USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, Volume I > Part 28
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In all this time we had scarce opportunity to eat or sleep. The cessation of arms gave us no matter of rest, for we sus- pected they did it to obtain an advantage against us. I believe men were never known to hold out with better resolution, for they did not seem to sit or lie still one moment. There were but thirty men in the fort, and although we had some thousands of guns fired at us, there were but two men slightly wounded, viz. John Brown and Joseph Ely.
By the above account you may form some idea of the dis- tressed circumstances we were under, to have such an army of starved creatures around us, whose necessity obliged them to be the more earnest. They seemed every minute as if they were going to swallow us up; using all the threatening language they could invent, with shouting and firing, as if the heavens and the earth were coming together.
But notwithstanding all this our courage held out to the last. We were informed by the French that came into the fort,
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that our captives were removed from Quebec to Montreal; which, they say, are about three hundred in number, by reason of sickness which is at Quebec, and that they were well and in good health, except three who were left sick, and that about three captives had died who were said to be Dutchmen. They also informed us that John Norton had liberty to preach to the captives, and that they have some thousands of French and Indians out and coming against our frontier."
The news of this gallant defense was received everywhere with great joy. Commodore Sir Charles Knowles presented a valuable sword to Captain Phinehas Stevens as a reward for his brave conduct, and from this circumstance the town, when it was incorporated, was called Charlestown.
The Indians divided into small parties and harassed the towns south of Number 4. On the fourteenth of November, as twelve men were passing from the fort down the river, they were surprised by a party of Indians, who killed and scalped Nathan Gould and Thomas Goodale. Oliver Avery was wounded and John Henderson was wounded in the head and arm and carried to Canada, nearly starved and shamefully treated. He got back to Boston, however, about a year later.
One hundred men were stationed at Number 4 during the following winter, under command of Captain Stevens. Captain Humphrey Hobbs was second in command. Eight men went out sixty rods from the fort to get wood. Ten Indians sculking about ran to attack them, killing Charles Stevens, wounding one Andreas and taking Eleazer Priest captive. The Indians had snow shoes, and the soldiers at the fort had none, and so pur- suit was not possible.
About this time Upper Ashuelot, Lower Ashuelot and Win- chester were abandoned by their inhabitants for a period of four or five years. A party of Indians visited Upper Ashuelot after the inhabitants had fled and burned twenty-seven houses, the fort, the meeting house and many barns. Only four houses and a mill were left in the town. All the live stock that could not be driven away were killed. It had long been impossible to till the fields with safety. Provisions were getting scarce. The people buried some valuables, carried away what they could and left the rest to be destroyed by the Indians, who promptly
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did their work. The men joined the garrison at Fort Dummer, and the women and children found protection in lower towns.
To relate in detail all the incidents of these Indian raids upon the Connecticut valley would be wearisome. One incident is worthy of mention. A French officer, named Raimbault, was shot at Winchester and left for dead by friend and foe. He revived and after wandering about five days in a half starved condition surrendered himself, by accident, to Captain Ebenezer Alexander, the very man who had shot him. His wounds were dressed and he was sent as a prisoner of war to Boston. Soon afterward it was arranged that he should be exchanged for two prisoners in Canada, one of whom was the Nathan Blake already mentioned. Blake had shown such prowess and strength that he had been put in the place of the chief who had died, and a dusky squaw claimed him as her husband. He escaped and went to prison in Quebec, whence he was exchanged and re- turned to his family. The next year the Frenchman, Raimbault, led another company of Indians against the settlement and returned with five scalps.
October 22, Bridgman's fort, house and barn were burned, and Jonathan Sartwell was taken prisoner. Three men belong- ing to Hinsdale's fort were killed, Nathan French, Joseph Rich- ardson and John Frost. Seven were captured. Four escaped across the river to Fort Dummer, one of whom was wounded. Of the seven captured William Bickford was killed the first night. The others were stripped of most of their clothing and driven to Canada. Four of them were made to "run the gaunt- let" and otherwise mistreated. They reached home in the fall, greatly emaciated from abuse and starvation, and Benjamin Osgood died a few weeks later.
