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 6
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The cow was the principal support of the family ; but after she had been kept through the winter, she sick- ened and died at the opening of spring. The man was distressed in view of the wants of his family, for he saw no way of relief. He knew it would be next to impossible for him to purchase a cow at that sea- son, as it was generally known that he was still owing for the cow that he had lost ; and he had nothing to pay for that, or another. He felt that he could not go to Col. Johnston for another, while he was still owing him for the first ; but as it is said, " Hunger will break through a stone wall," so the distresses of his family impelled him to return to Col. Charles, as he was the only man living who inspired him with a gleam of hope. He went, and found the colonel at labor in his field. He related to him his disaster, and his distresses. The colonel sympathized with him deeply, and knew not what he could do. The poor man then told him his object in visiting him, which was to see if he could not obtain another cow of him. The colonel told him, " He did not see how he could supply him, for they had but two cows that season, and they were going to building, must have an unus- ual number of laborers, and they should need all that could be afforded by two cows." The poor man replied, "I did not come to you, colonel, with this
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request, supposing that you could relieve me without great inconvenience to yourself, and a sacrifice of interest, yet I was emboldened to make known my necessity."
The colonel paused in silence for a time, and man- ifested that there was a deep conflict between his sympathies and his circumstances. At length he said, " I will go to the house and see what Mrs. John- ston says." They went to the house, and the colonel related to his wife what had befallen the man, and what was his present object. Mrs. Johnston very naturally exclaimed, "You are not a going to let one of our cows go, are you ?" And here she related what a demand they would have that season for both COWS. The colonel heard her through patiently, and then said, "Do you not think that we can do better with one cow than this poor man can do, with his young children, without any ?" Mrs. Johnston was silent. The colonel turned to the man, and said, " You will take my cow."
The poor man took his cow, and returned joyously with her to his family. How blessed is fellow-feeling ! and still more blessed, when it is cherished by true piety and benevolence ! If I know my own heart, I would rather have this written of my son than leave him in possession of the most splendid crown in
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Europe. I have wondered a thousand times, and still wonder, why men of wealth do not secure to them- selves, more frequently than they do, the happiness which Col. Johnston experienced in sending that man home with a light and grateful heart. We have no means of knowing whether that poor man was ever able to remunerate the colonel or not. No matter. If he did not, the Lord has done it, a thousand fold, and verily, there is a reward for the righteous.
I have spoken of the extraordinary muscular pow- ers of Col. Johnston. I must relate one more event of his life, illustrative both of his physical power and of his courage. At the time when the New Hamp- shire troops signalized themselves at the battle of Bennington, under Gen. Stark, Col. Johnston was there, and sustained a part in the brilliant achieve- ments of that ever-memorable day. After Col. Baum had surrendered to the American troops, and the battle was renewed by the arrival of Col. Breyman, Col. Johnston, in obedience to orders from Gen. Stark, was necessitated to pass through a narrow strip of woods on foot and alone, to bear some orders to another division of the American army. He had no weapon of defence but a stout staff, which he had cut in the woods that day, as he was passing on to Ben- nington from New Hampshire. Thus equipped, he
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came suddenly upon a British scout, in ambush, placed there to intercept communications between the different divisions of the Americans. The party in ambush was commanded by a Hessian lieutenant. As Johnston came up, this officer stepped forth, sword in hand, and claimed him as his prisoner. The word was no more than uttered, before the sword was struck from the hand of the officer by Johnston's staff, and as soon did Johnston have possession of that sword, and pointing it at the breast of the Hessian, . declared to him, that he was that moment a dead man, if he and his party did not throw down their arms. The officer turned to his men and said, "We are prisoners of war." The soldiers threw down their arms, and Johnston marched them before him to the American lines, where they were received by our troops.
