of the Livermore estate,
xii
INTRODUCTION
and received these maps along with the deed. Mr. Whiton has kindly permitted me to have them copied.
The map which showed 'the two assign- ments of hundred-acre lots was destroyed by fire a good many years ago. It is re- drawn for this book by my neighbor, the Rev. Frederick Baylies Allen, of Boston, from the descriptions of the boundaries of the lots given in the proprietors' records. Mr. Allen has also drawn a map of the vicinity of Holderness, showing the chief points of interest and the best roads by which to reach them; and Frederick Lewis Allen, his son, has contributed a careful de- scription of these interesting places, with ample directions for walkers and climbers, and explanations of views. These accounts are the result of actual experience, and will be found to be an accurate guide to the ex- ploration of the neighborhood.
With the late Mr. Arthur Livermore, of Manchester, England, I carried on a cor- respondence for several years. He was a grandson of Judge Samuel Livermore, and his memory went back to the early days of Holderness. The endeavor to make that
xiii
INTRODUCTION
old life visible and audible to-day would have been almost impossible without his kindly interest, and his contributions of details. The original of the portrait of Judge Livermore is owned by the Rev. Arthur Browne Livermore, of Key West, Fla. The artist Trumbull had planned and begun a great painting of the first American Congress at the time of the In- auguration of Washington. When he aban- doned the undertaking he cut the finished portraits out of the canvas; and this one he gave to the judge's son Arthur, from whom it came to Mr. Livermore, his grand- son, by whose courtesy I was able to have it copied. The portrait of Mrs. Livermore was painted by Copley. It is owned by Mr. James Livermore Ford, of New York City, who very kindly had it photographed for this book.
The silhouette of Priest Fowle is taken from a photograph which hung for many years in the old church near the Holderness School. It was loaned me for reproduction by Mrs. Lorin Webster, of Holderness.
Dr. Samuel A. Green, secretary of the Massachusetts Historical Society, gave me
xiv
INTRODUCTION
permission to reproduce from a book of his the map of New England which shows the northern boundary of Massachusetts as measured from the Endicott Rock.
I have found valuable information in the State Papers of New Hampshire (ii, 124) and in the Town Papers (ix, 394-396, and xii, 226-230). I have consulted with profit the collections of maps in the Boston Pub- lic Library and in the State Library at Concord, and have read whatever histo- ries have been published of the neighbor- ing towns. Belknap's "History of New Hampshire," Sweetser's "White Moun- tains," and Sanborn's "New Hampshire" have been of use to me.
I am further indebted for various cour- tesies to Mr. Laurence J. Webster, Mr. Robert P. Curry, and Mr. Carlton C. Shepard, of Holderness; Colonel Thomas P. Cheney and Mr. Frank M. Hughes, of Ashland; Mrs. G. N. P. Mead of Win- chester, Mass., Mrs. Charles B. Washburn of Worcester, Mass., Miss Gertrude Graves of Boston, Dr. James M. Whiton of New York, and Dr. Louis W. Flanders of Dover, N. H.
XV
INTRODUCTION
II
The township of Holderness is in the middle of New Hampshire. It is midway between Canada and Massachusetts, and between Maine and Vermont. Also the date of the Holderness Charter is at the middle point of New Hampshire history.
The first period of New Hampshire his- tory, the Era of Dependence, began with the first settlements, in 1623, and included the French and Indian War. During this time the colony of New Hampshire was dependent on the colony of Massachusetts. The chief events grew out of the relations of our settlers on the one hand with the Puritans of Massachusetts, and on the other hand with the savages of the wilder- ness. The second period, the Era of Inde- pendence, began with the treaty of Paris, in 1763, and includes the War of the Revo- lution and all the subsequent progress. During this time the colony first achieved and has since enjoyed its liberties as a free commonwealth in this republic.
