USA > New Hampshire > Coos County > Historical sketches of the discovery, settlement, and progress of events in the Coos country and vicinity, principally included between the years 1754 and 1785 > Part 2
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[" Moose Meadow" must have been the Indian name for that part of Coos which they made first, and I am quite confident that some of the old people whom I consulted relative to the first settlements, called the meadow owned by Major Merrill, in Pier- mont, " Moose Meadow ; " but I have no minute of it, and as at that time I had no knowledge of this doc- ument, I was not particular to retain the locality of Moose Meadow.
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But we at length find the company encamped upon the banks of the Oliverian in Haverhill, which river was then without a name, as well as Haverhill itself. They passed along, he says, " by the side of the in- terval,"-that is, at the foot of the hill where the meadows commence. He says the interval was " here about a mile wide." He meant on both sides of the river. He calls the Oliverian a "large stream." The heavy rains, he has already described, rendered it such. The falls, I should think, were accurately described. He does not tell us on which side of the Oliverian he made his encampment; probably south, upon the elevated platform formerly owned by Richard Gookin ; or, if he crossed the river that night, he would select the dry spot where stands the dwelling- house of the late Capt. Joseph Pearson. Permit me, kind reader, to add a reflection. How dark is the future with all to whom God has not revealed what his future Providences shall be ! Capt. Powers, when he camped upon the banks of the Oliverian, must have marched in his meandering course at least sev- enty miles, without seeing a human habitation ! And what had been his astonishment, if it had been revealed to him that night, that his first-born son should be the minister of a church and people in that place, in a less time than eleven years ; that he should
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sustain that relation nearly twenty years ; and that his grandson, by his own youngest son, should hold the same station about fifteen years, from the fifty- seventh to the seventy-second year after his decease ! This would have been an astounding vision, but no more than what time has fulfilled. ]
" Wednesday, June 26th. This morning fair weather, and we marched up the interval to the great turn of clear interval, which is the uppermost part of the clear interval, on the westerly side of Connecticut River, and there came a great shower of rain, which held almost all this afternoon ; and we camped by the river on the easterly side, above all the clear in- terval ; and this day's march was about six miles, and very crooked."
[It will appear, as we advance in these sketches, that the Little Ox Bow on Haverhill side, and the Great Ox Bow on Newbury side, were cleared inter- val when the first settlers came in. They had been cleared and cultivated to some extent by the Indians, and this is the fact to which the journal alludes. Their encampment was on the well-known Porter place. ]
" Thursday, June 27th. This morning it was cloudy weather, and it began to rain, the sun about an hour high, and we marched, nothwithstanding,
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up the river to Amonoosuck River, and our course was about north, distance about five miles ; and we camped here, for the River Amonoosuck was so high we could not go over it without a canoe; for it was swift water, and near twenty rods wide. This after- noon it cleared off fair, and we went about our canoe, and partly built it. Some of our men went up the River Amonoosuck, to see what discoveries they could make ; and they discovered excellent land, and a considerable quantity of large white pines."
" Friday, June 28th. This morning fair weather, and we went about the canoe, and completed the same by about twelve of the clock this day, and went over the river ; and we concluded to let the men go down the river in the canoe, who were not likely to perform the remaining part of the journey, by reason of sprains in the ankles, and weakness of body. They were four in number ; and we steered our course for the great interval about east, north-east ; and we this day marched, after we left the river, about ten miles. And the land was exceedingly good upland, and some quantity of white pine, but not thick, but some of them fit for masts."
[These four men, it would seem, were about to take their chance upon the river, and to return by the way of Charlestown. ]
2
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" Saturday, June 29th. This morning was cloudy but we swung our packs, and steered our course about north-east, ten miles, and came to Connecti- cut River. There it came on rainy, and we camped by the side of the river, and it rained all this after- noon, and we kept our camp all this night. The land was, this day's march, very good, and it may be said as good as ever was seen by any of us. The common growth of wood was beech and maple, and not thick at all. It hath a great quantity of small brooks. This day and the day past, there were about three brooks fit for corn-mills ; and these were the largest of the brooks that we saw."