The colonel returned with the sword to his family, and presenting it to his only son, Capt. Michael John- ston, now of Haverhill, said, "This sword was won by valor-let it never be retaken through cowardice." The sword I have seen. It was a splendid article of the kind. There was a good deal of writing upon it, formed by etching, and the officer's name, which I do not now recollect. This sword, I have been told, was brought forth and exhibited for the mournful gratifi-
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cation of spectators on the day of the colonel's funeral solemnities. I am told that it was the colonel's expressed wish, before his death, that that sword might descend from him in the line of the oldest male heir, and that it has already gone into the pos- session of the Rev. Charles Johnston, of the town of Locke, Cayuga County, N. Y.
Col. Johnston was the first captain in the town of Haverhill ; was for many years a justice of the peace ; a colonel, a representative of the town many years ; a judge of probate, and a deacon in the church. Col. Johnston's house was surrounded by a fort at Haver- hill Corner, during the revolutionary war, as was Judge Ladd's, a little north of the old meeting-house, on Ladd street ; also, Capt. Timothy Barns', who lived near the tavern, opposite the meeting-house, in the north parish in Haverhill. Col. Johnston depart- ed this life, March 5, 1813, aged seventy-six.
In the summer of 1770, this whole section of coun- try was visited by an extraordinary calamity, such a one as this country never experienced before or since, beyond what I shall here specify. It was an army of worms, which extended from Lancaster, N. H., to Northfield, in Massachusetts. They began to appear the latter part of July, 1770, and continued their ravages until September. The inhabitants denomi-
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nated them the "Northern Army," as they seemed to advance from the north-west, and to pass east and south, although I do not learn that they ever passed the high lands between the Connecticut and Merri- mack Rivers. They were altogether innumerable for multitude. Dr. Burton, of Thetford, Vt., told me that he had seen whole pastures so covered that he could not put down his finger in a single spot, with- out placing it upon a worm. He said, he had seen more than ten bushels in a heap. They were unlike any thing which the present generation have ever seen. There was a stripe upon the back like black velvet : on either side a yellow stripe from end to end; and the rest of the body was brown. They were sometimes seen not larger than a pin ; but in their maturity, they were as long as a man's finger, and proportionably large in circumference. They appear- ed to be in great haste except when they halted to devour their food. They filled the houses of the in- habitants, and entered their kneading-troughs, as did the frogs in Egypt. They would go up the side of a house, and over it, in such a compact column, that nothing of boards or shingles could be seen ! They did not take hold of the pumpkin-vine, peas, pota- toes, or flax ; but wheat and corn disappeared before them as by magic: They would climb up the stalks of
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wheat, eat off the stalk just below the head, and almost as soon as the head had fallen upon the ground, it was devoured. To prevent this, the men would " draw the rope," as they termed it ; that is, two men would take a rope, one at each end, and pulling from each other until it was nearly straightened, they would then pass through their wheat fields, and brush off the worms from the stalks, and by perpetual action they retarded the destruction of their wheat; but it was doomed, finally, to extinction.
There were fields of corn on the meadows in Haver- hill and Newbury standing so thick, large and tall, that in some instances it was difficult to see a man standing more than one rod in the field from the out- ermost row ; but in ten days from the first appearing of the Northern Army, nothing remained of this corn but the bare stalks ! Every expedient was resorted to by the inhabitants to protect their fields of corn, but all in vain. In the first place, they dug trenches around their fields, a foot and a half deep, hoping this might prove a defence ; but they soon filled the ditch, and the millions that were in the rear went over on the backs of their fellows in the trench, and took possession of the interdicted food.
The inhabitants then adopted another expedient to save those fields yet standing. They cut a trench as 5*
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before ; then took round and smooth sapling sticks, of six or eight inches in diameter, and six or eight feet in length, sharpened them to a point, and with these made holes in the bottom of the ditch, once in two or three feet ; and, as their meadows were bot- tom lands, they experienced no difficulty in extending these holes to two and three feet in depth, below the bottom of the trench. The sides of these holes were made smooth by the bar or lever which made the holes, and as soon as the worm stepped from the prec- ipice, he landed at the bottom, and could not ascend again ; indeed, he was soon buried alive by his unfor- tunate fellows, who succeeded him in his downfall. Now, those who made these holes to entrap their in- vaders, went around their fields, and plunged these pointed levers into the holes filled with worms, and destroyed every one of them at a single thrust, wheth- er it was a peck or half a bushel. By unremitting effort in this way, some reserved to themselves corn enough for seed the next year.