During the Era of Dependence, Holder- ness was hidden in the Great Waste. But
xvi
INTRODUCTION
it touched the life of the time at two points : it was in the near neighborhood of the Endicott Rock, by which the Puritans cal- culated their claims to New Hampshire; and it was beside the Indian Trail, between New France, as Canada was then called, and New England. Our first business, therefore, in the study of the beginnings of Holderness, is with the Endicott Rock and with the Indian Trail.
HOLDERNESS
I
THE ENDICOTT ROCK
T THE colonies of Plymouth and Massa- chusetts Bay differed widely in politics and in religion from the colonies of Maine and New Hampshire. The settlers on the south of the Merrimac represented one side and the settlers on the north the other in that great struggle between the Puritans and the Cavaliers which occupied the larger part of the seventeenth century in England.
Sir Ferdinando Gorges, the founder of Maine, and Captain John Mason, who called his lands New Hampshire from the English Hampshire where he lived, pro- posed to set up in these parts a pleasant aristocracy, with vast estates, in loyal allegiance to the House of Stuart and to the Church of England. As for Bradford and Endicott, everybody knows what dif- ferent plans they had.
There was, accordingly, a disposition
2
HOLDERNESS
on the part of Charles and of Laud to put down the two colonies of Puritans and exalt the two colonies of Cavaliers. They determined, for the good of king and church, to take away the charters under which the Puritans were conducting them- selves with such inconvenient independ- ence, and to put all the settlements under Gorges as Governor-General and Mason as Vice-Admiral. Gorges and Mason, there- fore, prepared to visit Boston, and built a ship to transport armed maintainers of their unwelcome dignities. The Boston people made ready to receive them, and erected on one of their hills a beacon, which from that time gave the hill a name which it still bears, in order that they might thus give warning to all the neigh- bors when the ship appeared. But the ship broke at the launching, and Charles and Laud had their hands full at home, and in the place of an invasion of Massachu- setts by New Hampshire, there followed a much more effective invasion of New Hampshire by Massachusetts.
Of this invasion, the Endicott Rock at the Weirs is an enduring memorial.
3
THE ENDICOTT ROCK
The northern boundary of Massachu- setts, as established by charter, was an east and west line from any point three miles north of the Merrimac; as the south- ern boundary was an east and west line from any point three miles south of the Charles; each of these lines running to the Pacific Ocean. Mason's commission as Vice-Admiral gave him command of the coasts not only of Maine but of California. The continent was thought to be about as wide as the Isthmus of Panama. But the banks of the Merrimac, it was presently discovered, turned about, some thirty miles from the sea, and started north. In this bend of the river the Massachusetts au- thorities deemed themselves providentially pointed to that great bag of gold which is said to be waiting at the end of the rain- bow. For as far as the water went, so far the borders of the Massachusetts colony extended. How far north, then, did the Merrimac begin ?
In 1639, by order of the General Court of Massachusetts, Goodman Woodman and Mr. John Stretton, with an Indian guide, went in search of this northernmost
4
HOLDERNESS
point and found it at Franklin, where the Pemigewasset and the Winnepesaukee meet. Three miles above this fork they set the boundary at a great pine. This was known as the Endicott tree, and was so marked on the map in Mather's " Mag- nalia " as late as 1702.1
In 1652, the General Court appointed a commission to make a further survey. Captain Edward Johnson and Captain Simon Willard, being selected for this duty, employed John Sherman of Watertown as surveyor, and Jonathan Ince of Cambridge as interpreter. Ince, who had graduated at Harvard in 1650, was President Dun- ster's private secretary and at the same time the butler of the college. John Eliot described him as "a godly young man, who hath a singular felicity to learn and pronounce the Indian tongue." Johnson wrote the history of New England, 1628- 52, having as sub-title the "Wonder- Working Providence of Sion's Saviour." Willard, who was then living in Cambridge,
1 Boundary Line between New Hampshire and Massachusetts, by Samuel Abbott Green, Lowell, 1894.
Report of Commission for the Preservation, Protection and Appropriate Designation of the Endicott Rock, Concord, 1893.
5
THE ENDICOTT ROCK
moved afterwards to Groton, and his was the first house burned in that town at the beginning of King Philip's War.
