History of Bedford, New Hampshire, from 1737 : being statistics compiled on the occasion of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the town, May 15, 1900, Part 10

Author: Bedford (N.H. : Town)
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Concord, N. H. : The Rumford Printing Co.
Number of Pages: 1202

USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Bedford > History of Bedford, New Hampshire, from 1737 : being statistics compiled on the occasion of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the town, May 15, 1900 > Part 10

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These streams were used in times past, and to some slight extent are still used, to operate sawmills and grist-mills, but under the head of "Mills " the subject will be dealt with further.

There are some objects of natural curiosity worthy of note. On the west line of Bedford, near Chestnut hills, on the farm of Clinton French, is a vast fissure or opening in a mighty mass of rock, appa- rently made by some convulsion of nature. Over the precipice thus formed is a fall of water some two hundred feet into the gulf below. Here are found several excavations in the solid rock, sufficiently large to contain several persons. One of them, bearing a resemblance to a pulpit, has given the name to the place. At the bottom there is always a small pool of water, where in the hottest day the warmth of the sun scarcely penetrates. As one stands on the verge of this tremendous precipice, emotions of sublimity will be awakened, and any lover of nature who should have leisure on a pleasant day would find himself well paid by a visit to this wild and romantic spot.

justice to marry people he could unmarry them. The mountain justice willingly assented, but said he could not grant their wishes just then, he had no "blanks."

1 April 21, 1764. I went a fishing at Seabin's pond and catched 13 pickerel .- Matthew Patten's Diary.

THE PULPIT.

HISTORICAL NOTICES OF BEDFORD.

Clinton French built a road from his house to the Pulpit, eleven sixteenths of a mile in length, to accommodate the public, charging a small fee for the same. Summer boarders for miles around visit this grand work of nature every summer. In some seasons there have been as many as two thousand visitors.

A very interesting and wonderful natural curiosity, in the shape of a huge granite boulder, is found about one half mile below the Pul- pit, on the Enoch Gage farm.

The large rock is situated on a thickly wooded knoll which has since been cleared of underbrush and trees. The moss-covered boulder is fifteen feet high and forty feet in circumference, by actual measure. It is nicely balanced on three flat ledge stones. On the south side of the rock is an opening large enough to admit an ordi- nary person by stooping. The cavity widens on the inside, being eight feet long and six feet high. The walls of this miniature cave are fantastically grooved and hollowed out. It looks like the work of water. The Pulpit brook flows only a few feet from the base of the hill on which the boulder rests.

On the inside of the cave is a stone seat, with arms at the sides and a hollow for the head rest. This stone chair was a favorite place for the Indian medicine men to fast and listen to the voice of the Great Spirit. A number of years ago some men endeavored to overturn the boulder, but were unsuccessful. An old resident of Bedford remembers, when a boy, of hearing various stories connected with Indian rock.

Holbrook hill is the highest land in town. The land upon which the Holbrook residence stands is several feet higher than the top of the Weston observatory, in Manchester. From this hill a fine view can be had. Immediately north are the Uncanoonucs ; in the west tower Crotchet mountain, Joe English, and the Lyndeborough moun- tains ; to the southwest stands Wachusett, while prominent places in Massachusetts and Maine are in plain view. The next highest land of the town is " Ledge hill," now owned by G. A. King. Other high points are Tolford hill, Joppa hill, Phillips or Bancroft hill, Beard hill, Bell hill, Morrill hill, and Strawberry hill.

Bedford is probably unsurpassed as a farming town by any in the county. Its soil has been cultivated by the hardy race which sprang from the union of Scotch, Irish, and English pioneers who first tamed this wilderness, a race noted for the resolute and reliable qual- ities that make a sturdy, robust, and unusually intelligent people. 7

HISTORY OF BEDFORD.

For the most part, they are, and always have been, farmers. But, until the separation in 1853 of Piscataquog village from the town, and its addition to Manchester, a large commercial business was car- ried on here.

