USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Brookline > History of Brookline, formerly Raby, Hillsborough County, New Hampshire : with tables of family records and genealogies > Part 3
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The main "room" of the house is about eight by eight feet in length and breadth and ten feet in height. On the north and east sides, its walls are solid, with comparatively smooth surfaces; conditions which also apply to its ceiling, which is formed by the under surface of that part of the original mass which projects over it. An irregular opening in the wall on the west side of the room serves as a window; and another and larger opening in its south side serves as a door. Between the door and the window, at the southwest corner of the room, a slender column formed of broken pieces of granite rises from the floor to the ceiling; serving, apparently, as a support for the weight of the enormous mass above it. The "chamber" over the main room is of a size and dimension sufficient to admit of the occupancy at one and the same time of two or three per- sons lying at full length upon its floor.
33
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
For an hundred and forty years last past, this house of stone hias been a resort for pleasure parties, sight-seers, and searchers after the curious in Nature. Generation after generation of the village children have used it as a play-ground, and it has been the scene of many a social gathering, hilarious and otherwise, on the part of their elders. Beneath its roof many a party of belated coon-hunters, disgusted with the un- successful results of a night's tramp in search of their favorite game, have found a grateful shelter while waiting for the hour when-"In the morning by the bright light"-they could wend their weary ways home- ward; and within its sheltering walls many a weary tramp has slept and dreamed of other and happier days. Upon its walls are inscribed the names of many of the town's citizens, both the living and the dead. Of the latter class there are, I think, some whose names have never appeared on any memorial stone other than this in this town.
Tradition says that during the Revolutionary War this house was used by the Tories in this vicinity as a place in which to meet and delib- erate upon their plans for the overthrow of the Rebel Government. Early in the last century a cobbler, whose name has long since passed into oblivion, is said to have opened up his shop, and for a short time carried on his business within its walls.
At the present time (1914) the ravine in which the house is situated, and through which in past years it was more easily reached, is rapidly filling up with brush and brambles, making the approach to the house much more difficult than it formerly was. But by taking a more cir- cuitous route and approaching the house from its rear, it is still easily accessible; and year by year parties of the townspeople, accompanied by their guests from abroad, make frequent pilgrimages to it.
The Devil's Den.
. THE DEVIL'S DEN is located at the base of the east side of Little Muscatanipus hill, a short distance in a southerly direction from the railroad station in the village. The entrance to the den is at the foot of an out-cropping ledge, and is so small as to be practically impassable to any but persons of small size. At the present time this entrance is par- tially concealed by bushes and young pines. The den has been explored by very few people; and those who have made the venture have found the passage-way so tortuous and narrow as to compel them to "crawl on their hands and knees" for the first twelve or fifteen feet, at the end of which distance they report the passage as widening out, and increasing
34
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
in height so as to form a small room in which it is possible to sit erect. The passage-way continues on beyond this room; but from this point its dimensions are too small to permit further explorations. Among those who in their boyhood days, "in fear and trembling," penetrated into its mysterious depths are James P. S. Tucker, Bryant A. Wallace, and E. E. Parker.
In connection with this cave and Little Muscatanipus hill, the writer many years ago heard the late Samuel Talbot relate the following legend; which he claimed to have heard when a boy, many times told by his father, Ezra Talbot, who lived on the west slope of the hill. It is a witch story; and one of the few of that kind which have survived here from the early days of the town. It dates back to a period in the country's history immediately following the close of the Revolution, when New England was flooded with witch stories in which the celebrated Moll Pitcher was the heroine; her reputation as a witch having been estab- lished from the fact that, owing to the insufficient methods then in use for the dissemination of news, the brave deeds which, as a soldier in man's clothing, she performed in the Patriot army while fighting by the side of her husband in its ranks, were, in their transmission throughout the country, so changed, and the real facts so altered and distorted, as to impress the general public with the idea that she was endowed with supernatural powers.