As for Sherman, Mr. Hubbard, minister at Ipswich, published in 1677 “A Narra- tive of the Troubles with the Indians in New England," and at the beginning of the book addressed some lines of verse to "J. S." And in an early copy a marginal note explained that J. S. was John Sher- man, the surveyor. This book contained the first map of New England engraved in this country. It showed the White Moun- tains, named the Wine (i. e. "beautiful") Hills, and it carried a bold straight line across from Winnepesaukee to the sea, marking the northern boundary of Mas- sachusetts.
For these explorers were not content to find the source of the Merrimac at the junction of the Winnepesaukee and the Pemigewasset. They followed the Winne- pesaukee to the lake. At the outlet of the lake, the Indians had constructed weirs. That is, they had placed a line of rocks across the water, with nets stretched be- tween to catch shad. The salmon and the
6
HOLDERNESS
shad then came up the Merrimac, and at the forks of the river divided into two com- panies, the salmon seeking the cold waters of the Pemigewasset and the shad the clear expanses of the lake, for breeding places. At these weirs, the Indians told them, the river had its source. There, accordingly, on a big boulder, which lies in the lake near the present railway station of Weirs, they cut the name of the governor, the Worship- ful John Endicut, and the initials of the commissioners.
EI
SW
WP
JOHN
ENDICUT
GOV
The rock was found thus inscribed in 1833, and there are the letters to this day, under a protecting canopy of stone, - the oldest English inscription on this continent.
Then they made a calculation of the de- gree of latitude three miles north of that point, being well up into Meredith Bay, and there they located the northern bound-
A MAP OF
Páni Newhanen
NEW-ENGLAND
Hartford Winger =
Northamton: 13 10044 Decyfish
by the bolt Patscristhat could be bend which being
Seyir
Neufond on
The Foures that are Joyned with the Names of Places are yo diflinguah foch us have been af Tanlied by the frites trom orbert
Pequia Country -
Sapbag
Staniteai
Lancaften =
Naragonfet
The WnieHills
Groton
19
34
Wafer Mown: 3386
18:
Concord
25
Cambr
Waba
Hauetil=
BHODELMoiut f
Bramdry
Kingfis
ARfafequa RX
Pace
1.6
50
Winsten Harher
55
Pemayrit
pe cox
MAP SHOWING THE NORTHERN BOUNDARY OF MASSACHUSETTS, 1677
2 Staconk
(ISLAND
MotuRefick
7
THE ENDICOTT ROCK
ary of Massachusetts. They returned to Boston with this report, and the degree of latitude was given to two competent mar- iners, with instructions to discover where it fell on the Atlantic seaboard. This place the mariners found on the upper side of Little Clapboard Island, in Casco Bay. The commissioners then drew a straight line on the map between the ocean and the lake, - let us say, between Portland and Meredith, - and reported this highly satisfactory delimitation to the General Court. It thus appeared that the terms of the Massachusetts grant-three miles north of the Merrimac - took in a good part of New Hampshire and a fair section of Maine into the bargain.
The Massachusetts people afterwards withdrew so much of this claim as was carried by the straight line to Casco Bay, but they maintained for many years that they owned the land for at least three miles along the whole course of the Merrimac. This included Concord and the other river towns, and bisected the New Hampshire province.
It did not greatly matter, for New Hamp-
8
HOLDERNESS
shire was actually merged in Massachu- setts until 1679, and after that, though a separate province, was ruled by governors who were at the same time governors of Massachusetts, and lived in Boston. Ben- ning Wentworth, beginning in 1741, was the first of the royal governors to reside in this province, and the year in which he was appointed saw the Privy Council definitely settle the boundary line between the two communities as it is at present. Three miles north of the river runs the line till the great bend, and then straight on into the west.
II THE INDIAN TRAIL
HE Indians whom the commissioners met at the Weirs bring us to the second point of contact between Holderness and the earlier part of New Hampshire history. Beside the Endicott Rock lay the Indian Trail.
