USA > New Hampshire > Rockingham County > Exeter > History of the town of Exeter, New Hampshire > Part 21
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A FORTUNATE ESCAPE.
A remarkable coincidence, which resulted in frustrating a plan formed by a party of savages for the destruction of the town, occurred June 9, 1697. On that day a party of women and children went into the woods, against advice and without a guard, for the purpose of picking strawberries. To frighten them, so as to render them inore cautious in future, some one, without the least suspicion that an enemy was near, fired an alarm, upon which a great part of the men hurried together, with arms in their hands. In point of fact, a party of Indians were at that very time lying in ambush in another part of the town,* with the intention of making an assault the next morning, but hearing the alarm, they supposed they were discovered, and hurriedly decamped, killing, on their way, John Young, wounding his son, a child, and taking captive a third, Luke Wells, by name. Young was one of those who had been impressed into service in the Exeter garrison in the winter of 1695-6.
Peace was concluded in Europe between the English and French by the treaty of Ryswiek in 1697. King William's war ended the next year, and for a brief period no hostile tribes committed dep- redations on the northern provinces in America. But in less than four years there were such indications that the Indians were again about to take the war path, that the governor and council of New Hampshire, in February, 1702, ordered Captain Peter Coffin of Exeter, and the captains of Oyster river and Dover, to keep scouts of two men daily from Kingston to Salmon Falls river till further orders ; and in March, following, ordered Captain Coffin to send two men to scout from Exeter to Pickpocket mill, thenee to Kingston, and so back to Exeter; also to send two men to Lamprey river, to the house of John Smith and so back to Exeter.
Queen Anne came to the English throne in 1702, and her name has been applied to the Indian war which broke out afresh in America the next year.
* The place of the ambush was what is now called Fort Rock, in a pasture in the rear of the present house of Mr. Edward Swasey.
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QUEEN ANNE'S WAR.
In the winter of 1703-4 the government of New Hampshire re- solved to send ont a scouting expedition against the savage enemy. Captain John Gilman, Jr., a son of Councillor John Gilman, and Captain Winthrop Hilton, were the commanding officers of the two companies in Exeter, and were encouraged to raise volunteers for the expedition. The former reported, in a week, that he had enlisted twenty men, and expected twelve more, exclusive of officers ; and that several gentlemen of Exeter had subscribed for the purchase of thirty pairs of snow-shoes, for their use, which were in preparation. Captain Hilton, a grandson of Edward Hilton and a nephew of Governor Joseph Dudley, reported that he had only received his notice the night before, and was of the opinion that if one company were to go from Exeter, it would weaken the place too much to take more men away from it. Captain Hilton, who was soon to become a successful and distin- guished commander, was commissioned major, and took the com- mand of the three companies composing this scouting party.
They ranged the woods on snow-shoes in quest of the savages, but did not succeed in meeting any. It was " an honorable ser- vice," the council declared, and ordered a handsome gratuity to each of the commanding officers.
In March, 1704, a force was raised to range the shores of Maine, and was put under the command of that veteran Indian fighter, Colonel Benjamin Church. Hilton was appointed his major, and rendered excellent service. He was allowed to have the militia of the New Hampshire towns mustered, from which to procure volunteers for the enterprise, and took with him, according to Belknap, "a body of men ;" but, unfortunately, no means of knowledge exist how many were contributed by Exeter. The expedition occupied the summer of 1704.
On the twenty-sixth of April, in the same year, a party of Indians, who had committed depredations in Oyster river the day before, killed Edward Taylor near Lamprey river, and afterwards took his wife Rebecca and their son, and carried them into captiv- ity. Mrs. Taylor was subsequently restored to her friends, but had been harshly treated. Her master, who was called Captain Sampson, was on one occasion so enraged with her (without pro- vocation ) that he determined to put an end to her life. He first attempted to hang her to the limb of a tree by his girdle, but it gave way under the weight of her body. The disappointment
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angered him to such a degree, that he resolved, if a second attempt failed, he would beat her brains out with his hatchet. Fortunately, before he could put his resolve into execution, Bomaseen, an Indian of authority, made his appearance and arrested the fatal blow.
