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 9
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his knees, folded his arms, and leaned forward ; and in this position he fell into a profound slumber. The doctor saw him paying his devotions to Somnus, by now and then a significant nod and a reel of the body, but said nothing to disturb his repose. At length, Osman lost his balance, and pitched his whole length on to the floor, where he lay in the mid- dle of the aisle, sprawled out like a spider ! The shock with the audience was electrical. Many sprang upon their feet, and some females shrieked out ; but when they saw Osman gathering up his limbs in the most deliberate manner, rubbing his eyes, and scratching his head, the transition from surprise to risibility was so sudden and powerful, that the im- pulse was irrepressible, and for a few moments the speaker himself labored to maintain the dignity and gravity of his station. But it proved a specific in Osman's case, for he was never known to sleep in meeting after that event. It might be well, perhaps, for some of our modern sleepers at the house of God, if they were to descend as low in the Valley of Hu- miliation as Osman did, provided their resurrection should be as triumphant.
At the settlement of the town of Thetford, and for a number of years subsequently to that period, bears, deer, and sables were numerous ; but we hear
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of no moose. Joel Strong, of Hebron, Conn., came into the town on the 7th of May, 1768, and found twelve families in the town. He first settled on the bottom lands of the Ompompanoosuc, and as soon as he began to raise corn, he was exceedingly annoyed by bears in his field, devouring his unripe corn. For a time he bore these injuries with all the meekness which necessity laid upon him ; but seeing increasing waste and destruction, he arose and shook himself, and resolved he would seek reprisal. And now the waxing moon smiled on his enterprise. He loaded his gun with two balls, took his powder-horn and bullet-pouch, and sallied forth to reconnoitre the po- sition of his enemies. He had not proceeded far be- fore he heard the ears of corn snap from their parent stalks, as though there were a husking with the Bruin gentry. Strong advanced slowly and cautiously until he secured a good shot, and then he "let off," and brought one huge fellow to the ground. This was a signal for others to retreat, and without looking to him whom he had disposed of, he pursued the flying foe as fast as his legs would carry him ; and two others ascended a large tree which stood near the bor- der of the field. It was not sufficiently light for him to distinguish his game in the boughs, and he struck him up a fire at the foot of the tree, and there waited
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for the return of day. The returning sun showed him two sleek and lusty fellows, sitting in appropriate angles of the tree, formed by the union of large branches with the trunk. Strong now took deliber- ate aim at the heart, and down came his bearship from a goodly height, which made the ground trem- ble again. With all expedition he charged his gun the third time, and in a few moments the remaining bear joined his comrade upon the ground, and as they had been lovely in the eyes of each other in life, so they were not divided in their death. Strong was now at liberty to visit the one that was slain the night before, and he found them all bears of the first-class, which remunerated him for all previous losses, and their death secured his field from further depreda- tions.
I have said Dr. Burton was ordained, January 19, 1779. The ministers called to ordain him were the following :- Rev. Messrs. Powers of Newbury, Conant of Lime, Burroughs of Hanover, Potter of Lebanon, and Potter of Norwich. The last-named gentlemen preached the sermon. But those who imposed hands, and he who received hands, have alike gone down to - the dust. A new order of things has arisen ; and how forcibly are we impressed with the words of the apostle, For what is your life ? It is even a vapor,
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that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth away.
But very few clergymen labored longer in their pro- fession than Dr. Burton did ; very few have been more successful in bringing sinners to salvation ; and there are very few whose influence has been more ex- tensively realized than his. He prepared more than a hundred young men for the ministry ; and his Book of Essays, published in 1824, is rich in ideas, and although we may differ from him in our meta- physics, yet when men come to pay more regard to ideas than to their dress, and when they shall prefer thinking to light reading, Dr. Burton will be read with profit by every student in theology.
Dr. Burton departed this life, May 1, 1836, in the eighty-fourth year of his age, and in the fifty-seventh of his pastoral relation to the church and people of Thetford. " The memory of the just is blessed."
FAIRLEE.