It was for fear of the Indians that the middle part of New Hampshire remained unoccupied till so late a date as 1761. Until the French and Indian War was ended with the capture of Quebec, it was not safe to venture so far into the Great Waste. The savages held it in complete possession. These men belonged to the Stone Age. They were further removed from civiliza- tion than any people with whom the settlers of Europe have had to deal within historic times. They were of the Algonquin race, which held almost all of this continent east of the Mississippi and north of the lower boundary of Virginia and Kentucky, ex-
10
HOLDERNESS
cept New York and Pennsylvania, which were held by their enemies, the Iroquois.
Within the limits of the present state of New Hampshire, the Algonquins were divided by the mountains and the rivers into a dozen tribes. There were six, from south to north, along the line of railway which now traverses the centre of the state.
1. The Nashuas, in the Nashua valley, taking their name from the pebbly bottom of their river.
2. The Souhegans, a little off the line, to the west, in the Souhegan valley: sou meaning "worn-out," and hegan "land."
3. The Amoskeags, about Manchester; a "fishing place."
4. The Pennacooks, about Concord; a "crooked place;" keag, cook, auke, scot, and perhaps set, being variants of a single term of locality.
5. The Winnepesaukes, around the lake: from winne "beautiful," ipe "water," and auke.
6. The Pemigewassets, at Holderness. The name (from pemi or peni "crooked," coös "thick woods," and set "place") seems to have come from the great S in
11
THE INDIAN TRAIL
the river between Holderness and Ply- mouth, which was afterwards straightened out by a sturdy freshet.
East of these tribes, from south to north, were seven others.
1. The Squamscots, about Exeter : squam meaning "water."
2. The Pascataquakes, about Ports- mouth and Dover: pas meaning "great," attuck " deer," and auke "place."
3. The Newichawannocks, in the valley of the Salmon Falls: from ne "my," week "wigwam," and owannock "come."
4. The Ossipees, about the pond and mountains of that name: from coos "woods," and ipe "water."
5. The Pequakets, in the valley of the Saco.
6. The Amariscoggins, in the valley of the Androscoggin.
7. The Coösucks, in the Coös intervales.1
As for the White Mountains, it is said that some of the Indians revered them as the abode of the spirits, and expected to go to Mt. Washington when they died.
1 For these definitions see Potter's History of Manchester, and Edward Ballard's paper on Indian Names connected with the Valley of the Merrimack, in Coll. N. H. Hist. Soc. viii, 451.
12
HOLDERNESS
The Indian Trail lay between the St. Lawrence and the sea; between the French and Indian town of St. Francis, now Pierreville, near Montreal, and the English towns of Portsmouth and Dover, of Exeter and Hampton. It came down by land and water, along the St. Francis River, across Lake Memphremagog, through the thick forests to the Connecticut, down this high- way to Baker's River, to the Pemigewasset, by the Squam lakes, along Winnepesaukee to Alton Bay, and thence across the coun- try to the coast. Thus Cotton Mather, in 1702, describes the carrying away of Sarah Gerrish after a foray upon Dover. It was "a terrible March," he says, "through the thick Woods and a Thousand other Mis- eries, till they came to the Norway-Plains [i. e. to Rochester]. From thence they made her go to the end of Winnopisseag Lake, and from thence to the Eastward, through horrid Swamps, where sometimes they must Scramble over huge trees fallen by Storm or Age for a vast way together, and sometimes they must Climb up Long, Steep, Tiresome and almost Inaccessible Mountains. . .. a long and sad journey
Lawrence
Richten Islands
St Francis
River of ST francis
From
A Correct Plan of The
Province of New Hampshire
with part of Hudson River
foun Albany & Lake George
and from Thence Through Lake
Champlain & Mont Real
Taken from a great number & exact allested Plans of particulier parle of the Country
June 1756
Jake Memphrimaqua
Showing how The Indian Trail from ST francis To The coast settlements came down by Bakers River past
Squin lake Cosumpia Pond]
This my M: John Starke was carried captive
Cohoss
grand Intervales
d-6 = fort
5. church
village
Hastings Brook
O. Baker's River
Cosumpu Pond
casper
Waterqueche P
White River Falls
Pemigenasset River
Watertow
Connecticut River
Merrimack River
Pand
Nem
Mirraganset
/nay ! i charlestown
Rochester
to
Joven
P
[Atlantic Ocean]
Mercasite
Exeter
-
THE INDIAN TRAIL
Sebago Pond
While River
waterqueche falls
Saco River
#a
13
THE INDIAN TRAIL
she had of it, thro' the midst of a hideous Desart, in the midst of a dreadful Winter At last they arrived at Canada." The eastward turn may have been from Alton Bay towards Wolfeborough.
