History of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, Part 40

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

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"The Hon. Joseph Blanchard, Esq., deceased April 7th, 1758, aged 53."

The capture of Quebec and the surrender of Canada to the British, in 1760, was followed by a longer inter- val of peace than Dunstable had ever enjoyed,-fifteen years. It was a period of needed tranquillity, for on them, more than elsewhere, had the Indian wars told fearfully. For sixty years there had been no season when danger might not be imminent. There was no safety for the ordinary dwelling. Every occupied house was of necessity a garrison. No field labor could be performed with safety. Harvests were de- stroyed, dwellings burned, cattle killed and men, women and children brutally massacred or dragged through the wilderness to Canada. No man walked abroad unarmed, and on Sunday even the minister preached with his musket at his side.

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But the entire overthrow of the French dominion brought safety as well as peace. When, in 1774, the tyranny of the British government began to pro- voke ¿colonial resistance, Dunstable, with its seven hundred inhabitants, had become an established, self- reliant community. It is a fitting opportunity, there- fore, to briefly glance at the condition, habits, customs and peculiarities of our forefathers while yet the sub- jects of a European monarch.

The settlers of Dunstable were of Puritan origin. The earliest comers were, as a class, distinctly marked characters, men of intelligence, energy and some prop- erty. They had two objeets in view: to obtain per- manent homes for themselves and their posterity, and to acquire wealth by the rise of their lands. They brought with them domestic animals-cattle, swine and sheep,-and had they been spared the savage out- rages, which destroyed their property, and oftentimes their lives, in a few years they would have had large and profitable farms and convenient houses. The constant danger of Indian attacks compelled the building of timbered dwellings-logs hewn on opposite sides so that no musket bullet could penetrate, save at some crevice. There were no windows, except nar- row openings to admit light and air; while the doors were built with the most careful regard to resistance against outward attacks. They were made of white oak or ash plank, with iron hinges, and with a wooden latch on the inside, having a raw-hide string to lift the latch from the outside. When the string was pulled in and the heavy crossbars put up, it was no easy matter to force an entrance. Many of the houses from the first settlement till 1750 had a rude and strong stockade built around them, consisting of tim- bers ten inches thick set upright in the ground to the height of ten to twelve feet. Such a building, if pro- tected by several good marksmen, had all the security of a fort, and was never attacked by the savages unless they discovered the entrance open and unguarded. The house itself consisted of a single room, from sixteen to eighteen fect square, with seats, table and bedsteads, hewn by the broad axe, constituting the furniture.

But with the peace which followed the capture of Quebec came an era of growth and prosperity. The primitive dark and dingy log house gave way to the a sizeable room, which answered the three-fold pur -. pose of kitchen, living-room and parlor, with a small sleeping-room and pantry. A few of the more wealthy built a " double house," furnishing more abundant ac- commodations. All of them had in view shelter and comfort rather than elegance. The windows were small, without blinds or shutters. The fire-place was spacious enough to receive "back-logs " of two feet in diameter and five feet in length, in front of which was placed the smaller wood, resting on andirons. The stone hearth had the most liberal dimensions and the flue of the chimney a diameter of three feet. It was

hardly an exaggeration to say that one could sit in the chimney corner and study astronomy. All the cooking was done by this fire, the kettles being sus- pended from an iron crane over it, while the bannocks were baked and the meat roasted in front of it. Around it gathered the family at night, often numbering from six to twelve children, and the cricket on the hearth kept company with their prattle. Thus with the hardships came the comforts of pioneer life. Dunsta- ble had now a local cabinet-maker, whose busy lathe greatly improved the style of household furniture.

Everything was made of native forest wood-pine, cherry, birch and birds-eye maple. Now and then a bureau or a desk was seen which was made in Boston, and more rarely an article brought across the water from England. Vessels of iron, copper and tin were used in cooking. The dressers, extending from floor to ceiling in the kitchen, contained the mugs, basins and various-sized plates of pewter, which shone upon the farmer's board at time of meals. Farmers hired their help for seven dollars a month. Carpenters had seventy-five cents a day, or twelve dollars per month. Apprentices served five years, and for the first two years were only fed and clothed.