[It seems that the march of the two last days was made between the valley of the Connecticut, and that of the Amonoosuck, upon the high lands of Bath, Lyman, and Littleton, and we now find them en- camped in the southern part of Dalton. ]
" Sunday, June 30th. This morning exceeding rainy weather, and it rained all the night past, and continued raining until twelve of the clock this day ; and after that, it was fair weather, and we marched along up Connecticut River ; and our course we made good this day, was about five miles, east by north, and there came to a large stream, which came from the south-east. This river is about three rods
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wide, and we called it Stark's River, by reason of Ensign John Stark's being found by the Indians at the mouth of this river. This river comes into the Connecticut at the foot of the upper interval, and thence we travelled up the interval about seven miles, and came to a large river which came from the south- east ; and it is about five rods wide. Here we con- cluded to go no further with the full scout, by reason of our provisions being almost all spent ; and almost all our men had worn out their shoes. This river we called Powers' River, it being the camping place at the end of our journey ; and there we camped by the river."
[It seems that John Stark had been taken twice by the Indians while on his hunting expeditions- once on Stark's River, and once on Baker's River. The river which they named Stark's River runs through Dalton, and is now called John's River, be- cause Stark's name was John, perhaps ; but I think they had better preserved the original name, and this would have perpetuated a historical fact, and borne up a name that the whole town would delight to cherish among them ; but who is to know whether this is John Stark's River, or John Smith's River, or any other John's River ? The river they called Powers' River is in Lancaster, and is now called
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Israel's River. This, too, I think, ought to bear the name they gave it, instead of a wandering, and per- haps a worthless hunter. Capt. Powers was the first man of English descent who ever visited that town for discovery. He did it in imminent peril, and for the good of his country. How much more gratify- ing it would be to the present inhabitants of that town, and to all future generations of theirs, did they bear upon their river the name of the first man who ever by authority discovered their town ! There has been much wrong in these things in many of our towns. Our worthy ancestors, who bore the toils and went through the perils of exploring and settling our forests, and of subduing them, richly merited this cheap method of perpetuating a memorial of them- selves. I do not attach blame to the people of Lan- caster for this-for they may not know, to this day, that such a company ever visited their town, or that their river was ever formally named by persons under authority ; but these are the facts. There is no rec- ord in the journal of any transaction on the first day of July. It was probably spent in inactivity and rest. ]
" Tuesday, July 2d. This morning fair weather, and we thought proper to mend our shoes, and to re- turn homeward ; and accordingly we went about the
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same ; and whilst the men were this way engaged, the captain, with two of his men, marched up the river to see what further discoveries they could make, and they travelled about five miles, and there they discovered where the Indians had a large camping place, and had been making canoes, and had not been gone above one or two days at most ; and so they returned to the rest of the men again about twelve of the clock ; and then we returned, and marched down the river to Stark's River, and there camped. This afternoon it rained hard, but we were forced to travel for want of provisions. This interval is ex- ceedingly large, and the farther up the larger. The general course of this river is from north-cast by east, as far as the interval extends."
[The captain and his two men penetrated, proba- bly, as far as present Northumberland, and must have travelled nearly one hundred and forty miles after they left the habitations of civilized men. At Northumberland they first fell upon the trail of In- dians, where they had, probably, been preparing themselves canoes to enable them to descend upon our frontier settlements. ]
" Wednesday, July 3d. This morning cloudy, weather, and thundered ; and after the sun an hour high, it rained hard, and continued about an hour,
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and then we swung packs, and steered our course west-south-west, aiming for Amonoosuck River ; and this day we marched about fourteen miles, and camped."
[We shall perceive that, for the last twelve days of their march, the rain had fallen in unusual abun- dance for that season of the year ; and it would not be strange if they spoke of some small streams as lar- ger than they are ordinarily found, especially since the clearing of the country ; but as far as my knowl- edge extends, they were not far from present truth concerning them ; and as it regards distances, they were remarkably accurate, seeing they were in a wil- derness, followed the course of streams, and did not carry a chain. ]
" Thursday, July 4th. We marched on our course west-south-west, and this day we marched about twenty miles, and camped."