The histories inform us in disappointing general terms, that about August 10, 1704, the savages did much mischief at Ames- bury, Haverhill and Exeter. But no particulars are preserved, save that John Young was slain at Exeter while travelling between the town and Pickpocket. He was probably the son of the person of the same name who fell beneath the weapons of the savage foe seven years before.
COLONEL HILTON'S EXPEDITIONS.
In the winter of 1704-5, the indefatigable Colonel Winthrop Hilton with two hundred and seventy men, among whom were twenty friendly Indians, was sent to Norridgewock on snow-shoes, to harry the enemy. They found the village deserted, but burnt the wigwams and a chapel, erected by the French.
The summer of 1705 was spent in negotiations for exchanges of prisoners ; but in July, 1706, notice was received that a large body of French Mohawks were on their way towards Pascataqua. Colo- nel Hilton with sixty-four men marched from Exeter to intercept them, but was obliged to return for want of provisions, without meeting them. The enemy committed depredations at Dunstable, Amesbury and Kingston, after which a party of them numbering about twenty remained lurking around the house of Colonel Hilton in Exeter, with the intent of destroying that brave and energetic officer. On the twenty-third of July they observed ten men go out to the field in the morning, with their scythes, to mow. The Indians crept cautiously between them and the weapons which they had laid aside, and then fell upon them. They killed four, Richard Mattoon, his son Hubertus, Robert Barber and Samuel Pease, and three others they carried captive, Edward Hall, Samuel Mighill and a mulatto. Three only escaped, Joseph Hall, John Taylor, who was sorely wounded but recovered, and another. Edward Hall (a nephew of Colonel Hilton) and Mighill were carried to Canada, where Hall obtained so much favor from the French and Indians by building them a saw-mill that they allowed him and Mighill to go out into the woods to hunt, and sometimes unattended. The two prisoners took advantage of one of these
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opportunities and made their escape. They were for three weeks traversing the forests on foot, with nothing to subsist on except lily roots and the rind of trees, till Mighill was so exhausted that he lay down to die. Hall made all possible provisions for his comfort and left him, to seek the nearest English settlement. He soon reached Deerfield, Massachusetts, and immediately sent a party to Mighill's relief. They found him alive, and brought him to the fort where he recovered his strength, and returned with his companion to their home. The names of Hall and Mighill are found upon the tax list of Exeter in 1714.
In the winter of 1706-7, Colonel Hilton, in command of two hundred and twenty men, made another excursion to the eastward, which resulted in the destruction of above twenty of the enemy.
In the month of July, 1707, two brothers, Stephen and Jacob Gilman, as they were riding from Exeter to Kingston, were ambushed and fired upon by a party of seven Indians. Stephen had his horse shot under him, and was in danger of being scalped before he could get clear. The other received several shot through his clothes, one of which grazed his body. His horse also was wounded, yet he defended himself on foot, and succeeded in getting into the garrison. One escaped to Kingston, the other to Exeter.
Later in the year, on the thirteenth of September, one man was killed near the meeting-house in Exeter, by the Indians ; and two days afterward, another, John Dolloff, in the woods.
In the winter of 1708-9, Colonel Hilton made a long and tedious march with one hundred and seventy men to Pequawket in search of the enemy, but without success.
In 1709, on the sixth of May, William Moody, Samuel Stevens and two sons of Jeremiah Gilman, Jeremiah and Andrew, were surprised by the Indians at Pickpocket mill in Exeter, and carried away prisoners. Moody was taken to Canada, and while his captors were traversing French river with him in canoes, a few days afterward, they were attacked by a party of English under Captain Wright of Northampton, Massachusetts. Several of the Indians were killed, and Moody was left alone with one savage in a canoe. The English encouraged him to despatch the Indian, which he attempted, but in the struggle the canoe was overset, and Moody swam to the shore. Two or three of the English ran down to the bank and helped him to land, but a number of the enemy attacked them, and Moody unhappily yielded himself again
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to the savages, who afterwards put him to cruel torture, roasted him alive at the stake, and devoured his flesh.
