History of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, Part 35

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1168

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Dr. Parsons is a member of the Masonic fraternity, an Odd-Fellow and Knight of Honor. In religion Dr. Parsons is a Quaker. In politics he is a Demo- crat, and in 1871-72 represented the town of Ben- nington in the General Court.

Dr. Parsons has, by his lively interest in public schools and educational matters in general, main- tained the family trait, which, from his first ancestor, has stood out prominently in each of the generations, having been superintending school committee sev- eral years.

In November, 1882, Dr. Parsons married Marion J., only daughter of Hon. John and Dorothy (Jones) Hosley, of Manchester. From this union there was born Martha S., April 30, 1884.

For a period of about thirty-five years Dr. Parsons has been in active practice, ever ready to respond to the calls of suffering humanity, to afford relief; prompt in his appointments for consultations, cour- teous and liberal while maintaining professional etiquette, he has attained a prominent position in the community where he lives.

Dr. Parsons has taken a warm interest in the wel- fare and progress of young men who had entered upon the study of medicine, and his office has ever been a place where all such could find counsel and advice, and many have begun their study under his direction. A good citizen, a genial friend, a kind hus- band and father, a faithful and trusted family physi- cian, Dr. Parsons enjoys the confidence and respect of those he has served so many years, and is a credit to his native State.

HISTORY OF NASHUA.

BY JOHN II. GOODALE.

CHAPTER I. TOPOGRAPHY-NATURAL FEATURES.

Boundaries-Area-Rivers, Brooks and Ponds-Intervales and Plains- Forest-Trees-Wild Animals-Fish-Climate-Meteorology.

THE city of Nashua lies in the southern part of Hillsborough County, on the boundary line of Massa- chusetts. It is bounded on the north by the town of Merrimack, on the east by the Merrimack River, which separates it from Hudson and Litchfield, on the south by Tyngsborough and Dunstable, Mass., and on the west by Hollis. Its length is about six and one-half miles from north to south, and its width a little more than four and a half miles from east to west. Its area is about eighteen thousand eight hun- dred and ninety-eight aeres, or nearly thirty square miles. The surface in the eastern section is generally level, consisting of plain and intervale; in the western it is rolling; while in the southern section are several ridges of moderate height. The highest summit in Nashua is Long Hill, near the Massachusetts line, which is four hundred and thirty-nine feet above the ocean level.

The city is well watered. The Merrimack River flows along its eastern boundary. The Nashua River, from which the city takes its name, comes from the southwest, furnishing the water-power for the cotton- mills and other manufactories of the city, while Salmon Brook, coming from the south, and the Penni- chuck, on the north, are attractive and beautiful streams.

There are three small natural ponds in the township, Lovewell, in the southwest; Round, in the northwest; and Sandy, in the southwest margin of the city proper. Of these, the Sandy is the more noticeable. It lies in a circular basin of six acres, has no visible inlet or outlet and is fed by subterranean springs. Its sur- face height varies about three feet, usually the high- est in April and the lowest in October. The water is unusually clear, and furnishes the most of the ice used in the city.

In agricultural resources Nashua is below the aver- age of the adjoining towns. The intervale of the Merrimack and Nashua Rivers, limited in extent, is

easily cultivated, and excellent for the growth of corn and vegetables. The higher lands of the southern part have fine hay fields and orchards, but the plain and the most of the rolling lands which cover the larger portion of Nashua are comparatively unpro- ductive. The soil is a deposit of the Glacial Drift period,-a sandy deposit worn from the northern hills during that geological epoch, when glaciers or ice- bergs were drifting across New England. More than two centuries ago the early explorers named these plains the "pine barrens."

The bowlders of granite so abundant in the north- ern and western towns of Hillsborough County are much fewer and smaller in Nashna. Ledges crop out about Mine Falls, and one ledge a mile west of the city proper furnishes a large amount of rough mate- rial for cellar walls and other stone-work about the city.

Almost every forest-tree common in Southern New Hampshire was originally found in this township. The lofty white-pine grew on the rich alluvial soil of the two rivers, often having a height of one hundred feet and a diameter of three feet. There was also, on some portions of the intervale, and upon the higher grounds on the north side of the Nashua River, a heavy growth of sturdy hard pine, which was used by the early settlers for the manufacture of turpentine. The thin soil of the plains was covered by a scrub pine growth. The pine growth has, to some extent, been superseded by the birch and oak. The prevail- ing forest-trees at the present time are the pine, oak and birch, with a sprinkling of maple, ash, ehm, bass- wood, spruce and walnut. The oak is largely of the red and the birch of the white species. Very few trees which had reached the average growth a century ago are now standing. Very few acres of woodland have been cleared of late in Nashua, and the percen- tage of land covered by a natural forest growth is increasing.

