USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > Concord > History of Concord, New Hampshire, from the original grant in seventeen hundred and twenty-five to the opening of the twentieth century, Volume I > Part 19
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garrison, on the south side of the Hopkinton road at Millville, a short distance southeast of the point where the old road from Long pond comes into the former,-Jonathan Eastman, Amos Eastman, Jeremiah Bradley, Seaborn Peters, Abner Hoit, Jacob Hoit, Timothy Bur- banks, Isaac Citizen.
There was also a garrison around the house of Edward Abbott, at the southeast corner of the present Montgomery and Main streets ; another around James Osgood's tavern,-the first in the settlement,- on the east side of Main street, at the southeast corner of its junc- tion with Depot street ; and still another around the house of George Abbott, on the modern Fayette street, not far from its junction with Main. The committee did not appoint the last three to be " standing garrisons "; but the occupants, inasmuch as they had " made no pro- vision for house room and conveniences in the respective garrisons where they " had been " placed, and the season of the year so much " demanded " their labor for their necessary support, that " it was " difficult to move immediately," were allowed to remain where they were " until further orders." And they were required, "as long as there stated, to attend to the necessary duty of watching, warding, &c., as if " those houses " had been determined standing garrisons."1
In the stress of danger from Indian attack, the persons "stated " at the garrisons left their own houses, and repaired thither. Men labored in the field, in companies, whenever practicable, with guns at hand, and not infrequently with a mounted guard. Three alarm guns from a fort announced approaching mischief, and put the settlement on the alert. Every Sabbath the men went armed and equipped to the log meeting-house, itself a fort, and stacking their muskets around the center post, sat down to worship " with powder-horn and bullet- pouch slung across their shouldiers," 1 while Parson Walker officiated, with his gun-the best in the parish-standing beside him in the pulpit.
Early in 1746 the red allies of the French resumed hostile opera- tions all along the New Hampshire frontiers. Though the inhabitants and the government were on the alert ; though garrisons were guarded at the public expense, and scouting parties were continually " scour- ing the woods "; though a heavy scalp or captive bounty was set upon every hostile "male Indian " upward of twelve years of age, the wily foe, escaping detection, scored frequent successes. On the 27th of April, the Indians appeared in the Merrimack valley, taking eight captives at Woodwell's garrison in Hopkinton. Shortly, Cap- tain John Goffe, in fruitless pursuit of the adroit enemy, appeared in Rumford, at the head of fifty men, having for special destination
1 Bouton's Concord, 154-156.
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" the Pemidgewasset, Winnipisseoca, and the great carrying place in the adjacent country," with "Canterbury his rendezvous." While at Rumford he hears of an attack at Contoocook, in early May, in which two men were killed and another was captured. "With all expedition " he proceeds to " do what " he "can to see the enemy." In his indignant anxiety, and before going " up to Contucook," the zealous captain writes to Governor Wentworth, from " Pennecook, about 2 of the clock in the morning, May 5th, 1746," as follows : " The Indians are all about our frontiers. I think there was never more need of soldiers than now. It is enough to make one's blood boil in one's veins to see our fellow-creatures killed and taken upon every quarter. And if we cannot catch them here, I hope the gen- eral court will give encouragement to go and give them the same play at home."1 Evidently, in his last suggestion, the good captain had in view the expedition against Canada, which was then on foot, and for which eight hundred men were enlisted in New Hampshire, but which, for various reasons, was given up.
The summer was passing ; the people of Rumford were in constant apprehension ; no one knew when or where the lurking savages might strike. Any thicket might be his ambuscade; and from any wooded covert he might dart to kill or captivate. The imminence of peril is attested by the fact that about this time several Indians-as they testified after peace-secreted themselves at night in windrows of new hay upon the premises of Dr. Ezra Carter, near the site of what was to become the "State House Park," with the intention of surprising the owner when he should resume hay-making the next day. But a long rain setting in early in the morning, they left their ambush and gave up their meditated attack ; "conceiving the Great Spirit to have sent the rain " for the protection of their intended vic- tim.2
In July Captain Daniel Ladd of Exeter enlisted a company of about fifty men for scout duty at Canterbury, Rumford, and the neighborhood. The company had done this duty and returned to Exeter, where the men furloughed till the 5th of August. Reassem- bling on that day, they returned northward. On the 7th, when near Massabesic pond, Captain Ladd turned aside, with about thirty of his command, upon a reported trail of twelve or fifteen savages in Chester, leaving Lieutenant Jonathan Bradley and the rest of the company to continue their march to Rumford; where some tarried in garrison, and whence others went to Canterbury. Captain Ladd came in with his detachment on Sunday, the 10th of August.3
