USA > New Hampshire > A synoptic history of the Granite state > Part 2
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It looks as though landlord John Mason had a mortgage on Pannaway, took it over, and then had to send "new money after old." So Mason sent one Captain Neale to Pannaway to boost it, and gradually the place grew and spread two miles to where Portsmouth now stands, for we read that Mason erected a a "large house" up there later,-near the Portsmouth Parade or Public Square.
Pannaway. Thompson was the one who called the place "Pannaway," but the name did not stick to it much longer than he did. It seems that farther up the river wild strawberries grew profusely, so it happened that the whole plantation became known as "Strawberry Bank," and most persistently it is so styled to this day.
The Colonial Dames have marked the spot where Thompson landed with a granite monument, recording that they came for "God and Liberty." This may be true but they were not Puritans. They were Scotch, who came to trade with the
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Indians. Whatever they came for we imagine the three mer- chants lost money on Thompson.
But Thompson managed well with the Indians. That was to his credit. We read that a certain Sagamore Chief presented him with an Indian slave, and, moreover, we find recorded no massacres at Pannaway.
With only a few pages allotted us to cover from this point in our history to the Revolutionary War period,-a span of 150 years, we must fly along faster.
The First Four Towns. King James I and King Charles I were most anxious to effect settlements in America in order to head off the French, and Mason was motivated by a dream of huge wealth in American feudal estates.
Edward Hilton (1628) made a plantation at "Dover Neck," a village with a Church, which remained, to become "Dover."
Then the Rev. John Wheelwright, a religious leader of a cult whose members the banished Puritans "banished," fled to Swamscot Falls, with his flock, and founded Exeter (1638). Soon the Rev. Stephen Bachiller, a Governor Winthrop Puritan, came over from the Massachusetts colony and staked out Hampton, claiming it was in Massachusetts.
These four small plantations of New Hampshire were harassed by the Indians, and hence the Puritan group had little difficulty, after a short time, in bringing them under their wing in 1641. There they remained for 38 years, or until 1679.
Made a Royal Province. Then, at long last, the King took a hand in what had become a "general mixup" of titles and juris- dictions, and, by Royal edict, made of Mason's domain a real Royal Province, much to the dislike of Massachusetts. This was in 1679. Mason called the colony "New Hampshire," after his own residence which was "Portsmouth, Hampshire County, England." The King did this by penning a simple document to John Cutts, an honorable and wealthy citizen, of the American Portsmouth, telling him for a year he was to be President of New Hampshire. "Six" other men of New Hampshire, named therein, were authorized to choose three more, to make "nine,"
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who would constitute a "Council" (the executive branch of the Government).
There was also permitted in the Charter an "Assembly," (a legislative branch) to be composed of men elected from the towns. This was not a Puritan set-up. The people were granted re- ligious liberty, and were permitted ostensibly to rule themselves. As good as all this seemed, at first, it had more to it, for it was the King himself who appointed a majority of the Council, and retained the right to veto all legislative acts. Thus came the germs of future strife.
CHAPTER II
NEW HAMPSHIRE IN ITS "TEENS"
A HUNDRED Years Under Kings. But this form of government continued from 1679 to 1775, or nearly one hundred years. The English rulers experimented, once unhappily, by putting all New England together as one "do- minion," and then, after much irritation and open revolt against General Andros in Boston, the King put New Hampshire back under Massachusetts. Still irritated, he finally returned her to the Royal Province system as before.
The Royal Governors. We record, without comment or review, the names of these early rulers of New Hampshire for a century. Most of the Royal Governors who were sent over from England were dictatorial and some of those appointed from the Colony itself were not acceptable. Here is the entire list: Governors, John Cutts, a wealthy citizen of Portsmouth; Richard Waldron of Dover; Edward Cranfield; Walter Barefoote; Joseph Dudley; Edmund Andros; John Usher; William Partridge; Samuel Allen; the Earl of Bellmont; Samuel Shute; John Went- worth; Benning Wentworth; and John Wentworth, the last be- fore the Revolution.
Massacres and Wars. New Hampshire's early history may be characterized as having been spent in constant fear, defending themselves against the barbarities of the Indians. Catlin, the writer, described the Indian history thus:
"White men, whiskey, tomahawk, scalping knives, guns, powder, ball, small-pox, debauchery, extermination."