But to return to the story. Moll Pitcher once made a visit to this town, where she was for a brief pericd the guest of one of its citizens. One day while walking out with her host and a party of his friends, prompted, perhaps, by a desire of pleasing him and them as a slight re- turn for their hospitality, she suddenly stopped in a small cleared space near the den, and, standing erect with uplifted hands, began to mutter what appeared to them to be incantations. As the moments passed, her gestures became more and more violent, and her language more wild and incoherent. Suddenly, to the great surprise, and, very probably, to the consternation of her audience, an old sow with a litter of twelve pigs issued from the surrounding woods and began to run around her in a circle. Twelve times they circled around her form and then disappeared; vanishing as suddenly as they came. With their disappearance the witch resumed her normal condition, and proceeded to inform her as- tonished hearers that the day would come when silver and gold would be dug out of that hill by the cart load. The witch's prophecy is as yet unfulfilled; but the citizens of today are still able to point witlı pride
35
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
to the cave, and also to the hill, the most important concomitants necessary to its fulfilment.
The Bear's Den.
THE BEAR'S DEN is located in the west part of the township near the foot of Big Muscatanipus hill, on its southeasterly slope. It has the appearance of being a natural cave, and is of considerable size. Its internal appearance is such as indicates that it has long been a resort for wild animals. From time immemorial it has been known to the people dwelling in its vicinity as the bear's den. But there is no person at the present time living who has personal knowledge of its ever having been the abode of an animal of that description. Its name probably originated with the Indians long before the advent of the whites in this part of the township, and has survived to the present time as a matter of tradition. It is not improbable that this cave was the original home of the identical bear in whose honor, possibly from its extraordinary size, the Indians gave to the hill upon which it is located, as well as to its sister hill on its eastern side, and the pond which nestles at its feet on the north, the name Muscatanipus, meaning "great bear."
Indians.
There are no proofs that this town, either before or after its incor- poration, ever suffered from Indian depredations. Indeed, neither by tra- dition nor record, are they mentioned as having been at any time even tem- porary sojourners within its limits. But that at some period in time past they were frequent visitors, and, possibly, so far as their nomadic habits permitted, even permanent residents in this town, the implements of their manufacture which have been found in various locations, and the retention by the pond and the hills adjacent to it and the river of their original Indian names of Muscatanipus and Nissitisset furnish abundant proof. But perhaps the strongest proof of this, at least quasi, perma- nency of their habitation here, is furnished by the fact that within a few years last past an Indian burying place has been located on the east shore of Muscatanipus pond, between the shore and the ice-houses of the Fresh Pond Ice Company.
In 1902 this burying ground was made a matter of investigation by the authorities of Harvard College; who caused many of the graves to be opened and, as a result, obtained many specimens of Indian skulls, and
36
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
also of various implements of their manufacture, which were added to the ethnological department of the college museum.
In 1891, also, the employees of the Brookline and Pepperell railroad, while engaged in building the road-bed for the spur-track on the west side of Rock Ramond hill, excavated several skulls, which good authori- ties pronounced to be of Indian origin, and of which one was perforated by a hole apparently caused by a rifle ball.
Population of the Town at Different Periods in Its History.
1769
Estimated by the writer,
135
1775
Guessed at by the State authorities,
320
1786 Selectmen's return to the State,
262
1790
United States Census,
338
1800
454
1810
66
66
538
1820
66
66
592 641 652
1840
66
66
708
1860
66
66
66
1880
66
66
66
741 698 546
1890
1900
61
606
1910
501
1914
(Estimated),
550
1830
1850
66
756
1870
66
37
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
CHAPTER II.
Old Dunstable.
Farm Grants-New Plantation Chartered-Its Extent-Its Disintegration -Names and Dates of Incorporation of Towns Formed from Its Territory in New Hampshire-Copy of Proprietor's Deed-Old Canal Leading Out of Muscatanipus Pond-Rock Ramond Hill.
The township of Brookline as constituted at the present time includes within its eastern limits a tract of land two miles in width and extending north and south for the entire length of its east boundary line which was originally included in the territory of Old Dunstable, of which it formed the extreme western limits.
In 1746 the west part of Old Dunstable, including this tract, was incorporated as a new township under the name of Hollis.