1 Prov. Papers, Vol. V, 800.
2 Annals of Concord, 35.
3 Adjutant-General's Report, Vol. II, 93.
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Indians of St. Francis,-it is supposed,-from fifty to a hundred in number, were already hovering about the settlement, awaiting an opportunity to do the most harm to the inhabitants with the least risk to themselves. They had seen Lieutenant Bradley's force divided, and a part sent to Canterbury, and relying on the inade- quacy of military protection, they seem to have determined to attack the people while at church the coming Sabbath. On the night of Saturday, the 9th of August, parties of them secreted themselves in the vicinity of the meeting-house ; some hiding a short distance southeast of it, among alders beyond the road, and others in bushes to the northwest between it and the intersection of the present State and Franklin streets. The people went to meeting on Sunday as usual-the men all armed. Captain Ladd, too, as has been seen, came into town with his detachment of thirty scouts. On the whole, the " posture of defense" was unexpectedly too strong. This is, at least, a probable reason why no attack was made that day. During worship a glimpse of lurking red faces was caught by Abigail, the young sister of Dr. Ezra Carter ; but she did not disturb the ser- vice by revealing the discovery until the meeting closed, and the con- gregation dispersed unharmed.
The savages then took position in a body a mile and a half south- west of the main settlement, in the covert of a deeply wooded valley, not far south of the Hopkinton road. As Jonathan Eastman's gar- rison was farther westward along that road, they may have thought it likely that some of Captain Ladd's men would soon be going to that fort, and that they might waylay the dreaded scouts. In that covert they were lying in ambush on the morning of Monday, the 11th of August, when the opportunity which they sought came to them. For Lieutenant Jonathan Bradley, with seven companions, set out for Eastman's fort in the early hours of that bright hay-day, intending to return by noon, "in order to go to Canterbury in the afternoon, or at least to get fit to go."1 Six of the lieutenant's seven companions -Samuel Bradley, Sergeant Alexander Roberts, William Stickney, Daniel Gilman, John Lufkin, and John Bean -- were members of Captain Ladd's company ; the seventh, Obadiah Peters, belonged to Captain Nathaniel Abbott's company of Rumford militia. The party took a path, or road, extending westward along the course of the modern Franklin street, and bending somewhat abruptly southward into the "old Road " (or High street), and finally coming out upon the Hopkinton road (or Pleasant street). This last the main party
1 Journal of Abner Clough, clerk of Captain Ladd's company. This journal and the nar- rative of Reuben Abbot, both published in the fourth volume of the Collections of the New Hampshire Historical Society, supply the main facts as to the massacre; and the direct quotations therefrom are carefully marked in the text.
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pursued to a locality about a mile and a half from the meeting-house ; but Daniel Gilman went ahead some rods, to shoot a hawk seen at a distance. Him the savages let pass, probably not wishing to spoil a better chance at the seven men following leisurely. As these men approached the ambush three shots were fired upon them. Gilman heard them, but supposed at first that his companions had " shot at a deer." 1 He ran " back about forty rods upon a hill so that he could see over upon the other hill where the Indians lay, and shot upon the men, and heard Lieutenant Jonathan Bradley say, ' Lord, have mercy on me-fight !'"1 The lieutenant and three of his men fired ; "and then the Indians rose up and shot a volley, and run out into the path making all sorts of howling and yelling."1 Whereupon Gilman " did not stay long,"1 but hastened to bear the fearful tidings to Eastman's fort a mile away.
Lieutenant Bradley, supposing that the few Indians who fired first comprised the whole force, thought that " he and his six men could manage them,"2 and therefore he gave the order to fight, and return the fire; but when this fire was answered by a volley from so large.a body, " he ordered his men to run and take care of themselves." 2 But already four of them-Obadiah Peters, John Bean, John Lufkin, and Samuel Bradley-had received death shots. "The Indians then rushed upon Jonathan Bradley, William Stick- ney, and Alexander Roberts-took " the last two prisoners, and offered Bradley " good quarter. But he refused to receive quarter " from foes of a race whose mercy to his ancestors and relatives, in former wars, had been but cruelty, and fought stiffly,-albeit with strength somewhat diminished by recent sickness,-against that cloud of Indians, until, with face smitten by tomahawk blows, and gashed with knives, and with skull fractured, he was brought to the ground, and there despatched, scalped, and " stripped nearly naked." His younger brother, Samuel, had already perished, shot through the lungs ; but fell only after running five rods along the path, while " the blood started every step he took." 3 It was a common saying in those days, verified in the case of these brothers, " It takes a hard blow to kill a Bradley."