We know that "forests primeval" are beautiful but it was a different story when "wild in the woods the noble savage ran." He was not always so "noble."
Finally, however, we reason, we get back to the question of right and wrong. The Indian and his ancestors, as far back as he knew anything about them, had possessed the land. It had
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been his home. The woods were his, and they that dwelt therein. It was the desire of the colonists to purchase from the Indians such land as they needed to live in peace. It was not aggression in the military sense. The Indians were not numerous enough to occupy it all. But conflicts and misunderstandings arose.
The Five Indian Wars. There were five small, so-called wars, in addition to many massacres, within a century. They were all wars of the same kind,-the French against the English. Undoubtedly, it was a natural thing when England and France were at war in Europe, for their nationals in America to take up arms.
French settlers in America outwitted the English by making friends with the Indians. They even inter-married with them and lived with them in their tepee villages. The nature and discrimination of the Puritan did not permit him to do this. The Puritans were a stricter set. Hence, Indians became perma- nent allies of the French in America.
Indian massacres occurred intermittently either out of mere savagery, plunder or revenge. As a rule, the white settler de- sired to buy his Indian land, but often he did so in cheap and gaudy wares. Soon, perchance, he was asked to pay again. New Hampshire was much like other colonies in this respect, except that William Penn and Roger Williams used more tact with the Red men than the Puritans, or Scotch.
In addition to Indian savagery, the colonists had to contend with their own inhumanity.
The year 1692 was the time when "in the course of human events," nineteen adjudged "witches" were hanged to death on "Gallows Hill" in Salem, Massachusetts. Fourteen were women. The biggest "hanging day" was July 19, 1692 when five women were executed. These five were: Sarah Good, Sarah Wildes, Elizabeth How, Rebecca Nurse, and Susanna Martin. Susanna Martin, who left a daughter, has descendants now living in New Hampshire. This case has a real connection with New Hamp- shire because one of the witnesses who testified against her lived in New Castle.
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Witchcraft made scanty headway in New Hampshire. We find no case of execution or conviction. We do find one trial for witchcraft in Portsmouth. It was a case against one, "Good- wife Walford," and occurred in 1658. She was complained against by one Susannah Trimmings, who claimed to have been frightened by Goodwife on a dark night in a weird manner. The trial of the case was carried part way through, suspended and then dropped. Robert Coutch testified Goodwife Walford was a "witch." Later Goodwife Walford (Mrs. Thomas Walford) sued Robert Coutch in court for "slander," and she got a small money verdict. Some superstitious belief in a mystic "black art" which seized weak minds the world over, got into a few heads in our State, but only a few, and in not so ghastly a degree as in the Massachusetts Puritan colony, for we were then quite Scotch.
The five "Indian Wars" were known as King Philip's; King William's; Queen Anne's; King George's and the French and Indian War. Their details present a tragic story not useful to present here.
Hannah Dustin. One such story, however, may be of in- terest. "The Hannah Dustin battle," as we choose to call it, was an instance of what was frequent, viz: the French in Canada inciting a group of Indians to go south to war. It was in King William's War (1697). They attacked Hannah Dustin's home in Haverhill, Mass., seized her and killed her baby. Mr. Dustin and other children escaped. They took her, one boy and a nurse, and war-hooped up the Merrimac River toward Canada. The marauders camped on a small island by night in what is now the City of Concord. While the savages were asleep in drink, as we interpret history, Hannah, the nurse and the son, scalped Io of the 12 red murderers and then trailed down the river back home to Haverhill in safety. There now stands a life-sized statue of Hannah at each end of this river-trip tragedy.
Indian War Heroes. Let us record a few New Hampshire names of heroes who fought in those Indian Wars, as follows: Captains Waldron, Hilton, Chesley, Lovewell, Baker, Fifield, Cunningham, Rev. Dummer, David Hamilton, Henry Childe,
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Captain Sherburne, John Dean, John Church, and Rev. James Nock. In all there were about 2500 volunteers from New Hampshire engaged in these Wars.