In 1769 this tract was taken away from Hollis and in conjunction with the southern part of the Mile Slip, incorporated into a township under the name of Raby. Thus it appears that the history of this tract, up to the time of the incorporation of Raby in 1769, was identical with the histories of Old Dunstable and Hollis during the same period. But the social, civil, political and ecclesiastical histories of each of the latter towns has already been written and published; and thus, partly because those histories are easily accessible to the general public, but more es- pecially because of the fact that the early settlers in that part of Dun- stable and Hollis which subsequently became a part of Raby were so remote from the centres of activity in each as to have few or no interests in common with either, a repetition in these pages of the subject matter in them contained, except so far as the same may be necessary for the purposes of this work, is deemed by the writer to be unnecessary. But because of this early territorial connection of Raby with Old Dunstable, we deem it proper at this point to narrate as briefly as possible the story of the origin, life and disintegration, territorially considered, of the latter township.
Prior to the establishment by the King, in 1741, of the boundary line between the Provinces of New Hamsphire and Massachusetts, the
38
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
latter Province had claimed, and virtually exercised, jurisdiction over all that part of southern New Hampshire lying west of the settlements at Dover and Portsmouth; and under that claim had issued, at various times and to different individuals and companies, grants of lands lying in the valley of and on both sides of the Merrimack river in New Hamp- shire.
These tracts of land thus distributed were known as Farm Grants. Among the larger of them were the Charlestown School Farm containing 1000 acres, and located on the south bank of the Souhegan river in the present town of Milford; and of which the southwest corner, now marked by a granite monument, was at Dram-Cup hill, and was identical with the northwest corner of Old Dunstable; and the Artillery Farm Grant, which was made in 1673 to the Honorable Artillery Company of Boston, Mass., and which comprised 1000 acres of land lying on the north bank of the Nashua river and west bank of the Merrimack river in Nashua.
In the year 1673 the number of acres that had been disposed of by these grants amounted to about fifteen thousand; and the grants were scattered over a large territory, few of them being contiguous, some of them unsettled, and others sparsely settled.
Of those which were settled, the inhabitants of each, acting inde- pendently of each other, were practically without any local government, and so far removed from the home government at Boston as to be prac- tically outside of its oversight and control. Recognizing the inconven- iences and hardships to which they were subjected from the existence of these conditions, in September, 1673, the proprietors of certain of these grants petitioned the Great and General Court of Massachusetts to con- solidate them into a plantation. After due consideration, the Court, on the 26th day of October, of the same year, granted the prayer of the
The and on the same date issued a charter for the plantation.
petition, new plantation included not only the original grants of the pro- prietors to whom the charter was issued, but also all of the territory lying outside of their several grants which was afterwards in the township of Old Dunstable. In 1674 the plantation received the name of Dunstable; the name being given in honor of Mrs. Mary Tyng, wife of Edward Tyng, an immigrant in 1630 from Dunstable, England.
The plantation of Old Dunstable as it was originally constituted contained about two hundred square miles of land lying on both sides of the Merrimack river. On the east side it included nearly all of the present town of Litchfield, a portion each of Londonderry and Pelham, and all of Hudson. Its southeast corner was located at the corner of Methuen and
39
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
Dracut, Mass. West of the Merrimack river, it was bounded on the north by the Souhegan river, on the west by a line running due south from Dram-Cup hill to the Groton new line, established in 1730; (this west boundary line ran, at its nearest point, about 18 rods west of Mus- catanipus pond in Brookline); and on the south by Groton Plantation, Chelmsford, and Provinceland, now Townsend, Mass. The following named towns in New Hampshire and Massachusetts were included wholly or in part within its original limits. In New Hampshire :- Nashua, Hollis, and Hudson in full; and, in part, Amherst, Merrimack, Milford, Litchfield, Londonderry, Pelham, and Brookline.
In Massachusetts :- Dunstable and Tyngsboro in full; in part; Groton, Dracut, Pepperell and Townsend.
Disintegration.
The process of the disintegration of Old Dunstable in New Hamp- shire began in 1722. In that year a small tract of land was taken from its northeast corner and annexed to Londonderry.
The dates of the incorporation of the several towns which either in whole or in part were formed out of its territory in New Hampshire are as follows :-
Hudson: twice incorporated; the first time as Nottingham, by Massachusetts, Jan. 4, 1733; the second time as Nottingham West, by New Hampshire, July 5, 1746; the name was changed to Hudson in June, 1830.
Litchfield: twice incorporated; the first time by Massachusetts, July 4, 1734; the second time by New Hampshire, June 5, 1749.
