History of Coos County, New Hampshire, Part 13

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Syracuse [N.Y.] : W. A. Fergusson
Number of Pages: 1194

USA > New Hampshire > Coos County > History of Coos County, New Hampshire > Part 13

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).

The wild and picturesque river, rushing down from the slopes of Waum- bek Methna through the rich meadows of Lancaster to join the Connecti- cut, is said to have borne the Indian name Sin-gra-wac; but as this word is unknown in derivation, it is probable that the name Si woog-an-auke, itself a corruption of Sawa-coo-nauke, signifying "burnt pine place," is nearer, if not the exact name, thus defined and corrected. It is easy to believe that away back in the dusk of tradition. the country had been despoiled by fire of its growth of pines, the legend only remaining to sup- ply the name.

Abenaquis .- The Canadian home or head village of the Coo-ash-aukes was at Abenaquis, or St. Francis, as their settlement is still called, on the St. Lawrence. After the defeat of the Pequawkets by Lovewell, in 1725, the broken remnant of that tribe retired to St. Francis; and the bands invading or occupying our present territory were more frequently known as the "St. Francis Indians" than by their original designations as Aben- aquis or Coo-ash-aukes.

Descendants of these broken tribes still live in the village of St. Francis. Among those who returned to their old hunting-grounds in New Hamp- shire were two families of distinction, of which the chiefs were known as "Captain Joe " and "Captain John." They were active in pre-Revolu- tionary days, and both took part with the colonists in that struggle. "Old Joe " died at Newbury, in the Lower Cohos, in 1819, and is buried in the original cemetery of the town at the Ox Bow. Captain John led a small

108

HISTORY OF COOS COUNTY.

party of Indians, enlisted from Cohos and vicinity, and received a captain's commission. He died a violent death after peace had been restored, and was also buried at the Lower Cohos. He was known among the Indians as Soosup or Sussup, and left one son called Pial Sussup, "Pial " being the Indian for Philip. There is some reason for the belief that this "Pial," son and heir of Captain John, an original Coo-ash-auke chief, who went from the Upper Cohos to St. Francis or Abenaquis, and who returned to aid the patriots, with a small band of Cohos Indians, was the "Philip, Indian chief, resident in Upper Cohos and chief thereof." who gave to Thomas Eames, of Northumberland, the now famous deed of June 8, 1796, conveying to him and his associates the present county of Coös, together with a portion of the county of Oxford in Maine, then a part of Mas- sachusetts, being the instrument known as the "King Philip deed."

While it is a source of regret that the descriptive and euphonious nomenclature of the aborigines has largely disappeared from the hills and streams of their hunting-grounds, it is a source of pleasure that it is occa- sionally retained. Whittier, in his " Bridal of Penacook, " has embalmed in imperishable verse several of the ancient designations, two of which pertain to the county of the Coo-ash-aukes. He says, -

" They came from Sunapee's shores of rock- From the snowy source of Si-woo-ga-nock, From rough Coos, whose wild woods shake Their pine cones in Umbagog lake."

That the white settlers of modern Coös were of English origin is evi- dent from the nomenclature of the towns, which, indeed, granted by an English governor-general, would naturally be of English derivation. Hence the name of the ducal and royal house of Lancaster applied to the earlier and principal settlement, Northumberland, Percy, Dartmouth, and Cockburne, while the name of the family manor of the Wentworths at Bretton, in the county of York (the ancient seat being "Bretton Hall "), is duplicated in " Bretton Woods," now Carroll, where there is reason to believe it was the original intent to erect an American barony.

Metallak .- Before bidding farewell to the aboriginal inhabitants of Coos, the earliest hunters when fish and game did so abound, shall I weary your patience if I give to you the story of Metallak as it was told to me in boyhood in the woods-Metallak, the last of the Abenaquis in Cohos, the final hunter of the Coo-ash-aukes over the territory of his fathers ?

Sportsmen who voyage up the Magalloway, to or through Parmachene, or over those delightful bodies of water prosaically known as the "Range- ley lakes," hear frequent mention of the word " Metallak." It is preserved in the name of the point once running out into Molly-chunk-a-munk, now submerged by the accumulated waters of the "Improvement Company,"

109

RESOURCES, ATTRACTIONS, TRADITIONS, &C.

in a brook running into the Magalloway, and in an island in the lower Umbagog.

