USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Antrim > History of the town of Antrim, New Hampshire, from its earliest settlement to June 27, 1877, with a brief genealogical record of all the Antrim families > Part 5
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But this state of unusual alarm followed the beginning of Riley here, as in the very stormiest time no such venture would have been made. James McColley and Samuel Gibson, two Scotchmen born in Ireland, came from near Boston and put up cabins near Hillsborough Bridge in 1741; and they seem to have been joined in 1743 by three or four others, among them Philip
10
ATTACK ON HOPKINTON.
Riley, who began his farm in Antrim the next year. This little settlement (called that of 1744) was begun in a comparative quiet of the forces of war, while at the very same time the strife had begun anew on the other side of the water. But then news came slow. . France had declared war in 1743. This was called in Europe " the war of the Austrian succession "; in this coun- try, " King George's war "; but perhaps New Englanders would better know it as the " Cape Breton war." It did not break out in America till 1744, nor have much progress till the expedition
against Louisburg in 1745. (Louisburg surrendered June 17, 1745, and the same old drums used to beat the triumphal entry of the New Englanders were used to beat the call at Bunker Hill, June 17, 1775.) For the rest of that year, and for 1746 especially, the Indians swarmed on the frontier, and all sorts of horrors were perpetrated at their hands. In the spring and summer of 1746, no less than six attacks, in more or less force, were made upon Charlestown, some thirty-five miles northwest of us, on the Connecticut river, and a large proportion of the settlers killed or carried captive. The settlers of Rindge had abandoned their settlement the year before on account of alarm at the outbreak of war. The families of New Ipswich retired into a " block-house in Townsend, Mass." The settlers in Peterborough retired to a place of safety, and not a white family was left there. In Keene the Indians burned all buildings of every kind and killed several of the inhabitants, the others remaining some time in the fort and finally abandoning the town. Hopkinton, then called New Hopkinton, and then having the largest population of the New Hampshire towns west of the Merrimack, was guarded by a strong fort or fortified house. The Indians, variously armed with knives, hatchets, bows, and guns, had been lurking about for some time watching for an opportunity to make an attack by surprise, which was always their favorite way. Very early in the dawn of April 22, 1746, one of the garrison rose and went out to hunt, thinking all was safe at that hour. He left the others asleep, and of course left the door unfastened behind him. The savages, with customary cunning, suffered this man to go on his way unmolested ; but, as soon as he was out of the way, they slipped along and entered by the unguarded door. The slumberers awoke to see the armed savages with tomahawk ready to strike them dead. But they, like the real cowards they were, failed to make much of their
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FLIGHT OF RILEY FROM ANTRIM.
opportunity, and simply seized eight persons and hustled them off half-naked to the woods. The report of this attack spread terror through the little settlements of Hillsborough and Antrim. They had no garrison-house. They had remained on their · ground when many larger settlements had been entirely aban- doned. Perhaps their smallness had been the reason of their immunity thus far. But now they were thoroughly alarmed. They had seen Indians lurking along the Contoocook river, and had every reason to suppose themselves to be the next object of attack. It would be of no use for them to plant their crops under such circumstances, and therefore the sooner they were off the better. Nothing but their connection with the Scotch- Irish, who were almost undisturbed by the savages throughout New England, can account for this attack upon Hopkinton rather than upon them. And this would not be likely to stand them any longer. They determined to abandon their humble yet happy dwellings at once. Hurriedly they buried their few articles of heavy furniture and iron tools. Some things they hid under flat rocks and in hollow logs. A few things they carried with them; their few cattle they drove in a flock before them ; and all started, Riley and every inhabitant of Hillsborough, for a place of safety. In all it seems probable there were from fifteen to twenty persons. That roadless flight of many miles through the woods must have been sad indeed. They were poor and homeless, and in danger all the way. We know not the exact course they took. But, as Peterborough had been abandoned and Hopkinton had just been a place of attack, and the Contoo- cook was known to be a favorite lurking-place of the savages, it is probable they struck off from the river, and made their lonely way somewhat in the direction of the turnpike over the hills through Francestown and New Boston to Londonderry. After this flight Antrim had no inhabitant whatever for fifteen years. Occasionally, during this time, hunters and scouting parties traversed the town ; and in a little respite from war the proprie- tors made a survey of their grant, including Antrim, in the year 1753 : but, with these exceptions, the town was given over to the beast and the savage and the deep silence of the woods.
