History of Carroll County, New Hampshire, Part 6

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Boston : W.A. Fergusson & Co.
Number of Pages: 1124

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On a map published in 1660, the Abnaquis (Abnaquotii) are located between the Kennebec (Kinibakius fluvius) and Lake Champlain (Lacus Champlenius), occupying the head-waters of the Kennebec, the Androscoggin (fhuvius Amingocoutius), of the Saco (Choacatius fluvius), and another unnamed river, perhaps the Presumpscot. Here they were located for many generations antecedent to this date. That branch of them in the Saco valley and Carroll county territory, known as Sokokis, Ossipees, and Pequawkets, was noticed by the earliest navigators. Captain John Smith, in 1614, mentions, among other names, that of Sawogotuck (Saco) ; and La Hon- ton says : " The Sokokis were one of the tribes of the country." Gorges calls

INDIAN HISTORY.

them Sockhigones. Two of their chiefs, about 1640, conveyed lands. Their names were Fluellen and Captain Sunday, and who succeeded them is well known in history.

Charlevoix mentions them, and says, " They were one of the tribes that founded the settlement at St Francis, Canada, where some of their descendants still reside." Williamson, in his " History of Maine," says " they were a num- erous people, and that their original place of residence was on the islands, near the falls of the Saco, a few miles from the sea ; and that, at an early period, they employed English carpenters to build them a strong fort of timber, four- teen feet high, with flankers." This was to protect themselves from the Mohawks. He also states that there were two branches, one of which had its residence on the banks of the Ossipee, and the other on the alluvial land in the bends of the Saco, at and above the present town of Fryeburg. At the treaty of peace, held at Sagadahoc in 1702, there were delegates from those inhab- iting at Winnesockee, Ossipee, and Pigwacket. At the attack of Falmouth, now Portland, in August, 1676, it is stated the sagamore of Pegwacket was taken and killed ; and also, by an Indian that was taken, the army was informed, " Y' at Pegwacket there are twenty English captives." Belknap mentions that Natambomet, sagamore of Saco, signed a treaty of peace in 1685; and in 1702, in the treaty before referred to at Sagadahoc, Governor Dudley met, among delegates from other tribes, Watorota-nunton, Hegon, and Adiawonda, chiefs of the Pequawkets. The latter name figures in the annals of the tribe for the next half-century. In the treaty made at Portsmouth, in 1713, with all the eastern Indians, the Pigwockets are mentioned, but the names of their dele- gates cannot be identified. In that of 1717, held at Arrowsic, on the Kennebec, two of their chiefs, Adeawando and Scawesco, appear, and sign the treaty with a cross. They were probably, at that period, as numerous as any of the eastern tribes, although a considerable part of them had gone some years before to join the settlement at St Francis.

The valleys of the Ossipee and Bear Camp rivers were possessed by them, and here was the place of burial. The mound resulting from this rite is still plainly to be seen. [See description in Ossipee.]

The precise period when they permanently left the lower part of the Saco is unknown, but it is likely it preceded the early settlement there. With their change of residence, they soon changed their name of Sokokis, and were known as Ossipees and Pequawkets. The latter has been written in a great variety of ways. It is found with at least twenty variations. At the time of Lovewell's fight, it seems mainly to have been written Pigwocket. Belknap wrote it Pequawket, and he has generally been followed by succeeding histo- rians ; but Judge Potter, in his " History of Manchester," spells it Pequan- quaukė. The true meaning of the word is " crooked place." It is, like most Indian names, a compound word, made up from Peque or Pequau, crooked ; auk,

HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.

place or locality ; et, a verbal termination, meaning "it is," or " here it is " - Pequanket. It is singularly expressive of the locality; for here the Saco makes perhaps the most remarkable crooks or bends of any stream in New England, running a distance said to be about thirty miles to gain less than six. Eliot, in his Indian Bible, and Roger Williams use nearly the same word to express crooked or winding. Of their numbers at the time of the battle with Lovewell, it can only be conjectured ; but we now know that all the tribes had been much reduced by pestilence. In this action they must have lost fifteen or twenty of their warriors killed or badly wounded. Paugus (the oak) and Wahawah (the broad-shouldered) were brave and daring leaders, but they were war-chiefs, not treaty-makers nor principal chiefs, though Paugus had been long known as a chief leader in their forays against the frontiers. Adea- wonda had represented the tribe at treaties for more than twenty years pre- vious. In 1726, Captain John Giles, who commanded the fort at Saco and had a long experience with all the Indians in Maine, made a list of the men over sixteen years in the various tribes, which is preserved in the " Maine Historical Collections." He puts down "the Paquakig (Pequawkets) as only twenty- four fighting men." This was, no doubt, correct. He says, "Their chief is Edewancho " (Adeawando). At the close of Lovewell's War, a treaty was made, to which the Pequawkets were a party ; and from that period we hear nothing of them for several years. They had suffered too severely by the hands of Lovewell and his company to wish for another trial. They found they were not secure in their remote village, and a part of them - the most warlike -emigrated to Canada. Those who remained always advocated and practised peace with the whites, while the emigrants to Canada became our bitterest enemies.