[This was the day on which the Delegates from six of the Colonies signed, at Albany, articles of union for mutual government and defence, anticipating the renewal of war between France and England, "ex- actly twenty-two years before the declaration of American independence."-Belknap. ]
" Friday, July 5th. We marched about three miles to our packs at Amonoosuck, the same course
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we had steered heretofore ; and we afterwards went over Connecticut River, and looked up Wells' River, and camped a little below Wells' River this night."
[At the west end of the bridge, perhaps, leading from Haverhill to Wells' River. ]
" Saturday, July 6th. Marched down the great river to Great Coos, and crossed the river below the great turn of clear interval, and there left the great river, and steered south by east about three miles, and there camped. Here was the best of upland, and some quantity of large white pines."
[I think they crossed into Haverhill at the " Dow Farm," so called, and the three miles brought them to Haverhill Corner, and their description of it an- swers to the description given by the first settlers. I would say to the people of Haverhill Corner, that eighty-five years ago, on the sixth of July last, (1839,) your Common was the encampment of an exploring company, sent out by the government of England ; that this company felt themselves surrounded by a vast wilderness ; and, while the towering trees of the forest formed their canopy, they confided in their own vigilance and prowess, under God, to protect them from beasts of prey and savage men. Well may you exclaim, while in your ceiled houses, and while surveying from your windows your ample fields and meadows, What hath God wrought ?]
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I must inform the reader that, at this point of time, the journal ceases to speak of their homeward march, and no trace of the remainder can be found. We are left to suppose that they retraced their steps the way they came, with hostile Indians pressing hard in their rear ; for we learn from Belknap that by the fifteenth of August, of that year, they were at Bak- erstown and vicinity, (now Salisbury,) killing and taking captive the inhabitants.
From this time until the fall of Quebec into the possession of the British in 1759, no more efforts were made to discover and settle new territories, but every man had as much as he could do to retain what he had already in possession. Nor does it appear that any steps were taken towards the settlement of the Connecticut Valley in 1760 ; for our men were still employed in Canada in gathering up the fragments of the French armies which were stationed in differ- ent places, and had not as yet surrendered to the English. But in 1761, when the Colonies no longer feared the incursions of the French and Indians upon their frontier towns, the spirit of emigration from the older settlements, and of extending their pos- sessions, revived, and surpassed all that had been be- fore witnessed. Men from Connecticut, Massachu- setts, and New Hampshire were now preparing to
+
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transplant themselves into the then great western valley of the Connecticut, and the Governor of New Hampshire did not let slip the golden opportunity of filling his coffers. In every township granted to pe- titioners, five hundred acres of land were reserved for the Governor, without fees or charges, and he was well rewarded by petitioners for his services. No less than sixty townships were granted on the west side of Connecticut River, and eighteen on the east side, in the year 1761. At this time, New Hamp- shire claimed all the land west to New York line.
The reason which Mr. Belknap gives for the great rush into the Connecticut Valley at this time is, that the continual passing of troops through these lands during the war, caused the value of them to be more generally known. This was undoubtedly true, es- pecially after the successes of the English at Ticon- deroga, Crown Point, and in Canada in 1759. There was then no danger to be apprehended from the ene- my, and it is not reasonable to suppose that Massa- chusetts and New Hampshire men, returning from those successful campaigns, would make the tour of Lake Champlain and North River to Albany, rather than cross the highlands of Vermont, and descend the Connecticut River, a tour which some of them must have previously made while captives to the French and Indians. *2
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This fact, in connection with Capt. Powers' jour- nal of an earlier date by some years, convinces me that the traditionary tales which have been so long rife in the Coos country, that their fathers were in- debted for the discovery of their country to Major Rogers' famished men, as they fled from the infuria- ted Indians of the St. Francis tribe in 1759, are all apocryphal. The truth is, when Major Rogers dis- banded his men for their greater safety, he appointed them to rendezvous at the Upper Coos, says Belknap ; which could not have been done, if the place had not been known. Some of Rogers' men, no doubt, made the Coos, and some passed through it, whilst others there perished, whose remains were found by the first settlers ; but those who survived that disastrous re- treat were the last men in the world to give a descrip- tion of the country through which they passed, whilst hunger, like an armed man, was threatening them with dissolution at every step.