The brothers Gilman, after their capture, were separated from each other. Andrew was told that Jeremiah was killed and eaten ; and as the latter never returned to Exeter the story was for a long time believed to be true. But it is since alleged that after a tedious captivity Jeremiah escaped to the Connecticut river, fol- lowed it to its mouth, and there spent the residue of his life, and that his descendants are now to be found in the States of Connec- ticut and New York. Andrew returned to his friends, and lived in that part of Exeter which is now Brentwood, for almost half a century afterwards. Stevens, too, returned to Exeter, and was taxed there in 1718.
On the eleventh of June, 1709, as Ephraim Folsom was riding home about sunset, from the village of Exeter to his house in what is now South Newmarket, he was fired upon by an Indian and killed.
In 1710 the Indians were very menacing, and scouts were kept up continually on the frontier. A few rolls of their names have been preserved, which show that Exeter was not backward in fur- nishing men for this duty. Captain Nicholas Gilman led a scout- ing party from June 21 to 23, comprising the following persons :
John Barber, Thomas Dolloff, John Dudley, Jonathan Folsom, William French, Dudley Hilton, Jonathan Hilton, John Lougee, Thomas McKeen, Richard Smith, Robert Woolford and Richard York.
And from June 23 to 25, the following :
Daniel Bean, Jeremiah Conner, John Drisco, James Dudley, Samuel Dudley, Stephen Dudley, Daniel Eames, Ephraim Folsom, John Folsom, Jonathan Folsom, Cartee Gilman, David Gilman, Edward Gilman, Jeremiah Gilman, Benjamin Jones, Daniel Ladd, John Ladd, Nathaniel Ladd, Joseph Lawrence, Daniel Leary, Samuel Mitchell, James Sinclair, Nicholas Smith, Bartholomew Thing, John Thing, Daniel Young, Jonathan Young.
Captain Nicholas Gilman was also in command of a detachment at Hilton's garrison of Exeter, of which the following persons had, on the third of July, served seven days : Jeremiah Arringdine, Samuel Bean, Daniel Eames, Cornelius Leary, Thomas Lowell, Bartholomew Thing, John York and John Young ; and the follow- ing, fourteen days : Armstrong Horn, Thomas Leary and Samuel
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Lovering. And on the fifth of July he went again on a scout of two days in command of the following persons : Daniel Bean, John Bean, Jeremiah Conner, Philip Duda, James Dudley, Samuel Dudley, Abraham Folsom, John Folsom, Cartee Gilman, Daniel Gilman, Jeremiah Gilman, Jonathan Hilton, John Ladd, Nathan- iel Ladd, Daniel Leary, John Nash, John Perkins, John Scribner, James Sinclair and Daniel Young.
DEATH OF COLONEL HILTON.
Scarcely two weeks after the return of this scout, the enemy, who had long been on the watch for an opportunity to take their daring and dreaded enemy, Colonel Winthrop Hilton, at a disad- vantage, succeeded in their purpose. He went out on the twenty- second of July with a party of seventeen men, to peel some large hemlock logs which he had cut for masts the previous season, and which were liable to be injured by worms unless stripped of their bark. They were lying at the distance of about fourteen miles to the westward of his house. The day had been stormy. While the party were employed in doing the work, a body of Indians fired upon them from an ambush and killed three, Colonel Hilton and two others. The remainder of the whites, intimidated by their loss, and finding their guns unserviceable by the wet, fled, except two who were taken captive. These were Dudley Hilton, a brother of the colonel, and John Lougee, both of Exeter. The next day one hundred men marched in pursuit of the Indians, but discovered only the bodies of the fallen. The enemy in their triumph had struck their hatchets into the brain of Colonel Hilton, and left a lance sticking in his heart. His body was brought to his home, and buried with every mark of respect and honor.