Among the Bedford men of note in times past, we might mention Judge Matthew Patten, Col. John Goffe, and his son, Major Goffe, Col. Daniel Moore, Capts. James Aiken and Thomas Mclaughlin, Hon. John Orr, and John Patten, all patriots of the Revolution. One of the firmest patriots of Bedford was James Martin. He was mem- ber of the provincial congress in 1775. He was one of the first, if not the first, who established an iron foundry in New Hampshire. This was in 1776, and he offered to supply the army with any amount of cannon shot the committee might see fit to order. Then, at a later period, Hon. Benjamin Orr, a representative in congress and a distinguished lawyer in Maine; Hon. John Vose, a state senator, and for thirty-two years the distinguished preceptor of Atkinson and Pembroke academies; Hon. Thomas Chandler, a rep- resentative in congress and a noted farmer; his nephew, Hon. Zachariah Chandler, for many years United States senator from Michigan, and secretary of the interior in the cabinet of President Grant; Hon. Joseph Bell, a distinguished lawyer in Boston, and president of the senate of Massachusetts; John Rand, Esq., a painter of note in London, England, and one of the few to whom Queen Victoria sat for her portrait; Prof. Joseph E. Worcester, the noted philologist, and Rev. Isaac Orr, inventor of the "air-tight stove," were all sons of Bedford. Bedford also claims Horace Greeley as her son, although the place of his birth was Amherst. When he was a very small child his father and mother moved to what is known as the Baird farm, now owned by the estate of Charles H. Woodbury. He learned to read by the light of the open fire on the kitchen hearth of the Gordon house, and perhaps that will account for the gift he possessed of reading a book whether it was held upside down or sideways, as well as in the usual way.

Bedford was named in honor of John Russell, duke and earl of Bedford, marquis of Tavistock, and Baron Howland of Streatham, who, at the time (1750), was one of the two secretaries of state in the government of King George II, and who was naturally in correspondence with Benning Wentworth, governor of the prov- ince of New Hampshire at the time. He was born in 1710, and died in 1771. Hillsborough county takes its name from Wills Hill,

INDIAN ROCK.

HISTORICAL NOTICES OF BEDFORD.

Viscount Fairford, earl of Hillsborough and marquis of Downshire, who was born in 1717 and died in 1793. In 1763 he was first com- missioner of trade and plantations, and in 1768 secretary of state for the colonies.

INDIANS ON THE MERRIMACK.

In the history of the towns bordering on the Merrimack a notice of the aboriginal inhabitants forms an important part. That part of this town lying along the Merrimack was a favorite haunt of the red man, who was once the sole tenant of this western wilderness. To. the Indians of the coast, the men of the interior were known as Nipunks, or fresh-water Indians. Among themselves they were divided into numerous tribes of various names, and scattered over the territory comprising Maine, New Hampshire, Vermont, and northern Massachusetts. They all acknowledged the power and control of the Penacooks, and were members of the confederacy of which that powerful tribe was the head, and Passaconaway the lead- ing sachem. The Penacook Indians inhabited what is now Con- cord, and the country for many miles above and below on the Merrimack river, and the Indians, the traces of whose settlement are still visible on the banks of the river, in this town, no doubt belonged to this tribe. They ranged the banks of the Merrimack in quest of fish and game, which then greatly abounded. The head of an arrow, or fragment of a human skeleton, is still (1850) occasionally thrown up in the sand or uncovered by the plough, the last traces of a race that hunted and fished on these waters.

Their numbers gradually decreased, and the poverty of the sur- vivors became so great that, May 9, 1662, Passaconaway petitioned the general court of Massachusetts at length, setting out his growing needs and his inability to meet them. He asked for a grant of land. Accordingly, the province granted him a strip three miles in length and a mile and a half in width, on either side of the Merrimack. This included two islands in the river, and probably comprised the territory about Goff's Falls, for Passaconaway had a residence on Carthagena island, opposite the farm of the late Samuel Chandler.

On the bank of the Merrimack river, opposite Goff's Falls, is a. spot of ground about ten rods long and four rods wide, which is sup- posed to have been'an Indian burial-place. It was an open space, and entirely cleared, when the first settlers first explored the coun- try. The surface of the bank is about forty feet above the river.

HISTORY OF BEDFORD.

Human bones at various times have been washed from the bank. In the summer of 1821, Dr. P. P. Woodbury and Dr. Freeman Riddle obtained a part of three skeletons from this place. Some of the bark in which they were deposited remained. One of them appeared to have been put in the ground in a sitting posture. All their heads lay toward the south. One was supposed to be a female. The hair was entire, and was done up in a bunch on the back part of the head, in a manner not unlike that practised at the present day. The skeletons were sent to Paris, by Dr. Woodbury, for anatomical investigation.

