USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, Volume I > Part 21
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6 N. H. Prov. Papers, IV. 486, 488.
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difference in pay denotes respect for rank in office rather than compensation for relative abilities and services.
The opposition, or lack of harmony, between the council and the assembly is manifest from time to time. The former repre- sented royal authority and corresponded to the house of lords in England; the latter represented the people and corresponded to the house of commons. The people of New Hampshire, led by Nathaniel Weare, then speaker of the house, were getting tired of vexatious delays and fruitless expenses in settling the province lines, in securing stores of war, and in obtaining jus- tice. Therefore the representatives passed the following resolve, January 10, 1727/8, which was highly displeasing to the council and probably led to the above mentioned negativing of the elec- tion of Weare as speaker :
Whereas the Court sometimes called a Court of Appeals and sometimes the Court of Chancery assumes an arbitrary power without foundation or precedent, and whose proceedings are Neither by Juries nor any Known Rules and Laws, which renders the Estates of his Majesty's good Subjects within this Province most precarious and their Circumstances most Deplorable, which has occasioned a Generall Cry for Reliefe under so heavey a Burthen & whereas his honor the Lieut .- Governor has Signified to us upon application Made to the Honorable Board That his Instructions forbids the Disolving any Court already Erected & therefore that wee May Expect Noe remedy from him and whereas your Province has been at a very Considerable & fruitless Expense for Settling the Province lines and for obtaining Stores of Warr, and the assembly frequently amused from time to time & yeare to yeare with hopes of Success & that a little Money at one time and a little Money at another time would accomplish the affaire, yet Notwithstanding these plausible Intimations & the Raised Expectations of Some the Matter for ought any thing we Can See is as far from a happy and favorable Issue as when the attempt was first Made & whereas an additionall Number of Councillors from the Severall parts of the Province is what people in Generall & this house as theire Representatives Earnestly Desier, being assured it Cannot faile to promote the happiness of the Province, and whereas Many other things beneficiall for the Government may be proposed and Considered and Where as the worthy Gent who was lately an agent for us his Commission is Terminated: Therefore voted That Some faithfull Gent of Suitable Capacity and ability from hence who has the Interest of the Province at heart and one on Whose Integrity and uprightness wee May Depend be forthwith Comissionated and instructed to appeare at the Court of Great Britaine & Memoriall to his Majesty the Grievances before men- tioned & to Implore his Grace and favor in ordering the Disolving the Said Court or, if that may not be, then a New Regulation of It as in his Princely wisdom Shall Seem Right in Causing the lines to be Settled & your Stores Granted, the Number of Councillors increased as affore Said."
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The council declared that this was a scandalous libel and asked the representatives to retract their vote. A conference of the two houses was held. Nothing definite resulted, and the matter was not pressed, perhaps because a new governor was immediately expected.",,
In 1726 it was voted in the house of representatives that the records of deeds be constantly kept at some convenient house at the bank (Strawberry Bank) in Portsmouth, and that the expense of recording deeds and conveyances should be at the rate of one shilling for each page of eight and twenty lines in each page and eight words in a line, and that six pence should be allowed for attestation, and no more on the penalty by law provided. The same year the respresentatives voted that there should be built a court house and a prison in the towns of Hampton, Exeter and Dover, and a state house at Portsmouth. A vote for the state house had passed the council the year before and the house did not then concur.
In 1728 the house of representatives set a valuation upon polls and estates for the purpose of taxation. Polls were rated at twenty-five pounds, lands at five or six shillings per acre, each ox three pounds, each cow two pounds, a horse three pounds, a hog ten shillings, each Negro, Mulatto or Indian slave twenty pounds, houses throughout the province at one pound and five shillings each. Notice how the manisons of the rich were rated the same as the hovels of the poor.8
As early as 1724 the assemblymen began to agitate in favor of a triennial act, requiring that no assembly, or house of repre- sentatives, should continue in office longer than three years. This was in harmony with a law in England that a parliament should be chosen for three years only. The agent in London, Henry Newman, reported opinion there as being against the pro- posed act, since the law did not work well, and it was changed so that parliament must be chosen once in seven years. Neverthe- less the assembly of New Hampshire continued to favor such a law, and it was passed four years later.
7 N. H. Prov. Papers, Vol. IV, p. 479.
8 N. H. Prov. Papers, Vol. IV, p. 304.
Chapter XII THE FOURTH INDIAN WAR
Chapter XII
THE FOURTH INDIAN WAR.