About the first of September, the worms suddenly disappeared ; and where they terminated their earthly career is unknown, for not the carcass of a worm was seen. In just eleven years afterward, in 1781, the same kind of worm appeared again, and the fears of the people were much excited ; but they were com-
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paratively few in number, and no one of the kind has ever been seen since.
This visitation, which destroyed the principal grains of that year, was felt severely by all the new settle- ments ; for it not only cut off their bread-stuffs, but it deprived them of the means of making their pork to a great degree, and reduced the quantity of fodder for their cattle. The settlements at Haverhill and Newbury did not feel this calamity quite so much as those infant settlements in the towns north and south of them. They had been longer in their settlements, had some old stock of provisions on hand, and had more means to procure supplies from Charlestown, or by the way of Charlestown. Jonathan Tyler, of Piermont, related to me, that the settlements in that town were left without the means of subsistence from their own farms. His father drew hay on a hand sled upon the ice, from the great Ox Bow in Newbury, to support his cow the following winter. And had it not been for two sources opened for their support, they must have deserted the town. One was the ex- traordinary crop of pumpkins in Haverhill and New- bury. The corn being cut off, and the pumpkins re- maining untouched by the Northern Army, they grew astonishingly, and seemed to cover the whole ground where the corn had stood, and the yield was great.
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The people of Haverhill and Newbury gave the set- tlers in Piermont the privilege of carrying away, gratis, as many pumpkins as they would. They went up, made a kind of raft and transported them by water to Piermont. Their raft was a novelty in its kind, and will show us how truly " necessity is the mother of invention." They cut them two straight trees from forty to fifty feet in length, and from fif- teen to eighteen inches in diameter ; and enough of these were generally found, already felled and dry, to answer their purpose. They bored holes near the ends of these trees, and introduced slats to hold them together at each end, in the manner that the long body of a hay-cart is made, only at twice or thrice the distance from each other that the sides of a hay- cart are placed. These two sides were first placed in the water, and then joined together. The pumpkins
ยท were then brought from the fields, which were con- tiguous to the river, and placed in the water, in this oblong square, until it was filled ; the pumpkins, be- ing buoyant, would not sink, and could not escape from their pen. Two men in a skiff would then weigh anchor, and tow the raft of tons' weight to Piermont shores, where the freight was landed, and conveyed to the habitations of men !
Another source of support was opened to them in
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the immense number of pigeons which Providence sent them immediately upon the disappearance of the Northern Army. Nothing could equal their num- ber, unless it was the worms which had preceded them. The Tylers of Piermont, Daniel, David, and Jonathan, commenced taking pigeons on the meadow, west of Haverhill Corner, and in the space of ten days, they had taken more than four hundred dozen ! They carried them to Piermont, and made what is defined, in the Yankee vocabulary, "a bee," for picking pigeons ; and two or three times a week the people of Haverhill were invited down to Mr. Tyler's to pick pigeons. Those who went had the meat of all they picked, and the Tylers had the feathers ; and they made, says Jonathan Tyler, "four very de- cent beds of those feathers." The bodies of those pigeons, when dressed, dried, and preserved for the winter, were very palatable and nutritrious, and proved a good substitute for other meats, of which the inhabitants had been despoiled by the Huns and Goths of the north. And we are bound to recognize the Divine Goodness in this providential supply, when the ordinary means of subsistence were cut off. It generally characterizes the Divine Government, when He has tried his people.