Goff's Falls and Amoskeag, or Namaske, in the Indian dialect, were among the principal residences of the great sachem Passacona- way. Here, no doubt, he held his councils, here he swayed the scepter of his power. His dominions appear to have been very extensive, reaching on both sides of the Merrimack up to its sources, and eastward to the Piscataqua river.

Unlike Philip, Passaconaway was friendly to the English. His friendship, however, might have been from motives of policy. He saw the English must ultimately prevail, and, therefore, to use the language of Gookin, "this old sachem thought it his best prudence for himself and posterity to make a firm peace with the English in his time, and submitted to them his land and people, as the records of Massachusetts, in New England, declare, which peace and good correspondency he had and maintained all his life, and gave express command to his son that he should inviolably keep and maintain amity and friendship with the English, and never engage with any of the Indians in a war against them."

By his persuasion it is possible that the great "apostle of the Indians," Eliot, may have been induced to visit these places in the fishing season, when the Indians assembled in great numbers at the different falls in the river, to meet the incoming tide of fish as they came up every year. In a letter to a friend in England, dated Octo- ber 29, 1649, he writes, "I had, and still have, a great desire to go to a great fishing-place, Namaske, upon the Merrimack river." Rev. Mr. Allen, who has given this letter more at large in his Merrimack Centennial, expresses his opinion that Namaske may be Amoskeag; and for this there is some confirmation in the fact that, one hundred years ago, Amoskeag was spelled Namaskeag, as appears from Hon. Matthew Patten's journal, where the place is often mentioned. It might possibly have been Goff's Falls, near to the great burying-

HISTORICAL NOTICES OF BEDFORD.

place, but it is not material. It is an interesting thought, and not improbable, that the great "apostle of the Indians " was once heard amid these then uncultivated forests, proclaiming to the aborigines the way of salvation.

Wannalancet, son and successor to Passaconaway, was a convert to Christianity, and also a steadfast friend to the English. Of this chief, Gookin relates the following anecdote, perfectly in keeping with the Indian character: Once, on his return from a destructive war, he called on Rev. Mr. Fiske, at Chelmsford. Among other inquiries the chief wished to know of Mr. Fiske whether Chelmsford had suffered much during the war. Being informed that it had not, and that God should be thanked for it, he replied, " And me next."

We now approach the period of the first settlement of the town by white men. The country was then a wilderness, and it required men of strong arms and women of stout hearts to be the pioneers in such an enterprise, for wild beasts roamed where now are cultivated farms and smiling orchards. As early as the winter of 1735, a man by the name of Sebbins (or Sibbins; the name is spelled according to its pronunciation, and may be a corruption of the real name) came from Braintree, Mass., and spent the winter in making shingles, and the spot he selected for this purpose was south of the old graveyard, between that and Sebbins' pond, on the north line of a piece of land that was owned by the late Isaac Atwood. In the spring of the year he drew his shingles to Merrimack river, about a mile and a half, on a hand sled, and rafted them to Pawtucket Falls, now Lowell. The pond already noticed, and a large tract of land around the same, still goes by his name.1

In the fall of 1737 the first permanent settlement was made by Robert and James Walker, brothers, and in the following spring by Matthew and Samuel Patten, brothers, and sons of John Patten, and soon after by many others. The Pattens lived in the same hut with the Walkers, until they built one of their own near where Joseph Patten used to live. They commenced their first labors near the bank of the Merrimack, on a piece of ground known as Patten's field, about forty rods north of Josiah Walker's barn. The Walkers were immediately from Londonderry, N. H. The Pattens never lived in Londonderry, though they belonged to the company; they were immediately from Dunstable. The father, John Patten, with

1 Sibbins was lost. No one ever knew what became of him. A visitor to his camp found a steer and a dog almost starved. They supposed that their owner had been accidentally drowned in one of the bogs which surround the pond.

HISTORY OF BEDFORD.

his two sons, Matthew and Samuel, landed at Boston, stopping there but a short time; thence they came to Chelmsford, and thence to Dunstable, where he stayed till he came to Bedford. The second piece of land cleared was on the Joseph Patten place, the field south of the first pound, where the noted old high and flat granite stone now stands. The first grain threshed in Bedford was threshed on this stone. Quilts were hung up around the stone, to keep the grain from scattering.