Dudley Hilton was never more heard from, and probably perished in captivity. Lougee was taken to Canada and thence to England. He returned to Exeter as early as 1716, and was married and left descendants there.
The enemy were so much emboldened by their success that they appeared in Exeter in the open road, and carried away prisoners four children who were there at play. Three of them were un- doubtedly daughters of Richard Dolloff ; and the next that we hear of them is from a petition of their father to the Assembly of the Province in May, 1717, in which he stated that in the preceding summer he went to Canada to redeem them, and succeeded in 15
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getting one, by paying to her Indian captor twelve pounds and seven shillings. For this money he gave a bond to Major Schny- ler, a commissioner appointed by the province of New York ; and he prayed that the province of New Hampshire would afford him aid, that he might go again to Canada to obtain the release of his other two children. The assembly voted him ten pounds in 1717, and a like amount, the year following. The printed records from which the foregoing account is gathered, are supplemented by tra- dition, to the effect that the children were on their way from school to the strong-house in what is known as the "garrison pasture," and were stopping to play, when they were captured, and that another child had just gone into the woods to gather an armful of hemlock, and seeing the fate of her companions was enabled to conceal herself in the bushes, and so escaped. Tradition further states that after peace was established, their father brought two of the girls back from Canada. The other one, who had married an Indian husband, also returned to Exeter with the intention of remaining, but, thinking she was slighted on account of the match she had made, went back to Canada.
The Indians, at the same time that they captured the Dolloff children, took John Wedgwood and carried him to Canada, and killed John Magoon. The fate of the latter was attended by a singular coincidence. Three nights before, he had dreamed that he should be slain by the Indians at a certain place near his brother's barn. He repeatedly visited the spot, and told the neighbors that he should, in a little while, be killed there ; "and it fell out accordingly."
On the sixteenth of August, 1710, less than a month after the death of Colonel Hilton, a company of ninety-one men marched, under the command of Captain John Gilman, in pursuit of the enemy. They were out five days, but returned without meeting the invaders. The roll of the company is given in Potter's Mili- tary History of New Hampshire, and the commander and about half of the number appear to have been inhabitants of Exeter.
The following named persons, believed all to have belonged to Exeter, served at various times in 1710 in scouting parties in pursuit of the savages, under the command of Captain Nicholas Gilman or Captain John Gilman.
Jeremiah Arringdine John Barber Daniel Bean
John Bean Samuel Bean, Jr. Jeremiah Conner
HISTORY OF EXETER.
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Thomas Dolloff
Joseph Lawrence
John Drisco
James Leavitt
Philip Duda
John Light
James Dudley
John Lougee
John Dudley
Samuel Lovering
Samuel Dudley
Thomas Lowell
Stephen Dudley
Thomas McKeen
Daniel Eames
Alexander Magoon
Abraham Folsom
John Marsh
Ephraim Folsom
Samuel Mighill
John Folsom
John Perkins
Jonathan Folsom
Thomas Powell
Nathaniel Folsom, Jr.
Jonathan Robinson
William French
Thomas Robinson
Cartee Gilman
Benjamin Rollins
Daniel Gilman
John Scribner
David Gilman
James Sinclair
Edward Gilman
James Sinclair, Jr.
Jeremiah Gilman
John Sinclair
Andrew Glidden
John Sinclair, Jr.
Thomas Gordon
Israel Smith
Josiah Hall
Ithiel Smith
Dudley Hilton
Nicholas Smith
Jonathan Hilton
Richard Smith
Armstrong Horn
Benjamin Taylor
Benjamin Jones
Bartholomew Thing
Daniel Ladd
John Thing
John Ladd
Robert Woolford
Nathaniel Ladd
John York
Cornelius Lary
Richard York
Daniel Lary
Daniel Young
Thomas Lary
Jonathan Young
OCCURRENCES OF 1712.
