USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Hudson > History of Hudson, N.H., formerly a part of Dunstable, Mass., 1673-1733, Nottingham, Mass., 1733-1741, District of Nottingham, 1741-1746, Nottingham West, N.H., 1746-1830, Hudson, N.H., 1830-1912 > Part 4
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WHEN HUDSON WAS A WILDERNESS
possibly the weight of evidence would show that when it was all balanced the poor Indian may have been as much sinned against by his white neighbors as he was guilty of sinning against them.
CHAPTER IV
DUNSTABLE IN THE INDIAN WARS
From the date of the landing of the Pilgrims at Ply- mouth, in 1620, soon after which Samoset, an Indian chief belonging to the Wampanoag tribe, suddenly appeared in their midst and greeted them with the friendly exclama- tion : "Welcome, Englishmen! Welcome, Englishmen !" the colonists had little trouble with the aborigines for more than fifty years, that they did not provoke themselves. It is true there were wars and rumors of wars along the en- tire frontier, the most notable of which was the Pequot struggle in 1634-1637, when that warlike faction was prac- tically exterminated, the crisis coming with the last des- perate stand made by King Philip in 1675. Judging them from the conclusions drawn of their character by the earlier English writers, the patience and toleration with which they bore the treatment of these new-comers seems re- markable. There is little doubt that peaceful relations might have continued indefinitely had the colonists treated them fairly and honestly.
King Philip's bloody resistance against the English was a combined attempt to exterminate the colonists, and broke out with little warning in the summer of 1675. He was the grandson and successor of Massasoit, with whom the Plymouth colonists had made a treaty of peace in 1621 -a covenant that remained inviolate with the red men for that long period. The war was brought to a sudden close by the treachery of one of Philip's own followers, who shot him in the back as he was leading his forlorn hope. From this time the alarms of war came from the north instead of the south, and the danger rose more from small scouting parties of the Indians than from united tribes battling for a common cause.
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DUNSTABLE IN THE INDIAN WARS
Simultaneously with this change of scene of action a new element entered into the prolonged strife. England and France were almost constantly at war for a century, and always the bitterness of the contention was transplant- ed to the shores of the New World. Seeing in them pliant allies of destruction, the French sought and won the confi- dence and assistance of the untutored red men. The teach- ers of this system of warfare were the Jesuits, who by kind treatment and ingenious training prepared them for the war-trail against an enemy they had no slight reason to fear and to hate.
King William's war in the old country was swiftly fol- lowed by an Indian outbreak in New England, lasting from 1689 to 1698. Scarcely had the news of peace reached the colonists here than Queen Anne's war followed in 1703, continuing for ten years. The history of the frontier from east to west was a series of bloody encounters and massa- cres. And during those dark and bloody years Old Dun- stable was the outpost of the New England colonists, as her fortress had been the watch-tower during King Philip's uprising. From her homes went forth some of the bravest and strongest of the sturdy yeomanry, building for them- selves homes in the wilderness of this ravaged country.
During the brief cessations of armed hostilities the pio- neers were not wholly exempt from the attacks of a foe that never seemed to sleep. Thus a constant vigilance and watchfulness had to be maintained by the early settlers of Dunstable. Yet the censure does not wholly lie against
the people who were causing this trouble. Fox, in his History of Dunstable, says truthfully, "The treatment of the Indians by our forefathers generally, and of Wonnalan- cet especially, was not Christian and scarcely human.". He might have gone farther and said with equal truth that these brave families who were made to suffer most were not the originators of this unhappy situation. To find these we must seek them among the disciples of the Mathers and their associates. Speaking of the efficiency of prayer,
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HISTORY OF HUDSON
Dr. Increase Mather, the leading minister of his time, said : "Nor could they cease praying to the Lord against Philip until they had prayed the bullet into his heart !" The last " prayer " should have been spelled with an "e" where an "a" is usually placed. But we need not prolong this dis- cussion, if that can be called a discussion where the argu- ment is all on one side.
