History of the city of Nashua, N.H., Part 45

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 45

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Colonel Noyes is a man of superior executive ability and whatever he undertakes is accomplished in a thorough manner. His services to his comrades as department commander were enthusiastic and valuable in more ways than one and of lasting benefit to the order, while his earnest labor to promote the happiness of those veterans who make an annual pilgrimage to The Weirs is recog- nized with hearty thanks by every loyal citizen. He is a man of recognized ability as a lawyer, of high attainment in literary composition, an art critic of independent

judgment-witness the magnificent figures on the Nashua soldiers' and sailors' monument, which were fashioned under his direction-and one of the most effective public speakers in the state, many of his orations and speeches -especially at the dedication of the Nashua monument and his Memorial day addresses-being gems of rhetorical finish and gracefulness. The colonel is also a campaigner of ability and has honored the democratic party of New Hampshire many times by making a speaking tour of the state. He has always declined civic preferment, several nominations for high office having been offered and per- sistently refused by him.

As a citizen Colonel Noyes is active and energetic, ever ready to extend his aid and influence to any and all under- takings and enterprises which have for their object the improve- ment of the city and the happiness of its inhabitants; he has been an active member of the board of trade from its organization, taking part in its de- liberations and work- ing vigorously to ad- vance all its plans in the line of public improvements.

The colonel is an ardent sportsman, both in lake and field; and numerous trophies of the chase in his pos- session attest his skill as a marksman and hunter ; but perhaps he is more especially fond of the gentle sport of which old Isaac Walton wrote so learnedly and lovingly; he devotes many of his leisure hours to the pursuit of the gamey denizens of the beauti- ful lakes and streams of New Hampshire, as well as those in the wilds of Maine and Canada where his skill as an angler is well known.

FRANK G. NOYES.

Colonel Noyes was united in marriage Nov. 20, 1856, with Hannah E. Richardson of Lowell, Mass. His children are Anna Gardner, who is now (January, 1895) the wife of Sheridan P. Read, consul of the United States at Tien Tsin, China, born Oct. 25, 1857; Clara L. H., who, together with Miss Helen Walter her friend and business partner, has for several years been at the head of a private school in New York City, born. Oct. 20, 1859; Grace Richardson, born July 20, 1862, married Leon Mead of New York, Nov. 12, 1865, and Elizabeth G. G., now un- married and living with her sister Mrs. Read in Tien Tsin, China. Colonel Noyes has also had born to him three sons, all of whom died before reaching the age of five years.

270

HISTORY OF NASHUA, N. H.

MILITARY HISTORY

TO THE CLOSE OF THE WAR WITH MEXICO; INCLUDING INDIAN WARS, THE REVOLUTION,

WAR OF 1812 AND THE MEXICAN WAR.

BY FRANK G. NOYES.

T HE military history of the old town of Dunstable, and Nashua, its lineal descendant and successor in New Hampshire, comprises a large part of the military history of New England. Whether or not the earlier settlers of Dunstable were stimulated by the same love of country as their late successors, thirteen hundred and fifty-five* of whom went from Nashua to the front in the War of the Great Rebellion, to save the life of the republic from the hand of traitors who had placed their deadly grip on its throat, is not for the present historian to theorize upon. It is enough to say that those early settlers lived in a state of constant danger from attacks by the savages, and that, on occasion, they displayed as great valor and heroism as any people in the history of the world.

Instead of dilating upon reasons or causes, the limits of this chapter will only permit such narration of facts as research proves to be authentic. The records inform us that the lines which divided the ancient township of Dunstable and established that portion which now comprises the township of Nashua, were made by official authority of the crown of England represented in the colony of Massachusetts in the year of our Lord, seventeen hundred and forty-one.

In narrating the military history of Nashua, it woul seem proper, therefore, to begin at no more remote date than the year in which those lines of division were drawn ; but the history of the two towns of Dunstable (Massachusetts and New Hampshire) is so closely woven together that it seems necessary to begin at an earlier date than the year 1741.

A large portion of this narrative, up to the war with Great Britain in 1812, is extracted from the History of the Old Township of Dunstable by Charles J. Fox, (Nashua, 1846). The present writer or compiler desires to give full credit to Mr. Fox for whatever may be used herein from his valuable history, but it has not been deemed necessary to give repeated and continued credits by quoting Mr. Fox's name. Therefore whenever the writer has extracted full paragraphs or pages from Fox's history, they will appear in quotation marks.

