History of the city of Nashua, N.H., Part 4

Author: Parker, Edward Everett, 1842- ed; Reinheimer, H., & Co
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Nashua, N.H., Telegraph Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 652

USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Nashua > History of the city of Nashua, N.H. > Part 4

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tMass. Assembly Records, 1657, page 293. The trade of "Nashuway river" was sold at the same time for £8.

#The Indian name of Cromwell's Falls was Nesenkeag, and, as was generally the case, as at Naticook, Amoskeag, &c., the land for some distance around received the same name.

|| Belknap, 117, note by Farmer, and his manuscript records. In his "Catechism of the History of New Hamp- shire, he says :- "This town had been settled several years before the date of the charter." Page 23.

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HISTORY OF NASHUA, N. H.

need of accommodations," found their way to the rich intervals upon our rivers, at a period not much later than the date of the grants.

It has often been remarked that, in the settlement of New England, we may discover the hand of an overruling Providence; the Plague, which swept off the Indian tribes in and around Plymouth and Piscataqua, in 1612 and 1613, prepared the way for the coming of the forefathers, and similar providential events occurred as population moved westward. The valleys of the Merrimack and the Nashua were inhabitated by numerous small tribes, or branches of tribes of Indians, who lived in villages containing one hundred or two hundred souls, and subsisted chiefly by fishing and hunting. The Nashaways had their head quarters at Lancaster ; the Nashobas at Littleton; the Pawtuckets at Pawtucket falls ; the Wamesits at Wamesit falls, at the mouth of Concord river; the Naticooks in this vicinity; and the Penacooks around Penacook, now Concord, N. H. They were all, however, subject to Passaconaway.

The last resident Indian of Old Dunstable bore the name of Philip Antony. His hut was upon the farm in the south part of the town now owned by Willard B. Cummings, a farm of historic interest inasmuch as the title for a hundred and fifty years was in the venerable Simon Roby and his de- scendants. It was the birthplace of our honored citizens, Luther A. and Noah W., who was my escort, and it was with all the enthusiasm of youth that he, although in his eightieth year, led the way fifty rods to the rear of Mr. Cummings' house, and pointed out the spot where dwelt this last of his race. It was just the place for such a home. From the little hilltop he could greet the King of Day as he rose above the height of "Long Hill" and bid him "good-night" as he sank behind the gilded west that stood beyond the valley of the charming Salmon brook. Standing upon such a spot and amid present surroundings, the words of Charles Sprague come home to us with a touch of sadness :

"Here lived and loved another race of beings. Beneath the same sun that rolls over your heads the Indian hunter pursued the panting deer ; gazing on the same moon that smiles for you the Indian lover wooed his dusky mate. Across the ocean came a Pilgrim bark bearing the seeds of life and death. The former were sown for you-the latter sprang up in the path of the simple native."

The Mohawks, or Maquas, a fierce and savage tribe from New York, were the hereditary enemies of them all. The Indian tribes which dwelt nearest to the English settlements, and especially the Pawtuckets and Wamesits, from their weakness, and their fears of both the Mohawks and the English, craved the friendship and protection of the latter. They served as guides and sentinels for the exposed frontiers, and were often of great service. The Penacooks, however, were a more bold, warlike and dangerous race, who refused all attempts to Christianize them, although their dread of the English was generally sufficient to keep them from open hostility.

In the spring of 1669, a portion of the Penacooks, fearing an attack from the Mohawks, moved down the Merrimack to the Pawtucket, and built a fort there for their protection. Their neighbor- hood was a cause of alarm to the settlers, some of whom shut themselves up in the garrisons; but in the succeeding autumn they joined in an expedition against the Mohawks, by whom they were over- powered and almost entirely destroyed .*

The greater part of the Indians in this vicinity, especially the more turbulent and dangerous, to the number of six or seven hundred, united in this expedition, and nearly the whole of them perished with more than fifty chiefs. The remnant, dispirited and powerless united with the Wamesits, and became "praying Indians."

In 1660, not long before Passaconaway's death, at a great feast and dance, he made his farewell speech to his people," which is given in full in Drake's Book of Indians, III, 94, and is worthy of a space in this volume. He said :-

" I am now going the way of all flesh, or am ready to die, and I am not likely to see your meet together any more. I will now leave this word of counsel with you, that you may take heed how you quarrel with the English ; for though you may do them much mischief, yet assuredly you will all be destroyed and rooted off the earth if you do ; for I was as much an enemy to the English at their first coming into these parts as anyone whatsoever and did try all ways and means possible to have them destroyed, at least to have prevented them settling down here, but I could no way affect it ; therefore I advise you never to contend with the English or make war with them."