The fight was over; the corpses of five brave white men lay man- gled and despoiled. Only one of the enemy was then known to have been slain, and he-as supposed-by the undaunted licuten- ant. But when Alexander Roberts escaped and returned from cap- tivity, the next year, he reported four Indians killed and several wounded,-two mortally, who were carried away on litters, and soon
1 Clough's Journal.
2 Reuben Abbot's Narrative.
8 Clough's Journal and Abbot's Narrative.
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after died. The Indians buried two of their dead in the Great Swamp, under large hemlock logs, and two others in the mud, some distance up the river, where their bones were afterward found.1 The guns were not heard in the main settlement, "because the wind was not fair to hear," and it was more than an hour afterward that there came a post down from Eastman's fort with the startling intelli- gence. Then three guns,-the appointed signal of alarm, -- fired at Walker's fort, sent soldiers and others to the scene of the tragedy. Reuben Abbot and Abial Chandler at work making hay in the Fan, near Sugar Ball, ran, on hearing the alarm guns, up to the garrison, and found the soldiers who were stationed there, and such men 'as could be spared, had gone to where the men were killed.1 They followed, and taking the foot-path somewhat diagonal to the regular route, and lying partly along the course of what subsequently be- came Washington street, arrived at the spot where the bodies lay as soon as those who went round on the main road.2 But the arrival of the soldiers and others was too late for vengeance ; at their ap- proach the Indians fled like cowards, leaving their packs and various things which the soldiers took.2 The woods were ranged awhile after for the captives,3 but in vain. The bodies of the dead were collected. Samuel Bradley was found in the wood "on the east side of a brook running through the farm formerly owned by one Mitchell,-stripped naked, scalped, and lying on his face in the road, within half a rod of the bridge over that brook." His brother Jonathan lay "about ten feet out of the road, on the south side, and about two rods east of the brook. Obadiah Peters " was found in the road shot through the head. Bean and Lufkin had run from the brook toward the main road about six rods, and fallen within a rod of each other on the north side of the road as traveled 2 in later days. The bodies of the dead were laid side by side in a cart, which had been sent with a pair of oxen from Eastman's fort; and, as all others refused the gruesome task, Reuben Abbot, then twenty-four years of age, drove the rude ambulance, under guard of soldiers and inhabitants, to James Osgood's garrison. There an excited and sor- rowing multitude received the sad procession. "They wept aloud; " and "mothers lifted up their children to see the dead bodies in the cart."4 The widow of Samuel Bradley, overwhelmed with anguish, was there with her little son, John, less than three years old, who retained, through a long, useful, and honored life, a vivid impression of the ghastly scene-an impression so strong that a terror of the Indians haunted him for many years.4 The next day came an in-
Bouton's Concord, 165.
" Reuben Abbot's Narrative.