Prior to the date of incorporation of the town of Dunstable by the state of New Hampshire, (April 4, 1746), the old township of Dunstable had acted under a charter obtained from the general court of Massachusetts in the year 1673. That charter included all the territory comprised in what was afterwards Dunstable in New Hampshire, and is now Nashua.

The careful student of history has learned that after the lapse of many years it becomes extremely difficult and sometimes impossible to discover with certainty exactly when certain events occurred and especially to locate exactly where the actors in such events resided. In his researches, the present writer has met such stumbling blocks. The records and rolls are very misty as regards the actual home or residence of many soldiers and sailors who doubtless ought to be credited to Dunstable in New Hampshire; i. e., to Nashua, but whom the writer, in his endeavor to hew straight to the line of truth, is unable to claim absolutely.

The Indians of the Merrimack valley were divided into small tribes, called the Nashaways, Penacooks, Naticooks and Pawtuckets. On account of their nomadic life, their territoria boundaries are very indefinite, but the Pawtuckets had their headquarters at the falls which per- petuate their name, just above the present city of Lowell; the Nashaways, in the valley of the Nashua river and about its mouth ; the Souhegans or Naticooks, on the fertile tract on the stream of the same name; the Penacooks occupied Penacook (now Concord), near the mouth of the

*The names of thirteen hundred and fifty-five men who served in the Union army or navy during the War of the Rebellion, 1861-5, and with whom the town of Nashua should be credited, are deposited in the corner-stone of the soldiers' and sailors' monument, which was laid with imposing ceremonies May 30, 1889.

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HISTORY OF NASHUA, N. H.

Contoocook river, and the Wamesits dwelt at the falls in the Concord river, near Lowell. These tribes together with the Nashobas, who had their headquarters in the forests of Littleton, Mass., are believed to have numbered in 1674, about one thousand people.

The Indians dwelt in wigwams, dressed in skins of wild animals, subsisted on fish or game with which the streams and forests abounded, and on Indian corn, beans and squashes, which their women rudely cultivated, using a large clam shell for a hoe. They parched the corn and pounded it in mortars made of stone. Their skin was copper-colored ; their hair long, straight and black ; they wore moccasins, made of untanned deer or bear skins, on their feet ; for money they made use of shells, called wampum, strung upon a belt, and their weapons were the tomahawk, made of stone, the bow and arrow, and the scalping knife (iron or stone).

Prior even to the year 1675 when the war with Philip, the powerful and wily sachem of the Wampanoags, commenced, and which was ended only by his death, when danger, conflict and privation were the common lot of the settlers who toiled and worshipped with their rifles by their sides, the lovely valley of the Salmon brook had been settled. It is also probable that some coura- geous white men had laid their hearthstones in the beautiful valley of the Watananock (Nashua).

"Passaconaway* was sachem of the Penacooks and held rule over all the Indians from the Piscataqua to the Connecticut, and all down the Merrimack. He resided at Penacook, and the Naticooks, Pawtuckets and Wamesits were subject to his power. He had been a great warrior and was the greatest and 'most noted powow and sorcerer of all the country.'t He died before 1670, at the great age of one hundred and twenty. 'In 1660, not long before his death, at a great feast and dance he made his farewell speech to his people. In this he urged them, as a dying man, to take heed how they quarrelled with their English neighbors, for though they might do them some harm, yet it would prove the means of their own destruction. He told them that he had been a bitter enemy to the English, and had tried all the arts of sorcery to prevent their settlement, but could by no means succeed.' "±

This declaration made a great impression, for we find that Wannalancet, his second son and successor, after the eldest son, with the more restless part of the tribe, had removed into Maine, was ever after a friend to the whites.

In the summer of 1675 King Philip's War commenced which involved nearly all the Indians in New England. They combined for a war of extermination and all throughout New Eagland were burnings, massacres and devastation. Groton and Chelmsford were destroyed and hundreds killed or carried into captivity.

At such a period the settlers of Dunstable were indeed in a perilous situation. They petitioned the colony for relief. September 8, 1675, instructions were given by the governor and council to Capt. Thomas Brattle and Lieut. Thomas Henchman to take various measures for the better security of the settlement. They were ordered, §

"First : To draft fifty men and form garrisons at Dunstable, Groton and Lancaster.

