History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire, Part 66

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1200

USA > New Hampshire > Sullivan County > History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire > Part 66
USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire > Part 66

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

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bers, and make futile attempts to ascend, but made a failure every time.

The Indians, perched on the rocks below, with their scoop-nets, found no difficulty in ap- peasing their hunger during the shad season. In time the shad became discouraged in their attempts to ascend the main stream, when they would descend the river till a suitable tributary was found, which they would ascend and ful- fill nature's Jaws, and return to the salt water in August-shad poor. The salmon, more agile than the shad, bound on the same mission, would ascend the most rapid portion of the falls with apparent ease ; so rapid is the stream that an iron bar suspended over the current will not sink, but float on the water. It is said that salmon have been seen darting up this cascade with the speed of a locomotive, with two or three lamprey eels in tow, that had fastened themselves upon the sides of the salmon at the dawn of day by suction.

There is sufficient evidence to warrant the conclusion that there were large numbers of Indians who lived a part, if not all the year, near the railroad station at Cold River. In the immediate vicinity and also a half-mile be- low, the plough-share of civilization has un- earthed Indian skeletons, spear-heads, arrow- heads, heaps of clam-shells and numerous other Indian relics, which, together with the rude carvings on the rocks below the Falls, are in- dubitable evidences of there having been a famous lodgment for Indians about this vicinity long before the pale-faces' eyes rested on this nat- ural landscape of beauty. One-half mile south of Cold River is a spring of chalybeate waters, thought by the Indians to possess remarkable medicinal qualities. There was a tribe of In- dians who frequented this spring, called the Abanakees or Abanarquis (meaning the pines), from whom the spring derives its name. The Indians drank freely of the water and washed themselves all over with it, claiming it would cure cutaneous diseases. It might have been potent in its effects on the red-skins; but no

one ever knew of any sanitary effects it had on white people. It is very offensive to most peo- ple, both in taste and smell ; one glass of it be- ing sufficient for a life-time with ordinary peo- ple, unless driven to the very verge of death from thirst.

One hundred and thirty-six years ago, (in May or June), if a person with a good field- glass had been perched on the highest point of Fall Mountain (now called Kilburn Mountain), a bird's-eye view would have revealed to him, near where Cold River station now is, several scores of wigwams ; their dusky owners cross- ing and re-crossing the basin below the falls in their bark canoes ; while their squaws were on shore doing their drudgery ; their papooses wal- lowing in the filth around the wigwams, and the Indian maiden loitering about in the shade of the stately elms, stringing her ornaments and wampum. A few rods south from the In- dian camping-ground were the now fertile plains, then studded with dwarf pitch-pines and an uneven growth of white birch. In turning to the east, a. gloomy forest of hemlock, which was the home of the gaunt, ravenous gray wolf, that made the night hideous with his howl, presented itself to view. In the far dis- tance down the river, a shadowy view of the towering pines on Boggy Meadow was seen. This is the most arable, productive section of the town ; but it was not cleared for more than eighty years after the first settlement of the town. The reasons were : first, the great amount of labor necessary to remove the heavy timber growing there and, secondly, the un- healthiness of the atmosphere which arose from decaying vegetable matter, producing malaria.

The glass, when pointed to the southeast, would bring to view the highest elevation of land in town-Derry Hill-the altitude of which is more than thirteen hundred feet above the level of the sea. This tract of land was covered with a heavy growth of beech, birch and sugar-maple timber, which has been mostly cut off, and now a second growth is almost

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ready for the axe. On looking to the west, almost under one's feet is the narrow defile between Fall Mountain and Connecticut River, where the St. Francis Indians, from Canada, used to travel, before Walpole was settled, on their maranding expeditions to the border settlements in Massachusetts. Many were the captive whites who plodded along this narrow defile on their way to Canada, to be sold to the French, downcast, weary, footsore and hungry. The territory north of Walpole to Canada line was one unbroken, gloomy forest, excepting No. 4 (now Charlestown). Game was plenty. There were the stately moose and his third cousin, the sprightly, graceful red deer, that lived on the scanty, uncut herbage of the openings in sum- mer and browsed on the twigs of deciduous trees in winter. The flesh afforded appetizing viands for the hungry pioneer. The huge, ungainly black bear was frequently met, scen moving about with his shuffling, plantigrade gait, hunt- ing for some fresh esculent or newly-fallen nuts from the beech-tree or acorns from the bak.