Of Fairlee, East or West, I have little to say. In 1766, Mr. Baldwin, who is mentioned as one of the families settled in Thetford in 1765, moved from Thetford to East Fairlee, and commenced a settle- ment about half a mile south of the present meeting- house, near where they turn off from the river road
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to go to Fairlee or Morey's Pond. Mr. Thompson in his Gazetteer dates the settlement of this town in 1768, and then he finds six men on the ground to begin the settlement. Esquire Mann, of Orford, says, Baldwin was his first neighbor west of him, and he is sure he came into Fairlee the year after Mann came to Orford. They both came from Hebron, Conn. Mann knew that Baldwin spent a year or so in Thetford, and then came up to Fairlee, and he tells us the very spot where he commenced. Mann could not mistake in this. I find that a new neigh- bor, in those days, was not looked upon as a trivial affair, and the time of its occurrence was retained with great accuracy. It may be there were six men in Fairlee in 1768 ; but Baldwin had been there two years previous.
BRADFORD.
Bradford was first settled in 1765, by a man by the name of John Osmer. He settled near the mouth of Wait's River, on the north bank, and I have been told there were traces of this settlement so late as 1824. This town was originally called Moretown ; but afterward it was changed to Bradford. This Osmer, or Hosmer, was a facetious character, and would make himself sport at the expense of others.
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In 1765, soon after Hosmer moved into Bradford, there came to his hut a transient Irishman, and spent several days, laboring what he would for his board. It turned out, however, that the Irishman was deeply infected with a cutaneous eruption, which in some modern languages has been denominated "the itch." Osmer, resenting the exposure of himself and family to this vile disease, by the intrusion of this Hiber- nian, resolved on being revenged, and, at the same time, have something to relate which would secure him mirth at another time. Osmer, accordingly, re- strained all appearance of resentment, and gravely told the fellow that he knew a sure remedy for his loathsome disease ; but it was a secret, and he did not wish to divulge it. The poor fellow became very importunate for Osmer to prescribe for him, promis- ing to follow the prescription to the letter, and swear- ing by the blessed Virgin that he would never reveal the secret. Osmer at length took the man out on to the meadow, where grew a forest of nettles, and told him if he would strip himself, and run through those weeds, it would insure him healing. No sooner said than done. Paddy went through them with a lion's heart ; but his misery for a time was excruciating. This, together with the mortification of seeing how well Osmer enjoyed his suffering, opened his eyes to
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the fact that he had been imposed upon, and he im- mediately took up his line of march, calling on the Virgin to redress his wrongs. But this was not the last of it with Osmer. As soon as Osmer's neighbors were made acquainted with the fact, they dubbed Doctor, and he bore this adjunct title with him to the grave.
The next year, viz., in 1766, Samuel Sleeper and Benoni Wright came into Bradford, and pitched their tent a little north-east of Mr. Hunkins' dwel- ling, in the north part of Bradford, as I have already stated in my history of Newbury. In 1771, Andrew B. Peters, Esq., born in Hebron, Conn., January 29, 1764, came into this town. He came with his father to Thetford in 1766 ; in 1769, he moved into Pier- mont ; and in 1771, he came into Bradford, at which time there were but ten families in the town.
Esquire Peters relates that the first grist-mill in the town was built by John Peters, in 1772, and that it stood on the south side of Wait's River, just above the bridge on the great river road. The first saw- mill was built by Benjamin Baldwin, Esq., in 1774, and stood on Wait's River, where Baldwin's mills now stand, or did stand, a few years since. Esquire Peters relates a long-standing tradition, which went to account for the name Wait being given to the
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principal river of Bradford. It states that a man by the name of Wait belonged to Col. Rogers' party, which marched to the St. Francois in 1759; that this man and some others, in their hasty retreat, came upon the northern branch of Wait's River, and in a famishing state, they followed down this river in quest of game. Just as they entered what is now Bradford, Wait and one or two others proposed to go in advance of the rest, and see if they could not find something to satisfy their hunger. They had not gone but two or three miles before they shot a deer, and when they had satisfied their appetites, they hung up the rest of the savory meat upon a tree for the relief of their suffering companions in the rear; and that they might know who killed the deer, and for what purpose the meat was there suspended, Wait cut his name in the bark of the tree on which the meat hung. When the rear came up, and found the rich supply of food in readiness for them, they ex- pressed their gratitude to Wait by giving his name to the stream they were then upon, and designed it as a remembrancer in all after-time, of the deliverance which was there wrought for them. There is noth- ing extravagant or unnatural in this narration ; and if the town cannot give a more satisfactory account of the origin of this name to their river, it may stand for the true one.