Munson, by New Hampshire, April 1, 1746. In 1770 Munson sur- rendered its charter to the State, and its territory was divided between the towns of Hollis and Amherst; where it remained until 1794, when it was taken in conjunction with the northerly part of the Mile Slip and the Charlestown and Duxbury School Farms to form the town of Milford.
Nashua: by New Hampshire as Dunstable, April 1, 1746. The name Dunstable was changed to Nashua Dec. 7, 1836.
Merrimack; by New Hampshire, April 2, 1746. Hollis; by New Hampshire, April 3, 1746.
Pelham; by New Hampshire, July 5, 1746. Brookline; by New Hampshire, March 30, 1769. Milford; by New Hampshire, Jan. 11, 1794.
40
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
During the years intervening between the issuing of their grant in 1673 and the year 1794, when by the incorporation of Milford all the territory which it originally included had been incorporated into town- ships, the proprietors of Old Dunstable continued to exercise the rights conferred upon them under the terms of their charter.
As a matter of fact, for many years after the incorporation of Milford, they continued to issue grants, or deeds, of lands located within the original bounds of Old Dunstable; and only ceased to do so when, by reason of their having revoked, for conditions broken, so many of their grants and made so many reconveyances to so many different parties of the same tracts of land, the titles to the same became so hopelessly involved as to render their acts farcical; and as grantors of land under the Old Dun- stable Grant, they finally dropped out of sight. But they left behind them, as a legacy to their descendants, a crop of law suits over contested titles to lands which for many subsequent years supplied the county courts with business; the echoes of which are occasionally heard, even at the present time.
These grants, or proprietors' deeds, were certainly issued as late as 1803. The following copy of one of them is inserted here as a matter of curiosity. It is dated in November, 1791, and is one of many similar grants now in the possession of the writer which, taken together, include 2900 acres of land within the limits of Brookline; and in all of which David Wright of Pepperell ,Mass., the great-grandfather of the writer, is named as grantee.
"Laid out to David Wright on the original right of Robert Ox two hundred and fifty acres of land lying in that part of Old Dunstable called Raby fifty acres on the forty-second Division the remainder on the third Bounded as follows Beginning on the east side of the stream or river running out of Muscatanipus pond just where the water enters into the ditch that leads to Conant's mills thence Down the east side of the road to stake and stones thence East to the North West corner of lot of land Layd out to Maj'r Hobbart Being about twenty rods thence East by the North Bounds of the said lot last mentioned fifty rods to a lot of land claimed by Randal McDonols thence North three Degrees West by said McDonols land one hundred and thirty-one poles to a small read oak tree marked thence north eighty degrees East fifty-eight Poles to a large White Pine tree marked on the side of the road west of said McDonols House thence North five degrees West by said road one hundred and four poles to a Pine tree marked thence North one hundred and twenty Poles thence West one hundred and fifty-six Poles to land formerly layd out to
41
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
Mr. Benjamin Prescott on Rock Raymond thence South thirteen degrees West by said Prescott land eighty Poles thence south seventy degrees West by said Prescott land fifty-six Poles to a Great Pine tree standing on the East Bank of the North Stream thence Down the easterly Bank thereof to the place of Beginning.
Surved by Joseph Blanchard
The two hundred acres lay out on the third Division to be equal to fifty acres of the Best Land
Joseph Blanchard, Noah Lovewell, Committee"
The foregoing grant, or laying out, was approved by the proprietors at a meeting holden at the house of Jonathan Pollard, innholder in Dun- stable, Nov. 1, 1791; as appears by the attestation, signed by Noah Lovewell, proprietor's clerk, on the back thereof.
The grant is interesting, not only because it shows the usual form of the proprietor's deeds, but also because it establishes the fact that at the time of its date, in 1791, a canal, of which the vestiges are visible at the present time, extended from the east shore of Muscatanipus pond down the east side of the river for the purpose of carrying water to operate a sawmill below the outlet of the pond, and that the inill was known as "Conant's."
It is interesting, further, because of its mention of the hill on the northeast shore of the pond by the name of Rock Raymond, instead of "Rock Rament"; thus conclusively proving that the latter name, by which in modern times this hill has been known, is a corruption of the former.
42
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
CHAPTER III.
Brookline Before Its Incorporation.
1673-1769.