This break of fifteen years in our history will give us chance to speak of some other matters a little out of the line, - among them the claim of Massachusetts to a large part of our State. During the reign of James I. (1603-1625) a council was estab-
12
MASONIAN CLAIM.
lished by the king, having general control over all the territory of New England, and probably more. Capt. John Mason, one of this council, as early as 1621 obtained a grant from James of most of the southern part of New Hampshire east of the Merrimack. Under this grant he and certain associates took possession of the land, made settlements at Dover in 1623, and subsequently at Strawberry Bank (Portsmouth) and other places. After the death of James, Capt. Mason, being in the ring, secured a second grant (1629), defined as follows : " From the middle of Piscataqua river, and up the same to the farthest head thereof, and from thence northwestward until sixty miles from the mouth of the harbor are finished ; also through Merri- mack river to the farthest head thereof, and so forward up into the land westward, until sixty miles are finished; and from thence to cross overland to the end of sixty miles accounted from the mouth of Piscataqua river." This would make a triangular piece of territory, extending as far north as Conway and as far west as Rindge ; and the westward or long side of the triangle would be a straight line drawn from Conway to Rindge, which would leave Antrim on the west, and of course this town would not be included in the grant.
This grant to Mason was called New Hampshire, and was the beginning of our State. But in 1635 Capt. Mason died, having realized but little from his grant, and having accomplished the settlement of only a few places, and to a small extent. Various disturbances arose in England, and the contest between Charles I. and his people grew so fierce as to absorb all attention, and the colonies in America were left for the most part to shift for themselves. Consequently the feeble colony of New Hampshire came under the protection of the stronger colony of Massachu- setts. It is only fair to say that this protection was sought and was needed. But in subsequent years the stronger colony claimed to continue the government thus assumed. From time to time the heirs of Mason, or others under them, put in claims, but they were disregarded. As Massachusetts claimed a large slice of the southern part of the Masonian grant as her own by previous claim, she was not disinclined to the management of the whole, and was very willing to put the New Hampshire settlers under obligation, by generous assistance. So, by way of confirm- ing her claim and exercising her jurisdiction, Massachusetts made many grants of towns in this State. Thus New Boston
13
CONTROVERSY ABOUT STATE LINE. 1
was granted Jan. 14, 1736 ; New Ipswich was granted Jan. 15, 1736 ; Peterborough, Jan. 16, 1738 ; and several other towns in this vicinity about the same time, and for a year or two succeed- ing. But at this time the controversy about the boundary between Massachusetts and New Hampshire grew more and . more bitter ; and, it being found impossible to settle it otherwise, the whole matter was referred to the king (George II.), who, after some delay, decided (1740) against Massachusetts, and gave New Hampshire more than she had claimed. In 1737 the king had appointed a commission to hear the evidence of the parties, and they met for the purpose in the town of Hampton. In the adjoining town of Hampton Falls, close to the present State line, the New Hampshire legislature met, to enforce their claims ; while, only five miles off in the border town of Salisbury, the Massachusetts legislature met, to press in every possible way their own side of the question. So great was the excitement that a large and showy procession on horseback was formed in Boston, and this, led by a trained body of cavalry, escorted Gov. Belcher to the scene of controversy. A bit of satire on this very important performance is extant, and too good to be omitted : -
" Dear Paddy, you ne'er did behold such a sight, As yesterday morning was seen before night. You in all your born days saw, nor I didn't neither, So many fine horses and men ride together. At the head, the lower House trotted two in a row, Then all the higher House pranced after the low ; Then the governor's coach gallop'd on like the wind, And the last that came foremost were the troopers behind ; But I fear it means no good, to your neck or mine, For they say 'tis to fix a right place for the line! "
But this commission, backed by two legislatures and a great amount of talk and some threats, really amounted to nothing, or as near that as we are able to calculate at this day ; since they only fixed upon one thing, that the point of beginning should be three miles north of the "Black Rocks" situated in the channel of the Merrimack river near the sea. The final decision was, that, beginning at the point above mentioned on the Atlantic ocean, the line should run westward three miles north of the Merrimack, crooking and bending so as to correspond to the curves of the river, and so as always to be just three miles north of the same, until it should reach a "point due north of Paw- tucket Falls (Lowell), and a straight line drawn from thence due
14
MASON ESTABLISHES HIS CLAIM.