The food in those days was simple and healthy. There were no dyspeptics. Breakfast generally con- sisted of potatoes, roasted in the ashes, with a little cold meat and a hot " bannock," made of meal and water, and baked on a " maple chip " before the fire. In summer salt pork and greens, with an occasional strawberry or blackberry pudding, formed the staple for dinner; in autumn the raccoon, partridge and gray squirrel furnished wild meat for the same meal, while late in spring and early summer salmon and shad af- forded material for a princely repast. During the long winters farm-boys, apprentices and children lived chiefly on bean porridge. At dinner brown bread was added, or snapped corn was sifted into the boiling porridge, making the dish called " pop robbin." There was no tea or coffee, but all drank from a common mng, which at dinner contained cider. David Allds, who lived just north of Salmon Brook, near the bridge which still retains his name, used to say that during the winter months his family "used up" two hogs- heads of bean porridge each month.

framed house, usually of one story, and consisting of tlers of any part of New England; least of all was

There were no periods of leisure to the early set- there to the people of Dunstable. During the win - ter, when the farmer of to-day does little beside tak- ing care of his stock, the new-comer to Dunstable, finding his narrow clearing insufficient to support his family, set himself to felling trees for a new field. All through the early winter he was in the woods from carly dawn till the stars appeared in the sky, and sometimes by moonlight or firelight in the evening. But he had a strong frame, and labor was not irk- some; every blow struck was for himself, his children and his homestead. Stripping off his coat, with arms bare to the elbow, and the perspiration standing in

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drops on his forehead, the blows fell fast and heavy till the huge trunk, tottering for a moment, fell to the ground, flinging the broken branches high in the air, and with a noise like distant thunder. When the deep snows came he hired himself till spring to an older and wealthier settler, to earn the corn and meat to feed his family. The labors of the housewife were no less arduous. Aside from the care of her children, she had sole charge of the dairy and kitchen, besides spinning and weaving, sewing and knitting, washing and mending for the " men folks," and in case of sick- ness, taking care of the suffering. The people were generally healthy. Consumption, neuralgia and dis- eases of the heart were rarely known.

Dunstable had less of harmony in church affairs than most of the carly settled towns of New England. Yet, the people, with rare unanimity, gathered on Sunday at the "Okl South Meeting-House." Sunday developed the social as well as the religious feelings. During the hour of intermission the men gathered around some trader, or person who had just returned from Boston, whose means of information exceeded their own, to learn the important news of the week. Newspapers and letters were seldom seen at any coun- try fireside. News from England did not reach the inland towns till four months after the events oc- curred. Intelligence from New York was traveling ten to twelve days before it reached New Hampshire. In the means of general information it is difficult to comprehend the great change which has occurred in the civilized world between 1750 and the present time.

Between 1760 and the beginning of the Revolution, in 1775, the "up-country," above Dunstable,-what now comprises the northern and western towns of Hillsborough County, -- was rapidly settled. Dunstable had ceased to be a frontier town, and in spring and autumn the river road from Chelmsford to Nashua River, and thence to Amherst, became a thoroughfare for ox-teams, horse-teams and "foot people." Dr. Whiton, the carly historian of Antrim, said that not a small portion of the immigrants possessed little beside the axe on their shoulders and the needy children by their side. The taverns of a few years later were infre- quent, and the farmers of this town displayed a ready and generous hospitality in assisting the wayfarers on their journey.

The building of bridges over large streams taxes severely the pioneers of a new region. The bridge over the Nashua River was for many years a source of much expense and trouble to the people of Dunsta- ble. The first serviceable bridge was built in 1742, not far from the present one on Main Street, and more than twenty feet lower. This was carried away by a freshet in 1753, and rebuilt the same year at an ex- pense of one hundred and fifty pounds. Before 1759 it was in a ruinous condition, and the town petitioned the General Court for liberty to establish a lottery to build a new one. The lottery was not granted, but a

new bridge was built a few years later, partly by sub- scription and partly by the town. It stood a little be- low the present one. In the spring of 1775 it was again, and for the last time, carried away by a freshet, and the new one, built the same year, spanned the current at a greater elevation.