Bear steak then, as now, was considered a delicacy. The smaller game embraced the raccoon, the gray and black squirrel, the quail and partridge-all of which the ready fowling- piece would bring to the sportsman's feet. The smaller streams were crowded with spotted trout, which had never been lured by the seducing fly of Isaac Walton. Among the carnivorous animals were the lynx, the wild-cat and cata- mount ; the latter had his lair on Fall Moun- tain. The woodlands wore a weird appearance -old decaying trees, which had fallen in every conceivable direction, fantastic forms of with- ered limbs and old standing trees, denuded of their bark, contrasted strangely with the fresh- ness of later youth. Reptiles sported in the slimy pools of the lowlands or crawled un- harmed over piles of decaying timber. The rattlesnake lay coiled asleep in some sunny nook, or was noiselessly drawing his hideous form over mouldering vegetation, in quest of

some luckless frog. His general habitat, in summer, was in the vicinity of Cold River, but in winter he sought repose in the clefts of rocks on Fall Mountain. Nights were made hideous by the dismal moan of the catamount or the howl of the gray wolf, when hunger forced them in squads or packs to seek something to sustain life. Silence reigned by day, save oe- casionally the roar of the " Great Falls," or broken, perhaps, by the often-repeated tattoo of the male partridge, morning and evening cheer- ing his mate.

The red man was the sole occupant of the soil, and was as wild as the savage beasts around him-a predatory vagabond, in constant war- fare with his own race; seeking the destruction of the early settlers, or leading them into a captivity worse than death ; the bark of the white-birch his canoe ; strings of shells his ornaments, his calendar and his coin; huts made of bended saplings and evergreen boughs, roofed with the skins of animals and the rind of trees, his habitation ; leaves of the forest his bed; his religion, if any, the adoration of na- ture ; his morals not much above the instinet of intelligent animals; disputing with them the occupancy of the forests, and dividing with the squirrel and bear the fruits of the hills-lazy, improvident, wicked.

The Indian, naturally sullen, morose and mercenary in his disposition, and having been driven from time to time from the graves of his fathers, and his fishing and hunting-grounds by the encroachments of the whites, needed but little to incite him to plunder and the most cruel barbarity ; consequently he was found continually harassing the frontier settlements, in small predatory bands, burning the habi- tations of the early settlers, destroying their cattle, killing men, women and children or forcing them into captivity, where they would be held for many years away from their chil- dren and friends.

It seems truly wonderful, to many persons in these " piping times of peace," that any one

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could be found who had the courage, hardihood or even temerity to plant himself in a howling wilderness, far removed from any friendly neigh- bor and almost under the tomahawk of merciless Indians, the white man's deadly foe. But when it is considered that many pioneers in a new country, like ours, had everything to gain and nothing to lose but their scalps ; that famili- arity with danger, as with everything else, breeds contempt; that the early lessons of children in bygone days were the stories of murder, treachery, pillage and rapine perpe- trated by Indians ; that such stories were re- counted the hundredth time by the gray-haired grandsire to his grandson on his knee, so that at an early age the child became thoroughly schooled in the habits, artifices and wiles of the red man, and at manhood, being thus taught, he held the Indian in contempt, and believed he could check-mate his foe on his own ground ; wonder ceases that pioneers could be found, who were ready to brave the dangers of a pioneer's life. At any rate such persons were found, and among them was-

JOHN KILBURN, who was born in Glaston- bury, Conn., 1704; consequently he was forty- five years old when he came to Walpole, in 1749. He had built himself a log cabin on the fertile intervale, about three-fourths of a mile south of Cold River, and about the same distance from the place where the Indians, in large numbers, sojourned in the summer through the fishing season. His family consisted of himself, his wife, his daughter Mehitable (Het- ty) and his son John.