" Second: To appoint a guardian over the friendly Indians, at each of their towns, who should oversee them, and prevent all difficulties or dangers which might occur upon either side.

"Third : To ' send a runner or twoto Wannalancet, sachem of Naamkeak, || who had withdrawn into the woods from fear,' and to persuade him 'to come again' and live at Wamesit.

"Fourth : To inform the Indians at Penacook and Naticook that if they will live quietly and peaceably, they shall not be harmed by the English.

*Gookin's History of the Christian Indians. 2 Am. Antiq. Collections.

+Hubbard's Indian Wars.

#Gookin. Hubbard. 4 N. H. Hist. Coll. 23.

§ Military Records, Massachusetts, 1675, page 252.

Pawtucket falls and vicinity. Amoskeag, properly Namaskeak is the same word. It is said to mean "the great fishing place," and was a favorite of the Indians. The Merrimack received this name for some distance around the falls, as it did other names at other places, or, as is quaintly expressed by an Indian in a letter of May, 1685, to the governor : "My place at Malamake river, called Pannukkog (Penacook, ) and Natukhog (Naticook, ) that river great many names." I Belknap, appendix, 508.

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HISTORY OF NASHUA, N. H.

"These instructions were immediately and strictly obeyed. The garrison* at Dunstable was strengthened. Lieutenant Henchman took charge of the Indians at Wamesit. Runners were sent out to Wannalancet, but they did not prevail upon him to return until the close of the war the next summer. Captain Mosely, with his choice company of one hundred men, making Dunstable his place of rendezvous, marched up to Naticook and Penacook to disperse the hostile Indians who were said to be gathered there for the purpose of mischief. 'When the English drew nigh, whereof they had intelligence by scouts, they left their fort, and withdrew into the woods and swamps, where they had advantage and opportunity enough in ambushment to have slain many of the English soldiers, without any great harm to themselves, and several of the young Indians inclined to it, but the sachem, Wannalancet, by his authority and wisdom restrained his men, and suffered not an Indian to appear or shoot a gun. They were very near the English, and yet though they were provoked by the English, who burned their wigwams and destroyed some dried fish, yet not one gun was shot at any Englishman.'t Wannalancet is said to have been restrained by the dying speech of Passaconaway, his father.

"The winter of 1675 was a time of fear and of trial. Never had the 'the Indian enemy' been more active or dreaded. Even the 'Christian Indians' had communications with their hostile brethren, and the whites began to suspect them of treachery. The alarm increased to such a degree that every settler left Dunstable except Jonathan Tyng.# With a resolution which is worthy of all praise, and of which we with difficulty conceive, he fortified his house; and although 'obliged to send to Boston for his food,' sat himself down in the midst of his savage enemies, alone, in the wilderness, to defend his home. Deeming his position an important one for the defence of the frontiers, in February, 1676, he petitioned the Colony for aid."§

"The Petition of Jonathan Tyng Humbly sheweth :

"That yr Petitioner living in the uppermost house on Merrimack river, lying open to ye enemy, yet being so seated that it is as it were a watch house to the neighbouring towns, from whence we can easily give them notice of the approach of the enemy, and may also be of use to the publique in many respects ; also are near unto the place of the Indian's ffishing, from which in the season thereof they have great supplies, which I doubt not but what we may be a great means of preventing them thereof; there being never an inhabitant left in the town but myself.

" Wherefore, your Petitioner doth humbly request that your Honors would be pleased to order him three or four men to help garrison his said house, which he has been at great charge to ffortify, and may be of service to the publique : your favour therein shall further oblige me as in duty bound to pray for a blessing on your Councils, and remain Your Honorables' humble servant,

JONATHAN TYNG."

"Dunstable, Feb. 3, 1675-6."|

"This petition was granted immediately, and a guard of several men despatched to his relief, which remained during the war. This plantation was never deserted, and he thus became the earliest permanent settler within the limits of Dunstable.

"February 25, 1675-6, an attack was made by the Indians upon Chelmsford, and several buildings were burned. Colburn's garrison on the east side of the Merrimack was strengthened, but nearly all the outer settlements were deserted. A few days later, March 20, another attack was made, and Joseph Parker wounded.1 There was no surgeon in the vicinity, and an express was sent to Boston to obtain one."