Why Indians Preferred the French to the English-Influence of Jesuit Missionaries-Trouble Begins in Eastern Maine-New Hampshire Troops Sent Eastward-Attack on Merrymeeting and Brunswick-Exploit of Captain Baker-Road Cut to Winnepiseogee-Indians Attack Dover again-Newmarket and Oyster River Suffer-Captives Taken at Chester -Five Slain at Oyster River-The Hanson Family at Dover-Destruction of Norridgewock-Men of Dunstable Killed and Captured-Large Bounty for Scalps-Exploits of Captain Lovewell's Company-Battle of Pe- quawket or Fryeburg-Killing of the Evans Family-Commissioners Sent to Montreal-Treaty of Boston and Falmouth-Insecurity of both Whitemen and Redmen.
I T was during the administration of Lieutenant Governor John Wentworth that the fourth Indian war occurred, commonly called Lovewell's War. It is noticeable that the Indians of Maine and New Hampshire were always allies of the French against the English, and we do not read of depredations com- mitted by them upon the French settlements in the provinces. This has been accounted for by the fact that the English gov- ernment acted toward the Indian tribes as though they were subjects of the King of England and so rebels in time of war, while the French acknowledged the independence of the tribes. Moreover, the French sent Jesuit missionaries among them, who lived according to Indian customs, taught the elements of the christian religion, as well as some of the helpful arts of civili- zation. David Livingstone found this method of doing mission- ary work very effective in the heart of Africa and so opened up a great dominion to the British nation. The Indians were de- voted to their missionaries and valued highly their religious teachings. One of the most noted of such missionaries was Sebastian Rasle, who lived among the Norridgewocks many years, taught them to build a chapel, and endeared himself to them by his life of service and sacrifice. Much has been written both for and against him. The settlers in Maine at his time hated him for stirring up the tribes against them and therefore
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may have misrepresented him. Naturally his sympathies were with the French in their struggles for territory in America, and he can not be blamed for assisting his countrymen and his beloved Indians in their wars with the English, just as the English missionaries in Africa are now taking sides against the German colonists there and accepting all the assistance they can get from the African tribes. Rasle was an able, highly edu- cated and devoted priest, and his work among the Indians should be judged from the French point of view. While England and France were at war, treaties with the Indians in Maine and New Hampshire could not go long unbroken. In every new treaty the compact was written in English and interpreted to the In- dians, who assented to all that was asked of them, probably in many cases not knowing well the meaning of the terms em- ployed. It is certain that such treaties never stood for a moment in their way, whenever they wished to dig up the tomahawk. Such promises were less than scraps of paper to them. They could not understand how their forefathers could have sold be- yond recall large tracts of land, so that the tribes could no longer use them. They doubtless held that none of preceding genera- tions had a right to so dispose of lands that successors would certainly need, and they had no wish nor ability to change their mode of living. As tribes they felt that they had an inalienable right to the soil and rivers for planting corn, hunting and fishing, a right which is now acknowledged in setting aside for their use large reservations, which the greedy whiteman can not too easily lay his rapacious hand upon. Their socialism was primi- tive and faulty, but grounded in natural rights. They needed no education nor religion to make them object to being driven off the earth by people who wanted their lands. What right had the king of England to claim all their lands as his own and give the same by a few signs on a piece of paper to patentees? Who made these Indians subjects of Great Britain? It is the old question, whether might makes right, or right makes might, and it has not yet been fought out to a finish. The ideal has often yielded to the practical,-yielded for a little time.
The English traders on the frontiers seem to have made no lasting friendships with the Indians. They were there to get rich, and the Indians found it out. At the first outbreak of war all trading houses, if not well garrisoned, were sacked and
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burned ; then private houses were attacked and left in smoulder- ing ruins; and lastly forts were assailed by large numbers of Indians led by French. The eastern settlements in Maine were devastated again and again, no habitation being left for many miles.