In Rev. Mr Smith's journal, kept at Falmouth, we find under date of July 9, 1745 : "Several gentlemen are with the Mohawks, down at St Georges, treating with the Penobscott Indians about peace. About twenty Saco Indians are at Boston, pretending to live with us."

At the treaty of Falmouth in 1749, the Pigwacket Indians are named as being present ; but it was decided by the commissioners that, as they had not been engaged in the war, it was not necessary that they should join in the treaty.

There is no doubt that, soon after the close of Lovewell's War, a part of the tribe, with their neighbors, the Anasagunticooks and Noridgewocks, emigrated to Canada, and among them their chief, Adeawando, where he was a favorite of the governor-general, and, as he had been at Pequawket, their statesman, but not their military chief. In 1752 Captain Phineas Stevens proceeded to Canada as a delegate from the governor of Massachusetts to confer with the St. Francis tribe and redeem some prisoners they had taken from New England. In a conference held at Quebec, "Atewanto" was the

INDIAN HISTORY.

chief speaker, and made an eloquent reply, in which he charged the English with trespassing on their lands. "He said, 'We acknowledge no other land of yours but your settlements, wherever you have built ; and we will not consent, under any pretext, that you pass beyond them.' 'The lands we possess have been given us by the great Master of life. We acknowledge to hold only from him.' " 1

In a letter from Jacob Wendell, a resident of Boston, but dated New York, 1749 (see N. Y. Col. Hist. vol. vi.), he says, "That, in the beginning of the war with France (1745), some men, women, and children, of a tribe called by us Pigwackett, came to a fort near where they lived, and desired that they might live among the English ; for that they desired they might not be concerned in the war : and they lived some time at the fort ; but, when war was proclaimed against the eastern Indians, they were brought up to Boston, where good care was taken of them by the government, a suitable place, about fifty miles from Boston, provided for them to live at, where there was good fishing and fowling, and their clothing and what else they wanted provided for them by the government. On the application, this summer, of the eastern Indians to Governor Shirley for peace, and the messengers promising to call in all the heads of the tribes concerned with them in the war, it was concluded by the governor, if these Pigwackett Indians desire it, they should go down there ; and I am informed by Mr Boylston, who left Boston some time after me, that he saw those Indians there, and the commissary-general told him he had orders to provide for and send them all down to Casco bay, where the treaty was appointed ; that, I believe, the account thereof may be sent to Canada before now, and the St François satisfied. Thus I have given your Excellency a true account of these Indians ; and hope, when the governor-general has it sent him, he will send home the poor prisoners belonging to this as well as to the neighboring provinces."

It may be inferred from this letter that when the war of 1745 began, instead of joining the other eastern tribes against the whites, they remembered Lovewell's fight twenty years before, and were so determined to preserve their neutrality, that they left that part of the country, and only returned when peace was to be made.

Of that part of the tribe which remained but little more can be ascertained. Douglass the historian, who wrote about 1750, says, "The Pequawket Indians live in two towns (probably at Pequawket and at Ossipee), and have only about a dozen fighting-men. They often travel to Canada by way of Connecticut river."

After the conquest of Canada and the occupation of the Saco valley by the whites, the remnant of the tribe remained about the upper part of Connecticut river till the beginning of the Revolution. The last trace of them, as a tribe, is

1 Sce Kidder's Abanaki Indians, " Maine Historical Col." vol. vi.

HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.

in a petition to the government of Massachusetts, dated at Fryeburg, in which they ask for guns, blankets, and ammunition for thirteen men who are willing to enroll themselves on the patriot side. This document was indorsed by the proper authorities, and the request was granted. In Drake's "Book of the Indians" is the following: "With the Androscoggins, the Pigwackets retired to the sources of the Connecticut river, who, in the time of the Revolu- tion, were under a chief named Philip." [The signer of the famous deed of June 8, 1796, conveying northern New Hampshire and a part of Maine to Thomas Eames and others.]