It is true that Capt. Farrar, with rare denseness of appreciation, has bestowed the name "Metallic," in his guide-books, alike upon chief and localities, as though the one were really a specimen of native copper, and the other the location of mineral deposits. Yet there are those who knew these woods and waters before the invasion of the vandals, or the days of guide-books, and to them the old nomenclature is dear. to be perpetuated when the days of the iconoclasts are ended. And so. despite guide-books and modern * discoverers," we retain the memory and the name of Metal- lak, and tell his story here.

Metallak was the son of a chief, and from his earliest youth was taught the use of weapons and the craft of the woods. He grew up tall, lithe, and active, the pride of his tribe, and, after its custom, took to his wigwam the fairest fawn among its maidens. He built his lodge in the old home of his tribe, the Coo-ash-aukes, on the waters of the Ameroscoggin, and for her ransacked the woods for the softest furs and the choicest game. The children, a son and daughter, came to them, and gave to the parents' hearts the joy that is born of offspring. Years sped: the old chief by the St. Lawrence died, and Metallak was the head of his tribe. The frown of the Great Spirit was dark upon his people. One by one its warriors in the woods sickened and passed away. Metallak, in his lodge on the point in the lake, watched and mourned the down-fall of his race, and swift run- ners told him how the stately tree of his tribe was stripped of its branches: but his mate and his children were left to him, and he vowed to the Great Spirit to remain on the hunting-grounds of his tribe until he should be called to the happy hunting-grounds of his fathers. Gradually, as fall the leaves of the forest when the winds of autumn are abroad. fell the once mighty Abenaquis, until Metallak and his family were alone. The son, not sharing the stern feeling of the sire, as he grew older sighed for the society of the pale faces, and left the lodge in the forest to find a home with the new companions of his choice. The daughter had visited at St. Francis, and had joined her fate with a young warrior of the tribe before the great sickness that decimated them. And he, with the English goods easy of attainment, had robed his dusky bride in garments that a white woman might envy. She is represented as strikingly beautiful, and when she visited her father in the wilderness he was almost awed by her charms and her queenly attire.

About this time, while closing a moccasin, Metallak had the misfortune to lose an eye. Time sped. The bride of his youth sickened and died-a sad blow for the desolate chief. She who entered his lodge when youth was high and his tribe had a place in the land, who had with him endured long years of adversity, was called, and he was alone.

110

HISTORY OF COOS COUNTY.

Mournfully he laid the body in his canoe, together with the trinkets which in life had been dear to her, and, gliding out from the sheltered shore, tooks his way across the narrow strait and down its course to the broad reach of Molly-chunk-a-munk, past the whispering pines and sunny beaches, guided by the roar of the Ameroscoggin, where he shoots his crested waters toward the more quiet expanse of Umbagog. Entering the rapids he sat erect in the stern of his canoe-his beloved and lost com- panion in repose before him-and with skillful hand guided the frail bark with its precious burden through the seething waters, past dangerous rock and whirling eddy, until it shot out upon the sunlit expanse of the lower lake: still down, past where the river debouches on its way to the sea, to where, in the broad expanse, rises the green island that now bears his name. Here he dug her grave, and buried her after the fashion of his people, and without a tear seated himself upon the mound. Night came, but he moved not: the wolf howled from the mainland, the song of the night wind was on the air, but he heeded not: morning came and passed, night again and morning, and still he sat upon the grave. It was not until the morning of the third day that he left the sacred spot. He built him a hut near it, leaving it only to procure necessary sustenance. Years went by, during which he was occasionally seen by the hunters and trap- pers who visited the region; but his eye had lost its fire, and his step was less firm than of old. In the year 1846 two hunters came across him in the woods. It was in November, and a very rainy time. He had fallen down, and upon a stub, thus extinguishing his remaining eye. He was without fire or food, and upon the point of starvation. They built a fire, collected wood, gave him provisions, and left him for assistance. With this they returned, and carried him to Stewartstown, where he lingered a few years, a public charge on the county of Coös. He now rests apart from the wife he loved so well, but his name and memory linger in the haunts of his manhood, and reference to the modern hunting-grounds of Coös would be incomplete without the story of Metallak,-the last of his race within our present boundaries, the last hunter of the ancient Coo-ash- aukes .*

To the story of Metallak let me append the story and the tragedy of two white hunters on the same grounds-the story of Robbins the murderer, and his victim Hinds.