New Hampshire at Louisburg. A conspicuous engagement in the last of these Wars was the "Capture of Louisburg," a French fort and naval base. In this engagement our New Hampshire colonists took the lead. An armored fleet sailed from Portsmouth under Sir William Pepperell of Kittery, Maine, having about 500 New Hampshire volunteers on board as a part of a large force. On June 17, 1745, after a long siege, Louisburg surrendered. Nobly did the colonists fight for England then. Only too soon England was making war on them. What a civi- lization doth history disclose! Our colony also had volunteers on the "Plains of Abraham," when General Wolfe met General Montcalm and fought that fateful battle at Quebec where both were killed. They were also at Montreal (1763) when the French in America surrendered. Colonel John Stark and Colonel Goffe led forces in the latter battle.
A Royal Governor Removed. This French and Indian fighting was during the administration of Benning Wentworth. But, sad to relate, with twenty-five years of otherwise clever rule to his credit, this pleasant old Governor finally became too greedy, granting to himself public lands, and was forced from office by the King (August 11, 1766). Two years later he died. His unique old Executive Mansion, with its antique furniture, still stands at "Little Harbor" as one of the rarest of American architectural exhibits.
Vermont's Little Revolution. Many towns now in West- ern New Hampshire had a hectic experience in getting located. "The Masonian curve" was only sixty miles west of the sea and parallel to it, so these towns more than sixty miles away seemed not to be in the "New Hampshire grant" that John Mason owned. However, Mason "stood in" with the King at all times, and hence a Royal order came through that our State extended as far west as New York, but, since the eastern bound- ary of New York was left indefinite, Governor Benning Went-
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A Synoptic History
worth, between 1741-'64, granted 130 townships in what is now Vermont, claiming Lake Champlain as the western boundary of New Hampshire, and the eastern boundary of New York. Later on, in 1749, New York secured a Royal decree that her eastern boundary was the Connecticut River. This threw the 130 towns between the river and the lake into chaos. Then, that historic fighter, Ethan Allen of Bennington, claiming to own large grants in this "no man's land," organized a fighting posse and began to make trouble. He organized a little revolution of his own against New York on January 15, 1777, and declared the territory be- tween the river and the lake an independent Province or Re- public, to be called "Vermont." Then on June 11, 1778, those discontented towns in New Hampshire, east of the river, were voted into Vermont, on request, by her Legislature. These towns were: Hanover, Canaan, Cardigan, Lyme, Lebanon, Plain- field, Acworth, Marlow, Alstead, Surry, Chesterfield, Haverhill, Lyman, Bath, Gunthwaite, Landoff and Morristown.
Next, the Allens went to the Capitol to the Continental Con- gress and presented their grievances which were finally settled by a political trade. It fixed the boundaries of Vermont as they now are, and agreed to send the vagrant towns of New Hampshire back home. This was not the end of the conflict. The Vermont Legislature refused to give up the New Hampshire towns, and threatened war by a Legislative Resolution. The New Hamp- shire Legislature voted to raise 1,000 troops under General John Sullivan to battle out the issue. Then Congress intervened. As a result Gen. Washington wrote Gen. Chittenden of Vermont a courteous letter to quit the rebellion. After some delay Vermont did quit. She went entirely alone for a while, but finally, by political manoeuvering, was admitted to the Union in 1790. The story, in detail, of this long controversy is most entertainingly told by a New Hampshire young man in a recent book called "Revolutionary New Hampshire," by Richard Upton. The story reminds us of a "squeeze play," as they say in baseball, New Hampshire and New York working the "squeeze" on Ver- mont and failing to score. Matt Bushnell Jones has this year
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(1939) produced a masterful history of "Vermont in the Mak- ing."
New Hampshire and Massachusetts had a collision, on account of this somewhat mythical "Masonian curve" reaching out only 60 miles from, and parallel to, the ocean. Massachusetts even claimed that our western boundary was the Merrimac River and not the Connecticut, and so Governor Endicott poached a little. He claimed a right to settle towns on the western side of the Merrimac River all the way up to the Weirs. Boy-like he carved his own name on that famous "Endicott Rock" at the Weirs, so that all comers might know he had been there. But here again the King ruled in Mason's favor, and a boundary was set prac- tically where it is now, although it took a long legal battle finally to fix it as at "low water mark on the western bank" of the Con- necticut River. Justice Stone of the Supreme Court of the United States, who was born in one of the border towns- Chesterfield, wrote the opinion in this case.
