USA > New Hampshire > History of New Hampshire, from its first discovery to the year 1830; with dissertations upon the rise of opinions and institutions, the growth of agriculture and manufactures, and the influence of leading families and distinguished men, to the year 1874; > Part 7
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44
*
"Fie on the witch !' cried a merry girl, As they rounded the point where Goody Cole Sat by her door with her wheel atwirl, A bent and blear-eyed, poor old soul. 'Oho!' she muttered, 'Ye're brave to-day ! But I hear the little waves laugh and say, The broth will be cold that waits at home; For it's one to go, but another to come ! '
'She's curs'd,' said the skipper ; 'speak to her fair; I'm scary always to see her shake Her wicked head, with its wild gray hair And nose like a hawk and eyes like a snake.' But merrily still with laugh and shout, From Hampton river the boat sailed out, Till the huts and the flakes on Star seemed nigh And they lost the scent of the pines of Rye.
Goody Cole looked out from her door : The Isles of Shoals were drowned and gone, Scarcely she saw the Head of the Boar Toss the foam from tusks of stone. She clasped her hands with a grip of pain, The tear on her cheek was not of rain ; 'They are lost!' she muttered, 'boat and crewi' 'Lord, forgive me, my words were true !'"
The first enactment by Massachusetts against Quakers, who are denominated " a cursed sect of heretics," was made in Octo- ber, 1656. The penalties, from time to time, were increased from banishment to scourging, imprisonment and death. All these penalties were inflicted upon the Quakers for several years in succession. The law-makers of Massachusetts regarded tol- eration as " the first born of abominations ;" they also imagined that their political safety was endangered by a diversity of reli- gious opinions in the state. New Hampshire, influenced by the
64
HISTORY OF
opinions and laws of the elder colony, subjected Quakers to ar- rest and punishment by whipping. In the winter of 1662, three Quaker women were sentenced to be whipped through eleven towns, with ten stripes apiece in each town. In answer to a petition of the inhabitants of Dover, the General Court of Massa- chusetts commissioned Richard Waldron (then spelled Wal- dern) to act in execution of the laws against Quakers in that town. Accordingly, under date of December 22, 1662, that magistrate issued his warrant as follows :
"To the Constables of Dover, Hampton, Salisbury, Newbury, Rowley, Ipswich, Windham, Lynn, Boston, Roxbury, Dedham, and until these vaga- bond Quakers are out of this jurisdiction: You are hereby required in the King's Majesty's name, to take these vagabond Quakers, Anna Colman, Mary Tompkins and Alice Ambrose, and make them fast to the cart's tail, and drawing the cart through your several towns, to whip them upon their naked backs not exceeding ten stripes apiece, on each of them in each town, and so convey them from Constable to Constable till they are out of this jurisdic- tion, as you will answer it, at your peril, and this shall be your warrant.
RICHARD WALDRON."
In the first three towns above named this cruel decree was literally executed. The victims of persecution were then res- cued by Walter Barefoot, under pretence of delivering them to the constables of Newbury ; but in reality for the purpose of sending them out of the province. When we see the name of the patriot and hero, Richard Waldron, appended to such a barbarous mandate, we blush for the imperfections of man in his best estate and cry out with Madame Roland, "Oh, Liberty ! what crimes are committed in thy name." The interposition of such an unprincipled intriguer as Walter Barefoot, to rescue these victims of popular hate and legal vengeance, shows what strange contradictions are found in human nature. This kind act is said to have been almost the only redeeming trait in the character of Barefoot.
65
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
CHAPTER XX.
PHILIP'S INDIAN WAR.