*Book of the Indians, 45. Allen's History of Chelmsford.

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HISTORY OF NASHUA, N. II.

Mr. Whittier in his poem, " The Bridal of Penacook," thus alludes to the Great Sachem :

" For that chief had magic skill, And a Panisee's dark will Over powers good and ill. Powers which bless and powers which ban.

Wizard lord of Pennacook ! Chiefs upon their war-paths shook When they met the steady look Of that wise dark man."

Wannalancet, his second son, succeeded him, after the eldest son with the more restless part of the tribe had removed into Maine and was always after a friend to the whites. He resided generally at Wamesit falls, and was proprietor, with his tribe, of all the lands in this vicinity. About 1663, the eldest son of Passaconaway was thrown into jail for a debt of 645, due to John Tinker by one of his tribe, and which he had promised verbally would be paid. To relieve him from his imprisonment his brother Wannalancet and others who owned Wicasuck Island* sold it and paid the debt.

Soon after, the General Court granted him one hundred acres of land "on a great hill about twelve miles west of Chelmsford," and probably in Pepperell, because he had " a great many children and no planting grounds." In 1665, he petitioned to the General Court that this island might be restored to him and his brethren, the original owners, and the original petition, signed by him with the others, in a fair, bold hand, is now on file at the secretary's office. His request was granted and the island purchased and restored by the colony.t

About 1675 during the war with King Philip, he left Wamesit, and resided in Canada and various other places, lest he should be drawn into the contest. During these wanderings he warned the whites of many intended attacks and averted others. When Wannalancet returned to Pawtucket, after the death of Philip, he called upon Rev. Mr. Fiske of Chelmsford, and inquired what disasters had befallen the town during the war. Mr. Fiske replied that they had been highly favored, for which he desired "to thank God." "Me next," said the shrewd Sagamore, who claimed his share of the merit. Thus providentially was all this region freed from hostile Indians, and the way opened for the coming of our fathers in comparative safety.

The valleys of the Naticook, of Salmon brook and the Nashua, (or Watananock, as it is called in the Court records), especially near the mouths, were favorite resorts and abodes of the Indians. The Indian was the child of nature and gazed upon her charms with filial admiration. To him the moun- tains were " God's altars," and he looked up to their cloud-capped summits with awe, as the dwelling- place of the "Great Spirit." The chiefs who dwelt in these valleys did not generally live in a style of greater magnificence than their subjects, though they enjoyed greater abundance. Their confed- eracy was a great democracy, where danger, conflict, toil and privation were shared alike by all. Whittier in his " Bridal of Penacook " has given us a graphic picture of a wedding and dance given by Passaconaway on the occasion of the marriage of his daughter Weetamoo, to Winnepurkit, sachem of Saugus, Maine.

He has most beautifully and happily introduced the sweet and flowing Indian names which abound along the Merrimack and its tributaries, and the whole scene is delightful as a specimen of Indian domestic life. For this reason, and as a portion of the luxuries were furnished by our own streams and hillsides, it is thought that its insertion here will not be inappropriate :-

THE BASHABA'S# FEAST.

With pipes of peace and bows unstrung, Glowing with paint came old and young, In wampum and furs and feathers arrayed, To the dance and feast Bashaba made.

*Wicasuck is the small island in the Merrimack river, near Wicasee falls, in Tyngsborough.

tAssembly Records, Mass., 1665, page 106.

#The name given to two or three principal chiefs.

HISTORY OF NASHUA, N. H.

Bird of the air and beast of the field, All which the woods and waters yield, On dishes of birch and hemlock piled, Garnished and graced that banquet wild.

Steaks of the brown bear, fat and large,

From the rocky slopes of the Kearsarge,

Delicate trout from Babboosuck brook, And Salmon speared in the Contoocook.

Squirrels which fed where nuts fell thick,

In the gravelly bed of the Otternic,

And small wild hens in reed-snares caught,

From the banks of Sondagardee brought.

And, drawn from the great stone vase, which stands

In the river scooped by a spirit's hands, *

In white parched pile, or thick suppawn, Stood the birchen dishes of smoking corn.

Thus bird of the air and beast of the field,

All which the woods and waters yield,

Furnished in that olden day,

The bridal feast of the Bashaba.

And merrily when that feast was done,

On the fire-lit green the dance begun ; With the squaws' shrill stave, and deeper hum Of old men beating the Indian drum.

Painted and plumed, with scalp locks flowing,

And red arms tossing, and black eyes glowing ; Now in the light and now in the shade, Around the fires the dancers played.