west until it meets with His Majesty's other governments." Massachusetts had asked, after the point of beginning was set- tled, to have the line three miles north follow the bend of the Merrimack to its source near the White Mountains. But the " due west " line not only prevented this, but added to New Hampshire a strip about fifteen miles wide from the Merrimack to the Connecticut. Otherwise, Greenfield and Hancock would have been border towns, and Peterborough would have been cut in two. The new line was run by Richard Hazen in 1741. Those towns whose charters had been granted by Massachusetts now found their charters invalid, and were obliged to seek incor- poration by the State of New Hampshire, which accounts for the " new charters" so often referred to in the old records. But no sooner was the State line fixed and these other matters brought into the process of adjusting themselves accordingly, than the old lingering " Mason claim " was revived and pressed with new vigor. John Tufton Mason, a native of Boston, great- grandson and heir of Capt. John Mason, succeeded in getting a final decision in his favor. This long-continued case was now at an end. It had been in litigation for more than a hundred years. Generation after generation of the contestants died ; but still the controversy revived and went on, and the magnates of two continents were in long struggle over a title to the rocks of New Hampshire. But the new settlement of the case stirred up more trouble than it settled, - at least for a few years. Mason sold his title to twelve men of Portsmouth in 1746, for fifteen hundred pounds ; and they took the whole charge of this vast tract of land. They are known in the history of this section as the " Masonian Proprietors." Immediately on their accession there was new and universal alarm among the scattered inhabit- ants of all the frontier towns, lest they should be ejected from their lands and clearings by the new men in power. Petitions from the poor settlers poured in upon the " Proprietors." Others, like the committee of New Boston land-holders, tried to compro-
1
mise with them. But the proprietors pursued a course both generous and noble. They immediately took measures to release their claims to all townships granted by Massachusetts east of the Merrimack river. And several west of said river, being actually chartered and settled according thereto, were given up on very reasonable conditions and for a very trifling consideration. But it was natural that the " Masonian Proprie-
.
15
BOUNDARY OF MASON'S CLAIM.
tors," sometimes called in that day the "Lord Proprietors," should look after the western part of their grant at once, this part being chiefly ungranted and unclaimed by others. They therefore marked out a row of towns bordering on Massachu- setts and thence northward on what they claimed as their western boundary, as follows : South Monadnock (previously granted by Massachusetts as " Rowley Canada," now Rindge) ; Middle Monadnock (Jaffrey) ; North Monadnock (Dublin) ; Monadnock Number Four (Fitzwilliam) ; Monadnock Number Five (Marlborough) ; Monadnock Number Six (Nelson) ; Monad- nock Number Seven (Stoddard or Limerick) ; and Monadnock Number Eight (Washington). It is pretty certain that these surveys were made as early as 1749, since in the spring of 1750 we find efforts made to determine whether this line of towns was within or beyond the Mason boundary. As these towns sur- rounded Antrim, it will be seen that this town was claimed by the proprietors, but not surveyed till the line of towns on the outside of the claim were looked after. Several settlers in these places, finding their claims to land originating in Massachusetts grants worthless, left their clearings in disgust and returned to that State ; but the most of them repurchased of the " Maso- nians" at a low rate, and remained. The question of their western boundary was, however, agitated for several years. Massachusetts, as early as 1750, determined that some of this claim was beyond the "sixty miles from the sea." But the Masonians then very conveniently argued that their western bound must be a " curved" line corresponding to tlie bend of the sea ; and they went to work on this "curved " line, and they curved it so as to take in the towns above named. Pending this dispute, the revolutionary war broke out. On return of peace the legislature of New Hampshire decided that the bound should be a " straight " line. This, running from about the west line of Rindge to the northwest corner of Conway, would divide the town of Antrim, leaving the most of it on the west. At this juncture the " Masonian Proprietors " came out and purchased the land between the " straight " line and their " curved " line, of the State, for about forty thousand dollars, after which their title was no more disputed. In the charters they had from time to time granted, they had generally given the soil to actual settlers free, reserving a few lots in each for the ministry and for schools, and reserving about one-quarter of the lots for them.