When the Pequots were exterminated in 1637, by Massachu- setts, the settlements of New Hampshire were too remote to feel the shock of arms. From that time the people of New England lived in peace with the Indians for thirty-eight years. It might be expected that old feuds would have been forgotten in that lapse of time. It is supposed that the native population of New England in 1620 was about fifty thousand. Of these four or five thousand resided in New Hampshire. They generally dwelt in the valleys of the rivers, and at such points as presented the best opportunities for fishing. Civil war and pestilence had greatly reduced the number of the aborigines on all the Atlantic coast. The tribes were numerous, but the men were few in each. There were as many as four sachems residing in the eastern and southern parts of the state, who acknowledged a qualified alle- giance to Passaconaway, the great sagamore of the Penacooks. His home was near the present capital of the state. Concord at its first settlement was named Penacook. Passaconaway was renowned for his sagacity, duplicity and moderation. He was also a famous magician. The neighboring tribes believed that he could make water burn, trees dance, and turn himself into a flame. He was always jealous of the whites, but was restrained from attacking them by fear. At a great Indian festival held in 1660, this aged sagamore made his farewell speech to his as- sembled subjects. He prophesied a general war, but entreated them to remain neutral. "Hearken," said he, "to the last words of your father and friend. The white men are sons of the morn- ing. The Great Spirit is their father. His sun shines bright about them. Sure as you light the fires, the breath of heaven will turn the flames upon you and destroy you. Listen to my advice. It is the last I shall be allowed to give you. Remem- ber it and live." This certainly was excellent advice. It is probably embellished a little in the translation by some one who greatly admired Indian eloquence. Several versions of this speech are extant, all differing in quantity and quality. All we can say respecting it is, that it is true "for substance." He told them, furthermore, that he had been the bitter enemy of the English, and, by his arts of sorcery, had tried his utmost to pre- vent their settlement and increase, but could by no means suc-
5
66
HISTORY OF
ceed. In the war which soon followed, the Penacooks were the only Indians in New Hampshire who remained quiet. Wono- lanset, the son and successor of Passaconaway, resisted the soli- citations of Philip to avenge his own wrongs and those of his race. He even withdrew, with his people, from their homes, that he might not be drawn into the quarrel.
There exists among historians a great diversity of opinion respecting the character and conduct of Philip, the author of a widespread and desolating war in New England. Some writers class him and some other Indian chiefs, such as Pontiac, Te- cumseh and Black Hawk among the truly great heroes of earth. They regard him as the victim of fortune and not the dupe of folly. By such critics he is regarded as the projector of a vast and comprehensive plan of exterminating the English and ele- vating the Indians. His liberal policy embraced the entire In- dian race. By his eloquence and perseverance he aroused most of the neighboring tribes to a sense of their oppression and en- enlisted them in "freedom's holy war." The contest with them was for liberty or death. All men admire patriotism ; we may not justly withhold it from one who attempted the liberation of his race. He was defeated. He fell "from great undertakings," not like Phaeton for want of skill, but like Cato for want of means. Such are the conclusions of the Indian eulogists. They are sentimentalists, who, like Rousseau, prefer savage to civil- ized life, and deem the native wilds and noisy falls preferable to cities and factories ; or they are authors or artists, who, like Schoolcraft and Catlin, share the home of the Indians that they may find materials to exalt the race by history and painting. Such benefactors, of course, were loved and honored by the na- tives. The history of Massasoit, the father of Philip, shows that it was easy and useful to the natives to maintain peace with the English. For forty years that chief faithfully kept the treaty made with the Plymouth colonists a few months after their ar- rival. Philip was of a jealous, restless, ambitious and treacher- ous temper. Mr. Palfrey denies that his views were wise, saga- cious, patriotic, or comprehensive. He concludes his estimate of his character, as follows :
" And the title of King, which it has been customary to attach to his name, disguises and transfigures to the view the form of a squalid savage, whose palace was a sty; whose royal robe was a bear skin, or a coarse blanket, alive with vermin; who hardly knew the luxury of an ablution; who was often glad to appease appetite with food such as men who are not starving loathe ; and whose nature possessed just the capacity for reflection and the degree of refinement which might be expected to be developed from the constitution of his race, by such a condition and such habits of life. * * The Indian King Philip is a mythical character."
It is probable that Philip came to the resolution to engage in
67
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
war with some reluctance. It is said that he wept at what he regarded as the fatal alternative, and that his young braves ex- ceeded their leader in their love of vengeance and eagerness for the fight. This wily chief soon found many of the adjacent tribes rallying to his standard. He put himself at their head and engaged in open war. Hostilities commenced in Swansey, Massachusetts, in June 1675. Just before this attack, the Ind- ians of Maine, called the Tarrateens, were excited to violence by the reckless and foolish conduct of some American sailors, who accidentally met the wife of Squando, sachem of the Pequawketts, crossing the Saco with her little child in her arms. They had heard that Indian children could swim as naturally as the young of brutes, and determined to try the experiment. They wan- tonly upset the canoe. The child sank ; the mother immediately dived and recovered it, but the child soon died. The Indians were justly enraged, and ascribed the death of the young child to this brutal treatment. Squando, the father, became, the in- veterate foe of all the whites and eagerly sought revenge. His fame was great as a magician, and this gave him a powerful influence over the tribes of Maine and New Hampshire. Other wrongs done to the Indians by the scattered settlers in Maine were alleged as the cause of active hostilities in that state.