A decade of comparative peace succeeded Queen Anne's war, during which interval the first settlements were commenced in Hudson. But these pioneers had barely established themselves in their new homes before another alarm of war awoke them to renewed danger and warlike activity. These ten years had also seen a change in the government of New England. Queen Anne had died in 1714, and was succeeded by George I. A change of rulers at home always resulted in a change of policy in regard to the management of the affairs of the colonies of England. In the hope of averting this result, the English colonists of Massachusetts and New Hampshire petitioned to have Governor Dudley remain at the head in New Eng- land. This request was ignored, and Samuel Shute was appointed Governor of Massachusetts, while George Vaughan was made Lieutenant-Governor and virtual ruler of New Hampshire. This last became a fact, inasmuch as Governor Shute did not arrive until the other had held his office a year.
A question then arose between the two as to the ex- tent of Lieutenant-Governor Vaughan's power. He claimed that he was ruler of New Hampshire whenever the other was not in the province. As Governor Shute intended to make his home in Boston, this left him but little to do with the government of New Hampshire. The dispute waxed so bitter that Vaughan was recalled and John Wentworth, destined to act an important, and not altogether unfavora- ble, part in affairs was sent to fill his office.
So, while the colonists were active in pushing deeper and deeper into the wilderness, hewing out new homes and
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DUNSTABLE IN THE INDIAN WARS
establishing new townships, internecine troubles that were to have considerable bearing upon their fortunes, were re- peating themselves in the government both here and in England. It was during this period that Londonderry, Chester, Barrington, Nottingham and Rochester were chartered and incorporated, the signing of these charters in 1722 being the last official act of Governor Shute, who was succeeded in Massachusetts by Governor Dummer, while Lieutenant-Governor Wentworth became the head of the government in New Hampshire.
During this period a new element of population entered into colonial life. This factor was the Scotch-Irish, so called, immigrants from Scotland finding their way to America after being driven out of that country by the Eng- lish into the north of Ireland. They settled the township of Londonderry granted them by Governor Shute. Com- ing at this time, and scarcely in friendly communication with their neighbors, the English, they did not participate in the border warfare that was disturbing the settlers along the Merrimack and about the Pascataqua River. In fact, though brave to a fault, I have been unable to find that they acted any important part in the long series of wood- fighting that followed their arrival in America. This does not reflect upon their patriotism, as we find them active enough during the seven years of the Revolutionary War.
At no interval of this cessation of hostilities were the Indians wholly quiet, but occasional acts of violence took place, until in the summer of 1722 were begun those strug- gles that became the fiercest in all the long and sanguinary warfare of Northern New England.
At this time Sebastian Rasle, S. J., one of the most zealous of the French missionaries in New France, estab- lished his mission at Norridgewock, on the Kennebec Riv- er, near where is now the town of Farmington, Maine. The simple red men looked upon this black-robed man of God as a true father, and he in turn encouraged them to lift the hatchet against that race which he had been taught
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HISTORY OF HUDSON
to hate since childhood. Realizing that if they could de- stroy this stronghold of the French it would be a powerful blow towards winning their own safety, the English re- solved to march against it. In the winter of 1722, Colonel Westbrook of York, Me., led an expedition up the Kenne- bec River, but was unsuccessful in his purpose. This seemed to give the French priest an excuse for greater ac- tivity, and the settlements in Maine, which then belonged to Massachusetts, were the first to suffer, Merry-Meeting Bay and Brunswick among them. Governor Dummer then declared war, a conflict which afterwards bore his name, while it has been equally as well known as Lovewell's War, for reasons to be made plain later.
As usual Dover was the first town in that section of New Hampshire to feel the dread attack of the dusky ene- mies. Then Lamprey River, now Newmarket, Oyster River (Durham), Kingston and Chester shared in this cruel warfare. In 1724 a second expedition against Norridge- wock was planned and carried into effect that summer by Captains Moulton and Harmon at the head of over two hundred men. This body was divided into four companies, and besides the leaders mentioned were Captains Bourne and Bane, or Bean according to later spelling. This party was piloted by a friendly Mohawk chief known to the whites as Christian. The raid was victorious. The In- dians were not only surprised and completely routed, but their beloved adviser, Father Rasle, was slain, the chapel burned, the plate and furniture brought away as trophies of their victory by the conquerors .* Thus perished at 68 years of age Father Rasle, in a cause to which he had de- voted over thirty years of his life with an earnestness equalled only by his zeal. If the taking of his life was to be justified or not, it is certain his teachings made a dan-
* When the mission village of Norridgewock was attacked by the New England men, the women and children were made to suffer the fate of warriors. The scholarly missionary, Rasles, author of the Abnaki Dictionary, was shot down at the foot of the cross, where he was afterwards found with his body riddled with balls, his skull crushed and scalped, his mouth and eyes filled with earth, his limbs broken, and all of his members mutilated-and this by white men .- American Ethnology, Vol. 19.