* Garrisons or forts were usually environed by a strong wall of stone or hewn timber, built up to the eves, at which point the roof extended horizontally a little distance, through which was a gate or door fastened with bars or bolts of iron. They were lined with brick or thick plank. Some of them had portholes for musketry.

+ Gookin, in 2 Am. Antiq. Coll. 463.

# Tyng's house probably stood not far from Wicasuck falls, below Tyngsborough village.

§ See original petition. Mass. Military Records, 128.

|| What was called Feb. 3, 1675, when the year ended in March, is Feb. 3, 1676, if we consider the year as ending in December, and in order to designate this, all dates occuring in the months of January, February, or March, previous to A. D., 1751, are described in the above manner. The true date is Feb. 3, 1676.

1 He was a settler of Dunstable, and constable from 1675 to 1682.

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HISTORY OF NASHUA, N. H.

A garrison was maintained at Mr. Tyng's by a part of Captain Moseley's famous company, and at the expense of the colony, until August, 1676.

The Indian war with King Philip,* the Narragansetts, and the other Indian tribes was ended in August, 1676, by the death of Philip and the destruction of his forces. The settlers returned to their deserted homes and the settlement received new life and vigor. But the settlers had not escaped all danger or alarm. March 22, 1677, a party of Mohawks, always the enemy of the English, suddenly appeared in Dunstable, at the mouth of the Souhegan. Their appearance is thus described in a letter from " James Parker at Mr. Hinchmanne's farme, ner Meremack, and forwarded to the honred Govner and Council at Bostown. Hast, post hast.i

"Sagamore Wannalancet come this morning to informe me, and then went to Mr. Tyng's to informe him, that his son being one the other sid of Meremack river over against Souhegan upon the 22 day of this instant, about tene of the clock in the morning, he discovered 15 Indians on this sid the River, which he soposed to be Mohokes by ther spech. He called to them ; they answered, but he could not understand ther spech; and he having a conow ther in the river, he went to breck his conow that they might not have ani ues of it. In the meantime they shot about thirty guns at him, and he being much frighted fled, and come home forthwith to Nahamcok, wher ther wigwames now stand."

In consequence of this alarm a company of scouts under Lieut. James Richardson, # traversed the valley of the Merrimack during the whole season to ward off any threatened attack. A garrison was also maintained at the expense of the colony. But in September, 1677, a party of French Mohawks from Quebec suddenly came to Naamkeak, (near Pawtucket falls), with whom was said to be the brother of Wannalancet, and carried him with all his tribe to Canada. They did no damage to the English, however, although they had suffered so many provocations, and now enjoyed such an opportunity for revenge, "being restrained as is supposed by Wannalancet."

After this for a time the settler enjoyed the blessings of peace. He no longer feared an ambuscade in every thicket, nor listened in the night watches for the prowling footsteps or the warwhoop of a dusky foe.

Charles II., the Merry Monarch of England, and Louis XIV. of France were at war no longer. The "Treaty of Nimguen"§ 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 smoke all along our rich intervales."

"In 1689 the war with the French, known as King William's War, broke out between the French and English. It was occasioned by the revolution of 1688, which drove James II. from the throne and England (the French taking up arms for King James), and lasted until 1698. The French excited, by means of the Jesuits, nearly all the Indian tribes to arm against the English, and the history of the frontier during this period, the darkest and bloodiest in our annals, is a succession of devastations and massacres. In these bloody scenes the Penacooks were not idle. Almost every settlement upon the frontier was attacked, and several hundred men, women and children were either killed or carried into captivity.

"Dover suffered by a stealthy attack without the least warning, on June 28, 1689, and Major Waldron and more than fifty others were killed or taken prisoners. An attack on Dunstable was plotted, but was discovered by two friendly Indians, who informed Major Henchman, commander of the fort at Pawtucket falls, of the intended attack. That officer at once aroused the settlers to a sense of their imminent danger, by the fearful news ; 'Julimatt fears that his chief will be quickly done at Dunstable.'" |

The inhabitants retired to the garrisons which were fortified and preparations were made for defence. The assembly immediately ordered two companies of mounted troops of twenty men each to Dunstable and Lancaster, "for the relief and succor of those places, and to scout about the heads of

* King Philip after destroying thirteen towns and six hundred colonists was shot at Mount Hope, Aug. 12, 1676.

13 N. H. Hist. Coll., 100.

# Mass. Military Records, 1677, P. 519.

§ July 31, 1678.

|| I N. H. Hist. Coll., 223.