The tradition, that speaks of a company of men sent up the river as far as Coos, for the relief of Rog- ers' men, and of their returning just when Rogers' men came up to witness the yet living embers of the fires they had left behind them, must also be fabu- lous. Rogers left Crown Point with two hundred rangers on the thirteenth of September, 1759, to de-
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stroy the Indians at St. Francis, who had committed so many depredations and cruelties upon our border inhabitants. They were sent out with the utmost secrecy. On the 5th of October he struck the fatal blow, and commenced his retreat, which terminated disastrously to many. How could the people of New Hampshire know of this expedition ? How in time to make this provision ? And how could they know that their aid would be needed, or where it would be needed ?
The probability is, that the Indians discovered the exploring party of Captain Powers in 1754, and re- lated the fact to the early settlers, and imagination soon connected the two events of Powers' exploration and Rogers' retreat, giving the latter as the cause of the former. My view of this subject is, that the first information which our people received of the " Coos Meadows " was derived from Indians, hunters, and captives. The second source of intelligence was from Captain Powers and his company. And the third was from the soldiers of the old French war. But it is time that I proceed to the settlement of the " Cohos Meadows."
There were two men who were the principal agents in the first settlement of Haverhill and Newbury in the Coos country, Col. Jacob Bailey, of Newbury,
.
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Mass., and Capt. John Hazen, of Haverhill, Mass. They were both officers in the old French war, and stood high in the estimation of government. It is supposed that they were taught to expect each a char- ter of a township in the Coos, if they went on and commenced settlements therein. They agreed to act in conjunction, and to proceed harmoniously in the undertaking. Hazen was to go on first, and take possession of the east side of the river, and Bailey was to take possession of the west side as soon as he could find persons to do it, and come on himself as soon as his affairs at home would permit.
Accordingly, Capt. Hazen sent on two men with his cattle in the summer of 1761, viz., Michael Johnston and John Pettie. They came from Haver- hill, Mass., by No. 4, or Charlestown, and then up the Connecticut River. They took possession of the Little Ox Bow, on the east side of the river, in the north parish of Haverhill, N. H. They found this Ox Bow, and the Great Ox Bow on the west side of the river, " cleared interval," according to what Capt. Powers states in his journal ; and they had in former years been cultivated by the Indians for the growth of Indian corn. The hills were swarded over, and a tall wild grass grew spontaneously and luxuriantly, so that an abundance of fodder for the cattle was easily procured.
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The Indians dwelt at this time on these meadows, east and west of the river, and were amicable. The loss of their strong ally, the French, and the chas- tisement which Rogers inflicted upon their brethren at St. Francis, had cooled their ardor, and rendered the idea of our men taking possession of those mea- dows far more acceptable to them than it was in 1752, when they threatened war in case the country was explored for the purpose of settlement. It was not wonderful that the Indians should feel deep re- pugnance at the idea of losing this country. It was a fine country for them. It was easy of cultivation, and suited to their imperfect means. The soil was rich. The river abounded in salmon, and the . streams in trout, and the whole country was plenti- fully supplied with game, bear, deer, moose, and fowls. It was the half-way resting place between the Canadas and the shores of the Atlantic ; and while this was retained, it was the key that opened the door to, or shut it against, the most direct communi- cation between the Colonies and the Canadas. And, what was more than all to the Indians, it was their fathers' sepulchre.
