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 8
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When, in 1620, the first permanent English settlement in New England was made at Plymouth, the strong chieftain, Passaconaway -or Papisseconewa, the "Child of the Bear"-was, as he had been for years, at the head of the Penacook nation, or confederacy. He is first historically mentioned by Christopher Levett, "His Majesty's Woodward, and one of the Council of New England," who, late in 1625, visited David Thomson, at his new plantation, taken up, that year, at Odiorne's Point, or Pannaway, in permanent occupation, as the first English settlement in New Hampshire. In a diary of this visit to the region of the Piscataqua, Levett records that he saw an Indian, whom he calls "Conway," in a natural English abbreviation of the real but lengthy Indian name. That the chief sachem of the Pen- acooks should have been in that vicinity at that time seems reason- able, both from his custom of making visits, or taking up temporary residence, among the subordinate sagamoreships in the region by the sea, and from the special interest he must have felt in the new white settlement within his domain.
. He was now perhaps fifty or sixty years of age. To have gained the position of power and influence which he undeniably held with his warlike people, he must have been efficient upon the war-path, and the scalps of defeated foes must have hung from his wigwam pole. He had probably led in the wars, offensive and defensive, of which mention has already been made. And from all that is known of him, the inference seems just, that a superior discernment and moderation, together with an extraordinary skill in the arts of the juggler and the incantations of the medicine man, striking the imag- ination of the untutored red man as miraculous, and that of the superstitious white mån as devilish, had quite as much to do in estab- lishing his power, as his prowess in war. Morton, an ancient and
1 Bouton's Concord, 20. 2 Bouton's Concord, 26.
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contemporary historian, quaintly writes of him : " That sachem is a Powah-that is, a witch, or sorcerer, that cures by the help of the devil-of greate estimation amongst all kind of salvages. There hee is at their Revels-which is the time when a greate company of savages meete from severall parts of the countree, in amity with their neigh- bours-hath advanced his honor in his feats or juggling tricks, to the admiration of the spectators, whome hee endeavoured to persuade that hee would goe under water to the further side of a river to broade for any man to undertake with a breath ; which thing hee per- formed by swimming over, and deluding the company with casting a mist before their eies that see him enter in and come out, but no part of the way hee has bin seene. Likewise, . in the heat of summer, to make ice appear in a bowle of faire water; first, having the water set before him, he hath begunne his incantation-and before the same hath been ended, a thicke cloude has darkened the aire, and on a sodane a thunder-clap hath bin heard that has amazed the natives ; instant hee hath showed a firme peace of ice to floate in the midst of the bowle in the presence of the vulgar people, which doubt- less was done by the agility of Satan, his consort."1 With such power over the imagination of the red men of the forest, Passacona- way had inspired them with the reverential belief that he was endowed with supernatural powers, and that he who could do those wonderful things, and such others, as "make a dry leaf turn green, water burn and then turn to ice, and take the rattlesnake in his hand with impunity,"-must have control over their destinies, and, conse- quently, should have their obedience. Indeed, it was the case of the greatest mind finding its fit place as the ruling one.
Passaconaway was not at first a friend of the English who came to possess the Atlantic coast ; he disliked them as dangerous intruders, and would fain have prevented them from " sitting down here." He tried against them his mystic arts, but no sorceries could avail against the white man's encroachments. In 1631, the English settlements in his neighborhood were not so strong as necessarily to have precluded the idea of their extermination by war from the mind of the jealous chieftain. But his discernment and moderation now swayed his con- duct ; he was too " politic and wise a man "-as the Apostle Elliot has characterized him-to resort to war. Military considerations do not seem to have actuated his early pacific policy ; for he had at least five hundred warriors at his command-a body of fighting men, who, prac- · tising the savage tactics of ruse and ambuscade, though in small force, were equivalent, for the destructive purposes of the Indian campaign, to many times the same number of white troops employing the usual