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About sixty years ago, a little son of Absalom Fifield, who lived in the easterly part of Corinth, strayed from home, and was lost. As is usual in such cases, there was a very great excitement in the public mind, as well as in the minds of the parents, and multitudes went in search of the child. They sought for him unremittingly three days, and began to despair of the child, for they thought he must perish with hunger, if he was not already drowned, or devoured by wild beasts. But just at the close of the third day, he was discovered on an island in Wait's River, about five miles from the Connecticut, and three miles from his father's. When he was dis- covered, he was in company with a little lamb, and was picking tall blackberries, without any apparent anxiety. The boy was four or five years of age. He and the lamb were the only tenants of the island. They had contracted a friendship for each other, and the lamb followed in the footsteps of the boy wherever he went. But how either of them ever got on to the island remains a mystery.
The Rev. Gardner Kellogg was the first settled minister in the town-ordained, 1795 ; dismissed, 1809. The Rev. Silas McKeen was his successor ; but I have not the date of his settlement or dismis- sion. I might here notice some of the errors of
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Thompson's Gazetteer in respect to the first settlers ; but it is useless. There is no end to them.
PLYMOUTH, N. H.
I shall now pass into New Hampshire again, and state a few particulars in regard to the settlement of Plymouth, seeing it was one of the first towns settled in the county of Grafton, after Haverhill. This was the first town settled between Haverhill and Salis- bury Lower Village. I received the following par- ticulars from Samuel Dearborn, one of the first set- tlers, and from the Rev. Drury Fairbanks, who consulted the proprietors' records, and the church records, for my assistance. Samuel Dearborn origi- nated in Old Chester, April 15th, 1745, and came into Plymouth, September, 1764. The two first families which came into the place, were Capt. James Hobart and Lieut. Zachariah Parker. They came
from Hollis, N. H., in June, 1764. Hobart married Hannah Cummings, of Hollis, sister of the Rev. Dr. Cummings, of Billerica, Mass. Parker married Bet- sey Brown, of Hollis, niece of Benjamin Farley, Esq., late of Hollis. Hobart settled on Col. Ed- munds' place, and Parker settled where Capt. Moses George did live, and perhaps does at this time. In September of this same year (1764), came Capt.
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Jotham Cummings, Col. David Webster, Lieut. Josiah Brown, Ephraim Weston, James Blodgett, Deacon Stephen Webster, and Samuel Dearborn, all from Hollis, with the exception of Weston and Dear- born. At this time there was no bridge across any stream between Plymouth and Salisbury Lower Vil- lage, and no road but spotted trees. The first set- tlers from Hollis passed over the Merrimack into the town of Litchfield, and kept on the north side of the Merrimack until they came into the town.of Holder- ness, and then crossed the Pemigewasset into Ply- mouth, a little south of Baker's River. Some of the early settlers of Haverhill and Newbury took the same route from Pembroke, kept on the north side of Baker's River, into Coventry, and then down the Oliverian.