CHAPTER III
NEW HAMPSHIRE ARRIVING AT "TWENTY-ONE"
Aug. II, 1766 to Aug. 23, 1775
T HE Last Royal Governor Wentworth. Benning Wentworth's nephew, John Wentworth, a popular Portsmouth-born young man of 29 years, succeeded his uncle on the day of his removal. In young John the colonists had a great executive. His record, on the whole, shows him to have been a brilliant, noble and considerate man. He remained loyal to the King, and for that he was finally forced to flee from New Hampshire for his own safety (August 23, 1775) yet not until after two of the Revolutionary battles had been fought, and after he had sought all possible means of appeasement. His experience was a tragedy.
Stamp Act. Without the knowledge or assent of the colo- nists, the British Parliament began to tax the colonies. The Stamp Act was the first blow, and from this there were violent repercussions. It was intensely resisted. When, on September 18, 1766, George Meserve reached Portsmouth with a commission from England to collect the tax imposed by this Act, he was surrounded by an angry mob, led to "Liberty Bridge," forced to tear up the commission, to scatter the scraps of paper on the tide-water to drift back to England, and to resign his office at once. He obeyed. Nothing was done about this rebellious act. Governor John Wentworth used his influence to have the tax repealed. This was soon done, and relations were eased for a few years.
A "Molasses" Party Not a "Tea" Party. On December 16th, 1773, while the fiery Bostonians, disguised as Indians, had thrown 342 cases of tea overboard, and while at Annapolis the Marylanders had a "bon-fire" with their tea, the New Hamp- shirites-more deliberate for once, held a mass meeting in a church, and voted not to receive or use any tea or other mer-
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chandise from England. We do read, however, how 100 hogs- heads of molasses disappeared mysteriously one night from an English vessel in Portsmouth harbor about this time, and "In- dians" were seen aboard.
An Overt Act in New Hampshire. There is also a thrill in the story of John Sullivan, John Langdon and other dignified citizens rowing their fish boats down the Great Bay and Piscat- aqua River by night, attacking Fort William and Mary, over- powering five English guardsmen on duty, seizing all the powder (100 barrels) and guns they could carry away, and unharmed, returning to Durham the same night, hiding the booty under a church, and then the next day carting it to a point near Bunker Hill to "fire the shot heard 'round the world." That seizure of powder on December 15th, 1774, was made possible by Paul Revere's ride to Portsmouth to "tip off" Sullivan.
Governor John Wentworth, when he heard of it, had to call it "Treason," as it was. He ordered the arrest and punishment of the guilty. There were no arrests, however. Feeling ran strong. We surmise the Governor knew who the perpetrators of this treasonous act were-his own neighbors and friends in Portsmouth.
Dartmouth Founded. John Wentworth was Governor for about ten years-progressive and constructive. By his efforts Dartmouth College was founded, under the leadership of the Rev. Eleazer Wheelock. Its Charter was dated December 13, 1769, and became legal battleground for the celebrated "Dartmouth College Case" which Daniel Webster argued before the Supreme Court, and won. Dartmouth's first graduation of four students, entered in advance, from Yale, was in 1771. Governor Went- worth, with a royal retinue of 60 persons, attended this Com- mencement, having driven several fine spans from Portsmouth to Hanover over crude, cross-State roads which he had recently had constructed. He received an Honorary degree. A barbecue, a barrel of rum, and an assembly of colonists, made this commence- ment a spirited beginning. The Dartmouth Presidents have been: Eleazer Wheelock; his son, John Wheelock; Rev. Francis
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A Synoptic History
Brown; Rev. Daniel Dana; Rev. Bennett Tyler; Rev. Nathan Lord; Rev. Dr. Asa Dodge Smith; Rev. Samuel Colcord Bartlett; Rev. Dr. William Jewett Tucker; Dr. Ernest Fox Nichols; and Dr. Earnest Martin Hopkins, the present nationally-known and esteemed leader. Governor Wentworth developed the State's resources and interests remarkably well.
On April 12, 1775, there broke into flames the historic battle of Lexington and Concord, in which our colonists had no time to reach the scene, but the news greatly alarmed them.
Two months after the momentous news of Lexington and Concord came the Battle of Bunker Hill (June 17, 1775). Colonels Stark and Reid of our State were stationed in the hottest spots of this fighting. They were all under the command of General Israel Putnam who was, in turn, under General Ward, and they were located on the left side of a stone wall or fence- like breastworks. Henry Dearborn of our State, a young man who afterwards became President Jefferson's Secretary of War, was there as Captain under Stark. The British, under General Gage, came to the attack straight up the hill. General Putnam passed along that memorable order: "Men, you are all marksmen, don't one of you fire until you see the whites of their eyes." They obeyed, and simply mowed down the enemy all along the line, but with the greatest devastation of all in front of Stark's and Reid's position. The British loss was so severe they re- treated back into Boston. Our loss of New Hampshire men was 18 killed and 89 wounded out of a total of about 1600 men. Major McClary of our State was killed.