1 Force's Hist. Tracts, Vol. 2; " N. E. Canaan," 25-26.
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methods of civilized warfare. He could have put the eagle's " feather in the scalp-lock," and urged the hostile onsets of his fighting men, to the present woe of Hilton's Point and Strawberry Bank, and even of the three-hilled Boston in the strong colony of Massachusetts Bay. But he refrained ; for with the clairvoyance of superior wisdom he appears to have realized the inherent strength of Anglo-Saxon civil- ization, that should go on conquering and to conquer, whatever aboriginal savagery might do to hinder. He bowed to the inevitable, and accepted such terms as destiny offered. In his forecast, war with the English was sure destruction to his race; and that forecast cer- tainly found terrible verification, in 1637, in the annihilation of the Pequots. Hence Passaconaway's pacific intention, deliberately formed, was permanent, being strengthened, as the years went on, by a desire to keep the friendship of his English neighbors, and secure their protection against the hostile "Tarratines of the east and the Mohawk of the west." He overcame jealousy, and became willing to sell lands, with " fishing, fowling, hunting, and planting " rights re- served. As early as 1632 he cheerfully delivered up to Massachusetts an Indian who had killed a white trader. He also learned thoroughly the hard lesson, how to bear and forbear; for those whose favor he always sought to conciliate did not always reciprocate in acts of kind- ness or justice. Thus, in 1642, upon a false alarm of an Indian con- spiracy, the Massachusetts authorities sent forty men to disarm Passaconaway, quietly abiding in his wigwam in the vicinity of Ipswich or Newbury. Prevented by a storm from reaching the sachem, the armed messengers contented themselves with investing the wigwam of his son, Wonolancet, and dragging him away, together with his squaw and little child. Breaking from the rope by which he was led along, Wonolancet attempted to escape, but, narrowly eluding the shots fired after him, was recaptured. Thereupon, the authori- ties, fearing that the outrage inflicted by their reckless agents upon the family of Passaconaway might disaffect him, sent him an apology, coupled with an invitation "to come to Boston and converse with them." To this, the chieftain made the reply, not lacking in dignity : " Tell the English, when they restore my son and his squaw, then I will, of my own accord. render in the required artillery." "Accord- ingly," says Governor Winthrop, " about a fortnight after, he sent his eldest son, who delivered up his guns." The same year, too, he gave his consent to the sale of lands at Pentucket, or Haverhill, "to the inhabitants thereof." But while putting away resentment, and show- ing an obliging disposition toward his white neighbors, "The Merri- mack Sachem " did not hurry to come formally under the government of Massachusetts, and it was not till 1644 that he, with his sons,
-
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" subscribed to articles " of submission. This result had been earn- estly desired by the ambitious colony, which had just brought into a forty years' union with itself, the then thinly inhabited region of New Hampshire, represented by its four settlements at Dover, Portsmouth, Exeter, and Hampton.
Though now a subject of Massachusetts, Passaconaway held to the manners and customs of his race. In the planting season, when the " oak leaf became as large as a mouse's ear," he found one favorite abode on Penacook (or Sewall's) island, and another at Naticook near the mouth of the Souhegan. There and elsewhere along " the great river," on the fertile intervals, were the fields of corn,-with beans, pumpkins, gourds, and melons interspersed,-which repaid rude cul- tivation by considerable crops. The withe-handled clam-shell hoe, wielded by a strong squaw, with a papoose strapped upon her back, proved a not very indifferent cultivator; and an alewife or two, or even a shad, placed in the hill was no ineffective fertilizer.
In the fishing season, the Penacook sachem, with sagamores and peoples, took temporary abode at Amoskeag or Pawtucket, where the salmon and other fish swarmed, or at Ahquedaukee,1 as the Indians called "The Weirs," where abounded the shad, having parted com- pany with the salmon at the meeting of the Pemigewasset and Winnepesaukee confluents of the Merrimack. It was a lively season of utility and pleasure for the " salvages," then gathered and quar- tered in the nomadic villages of wigwams, simple of construction, easily set up and easily removed.
It was during the fishing season of 1648 that John Elliot, the " Apostle of the Indians," in his work of " gathering companies of praying Indians," visited Pawtucket Falls, and here met Passa- conaway, with two of his sons. Elliot writes : "This last spring, I did meet old Papassaconaway, who is a great sagamore, and hath been a great witch in all men's esteem, and a very politic wise man. The last year, he and all his sons fled when I came, pretending feare that we would kill him. But this year, it pleased God to bow his heart to hear the word. I preached out of Malachi I: 11, which I render thus to them : From the rising of the sun to the going down of the same, thy name shall be great among the Indians ; and in every place prayers shall be made to thy name,-pure prayers,-for thy name shall be great among the Indians. . After a good space, this old Papassaconaway [did] speak to this purpose :- ' That indeed he had never prayed unto God as yet, for he had never heard of God before as now he doth.' And he said further: that he did believe what I taught them to be true, and for his own part, he was
1 Potter's Manchester, 33.
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purposed in his heart henceforth to pray unto God, and that he would perswade all his sonnes to do the same-pointing at two of them who were then present, and naming such as were absent. His sonnes present, especially his eldest sonne,-who is a sachem at Wadchusett,-gave his willing consent to what his father had prom- ised, and so did the other who was but a youth. And this act of his was not only a present motion that soon vanished, but a good while after [he] said that he would be glad if I would come and live in some place thereabouts and teach them, and that if any good ground or place that hee had would be acceptable to me, he would willingly let me have it."