3 Clough's Journal.
4 Bouton's Concord, 161.
13
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pressive funeral, and the dead were buried in two graves near the northwest corner of the old burying-ground; the Bradleys in one, Lufkin, Peters, and Bean in another.1
The Bradleys slain were sons of Abraham Bradley, a useful and trusted citizen, who came to Penacook in 1730. They were young men of high character, enterprising and brave, and had seen much scouting service. Jonathan, the elder, was about thirty years of age, and a resident of Exeter, whither he had recently removed. Samuel lived with his father on the homestead in Rumford-the homestead which John, his son, inherited, and which was to descend in regular succession to grandson and great-grandson. Obadiah Peters was the son of Seaborn Peters, one of the first settlers of Penacook. His father lived near the Millville fort whither the party were going. Oba- diah had served with Captain Eastman at Louisburg. Of John Bean and Jolm Lufkin nothing is known save that the former was from Brentwood, and the latter from Kingston. William Stickney, who was captured and taken to Canada, was the son of Jeremiah Stick- ney, one of Rumford's prominent citizens. After a year's captivity he escaped with a friendly Indian. According to the report of the latter, Stickney, when within a day's journey of home, was drowned in a stream which he was attempting to cross. Alexander Roberts, as before mentioned, also escaped from captivity, and reported the loss of the Indians in their attack. He claimed a bounty for having killed an Indian, and obtained it upon producing a skull bone before the general court. Of the seventy-five pounds appropriated as a tribute of honor to the participants in the memorable affair, Roberts received fifteen pounds, bounty included ; Daniel Gilman, and the heirs or legal representatives of Obadiah Peters, John Lufkin, John Bean, and William Stickney, each seven pounds ten shillings; and the widows of Jonathan and Samuel Bradley, each, eleven pounds five shillings.2 The general assembly, with the consent of the gov- ernor, made appropriation to James Osgood for funeral expenses,3 in- cluding five coffins, and "drink for the peopel." 4
A large tree, standing near the place of massacre, was soon after marked with the initials of the slain, and stood for many years, and until cut down, the only memorial of the event. But the memory of the brave men who perished there deserved a more durable monu- ment, and such it received within a century, when, in 1837, a granite shaft was, because of difficulty in obtaining the desired site, erected a few rods east of the scene of the massacre, and on the opposite side of the road, by Richard, grandson of Samuel Bradley.5
1 See note at close of chapter.
4 Bouton's Concord, 166 (note).
2 Prov. Papers, Vol. V, 541.
3 Prov. Papers, Vol. V, 863.
5 See Bradley Monument at close of chapter.
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Though the savages did not remain in large force at Rumford, after the August attack, yet they lurked about in small parties during the autumn, so that a military guard was requisite to the security of the inhabitants. Captain Ladd's company remained in Rumford and the neighborhood till October. Other volunteers took the place of those slain, among these being Ebenezer and Joseph, sons of Captain Eben- ezer Eastman, and Robert Rogers, the famous ranger of the next war. Other companies were scouting in the vicinity till December.
On the 10th of November, after the disbandment of Captain Ladd's company, a man named Estabrook came in from Hopkinton to request of Dr. Carter professional services in that town. The doctor con- sented to accompany him, and taking " his bridle and saddle-bags," went to the pasture in Deacon George Abbott's lot, south of the Hopkinton road, to get his horse. But what was unusual, the ani- mal could not be caught. The doctor, waving his hand to Estabrook, who was in haste to return home before night, told him to "go on." The latter did so, and had reached a point eighty rods east of the scene of the August massacre, when he was shot dead by an Indian enemy. The gun was heard in the main settlement, and within half an hour a pursuing party found the body of the dead man,1 but saw nothing of his slayers, though they, or others of the same sort, were nine days later " discovered by their tracks in a small snow." 2 But for the unwonted reluctance of a horse to take the bridle, its owner would undoubtedly have shared the fate of Estabrook.
In those days Indian surprises and narrow escapes from Indian violence were frequent enough to attest the reasonableness of the constant apprehension that existed, and justified precaution. Thus, Captain Henry Lovejoy, returning on horseback one evening, from Osgood's garrison to his own in the west settlement, feared that he might be waylaid in a gully south of Ephraim Farnum's. As he approached the crossing he bethought himself to shout, as if in com- mand of a force, " Rush on, my boys! be ready to fire!" and then galloped over at good speed. Having reached home in safety, "he went to turn his horse into a pasture on the north side of Rattlesnake hill, and while letting down the bars he noticed " disturbance among the cows. "Inferring that Indians were near, he turned toward the garrison, and hid himself under a large windfall tree. Immediately two Indians, with guns, trotted over the tree in pursuit." He re- tained his hiding-place " till they returned and went off," when he left covert and " regained the fort." 3
Another incident has its ludicrous element, but shows the brave
Facts related by Benjamin Gale, grandson of Dr. Ezra Carter; see Bouton's Concord, 177. ' Dr. Ezra Carter's Petition, cited in Annals of Concord, 26.
$ Bouton's Concord, 181.
