History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire, Part 89

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 89
USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire > Part 89

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HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

field, who was captured in 1746. In 1747 the Indians burned Fort Bridgman, killed several and took others prisoners.

On June 16, 1748, fourteen men were way- laid near the mouth of Broad Brook in going from Colonel Hinsdale's to Fort Dummer, and Joseph Richardson, William Bickford, Nathan French and John Frost were killed. William Bickford was only wounded, but died of his wounds later. William Blanchard, Benjamin Osgood, Mathew Wyman, Joel Johnson, Henry Stevens and Mark Perkins were captured. Daniel Farmer and three others escaped. One of the prisoners was killed by the Indians where they camped for the night.

Upon one side of the monument erected in memory of Taylor and his men is this in- scription :

" In memory of fourteen men who were waylaid by the Indians, near this place, June 16, 1748."

July 3, 1748, the Indians waylaid the mill near Fort Hinsdale, where Colonel Willard, with a guard of twenty men, had come to grind corn. Colonel Willard having placed his guards, they were soon fired upon. The colonel gave such loud and repeated orders to attack the enemy that they fled, leaving their packs and provisions, and he and his command re- turned to Fort Dummer in safety.

On July 14, 1748, Sergeant Thomas Tay- lor, with a party of sixteen men, whilst on their way from Northfield to Keene, through the westerly part of Winchester, were attacked by about a hundred French and Indians, who, af- ter a sharp fight, killed Joseph Rose, Asail Graves, James Billings and Henry Chandler, and captured Sergeant Thomas Taylor, Jona- than Lawrence, Thomas Crison, Reuben Walk- er, John Edgel, David How, Ephraim Pow- ers, John Henry and Daniel Farmer. Robert Cooper and three others whose names are un- known, escaped. Two of the prisoners had been wounded in the fight and soon after their capture were killed by the Indians with their clubs. The Indians took their prisoners up the

east side of the Connecticut River and crossed to the west side about three miles above where West River empties into the Connecticut, and then made their way direct to Canada. This fight was about one mile below Fort Dummer, on the east side of the Connecticut. As near as may be to the exact spot of the attack has been erected a neat monument in memory of the event, which bears this inscription :

"In memory of Sergeant Thomas Taylor, who, with a party of sixteen men, was here overpowered by one hundred French and Indians, after heroic and bloody resistance, July 14, A.D. 1748. Four of their number were killed. Sgt Taylor, with eight others, several of whom were wounded, were taken prisoners, and four escaped."

Though peace was declared between France and England October 7, 1748, quiet in the Con- necticut Valley settlements did not ensue till several years later, for on July 22, 1755, the Indians attacked a party of men near Fort Hinsdale and killed and captured several of them.

July 27, 1755, as Caleb Howe, Hilkiah Grout and Benjamin Gaffield, who had been hocing corn in the meadow west of the river, were returning home a little before sunset to Bridg- man's Fort, they were fired upon by twelve In- dians who had ambushed their path. Howe was on horseback with two young lads, his children, behind him. A ball broke his thigh and brought him to the ground ; his horse ran a few rods and fell likewise and both lads were captured. The Indians, coming up to Howe, pierced his body with a spear, tore off his scalp, stuck a hatchet in his head and left him. He was found alive the next morning by a party of men from Fort Hinsdale ; and being asked by one of the party whether he he knew him, he answered : "Yes, I know you all." These were his last words, though he did not die till after his friends had arrived with him at Fort Hinsdale. Grout was so fortunate as to escape unhurt. But Gaffield, in attempting to wade through the river at a ford, was unfortunately

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WINCHESTER.

drowned. Flushed with success, the Indians went directly to Bridgman's Fort and found only Mrs. Jemima Howe, Mrs. Submit Grout, Mrs. Eunice Gaffield and some children. The women had heard the guns, but did not know what had happened to their husbands. Ex- tremely anxious for their safety, they eagerly awaited their coming; at length concluding, from the noise they heard without, that they had come, they unbarred the gate in a hurry to let them in, when lo! to their disappointment and surprise, instead of their husbands, in rushed a number of hideous Indians, to whom they and their children became an easy prey, and from whom they had nothing to expect but a sorry captivity or death. Fourteen persons were made captives.