Long after this, solitary members, and sometimes a family, lingered around the vicinity of their ancient home, and the old people of a generation ago remembered the names of Old Philip, Tom Hegon, and Swarson, and also the fact that a number of them were engaged in the colonial army of the Revolu- tion, for which they received suitable rewards. The central metropolis of the Abenaquis Indians was St Francis,1 midway between Quebec and Montreal, on the St Lawrence, where it receives the St Francis river. This was in easy communication with the New England frontiers, here were planned many bloody expeditions against the lower New Hampshire settlements, and here were paid by the French the bounties they allowed for English sealps and prisoners. This wealthy Indian settlement held up the hands of New Hampshire Indians in their attacks, and joined them in their raids to glut their revenge in the blood of the New Englanders. Their trails came down the Pemigewasset, the Notch, and other defiles of the mountains, and their jubilant eries as they returned laden with prisoners, scalps, and spoils were heard among the pines of Winni- piseogee and Ossipee, and were reflected from the rocky sides of the mountain passes. This village was a city of refuge for all the outlawed savages of English territory, and here after their crushing defeats were gladly received the remnants of the followers of Philip, Mesandowit, Wahawah, Kancamagus, and Paugus. [In 1755 the English government declared all Indian tribes in this section, except the Penobseots, " enemies, traitors, and rebells," and offered a bounty of £250 for each sealp of a killed Indian, and £300 for each Indian prisoner delivered at Portsmouth.]

The passing away of these broken bands took away the fear of savage men from the Winnipiseogee and Saco regions, and they were soon opened to civil- ized occupaney. "Thus the aboriginal inhabitants, who held the lands of New Hampshire as their own, have been swept away. Long and valiantly did they contend for the inheritance bequeathed to them by their fathers ; but fate had decided against them, and their valor was in vain. With bitter feelings of unavailing regret, the Indian looked for the last time upon the happy places where for ages his ancestors had lived and loved, rejoiced and wept, and passed away, to be known no more forever."

1 St Francis de Sales gave name to this village.

EARLY HISTORY.

CHAPTER VII.

EARLY HISTORY.

The Sokokis and Pequawkets - Eastern Boundary Line - Walter Bryant's Journal - Continuation of Boundary Line - Ranging Parties and Military Occupation - Early Grants -Townships Granted - First Settlement - Early Censuses - Population, Polls, and Real Estate - Rapid Increase- Early Selectmen.

F ROM the time of Darby Field's visits to the White Hills (1632-1642) and that of Thomas Gorges and Richard Vines, who came up the Saco from the settlement at the mouth in canoes in August, 1642, for many years the territory now Carroll county knew nothing of the white man. The Soko- kis and Pequawket Indians had unmolested occupancy of the Saco valley, where the cornfields grew as luxuriantly for them as if they were the men of to-day. Their villages were scattered here and there in the fertile vale, the chief one being along the river stretching from Conway into Fryeburg. They were brave, full of war, great in hunting and deeds of valor. Before the defeat of Lovewell (1725), in which one of their chiefs, Paugus, was killed, they were numerous and prosperous. They numbered about 500 warriors in their palmy days, but were broken and scattered after that terrible fight, which not only killed one sixth of their ablest men, but demonstrated that the English were determined to occupy the lands they had known as theirs.

Remnants of their tribe and the Ossipees continued to occupy the country, and the white man at once made preparations for settlement. Three town- ships were laid out on the east shore of Winnipiseogee in 1726, and were surveyed in 1728. But terror of Indians prevented establishment of homes, and there were only occasional trapping and hunting expeditions to this country (of which no records have been preserved) until the question of the eastern boundary of New Hampshire became a subject of reference to commissioners. The claims of New Hampshire as to the line were " that the boundary line of New Hampshire should begin at the centre of Piscataqua harbor, and so pass up the same into the river Newichawannock, and through the same into the farthest head thereof, and from thence northwestward (that is, north, less than a quarter of a point westwardly) as far as the British Dominions extends," etc. The commissioners reported in September, 1737, that this line, after leaving the farthest head of Pascataqua river, should "run north, two degrees west, till one hundred and twenty miles were finished."