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spirit of woman in that time of oft impending danger. One evening at twilight, Betsey, a daughter of Abner Hoit, left Jonathan Eastman's garrison, where her father was "stated," to do the milking on the home premises, some distance off.1 She was accompanied by a sol- dier, named Roane, as a guard. While she was engaged at her task the guard sat on the cow-yard fence ; but instead of looking out for Indians, he fastened his eyes upon the busy maiden. Observing his gaze, she said, " Roane, you better look the other way, and see if there are any Indians." The soldier, somewhat abashed, turned his eyes just in time to see " an Indian with tomahawk in hand, creep- ing slyly toward him." Roane, with a scream, " leaped from the fence, gun in hand, leaving Betsey to do the best she could for her- self." But the plucky maiden was equal to the perilous emergency, and made her way without her guard and in safety to the garrison.2
In 1747 the inhabitants of Rumford began early to provide means for continued defense. In town-meeting, on the 9th of February, they chose Captain Ebenezer Eastman and Henry Lovejoy to solicit aid from the governor and general court.3 The assembly not being in session till March, Captain Eastman, on the 12th of the month, presented " a petition for some assistance of soldiers in . . . Penny- Cook," representing that "the inhabitants " were " much exposed to the Indian cnemy," and were "in daily fear " of an attack " by such a number as " would " be too many for them, unless they " had " some help"; and that they were "about to quit the place unless they " could " be protected "; for, " on the eighth day of March, there " had been "a discovery of an Indian near Canterbury fort, which caused much fear and apprehension that there " was " a body of the enemy waiting an opportunity to do mischief."4 Upon this petition, the house expressed the desire " that his excellency would cause to be enlisted or impressed twenty-five good, effective men to scout on the western side of Merrimack river near to PennyCook, &c." 5 Whether or not the desire was complied with is not known, but if it was, compliance did not furnish adequate security. For on the 2d of April the assembly was urged again to grant men in aid of Rum- ford, and on the 4th the governor assented to a vote of the house for enlisting or impressing " one hundred and forty-four men to be employed for six months, or till the twentieth of October, in defend- ing the frontiers, guarding the people at work, and scouting,"- twenty-four of whom were to be posted " at Pennecook."
About the middle of July extraordinary alarm was felt, and sixty-
1 On what became the " B. H. Weeks place."
2 Related in substance by Jacob Hoit, who was a grandson of Abner, and resided many years on "the Mountain," in East Concord; Bouton's Concord, 178.
8 Town Records, 90, 4 Prov, Papers, Vol. V, 859. 5 Ibid, 860.
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two of the citizens of Rumford petitioned the provincial authorities for a reinforcement of soldiers. They declared in their earnest peti- tion : " We have great reason to fear a speedy attack from the enemy with a force too great to be matched by us, with what assistance wc at present (through your Excellency's and Honors' great goodness), have from the province. The plain and evident tracks of a consider- able number were discovered by our scout the last week. Guns have been heard both here and at Contoocook upon the Sabbath and [at] other times, and [at] places where it is certain no English were. The news of a formidable armament sent from Canada to Crown Point obtained such credit with the government of the Massa- chusetts bay as induced them to provide a prodigious reinforcement to strengthen their western barrier: and such is our situation, that, as the rivers Hudson and Connecticut lie most exposed to incursions from Crown Point, so ours is the next; and the experience of this whole war has taught us that whenever any smart attack has been made upon any of the settlements on Connecticut river, the enemy has never failed of sending a considerable number to visit our river. While our ordinary business was hoeing, we could work in such large companies as not to be in such imminent danger of being massacred by the enemy, which, now [that] haying and English harvest come on, will be impracticable, without vast detriment to the whole, and utter ruin to some." 1 In answer to this petition, and, as it seems, upon the actual "approach of a considerable body of Indians" at Rumford, Governor Wentworth ordered thither a reinforcement of thirty men. In August and September Captain Ebenezer Eastman had command of a scouting party ; 2 as also of another the following winter.3
In March the "committee of militia " made some new arrange- ments as to the garrisons. Those of the Reverend Timothy Walker, Timothy Walker, Jr., Joseph Hall, and Jeremiah Stickney were con- tinued,-the last and that of Edward Abbott being made to con- stitute one garrison. Some changes to suit changed circumstances were made as to the inhabitants "stated " in those forts. But as " the pressing of the enemy " had " compelled two of the stated gar- risons to break up "-namely, those of Henry Lovejoy and Jonathan Eastman-the committee ordered them to "be thrown up and not kept, until the inhabitants posted at " them should " have further assistance and be willing to return "; these, "in the meantime," being "ordered to the " four authorized " garrisons, as most conven- ient for them." 4
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