No other loss of life at the hands of savages occurred in Exe- ter so far as can be ascertained, until the sixteenth of April, 1712. At about four o'clock in the afternoon of that day, Timothy Cun- ningham, as he was travelling from Hilton's garrison to the village of Exeter, was shot down by a party of Indians. He was a shop keeper in Boston,* and left a wife and four children, and a respect- able property there. It is not known what errand it was that
* The writer is indebted to the papers of that distinguished antiquary, the late Charles W. Tuttle, Ph. D., for information as to the residence and circumstances of this stranger victim of savage hostility.
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called him forth on the journey that terminated so tragically. His body was interred in the second burying-ground in Exeter, where his gravestone still remains, with the inscription : "Here lies buried ye body of Timothy Cunningham, aged 46 years. Departed this life ye 16 of April 1712."
In the year 1712 the following men were drawn from the Exe- ter companies of Captain Nicholas Gilman and Captain John Gilman for a scouting party under the command of Captain James Davis. Sixteen others from the same place served with these, but as their names are already given in the list of 1710, they are not repeated here.
Edward Bean
Nathaniel Mason
Jeremiah Bean
Clement Moody
John Bean
Abraham Morgan
John Bean, Jr.
Jonathan Norris
Samuel Bean
Jethro Pearson
Jabez Bradbury
John Clark
Richard Preston Owen Reynolds John Roberts
Ebenezer Clough
Tristram Coffin
Aaron Rollins
Samuel Dolloff
Joseph Rollins
Jonathan Dudley
William Scammon
Samuel Elkins
Samuel Scribner
Jeremiah Folsom
Samuel Sinclair
Joshua Gilman
Daniel Smith
Morris Gilman
David Smith Nathaniel Smith
Thomas Harris Peter Havey
Joseph Taylor
John Leavitt
Matthew Thompson
Selah Leavitt
Robert Young
Samuel Magoon
Joseph Thing
Alexander Gordon
ASSAULT UPON THIE ROLLINS FAMILY.
The last Indian raid upon Exeter territory that history relates, was during what is known as " Lovewell's war," on the twenty- ninth of August, 1723, at Lamprey river. Edward Taylor, who was killed by the Indians, as already stated, on April 26, 1704, left a daughter who was the wife of Aaron Rollins. Most of the inhabitants at that time retired to the garrison houses at night, for greater security, but this Rollins and his family, which con-
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sisted of his wife, a son and two daughters, had neglected to do ; and on the night of the day mentioned, eighteen redskins assaulted his house. His wife, with two of the children, attempted to make their escape by flight, but were immediately seized. The husband secured the door before the assailants could enter and, with his eldest daughter of about twelve, stood on the defence, repeatedly firing upon the enemy whenever they attempted to force an entrance, and at the same time calling loudly to his neighbors for help, which none dared to render. Rollins was at length killed, and the savages broke open the door and slew his daughter. Him they scalped, and cut off the poor girl's head. Mrs. Rollins and her son and the remaining daughter were carried to Canada. The mother was redeemed after a few years, but the son was adopted by the Indians, and lived all his life with them. The daughter married a Frenchman, and when she had reached the age of sixty years, returned to her native place, with her husband, in the expectation of recovering the property which had belonged to her father ; but finding that to be impracticable they returned after a year or two to Canada.
In the month of May, the next year, 1724, Captain Daniel Ladd of Exeter, was ordered with a company from the same place to march on a scouting expedition in search of the Indians, in the direction of Lake Winnipisaukee. They were most of them absent six days, and found no enemy. Their names are recorded as follows :
Daniel Ladd, Captain
Abraham Folsom
Andrew Gilman, Lieutenant
John Folsom
Ezekiel Gilman, Clerk
Patrick Greing (?)