The eastern Indians were troublesome for three years before the outbreak of the war, killing cattle, burning stacks of hay, robbing and insulting English settlers. The garrisons were rein- forced and Colonel Shadrach Walton of Portsmouth had com- mand of the forces, sending out scouting parties from time to time. The Indians sought the removal of all the English from the eastern lands of Maine but were afraid to make open attacks without the aid of the French. The governor of Canada sup- plied them with arms and kept them in a state of discontent. Many of the inhabitants withdrew to places of safety or left the province. Governor Shute appointed a congress at Arrow- sic in 1717, when presents were exchanged and the sachems re- newed a former treaty and assented to deeds of sale made by former chiefs. The late offenses were due, they said, to the inexperience of their young men. In the year 1718 John Kennis- ton and John Fox of Newington were arrested and taken to prison on suspicion of having killed an eastern Indian, named Hancock. Messengers were sent to Winter Harbor, in Saco, to treat with the Indians about this affair and to offer them com- pensation in money. In a letter from Richard Waldron to John Giles and Samuel Jordan, who acted as interpreters for New Hampshire, it was suggested that thirty pounds would be a fair sum to offer. The entire expense of settling this difficulty to the satisfaction of the Indians was over ninety-one pounds. Thus proper efforts were made to maintain peace.1
But in 1720 the Indians began to be more insolent and Col- onel Walton with two hundred soldiers under command of Captains Moody, Harmon, Penhallow and Wainwright, were sent to guard the eastern frontier in Maine. The Indians prom- ised to pay two hundred skins for the cattle they had killed and to deliver up four young men as hostages. Some of the French missionaries and governors held a conference with Captain Pen- hallow at Arrrowsic, and there the threat of the Indians was
1 N. H. Prov. Papers, Vol. III, pp. 723, 742, 821.
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made known, that if the English did not remove within three weeks, their houses would be burned and they and their cattle would be killed. This only led to an increase of men in the garrisons, and the following winter Colonel Thomas Westbrook led an expedition to Norridgewock to seize Sebastian Rasle. He escaped, however, and only his strong box was brought back, which contained incriminating correspondence with the governor of Canada.2
On the thirteenth of June 1722 the Indians took nine families at Merrymeeting Bay, in the present town of Topsham, Maine. Most of these were soon released. They also made an attack on St. George's near the present town of Thomaston, Maine. Belknap says that the town of Brunswick was destroyed, which is an exaggeration. Only a few houses were burned at New Meadows, and a few persons were killed, among them being two sons of Andrew Dunning, as they were crossing the Andros- coggin river just below the falls. This led to a declaration of war against the eastern Indians, which was published at Boston and Portsmouth, July 25, 1722, after a peace of ten years.
Colonel Shadrach Walton, Colonel Thomas Westbrook and Captain Samuel Penhallow, all men of Portsmouth, were prom- inent leaders in this war, and Penhallow wrote a full account of it, from which the leading events are here transcribed, confining attention mainly to activities in New Hampshire. The follow- ing incident may be added. "About the year 1720 Captain Thomas Baker of Northampton in the county of Hampshire, in Massachusetts, set off with a scouting party of thirty-four men, passing up Connecticut river, and crossing the height of land to Pemigewasset river. He there discovered a party of Indians, whose sachem was called Walternummus, whom he attacked and destroyed. Baker and the sachem levelled and discharged their guns at each other at the same instant. The ball from the Indian's gun grazed Baker's left eyebrow, but did him no injury. The ball from Baker's gun went through the breast of the sachem. Immediately upon being wounded he leaped four or five feet high and fell instantly dead. The Indians flew to the river ; Baker and his party pursued and destroyed every one of
2 That strong box is now in the possession of the Maine Historical Society.
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them. They had a wigwam on the bank of the river, which was nearly filled with beaver. Baker's party took as much of it as they could carry away, and burned the rest. Baker lost none of his men in this skirmish. It took place at the confluence of a small river with the Pemigewasset, between Plymouth and Campton, which has since had the name of Baker's river."3
Governor Shute asked New Hampshire to contribute a quota of seventy men to help defend the eastern frontier in Maine, which the council refused to do, since New Hampshire needed all her men to defend her own frontier. They said that York, Berwick, Kittery and Wells, instead of being asked for help had been aided by one hundred soldiers, and these towns were no more exposed to assaults than were the towns of New Hamp- shire.4 A road thirty miles long was cut through to "Winne- pishoky pond" by one hundred and fifty men, with the intention of erecting a block house, or fort, there fifty feet square with flankers, but after reflection on the probable expense of main- taining it the building of the fort was not begun. A bounty of one hundred pounds was offered for an Indan scalp, and the pay of officers and soldiers enrolled for two years was fixed, for a captain seven pounds per month, for a lieutenant four pounds, for a sergeant and clerk each fifty-eight shillings, for a corporal forty-five shillings, and for a sentinel forty shillings. The se- lectmen of each town were authorized to employ a bellman to go through the town by night, presumably to alarm or warn the inhabitants if necessary.