But the bridge across the Nashua River on the south road to Hollis was for a time a cause of still greater trouble. In the first settlement of Hollis, before the era of bridges, Mrs. Anna, wife of Captain Peter Powers, on a summer day went on horseback to visit a friend on this side of the river. The Nashua, at what is now called Runnell's bridge, was easily forded in the morning, but a sudden shower in the afternoon had caused it to overflow its banks. Mrs. Powers must return to her home that night. The horse entering the stream and losing his foothold, began to swim, The current was rapid, and the water flowed above the back of the horse. He was swept down the river, but still struck out for the op- posite bank. At one instant his feet rested on a rock in the stream, and he was lifted above the tide. Again he plunged forward, and threw his rider from her seat ; she caught his flowing mane and holding on for life, was borne by the strong animal safely to the opposite shore. Similar incidents were not in- frequent in the early occupation of the country.

But the first bridge at Runnell's Mills was built too low, and was badly injured by the annual spring freshets. It was very necessary to the people of Hol- lis, being on their main road to market, but of little use to Dunstable. The old bridge had been built by both towns, but in 1772 a new bridge was needed, and Dunstable was unwilling to pay half of the ex- pense. There were two farmers, Ebenezer Jaquith and Ensign Daniel Merrill, who owned the land in the bend of the river opposite the bridge, who wished to be annexed to Hollis, and who would pay hand- somely towards the new bridge if their wishes were granted. Dunstable was unwilling, but rather than incur the expense of a quarrel, united with Hollis in a petition for the proposed annexation. It was granted by the General Court in May, 1773. So the bridge was henceforth wholly in Hollis. Judge Wor- cester, in his "History of Hollis," says; " It is true that Dunstable lost five hundred acres of territory by the settlement, but was relieved from the burden of half maintaining the bridge for all future time,-a charge that has already cost Hollis more than the value of the land annexed."

The population of Dunstable previous to the Revo- lution was very largely south of the Nashua River. Farms, however, were being cleared at various points along the river westward to the Hollis line; several farmers had located on the Merrimack intervale be- tween the Laton farm and the mouth of the Penni- chuck ; and on the Amherst road, three and four miles above the Nashua River, Samuel Roby, Benja- min Jewett, John Butterfield and several others had

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started a thrifty settlement. In the south part of the town, as early as 1755, Abbott Roby had settled on the farm now occupied by Willard Cummings; James and Benjamin Searles and Philip Fletcher had taken up farms in the valley near the State line; Sylvanus Whitney had cleared off the forest and was living on the farm now owned by John Dane; the Fisk family lived where Stillman Swallow now resides; and on the road now leading to Pepperell were Jacob Gilson and Luther Robbins. Some of the older residents had acquired large and productive farms, and gave employment to some of their less-favored neighbors, paying them largely in the products of the farm,- food and clothing. Socially there was little or no distinction between the employer and the employed, and in business matters their relations were amiable. All the inhabitants of the town, except the parson, carpenter, blacksmith and trader, obtained their liveli- hood solely from the lands they cultivated; and in truth, all of these were more or less cultivators of the soil. Trade was mostly carried on in winter, each farmer carrying, sometimes with horses, but oftener with an ox-team, his surplus of pork, wool and grain to the Newburyport, Salem or Boston market, and bringing back iron, salt, molasses, rum, powder and shot.

The first stock of goods brought to Dunstable was drawn on a hand-sled by two men from Salem. It consisted of a few axes, knives, needles, fish-hooks, a small keg of nails, another of rum, a lot of salt-fish, forty pounds of shot and twenty pounds of powder. For many years there was only one store in town, and this did a limited business, as much of the retail trade went to Chelmsford. There was no library, no lectures, no lyceum, no amusements. There were no recreations for old or young except huskings, raisings and neighborhood gatherings in the long evenings of winter. Friendship was a much stronger tie than in modern times, and neighbors took a deeper and more genuine interest in each other's welfare.

The early settlers of any region are compelled to suffer hardships and privations. It was the lot of our forefathers that great perils also constantly confronted them and their families. Yet even with them, there was some compensation in the newness of life around them ; in the buoyancy of pure air, clear streams, and fresh woodlands; in an exemption from the annoyances of older communities. That period has become history, and will not return. Nature brings not back the mastodon, nor will there be a recurrence of the colonial epoch. The charm about it is this,-that it was the earliest period of our American history, a period that will always be inter- esting, and the records of which will continue to at- traet the reader in the far-distant centuries of the future.