I have already stated that the first settlers at Coos,
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a number of them, at least, pitched their tents upon the meadows, with a view of making their permanent residence there, but were driven off by a flood in 1771. Mr. Wallace, of Thetford, has furnished me with some particulars relative to that freshet. He says, this was a destructive flood to many of the settlers. Some of their fields were buried in sand to the depth of two and three feet, and they not only lost more or less of their crops for that year, but their soil for a number of years. Some of their habitations were in- vaded and taken possession of by the water. Wallace went to the relief of a family in Bradford, who lived on the place now owned by Mr. Hunkins. It was the family of Hugh Miller. His wife was the sister of the far-famed Robert Rogers, the hero of St. Fran- cois. When Wallace reached this habitation, he rowed his canoe into the house as far as the width of the house would receive it, took the family from the bed whereon they stood, and bore them to a place of safety. But Mrs. Miller, the next day seeing their few sheep standing on a small eminence on the mead- ow, surrounded by water, her husband being absent, resolved on rescuing them from their perilous situa- tion. She pressed into her service a young man by the name of George Binfield, and they took a canoe, and set sail for the sheep. They reached the place,
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caught the sheep, tied their legs, placed them on board, and set out on their return voyage to the high lands ; but when they came into a strong current, they were carried down stream, until the canoe struck a pine stub, and was capsized. All were pre- cipitated into the water of the depth of ten feet. When our heroine arose, and her companion in ad- ventures, they caught hold of a stub standing about five feet out of the water, and maintained their grasp until another boat was obtained, and they were liber- ated from their perilous situation ; but the wrecked , canoe and sheep were never heard from more. From this time, the people sought a more elevated situation for their habitations.
Jonathan Tyler, of Piermont, related an extraor- dinary fact which occurred in this great freshet. He said, a horse was tied to a log in a stack-yard, upon the great Ox Bow, in Newbury, and when the water arose, it took away the horse and the log to which he was made fast, and the horse was taken out of the river in Hanover alive, but soon died upon reaching the shore. He would, doubtless, have perished soon after breaking from his moorings in Newbury ; but the log to which he was tied kept his head above water, and prolonged his life many hours. Col. Howard told me, that in this same freshet some swine
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were taken away by the water in the north part of Haverhill, and were carried down to the Ox Bow, where they made good their standing upon the top of a hay-stack, where they remained capering about until the waters subsided, and the owners procured their property again. This calamity was not of equal extent with that of the Northern Army ; but it was so intimately connected with it, it was severely felt, and it seemed as though God had a controversy with these people.
We may learn something of the facilities for travel- ling south and east from Haverhill Corner, so late as 1771, by the following facts. Jonathan Tyler came into Piermont in the autumn of 1768, and he says, " They seldom attempted to ride on horseback to Haverhill for several years after they came to Coos, owing to the badness of the road ;" and I have heard it said by Judge Ladd and others, that a man from Charlestown came to Haverhill, and mired his horse so deeply on Haverhill Common, near Towle's tavern, that was, that he had to procure assistance to extri- cate the animal ; and the horse was rendered so lame as to be unable to proceed on the journey for some days.
About this time, Col. Charles Johnston and several others had been to Plymouth, and thought they
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would return by Tarleton's Pond. They were re- tarded by the roughness of the travelling, beyond their expectations, and they were overtaken by night- fall. They made their way for a time by feeling of the trees to see if they were spotted ; but they at length could feel no spots, and despaired of finding a settlement, or camp, that night; and making a vir- tue of necessity, they resolved to stand upon their posts like good soldiers, and wait for the return of day. It was a long night ; but day at length dawned upon them, and, to their surprise and joy, they found themselves posted near the little brook, east of the establishment of Andrew Martin, one hundred and fifty rods, perhaps, east of the colonel's own habitation ! For this reason, and because, I think, the brook is yet nameless, I would call it Happy Brook, we and our children, forever !
In the autumn of 1772, John McConnell and family left Pembroke, N. H., for the Coos, and when they came upon Baker's River, the intelligence reached Haverhill that they were advancing. Upon this, Jonathan McConnel, brother of John, went forth on horseback to meet them, and to render them assistance. The next morning early, Richard Wallace left Col. Johnston's on horseback, to go out and ren- der them still further aid, taking in a freight of pro-
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visions. Jonathan McConnell met the family sixteen miles from Haverhill, took one of the children and some baggage, and set out for Haverhill. Wallace met Jonathan returning near the height of land, and he promised to stop at the camp near Eastman's Brook, and wait until Wallace and the family should come up, and all spend the night together. Wallace proceeded on, and met the family near night. They were in a miserable plight. They were all on foot, without shoes or stockings, and an old beast, a mere apology for a horse, staggering under the weight of a few necessary articles for the family ; some scolding, some crying, and some laughing. It was soon agreed that Wallace should take two of the children, one a huge girl of twelve years, and another of two years, (which would have been the infant, had there not been another younger,) and return to Eastman's Brook, and the rest of the family was to reach there, if possible.