On June 7, 1756, the Indians captured Jo- siah Foster, his wife and two children about one mile south of the present village of Win- chester. Foster's house was upon the norther- ly side of Ore Mountain and in plain view of the village. Foster was at work on the bridge near the mouth of Mirey Brook where the present bridge now stands, when the Indians made their attack. They made prisoners of his wife and two children, ransacked his house and killed his pigs. Whether it was the noise made by the pigs in their struggles for their liberty, or whether it was the feathers from the feather- beds that the Indians ripped open and scattered from an attic window, that attracted Foster's attention, is not certainly known, but he in some manner became aware of the condition of his family, and hastening home, surrendered himself as a prisoner that he might share with his wife the burdens of captivity.

He and his family were taken to Quebec, in Canada, where they were met by Benjamin Twitchel, who was captured in Keene in 1755, and after months of privations and trials were set at liberty and sent to Boston, from whence they returned to their home in Winchester, where several of their descendants are now liv- ing.

The Indians who had given the settlers so much trouble and had caused them such anxie- ties was the St. Francis tribe, that live just over the Canadian border, near the head-waters of the Connecticut River, living with whom was the remnant of the Squakheags, the tribe that had formerly occupied the valley of the Ashue- lot. Their territory extended to the south, to the head-waters of the Miller's River ; eastward to the Monadnock Mountain, where they met the Nashua Indians; northward to the head- waters of the Ashuelot, and westward about nine miles west of the Connecticut.

This tribe had sold this, their inheritance,- a tract of country embracing about sixty-five thousand acres,-to the whites, and had con- veyed the same by a deed bearing date of August 13, 1687. This deed was executed by Nawelet, who was the chief at that time of the tribe. The price paid these sons of the wilder- ness for their home, their hunting and fishing- grounds, was the munificent sum of " forty-five pounds sterling in trades-goods,"-a sum equal to one hundred and ninety-nine dollars and eighty cents in our money. It must be said, in justice to this tribe of Indians, that after this sale of their lands to the whites, that, whilst they did not fully abandon the territory till 1720, a period of thirty-three years, they lived in peace and harmony with the whites to whom they had sold, and that it was only during a time of war that they acted as guides to the French and Canadian Indians in their expedi- tions against the English. Traditions declare them to have been firm in their friendships to individual settlers, often warning them in ad- vance of threatening dangers.

This tribe of Indians were enterprising, war- like and skilled in all the devices of Indian strategy. In size they were small giants, skeletons having been exhumed more than six and a half fect tall. They lived in separate villages, at such points as were most favorable for obtaining subsistence. They lived princi- pally upon the fruit of the chestnut-tree,

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HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

ground-nuts, corn, pumpkins which were cut in strips and dried in the sun, and the flesh of animals taken in the chase or by trapping. They cooked their fish just as they were taken from the water, and small animals were roasted whole, the entrails being considered an indis- pensable part of the roast. They understood the process and made maple sugar, and they also raised and used tobacco to some extent. They set frequent fires in certain portions of their domain to keep down the underbrush for cultivable fields.

These were generally set in the fall after the leaves and seeds had fallen, and in this way not only the smaller trees were destroyed, but the larger ones were sooner or later killed. Thus they kept quite large areas treeless for the pur- poses of cultivation. It would seem, from the remains of their villages and defensive works, their granaries and cultivated fields, together with the large number of their burying-places discovered, that they must have been a prosper- ous and numerous people, and that they had occupied the country for many generations. We find them upon the war-path as early as 1675, when they had made successful attacks upon Deerfield and Northfield, following which they went into winter-quarters at a place called " Coasset," a little above the railroad station at South Vernon, Vt. Their successes had been so great that they deemed themselves secure from attack,-so secure that they sent a large party to the falls (Turner's) on the Connecticut River, below the mouth of Miller's River, to fish for shad, when, on the morning of May 19, 1676, about daybreak, Captains Turner and Holyoke, with about one hundred and sixty men, fell upon their camp and killed a great number of the Indians. But just as the soldiers were re- turning to their horses, which they had con- cealed " a little way back," it was reported that King Philip, with a large force of Indians, were coming to the rescue. This rumor greatly alarmed the whites and caused them to fall into disorder, when the Indians immediately attacked

them and killed Captain Turner and thirty- seven of his men. The name of the tribe, "Squakheags," is a contraction of Namus- Squam-aug-khige, and signifies spearing-place for salmon, and, from the peculiarities of their language and tribal affinities, they would scem to have been very closely related to the Nasha- ways, whose hunting-grounds joined theirs at " the Great Monadnock."