Daniel Giles, Sergeant
Nathaniel Glidden
John Moody, Corporal
Joseph Leavitt
John Huntoon, Corporal
John Magoon
Abner Thurston, Corporal
Philip Moody
Nehemiah Leavitt, Pilot
John Mudget
Samuel Akers
James Norris
John Bean
Ephraim Philbrick
John Cartee
John Quimby
Joseph Coleman
Christopher Robinson
Jonathan Conner
Jacob Smith
Samuel Eastman
Jonathan Young
For a score of years after this there was peace with the Indians and their French abettors. During that time, two or three tiers
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of townships were partially settled on the Canada side of Exeter, so that that place was no longer an exposed frontier, and did not directly suffer from hostile inroads, during the French and Indian war which began in 1744. But the town was from time to time called upon to furnish men for scouting parties, and for the pro- tection of the exterior settlements. The following troopers, from the company of Captain Dudley Odlin of Exeter, performed scout duty to Nottingham and on the frontier from July 29 to August 7, 1745, in pursuance of the governor's orders :
Jethro Pearson, Q. Master
Daniel Robinson
John Dudley, Jr.
Ephraim Robinson
John Rundlett
Jonathan Fogg Peter Hersey
Richard Sanborn
Ebenezer Light
Joseph Wadleigh, Jr.
THE LOUISBURG EXPEDITION.
In 1745 occurred that seemingly quixotic campaign against the strong fortress of Louisburg on the island of Cape Breton, which was projected by a tanner, "planned by a lawyer, and executed by a merchant, at the head of a body of husbandmen and mechan- ies," but which, to the surprise of the world, resulted, by reason of a series of fortunate accidents, in a triumphant success. New Hampshire contributed five hundred men to the expedition in the first instance, and a reinforcement of one hundred and fifteen more. From Exeter, Ezekiel Gilman went as major of the New Hampshire regiment, Trueworthy Ladd and Daniel Ladd as cap- tains, James Dudley, Samuel Conner and Jonathan Folsom as lieutenants, and Dr. Robert Gilman as surgeon ; and John Light enlisted and commanded a company of the reinforcement. No complete rolls of the troops employed in this enterprise are found, but we have what purports to be a list of Captain Light's com- pany, which numbered forty-seven men, nearly all of Exeter.
ROLL OF CAPTAIN LIGHT'S COMPANY.
John Light, Captain Joshua Winslow, Lieutenant
Caleb Brown (sick)
John Brown
Jeremiah Veasey, Ensign Jonas Addison
Jack Covey
George Creighton
Joseph Akers
Joseph Atkinson
Amos Dolloff (sick) David Dolloff
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HISTORY OF EXETER.
Joseph Dudley
Moses Lougee
Joseph Dudley
James Marsh
John Edgerly Moses Ferrin William Fifield Moses Flanders
William Morey
Joseph Philbrick
William Prescott
Joseph Folsom
Eliphalet Quimby
John Forrest
Benjamin Robinson
John Gibson
Josiah Sanborn (sick)
Joseph Giles
Samuel Scribner
James Gilman
John Severance
James Gloyd (?)
Ebenezer Sinclair
James Gordon
Samuel Sinclair
Robert Gordon
Abram Stockbridge
Joseph Judkins
Jonas Ward
Daniel Kelley (sick)
Thomas Watson
Nathaniel Lamson
John Wells
Thomas Lary
It is evident that the rolls of the New Hampshire troops engaged in this expedition are very imperfect. A petition addressed to the General Assembly in November, 1745, setting out the shame- ful defects of the commissary department, is subscribed by eight persons, all of whom describe themselves as " commissioned offi- cers" of the New Hampshire forces who took part in the expedi- tion. Of these eight, seven were inhabitants of Exeter ; namely, Trueworthy Dudley, James Dudley, Jonathan Folsom, Andrew Downer, Daniel Gale, Peter Thing and Benjamin Kimming. But the names of the last four of them are not found in any roster of the troops that is known.
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