-
16
CUMBERLAND. - SOCIETY LAND. - INDIANS.
selves, - it being their plan to encourage settlements and to advance education and religion, and get their return in the increased value of the reserved lots.
It will be seen that there was in this county a large tract of territory ungranted, and bounded as follows: On the north by Hillsborough and Henniker (Number Six); on the east by Halestown (Weare), New Boston, and Salem Canada (Lynde- borough) ; south by " Peterborough Slip " (Temple) and Peter- borough ; and west by Monadnock Nos. Six and Seven (Nelson and Stoddard). This tract of land was for some years called " Cumberland," a name which has entirely disappeared. It included Antrim, Hancock, Bennington, Deering, the west half of Francestown, and most of Greenfield. Probably Windsor was in this tract, though no mention is made of it, it being a gore of land that escaped all grants and calculations for many years ; and when subsequently referred to, it was designated as " Camp- bell's Gore," till 1798. The large area called " Cumberland," being the last owned by the proprietors in this section of the State, soon came to be called " Company Land" or " Society Land "; and this last became the common name until, part by part, it was incorporated under present names. It was surveyed and divided into shares in 1753 by Robert Fletcher, but I do not find the name "Society Land " applied to it till about 1770; while, as will be shown, a large part of it was called " Antrim " by the settlers themselves as early as 1771.
Before resuming the thread of our annals, a brief notice of the Indians who hunted in Antrim will be in order. Explorers of New England, before the landing of the Pilgrims, found west of Cape Cod, covering Rhode Island and a large part of southern Massachusetts, the Narragansetts and Pequots. North of these and in the interior of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, were the Pennacooks, sometimes noticed as Merrimack-river Indians, or Nipmucks (fresh-water Indians), as the natives called them. The Pennacooks consisted of many tribes, a sort of confederation of all in the vicinity of the Merrimack. At the earliest knowl- edge of them, the Agawams occupied the country about the mouth of the Merrimack and as far south as Cape Ann. The Pawtuckets next west made headquarters at Pawtucket Falls (Lowell), reaching as far south as Concord, Mass., and occupy- ing a fine territory. Next west and north were the Nashuas, owning the lands on the Nashua river far into Massachusetts,
17
INDIAN TRIBES AND CHIEFS.
and the lands about the Merrimack for some ten miles. The Souhegans occupied the lands of the Merrimack north of the Nashuas, and all the country of the Souhegan river to its source. North of them the Namoskeags resided at the Falls (Manches- ter) and spread out upon the intervales, and up the Piscataquog . to New Boston, and out eastward of Amoskeag to the Massa- besic. Then next north came the Pennacooks, centered at Concord, and occupying most of the present county of Merri- mack, and spreading southwestward along the Contoocook to the foot of Monadnock, and also over the land on streams eastward. of Concord. Then the Winnipesaukees occupied the northern part of New Hampshire, with their villages about the sources of the Merrimack, chiefly at Lake Winnipesaukee. Eastward of these tribes there were several others in the State of Maine that were part of, or at least subject to, this confederation. Among all these tribes mentioned, the Pennacooks at Concord, through favorable situation and wise chiefs, gradually became the most powerful, and so far led the way in everything as eventually to absorb the power and bear the distinguishing name of the whole. Especially after the plague among the Indians which broke out in 1616 and lasted three years, and swept off four-fifths of them, leaving the land empty for the Pilgrims, these tribes were under the control of the Pennacooks. In subsequent years the English called them all by that name. Their chieftains, or sagamores, were truly noble men. The greatest was Passaconaway, who had supreme authority from 1623 to his death in 1669, was a fast friend to the English, and sent for the missionary Elliot and his " praying Indians " to come and teach them to " worship God and keep the Sabbath." His son, Wonnalancet, succeeded him, embraced Christianity in 1674, and died in 1689. Kancam- agus, grandson of Passaconaway, then succeeded. He was for - a time hostile to the English, and made the celebrated attack upon Cocheco (Dover), June 27, 1689, in which the aged Major Waldron was tortured and then murdered. Soon after this event the chief retired into the State of Maine, and not long after died. Many of the Pennacooks withdrew northward and eastward, like their chief ; and the tribe was effectually broken up before the settlement of Londonderry in 1719. Yet a few of them lingered and hunted among the sacred haunts of their fathers for fifty or sixty years later. This tribe, proud of the name Pennacooks, had controlled the valley of the Contoocook
2
18
MOOSE DRIVES. - INDIANS IN THIS TOWN.