The early settlers of Nashua found fewer wild animals here than in most other localities. The con- stant presence of the Indians in the Merrimack Valley, and the absence of sheltering ravines and ledges, largely account for this. While in some of

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HISTORY OF HILLSBOROUGH COUNTY, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

the earliest settlements the pioneers found wild meats of great service, the seanty records of "Old Dunstable" makes little mention of any aid from this source. The bear and deer, never numerous in this vicinity, soon disappeared. The moose, panther and wolf seldom came below Lake Winnipesaukee. The beaver, a former ocenpant of Salmon Brook, had already disappeared. The raccoon, fox, rabbit, woodchuck and squirrel were still numerous and annoying.

But the searcity of wild animals as a source of Especially was this true in the spring. The Merri- mack and its branches were the favorite resort of the salmon, shad and alewife. Migratory in their habits, they arrived early in May. and not only the larger streams but the tributary brooks were full of them. At the foot of every cascade the pools were crowded with the agile salmon. The pioneers had no need to resort to the Merrimack, since it was far easier to catch them in the smaller streams. Salmon Brook was so named from the multitude of salmon taken every May between the Main Street bridge and its entrance into the Merrimack.

The Pennichuck was equally famous for the facility with which this delicious fish could be taken from its waters. They varied in weight from three to sixteen pounds. The early settlers in the adjacent towns re- lied upon "Pennichuck beef" as the greatest delicacy of the year. For half a century shad and alewives were used as dressing for the corn-fields, and were rarely cooked till salmon became scarce. After the building of the Pawtucket (Lowell) dam, both salmon and shad disappeared from the waters of the Merri- maek and its branches.

From a topographical examination, it is very evident that Nashua owes its origin and growth as a city from the river from which it derives its name. It is a small river, but the water-power it furnishes has been sufficient to found a city of fifteen thousand inhabitants. Its sources are in the northern part of Worcester County. The small streams flowing from the base of Mount Wachusett unite in the Lancaster meadows, forming the Nashua River. Thence it flows in a northern and northeasterly direction for thirty miles, entering New Hampshire about seven miles from its mouth. Its fall of water between Mine Falls and its month is abont fifty-four feet.

Railroad Station than at Mount Pleasant and the South Common. There is less fall of snow here than in any other town of New Hampshire not bordering on the Atlantic Coast. Exceptional winters occur, but ordinarily the number of weeks of good sleighing in this city is few, often not exceeding four. The average rainfall is thirty-nine inches.

food was compensated by the abundance of fish. two from New York and four hundred and ninety-two

Nashua is the third city in the State in population, the third in valuation and the second in the value of its manufactures. It is thirty-five miles from Con- cord, forty miles from Boston, two hundred and sixty- from Washington. No extensive view of scenery is visible from any part of the city ; but from the towers of the High School and the Mount Pleasant School buildings there is not only an attractive view of Nashua itself, but on a fair day there can be clearly seen the twin summits of Uncanoonuc, in Goffstown, the precipitous side of Joe English, in New Boston, the Crotched Mountain, in Francestown, the Grand Monadnoc, in Jaffrey, the Pack Monadnoc, in Peter- borough, and Mount Wachusett, in Central Massa- chusetts.

CHAPTER II. NASHUA-(Continued.) * THE ABORIGINAL INHABITANTS.

Indian Tribes-The "Nashaways "-Corn-Raising -- Stone Implements -Hunting-Modes of Cooking-Salmon and Shad-Wigwams- Treatment of Squaws-Wars-The Birch Canoe-Clothing-Stone Relics.

NASHUA was the first settled of the inland towns of New Hampshire. It is not certainly known in what year the first white inhabitant built his cabin within its limits, but it could hardly have been earlier than 1665 or later than 1670. Fifty years before the Scotch settlers came to Londonderry, and seventy years before any other town of Hillsborough County, outside of "Old Dunstable," had a white resident, there were log cabins on the banks of Salmon Brook, a little above its junction with the Merrimack. Longer than any other towns in the State, except Dover and Portsmonth, this settlement occupied a frontier position. exposed to all the perils and terrible disasters of savage hostility, and none did more heroic service in resening the colonies from the barbarities of Indian warfare.