CHAPTER VIII. NASIIUA-(Continued).

DUNSTABLE IN THE REVOLUTION.

Advanced Ideas of Equality-Every Dunstable Man a Soldier -First Action of the Town-The Minute-Men-At Bunker Ilill-Enthusiasm and Anxiety-Events of 1776-Battle of Bennington-Hardships and Privations- Dunstable Opposed to Centralized Power-The War Ended -State Constitution Adopted-List of Dunstable Revolutionary Sul- diers.

THE French and Indian wars terminating with the conquest of Canada gave the colonies of New Eng- land a severe but useful experience. They had been taught the cost, hardships and dangers of war, and knew how to meet them. In these campaigns they had discovered that they were more than the peers of the European sokliery. They had no hatred of the British government in its constitutional exercise, had fond memories of their old homes, and had no expec- tation of a speedy separation from the mother-coun- try, nor did they at that time desire it.

But they began to foresee that a great and inde- pendent nation was destined to arise into existence in America. When the leading men of Dunstable met in town-meetings, the current sentiment of the day was that though none then living would see the event, yet in future ages this country would become a pow- erful and independent republic. That a separation from England would be so soon accomplished they did not even dream; and as to the rapid advance of the country in population, wealth and political im- portance, their most adventurous imaginations lagged far behind what time has since unfolded as realities.

The era of the Revolution found every citizen of Southern New Hampshire a soldier. Scarcely a man of middle age could be met who had not faced an armed foe and was not familiar with the dangers of an armed conflict. Colonel Blanchard is reputed to have said that "the boys of this town are better ac- quainted with the gun than the spelling-book,"- were rather marksmen than scholars. In addition to their military experience, the division of New Eng- land into townships,-those "little democracies," as they were aptly called,-each self-governed, where every citizen feels that he is a part of the common- wealth, has civil rights and duties, and learns to think and act for himself, was an excellent school for train- ing our forefathers and teaching them the principles of self-government upon a more extended scale.

During the long succession of encroachments which preceded and caused the Revolution the inhabitants of Dunstable were not indifferent. They had watched the storm as it gathered, and knew its consequences must be momentous. In September, 1774, Jonathan Lovewell was sent a delegate to the convention at Exeter, called to choose delegates to the First Conti- mental Congress. The same town-meeting voted a sum of money " to buy a supply of ammunition," and voted to pay their share of the expenses to be incurred

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in forming a colonial organization. In January, 1775, Joseph Eayers and Noah Lovewell represented the town in the next Exeter convention to send dele- gates to Philadelphia. At this meeting, with an ac- tivity characteristic of the times, they chose Samuel Roby, Jonathan Lovewell, Joseph Eayers, Benjamin Smith, John Wright, Benjamin French, James Blanchard and John Searles a " Committee of Inspec- tion " to see that all persons in this town carry into practice the recommendations and instructions of the Continental Congress.

From the first the people of New Hampshire were ready for a collision. An old law required every male citizen from sixteen to sixty years of age to own a musket, bayonet, knapsack, cartridge-box, one pound of powder, twenty bullets and twelve flints. Every town was required to keep in readiness for use one barrel of powder, two hundred pounds of lead and three hundred flints, besides spare arms and ammuni- tion for those too poor to own them. The first news of bloodshed at Lexington was borne on the wings of the wind to every hamlet. Beacons were lighted, guns fired, drums beaten and bells rung to warn the people of their danger.

In these movements the men of Dunstable were among the most zealous, and the military spirit de- rived from their fathers, and the military experience of many in the French wars, were at once aroused into activity by the summons to the conflict. Instantly they hurried to Concord to avenge the death of their fellow-citizens. Who and how many were these " Minute-Men" is not recorded ; but the town paid one hundred and ten dollars for their expenses. Within less than a week a company of sixty-six men was organized at Cambridge under Captain William Walker, of this town, forty of whom, including the officers, were also from Dunstable. The following is the company roll, omitting the names of those from adjacent towns :