Where the Diamond glances down from the forests of College Grant, entering the Magalloway under the shadow of Mount Dustin, is a farm, originally cleared by a hunter named Robbins. He was a stern, vindictive man, and wild stories were early abroad concerning his deeds. In the fall of 1826, in company with several companions,-Hinds, Cloutman, and

# See Colebrook.

111

RESOURCES, ATTRACTIONS, TRADITIONS, &C.

Hayes,-all hunters by profession, he went upon the Androscoggin waters to trap sable. The party continued their hunt successfully until the first snows fell, when, leaving Robbins in care of the property, his comrades started on a last visit to the traps, extending over a line of twenty miles. On their return the camp was found burned, and Robbins and the furs gone. They were without provisions, and sixty miles from inhabitants, but with great privations and suffering they were able to work their way into the settlements. On their return they instituted a suit in the courts of Coos county against Robbins, which was carried to a successful conclu- sion, and execution was issued. Spring again came around, when Robbins proposed to Hinds to hunt once more, promising to turn his share of the proceeds towards the extinguishment of the adjudged debt. Hinds con- sented, and taking with him his son of fifteen years. proceeded to the hunting-grounds around Parmachenee lake. Again they were successful, when one day, as Hinds was returning to camp, he was met by Robbins and shot. The boy was killed by a blow from a hatchet, and Robbins was left with the bloody spoil. The bodies were found, and a search instituted. Robbins was arrested in the woods by Lewis Loomis and Hezekiah Parsons, of Colebrook, after a desperate resistance, and lodged in Lancaster jail. Having some confederate, he obtained tools and commenced preparations for his escape. Working diligently at the window of his room in the old Elm Tree jail, he succeeded in loosening the gratings, each day concealing his work by hanging over it his blanket, under the pretext that the room was cold and the window admitted air. When all was in readiness he made his exit, and the night before his trial was to have commenced he was missing, nor was any search successful. Public opinion was strongly against the jailor as being in league with the prisoner, and was near mani- festing itself in a rude manner. Strange rumors were afloat for years concerning his whereabouts and career, but nothing definite was known by the public of his subsequent life or final decease .*

With these narratives of the older and ruder days of Cohos, we take leave of the past and enter upon the Coös of to-day, with its relation to the state.

Let others tell of golden hues, that paint Italia's sky, Of ivied tower, of ruined hall, of Tiber rolling by,- Or proudly point to sculptured bust, and storied column rare, In days of yore that stood within the Eternal City fair:

Let ancient courts again be viewed where pride and power held sway, Where revelled high each prince and peer on monarch's festal day :- Their stately walls shall erst decay, their names live but in song, As history's lore and classic tale their memory prolong ;-

Let others sing of storied lands with songs of loving praise, But there's a fairer spot to me-home of my childhood's days-

*See Colebrook.

112

HISTORY OF COOS COUNTY.

My own Coos !- thy hoary peaks sublimely towering high, Are grander than the works of man 'neath brightest foreign sky; Serene, sublime, unchanging, since the course of time began, Solemn and lone amid the clouds their stately crests that span. These are no human handiwork, to waste and pass away- Almighty God, the architect, their grandeur his display. When ages yet to come are lost in the vale of time gone by, When ivied tower and sculpture rare in dust unnoticed lie,

Thy granite peaks, my own Coos, still heavenward shall tower, Grim sentinels, untiring, set from old earth's natal hour.

Mountains. - Coös county embraces several mountain chains, notably the Presidential range, the Waumbek Methna, or "Mountains with the snowy foreheads " of the aborigines, the White Mountains of the tourist, with all the attractions of savage grandeur and picturesque beauty in nature, supplemented by the modern comforts and elegancies of palatial hotels and palace cars; the Dixville range, stretching in desolate grandeur across the northern section and between the waters of the Connecticut and Androscoggin, riven by the gorge at Dixville, whose spiky sentinels rise 800 feet above the windy pass that admits to the shining levels of Errol and the placid expanse of Umbagog; the Pilot range, unapproachable for beauty, reaching from Cape Horn, near Groveton, to Starr King in Jeffer- son; the Pliny range, stretching southerly across old Kilkenny and reach- ing out toward Agiochook, with detached peaks, as Mount Carmel in the northern wilderness; Pondicherry, rising from the meadows of Jefferson; and the white cones of the Percy peaks on the upper Ammonoosuc, which, from the peculiar topographical contour of the region, are visible from so many points.