The climate of Nashua is healthy. It is exempt from malaria and fogs, and in the warm season is free It is now more than two-thirds of a century since the last Indian remaining in the State died in a re- mote cabin in Coos County. The prophecy of Passa- conaway has been fulfilled. The race of New Hampshire Indians is extinct. To the generation of to-day the Indian is a myth. To our forefathers they were a terrible reality,-an untiring, ever-present, merciless foe. from annoying insects. The average temperature is forty-eight degrees above zero. Its highest tempera- ture within the past thirty years was ninety-nine de- grees above, and its lowest thirty-two degrees below zero. The degree of temperature varies with differ- ent localities in and about the city. In ordinary weather the difference is small, but at dawn on severely cold winter mornings the mercury is usually The history of Nashua would be incomplete without six, and sometimes ten, degrees lower at the Concord | a description of its original inhabitants. Of the

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twenty thousand Indians in New England on the landing of the Pilgrims, two thousand were in New Hampshire. More than three-fourths of these lived iu the Merrimack Valley. The rapid growth of the Massachusetts Bay colony led the more adventurous emigrants to seek for advantageous and fertile lands on which to find a home. From the natives they learned of the attractive valley of the Merrimack River, and were awaiting a favorable opportunity to explore it.

In the summer of 1652 the colonial government of Massachusetts, desirous of ascertaining the northern extent of their territory, appointed an exploring commission, consisting of Captain Edward Johnson : and Captain Simon Willard, accompanied by Jona- than Ince and John Shearman as surveyors. They were instructed to follow up the Merrimack River to its head and there establish a " bound." At Pawtucket Falls they secured Indian guides, and, proceeding up the west bank of the river, were the first white men known to have crossed Salmon Brook and Nashua River, and explored the intervale lands of the vicinity. Having been told by their Indian guides that the head of the Merrimack River was at the outlet of the lake, they proceeded to that point, and upon a rock having a surface just above the water, at the outlet of the Winnipesaukee, they eut the following inscription :

"EI

JOHN

ENDICVT GOV "

which, modernized, and substituting the full names for the initials, reads,-

" Edward Johnson.

Simon Willard.

Worshipful John Endicut Governor."

The commissioners made a report to the Massachu- setts government on their return, and stated that they were treated kindly, not only by the tribes on the Nashua and Souhegan Rivers, but by those of the upper country. From their description it is probable that about forty Indian families were living near the mouths of Salmon Brook and the Nashua River, and as many more at the mouth of the Souhegan and on the Litchfield intervale, opposite.

The Indians of the Merrimack Valley were divided into small tribes, and were designated by the name of the locality they occupied. The Pawtuckets had their headquarters at Pawtucket Falls, just above the present city of Lowell ; the Nashaways lived in the Nashua River valley and about its mouth ; the Souhe- gans, on the stream of the same name ; the Penacooks occupied Penacook, (now Concord,) and a part of Bos- cawen. The last-named tribe was far the most numer- ous, warlike and powerful, and its sachem, Passacon- away, was the actual ruler of all the tribes of the Merrimack Valley. He was the most sagacious and discreet chieftain of his time.

These tribes, while relying largely on fishing and hunting for their livelihood, depended to no trifling extent upon the tillage of the soil to secure them from starvation during the long winter. In common with all the North American tribes, these Indian warriors, when not idle, devoted themselves to war, fishing and hunting, and imposed upon the women the labor of tilling the ground, securing the crops, gathering the firewood, and all the drudgery of the wigwam.

Many of the meadows, or the "intervales," as they are often called, on the Merrimack and Nashua Rivers are basins having a surface of alluvial and vegetable deposits. No doubt they were once covered with water, which, by the deepening of the channel, has gradually passed away. In proof of this, we know that logs, leaves, nuts and other vegetation are often found buried under the surface at various depths, sometimes as low as twenty feet. Mr. Fox, in his " History of Dunstable," relates that when the exca- vation for the foundation of the locks near the june- tion of the Nashua and Merrimack Rivers was made. in 1825, at a spot about one hundred feet from the Nashua River, and at a depth of many feet below the surface, the workmen found logs and a quantity of charred coals, evidently the remains of a fire. Such discoveries are not infrequent in all alluvial lands. The time of deposit, geologically considered, was re- cent; chronologieally estimated it was exceedingly remote. The soil thus formed is free from stone, easy of cultivation and for a time very productive.