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DUNSTABLE IN THE INDIAN WARS
gerous element in the midst of the English settlers in New England, and neither he nor his slayers can be correctly judged under any other light than the spirit of the times.
While the glory of the valiant Canibas tribe of red men had forever flown with this rout at Norridgewock, and the survivors were compelled to seek refuge at St. Francis, in Canada, instead of striking terror to the remaining In- dians as had been expected, it awoke, if that were possible, a fiercer spirit of hatred for the race they could not help seeing was destined to become their destroyers. Thus the New England frontier from the intervales of Old Dunsta- ble to the meadows of the Madawaska rang with the war- hoop of the dusky avengers, while the torch of terror light- ed the nights of horror. Profiting by the mistakes of the past the Indians were now more cautious in their attacks and more cunning in their retreats, so they were difficult to hunt down. The English sent scouting party after party into the wilderness to strike a retaliating blow, and check these depredations, with only meagre success.
Where the Saco River makes a bold bend to the north- east so as to almost double on its track, after leaving the gateway of the mountains, dwelt a tribe of Indians known as the Sokoki, with another encampment lower down this stream where it is joined by the Ossipee. This place was an ideal spot for these hunters and warriors of the wilder- ness. A wide circuit of rich country afforded them rare hunting-grounds, while the river and ponds near by abound- ed with fish. In their canoes they could follow the devious windings of the Saco for a distance of over forty miles, and at the end of this pleasure trip find themselves but a little over a mile from their starting point, and easy portage back to their lodges.
The Sokoki had been settled at this place known to them as Pequaket,* hard by the river at the foot of the
* Pequaket-Pequawket-Pigwacket-means, or is from Paqui-auk-et, meaning “at the open land." There was an Indian town here longer than any historian has been able to tell .- Trumbull.
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HISTORY OF HUDSON
" Pine-Tree Hill," longer than tradition attempts to tell. They were originally a numerous tribe, good fighters, and while fiery and furious when aroused, less inclined to treach- ery than some of the other families of red men. Like the Pennacooks, they had suffered fearfully at the hands of the Mohawks, and in wars with them and other tribes had dwin- dled away. Their last great sachem was the noted Squan- don ; their last great captain, Paugus.
Following the rout of the Canibas at Norridgewock, the Sokoki became unusually active against the English. It was known that the Governor of Canada had asked the King of France to furnish these Indians with arms, ammu- nition and blankets, which explains in part this unwonted activity. Fear and excitement reigned throughout the en- tire frontier settlements, and it began to look as though the whole border would be desolated.
In this plight the court of Massachusetts increased the bounty on Indian scalps from fifty to one hundred pounds each, and sought to encourage men to undertake expedi- tions against them. In extenuation of this course it was claimed, with apparent truthfulness, that the French were doing the same, and what was of even greater potency, of- fering high rewards for the possession of captives that might be made useful in a country where laborers and ser- vants were only too scarce. These facts, together with the savage barbarity shown by the dusky warriors towards the helpless whites, were sufficient excuse for the act, when, as has been remarked, the spirit of the times is taken into consideration. But it cannot condone a wrong, nor bright- en the stern countenances of those civilized men silhouetted against a background of aboriginal darkness. If the fol- lowers of Canibas and Paugus were cruel, and there is no gainsaying the fact, when they had been urged and driven to desperation, there is no excuse for their educated con- querors to practice similar cruelties. The beheading and quartering of the mutilated body of King Philip is ample evidence that it takes more than a change of scene to re-
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DUNSTABLE IN THE INDIAN WARS
move the glut of vengeance from a people whose kin at home exulted in exposing to the public gaze the heads of those who had been unfaithful to the government they deemed tyrannical, as was done in London at Temple Bar for many years. Darker yet than these deeds perpetrated upon warlike men was the sending into bondage in faraway Bermuda the wife and little son of King Philip under sanction of the church.
Indian warfare was conducted almost wholly along the rivers of the country, and those settlements upon the banks of the different streams were thus made certain tar- gets for their enemies. Thus the old town of Dunstable, lying on both sides of the Merrimack, became the scene of some bitter hand-to-hand combats.