Lakes .- The lake system is on a scale of equal grandeur, although pre- senting features of less rugged and desolate aspect, and as pleasantly lovely as that of Winnipesauke's self, "The smile of the Great Spirit." Far up in the everlasting woods, in solitude and sylvan loveliness, nestle the two upper lakes of the Connecticut, joined to the lower or larger lake at Pitts- burg, on the outskirts of civilization in this direction, the head waters of the " River of New England." On the eastern border, Umbagog, half in Maine, gives New Hampshire the other moiety of her area, and sends down the rushing Androscoggin, vocal with the sighing of the forests and the winds of the far off border, to turn the wheels of the great mills at Berlin, and fertilize the intervals of Dummer. Milan, Berlin, Gorham, and Shel- burne. Of ponds, that may with reason be called lakes, there are many, as the Diamond ponds in Stewartstown, Back lake in Pittsburg, Millsfield pond in Millsfield, Trio ponds in Odell, Dummer ponds in Dummer, North and South ponds in Stark, Success pond in Success, Pond of Safety in Ran- dolph, Pondicherry in Jefferson, Martin Meadow pond in Lancaster, Round pond, Burns pond, and Blood's pond in Whitefield, and others of less area in almost every township.

113

RESOURCES, ATTRACTIONS, TRADITIONS, &C.

Rivers .-- The Connecticut river receives, as tributaries from New Hamp- shire, the Mohawk at Colebrook, the Ammonoosuc at Northumberland, the Sawacoonauk or Israel's at Lancaster, and the John's river at Dalton, while the Androscoggin has tribute from the Diamond at College Grant. the Magalloway at Wentworth's Location, Clear stream at Errol, and Moose and Peabody rivers at Gorham. All these tributary streams take their rise in the primeval forests, and many of them flow their entire distance away from sight of man save he be the prospecting lumberman or eager sports- man. The lakes are all in the wilderness, while most of the bodies of water classed as ponds are within the forest, or remote from towns or cul- tivated lands.

Fish and Game .- These waters all abound in fish, as do the forests around in game. While it is entirely true that the larger game,-the moose, the bear, the wolf, -is now more rarely found, the two former still have their abiding places in the deep recesses of the remoter hills and denser forests, while smaller game still exists in abundance. The ponds and streams in the older towns are not as good fishing-grounds as formerly. and the pickerel and chub have therein, in some cases, taken the place of the once universal trout; but the waters of the deeper woods, from spark- ling brooks to swelling lakes, are still prolific in this admired and admir- able fish, the trout.

I well remember, as a boy, that a fine string of trout could always be easily taken from the bridge on Main street across Israel's river in Lancas- ter, and that a local character, one Tinker Wade, was accustomed fre- quently to secure a peck or more of these luscious fish by the clumsy pro- cess of mixing powdered cocculus indicus with bran, making pellets, which thrown at random upon the water from this bridge, would be speedily de- voured by the jumping trout. to intoxicate them, when they would leap out of the water. or float upon its surface, an easy spoil to the hand or stick of the Tinker.

The entire Cohos country, at the time of its settlement by the whites, abounded in fish and game, and, indeed, was among the most prolific of the hunting grounds of the aborigines. For many years after settlers had opened up the forest all over this extent of territory, and, indeed, after considerable towns had sprung up therein, the game of the woods and the fish of the streams existed in profusion, but the advance of clearings, the lumber operations, and the century of hunting and fishing that has fol- lowed, have materially diminished the supply and exterminated some species Of the larger game it is rare to find a moose or caribou, a wolf or a beaver. Salmon have entirely disappeared, and trout, in many once prolific locali- ties, seem to be vanishing as did the salmon and shad. It is only in the secluded ponds, and in the small streams above the mills in the forests, that trout are now taken.

114

HISTORY OF COOS COUNTY.

When the settlers from the lower Cohos penetrated the wilderness covering the present county of Coos, they found in abundance the moose, caribou, deer, the wolf, the bear, the lynx, the otter, the beaver, the red and cross fox, the marten or sable, the mink, the musk-rat, the hedgehog, the woodchuck; of birds, the partridge or ruffled grouse, and pigeon; and of fish the salmon, and perhaps the shad and trout. So common were the moose, that it was not unusual for scores to be slain by a single hunter in a season. The greatest destruction of this animal occurred annually in March, when the snow was deep and had stiffened after a thaw. They were then de. stroyed by professional hunters, who took only the skin, tallow, and nose, which last named part. together with a beaver's tail, were favorite tid-bits to the epicures of the forest.