I cannot but marvel somewhat at the conclusion of the Rev. Clark Perry, in his "Annals and Historical Sketches of Newbury, Vt., 1831." He says, p. 24,
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"It does not appear that this section of country was ever the permanent abode of Indians." But why it should not have been, I cannot conjecture. Certainly there was no spot in New England which could have presented to the Indian greater inducements for a permanent abode ; and we know of no one place in New England which has exhibited stronger indica- tions of Indian settlements.
I have a communication from David Johnson, Esq., of Newbury, touching this point, and I think the evidence he gives of an old Indian settlement in that place is conclusive. No man is better qualified to judge impartially and correctly in this matter than Mr. Johnson. He has always lived on the place of which he speaks, and he is a gentleman who feels the liveliest interest in antiquities ; has been accumu- lating facts of this kind for many years; and I would embrace this opportunity to express my obligations to him for his prompt and persevering aid in the work before me. I shall put down his communication as I have received it.
" On the high ground, east of the mouth of Cow Meadow Brook, and south of the three large project- ing rocks, were found many indications of an old and extensive Indian settlement. There were many domestic implements. Among the rest were a stone
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mortar and pestle. The pestle I have seen. Heads of arrows, large quantities of ashes, and the ground burnt over to a great extent, are some of the marks of a long residence there. The burnt ground and ashes were still visible the last time it was ploughed. On the meadow, forty or fifty rods below, near the rocks in the river, was evidently a burying ground. The remains of many of the sons of the forest are there deposited. Bones have frequently been turned up by the plough. That they were buried in the sitting posture, peculiar to the Indians, has been ascertained. "
" When the first settlers came here, the remains of a fort were still visible on the Ox Bow, a dozen or twenty rods from the east end of Moses Johnson's lower garden, on the south side of the lane. The size of the fort was plain to be seen. Trees about as large as a man's thigh were growing in the cir- cumference of the old fort. A profusion of white flint-stones and heads of arrows may yet be seen scat- tered over the ground. It is a tradition which I have frequently heard repeated, that after the fight with Lovewell, the Indians said they should now be obliged to leave Coossuck." *
It will appear in the sequel of these sketches, that
* Our Coos.
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at a remote period, there was an intimate connection between the Indians of Coos, of Maine, and of the St. Francis. The connection between the Coos and St. Francis tribe continued until the last.
We now return to Johnston and Pettie, whom we have left on the Little Ox Bow. They made them- selves a booth, and built a shed for their cattle, and spent the subsequent winter in feeding out the hay they had gathered during the summer. One would suppose that these individuals must have felt them- selves sufficiently solitary from November, 1761, to June, 1762, not having, for a great part of this time, a white man within sixty miles of them, yet sur- rounded with Indians, and their cattle a temptation for the latter to massacre them, that they might seize upon the booty. But they survived the winter un- harmed, and in the spring of 1762, Capt. Hazen came to their relief, with hands and materials for building a grist-mill and saw-mill, where the Swazey mills now stand.
But before Capt. Hazen arrived, a family had come into Newbury, by the name of Sleeper. In March, 1762, Glazier Wheeler, from Shutesbury, Mass., came up with a brother of his, to hunt near the head of the Connecticut River, and while on the way, they fell in with Samuel Sleeper and his family,
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at Charlestown. They were from Hampton, N. H. Sleeper was a Quaker preacher, but was now em- ployed by General Jacob Bailey to proceed to New- bury, and take possession until the general could come on in person. Sleeper contracted with Wheeler to take him and his family on to his semi-sleigh and semi-sled, and carry them to Newbury.
Sleeper pitched his tent a little south of where the Kents now live, and have long lived. Thomas Chamberlain next came from Dunstable, N. H., and settled on "Mushquash Meadow," south of the "Great Ox Bow," and a little at the north-west of the ferry at the Dow farm. Richard Chamberlain came on next from Hinsdale, N. H., and settled on Mushquash Meadow. Chamberlain landed at the ferry about noon with his family. Before night, a hut was erected of posts and bark, which served them three months for a habitation. In the centre stood a large stump, which was their table. The house he afterward erected stood near Josiah Little's barn, not far from the river. The old cellar may yet be seen.
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