It was determined to carry the war into the enemy's country, but with insufficient forces. Captain Eleazer Melvin started from Fort Dummer and was joined at Number 4 by the companies of Captain Stevens and Hobbs. They followed the Indian trail along Black river and Otter creek. The party divided into two small squads, and Captain Stevens scouted to the eastward till he struck the Connecticut river and returned to Fort Dummer without meeting the enemy. Captain Melvin proceeded to Crown Point, whence he was obliged to beat a
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hasty retreat. At West river his men were surprised by shots from behind a log only twenty or thirty feet from the place where they had halted to take refreshments. No one was hurt at the first discharge. Melvin's men were obliged to scatter and make their way back to Fort Dummer as best each one could. Melvin and a dozen more got there in safety. Six had been killed outright and scalped. They were Sergeants John Hey- wood and Isaac Taylor, and privates John Dodd, Daniel Mann, Samuel Severance and Joseph Petty.
The later scouting party from Number 4, commanded by Captain Hobbs, was more successful. On the twenty-sixth of June, 1748, with a party of forty soldiers, he met the enemy about twelve miles northwest of Fort Dummer, in what is now the town of Marlborough, Vermont, and, while they were eating, a large number of Indians, commanded by the half-breed, Sackett, a courageous and dangerous leader, attacked them. Hobbs and his men, each sheltered by a tree, stood their ground for four hours in a battle with muskets at close range. The Indians outnumbered the white men four to one, and rushed on with their usual yells and tumult, but a little experience cau- tioned them to keep behind shelter, for those who appeared in the open quickly went down under unerring fire. Sackett and Hobbs had known each other in time of peace, and Sackett kept calling out in a loud voice to Hobbs to surrender or all his men would be killed, to which Hobbs replied in words of defiance. Sackett was wounded and then the Indians retired, carrying off their dead and wounded. Hobbs lost three killed and four wounded. Samuel Gunn and Ebenezer Mitchell, killed, and Ralph Rice, wounded, were from Ashuelot. Daniel McKenny had his thigh broken and was disabled for life.
On the fourteenth of July Sergeant Thomas Taylor was leading a squad of sixteen recruits along the east side of the river, in what is now Hinsdale, when he was suddenly assailed by overwhelming numbers of Indians in ambush. Two Indians and two whitemen were killed and Taylor with ten of his men was taken away to Canada, by forced marches of twenty miles a day. Reinforcements attempted to pursue but soon gave up the chase. The prisoners were sold in Canada for more money
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than their scalps were worth, and after a few months, peace having been concluded, returned to their homes.9
Turning to the northern frontier of the province we shall see that Hopkinton, Contoocook and Rumford suffered heavily from the same wily foe. To guard scattered and far separated houses from surprises was impossible, and even when families were assembled in garrisons, there seems to have been great negligence in the use of sentinels. The enemy almost always fell upon the settlers at some unexpected moment. On the morning of April 22, 1746, in Hopkinton, eight persons were captured by Indians at Woodwell's garrison, viz., Daniel Wood- well, Mrs. Woodwell, their daughter Mary, sons Benjamin and Thomas, Samuel Burbank and his sons, Caleb and Jonathan. In the early morning a man had gone from the garrison to the stockade, leaving the garrison door open. The lurking Indians rushed in and surprised the inmates. One soldier escaped. Mrs. Samuel Burbank concealed herself under an upright barrel in the cellar. Mrs. Woodwell had a struggle with an Indian, from whom she wrested a long knife and threw it into the well. Mary Woodwell, aged sixteen, resisted and was aided by an Indian who had received some kindness from her father. The family were taken by St. Francis Indians to Canada, being twelve days on the march. They had only one meal a day, at evening, when they rested, cooked and ate. Their food was mainly meat, and once they were obliged to eat a dog, but May Woodwell would not touch it, and the friendly Indian shot a woodpecker for her. Mary was sold to an Indian squaw, who valued her so highly after a captivity of three years, that when there was talk of ransom the squaw wanted Mary's weight in silver. A physician helped to secure her release by a strategem. He told the squaw that Mary was sick and was likely to die, in which case she would get nothing. Thus the squaw was persuaded to part
9 In the above condensed account of the fighting in the Connecticut valley no account has been given of conflicts in adjoining Massachusetts territory. The narrative of Dr. Belknap has been supplemented by that of the histories of Northfield, Keene and Charlestown. The fighting was all done by Massachusetts troops and men of the towns above mentioned. No New Hampshire troops were sent from the east to help their newly acquired fellow citizens, so far as has been learned, although twenty men had been voted as a garrison to Fort Dummer. The defense of this region was a military necessity to Massachusetts, and New Hampshire had all the fighting she could attend to elsewhere.