Thomas Kilburn was the first settler of the name in this country, who came to America from England in 1635, bringing with him his wife and five children. John Kilburn, Sr. was the fourth remove from Thomas. The name of Kilburn can be found among the Eng- lish nobility to the time of Chaucer, and the line of descent can be directly traced from that time to the present. The name is spelled in different ways by the old English families, as

well as in this country ; but the sound is the same. Kilburn, Kilborn, Kylbourne, Kil- borne are some of the various ways the name is found spelled. The origin of the name is the same. The name is made up from two words, Kule and Bourn, which signify, the for- mer cold and the latter water,-cold water. The coincidence of the names of the first two set- tlers of this town, meaning about the same thing, is quite singular ; Belle Eau, pluralized, mean- ing beautiful waters, and Kule Bourn, meaning cold water or cold stream. What is in a name ?

Kilburn had lived in town some three or four years before Colonel Benjamin Bellows settled in town, without communication with friend or foe ; although he had often sought intercourse with the Indians, they had studiously avoided him. During this period he had no rest day nor night. He was not only exposed to the inclemency of severe storms in his rude hut, and all the hardships and privations inci- dent to frontier life, but was living day and night in constant fear of the tomahawk or the scalping-knife. During the day he did not dare to go a few rods from his cabin without his gun, and at night his bed was the cold ground, a bear skin for his covering, and a cartridge box for his pillow ; nor did he dare camp two nights in the same place, while the Indians were lurking in ambush, ready to strike the deadly blow at the first opportunity. Many times during his absence they visited his cabin in the dead of night, and stole everything they could find and carry away.

Some time in 1754, a company of Indians came down the river, landed above the falls and invited Kilburn to trade with them. He visi- ted their boats, bought some skins, and made some presents of flints, flour and fish-hooks. For a while the Indians continued to hunt and encamp about the neighborhood, and, as no mischief was done, he felt more secure as time passed on, the sight of wigwams becoming familiar to his eyes and the sound of guns an every-day occurrence to his ears.

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HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

In 1752, Colonel Bellows had become a settler in town and some others soon after, of whom more further on.

In 1754, in the spring, a large Indian, by the name of Philip, who could speak a little broken English, visited Kilburn's cabin, in a friendly way, pretending to be on a hunting excursion, and in want of provisions. He was generously supplied with flints, flour and other articles and dismissed. Soon after it was ascer- tained, however, that this same wily scoundrel had visited all the frontier settlements with the same plausible story, and was suspected by all as a wolf in disguise. Governor Shirley, of Albany, sent word by a friendly Indian that five hundred Indians were collecting in Canada, whose purpose it was to butcher and wipe out the entire population of the advanced settle- ments on Connecticut River. This news greatly disturbed Kilburn, but he did not leave his home nor lie down. He immediately went to work and built a palisade around his cabin with heavy timbers, firmly set upright in the ground, placed so near together that nothing larger than a eat could pass between the tim- bers. He purchased everything necessary for a prolonged siege, and then with stoical indiff- erence waited coming events, which had already cast their shadows before in the murders and depredations that had been committed by the savages in the neighboring settlements. Colo- nel Bellows had already become a settler and employed a large number of men to work for him, elearing the lands and in making other improvements ; among them was the building of a mill to grind corn and other grains. This mill was situated at a place now known as Blanchard's Falls, about a mile northeast from Colonel Bellows' residence. On returning from the mill to Bellows' Fort, as his residence was now called, the stream on which the mill stood had to be crossed, which was about thirty feet lower than the plain above, then covered with stunted pines, underbrush and ferns.

THE KILBURN FIGHT would be like play- ing Hamlet with Hamlet left out. The Indians had learned that Colonel Bellows and his men were at work at his mill, and would return home some time during the day, and would be likely to follow the foot path aeross the plain, which was in front of what is now the residence of Willard T. Blanchard. The Indians had stationed themselves across this path in a semi- circle. About noon on the 17th of August, 1755, as Colonel Bellows was returning with his men, about thirty in number, cach with a bag of meal on his shoulder and a carefully loaded fire-arm in his hand, on approaching the plain, their dogs ran up the bank and halted and began to growl and show other unmistak- able signs that something did not suit them. When fairly on the plain, Colonel Bellows' sagacity told him that redskins were close at hand. Colonel Bellows then coolly told his men to drop their sacks of meal, examine their flints, and at a signal from him give a whoop and drop down into the ferns. This manœuvre brought every Indian to his feet, which gave Bellows' men an excellent opportunity to piek off his man. How many savages bit the dust at this time was not ascertained, for it is well known that an Indian will fight longer for a dead comrade than for a living one. If any were killed at this time, they were dragged away. The Indians were completely panie-stricken and they rushed down the steep bank to the west pell-mell, on to the meadow on which Kilburn's hut stood and hid themselves in the alders grow- ing there. Colonel Bellows and his men moved away from the scene in the direction of the fort, with much greater celerity than was their daily custom. Kilburn and his hired men, returning from their work to dinner, discovered the red legs of the savages in the alders, whereupon he quiekened his steps to his hut to put things in order for a warm reception. The inmates of his cabin were himself and wife, a hired man by the name of Peak, his son John, then eigh-