William Walker, captain; James Brown, first lieutenant ; William Roby, second lieutenant ; Daniel Warner, sergeant ; John Lund, ser- grant ; Phineas Whitney, corporal ; Medad Combs, Abijah Reed, John lovewell, William Harris, Pant Woods, Joel Stewart, Simeon Butter- field, Peter Honey, Paul Clogstone, Philip Roby, Jonathan Harris, Wil- liam Harris, Jr., Archibald Gibson, Benjamin Whitney, Jonathan Dan- forth, David Adams, Benjamin Bagley, Eliphalet Bagley, David Adams, Jr., Nehemiah Lovewell, Henry Lovewell, Eleazer Blanchard, Richard Adams, Ebenezer Fosdick, William Butterfield, James Gibson, John Snow, Abel Danforth, Simeon Hills, James Harwood, Ichabod Lovewell, Jacob Blodgett, Oliver Woods, Nehemiah Wright, Jonathan Emerson, Silas Chamberlain, Moses Chandler, Jason Russell.

After reaching the vicinity of Boston, the New Hampshire troops were stationed at Medford, and formed the left wing of the American army. They comprised two regiments, and were commanded by Colonel Stark and Colonel Reed. General Washing- ton had not yet arrived. The Massachusetts historian of that campaign described the soldiers from this State to be "hardy, fearless and indefatigable. Al- most every one of them was a trained marksman. There had been, with many of them, an experience

in savage warfare; and forest hunting was familiar to all. They could aim their weapons at a human op- pressor as readily as at a bear."

The regiment of Colonel Preseott and other Massa- chusetts forces were stationed at Cambridge. By order of the Committee of Safety, at nine o'clock on the night of June 16th, Colonel Prescott, with his own regiment and a detachment from several others, including a company of one hundred men from Hol- lis, this State, marched to Charlestown, and took possession of the heights upon which, the next day, was fought the battle of Bunker Hill. The men were ordered to take one day's rations and a spade or pick-axe. It was midnight before the ground was reached, and a line marked out for digging a breast-work. Working the rest of the night, and the next forenoon in the intense heat of a June sun, withont sleep, and some of them without food and drink, word was sent to Colonel Prescott, if, in view of the impending fight, fresh troops had not better take the place of the weary ones, Colonel Prescott replied: "The men who have thrown up these works know best how to defend them."

At eleven o'clock on the day of the battle the New Hampshire troops were ordered to march to the rear of Colonel Prescott's command, as a reinforcement. Fifteen charges of powder and ball were distributed to each man, with directions to make them into cart- ridges immediately. Few had cartridge-boxes, but used powder-horns; and as the guns were of different calibre, there was much difficulty in adjusting the balls. Some of Stark's men reached the rail fence near the redoubt, while the rest were stationed in the rear to protect the peninsula. In marching over Charles- town Neck, the New Hampshire soldiers were exposed to a constant fire from the British men-of-war; but Colonel Stark kept the men on a steady move, say- ing: "Before this fight is over, one fresh man will be worth ten tired ones."

The British forces marched up the hill at two o'clock. The heaviest fire was on Prescott's men at the breast-works. A regiment of Welsh fusileers was opposed to Stark's command. They marched up the hill with seven hundred men. The next day only eighty-three appeared on parade, and every commis- sioned officer was missing. When the redoubt was abandoned by Colonel Prescott, because his men had neither ammunition nor bayonets to defend it, Col- onel Stark's foree held the enemy in check till the gallant band were safely across the isthmus.

Of the Americans in that memorable battle, one hundred and forty-five were killed and missing, and three hundred and five wounded,-in all four hun- dred and fifty. General Gage reported the killed and wounded of the British army at one thousand and fifty-four, including eighty-nine officers. The New Hampshire regiments lost nineteen men killed and seventy-four wounded. The Dunstable company, under Captain Walker, was in Stark's regiment.

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Only one Dunstable soldier, William Lund, was killed, and two, Joseph Greeley and Paul Clogstone, were wounded. The latter died soon after. The Hollis company, which on that day was included among the Massachusetts troops under Colonel Pres- cott, lost heavily, eight men being left dead at the redoubt. The unnsual heat of the day compelled the soldiers to lay aside their coats and knapsacks, many of which were lost in the excitement and hurry of the retreat.

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History of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire, Part 40

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