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with the captive, who had hoed her corn and done her drudgery, for the paltry sum of $18.50. She returned to friends in Hop- kinton, Massachusetts. She was twice married and died among the Shakers at Canterbury, in October, 1829, in the one hun- dredth year of her age. Jonathan Burbank was left in an Indian family. The other six captives were taken to Quebec, where Samuel Burbank and Mrs. Woodwell died of yellow fever, while in prison. The other captives eventually secured release.
Another attack was made at Contoocook, now Boscawen. Josiah Bishop was surprised while working in the field, and was taken to the woods. He resisted bravely, evidently preferring death to captivity. As a result of his outcries he was killed by tomahawks. Families took refuge in garrisons. Captain Clough's garrison, in the neighboring town of Canterbury, was a shelter for some. Among his soldiers was the well known Indian, Cristo, whose wigwam once stood on the east side of the Merrimack, a short distance below the falls at Amoskeag, now Manchester. His allegiance could not be safely counted on, and sometimes he fought with the whitemen and sometimes with the St. Francis Indians. He was paid for service as a scout. Thomas Cook, a colored man, was slain at Contoocook, and Elisha Jones was taken to Canada, where he died.
Nearly a score of petitions for help were sent to the general assembly, among them being one from Rumford, now Concord, presented by Colonel Benjamin Rolfe. He thought forty sol- diers were needed for the defense of that town and two hundred and fifty were needed to protect the whole frontier between the Connecticut and Merrimack rivers. Other towns, even to Gosport, were equally clamorous. Probably the French fleet was feared at the Isles of Shoals, and the landsmen of New Hampshire were supposed to be able to drive them away or sink them. It was impossible to find men and means to calm the fears of all the petitioners. Only fifteen men could be spared for Rumford and Canterbury, commanded by Colonel Benjamin Rolfe and Captain Jeremiah Clough. Massachusetts also sent small detachments of men from Andover and Billerica, to help defend Rumford in 1745. All the inhabitants were quartered in garrisons, and recently placed markers point out the spots where
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anxious people flocked together for mutual protection and hourly watched and listened for assaults of the lurking foe. One may see the historic sites along the main street of Concord, reminders of the perils and anxieties, as well as fortitude and heroism, of the forefathers and great-grandmothers. The Rev. Timothy Walker is said to have had the best gun in the com- munity and he always took it into the pulpit with him. The head of each family sat at the end of the pew nearest the aisle, with gun within easy reach. The laborers in the field were guarded by the sentinels. In spite of all precautions the Indians in large bands nearly always managed to conceal themselves in swamps and thickets during the day and to make their attacks in unexpected places and moments. On the eleventh of August, 1746, Lieutenant Jonathan Bradley took six of the men of Cap- tain Ladd, who had come up from Exeter, together with Obediah Peters of Captain Melvin's company from Massachusetts, and went toward a garrison two miles and a half westerly of the pres- ent city of Concord. At a spot about half way between the city and St. Paul's school, that now is well known, they were fired upon by thirty or forty ambushed Indians. Five were killed, Lieu- tenant Jonathan Bradley, Samuel Bradley, John Lufkin, John Bean and Obadiah Peters. They were stripped and scalped and left mangled by the roadside. Alexander Roberts and William Stickney were captured. Daniel Gilman made his escape and alarmed the town. It is thought that four or five Indians were killed. Lieutenant Bradley disdained to surrender, and the history of his ancestors in Haverhill, Massachusetts, had taught him that death was preferable to captivity. He fought till he
was dreadfully hacked by tomahawks.
Their bodies were
removed in an ox-cart to the Osgood garrison, where there was great lamentation. As usual pursit of the fleeing enemy was unavailing. After one year's captivity William Stickney man- aged to escape, but was, as some think, accidentally drowned before he reached home. Alexander Roberts made his escape from captivity after one year and returned to Rumford. He shared with others a bounty of seventy-five pounds for killing an Indian, a portion of whose skull was shown for proof. The other sharers were the heirs of the persons slain. A monument has been erected, in 1837, by Richard Bradley, grandson of the
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Samuel Bradley slain, to commemorate the massacre. It stands near the spot where they were killed and tells a pathetic story to all who pass by, helping us to realize a little better how much our present safety and privileges have cost in the sufferings of others.