The step was quicker, the song more shrill, And the beat of the small drums louder still, Whenever within the circle drew, The Saugus Sachem and Weetamoo.

Among the first settlers of. Dunstable we find the names of Rev. Mr. Thomas Weld, Joseph Wheeler, John Blanchard, Jonathan Tyng, Cornelius Waldo, Samuel Warner, Obadiah Perry, Samuel French, Robert Parris, Thomas Cummings, Isaac Cummings, Joseph Hassell, Christopher Temple, John Goold, Samuel Goold, John Sollendine, Christopher Reed, Thomas Lund, Daniel Waldo, Andrew Cook, Samuel Whiting, John Lovewell, John Acres, John Waldo, William Beale, Samuel Beale, John Cummings, Robert Usher, Henry Farwell, Robert Proctor, Joseph Lovewell, John Lovewell, Jr. The earliest compact settlements were made near the mouth of Salmon brook, between its mouth and the main road, and so down the Merrimack upon the spots deserted by the Indians.

The land which lay between Salmon brook and the Merrimack was called "The Neck," and for greater security the "housne-lotts" (house lots) of the first settlers were laid out adjoining each other, and "within the neck." The lots which lay nearest Salmon brook ran from Salmon brook to the Merrimack, and were generally from thirty to forty rods in width upon each stream. After the first six or eight lots, the west line of the lots was bounded upon "Long Hill." In the rear of the school house in the harbor district in Nashua, and the north and east edges of the mill pond, several cellar holes are still visible, and within a few years an ancient well was open. Apple trees are there standing, hollow, splintered, covered with moss and almost entirely decayed, bearing marks of very great antiquity. The early settlers came from the southeastern part of England, where cider and

*There are rocks in the river at the falls of Amoskeag, in the cavities of which, tradition says, the Indians for- merly stored and concealed their corn.

HISTORY OF NASHUA, N. H.

perry were manufactured in great quantities, and they brought with them the same tastes and habits. Orchards are spoken of in our town records as early as 1675, and these shattered relics of an age that is past may possibly have been the original stock, or at least their immediate descendants.

About fifty rods northeast of the school house, near a small cluster of oaks, stood the " Old Fort," or garrison, in which the inhabitants dwelt in seasons of imminent danger, and to which they often retired at night.

As the school house used by Mr. Fox as a landmark to fix the location of the "Old Fort" was removed many years ago, it is well to mark the spot by the present surroundings so that any one curious to know may go directly to it.

When Bowers street, which runs from Main to Arlington street, was laid out it was found to pass over the cellar holes where the fort stood. Dearborn street and Harbor avenue run at right angles, and about thirty-three rods east of Dearborn and twenty west from the avenue is the spot, being seventy-five rods east from Main street.

It was under the slope of the hill. The fill for the street covered about ten feet of the cellar hole and the remainder is filled and is a part of the lot occupied by the coal company north side of the Acton railroad. It would be very appropriate for the city to erect a stone monument to mark the spot where stood the only safe retreat of the early settlers in days of peril from a merciless foe.

This tract of land was bought by Mr. Elbridge G. Reed in 1848, and he filled the cellar hole in 1850 and planted a walnut tree to mark the spot, but the tree was removed when the street was laid out.

There was a well in the fort which was open until within a few years. South of this spot, on the north bank of Salmon brook, and just in the rear of the house of Miss Allds, were the houses of Hassell, Temple and Perry, the cellar holes of which are still visible. The field adjoining was owned by Perry and is still known as the "Perry Field."

All traces of these cellars disappeared many years ago. The present owner has cultivated this field for fifteen years and has had his attention called to this item of history, but there was nothing visible to indicate their location when he bought the property, and the name of the "Perry Field " is not heard.

After the charter was obtained in 1673, the inhabitants increased rapidly. The proprietors made liberal grants to actual settlers, and upon the following conditions, which have been selected from their articles of agreement drawn up Oct. 15, 1673 :

"Every one yt* is received (as an inhabitant, ) shall have 10 acres for his person, and one acre more added thereto for every {20 estate, and none shall have above 30 acres in yr house lotts, nor none under 10 acres, and yt all after divisions of land shall be proportioned according to their home lotts, and so shall all yr public charges be, both as to church and town.

"All ye inhabitants yt are received into this town shall make improvements of ye lotts yt they take up, by building upon them, by fencing and by breaking up land, by the time prefixed by the General Court, wh. is by Oct. 1676, and they shall live, each inhabitant upon his own lott, or else put. such inhabitant upon it as the town accepts.