Within twenty days after Philip made his first attack, the whole country for two hundred miles in extent was in a blaze of war. The greatest terror everywhere prevailed. The Indians, dis- persed in small parties, robbed and murdered the unprotected settlers in Maine. They approached New Hampshire in Sep- tember, 1675, and made their first onset on Oyster River, now Durham. Here they burned two houses, killed two men in a canoe, and took two captive. These soon made their escape. Another party lay in ambush, on the road from Exeter to Hamp- ton, where one man was killed and another captured. They con- tinued their march eastward and attacked a house in Berwick, where fifteen women and children were collected. All were saved but two small children who could not climb the fence near the house. They owed their escape to the intrepidity of a girl of eighteen. As the Indians came up, she shut the door and held it while the others fled. The Indians chopped down the door with their hatchets, and entering knocked down the brave girl, whom they left as dead, and pursued the fugitives. The heroine recovered of her wounds ; yet no historian has recorded her name. All the towns on the Piscataqua, and the settlements in Maine, were in the utmost distress and confusion. Business was suspended. Every man was obliged to provide for his own safety and that of his family. The only method of protection . was to desert their homes and retire to garrisoned houses, and
68
HISTORY OF
from convenient places of observation watch for the lurking foe. Thus they were on their guard night and day, subject to the most fearful alarms, and every moment expecting assaults. From a work entitled "Old Homes of New England," we extract the following description of a house still standing in Durham, built by Capt. John Woodman for a garrison, its present occupants being the sixth or seventh generation of the same name dwell- ing in it.
" It was the citadel of the early settlement. Round about it, from ten to thirty rods distant, may yet be distinguished the cellars of houses which mouldered at periods beyond the memory of any man living, clustering near by that the occupants might speedily take refuge within its defences when menaced by Indian raids. It stands on rising ground, three quarters of a mile from Oyster River, commanding a view of the valley of that branch, by which goods were brought from Portsmouth. It is constructed of solid white pine logs a foot thick, some of them two feet in depth as high up as a few feet above the second floor, thus forming a parapet to serve as a breastwork, the roof being of moderate pitch, for use in some exigencies of Indian war- fare, this mode of construction having been adopted in similar strongholds in other places. On this upper tier of logs now rests a frame building, fin- ishing out the second story and attic. It has in front the projection common to such houses, to beat off assailants and prevent them from setting fire from below. Its small windows and various port-holes and look-outs were provided with heavy blocks of wood to protect the inmates from the enemies' . bullets. It has all been changed now, covered with clapboards and other- wise modernized. It is commodious and sufficiently elegant for present needs but as originally constructed it must have proved a formidable defense against the weapons and methods of Indian warfare.
As the fisheries in the neighborhood were the best along the coast for sal- mon, shad, and whatever products of the sea Indians chiefly delighted in, it was natural that their temper should have been stirred to the quick, exasper- ated by the indifference manifested by the settlers to their earlier claims. If they wreaked resentment by frequent massacre and cruelties peculiarly sav- age, their sense of wrong was aggravated by their want of power to drive off the intruders or compel redress. Recent events of greater immediate inter- est have blotted out the memory of these baptisms of blood, and the legends that have floated down to us are too horrible for relief. Certainly no part of the country was more constantly harassed, nowhere were more needed for- tresses of strength. The Indians' own castles were girded about by thick-set palisades, and this outer defense was likewise adopted by the settlers for their garrison-houses. They well answered their purpose, and Belknap men- tions an instance when upon alarm the inhabitants of Durham took refuge in their fort. The Indians, some hundreds in number, invested it, but unable to make any impression upon its solid walls, and themselves exposed to a gal- ling fire from the port holes and roof, which rapidly reduced their force, were obliged to retreat."