A party of Indians came down as far as Rochester and fell upon five men at work in a field. After one Indian had drawn their fire, the rest rushed upon them with shoutings and whoop- ings. The men fled to a deserted house and fastened the door. The Indians tore off the roof and before the pursued could reload their guns they were shot and tomahawked. The slain were Joseph Heard, Joseph Richards, John Wentworth and Gershom Downs. They wounded and captured John Richards and also took a boy twelve years of age, named Jonathan Door, as he sat on a fence singing a song. Door lived with the Indians many years. One narrative says that he married and had children among the Indians, that he fought with them against the whites, that his wife and children were killed in the massacre of the St. Francis tribe, and that afterward he returned and married in Rochester. John Richards was healed of his wound and after eighteen months returned to Boston under a flag of truce. About this time Moses Roberts was mistaken for an Indian and shot by another sentinel, as he was creeping through the woods. In May 1747 the Indians again visited Rochester and killed the wife of Jonathan Hodgdon, as she was going to milk her cows. Her husband attempted to rescue her, but his gun missed fire and he was obliged to flee. At Nottingham Robert Beard, John Folsom and Elizabeth Simpson were slain. The whole frontier felt in continual danger, though the principal depredations were in the valleys of the Connecticut and Merri- mack rivers.
Belknap has called attention to the asserted fact that in this war there was less cruelty practiced by the Indians. The cap- tives were kindly treated, and there were no instances of torture. The Indians even assisted the wounded and shared their food with their prisoners in times of scarcity of provisions. This was true in general, although in special cases men were forced to run the gauntlet and were shamefully treated. A live captive brought to the Indians more money than a scalp, and so they
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killed and scalped only those who would not surrender or could not keep up on the march. One instance of Indian nobility has been often narrated. "An Indian had surprised a man at Ashuelot. The man asked for quarter, and it was granted. Whilst the Indian was preparing to bind him, he seized the Indian's gun and shot him in one arm. The Indian, however, secured him; but took no other revenge than, with a kick, to say, 'You dog, how could you treat me so?' The gentleman from whom this information came has frequently heard the story both from the captive and the captor. The latter related it as an instance of English perfidy; the former of Indian lenity." It is feared that this story has gained much by repeated narrations. The captured man would hardly tell it in this manner, and Indian narratives are not always to be accepted at face value. There are so many instances of deliberate and cold-blooded murder of women and children and so many acts of treachery on the part of the Indians in all their wars, that an exceptional case like this narrated needs to be treated with caution.
The French and Indians had a great advantage in carrying the war into the enemy's country. Stealthily they chose the unguarded house or the feeble garrison and in much larger num- bers killed, captured and burned. Having taken a few captives and what spoil they could carry, they at once hastened back to Canada before they could be overtaken, to return again as soon as fears of the settlers had subsided. The English were at great expense, accomplished little, lacked leadership and concerted ef- fort, and suffered severely; the Indians were crafty in them- selves and had able French officers to plan their incursions. The spoils they took and the ransom received for their captives paid the expenses of the war on their part. Few Indians were killed, and the war of four years was a pastime to them. Only six years after the treaty of Aix-la-chapelle, confirmed by a treaty with the Indians at old Falmouth, on Casco Bay, the Indians were quite ready to dig up the tomahawks and return to their sport of ambushing defenseless workers, burning unguarded houses and dragging to Canada as many men, women and children as they could force to keep up with them on a hurried march. It was not war ; it was murder and robbery.
Chapter XVII TOWNS GRANTED BY THE MASONIAN PROPRIETORS
Chapter XVII
TOWNS GRANTED BY THE MASONIAN PROPRIETORS.
Early Grants of Massachusetts - The Monadnock Towns - Conditions of all the Grants - Mason - New Ipswich - Rindge - Fitzwilliam - Wilton - Jaffrey - Marlborough - Dublin - Nelson - Stoddard - Gilsum - Peterborough - Lyndeborough - Amherst - Bedford - Goffstown - New Boston - Dunbarton - Weare - The Bow Controversy - Rum- ford becomes Concord - Hopkinton - Henniker - Hillsborough - Washington - Warner - Bradford - Newbury - Sutton - New Lon- don - Salisbury - Andover - Hill - Alexandria - Sanbornton - Meredith - Tuftonborough - New Durham - Middleton - Wakefield - Effingham - Privations and Character of the Settlers.