September 4, 1724, two men by the names of Nathan Cross and Thomas Blanchard were surprised by a party of Indians and taken captives while at work preparing turpen- tine from pines growing on the bank of the Nashua River. As they did not return from their work as usual that even- ing, their friends became alarmed. In the morning a party consisting of ten under the direction of Lt. Ebenezer French started in search of the missing men. Upon reach- ing the scene of the operations of Cross and Blanchard it was found that the hoops of the barrels containing the tur- pentine had been cut and their contents had spread upon the ground. Certain marks upon the trees told them that their friends had been captured by the Indians, while the state of the turpentine showed that the captors had fin- ished their work only a short time before. This encouraged Lieutenant French and his companions to begin immedi- ate pursuit in the hope of overtaking them.
Josiah Farwell, a member of the rescue party, advised taking a circuitous course, lest they should fall into an am- bush laid by the red men. Lieutenant French not only scorned this prudent course but accused Farwell of cow- ardice, himself leading in the path recently taken by the Indians, his companions following in single file, Farwell in
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HISTORY OF HUDSON
the rear. "Their route," says the historian of Dunstable, Mr. C. J. Fox, " was up the Merrimack towards which they bent their course to look for their horses upon the inter- vals. At the brook * near Lutwych's (now Thornton's) Ferry they were waylaid. The Indians fired upon them and killed the larger part instantly. A few fled and were overtaken and destroyed. French was killed about a mile from the place of action under an oak tree lately standing (1840) in a field belonging to Mr. John Lund of Merrimack. Farwell, in the rear, seeing those before him fall, sprung behind a tree, discharged his piece and ran The Indians pursued him. The chase was vigorously maintained for some time, without either gaining much advantage, until Farwell passing through a thicket, the Indians lost sight of him, and probably fearing he might have loaded again, they abandoned further pursuit. He was the only one of the company that escaped."
The names of the men, besides those given, were Thomas Lund, Oliver Farwell, and Ebenezer Cummings of Dunstable ; Daniel Baldwin and John Burbank of Woburn, and a Mr. Johnson of Plainfield, Mass. Messrs. Cross and Blanchard, the captives, succeeded eventually in escaping from their enemies after being taken to Canada.
A search of their friends resulted in finding the bodies of eight of the unfortunate men, and these were conveyed to the ancient burial ground near the state line. Coffins were made for them, and with uncommon solemnity and sorrow the entire party was interred in one grave. Above this spot a monument was erected, with the following in- scription copied verbatim et literatim:
MEMENTO MORI
Here lies the body of Mr. Thomas Lund who departed this life Sept. 5th, 1724, in the 42d year of his age.
This man with seven more that lies in this grave was slew all in a day by the Indians !
* Naticook Brook, the stream which crossed the road just above Thornton's. The scene of the Ambush must have been near the present highway .- Fox
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DUNSTABLE IN THE INDIAN WARS
Three other grave stones stand close beside the above, their inscriptions covered with moss and nearly illegible. Of these one was erected to Lt. Oliver Farwell, aged 33 years ; another to Mr. Ebenezer Cummings, aged 29 years; the third to the memory of Mr. Benjamin Carter, aged 23 years.
Some of the earlier writers state that the Indians who committed this act were Mohawks, but this does not seem likely. The fact that the captives were taken to Canada would disprove it, as the Mohawks were in no manner friendly to the French from the days of Champlain to the end of the French and Indian War in 1760. This party be- longed no doubt to the Ameriscoggins, the remnants of which tribe, smarting under the blow dealt them by the English, were then hovering about the French mission on the St. Lawrence River.
The critical situation and loss of life to the inhabitants of Old Dunstable is shown in the following deposition of two of her most venerable citizens, the parents of Captain John Lovewell, the paper having been brought to light from among the court files of New Hampshire, by Hon. Ezra S. Stearns in his researches concerning that period, where it had slumbered more than one hundred and fifty years:
FACTS CONCERNING THE INDIAN DEPREDATIONS IN DUNSTABLE.