" To the intent yt we may live in love and peace together we do agree, yt whatever fence we do make, either about cornfields, orchards or gardens, shall be sufficient four rail fence, or yt which is equivalent, whether hedge, ditch or stone wall, or of loggs, and if any person sustain damage through the deficiency of their own fences not being according to order, he shall bear his own damage .- And if any man's cattle be unruly he shall do his best endeavor to restrain them from doing himself or his neighbour (any harm)."

These conditions, which evince much foresight, combined with the local advantages, were readily accepted, for May 11th, 1674, a meeting was holden at "the house of Lt. Joseph Wheeler," and a written agreement made between the proprietors and settlers. In this agreement it is provided, that "the meeting-house which is to be erected shall stand between Salmon brook and the house of Lt. Wheeler, as convenient as may be for the accommodation of both." As a meeting house in those perilous times, when men toiled and worshipped with their rifles by their side, would not be very likely to be erected beyond the settlement, we may reasonably suppose that the settlement at Salmon brook . had already commenced, and that at that date there were a considerable number of inhabitants.

*I have preserved the original spelling, in which yr, yt, ye, are written for their, that and the.

HISTORY OF NASHUA, N. H.

CHAPTER III.

CIVIL AFFAIRS. TOWN MEETINGS. FIRST MEETING-HOUSE. REV. THOMAS WELD, FIRST

MINISTER. HIS SETTLEMENT. HIGHLAND FARM. OTHER MATTERS OF INTEREST PERTAINING TO IT. BOBBIN FACTORY. BALDWIN APPLE. PUBLIC SENTIMENT. GREAT COMET. DEATH OF HON. EDWARD TYNG. TOWN REGULATIONS. MINE ISLANDS. HIGHWAY FROM GROTON. THIRTY ACRE RIGHTS. NAMES OF THE PROPRIETORS. TAXES.

W E MAY now turn to the civil affairs of the town and to a period when peace brought with it its attendant blessings-security and prosperity. The settler no longer feared an ambuscade in every thicket, nor listened in the night watches for the prowling foot- steps of a foe. England and France, Charles II. and Louis XIV., were at war no longer. The "Treaty of Nimeguen,"* strange though it be, was the protection of Dunstable. The deserted cabin was again tenanted, the half cleared field was cleared and tilled, and new cabins sent up their smokes all along our rich intervals.

Town meetings were holden in Dunstable as early as 1675, and town officers were then chosen, for in 1682 we find the town voting "yt Joseph Parker have 20 shillings allowed him for his seven years' services as Constable."t No records, however, of any meeting are preserved of an earlier date than November 28, 1677. This was a meeting of the proprietors as well as the settlers, and was holden at Woburn, at which place the meetings for the choice of town officers were held for many years, and occasionally as late as 1711. The record is as follows :- #

"Nov. 28, 1677. At a Town meeting held at Woburn.

"Capt. Thomas Brattle, Capt. (Elisha) Hutchinson, Capt. (James) Parker, Mr. Jonathan Tinge, and Abraham Parker were chosen Selectmen for the Town of Dunstable for the year ensuinge, and to stand as such till new be chosen. §

"It was also agreed upon and voted yt as soon as may be, a minister be settled in the town of Dunstable. The time and person to be left to the Selectmen ; his pay to be in money, or if in other pay the rate being to be made as money to add a third part more.

" Likewise yt all public charges relating to the minister and other occasions is always to be levied upon allotments, and every man engages his accommodations, (pledges his farm,) to answer and perform the same.

"It was also voted that the minister the first year shall have fifty pounds, (equal to about $300.00 now, ) and the overplus of the ffarmes, and never to be abated."

Then follows a vote extending the time for building the meeting-house and settling a minister, which was a condition of the grant in 1673, but which had not been complied with, for the space of three years longer, for the purpose of saving the forfeited rights of the settlers. They intended, nevertheless, to build at once, for it was "left with Mr. Jonathan Tyng, Captain Parker and Abraham Parker to agree with John Sollendine, (who was the first house and mill-wright in town, ) to secure and finish said house," which had been commenced before the desertion of the settlement in 1675.

Several persons were also "admitted as inhabitants," and it was voted "yt the selectmen have power to add other inhabitants, provided that with the present they exceed not the number of eighty families."

Before the Revolution of 1689, no person could vote or be elected to any office until he had been admitted a Freeman of the Commonwealth. This might be done by the General Assembly or

*July 31, 1678.

+The constable was the collector of taxes also, and the compensation for all his services was about fifty cents per year.