Though Passaconaway seems himself to have been well convinced of the excellence of "praying to God,"-as the Indians called "all religion,"-yet "he had many men who would not believe," or harken to him, and he "earnestly, importunately invited " Elliot " to come and live there, and teach them; " urging that ministrations more frequent than " once a year " were necessary to convince them. And the request was urged with such " gravity, wisdom, and affection " that the Apostle's heart yearned " much towards them," and he had " a great desire to make an Indian town that way "-up along the Merrimack.
Subsequent years must have been quiet ones for the aged chieftain, since nothing is heard of him for ten years. In 1659, Major Richard Waldron, of Dover, who was much engaged in Indian traffic, met, at their invitation, Passaconaway and several other sagamores, at Pena- cook, where they were with " a great many Indians, at the fort which was by the river's side."1 The next year, 1660, there was a great gathering of Indians at Pawtucket Falls. They were of those subject to the authority of the "great sachem of Penacook." Passaconaway was there, venerable and venerated; and feeling that the end of a long life was near, spoke, at the feast, impressive words of fatherly advice. The substance of that farewell speech, which was heard by an Englishman 2 present, has been transmitted thus in history 3:
"I am now ready to die, and not likely to see you ever met to- gether any more. I will now leave this word of counsel with you, that you may take heed how you quarrel with the English ; for though you may do them much mischief, yet assuredly you will all be destroyed and rooted off the earth, if you do: for I was as much an enemy to the English on their first coming into these parts, as anyone whatsoever; and I did try all ways and means possible to have destroyed them,-at least, to have prevented their sitting down here, -- but I could no way effect it [meaning by his incantations and
1 N. H. Prov. Papers, Vol. I, 290. ? Daniel Gookin. & Hubbard's New England.
.
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sorceries] ; therefore I advise you never to contend with the English nor make war with them."
In sad sequel to such pathetic words of unrepining appeal, came those of two years later, when the old chief, former lord of the Merrimack valley, but now threatened with utter dispossession, through English grants, petitioned the government of Massachusetts, on this wise: "The petition of Papisseconnewa in the behalf of himself, as also of many other Indians who now for a long time, o'rselves [and] o'r progenators [were] seated upon a tract of land called Naticot, now in the possession of Mr. William
Brenton of Rode Iland, marchant, . by reason of which tracte of lande beinge taken up as aforesaid yr pore petitionr with many others is in an onsetled condition. The humble re- quest of yr petitionr is that this honerd Courte wolde to grante vnto vs a parcell of land for o'r comfortable cituation ; to be stated for o'r Injoyment, as also for the comfort of oths after us." In answer to this petition of the aged and impoverished sachem, whose submission to the jurisdiction of Massachusetts had been anxiously sought and gladly accepted, twenty years before, the Court judged "it meete to grant to the said Papisseconneway, and his men or associates about Naticot, above Mr. Brenton's lands, where it is free, a mile and a half on either side Merrimack river in breadth, [and] three miles on either side in length ;" including, at the suggestion of the surveyors, " two small islands,"1 on one of which " Papisseconneway had lived and planted a long time,-and a small patch of intervale land on the west side of the river, by estimation, about forty acres, which joineth their land to the Souhegan river." 2 On this contracted estate, the old chieftain probably spent the remnant of his days, ever faithful to the English and praying to their God,-now his. It is supposed that his death occurred at the age of a hundred years or more, and between the years 1663 and 16693: certainly, at the latter date, his son Wonolancet held the sachemship.
Six children of Passaconaway are mentioned in historical records, four sons and two daughters. The eldest son, Nanamocomuck, was, for a while, sagamore of the Wachusetts; the second, Wonolancet, was sachem of the Penacooks; of the two other sons, Unanunquoset and Nonatomenut, little or nothing, save their names, is known. One of the daughters married Nobhow, the sagamore of Pawtucket; Wanunchus,4 or Wenuchus, the other, became the wife of Monto- wampate, or James, as called by the English, sagamore of Saugus.
1 See note at close of chapter.
2 Mass. Archives, cited in Potter's Manchester, 61-2-3.
3 See note at close of chapter.
‘ See Wanunchus, in note at close of chapter.