Later, moose were plenty around the head waters of the Connecticut, but being hunted with dogs and on the crust, they were soon practically exterminated. It is told that one of the Hilliards destroyed eighty in one season, after which wholesale massacre they practically disappeared. South of Lancaster village, and in the town limits, rise three conical peaks,- Mounts Orne, Pleasant and Prospect, known as the "Martin Meadow hills," and south of Mounts Pleasant and Orne is a sheet of water of about four hundred acres, known as "Martin Meadow pond; " this was a favorite resort for moose and deer, and an unfailing rendezvous for the settler when the family was "out of meat." This pond was in the low pine territory extending through parts of Dalton, Carroll, Whitefield and Jefferson, in which last named town is "Pondicherry," or Cherry pond, at the north- ern base of Cherry mountain, the entire region, in the early days, being a favorite resort of the moose. To illustrate their abundance, I quote from an old manuscript in my possession, written by the late Hon. John W. Weeks :-

"An early settler, by the name of Dennis Stanley, a lieutenant in the continental army, and a man of strong mind and perfect veracity, informed the writer that being 'out of meat,' and want- ing a moose skin to buy a certain luxury then much used, and too often at the present day (New England rum), went alone to Cherry pond for a supply, carrying his old gun, that had been so much used that by turning powder into the barrel it would prime itself. He had scarcely struck fire in his camp when he heard several moose wading from the shallow side of the pond toward deep water. He then uncorked his powder-horn, put several bullets in his mouth, and waited until the moose in front was nearly immersed in water. He then waded in where the water was about one foot in depth, and took his position, not in the rear of the moose, less they should swim over the pond, but at a right angle with their track and at easy musket shot from it. On his apearance the moose-four in number-as he had anticipated, chose rather to wade back than to swim over, and commenced their retreat in the same order in which they had entered the pond: that was, one behind the other, at some distance apart. In a moment the moose that had been in the rear was now in front in the retreat, and coming within reach, he was shot at; the powder-horn was then applied to the muzzle of the gun, a bullet followed from his mouth with the celerity which hun- ters only know, the second moose was fired at, the third and fourth in rapid succession, when Lieutenant Stanley found time to give a fifth discharge at the moose in the rear. Three fell at the water's edge, the other staggered to the top of the bank, where he fell dead."

115

RESOURCES, ATTRACTIONS, TRADITIONS, &C.

The moose seems almost to have been an antediluvian animal, and out of place in the highlands of New England. The long forelegs precluded grazing from level ground, or from drinking from the level of its feet. It could only browse on twigs and trees, sometimes inserting its teeth through the bark, stripping it off and masticating as it raised its head. I remember, while on the state boundary in 1858, after seeing moose signs, coming upon a mountain-ash that had been stripped in the manner indi- cated to a height of thirteen feet from the ground. Another peculiarity of the moose was the uncouth long upper lip, prehensile almost like a trunk, the broad nostrils that could be tightly closed, the false lid to the eye, all indicating the adaptability of the animal to feed under water: and, indeed, it is their custom, as is well known, to congregate in the soft, muddy margins of the ponds, feeding largely on lily pads and the roots of the pond lily, which they tear up from beneath the water.

Major Weeks's manuscript gives this description of the horns of this forest monarch: "Nothing can exceed the symmetry and beauty of the limbs and horns of the moose. The round part of the horns, or that next the head, is about fourteen inches in length, when it becomes palmated, and is in some instances twelve inches broad, surmounted in one instance, told me by Edward Spaulding, now living (1839), by seventeen spikes on each horn. A horn now before me is one and one-half inches in diameter at the base, and eight inches in length, terminating in a point. The largest class of horns spread five feet, and weigh about two hundred pounds.

The last moose familiar to Lancaster people was one owned and kept by Louis Annance, a St. Francis Indian, who forty-five years ago had a lodge a mile east of the village, near the Sawacoonauk, or Israel's river. Annance was a tame Indian, and a member of the ancient Mason's lodge at Lancas- ter. He, however, lived in the style of his fathers: his pappooses were strapped to boards and hung up in the lodge or carried on the back when traveling, and the moose was kept for exhibition. *

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Coos County, New Hampshire, Part 13

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Syracuse [N.Y.] : W. A. Fergusson Number of Pages: 1194

Author: Merrill, Georgia Drew
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Syracuse [N.Y.] : W. A. Fergusson
Number of Pages: 1194