Colonel John Sullivan had a strong command of "hurry-up- volunteers" defending Winter Hill, but the British had taken punishment enough before they reached him. General Wash- ington had not then arrived.
The Governor Banished. Governor Wentworth did not leave his post at Portsmouth for over two months more, or until August 23, 1775, and then only when a mob had mounted a cannon in front of his home, and the local supply merchants had cut off provisions at the Fort whence the Governor had fled. At
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last the young Governor, then only 38, with his wife and child, boarded an English Man-of-War, Scarborough, lying in Ports- mouth harbor, and sailed to Boston, still hoping for reconcilia- tion. He was exiled by law soon after, and never returned home again in all his life of many years. During his long exile he wrote a letter to a friend in Portsmouth, and referred to his experience in these revealing words: "I cannot criticize the people I love and forgive."
CHAPTER IV
PUTTING ON ADULT CLOTHING
A LTHOUGH the War had already begun with two battles, before the Governor left, let us turn aside for a moment . in our consideration of the War to inquire how our Civil Government so rapidly changed itself over from a Royal Prov- ince (which was dead the minute the Governor left) to an independent democracy, since there must be a functioning of some kind of Government every minute if the peace is to be preserved.
It must be noted that the Royal Governor, John Wentworth, kept losing control of his Royal Assembly after the Stamp Act. Its members were elected from our towns. Finally a crisis came. At a meeting of his Assembly on May 28, 1774, the members "took the bits in their teeth." They defied him, and even went so far as to elect the historic "Committee of Safety"-a War measure. The Governor declared the action illegal and void. However, this Committee, legal or illegal, began doing business. Its members were: "Speaker" Wentworth, Cutts, Giddings, March, Bartlett, Prescott and Pickering-all fervid patriots. They took complete charge of hostilities, ignored the Governor and piloted the colony until a new Constitutional government had been speedily set up. This third John Wentworth was "Speaker" of the Assembly, as well as "Chairman" of the "Com- mittee of Safety." After that what?
The First State Constitution in the United States. In response to a call of the "Committee of Safety," the towns elected what they called members of a "First Provincial Congress." Being independent of England, they decided to plod along alone for a while, feeling that they would probably always be an inde- pendent nation, not merely a State. So they designated the body of newly elected men their "Provincial Congress." Thereupon they held five of these sessions of their new and independent Con-
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gress, and also a Constitutional Convention, all in rapid succes- sion, inside of 18 months, at Exeter-that is, between July 1774 and January 5, 1776.
Out of these several steps there emerged a written Constitu- tion-the first in America. It was unanimously adopted by the Constitutional Convention, and put into effect the very next day-January 6th, 1776, without being voted on by the people. There was no time to waste on elections. Members of this fifth "Congress" were also elected to be members of the "Constitu- tional Convention" to "provide this Constitution" (two func- tions in one). Matthew Thornton was chosen President of the Constitutional Convention. General John Sullivan wrote a recommendation for a Constitution to the members, but the Committee to draft it were: Thornton, Thompson, Weare, Claggett and Giles.
A Hasty Constitution. What, in brief, this document provided, we relate here. It did not establish the position of "Governor," or "Courts," but it did set up a popular "House" to be elected by the voters of the towns on a property franchise basis. The "House" was authorized to elect 12 of its members to constitute an executive "Council." Hence, we had a body of 12 executives, with no Chief Executive. From such a situation the Chairman of the "Council" came to be looked upon as the "Chief Executive," or, as we now say, "Governor." The Con- stitution provided that the members of the Constitutional Con- vention themselves should constitute, "presto change," the membership of the first "House," provided for therein.
Weare Dictator. So, you see they were all ready to elect a "Council" and the Council to elect a Chairman at once, which it did, in the person of that remarkable man, Mesheck Weare, who practically ran all branches of our State throughout the 8 years of war. He was the Executive, the Judicial, the Legis- lative, all combined, and the record shows public satisfaction.
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