A sketch of Walpole without the story of teen years old) and his daughter Mehitable

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(Hetty). After barricading his doors and win- dows and taking other necessary precautions, quiet reigned for a few minutes. During this quiet interval Kilburn's eyes were directed to the bank east of his cabin, where a foot-path ran down the hill to the intervale below. One hundred and ninety-seven Indians crossed this path in a very short time and stationed then- selves on the side-hill east of his cabin. Sub- sequently it was ascertained that as many more were lying in ambush at the mouth of Cold River.

Silence was broken soon after by that "old wily, treacherous devil" Philip, who had visited Kilburn's cabin the summer before and had received presents from his hands, by his appear- ing, partly hidden behind a tree, and calling upon those in the house to surrender. Said he, "Old John, young John, come out here, I know you-we give you good quarter !" " Quarter !" vociferated old Kilburn, with a voice like thunder, that rang through every Indian's brain, and every valley around. "You black rascals, begone or we'll quarter you !" Who would have anticipated this more than Spartan reply, without tremor from a camp of four men hedged around by four hundred merciless savages with appe- tites sharply whetted for the blood of white men ?

Meanwhile, those ambushed at the mouth of Cold River had joined their comrades gathered near Kilburn's home.

After Philip had made his generous offer of surrender to Kilburn, he returned to his tribe, and after a few minutes' consultation with them the terrifying war whoop was sounded convey- ing to the uninitiated the impression that all the imps of pandemonium had broken loose. Immediately a shower of leaden hail, from at least four hundred guns of the enemy, pene- trated and splintered the roof of our hero's cabin. Before the smoke had settled down from the enemy's guns, so as to obscure the surroundings, Kilburn espied an Indian of more than ordinary size leaning against the

fence, partly hidden from view. Kilburn seized upon this opportunity of getting the first return fire. He leveled his musket, pulled the trigger, and his human target dropped dead on the spot. Kilburn always maintained that this Indian was no other than that old scoundrel Philip. Our hero's enemies were on all sides of him, and while some of them kept up a continuous fire against the hut, without doing any harm, others were engaged in destroying his hay, grain and pigs, and making a general slaughter of his cattle, Kilburn and his men did not waste their ammunition, but resolved, that at every discharge of their mus- kets, every deadly missile should take effect. The defenders had several muskets in the cabin, which were kept hot by incessant firing. They had poured their powder into hats that it might be more convenient for loading their arms. Their bullets began to run low, when a happy thought struck them, which was to sus- pend blankets under the roof and catch the enemy's bullets, which the women recast and made them do double service, being immedi- ately sent back as an acknowledgment of their receipt. It was evident that Kilburn's bullets had a telling effect on his enemies, for they were not so bold as they were at the begin- ning of the siege, when they made the rash attempt to burst in the door ; they were only seen now, stealthily crawling from tree to tree and stump to stump, avoiding exposure as much as possible. From noon, on that memor- able day, the incessant firing and fiendish war-whoop dinned on the ears of all within hearing distance. At length the savages began to disappear one by one, and when the sun had shed its last lingering beams and the mantle of darkness hung over the scene, the Indians were gone. In a very short time the turmoil of the day was followed by almost deadly silence. No sounds were heard but the Au- gust cricket chirping his evening song and the melodious lullaby of the distant falls.

Colonel Bellows and his men had heard the

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firing all the afternoon, but none of them had the foolhardiness to go to the relief of Kilburn and his family. They would rather brave the taunts of cowardice than run the risk of losing their scalps,-it needed something more than the love of glory to stimulate a handful of men to meet four hundred savages on an open plain.