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The latter marriage, which, as "The Bridal of Penacook," the poetic genius of Whittier has treated with fancy's graceful touch, has in its simple facts historic interest. According to Thomas Morton, who wrote in 1632, the young " sagamore of Saugus, when he came to man's estate, made choise of a lady of noble discent, daughter of Papasquineo, the sachem or sagamore of the territories neare Merri- mack river-a man of the best note and estimation in all those parts, and . . . a great nigromancer,-and with the consent and good liking of her father," took her "for his wife. Great entertainment hee and his receaved " in Penacook, "where they were fested in the best manner according to the custome of their nation, with reveling, and such other solemnities as is usual amongst them. The solemnity being ended," the father caused "a selected number of his men to waite upon his daughter " to the home of "her lord and hus- band-where the attendants had entertainment by the sachem of Saugus and his countrymen." At length, the young wife having "a great desire to see her father and her native country, . . her lord, willing to pleasure her, . commanded a selected num- ber of his owne men to conduct his lady to her father; where, with great respect they brought her, and having feasted there awhile, re- turned to their owne country-leaving the lady to continue there at her owne pleasure, amongst her friends and old acquaintance. . She passed away the time for a while, and, in the end, desired to return to her lord." Her father sent messengers "to the younge sachem, his sonne-in-law, to let him understand that his daughter was not willing to absente herself from his company any longer " and to request " the younge lord to send a convoy for her. But hee, stand- ing upon tearmes of honor, and the maintaining of his reputatio, returned to his father-in-law this answere : that when she departed from him, hee caused his men to waite upon her to her father's terri- tories, as it did bcome him ; but, now [that] shee had an intent to returne, it did become her father to send her back with a convoy of his own people; and that it stood not with his reputation to make himself or his men so servile [as] to fetch her againe. Papasiquineo, having this message returned, was inraged to think that his son-in- law did not esteeme him at a higher rate than to capitulate with him about the matter, and returned him this sharpe reply : That his daugh- ter's blond and birth deserved more respect than to be so slighted, and, therefore, if he would have her company, hee were best to send or come for her. The young sachem, not willing to undervalue him- selfe, and being a man of stout spirit, did not stick to say that he should either send her by his owne convoy, or keepe her, for he was not determined to stoope so low."
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"So much," adds Morton, "these two sachems stood upon tearme of reputation with each other, [that] the one would not send her, and the other would not send for her, lest it should be any diminishing of honor on his part that should seem to comply ; [so] that, the lady, -when I came out of the country,-remained still with her father."
How long Wanunchus remained away from her punctilious lord, Montowampate, or how she returned to him, is not known. But she was back with him in August, 1632, when a hundred "eastern Indians, called Tarratines," coming "with thirty canoes, assaulted, in the night, the wigwam of the sagamore of Agawam," at Ipswich, where Montowampate, or James, and his wife, Wanunchus, were on a visit. "They slew seven men, wounded James, and carried others away captive, amongst whom was the wife of James."1 The captives, however, were soon returned, with expectation of ransom.
The next year, " James, sagamore of Saugus, died of small-pox, and most of his folks," as says Winthrop. It is not thought that Wanunchus died with her husband, for she seems afterwards to have been " a principal proprietor of lands about Naumkeage, now Salem." A widow, after a chequered wedded life of five years, and still young, it is not an improbable surmise that she returned to her father at Penacook, where, certainly, were living, half a century or more later, 1686, two squaws, her granddaughters.2
As already seen, Wonolancet, the second son of Passaconaway, had by 1669-possibly four or five years earlier-succeeded his father as sachem of the Penacooks. He was born, probably, about 1619. His name, which signifies " breathing pleasantly," and which was received, it is supposed, according to the Indian custom, after reaching manhood, surely befitted his character. Mention has been made of his outrageous capture, in 1642, at the false alarm of Indian conspiracy. Afterward for years he dwelt upon the small island of Wickasauke, in the Merrimack, above the present Lowell. This pleasant home he was licensed by the General Court of Massachu- setts, at his own request, to sell in 1659, to John Webb, in order to obtain money for redeeming his elder brother, Nanamocomuck, from imprisonment on a surety debt. For this generous act of brotherly kindness, he was granted a hundred acres "on a great hill about twelve miles west of Chelmsford, because he had a great many chil- dren and no planting grounds." Six years later, by new adjustments, Wickasauke was restored to him; and there he was living when he became sachem. After that event he seems to have had permanent residence awhile at Penacook.