The deposition of John Lovewell aged ninety-three and Anna his wife aged about eighty-three years, who testify & say that in the year 1680 they were Inhabitants and residents in Dunstable & have been Inhabi- tants and residents there since and that in the said year 1680 there were 35 families settled in Dunstable beside several single men who were resi- dent there and owned Lots in said Town & further saith that in the first ten years War for one summer the Inhabitants all gathered in the garri- son and that about fifty-five years ago in the month of August in the same Town there was killed by the Indians Four of the Inhabitants and in September next following two more was killed and one wounded and about forty-eight years ago of the same Town there was one killed and two captivated and about the same time there was one killed or captivat- ed and about thirty-nine years ago in Dunstable there was eleven Persons killed and three captivated by the Indians & one House & Garrison burned down at the same Time and that about thirty-three years ago there
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HISTORY OF HUDSON
was one Person killed and one wounded in Dunstable and the year follow- ing in Dunstable there was one man killed and in the year following there- was one more man captivated & carried to Canada and in the year 1724 there was eight persons killed one wounded and four captivated in Dunsta- ble and in the year 1725 there was of the Inhabitants of Dunstable five killed and two wounded all which Mischiefs was done by the Indians in the time of War-and in the year 1680 the Revd. Mr. Thomas Weld preached in Dunstable and continued there until he was ordained there to the work of the ministry which was about two years after and that from the time- we first came to Dunstable the Inhabitants has never drawn off.
his JOHN X LOVEWELL mark her ANNA X LOVEWELL mark
Province of New Hampshire
March 16, 1744.
Then the above named John Lovewell and Anna Lovewell made sol- emn Oath to the truth of the foregoing Deposition by them signed relat- ing to an Action of Ejectment wherein one Joseph Kidder is Apellant & the Proprietors of Londonderry are Apellers to be heard and tried at the superior court of Judicature to be holden at Portsmouth in said Province on Tuesday the nineteenth day of this instant March by adjournment from the first Tuesday of February last past-the Deponents living more than five miles from Portsmouth where the case is to be tried & the said Proprietors of Londonderry the Adverse Party being duly notified was present by one of their committee for Law suits viz : sworn before Samuel Emerson.
J. PEACE.
The foregoing deposition throws new light upon the number of persons killed by the Indians in the ancient township of Dunstable. It is an important document. The statement "about fifty-five years ago," probably refers to 1691, when Joseph Hassel, Anna his wife and Benjamin his son and Mary Marks were killed September 2, and to the killing of Christopher Temple and Obediah Perry, which occurred on the 28th of the same month.
The second statement, that about forty-eight years be- fore one person had been killed and two captured, while
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DUNSTABLE IN THE INDIAN WARS
later there was one killed or " captivated," is not mentioned in the traditions of the town. The death of eleven per- sons killed and three carried into captivity in 1705, as given by the Lovewells, mainly occurred in 1706, when Nathan- iel Blanchard, Lydia, his wife, and one child, and Hannah Blanchard and Elizabeth, wife of John Cummings, Jr., and Rachel Galusha were murdered by the Indians and consid- ering the number of soldiers killed the same day at the Weld garrison, there is a marked conflict in the traditions of the town.
The witnesses speak of three captives.
The wife of Captain Butterfield, Richard Samuel But- terfield and Samuel Whitney, Senior, were captured about this date.
The statement that in 1711 and the two succeeding years two were killed, one wounded and one captured is not found in other mentions, and it is perhaps that a few of the casualties generally supposed to have taken place in 1706 or immediately preceding occurred at this time.
In 1724 the deponents say eight were killed, one wounded and four captured. This statement refers to the losses near Thornton's Ferry. The witnesses do not al- lege that all of the dead were residents of Dunstable. The names of the persons killed were Ebenezer French, Thomas Lund, Oliver Farwell, Ebenezer Cummings, Benjamin Carter, Daniel Baldwin, John Burbank, - Johnson. The first five were Dunstable men.
All of the foregoing casualties, according to the state- ments of the Lovewells, occurred in Dunstable. In the allegation that in the year 1725 there were of the inhabi- tants five killed and two wounded, there is no mention of the place where the casualties took place. The venerable witnesses, mindful of the loss of their son, referred to the Lovewell fight at Pequaket. The five Dunstable men who were slain in that memorable expedition were Capt. John Lovewell, Lt. Josiah Farwell, Lt. Jonathan Robbins, En- sign John Harwood and Robert Usher. Samuel Whiting,
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