The first attack of the enemy was made at Dover, whose inhabitants had suffered so much in previous Indian wars. There they killed Joseph Ham and carried three of his children into captivity. Soon after they killed Tristram Heard, whose grand- mother Elizabeth (Hull) Heard, so wonderfully escaped capture in 1689. Thence they went to Lamprey river, now Newmarket, and killed Aaron Rawlins and a daughter while they were defend- ing their home. Mrs. Rawlins, who was daughter of Edward Tay- lor, with a son and a daughter, was taken to Canada, whence the mother was redeemed after a few years. The son was brought up by and remained with the Indians. The daughter married a Frenchman and stayed in Canada.
3 Farmer's & Moore's Collections, Vol. III, p. 100.
4 N. H. Prov. Papers, Vol. IV, p. 53.
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In the spring of 1724 Elder James Nock of Oyster River was shot from his horse as he was returning from setting his traps. He lived on the north shore of Great Bay, in the district called Lubberland. The Rev. Hugh Adams bemoans the sudden taking off of this worthy man and calls upon the Lord Emmanuel for vengeance. At Kingston Peter Colcord, Ephraim Stevens and two of the children of Ebenezer Stevens were taken and carried into captivity. Colcord made his escape after about six months. It was voted in the General Assembly "that Peter Colcord lately returned from captivity with the Indians obtained by his own courage and ingenuity and giving such account of the Indians proceedings as may be advantageous to the Government and he being now gone on an Expedition against the Indians That he be allowed and paid out of the Treasury a sum of ten pounds a present from this Government when he returns."5
On a sabbath day, May 24, 1724, the Indians lay in ambush and killed and scalped George Chesley at Oyster River, as he was returning from meeting. At the same time Elizabeth Burn- ham was mortally wounded and died within a few days. Tra- dition says they were lovers. At Chester Thomas Smith and John Carr were taken and went thirty miles with the Indians. While the latter were sleeping the captives made their escape. Moses Davis, who lived near Chesley's Mill at Oyster River, went to a brook to drink and found three Indian packs. He informed the soldiers and while guiding them to the place he and his son, Moses Jr., were killed. Two Indians were wounded and another was slain by the company under command of Captain Abraham Bennett. The Indian killed was thought to be a person of some distinction, and the Rev. Hugh Adams argued by his dress and prayerbook that he was an illegimate son of the Jesuit priest, Sebastian Rasle, but this is a fanciful and quite unwarranted conclusion. Others have supposed, with more rea- son, that he was a son of the Baron de Castine, who had an Indian woman as wife. Robert Burnham affirmed before the Council that the scalp he showed them was bona fide the scalp of an Indian slain two days before, and one hundred pounds were awarded therefor to Captain Francis Mathews for the company of soldiers.
5 N. H. Prov. Papers, Vol. IV, p. 155.
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The following narrative was written by Mr. Belknap, who, while living in Dover, had every opportunity to learn the exact facts :
Within the town of Dover were many families of Quakers; who scrupling the lawlessness of war, could not be persuaded to use any means for their defense; though equally exposed with their neighbors to an enemy who made no distinctions between them. One of these people, Ebenezer Downs, was taken by the Indians and was grossly insulted and abused by them, because he refused to dance as the other prisoners did, for the diversion of their savage captors. Another of them, John Hanson, who lived on the outside of the town, in a remote situation, could not be persuaded to remove to a garrison, though he had a large family of children. A party of thirteen Indians, called French Mohawks, had marked his house for their prey and lay several days in ambush, waiting for an opportunity to assault it. While Hanson with his oldest daughter were gone to attend the weekly meeting of friends, the Indians entered the house, killed and scalped two small children, and took his wife, with her infant of fourteen days old, her nurse, two daughters and a son, and after rifling the house carried them off. This was done so suddenly and secretly, that the first person who discovered it was the oldest daughter at her return from the meeting before her father. Seeing the two children dead at the door she gave a shriek of distress, which was distinctly heard by her mother, then in the hands of the enemy among the bushes, and by her brothers in the meadow. The people being alarmed went in pursuit, but the Indians cautiously avoiding all paths went off with their captives undiscovered. After this disaster had befallen his family Hanson removed the remainder of them to the house of his brother, who, though of the same religious persuasion, yet had a number of lusty sons and always kept his fire-arms in good order, for the purpose of shooting game.6
All these captives were sold to the French in Canada. The mother and three of her children were redeemed, with the nurse, the following spring by Mr. Hanson, who also redeemed Eb- enezer Downs. Hanson's oldest daughter could not be obtained. She married a Frenchman and never returned. Her father made a second attempt to bring her home, in 1727, but died at Crown Point.