At last the province of New Hampshire de- termined to recede from the unjust, if honor- able, position it had taken, when, just prior to the abandonment of the settlement, Colonel Willard wrote Governor Benning Wentworth :

"Almost every man is upon the move in this part of the country. I have had no sleep these three nights, and have now nine families stoped at my house. We have persuaded the bigger part of the people to tarry a little longer."

He then asked that the settlements might re- ceive assurances of protection ; to which the province of New Hampshire replied, under date of May 3, 1745, through her General Court :

"Fort Dummer is Fifty miles distant from any towns which have been settled by the Government of or the people of New-Hampshire. That the people had no rights to the lands which, by the dividing line, had fallen within New-Hampshire, notwithstanding the plausible arguments that had been used to induce them to bear the expence of the line, namely, that the land would be given to them or be sold to pay the ex- pence. That the charge of maintaining that Fort at so great a distance, and to which there was no com- munication by roads, would excede what had been the whole expence of the Government before the line was established, and, finally, that there was no dan- ger that these parts would want support, since it was the interest of Massachusetts, by whom they were erected (the Forts), to maintain them as a cover to their frontiers."

They thus refused to protect their own, either from mercenary motives or a want of humanity, or an absolute inability to do what was required. Let us all believe it was the latter reason ; for, on Monday, July 2, 1753 :

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WINCHESTER.

" At a Council and General Assembly holden at Portsmouth. Present-His Excellency, Benning Wentworth, Esq., Governor, Theodore Atkinson, Rich- ard Wibird, John Downing, Samuel Sulley, Daniel Warner and Sampson Sheaffe, Esqrs. His Excellency laid before the Board the petition of Josiah Willard, Esq., for himself and in behalf of the settlers and claimers of a tract of land bounding partly on the Province line, partly on Northfield (so called) and partly on the Connecticut River, called by the name of Winchester as the same was granted by the Mas- sachusetts Government. Praying for a grant of the said tract or township agreeable to their former sur- veys, divisions and partitions, &c., which being read at the Board by His Excellency, put the question to the Council when they would advise him to make a Charter agreeable to the petition. To which the Council did consent and advise."

Upon which His Excellency issued the fol- lowing :

" Province of New Hampshire.

"George the Second, by the Grace of God of Great Britain, France and Ireland, King, Defender of the faith &c.

"To all persons to whom the presents shall come, Greeting : Whereas sundry of our loving subjects before the settlement of the dividing line of our Province of New Hampshire aforesaid and our other Governments of the Massachusetts Bay, be- gan a settlement of a tract of land lying partly on Connecticut River and partly on our said dividing line, and made sundry divisions of and improvements upon the said tract of land and there remained until the Indian war forced them off and our said subjects being desirous to make an immediate settlement on the premises and having petitioned our Governor and Council for His Majesties Grant of the premises to be so made as might not subvert and destroy their former surveys and laying out in severalty made thereon as aforesaid.

"Now know ye that we of our especial grace, cer- tain knowledge, and mere motion for answering the end above said, and for the due encouragement of settling the said Plantation by and with the advice of our trusty and well beloved Benning Wentworth, Esq'., our Governor and Commander in Chief of our said Province of New Hampshire in America, and of our Council of the said Province. Have upon the

conditions and reservations hereafter made, given and granted, and by these presents for us our Heirs and successors, do give and grant unto our loving subjects, Inhabitants of our said Province of New Hampshire and His Majesties other Governments and to their heirs and assigns forever whose names are entered upon this Grant, to be divided to and amongst them into so many and such shares and proportions as they now hold or claim the same by purchase, contract, vote or agreement, made amongst themselves. All that tract or parcel of land lying and being within our said Province of New Hampshire containing by admeas- urement, twenty-three thousand and forty acres, which tract is to contain six miles square and no more, out of which an allowance is to be made for highways and unimprovable Lands, by rocks, moun- tains, ponds and rivers, one thousand forty acres free, according to a plan thereof made and presented by our said Governor's order and hereunto annexed, butted and bounded as follows, viz. : bigining at a beach tree marked for the southwest corner of Rich- mond; from thence running west 10º N. on the Proy- ince Line four miles to the easterly line of North- field (so called); thence runs Northerly on said line to the northeast corner of Northfield aforesaid ; then runs west on the aforesaid line of Northfield to Connecticut River ; thence running up said River to the southwest corner of Chesterfield ; then runs south 73° East until that point intersects a line running North by the needle from the first mentioned found tree, and the same be and hereby is incorporated in Town by the name of Winches- ter, and the inhabitants that do or shall hereaf- ter inhabit said township are hereby declared to be enfranchised with and entitled to all and every the privileges and immunities that other towns within our said Province do exercise and enjoy. And furthermore, that the said town, as soon as there shall be fifty families residing there, shall have the liberty to open and keep a market one or more days in each week, as may be thought. most advantageous to the inhabitants. Also, that the first meeting for the choice of town officers and other affairs, agreeable to the laws of our said Province, shall be held on the third tuesday in August next, which meeting shall be notified by Josiah Willard, Esq., who is hereby ap- pointed the moderator of the said meeting, which he is to notify and govern agreeable to the laws and cus- toms of our said Province, and that the annual