27.4

HISTORY OF NASIIUA, N. H.

these towns and other places adjacent to discover the enemies' motions, and to take, surprise, or destroy them as they shall have opportunity." July 5, 1689, another company of fifty men was sent to Dunstable and Lancaster as a reinforcement and twenty men to Major Henchman at Pawtucket, as a guard for the settlers. Several matters seemed to render an attack upon Dunstable imminent, but the timely warning to Major Henchman, the mounted scouts, the garrisons and the precautions of the settlers baffled all the wiles of the savages and the danger passed away.

"On Nov. 29, 1690, a truce was agreed upon until the first of May, which was strictly observed, and the inhabitants passed the winter without attack and in security."

But in the summer of 1691 the dogs of war were again let loose. Small scouting parties attacked many of the settlements. Like beasts of prey they came without warning and retired without detection. Hostile Indians suddenly appeared in the town and attacked the house of Joseph Hassell, senior, on the evening of Sept. 2, 1691. Hassell, his wife, Anna Hassell, their son, Benjamin Hassell, and Mary Marks, daughter of Patrick Marks, were slain and scalped. They were all buried upon a little knoll where Hassell's house stood, and a rough stone or boulder marks the spot .* This stone or boulder bears the following inscription :1

Site of Indian Massacre of Hassell Family. Sept. 2, 1691.

" On the morning of September 28 the Indians made another attempt, and killed Obadiah Perry and Christopher Temple. There is a rock in the channel of Nashua river now covered by the flowage of the water, about thirty rods above the upper mill of the Nashua corporation, which was called ' Temple's Rock,' and was reputed to be near the spot of his murder. It is said that they were also buried upon the spot just described. Perry was one of the founders of the church, and a son-in-law of Hassell. All of these are original settlers, active, useful and influential men, and all of them town officers, chosen but a few weeks previous.

"The actors in those scenes have passed away and even tradition has been forgotten. The only record which exists of the circumstances of the massacre, is the following scrap, noted down probably by the Rev. Mr. Weld, not long after it occurred :-

" Anno Domini 1691.

JOSEPH HASSELL, senior, were slain by our Indian

ANNA HASSELL, his wife, enemies on Sept. 2nd in

BENJ.' HASSELL, their son, the evening.

"MARY MARKS, the daughter of PATRICK MARKS, was slain by the Indians also on Sept. 2nd, in the evening.

"OBADIAH PERRY and CHRISTOPHER TEMPLE dyed by the hand of our Indian enemies September the twenty eighth day in the morning."

" At this time there were several garrisons in Dunstable, and a number of soldiers stationed there by the colony, as appears by a return of their condition which is as follows, 'Dunstable town, seven men ; Mr. Tyng's garrison, six men ; Nathaniel Howard's, three men ; Edward Colburn's, (probably at Holden's brook) four men; and at Sargeant Varnum's four men.' These continued in the pay and service of the country until Nov. 17, 1692, and perhaps still longer. #

" The war lasted till 1698, when a treaty of peace was concluded between France and England at Ryswick. Immediately after a treaty was entered into with the Indians at Casco, and peace declared, which lasted until 1703. During the remainder of this war, there is no authentic record of an attack upon the inhabitants. At this time and for fifty years after its settlement, Dunstable was a

* Hassell's house stood on the north bank of Hassell's brook (or Hale's brook as it is now commonly called) not more than sixty rods from where it empties into Salmon brook.

+ The writer has been unable to learn with certainty when or by whom the inscription was placed upon the boulder, but vouches for its having been there in September, 1895.

# Mass. Military Records, 1692.

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HISTORY OF NASHUA, N. H.

frontier town, and during the greater portion of this time, the country was involved in an Indian war. With nothing but a dense wilderness between the savages and the inhabitants, they were constantly exposed to surprise and massacre.

" Dunstable must have been peculiarly fortunate to have escaped scatheless, while Dover, Ports- mouth, Exeter, Durham, Haverhill, Andover, Billerica, Lancaster and Groton, upon both sides of us, and even in the interior were ravaged almost yearly. This is not at all probable, and though most of the private and local history of that day is forgotton, we find vague hints in ancient chronicles and records, and vaguer traditions, nameless and dateless, which indicate that the story of Dunstable, if fully told, would be a thrilling romance."

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History of the city of Nashua, N.H., Part 45

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