With few exceptions, the early inhabitants of the town were from the north of Ireland, or from the then infant settlement of London- derry, N. H., to which they had recently emigrated from Ireland. Their ancestors were of Scotch origin. About the middle of the seventeenth century they went in considerable numbers from Argyleshire, in the west of Scotland, to the counties of Londonderry and Antrim, in the north of Ireland, from which in 1718 a great emigration took place to this country. Some arrived at Boston, and some at Casco bay, near Portland, which last were the settlers of Londonderry. Many towns in this vicinity were settled from this colony; Windham, Chester, Litchfield, Derryfield, Bedford, Goffs- town, New Boston, Antrim, Peterborough, and Acworth derived from Londonderry a considerable proportion of their first inhabitants.

"Many of their descendants," says Rev. Dr. Whiton, in his His- tory of the State, "have risen to high respectability, among whom are numbered four governors of New Hampshire, one of the signers of the declaration of independence, several distinguished officers in the Revolutionary war and in the last war with Great Britain, including Stark, Reid, Miller, and McNeil; a president of Bowdoin college, some members of congress, and several distinguished minis- ters of the gospel."

President Everett, in his Life of General Stark, thus notices the colony :

These emigrants were descended from the Scotch Presbyterians who in the reign of James were established in Ireland, but who, pro- fessing with national tenacity a religious belief neither in accordance with the popular faith in Ireland nor with that of its English mas- ters, and disliking the institutions of tithe and rent, determined to seek a settlement in America. The first party came over in 1718, and led the way in a settlement on Merrimack river. They were shortly succeeded by a large number of their countrymen, who brought with them the art of weaving linen, and first introduced the culture of the potato into this part of America, and furnished from their families a large number of the pioneers of civilization in New

THE WALKER MONUMENT.

HISTORICAL NOTICES OF BEDFORD.

Hampshire, Vermont, and Maine, and some of the most useful and distinguished citizens of all these states.

These quotations will not, it is hoped, be thought superfluous, when it is considered how large a proportion of the early inhabitants of the town were of Scottish. origin. They were, as they are justly represented in the address of Colonel Barnes at the celebration of the centennial of the town's incorporation, a well-principled, frugal, hardy, and industrious people, who brought with them a sound attachment to religious institutions.

And it is interesting to notice the similarity between the pilgrims of Plymouth and the emigrants from the north of Ireland, as respects the motives which led them to emigrate. It was no worldly ambi- tion, it was no unhallowed thirst of gain, that in either case appears to have led these hardy men to leave the comforts and endearments of their native land, and come to this western wilderness; it was, we may believe, in both cases, for the enjoyment of the rights of con- science and religious privileges that they came across the Atlantic and settled down in these forests .- Historical Sketch of Bedford, by Rev. Thomas Savage, 1840.

Scenes and incidents, no doubt, occurred in ancient times amid these localities, the actors in which belonged to another race, scenes and incidents which no tablet has ever recorded, and which no tra- dition has transmitted. The following authentic account may be a specimen of many that have passed into oblivion :

At a very early period James and Robert Walker, brothers, were engaged in manufacturing turpentine from pitch-pine trees, on the east side of the Merrimack river, opposite the farm of Mr. Josiah Walker. It was their summer business; they cleared a field, planted corn, and erected a camp near their field, in which to sleep and do their domestic work. One Saturday two tribes or bands of Indians came to their camp, and some of them wished to leave their guns in the camp over night in order to keep .them dry, which request was granted. They afterward went down to the river, near the mouth of Spring brook, and encamped. Early the next morn- ing one of the Indians was heard coming in great haste, and wanted his "baskeag " (gun), which they let him have. He was hardly gone when another came on a similar errand; they asked him what he wanted to do with his gun, which he seemed so anxious to get. He replied, " The other Indian-he go shoot me ; me kill him," and as they had delivered one of them his gun, they thought they would accommodate the other likewise. The two brothers Walker dressed themselves and went down where they could overlook the encamp-

HISTORY OF BEDFORD.

ment unperceived by the Indians, expecting to be spectators of an Indian battle. The first object that met their view was two Indians in a sitting posture, with their guns pointing at each other, at the distance of two or three rods. They remained in this position some time, apparently with the intention of trying each other's courage. At length one dropped his gun, sprang to his feet, and extended his hand toward the other, who immediately performed a similar move- ment, and the expected battle was avoided. The tribes during this time were placed in the order of battle, with knives, tomahawks, and bows and arrows, placed on logs and other convenient places, ready for immediate use in case of necessity. It were well if modern duels ended as amicably.