A map made in 1756, showing the way John Stark was carried captive, assists the theory that the trail ran between Winne- pesaukee and Squam, following substan- tially the present course of the College Road, and striking the Pemigewasset at Plymouth. Along this trail the savages retreated after their forays on the coast towns, with their plunder and their cap- tives. These captives were probably the first white persons who passed through this region. Women made up the greater part of these miserable companies, who had seen their homes burned, their husbands and fathers and brothers tortured, and their little children dashed against the trees. And after them, along this way, came the avenging settlers. Thus in the winter of 1703, Captain Tyng led a party of rangers on snowshoes up the valley of the Pemige- wasset, and took five Indian scalps. And other avengers followed in his steps.
14
HOLDERNESS
The French and Indian War included six campaigns :-
1. King Philip's War: three years, 1675-78.
2. King William's War: ten years, 1689- 99.
3. Queen Anne's War: ten years, 1703- 13.
4. Captain Lovewell's War: three years, 1722-25.
5. The War beginning at Louisburg: five years, 1744-49.
6. The War ending at Quebec: five years, 1754-59.
The contest was concluded by the treaty of Paris, at our central date, 1763.
King Philip's War did not touch this region. It served, however, to prove the fidelity of the chiefs whose names are com- memorated in our neighboring mountains. Passaconaway, who was at the head of the Pennacooks, and perhaps of a wide federa- tion of tribes, had been from the beginning a friend of the white men. He was held in great awe by his Indian subjects, who said that he could make the water burn, the
15
THE INDIAN TRAIL
rocks move, the trees dance, and could change himself into a flaming man.1 He declared that a policy of peace had been taught him by the Great Spirit. His son, Wonnalancet, who succeeded him as chief, followed in his steps. He restrained his people from attacking the whites, and even protected the settlers from his savage brethren. After the war, he asked the minister of Chelmsford if he and his neigh- bors had suffered. "No," said the minister, "thank God." "Me next," said Wonna- lancet.
During Queen Anne's War, in March, 1712, Captain Thomas Baker, of North- ampton, with a company of rangers, at- tacked the Indians at Plymouth. Of this engagement several picturesque accounts are given. Mrs. Bean, the captain's daugh- ter, says that her father encountered a great body of French and Indians coming down from Canada. He took them by surprise and killed so many that the others re- treated. Baker took the blanket of the chief Waternomee, covered with silver brooches, which is "still among his descendants."
1 Wood's New England's Prospect, Boston, 1764, p. 100.
16
HOLDERNESS
Either the slaughter was not so great as Mrs. Bean supposed, or the repulse was not so complete, for on June 5, 1712, Baker was paid £20 by the General Court; half of that amount for a scalp actually in hand, and the other half "for one Enemy Indian besides that which they Scalped, which seems very probable to be slain." Baker is said to have fought with Water- nomee, who when mortally wounded leaped four or five feet into the air. He is also said to have deceived the Indians who pursued him, by directing each of his men to use five sticks in roasting meat for supper: the Indians, coming upon the ashes of the fires, counted the sticks, and concluded that there were too many white men to be attacked with prudence.1
Baker's River, near which the encounter took place, bears the name of this hero. It was formerly called Asquamchumauke; from asquam "water," wadchu "moun- tain," and auke. Baker had been captured by the Indians and taken to Canada, whence he had escaped or been ransomed.
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