The Mile Slip-Land Derived from Townsend, Mass .- The Old North Boundary Line of Townsend-The Groton Gore-Petitions for a New Township, 1738-1739-West Parish of Old Dunstable-The Province Line, 1741-Brookline as a Part of Hollis, 1746-1769 -Early Settlers.
At the date of the incorporation of Old Dunstable, Oct. 27, 1673, the territory now comprised within the limits of Brookline was divided into three parts. Of these parts, the eastern and by far the larger part was then included within the limits of the former town; of which, as has already been stated, it formed the extreme western limits. The second part consisted of the southerly portion of a tract of land located on the western borders of old Dunstable, and known as the Mile Slip. The third, and smallest part, consisted of a triangular shaped tract of land located at Dunstable's southwest corner, which was then Province land, but which subsequently became a part of Townsend, Mass.
The Mile Slip.
THE MILE SLIP, or, as it was sometimes written in the early records, Mile Strip, consisted of a tract of land about one mile in width and ten miles in length which extended in a northerly direction from the old north boundary line of Townsend, Mass., to the south boundary line of Lyndeborough.
It was bounded on the east by old Dunstable, and by a township then known as Narragansett No. 3, (now Amherst) under a grant of the same from the General Court of Massachusetts to certain officers and soldiers who served in the Narragansett War in 1675; the grant being made in 1728; and on the west by township No. 1, now Mason, and township No. 2, now Wilton, in the old Masonian grant of 1749.
No. 2 .- WILTON.
B
MAPOF. EARLY BROOKLINE
M
A
M
1
MUSICATANIPUS POND.
Not-Mason.
P
HOLLIS.
PROVINGE
I F
DOTTED LINES. TOWNSHIP AS CHARTERTED
MINE
MM - MILE SLIP
B-DRAM CUP HILL
C - S.W. CORNER OF OLD DUNSTABLE
D
E
B.CDE - DUNSTABLE BOUNDARY LINES.
ABC - GROTON GORE
PP -MUSCATANIPUS HILLS.
GROTON PLANTATION
AD- OLD'NORTH BOUNDARY LINE OF TOWNSEND MASS.
F-TRIANGULAR PIECE OF LAND FROM TOWNSEND. D - NORTH EAST CORNER OF TOWNSEND.
Nissitissit
1741
iver
MAP OF EARLY RABY
43
HISTORY OF THE TOWN OF BROOKLINE
Originally the Slip was unincorporated land; it having, for some unknown reason, failed to be included in either the Dunstable or Ma- sonian grants. In 1769 its southern half was incorporated as a part of Brookline. In 1776 its northern part, together with the Duxbury School Farm, were incorporated into a township under the name of Duxbury.
Duxbury had but a short existence; and when Milford was incor- porated in 1794, it, with the northern part of the Mile Slip, was covered into the territory of the latter town. Thus the entire original area of the Mile Slip is today included within the boundary lines of Brookline and Milford.
The Triangular Tract of Land Derived from Townsend, Mass., and the Old North Boundary Line of Townsend.
At that date, 1673, all of that portion of the west part of old Dun- stable which is now included in Brookline was bounded on the south by Groton Plantation, now Pepperell, Mass., and the present town of Towns- end, Mass .; which was then an unbroken wilderness. Townsend was chartered in 1732; and for many years subsequently, or until the estab- lishment of the Province Line in 1741, its northeast corner was located at the junction of its east boundary line with the north boundary line of Groton Plantation. This location probably never was, and certainly is not now, definitely known. But it is supposed to have been about one mile south of Townsend's present northeast corner. The old north boundary line of Townsend commenced at its said northeast corner and ran west, thirty-one and one-half degrees north, until it reached its ter- minus somewhere in the present town of Greenville; crossing in its course the southwest part of Brookline's present territory, and the central part of township No. 1, now Mason.
By the establishment of the Province line in 1741, that part of Towns- end lying north of that line, and east of the east boundary line of Mason, became a part of New Hampshire; and subsequently, at Brookline's in- corporation, was included in its charter. This was the Triangular Tract in question. It was in the shape of a scalene triangle. As to its bound- ary lines, they have been hitherto somewhat difficult to locate, because of the lack of sufficiently accurate data from which to establish the point at which the old north boundary line of Townsend crossed the south boundary line of Brookline.
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