But in carrying this resolve into effect, Wallace met with an unexpected embarrassment. It would be impossible for the girl of twelve to hold on, in passing the sloughs and over logs, to ride in the usual manner of females. But as Wallace was at his wit's end to know how to arrange matters to his mind, the mother stepped forward, and, by a single
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flash of her genius, cut the Gordian knot. " In fa'th," said she, " there must be a leg on each side o' the horse." And so the girl came into Haverhill.
But as Wallace ascended the height of land, he became pretty well convinced that the family could not make Eastman's Brook that night, and as there was a camp on the height of land, which they must pass, he dismounted, took a loaf of bread, run a pole through it, and raised it above the top of the camp outside, for the double purpose of keeping it from the wolves, and of exhibiting to the family ; but, by some fatality, they did not see it, and passed on ; but as they did not reach the camp at Eastman's Brook, they laid out all night, without food or covering.
Wallace had a hard task of it, likewise ; for when he came to the camp at Eastman's Brook, where Jonathan McConnel proposed to stop, and to have a fire for their comfort, he found no McConnel, no fire, and not anything to make one of. McConnel had concluded to make Haverhill that night, and leave the rest to shift for themselves. Wallace now found himself under the necessity of pursuing his journey under circumstances "somewhat alarming, and very disagreeable," as he said in a prior adventure. Be- side this great lump of animated nature holding on to him in the rear, he carried the child of two years
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before him; and as the night drew on, it became drowsy, and sunk down into his arms very heavily. For a time, he kept it awake by calling its attention to the howling of the wolves in the vicinity ; but at length nature was overpowered, and the child sunk down into a profound slumber, and he bore it into the Corner in this condition. They arrived at Col. Charles' house at twelve at night, a full moon favor- ing them. The colonel was up, and had a good fire, some expecting them, from what Jonathan McConnel had told him. But Wallace was so much exhausted by fatigue, and benumbed by the cold, that he fainted on coming to the fire. The family arrived the next day, and in just six months from that time the girl whom Wallace brought in, was married to Jonathan Tyler, of Piermont, at the age of twelve years and six months. The Rev. Peter Powers mar- ried them. This was the first marriage in Piermont.
At the time when these events, already stated, occurred, and for some years afterwards, it was not the expectation of the people at Coos that they should ever have a road through to Plymouth for loaded teams, but their hopes rested on Charleston for heavy articles ; and the first time an ox-team went through, it was effected by a company, who went out expressly for the purpose, with Jonathan
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MeConnel at their head. It was an expedition that excited much interest with the inhabitants at home, and the progress of the adventurers was inquired for from day to day; and when they were making Haverhill Corner upon their return, the men went out to meet and congratulate them ; and, as they came in, the cattle were taken possession of in due form, and conducted to sweet-flowing fountains and well-stuffed cribs for the night. Their masters were served in the style of lords, and their narrations of the feats of " Old Broad " at the sloughs, the patient endurance of " Old Berry " at the heights, and the stiff hold-back of " Old Duke" at the narrows, were listened to by their owners, with the liveliest demon- strations of joy.
What feeble impressions do the children and grand- children of those early adventurers have of the diffi- culties which their ancestors surmounted to put their descendants into their present inheritance ! Nor is the change greater in the face of the country, and in the condition of the roads, than it is in many other things. Contemplate the then state of schools. Mr. Wallace, to whom I am indebted for so many facts in respect to the first settlers, writes, that when he came to Haverhill, in 1769, at the age of sixteen, he did not know his alphabet, could not write his name,
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