1 Hubbard's New England, cited in Bouton's Concord, 34.
2 Felt's Salem, cited in Bouton's Concord, 34.
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In 1669 or '70, he removed, with at least a part of his tribe, " to Pawtuckett, and built a fort on the heights southeast of the river." This fort was only for refuge and better protection, especially against the Mohawks. That at Penacook was also kept in repair, and some of the more resolute and warlike of the tribe doubtless permanently occupied it and its neighborhood. Wonolancet had his home in the " desirable position " on Wickasauke, but continued to occupy, in their season, the planting grounds at Souhegan and Penacook, and the fishing-places at Amoskeag and elsewhere up the river. Whether or not his change of permanent residence had immediate connection -as elsewhere stated-with the deadly fight at the Penacook fort, before described, it is certain that he preferred an abode and refuge further down the river and nearer the compact English settlements.
Wonolancet was a man of peace,-an Indian with the warlike and revengeful element left out of his nature or eradicated from it. He would, as best he could, defend against Indian foes; but against the English he would never offend, however grievously provoked,- following in this both his own convictions and the injunctions of his father. But though in his life he had been wont to exemplify the Christian virtues, yet not till 1674 did he, "a sober and grave per- son, and of years between fifty and sixty," make profession of the Christian faith. "Many endeavors," writes Gookin, "have been used several years to gain this sachem to embrace the Christian religion ; but he hath stood off .- A great reason that hath kept him off, I conceive, hath been the indisposition and averseness of sundry of his chief men and relations to pray to God, and which he foresaw would desert him, in case he turned Christian." But in May of that year, at his wigwam near Pawtucket Falls, after a sermon preached by Mr. Elliot, Wonolancet stood up and said: "You have been pleased for four years last past, in your abundant love, to exhort, press, and persuade us to pray to God. I am very thankful to you for your pains. I have all my days used to pass in an old canoe, and now you exhort me to change, and leave my old canoe, and embark in a new canoe, to which I have hitherto been unwilling. But now I yield myself up to your advice, and enter into a new canoe, and do engage to pray to God hereafter."
As his conversion had been deliberate, so was it permanent ; and Gookin could say three years later: "I hear this sachem doth per- severe, and is a constant and diligent hearer of God's word, . and though sundry of his people have deserted him since he sub- jected to the gospel, yet he continues and persists."
In 1675, King Philip's War came on; but the son of Passacon- away refused to side with the son of Massassoit in the attempt to
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annihilate New England civilization. But friendly as well as hostile Indians were objects of suspicion to their white neighbors, and if those who were hostile did mischief, it was too often imputed to those who were friendly. Besides, the hostile Indians were . pressing him to join their side. Thus, between two fires,-troublesome solicitation to hostility against the English and false suspicion of such hostility,-Wonolancet determined to maintain strict neutrality in the woods of New Hampshire, and thither he withdrew, "and quartered about Penacook." The General Court of Massachusetts, because he did not return "after the planting season was over," ordered " a runner or two " to be sent " to persuade him to come in again and live at Wamesit, and to inform the Indians at Penacook and Naticook that if they will live quietly and peaceably they shall not be harmed by the English." Accordingly, early in October, 1675, the "runners" set forth with their message, and also bore Governor Leverett's "safe conduct " in writing, for Wonolancet to have " free liberty in a party not exceeding six, of coming unto, and returning in safety from, the house of Lieutenant Thomas Hinchman at Naumkeke, and there to treat with Captain Daniel Gookin and Mr. John Elliot," who were fully empowered "to conclude with " him, " upon such meet terms and articles of friendship, amity, and sub- jection as were formerly made and concluded between the English and old Passaconaway," his "father, and his sons and people." They did not get sight of Wonolancet, but sent him the message. He did not, however, see fit to comply, and thus bring himself into the entanglements of the fearful war of races then raging in Massa- chusetts. Now, his religious conversion having detached some of his people, and his pacific disposition having disaffected the more warlike spirits, he had not with him, at that time, above one hundred Penacook and Naumkeke Indians. The Massachusetts authorities imputed a hostile intent to the friendly chief's non-return, and, through nervous fear, exaggerated his meager band into a dangerous enemy "at Penagog, said to be gathered there for the purpose of mischief." Hence, straightway, Captain Mosely, who had been fighting with success to the southward, was sent up to Penacook, with a hundred men, to dispel the danger menaced from that quarter. Wonolancet, having "intelligence by scouts " that the English were at hand, withdrew with his men from the fort, "into the woods and swamps, where," as Gookin says, " they had opportunity enough in ambushment, to have slain many of the English soldiers, without any great hazard to themselves,-and several of the young Indians were inclined to it." But their sachem, by his wisdom and authority, restrained his men, and suffered not an Indian to appear or shoot
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