In October, 1675, the Indians made a second assault on Ber- wick. Lieutenant Roger Plaisted sent out from his garrison seven men, to make discoveries. They fell into an ambush and three of the number were slain. The next day Plaisted, with twenty men, went out to recover the dead bodies. They were again surprised ; most of the men fled. Plaisted and two of his sons, with one faithful friend, disdained to fly and were
69
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
killed. Here was displayed heroism far above that which wins honors upon the tented field. The next day Captain Frost came from Sturgeon Creek and buried the dead. Before the close of the month the mill of Capt. Frost was burned and an assault made upon his garrison. He had only three boys with him ; but by keeping up a constant fire and running hither and thither, giving loud commands, as to a multitude, he saved his house and the murderous savages retired. They then moved down the river, plundering, burning and killing as they found people un- guarded, till they reached Portsmouth. There they were terri- fied by the firing of cannon, and fled. They soon after appeared at Dover, Lamprey River and Exeter, committing outrages and filling the inhabitants with constant alarm. At the end of No- vember it was ascertained that more than fifty persons had been killed between the Kennebec and Piscataqua. This was a large number, when we reflect that a town then rarely contained more than twenty or thirty men. The Indians had lost ninety of their men.
The winter was severe ; the snow was four feet deep in De- cember. The Indians were suffering from famine and sued for peace. They came to Major Waldron and expressed sorrow for their cruelties and promised to be quiet and peaceable in future. By his mediation a peace was made with the whole body of eastern Indians, which continued till the next August, and prob- ably would have continued longer had the eastern settlers been more thoughtful and conciliatory toward this irritable and capri- cious race. But, during these seven months of quiet, captives were restored and general joy pervaded every heart in the east- ern colonies.
Meantime Massachusetts was suffering terrible desolation from the ravages of Philip's subjects and allies. The towns of Brook- field, Deerfield, Mendon, Groton, Rehoboth, Providence and War- wick were burned in rapid succession. Lancaster was laid in ruins and Mrs. Rowlandson carried away captive. At Northfield Captain Beers was defeated and twenty of his men slain. At Muddy Brook, in Deerfield, Captain Lothrop and more than seventy young men, the pride of Essex County, were surprised and murdered. Other similar disasters occurred in other towns. The whole land was shrouded in gloom and every heart was pierced with sorrow. Philip withdrew to a great swamp in Rhode Island, apparently satiated with blood. There he con- structed a rude fortification, enclosing six hundred wigwams. He had large supplies and deemed himself impregnable. But the troops of Massachusetts forced an entrance, burned the wig- wams and slew a thousand of his braves. This was the ruin of the savage warrior. His men that escaped the sword in the
70
HISTORY OF
swamp were hunted like wild beasts in the woods. Their vic- tories were everywhere turned into defeat. Soon Philip himself, the cause of all these disasters, was captured and slain. With his death the hopes of the allies went out like a candle, and the land, for a time, enjoyed repose. Many of the followers of Philip fled for protection to the tribes of New Hampshire. They tried to identify themselves with the Penacooks, Ossipees and Pequawketts who had agreed upon terms of peace. But they could not remain concealed. Some of them were arrested and punished.
In August, 1676, hostilities were renewed, through the agency of these strange Indians. Massachusetts sent two companies under Captain Joseph Syll and Captain Hawthorne, to aid the people of New Hampshire. At Cocheco, on the sixth of Sep- tember, they found about four hundred mixed Indians at the house of Major Waldron, with whom they had made peace and whom they regarded as a friend and father. The two captains, recognizing among them many of the murderers of their breth- ren, desired to seize them and hold them as prisoners for pun- ishment. The Major dissuaded violence and had recourse to stratagem. He proposed a sham fight, in the English style, the next day. They consented; and after first discharging their muskets, they were quietly surrounded and disarmed. A sepa- ration was then made of friends and foes. Wonolanset and the Penacooks, with other friendly Indians, were dismissed in peace. The strange Indians, who were fugitives from justice, were sent as prisoners to Boston, where seven or eight of them were hung, and the rest, to the number of about two hundred, were sold into slavery in foreign lands.