Massachusetts appealed from this decision, and in 1740, all delays being

HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.

exhausted, the lords in council sustained the commissioners' report. In the same year arrangements were completed for the survey and establishment of proper designations, and the next spring, very early, Walter Bryant, a royal surveyor, with his corps of assistants, spotted and measured it about thirty miles. This was the first definite act of occupation of this part of the state by colonial authority. It was a difficult undertaking. All the tangled wilderness was rendered more difficult to penetrate by the deep and thawing snows, and the fear of Indians was not an imaginary danger. We reproduce his journal.

1741. March 13. Fryday. I set out from New-Market with eight meu to assist me, in running and marking out one of the Province Bounderys - lodged at Cochecho.

14. Saturday. Sent our Baggage on loging sheds to Rochester from Cochecho under the care of three men, the other five continuing with me at Cochecho, it being foul weather.

15. Sunday. Attended Public worship at Cochecho and in the evening went to Rochester and lodged there.

16. Monduy. Travelled through the upper part of Rochester and lodg'd in a Loging Camp.

17. Tuesday. Went on Sahnon Fall River & travell'd up said River on the ice above the second pond and campt.

18. Wednesday. Went to the third pond, & about two of the clock in the afternoon it rain'd & snow'd very hard & oblidg'd us to camp-extream stormy that night and two men sick.

19. Thursday. Went to the head of Nechawannock River and there set my course, being North two Degrees West, but by the needle North Eight Degrees East, and run half a mile on a neck of Land with three men - then return'd to the other five & campt.

20. Fryday. Crost the head pond which was a mile over, and at two hundred rods distance from sd head pond was another which lay so in my course that I crost it three times, and has communication with Monsun River as I suppose -from the last mention'd pond, for six mile together I found the land to be pretty even, the growth generally White and Pitch Pine. (N. B. At the end of every mile I mark'd a tree where the place would admit of it, with the number of miles from the head of Nechawannock River.) Went over a mountain from the summit of which I plainly see the White Hills & Ossipa Pond, which [pond] bore about North West and was about four mile distant. There also lay on the north side of said Mountain at a mile distant a pond in the form of a Cirele, of the Diameter of three miles, the East end of which I crost. I also crost the River which comes from the East and runs into said pond & campt, had good travelling to-day & went between seven and eight miles.

21. Saturday. In travelling five miles (the land pretty level) from the place where I campt last night, I came to a river which runs out from the last mention'd pond & there track'd an Indian & three Dogs, kill'd two Deer & Campt.

22. Sunday. Remain'd in my Camp & about nine o'clock at night the camp was hail'd by two Indians (who were within fifteen rods of it) in so broken English that they called three times before I could understand what they said, which was, " What you do there,"- upon which I spoke to them and immediately upon my speaking they ask'd what news. I told them it was Peace. They answer'd, " May be no." But however, upon my telling them they should not be hurt, and bidding them to come to the Camp, they came and behav'd very orderly and gave me an account of Ossipa pond & River, as also of a place eall'd Pig- wacket. They told me the way to know when I was at Pigwaeket was by observing a certain River which had three large hills on the southwest side of it, which narrative of said Indians respecting Ossipa, &e., I found to correspond pretty well with my observations.

EARLY HISTORY.

They also informed me of their names which were Sentur & Pease. Sentur is an old man, was in Capt. Lovewell's fight, at which time he was much wounded and lost one of his eyes ; the other is a young man. They informed me there living was at Ossipa pond. "They had no gun but hatchett and spears. Our snow shoes being something broken they readily imparted wherewith to mend them. They would have purchased a gun of me, but could not spare one. They were very inquisitive to know what bro't Englishmen so far in the woods in peace, whereupon I inform'd them. And upon the whole they said they tho't it was war finding Englishmen so far in the woods & further that there were sundry companys of Indians a hunting & they believed that none of sd companys would let me proceed if they should meet with me.

23. Monday. Parted with Indians & went to Ossipa River which is fifteen mile from the head of Salmon Fall which number of miles I mark'd on a pretty large Tree that lay convenient. (And in my return I found on said Tree a sword handsomely form'd grasp'd by a hand.) One mile from Ossipa River came to a mountain from the top of which I saw the White Hills. Travell'd over five large mountains. Campt.

24. Tuesday. Found the snow very soft to-day, so that we sunk half leg deep in snow shoes. See where two Indians had Campt on Hemlock Bonghs. Campt. Snow'd all night.

25. Wednesday. Continued snowing all day & night. £ The general depth of the snow with what fell last night & to-day was four foot and an half to five feet deep.