The proprietors of the town of Plymouth voted at Hollis, April 16, 1764, " to hire Mr. Nathan Ward, of Newtown, Mass., to preach to the settlers at Plymouth, four days this spring ;" this meant four Sabbaths. It appears that the proprietors expected that the settlement would be made sooner than it was ; but Mr. Ward went on with the settlers, and preached the time specified, and dwelt with them in their tents. Mr. Ward received a call from them, which he accepted, and was ordained at Newbury-
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port, in the meeting-house of the Rev. Jonathan Pearsons, July 10, 1765. At this time there were but eight families in the town of Plymouth. The proprietors voted to give the Rev. Mr. Ward one hun- dred and fifty ounces of silver for his salary, until there were one hundred families in the town, and then his salary was to be increased five ounces annually, until it amounted to two hundred ounces, and at that it was to remain as his permanent salary, with thirty 'cords of wood. He drew, also, one right of land, as the first settled. minister, and they voted him one hundred and twenty dollars, as an additional settle- ment. But what was the amount of Mr. Ward's salary ? I find in Belknap's History of New Hamp- shire, vol. i. p. 151, in note, that an ounce of silver was estimated at six shillings and eight pence, lawful money ; and accordingly, Mr. Ward's salary at the first was equal to one hundred and sixty-six dollars and fifty cents; and that at the last it amounted to two hundred and twenty-two dollars, exclusive of the wood. This, at first thought, was a limited salary for a minister. But upon a more thorough inspec- tion of the matter, I think, we shall find it was better than most ministers receive at the present day. That money would purchase more bread-stuffs, taking one year with another, at that day, than twice, and per-
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haps thrice that amount, would purchase at this day. They had little, and next to no company. Their style of living was all different, and less expensive. Then he had a settlement, and a full right of land, which was enough to make two good farms. And I think we shall all agree that there is not a minister in the whole county of Grafton at this day, whose means of living from the people are as ample as were Mr. Ward's on the day of his settlement.
Mr. Ward labored in the ministry in Plymouth twenty-nine years ; was dismissed April 22d, 1794 ; died in June, 1804, aged eighty-three. A man of God, and a great blessing to the town. Their first meeting-house was built of logs, and stood a little west of the Rev. Jonathan Ward's late dwelling- house, at the foot of the hill, east of the old meet- ing-house.
In April, 1765, Lydia Webster was born, daughter of Stephen and Lydia Webster. She was the first English child born in the town. At this birth, every woman was present in the town, and every husband attended his wife as far as the premises, and there remained until the vote was declared ! This was a great day in Plymouth. That child is dead; but the mother was living with her third husband in Rum- ney, the last I heard from her. She was the wife of
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Joseph Dearborn. Josiah Hobart was the first male child born in the town ; but he is dead, also. These first settlers went to Concord, N. H., for their meal, for one or two years after they commenced their settlement, and drew it up on a hand-sled ; but they soon raised an abundance, for their meadows were very fertile.
Ephraim Lund built the first saw and grist-mill near where Cochran's mills now are. Mr. Dearborn says that in 1765, James Heath, from Canterbury, Daniel Brainard, Esq., and Alexander Craig, made settlements in Rumney. Soon after, a Mr. Davis moved into Wentworth, and Joseph Patch into War- ren. Mr. Dearborn says he knows that these were the first settlers in these towns, but will not be posi- tive as to the year they made their entrance. Joseph Hobart was the first who settled in Hebron, and a Mr. Bennet first settled in Groton. Both of these towns were settled by people from Hollis. About the same time William Piper came into Holderness. It was certainly as late as 1765. The same year, Isaac Fox and a Mr. Taylor settled in Campton; and Benjamin Hoit from Old Chester settled Thornton in 1770.
Mr. Dearborn says that when Plymouth was first settled, and for some years, moose, bears, deer, and
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wolves were numerous. We may recollect that here Capt. Powers and his company "shot a moose," in 1754. Mr. Dearborn relates one anecdote of one Josiah Brown, who was famous for hunting at that early period of the settlement. He was well ac- quainted with Brown. He went out with snow- shoes. Hunter started some deer, and in the pro- gress of the chase the deer crossed the river into New Hampton, and Brown attempted to follow ; but in doing so where there was swift water, he broke through, and fell in up to his arms. He labored to throw himself on the ice; but the water had so much power upon his snow-shoes that his feet were carried down stream in an instant, and he would have to catch hold of the edge of the ice to keep
himself from being drawn immediately under. Find- ing all his efforts ineffectual, and feeling himself nearly exhausted, he began to despair of life for more than a few minutes longer ; but at this critical mo- ment, who should appear but his true and faithful Hunter, who came directly up to him ! Brown with one hand seized Hunter by the tail, and with the other he helped himself. Hunter drew for his life,
and as the ice was rough, so that he had good foot- hold, he drew powerfully, and they both were enabled to overcome the force of the water, and Brown re-
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gained his standing upon the ice, happy in the reflec- tion that both he and his anticipated game were still at liberty to make the best use of their feet.