Many regard the conduct of Major Waldron as an act of treachery. The Indians certainly looked upon it as a breach of faith which they never forgave. For fifteen long years they nursed their vengeance and finally wiped out their scores in the blood of the brave old councilor. The condition of Major Waldron was one of fearful responsibility. The government under which he lived demanded of him the sacrifice he made. The strange Indians really had no claim on him for mercy. They were disguised criminals mingling with innocent peace- makers. Their hands were reeking with the blood of women and children ; and although for the moment he consented to in- clude them in the treaty with his friends, still the law required that they should be separated. He was overruled by the repre- sentatives of the government and surrendered to their power those whom he had previously consented to protect. Major Waldron undoubtedly desired to treat these outlaws according to the rules of war. He wished to withdraw them from the enemy
71
NEW HAMPSHIRE.
and to save them alive ; but while his treaty was yet incomplete, the agents of the government under which he was acting came and refused to confirm what he had promised. They were or- dered " to seize all who had been concerned with Philip in the war." Here was a sad dilemma for the peacemaker. He could not act on either side without giving offence. If he surrendered the Indians, he must incur their perpetual displeasure ; if he did not surrender them, he exposed himself to the charge of treason to his own government. He decided to obey his superi- ors. Most men, even those who condemn him, would have pur- sued a similar course. His case was not unlike that of General Sherman, when he made terms of surrender for the rebel army. The government was dissatisfied with the conditions he pro- posed and the enemy accepted, and required the stipulations to be changed. The General hesitated not to obey the new and more stringent requisitions. Let him who is disposed to censure one of the greatest and best men of our early history put to himself this question : How should I have acted in like circumstances ?
After the surrender of these fugitive Indians, the Massachu- setts companies, with some of Waldron's and Frost's men and eight Indian guides from Cocheco, marched eastward in quest of the enemy. The eastern settlements had been destroyed or abandoned ; no enemy was found, and the expedition proved fruitless. Rumor had published a report of the assembling of a large body of Indians near the Ossipee ponds, where they had intrenched themselves in a strong fort which a few years before they had hired English carpenters to build for them as a defence against the Mohawks. The companies set out on the first of November, 1676, furnished with abundant supplies. They traveled four days through the wilderness and met no liv- ing man. They found the fort, but it was deserted. A scouting party was sent about eighteen miles above, but the enemy was nowhere found. The companies returned to Berwick after nine days of profitless labor. A Penobscot Indian named Mogg put them on this false scent. He came to Boston under pretence of making peace for his tribe. In that capacity he was trusted, but he proved a traitor to the English, and boasted of his success in deceiving them into a covenant of peace. When the treachery of Mogg was discovered, hostilities were again renewed. A winter expedition was fitted out. Two hundred men, including sixty Natick Indians, sailed from Boston on the first week of February, under the command of Major Waldron. At Kenne- bec he built a fort and left it under the command of Captain Davis. At Pemaquid he held a conference with the Indians respecting the delivery of prisoners for a ransom, and came
72
HISTORY OF
near being surprised by the treacherous savages while conferring with them. Their fraud was discovered and summarily pun- ished. They returned to Boston on the eleventh of March, hav- ing killed thirteen Indians and taken some valuable property without loss to themselves.
As there seemed to be no immediate prospect of peace, the government resolved to employ in their service the Mohawks who had long been the inveterate enemies of the eastern tribes. They hesitated for a time respecting the propriety and rectitude of this act. The Mohawks "were heathen," but the example of Abraham in forming a confederacy with the "heathen" Amonites, in recovering his kinsman Lot from the hands of their common enemy, confirmed them in their purpose. Their doubts were al- layed by the Scripture precedent ; messengers were dispatched to the Mohawks and they were eager and ready for a fight with their ancient adversaries. This alliance with savages proved a misfortune to the English, for they murdered, indiscriminately, those who were friendly and those that were hostile to the whites, and their conduct, it is thought, diverted, in later years, the friendly Indians to the side of the French. The eastern Indians were excited to new ferocity by the incursions of the Mohawks. Scattered parties were robbing, plundering, burning and murder- ing in the vicinity of Wells and Kittery, and even within the bounds of Portsmouth. These outrages continued for nearly a year. Repeated expeditions were sent against them. The Ind- ians were often superior in the fight. In one instance, in a bat- tle at the mouth of the Kennebec, Capt. Sweet and sixty of his men were left dead or wounded on the field. The summer of 1677 was passed in constant alarms and fights. During the au- tumn and winter following the Indians remained inactive, though they were masters of the situation.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.