#For this and all other similar references, examine Dunstable Records of the date affixed.

§Brattle was of Boston, Hutchinson of Woburn, James Parker of Groton, Tyng of Dunstable, and Abraham Par- ker of Chelmsford. The latter resided soon after in this town and is the ancestor of Edmund Parker, Esq., Judge of Probate.

HISTORY OF NASHUA, N. II.

the county court, but only upon evidence of his being a member in good standing of some Congregational church. Before voting every person was required to take "the Freeman's Oath."

Hoping that it may be of value to the present generation and such as may come after it to be reminded of the duties and responsibilities covenanted and entered into by such as became citizens and were clothed with the right of suffrage, the "Freeman's Oath," as found in History of New England, Palfrey, vol. i., p. 377, is here inserted. It may kindle afresh the fires of loyalty and patriotism that have apparently gone out upon many a hearthstone and stimulate to higher manhood. "I, A. B., being, by God's providence, an inhabitant and freeman within the jurisdiction of this commonwealth, do freely acknowledge myself to be subject to the government thereof, and therefore here swear by the great and dreadful name of the everliving God, that I will be true and faithful to the same, and will accordingly yield assistance and support thereunto, with my person and estate, as in equity I am bound, and will also truly endeavor to maintain and preserve all the liberties and privileges thereof, submitting myself to the wholesome laws and orders made and established by the same ; and further, that I will not plot nor practice any evil against it, nor consent to any that shall do so, but will timely discover and reveal the same to lawful authority now here established, for the speedy preventing thereof. Moreover, I do solemnly bind myself, in the sight of God, that, when I shall be called to give my voice touching any such matter of this state wherein freemen are to deal, I will give my vote and suffrage as I shall judge in mine own conscience may best conduce and tend to the public weal of the body, without respect of persons, or favor of any man. So help me God, in the Lord Jesus Christ."

This meeting house was finished in 1678, and was probably built of logs. The precise spot where it stood is not known, but probably it was not far distant from the settlement at Salmon brook. As the settlement increased a new meeting house was erected near the old burying ground in the south part of Nashua. In the journal of a scout, in 1724, it is said to have stood about nine miles distant from Pennichuck pond. No other church except those which succeeded this upon the same spot, was erected in the southern part of New Hampshire for more than forty years, and its minister, like another John the Baptist, was " the voice of one crying in the wilderness."

Tradition fixes the location of this house a short distance north of the state line upon the road north of the residence of Alfred Kendall, leading from the main road westerly by the Danforth place, and thence on to the village of Dunstable, and this agrees very well with the above and other references to it, although not as definite as this.

April 22, 1679, William Tyng, son of Jonathan Tyng, was born in this town. This is the first birth which is found upon the records of the town. April, 1680, Sarah, daughter of John Sollendine was born and appears under the caption "Lambs born in Dunstable." It is probable that other births occurred at a much earlier date, since it is known that there were many inhabitants for years previous, and in 1680 "30 families were settled there and a learned orthodox minister ordained among them."*

Before 1679, a lot of land upon Salmon brook was granted by the town, and known as " the mill lot," and a saw mill erected. Where it stood is not known, but it is not improbable that it was on the spot where the Webb mill," near the house of J. Bowers, Esq., now stands, since it is known that a mill stood there at a very early period, and it would probably be located as near the settlement as possible. There was originally a beaver dam at that place, and it required but little labor to prepare the site for the mill. Many years ago a mill crank was dug up near the spot, which must have come from its ruins.

As early as May 1, 1679, and perhaps before that time, Rev. Thomas Weld was employed here as a minister. In the settlement of New England, religion was at the very foundation. The means of religious instruction ever kept pace with the spread of population, and "he who counted religion as twelve, and the world as thirteen, had not the spirit of a true New England man." In the very charter, therefore, it was provided by the General Court, that the grantees were to "procure and maintain an able and orthodox minister amongst them," and to build a meeting house "within three years." This condition could not be complied with on account of Philip's war, which compelled them to desert the settlement, yet, as we have seen, at the first town meeting which was holden after its resettlement, the first vote was for the choice of selectmen, and the next a provision for the ministry and a place for

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History of the city of Nashua, N.H., Part 4

Author: Parker, Edward Everett, 1842- ed; Reinheimer, H., & Co Publication date: 1897 Publisher: Nashua, N.H., Telegraph Publishing Company Number of Pages: 652

Author: Parker, Edward Everett, 1842- ed; Reinheimer, H., & Co
Publication date: 1897
Publisher: Nashua, N.H., Telegraph Publishing Company
Number of Pages: 652