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HISTORY OF CHESHIRE COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

meeting forever hereafter, for the choice of such officers for the said Town, shall be on the first tues- day of March, annually.

" To have and to hold the said tract of land as above expressed, together with all the priviledges and appurtenances to them and their respective heirs and assigns forever, upon the following conditions, viz. : That every Grantee, his heirs and assigns, shall plant or cultivate five acres of land within the term of five years for every fifty acres contained in his or their share or proportion of land in the said Town- ship, and to continue to improve and settle the same by additional cultivations, on penalty of the forfeit- ure of his grant or share in said Township, and its reverting to his majesty, his heirs and Successors, to be by him or them regranted to such of his subjects as shall effectually settle and cultivate the samc. That all white and other pine-trees within the said Township fit for masting our royal navy, may be carefully preserved for that use, and none to be cut or felled without his majesties especial license for so doing first had and obtained, upon the penalty of the forfeiture of the right of such Grantee, his heirs or assigns to us, our heirs and successors, as well as be- ing subject to the penalty of any Act of Parliament, that are or shall be hereafter enacted.

" Also, reserving the power of adding to or dividing the said Town, so far as it relates to incorporations, only to us, our heirs and successors, when it shall be necessary or convenient for the benefit of the inhabit- ants thereof. Also, subjecting the unimprovable lands within this Grant to an annual tax of one penny to an acrc, for two years from the date here- of, for the building a meeting-house, and settling a Gospel minister in said town. That before any further divisions of the land be made to and amongst the Grantees, a tract of land in the most commodious place the land will admit of shall be reserved and marked out for town lots, one of which shall be allotted to each Grantee of the contents of one acre yealding and paying therefor to us, our heirs and successors for the space of ten years, to be computed from the date hereof the an- nual rent of one ear of indian corn only com- mencing on the first day of January next ensuing the date hereof, if lawfully demanded, and every Proprie- tor settled or inhabitant shall yield and pay unto us our heirs and successors yearly and every year forever from and after the expiration of the ten years from

the date hereof namely on the first day of January which will be in the year of our Lord Christ, one thousand seven hundred and sixty-four, one shilling Proclamation money for every hundred acres he so owns settles or possesses, and so in proportion for a greater or lesser tract of the said land. Which money shall be paid by the respective persons above said, their heirs or assigns in our Council Chamber in Portsmouth, or to such Officer or officers as shall be appointed to receive the same and this to be in lieu of all other rents and services whatsoever. In wit- ness whereof we have caused the seal of said Province to be hereunto affixed.

" Witness Benning Wentworth, Esq. Our Governor and Commander in Chief of our said Province. The second of July in the year of our Lord Christ 1753 and in the 27th year of our reign.

" B. WENTWORTHI.

" By his Excelencys command with advice of Coun- cil.

"THEODORE ATKINSON, Sect.

"Province of New Hampshire July 2ª 1753, re- corded in the Book of Charters 169 page.

"THEODORE ATKINSON, Secty."

The names of these grantces of Winchester were :

" Josiah Willard Elisha Root

Samuel Ashley Jacob Davis

Joseph Ashley Samuel Taylor

Simon Willard Davis Field

Nathaniel Rockwood James Jewell

Ebenezer Alexander John Peirce

Elias Alexander Anthony Pcirce

William Symus

Simon Peirce

Benjamin Melvin

John Saylerman

John Ellis

Thadeus Mason

Jonathan Morton

Nathaniel Foster

William Orvis

Josiah Foster

John Summers

Thomas Grecmon

Henry Bond

The Heirs of Joseph

William Temple

Lemous, deceased.