In August of 1724 Captains Moulton and Harmon of York led two hundred men to Norridgewock and surprised the In- dians there, killing about eighty, burning their village and chapel and driving the rest into the forest. Sebastian Rasle was slain, after having lived among the Indians twenty-six years. Four Indians were taken alive and their English captives were
6 Hist. of N. H., p. 205.
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liberated. The details must be left to the historian of Maine.
Nathan Cross and Thomas Blanchard of Dunstable were making turpentine where now is the city of Nashua, when they were surprised and taken by Indians. A party of ten started in search of them; they were drawn into an ambush and only one, Joseph Farwell, escaped. The leader of the party was Sergeant French. Another of the slain was Thomas Lund of Dunstable, the inscription on whose monument tells the story of his death and burial with seven more. Cross and Blanchard after some time secured their release by their own exertions and returned from Canada to Dunstable. At Kingston Jabez Cole- man and his son were killed while working in the field.
The large bounty offered for Indian scalps led volunteer companies to go in search of them, especially after the notable victory at Norridgewock. Captain John Lovewell of Dunstable organized such a company, aided by Lieutenant Joseph Farwell, above mentioned. It consisted of thirty men. Their object was to secure scalps and thus also to protect the frontiers. North of lake Winnepiseogee they found a wigwam with a man and a boy in it. They killed and scalped the man and took the boy as captive to Boston, where they were duly paid for the scalp, and had, as Belknap says, "a handsome gratuity besides." Pen- hallow says that they received two shillings and sixpence per day, besides the scalp money. One man scalped by thirty! Compare this brave deed with some of the similar acts of Indians, and how much is there to the credit of a christian civilization ?
The next time Captain Lovewell raised a company of sev- enty volunteers and east of lake Winnepiseogee they came upon a camp of sleeping Indians, having stealthily tracked and watched them by day. After midnight they fell upon the ten sleepers around a fire. Lovewell fired the first gun and killed two. Then his men fired by fives, as they had been ordered, killing five more. The three left started from their sleep, and two of them were immediately killed, while the last one, wounded, tried to escape by crossing a frozen pond, but a dog seized and held him fast till he, too, was killed. Was this re- taliation? or were the Indians retaliating when they committed similar murderous and cowardly acts? Civilized warfare seems to be a contradiction in terms. There was then no alleviating
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Red Cross corps. This "capital exploit" netted a thousand pounds. The scene of it was a pond in Wakefield, called Love- well's pond. The brave company marched into Dover, not with the scalps dangling at their belts, but elevated on poles as proud trophies of war.
A third time Captain Lovewell set forth with forty-six in his company. The surgeon and a sick man, with eight men as a guard, were left at Ossipee pond, in a rudely constructed fort. The rest pressed on to a pond about a mile and a half from Pequawket, the site of the present town of Fryeburg, Maine. The story of this ten hours' battle has been told too many times to need a repetition of its details here. Lovewell and the major- ity of his men were slain, including the chaplain, Rev. Jonathan Frye, of Andover, Massachusetts. Probably twice as many In- dians were killed, and this put an end to their marauding expe- ditions. The whitemen were drawn into an ambush and had no way of retreating. They had to fight and they did it well. This battle, or skirmish, reflected more glory upon those who par- ticipated in it than any that was fought in the Indian wars, and the honors belong about equally to the whitemen and the redmen. Both parties fought bravely and persistently, each re- solved to kill the other or die. At dark the Indians withdrew and next day the whitemen marched homeward, some of the wounded dying on the way. Lieutenant governor Wentworth ordered fifty soldiers, under command of Captain Jonathan Ches- ley of Oyster River to march to Ossipee and Pequawket, to relieve any wounded whom they might find.7 Belknap says that this company did not reach the scene of action, and that Colonel Tyng with a company from Dunstable went to Pequawket, found and buried the bodies of twelve, and carved their names on the trees where the battle was fought. He visited the spot in 1784, and the names were then plainly visible. The party from Dun- stable also found the graves of some Indians, among them be- ing that of the Indian chief Paugus.
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