There were three or four garrisons, or blockhouses, in the town, to which the inhabitants might resort in case of danger, during the Indian hostilities excited by the French. One of these was at Mr. Robert Walker's, in the north part of the town, on the place of the late Mr. Jesse A. Walker. Another was on the place lately owned by Theodore A. Goffe, Esq .; also one on the Patten place, and still anoth- er, it is supposed, on the place of Mr. Josiah Walker. It was a time of danger, and the inhabitants were constantly on their guard, but the town was never attacked by hostile Indians. When at work, it is said, they would keep one man- posted as a sentinel, and, if practi- cable, they would work but one day in the same field. Although the town escaped, yet individuals belonging to it were sometimes exposed. In one instance a man was killed. In 1745, James McQuade and John Burns went to Penacook (Concord) to purchase corn for their families, and had proceeded on their return home as far as Suncook (Pembroke), when they were fired upon by a party of Indians who lay in ambush awaiting their return. McQuade was shot dead, but Burns made his escape by running in a zigzag direc- tion, which baffled the fire of the pursuers, and he arrived in safety to his family. It is related, in addition, that McQuade's mother soon after, let one of the neighbors have some beans which were brought along in a bag, and a ragged bullet was found among them.

There is a traditionary story of Mr. Robert Walker, that relates he started one Sunday morning in good season to go to Londonderry to meeting and to see his intended, who resided there. As he left his garrison, on horseback, he discovered a trail of Indians in the dew, from behind the barn through the hemp yard to the road. He kept a sharp lookout, and on coming near the river he heard a cracking

HISTORICAL NOTICES OF BEDFORD.

in the wood. He kept the same pace till a turn in the road near by, when he put spurs to his horse and heard no more of them. He sup- posed they were watching his movements in order to waylay him. He came home another route through Litchfield.

The following incident, among others, has been handed down : One day Robert Walker and Matthew Patten went out in the month of March to hunt for bears near Uncanoonuc hills.1 Finding none, they concluded to return home, and as they were retracing their steps they came across a catamount track. The track being along their way, they followed it on till it turned off, and they followed it no further. Just then Walker's dog took the track, and they had not gone far before they heard the dog bark. Walker says, "There, my dog has treed the vermin, and if I don't shoot him he will kill my dog." Patten tried to persuade him off, but in vain. He found the catamount crouched on the limb of a tree, swinging his tail back- ward and forward, evidently meditating a spring upon the dog. He leveled his gun and fired. The ball took effect just below the ear, broke his neck, and he fell dead. It was said the tail was long enough to girt and tie in a bow knot around the body. Robert Walker was said to be a very stout, robust man, as appears from the following circumstance that is related : He was once at Amoskeag falls, when a man and his wife undertook to cross over from Derry- field side. The man, not being a good oarsman, went down stream. The canoe ran on a rock and stuck fast, which prevented them from going over the falls. There they were, within sight of a number of persons, but no one ready to give assistance. At length Walker stripped himself, swam to the rock, placed the canoe bows up stream, seated the man and woman near the middle of the canoe, and then with almost superhuman strength shoved the canoe off, springing into it at the same time, and taking his paddle brought them safe to the shore, to the great joy of themselves and all the spectators.

This Robert Walker came from his uncle Stark's (father of Gen. John Stark), in Londonderry, where he had been living, and joined his brother James in his camp on the bank of the Merrimack, making turpentine and cultivating corn in summer, and hunting wild game

1 About the year 1807 or 8 a bear was discovred on the Island at Amoskeag falls by some person in search of Chesnutt it being on sunday most of the men in the neighbourhood had gon to church alarm soon spread through the Town the People rushed from the Church in great hast and ware soon in pursuit of his Bearship Jerry Ray one of the number being very anxious to Capture animil grappled him mounted his back when M Bear not liken his rider took him by one arm with his teeth and would probibly taken of his arm had not James Young rendered immeadet assistance the Bear was finally Captured Killed Dresed and portion of the flesh Carried to the hous of Samuel P Kidder Esq and Coked all the people in the vicinity being invited to partake of the feast .- From an old Manuscript.

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History of Bedford, New Hampshire, from 1737 : being statistics compiled on the occasion of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the town, May 15, 1900, Part 10

Author: Bedford (N.H. : Town) Publication date: 1903 Publisher: Concord, N. H. : The Rumford Printing Co. Number of Pages: 1202

Author: Bedford (N.H. : Town)
Publication date: 1903
Publisher: Concord, N. H. : The Rumford Printing Co.
Number of Pages: 1202