26. Thursday. The Weather fair & clear and in my travel to-day saw the White Hills which were West and by North from me, and about seven miles distant, as near as I could guess. I also see Pigwaket Plain or Intervale Land as also Pigwaket River which runs from the North West to the South East and cuts the aforesaid Interval to two Triangles, it lying North & South about eight miles in length & four in breadth. About two or three miles beyond Pigwaket I saw a large body of Water three or four miles long & half a mile broad, but whether River or Pond I do not know.

27. Fryday. Finding the travelling Difficult by the softness of the snow and the Rivers and Brooks breaking up, together with some backwardness in my men to venture any further, I concluded to return, which I did accordingly, and on Wednesday the first of April we got safe back to New Market and all in good health.

Walter Bryent.

In 1768 this line was continued to the neighborhood of Umbagog lake by Isaac Rindge and a corps of men, and by this time the progress of the settlements northward had reached north and east of lake Winnipiseogee.

From 1745 to 1749, however, and from 1754 to 1760, the horrors of Indian wars on the frontiers had prevented settlements being formed, but ranging parties had penetrated the wilds, and quite a number had become somewhat conversant with the country we are considering.

In the autumn of 1746 the regiment of New Hampshire troops commanded by Colonel Atkinson was ordered into the Winnipiseogee country to make winter quarters, and as a picket-post against the incursions of French and Indians from Canada. The regiment built a strong fort in Sanbornton, at the head of Little Bay, and named it Fort Atkinson. The troops remained here for nearly a year in idleness, under the lax discipline of the provincial commanders, and much of the time was spent in fishing and hunting exeur- sions among the mountains and on and along Lake Winnipiseogee, in which the character and capabilities of the country as far north as the Sandwich Range were defined and minutely studied.

HISTORY OF CARROLL COUNTY.

The soldiers carried back the most glowing reports of the country, and, as Potter says, " the expedition, apparently so fruitless, had its immediate advantages, for, aside from the protection afforded by it, the various scouts and fishing expeditions explored minutely the entire basin of the Winnipi- seogee, and turned the attention of emigrants and speculators to the fine lands and valuable forests in that section of the province. And as soon as the French and Indian wars were at an end in 1760, the Winnipiseogee basin was at once granted and settled."

Timothy Nash. Benjamin Sawyer, and other hunters had traversed the region of the White Mountains and Pemigewasset valley before the French and Indian wars, and now returned to make permanent camps in this paradise of game. They, as well as the soldiers, carried to the settlements below wonderful stories of this land of richness and marvels, and the colonists now had opportunities for peaceful explorations under advantages unknown before.

Lake Winnipiseogee was carefully measured and mapped in 1753, and soon the lake and river basins in all the northern part of the state were visited by prospectors, for a colonizing fever had broken out among the people of the old towns of Massachusetts, Connecticut, and New Hampshire, and after the conquest of Canada (1760) the lands prospected were laid out, granted, and settled in rapid succession. Under Governors Benning Wentworth and John Wentworth hundreds of grants were issued, and complaints were rife that exorbitant fees were taken for passing patents of land, that some of the best land in the province was granted to people of Massachusetts and Con- necticut with views of personal reward, that members of the Wentworth family and their intimate friends were almost invariably placed among the grantees.

There was undoubtedly much truth in these charges, and there was evidently great favoritism in the distribution of grants. One incident showing the looseness in which this matter was treated has come down to us in nearly every work of history published concerning the state, and is as follows: -

In 1763 General Jonathan Moulton, of Hampton, a personal friend of Gov. Benning Wentworth, and a grantee of Moultonborough, hoisted a British flag upon the horns of an enormous ox weighing 1,400 pounds, which he had fattened for the purpose, and with drum and fife accompaniment and a great parade, drove it to Portsmouth as a present for the governor. He refused all compensation, but as a slight token of esteem from so dear a friend, he would accept a charter of a small gore of land he had discovered adjoining Moulton- borough. The governor pleasantly had the grant issued. It conveyed to the wily general 26,972 acres of land, now comprising the towns of New Hampton and Centre Harbor. [ For authentic statement see Moultonborough. ]

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History of Carroll County, New Hampshire, Part 6

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew Publication date: 1889 Publisher: Boston : W.A. Fergusson & Co. Number of Pages: 1124

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew
Publication date: 1889
Publisher: Boston : W.A. Fergusson & Co.
Number of Pages: 1124