Mr. Dearborn tells us an affecting story of a lost child in this town, in the time of the revolutionary war. A Mr. James Barnes sent his little son of seven or eight years of age, on an errand to a neighbor's ; but he lost his way, and did not return at the time he was expected. The father went in pursuit of him, but not finding him, the neighbors were called on to go in search of him ; and as the news spread that a child was lost, the whole town came together, and very many from other towns in the vicinity, and al- though the search was continued eight days, no trace of the child was ever discovered. It is very extraor-
dinary, that if this child perished by hunger, his re- mains were never discovered ; and if he was drowned, it seems that his body would have been ultimately found afloat. But the great day will disclose the facts in the case.
Much has been said in Plymouth and vicinity in respect to the naming of Baker's River. It was called Baker's River when the first settlers came on, and it was called so in the journal of Capt. Powers, in 1754. They have a tradition in the town, and they have al- ways had from its first settlement, which explains the
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how and the wherefore, in this case. It is said that while Massachusetts was claiming the province of New Hampshire, prior to the old French war, Massa- chusetts sent a Capt. Baker, from Old Newbury, at the head of a company to ferret out the Indians, who had their encampment somewhere upon the waters of the Pemigewasset. Baker procured a friendly Indian who led them on to Plymouth. When Baker and his party had arrived on these meadows, the friendly In- dian signified it was now time for every man to gird up his loins, and they did so, moving forward with all possible circumspection. When they had reached the south bank of Baker's River, near its junction with the Pemigewasset, they discovered the Indians on the north bank of Baker's River, sporting in great numbers, secure, as they supposed, from the muskets of all "pale faces." Baker and his men chose their position, and opened a tremendous fire upon the Indians, which was as sudden to them as a clap of thunder. Many of the sons of the forest fell
in death in the midst of their sports. But the living disappeared in an instant, and ran to call in their hunters. Baker and his men lost no time in crossing
the river in search of booty. They found a rich store of furs deposited in holes, dug into the bank of the river horizontally, in the manner bank-swallows
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make their holes. Having destroyed their wigwams, and captured their furs, Baker ordered a retreat, fearing that they would soon return in too great force to be resisted by his single company ; and the Indians were fully up to his apprehensions-for not- withstanding Baker retreated with all expedition, the Indians collected, and were up with them, when they had reached a poplar plain in Bridgewater, a little south of Walter Webster's tavern. A smart skirmish ensued ; but the Indians were repulsed with loss. Mr. Dearbon has visited that plain, and seen and ex- amined a number of skulls, which he supposed fell in that engagement. One or two of them were per- forated by a bullet. But notwithstanding the Indians were repulsed, the friendly Indian advised Baker and his men to use all diligence in their retreat, for he said their number would increase every hour, and that they would return to the attack. Accordingly, Baker pressed on the retreat, with all possible de- spatch, and did not allow his men to take refreshment after the battle. But when they came into New Chester, having crossed a stream, his men were ex- hausted through abstinence, forced marches, and hard fighting, and they resolved they would go no further without food, saying to their commander, " They might as well fall by the tomahawk as by
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famine." The captain acquiesced, and they prepared to refresh themselves ; but here was a call for Indian stratagem. The friendly Indian told every man to build as many fires as he could in a given time ; for the Indians, if they pursued them, would judge of their number by the number of their fires. He told ยท them, also, that each man should make him four or five forks of crotched sticks, and use them all in roasting a single piece of pork ; then leave an equal number of forks around each fire, and the Indians would infer, if they came up, that there were as many of the English as there were forks, and this might turn them back. The Indian's counsel was followed to the letter, and the company moved on with fresh speed. The Indians, however, came up while their fires were yet burning, and counting the fires and forks, the warriors whooped a retreat, for they were alarmed at the number of the English. Baker and his men were no longer annoyed by those troublesome attendants, and he attributed their preservation to the counsel of the friendly Indian. Now, it is said that Baker's River was so called, to perpetuate the brilliant affair, by Baker, at its mouth.
There was formerly another token of the presence or influence of a Mr. Baker, not very remotely con- nected with Baker's River. Salisbury was originally
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