Jonathan Parkest

Sarah Martin

Samuel Whitemore

Joseph Burchard

Samuel Chickley Jr

Daniel Lewis

Benjamin Bird

Benjamin Lynds

Francis Coggwell

Oliver Willard

Nathan Willard

William Willard

Wilder Willard

Valentinc Butler

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WINCHESTER.

John Brown

Jonathan Edwards

Moses Belding

James Rider

Joanna Pierce

Joseph Marrifield

Ebenezer Hinsdale

Nathaniel Hastings

William Hancock

Jabez Hills

William Neagos

Ephraim Tuttle

Moses Chamberlain John More

Samuel Stone

Hezekiah Wright

Martin Ashley

Thomas Swetman

Joseph Blanchard

Samuel Field

Timothy Minot

Samuel Hunt

Joshua Lyman

"His Excelency Benning Wentworth, Esq', a tract of Land containing five Hundred acres. One- seventieth part of sª tract of Land for the incorporated Society for the propagation of the Gospel in foreign parts. One-seventieth part of the sª tract for the first settled minister of ye Gospel in the sd Town. One-seven- tieth part of sª Granted tract for a Glebe for the Church of England by law Established.

" Thomas Hancock Gaius Field

Palatia Webster John Allen

Thomas Taylor

"Province of New-Hampshire July 2ª 1753 entered & recorded in the Book of Charters page 171 & 172. " Per "THEO' ATKINSON Secry."

Having received these assurances of recogni- tion and protection from the provincial govern- ment of New Hampshire, the grantees and proprietors of Winchester, under date of August 21, 1753, proceeded to reorganize their town government, whch had been interrupted for a period of about seven years. The record of the meeting is as follows :

"At a Legal meeting of the Inhabitants and Grantees of the township of Winchester, held at the house of Major Josiah Willard Esq 1 in Winchester on tuesday the twenty-first day of August agreeable to the Direction of the Charter of Said township where- by sª Josiah Willard Esq is appointed moderator of Said meeting.

" Voted and Chose Maj Josiah Willard Esqr Colo" William Symes Mr Samuel Ashley Selectmen and as- sessors for the remaining part of this year. Voted and chose Nath" Rockwood, Town Clerk. Voted and

chose Lieu Simon Willard Town Treasurer. Voted and chose Benjamin Melvin Constable.

" Voted, and chose Ebn' Alexander & Elias Alex- ander, Surveyors of Highways. Voted, and chose Josiah Foster and William Temple, fence-viewers. Voted, and chose John Ellis, hog-reeve. Voted, and chose Nath1 Rockwood, Sealer of Waights and Measures. Voted, to adjourn this meeting for the space of an hour, and then met and Voted, raise the Sum of Seventy-five Pounds for Preeching and Mend- ing High-wayes and other Necessary Charges. Voted, that for high way worke four shillings and six pence to a man pr day, and two shillings for a Yoke of Oxen per day. Voted, that the proprietary affairs of this town be for the future transacted and carried on Sep- erately and Distinct, from Town affairs, and to this End, that Proprietary Meetings be Held from time to time, as shall be necessary, and all needful Proprie- tary officers be chosen. Voted, and chose Major Josiah Willard, Esq", Proprietors' Clarke. Voted, and chose Lieutenant Simon Willard, Proprietors' Treasurer. Voted, and chose Major Josiah Willard, Nath1 Rock- wood, Oliver Willard, assesors to assess the Penny Acre tax, Enjoyned by Charter on unimproved Lands. Voted, and chose William Willard Collector of Sª Tax. Voted, and chose Major Josiah Willard, Col' William Symes, Lieu Simon Willard, Lieut Nathan Willard, Lieu Elias Alexander, Samuel Ashley, Wil- liam Temple, or any three of them, to examine and Settle Claimes of the Grantees mentioned in the Charter. Voted, and chose Major Josiah Willard, Cobo Symes, Lieut Simon Willard, Nathan Rock- wood, Samuel Ashley, Lieu Elias Alexander and William Willard or any three of them a committee to Complete the Laying-out the divisions formerly granted, and to Lay out Suetable ways and Roods. Voted, that no plan be put upon Record without being signed by at Leest fouer of Said Comtee Chosen, Com- pleat the Laying-out The Said divisions formerly granted. Voted, that Maj" Josiah Willard be desired to Convey the Charter of the Township of Winches- ter Granted us, and Request that Gaius Field, and all others who can make out a fair Claim to any of the Lands Contained in Said Charter May have their names Entered Therein.

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History of Cheshire and Sullivan counties, New Hampshire, Part 89

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