After girdling the trees and piling the brushwood, the ground was carefully burned over in autumn. With the coming of spring each squaw began to pre- pare her patch for planting. The Indian apostle, John Elliot, writing from observation, describes these patches as usually containing about half an acre each, though occasionally he saw one of a whole acre. Often a dozen or more of them were contiguous, thus insuring a better protection from the coons, erows and squirrels.

The implements of the Indians were rude and sim- ple. The student of to-day will bear in mind that the aboriginal race in North America three centuries ago were living in primitive barbarism, entirely igno- rant of the use of the metals, or of any of the arts and discoveries of civilization. They were "the un- tutored children of nature." The bow and arrow, spear and club were their warlike weapons; the birch canoe was their highest idea of navigation ; the stone hammer, wedge and gouge, and bone needle made up their mechanical outfit ; the stone pe-tle, earthen pot, flint knife, the ladle and spoon of horn constituted their cooking utensils ; while the stone axe and hoc were the implements of tillage.

The impression that the Indian axe was over used as a cutting instrument is an error. It was an imple- ment for pounding rather than for cutting. No vari- ety of stone, whether granite, greenstone, trap or jasper can furnish an edge of sufficient firmness and

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tenacity to successfully penetrate wood. The red man and pumpkin were cooked by boiling or steam- rarely felled a tree, and when he did, it was by the aid of i ing, and used with other food. In summer the rasp- pitch and fire. He used the axe for splitting wood, peel- | berry and blackberry were freely eaten, and in ing bark and pounding the ash for basket materials. autumn the squaws, aided by the children, searched the forests for nuts, gathering chestnuts, beech-nuts, walnuts and acorns for food in winter. The acorns To the squaw it was of service in digging up bushes and roots, and mellowing the soil; but after the ground was prepared for planting, the hoe was the were parched and ground and mixed with corn-meal.

main implement used by the women, on whom de- volved the toil of cultivating the land. It was made of granite, or oftener of hard slate, having the shape of the carpenter's adze, and with a deep groove cut around the head to secure it to the handle. The handle was a withe, so pliant as to be twisted tightly in the groove around the head of the hoe ; it was then fastened with a strip of raw-hide. Both the withe and the raw-hide were made firm by drying before the handle would be serviceable. Such an implement would be of little use in hard, stony ground, but in the mellow loam of the intervale it sufficed to form the hills and remove the intruding weeds. The corn was of several colors, smaller of kernel and quicker in maturing than we are now accustomed to plant. The tribes of the Merrimack Valley began to plant " when the leaves of the white oak were as large as the ear of the mouse." From this habit was derived the adage of the first white settlers,-

" When the oak trees look gosling gray Plant then-be it June or May."

The squaws attended diligently to the growing corn, planting it in rows and hilling in much the same way we do. Some of the abandoned corn-fields on the intervales of Hudson retained for years the shape of the hills of corn as they were left by the natives. After several seasons, when the grounds be- came exhausted, they dressed the soil with shad and alewives. These fish luckily arrived in immense num- bers just before planting-time, and were easily caught in every brook or rivulet tributary to the river. Put- ting a single fish in each hill was enough to secure a good yield.

To the red men corn, the especial product of the western continent, was a rich gift. It springs luxuri- antly from a rich, fresh soil, and in the warm loam, with little aid from cultivation, soon outstrips the weeds. It bears not ten, nor twenty, but three hun- dred-fold. If once dry, it is hurt neither by heat nor cold, may be preserved in a pit or cave for years and even centuries, is gathered from the field by hand without knife or pruning-hook, and becomes nutri- tious food by a simple roasting or parching before a fire.