TT may rest the imagination, wearied with tales of blood and fears, to pause between the two French and Indian wars and pass in brief review the new townships granted during the first part of Governor Benning Wentworth's administration. Massachusetts had granted about thirty townships in New Hampshire before the settlement of the boundary line. After the Masonian proprietors had bought the claim of John Tufton Mason, they hastened to regrant and in many cases to rename these towns, although their incorporation followed some years later. But few settlers had come in, and during the first French and Indian war many of the settlers were frightened away. As soon as peace returned, they or their assigns came back to claim the lands partly cleared and to reoccupy the log cabins, if they remained unburned. Thus a great company of settlers moved gradually up the Merrimack valley from the old towns of Massachusetts, especially from Essex County, which before the settlement of the line was made to include territory as far north as Boscawen. Along the Connecticut River, not claimed by the Masonian proprietors. settlers came up from middle Massachusetts and from Connecticut, pushing further on with every generation to seize the fertile lowlands along the rivers and streams. On the northern frontier and around lake Winnepiseogee the settlers came from the old towns
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of New Hampshire and some from Kittery and Berwick. Lon- donderry kept receiving and sending forth settlers from the North of Ireland, as sturdy Scotchmen as ever breathed the "winds frae off Ben Lomond."
There was a circle of towns about mount Monadnock, that took their first names from the mountain. Other towns were granted by Massachusetts to the heirs of those who had taken part in the expedition to Canada in 1690. Petitions came in to the Masonian proprietors and to the governor and council from all directions. Groups of men in Massachusetts and in New Hampshire put in claims for unoccupied land as a mere speculation, often not pretending to settle such lands, but to sell to others. Hence the grantees give little clue as to who first settled the towns. As has been said before, the Masonian proprietors reserved two or three hundred acres apiece for them- selves, in some cases a quarter of the township, which were not to be taxed till improved. Thus the whole burden of building roads, mills and a meeting house came upon the few first set- tlers. All pines fit for masts were, in every grant, reserved for the royal navy, and there was a nominal quit rent, if ever demanded. This legally made the settlers tenants of the king, and to him they owed allegiance.
The subject may perhaps be made clearer by beginning at the southern boundary line and mentioning the new towns, tier by tier, proceeding north. The town of Mason was granted by the Masonian proprietors, November 1, 1749. It had been previously known as number one and was settled by people from Massachusetts. It was named for Captain John Mason. The inhabitants voted to call the town Sharon, but their wish was overruled. It was incorporated August 26, 1768. The northern part was set off and incorporated as the town of Greenville June 28, 1872.
New Ipswich was granted, April 17, 1750. by the Masonian proprietors. It had been previously granted by Massachusetts, January 15, 1735-6, to a company of men from Ipswich, Massa- chusetts, and originally was called Ipswich-Canada. It was in- corporated as Ipswich, September 9, 1762, and as New Ipswich, March 6, 1766. The first settlers, living there in 1750, were Reuben Kidder. Archibald White, Jonas Woolson. Abijah Fos-
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ter, John Brown, Benjamin Hoar, Jr., Timothy Heald, Joseph Kidder, Joseph Bullard, Ebenezer Bullard, Joseph Stevens, and John Chandler. The first or second cotton mill in New Hamp- shire was erected in New Ipswich. The town sent sixty men to the battle of Bunker Hill.
Rindge was granted by Massachusetts, February 3, 1736-7, to certain inhabitants of Rowley, Massachusetts, that were in the Canada expedition, and hence it was called Rowley-Canada. It was known also as Monadnock Number I or South Monad- nock. It was regranted by the Masonian proprietors, February 14, 1749-50, and incorporated as Rindge, February 11, 1768, named in honor of Daniel Rindge of Portsmouth. Among the first settlers were John Hale of Boxford, Massachusetts, Richard Peabody, Jonathan Stanley. George Hewetts and Abel Platts. Among the prominent men in its history have been Colonels Enoch Hale and Nathan Hale, brothers, Rev. Edward Payson and Hon. Marshall P. Wilder.
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