and vicinity for generations. Over the hills of Antrim they had -
hunted again and again. Mink and moose thrived here. Often they made what was called a " drive," - a large triangle shaped like the letter "V," with an opening at the apex just wide enough to let the game through, the sides being constructed of brush and logs. This would cover about half an acre, in some favorite resort of the moose. Then parties were stationed at the apex to kill, while the tribe would scour the country and close up round the game, forcing it into the drive. Sometimes a " snare " was set at the apex, with ropes, mainly as boys set them now.' It is said that late in the year 1620, soon after the landing of the Pilgrims, several of them, walking in the woods, came into one of those " drives." As William Bradford walked through the apex, looking over the contrivance, suddenly he was caught up by the legs, with his head hanging down in the air, - much to the amusement of his sedate associates. The relics of these " drives" were often found in New Hampshire in early days, and no doubt one or two were in this town.
The Contoocook was very dear to the Indians. It is pretty certain that they had some residences on its banks within the present limits of Antrim. The first settlers found many evi- dences of this. Their place of burial was on the Esquire Hopkins farm (Artlıur Miller's), and not far from the beautiful Maplewood cemetery, where the bodies of the " pale faces" are borne to rest at the present day. It is not improbable that a great host of the " red men " sleep near by. There the dusky maidens wept, and the red warrior sat down silently on the mound and mused upon death. The Indians raised their corn mostly on the farm of Deacon Joseph Boyd (Mr. Goodell's), and on the lighter soils of that farm the hills were visible in 1768, just as the red harvesters had left thiem. The women, or " squaws," did all the agricultural work, built the wigwams, gathered the wood, and performed all the hard labor that was done. When fish were plenty, the men helped catch fish enough to manure the corn with, and the squaws would put a dead fish, or part of one, into each hill. When the " oak leaf was as big as a squirrel's ear," it was their rule to plant, and the dark maidens along the Contoocook began their task.
Indians were often seen here by the first settlers, and came to trade with thiem, as is proved by the traffic of Thomas Nichols and others with them, which is noticed elsewhere. The Indians
19
RELICS OF HUNTERS.
threatened the life of Capt. Nichols, but never really committed any depredations here. They were few and scattered, and their power effectually broken before the settlement of Antrim.
About 1789, Jacob Puffer, the first settler on the farm now George Brown's, plowed up the skeleton of a man near his · house. This fact suggesting investigation at once, he found near by and close to the brook the remains of a camp, with relics of fire, and unmistakable evidences that white men had occupied the cabin. It was a sort of log house, and the decayed and fallen sticks showed its outline. Further search disclosed two graves close to the ruins of the cabin, obviously not Indian graves, as each had its headstone and footstone like many graves in the old cemetery on the hill. But they might have been victims of the Indians, hurriedly buried, while a third was shot down in attempting to escape ; or they might have been left behind by some one of the many scouting parties and expedi- tions, who buried two and left a third as too lame or sick to go on, as in the case when Capt. Lovewell left Benjamin Kidder and others in a little log fort at Ossipee in May, 1725. Dr. Whiton says that " Puffer and others believed that the bones, graves, and camp were not the relics of Indians ; but that a party of three hunters had been attacked by some infectious disease ; that, as one. died, the others buried him ; that when a second died, the survivor buried him; that when he died, none being left to bury him, his body remained above ground, was gradually covered with leaves and dust, and the bones were at length turned up by the plow." On one of these graves grew a beech-tree of about forty years' growth ; and, as this would probably start up within a few years after the burial, it is proba- ble the camp was made not much later than Lovewell's fight (1725), in the years of special conflict with the Indians. It is possible that among the many little bands of captives carried from the borders of Massachusetts to Canada by the savages, in the war, three or four unable to proceed might have been left behind by the savage foe, and built a rude shelter for themselves in this obscure valley in the hope of rescue, in which they were finally disappointed. It seems to me, that, in view of the cir- cumstances of the country at that time, these persons must some way have been victims of Indian cruelty and violence.
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