Besides corn, beans, squashes, pumpkins, melons and gourds, all of them indigenous, were more or less grown. Before ripening, the corn was often roasted for immediate use. When boiled in kernels it was called samp. When pounded in a mortar and boiled it was called hominy. When boiled with an equal quantity of beans it was called succotash. The squash

The hunting of wild animals was something more than an occupation to the red man. It was an amuse- ment, and sometimes an inspiration. The forests thickly covering the numerous hills of this county abonnded with foxes, raccoons, rabbits, woodchucks and squirrels. In the fall the bear was sometimes caught, and in the early winter venison often hung from the rafters of the wigwam. These animals were timid and wary, and could be approached only by stealth. To get within bow-shot required much skill, as well as patience, and was often unsuccessful at last. Hence other contrivances were resorted to. Traps and snares of various kinds, adapted to the size and habits of the animal sought after, were extensively used. For deer a driving-yard was built, forming a figure like the letter V, at some place known to be a resort of this animal. Placing the best marksmen at the apex, the rest of the party, forming a line, beat the outlying woods so as to drive the deer within the inclosure, from which they could escape only through the opening at the apex. Here they were usually snared or shot.

The wild pigeon is said to have been surprisingly numerous before, and for a time after, the advent of the white population. Thousands, in August and September, would at twilight alight upon two or three adjacent forest-trees, many bushels of them to be taken before dawn by the natives. The Indians rarely eat raw meat. Usually it was roasted upon split sticks or wooden forks, or broiled upon live coals. When meat was boiled, it was with corn or beans, and if the earthen pot was wanting, a wooden trough was used to cook the food by throwing heated stones into the water. In eating, they used neither knife nor fork, and drank from a gourd or birch-bark eup.

The tribes of the Merrimack Valley were attracted by the great number and superior quality of the fish which annually ascended the river in the early part of May. The announcement of their arrival was re- ceived with shouts, vells and every evidence of satis- faction. It was the jubilant event of the year. All the tribes gathered at the fishing hannts. Canoes, seines, torches and spears were in demand. There was usually such an abundance of the fish that salmon only were selected as palatable. Many were taken with the stone-pointed spear. More were caught with the seines made of wild hemp and the inner bark of the elm and spruce. But in the height of the "run," in the small streams the club was often the more effective, and heaps of salmon were thrown upon i the banks, where the squaws with their flint knives

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stood ready to dress them, splitting them and laying them upon the turf to dry. At night they were taken to the wigwam and hung around the centre-pole to be cured by the smoke. Each night was passed in danc- ing and feasting,-a kind of jubilee for the success of the day.

The wigwams were built by the. squaws. They were rude structures made of eight or ten poles set round in the form of a cone, having a stout centre- pole, to which all the others were bent and fastened with a strong rope of bark. This rude frame was cov- ered with bark or mats, leaving an opening at the top for the smoke to escape. There was rather a low opening in the side of the wigwam left for the purpose of a doorway, over which a bear or a deer skin was suspended to answer the purpose of a door. This was pushed aside when any one wished to enter or go out. A large pin was driven into the centre-pole upon which to hang the kettle. At the base of this pole, under the pin, was placed edgewise a large flat stone, against which the fire was made, and which protected the pole from burning. Rude mats were placed on the ground, on which they sat, took their meals and slept.

The condition of the wigwam was habitually untidy. Often in the summer season the contents and sur- roundings became so offensive as to compel a removal to a new location. This required but a few hours' labor, and was wholly done by the women. It is a trait of savage character to degrade womanhood. With the red man this was universal. The females bore the burden of unconditional and unremitting servitude. Under the most cruel treatment they had no redress. Their utmost efforts and severest toil had no other reward than neglect, if not indignity. It is not strange that mothers of female infants were some- times driven to infanticide.

The tribes of the Merrimack Valley, though less ferocious than the Mohawks of New York and the Tarentines of Maine, were addicted to strife and bloodshed. Wars were as incessant and relentless before the advent of Europeans as afterwards. Ex- tinetion had been the lot of many a tribe in the long period which preceded the discovery of the continent. It required no tedious effort for a chief to fire the heart of every warrior in his clan, and once enlisted, there was no risk of desertion. The red men were not wanting in courage and persistance. Their wars were terrible, not from their numbers, for on any one ex- pedition they rarely exceeded a hundred men; it was the parties of six or seven which were most to be dreaded, especially in a war of retaliation. Skill con- sisted in surprising the enemy unawares. They fol- lowed his trail to kill him when he slept, or they laid in ambush near his wigwam, and watched for an op-

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History of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, Part 35

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton) Publication date: 1885 Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis Number of Pages: 1168

Author: Hurd, D. Hamilton (Duane Hamilton)
Publication date: 1885
Publisher: Philadelphia : J.W. Lewis
Number of Pages: 1168