Late in the evening, when all was still, Peter Bellows, the intrepid oldest son of the colonel, sallied forth to learn the fate of the Kilburns. Stealing along cautiously, figuratively with his heart in his mouth, he at length arrived at the door of his neighbor, made himself known and was at once admitted. He was the first to con- gratulate Kilburn on his wonderful escape and honor him for his bravery. He found that no one of the household had been injured but one, and that was Kilburn's hired man, Peak. He, by exposing himself needlessly in the early part of the engagement, received a wound in the hip, and as there was no surgical aid nearer than Northfield, Mass., forty miles distant, to care for him, he died the fifth day afterwards. Ever after this memorable fight, though the In- dians continued to harass the neighboring towns and settlements, they never again visited Walpole to molest the settlers. It has been said by some, and the belief has been fully shared by others, that the heroic defense made by Kilburn to save his family, as it dampened the courage of the savages, was the means of saving many valuable lives.

Many years after the Kilburn fight, a story was told, which has a degree of plausibility on its face, at least, and runs thus : A relative of our townsmen (the Blanchards) became ac- quainted with an old Indian chief, then living in the State of New York, whose name was Joshark Noshark, who formerly belonged to the St. Francis tribe of Indians. He told the Blanchards' relative that he was in the Kilburn fight, being a young man then nineteen years of age. His memory was unimpaired, and he gave a full and minute history of that eventful day. He described minutely the surrounding scenery,

the falls, the mineral spring, the mountain and the red and yellow paints his tribe was in the habit of procuring to decorate their bodies. He said that Philip was killed in the early part of the fight, and, with many others killed, was buried south of the falls,-that Philip was buried in a spot removed from the rest of the tribe which were killed. After Philip's friends had dug a grave by using their hands and scaly stones, sufficiently deep for their purpose, they laid his remains in, and first covered the body with dirt, then a large flat stone was placed on him, then more dirt and finally with a covering of leaves, carefully spread over the whole, so that the whites might not discover his burial- place. He gave as a reason why Walpole was never after molested, that his tribe believed that the " Great Spirit " frowned on their con- duct after having been so well treated by Kil- burn.

During the construction of the Cheshire Rail- road several human skeletons were exhumed, supposed to be Indians, and among them was one, buried under a flat stone, answering, by its huge proportions, the description formerly given of Philip. These bones were procured and wired together by one Dr. Robbins, of Bellows Falls, and are now in the possession of his family.

It appears, from all the information in pos- session of the writer of this sketch, that John Kilburn had a grant of the township of Wal- pole, procured from the government of the State of New York. The authorities then of that State had about as much knowledge of the geography of this region as an average school- boy has of localities in Australia. The State of New York never held any jurisdiction on the east side of Connecticut River. The claim of New York to the soil of New Hampshire was a shallow pretense, based on the ignorance of those in authority at the capital of New York.

Many people, sometimes, lose more from ig- norance than it would cost them to gain infor-

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mation. This was the case with John Kilburn, for Benning Wentworth was, at the time of Kilburn's advent in town, the Governor of the State of New Hampshire, and had been for eight years granting to parties all about in this vicinity, and as far west as Bennington, Vt. (from whose name Bennington is derived). Colonel Bellows knew to what government to apply for a charter, which he obtained in 1752, three years after Kilburn settled, who expected to be protected in his fancied rights by holding a valueless roll of parchment. Then came the "tug of war." Bellows was imperious and domineering, and Kilburn was sullen and un- yielding ; the one had the State of New Hamp- shire to back him, the other nothing but his strong arm and indomitable will. A letter in the possession of the writer of this sketch, writ- ten by George Kilburn, the great-grandson of old John, states that after the quarrel had lasted for some years between the families, Bellows so far yielded as to make an offer to divide the town- ship with his great-grandfather; but his reply was, "No! I bought the land and paid my money for it ; I'll have all or I'll have none !" After a while Kilburn became discouraged in trying to maintain a contest so unequal, when he left town and settled in Springfield, Vt .; Colonel Bellows then offered him fifty acres in one body, of any land in town; Kilburn ac- cepted this offer, and located his future home where Oliver J. Hubbard now resides. He soon returned from Springfield, built himself a house and settled once more.

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History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire, Part 66

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1886 Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis Number of Pages: 1200

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1886
Publisher: Philadelphia : J. W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1200