USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Hollis > History of the town of Hollis, New Hampshire, from its first settlement to the year 1879 > Part 3
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" Ah! Where are the soldiers that fought here of yore! The sod is upon them, they'll struggle no more,
The hatchet is fallen-the red man is low, But near him reposes the arm of his foe.
The names of the fallen the traveller leaves Cut out with his knife on the bark of the trees,
But little avail his affectionate arts, For the names of the fallen are graved on our hearts.
Sleep, soldiers of merit! Sleep, gallants of yore, The hatchet is fallen, the struggle is o'er,
While the fir tree is green or the wind rolls a wave, The tear drop shall brighten the turf of the brave."
28
'DUNSTABLE.
[1673 to 1739
Though the combatants were so few, and this bloody conflict ap- parently a drawn battle (neither party being in a condition to pur- sue the other) yet so far as related to New England it had all the re- sults of a decisive and complete victory. It was the last battle of the war; the power of the hostile savages was forever broken, and such of them as were left gradually withdrew from their ancient haunts. and hunting-grounds in New England to the French settlements in Canada. Peace followed the ensuing winter, and from that time to the present the little settlement at Salmon Brook, so persistently and bravely defended for the preceding fifty years, has never been inva- ded by a hostile savage. From the breaking out of King William's War to the making of this peace was a period of thirty-seven year twenty-three of this savage warfare, and but fourteen of treach ous, uncertain peace. During all these sad years the settlers in 1 us ancient town, feeble and few in numbers, but always trusting in God, and literally keeping " their powder dry," were yet ever firm and defiant. Living for the most part in garrisons, felling the forests and planting their fields with their arms ready at hand -listening to the sermon on Sunday with their loaded muskets by their seats, or stacked at the meeting-house door-their bravest men waylaid and slaughtered-their wives and children massacred in their houses, or hurried off to a captivity often worse than death -- they maintained this out-post of our modern Christian civilization with heroic courage- to the end.
When we turn our eyes backward to the bloody scenes, to the ter- rors and sorrows of the past, and contrast those scenes and those sorrows with the peace and blessings of the present, and call to mind to what extent this quiet and these blessings are due to the sacrifices and sufferings of the early pioneers of Dunstable, what heart not palsied, can fail to throb with emotions of gratitude to our common Father for so worthy an ancestry.
It would be forgetfulness of a duty we owe alike to ourselves, to those who shall come after us when we are gone, to the institutions civil and religious they did so much to establish, and to our common humanity, should we neglect so far as in us lies to perpetuate the re- membrance of their worthy and noble deeds.
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29
DUNSTABLE.
1673 to 1739]
POPULATION.
The population of Dunstable at this period, as stated by Mr. Fox, was as follows :
1680, 30 families, or about 120 inhabitants. 1701, 25
" 100 1711, 13
86 1730, 50
¥
250
THE EFFECTS OF THE RETURN OF PEACE.
With the return of peace, both the town of Dunstable and all the country round, begun to experience a degree of prosperity never en- joyed before, and settlements were soon extended north and west of the Nashua, and east of the Merrimack. As we have already seen, no town before that time had been chartered north or west of Dun- stable, in what is now New Hampshire, for the preceding fifty years. But such was the benign influence of peace, that within sixteen years after "Lovewell's Fight" twenty-eight towns, now in New Hampshire, had been chartered or granted by the General Court of Massachusetts, and more or less settled, extending north on the Mer- rimack, to Stevenstown (now Franklin and Salisbury) about sixty miles, and on the Connecticut to No 4, now Charlestown, near seventy miles.
FIRST DISMEMBERMENTS OF DUNSTABLE.
About this period, or a little before, began the legislative dismem- berments and mutilations of the body politic of the town of Dunsta- ble-afterwards continued with more or less frequency for near a century-a treatment little less unkind and cruel in its way than that suffered by the early settlers from the savages. The first of these ex- cisions was in the year 1722 when its north-east extremity was cut off, to fill up a corner of the Town of Londonderry. The next, in 1731, when a small slice of it of about eighty acres, was taken from near its south-west corner to piece out a side of Townsend.
In the year 1732, all the remainder of the old town on the east side of the Merrimack, extending from the north line of Litchfield to Chelmsford, was incorporated into a new town then called Not- tingham.
In the year 1734, the north part of the then new town of Notting- ham, and a part of the present town of Merrimack, south of the Souhegan, at the junction of that river with the Merrimack, were incorporated into a town then and still called Litchfield.
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30
DUNSTABLE.
[1673 to 1739
Both of these towns being incorporated by the General Court of Massachusetts, were required within three years from the date of their respective charters to be "finished out" by procuring and " set- tling in each of them a learned and orthodox minister of good con- versation, and making effectual provision for his comfortable and honorable support."
In 1739 that part of Dunstable lying west of the present east line of Hollis and the Nashua river was incorporated as a parish, known by the name of the West Parish of Dunstable. This charter of West Dunstable, as also that of Nottingham, authorized the assess- ment of a tax of two pence per acre upon all lands of non-resident owners, within their chartered limits for the space of five years for the building of a meeting house and the support of the ministry. The incorporation of West Dunstable was the last legislative act of the General Court of Massachusetts affecting that part of the old town now in New Hampshire.
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31
1730 to 1739.] SETTLEMENT OF WEST DUNSTABLE.
CHAPTER II.
CHARTER OF THE PARISH OF WEST DUNSTABLE .- ITS SETTLEMENT AND HISTORY FROM 1730 TO 1739.
Under the Laws of the Province of Massachusetts, in force at the time, the twenty-six petitioners for the charter of Dunstable, "with such as might joyn with them in the settlement," became owners in fee simple, as tenants in common, of all the ungranted land within the boundaries of the township. In the year 1682, shortly after the close of King Philip's war, a meeting of these proprietors was held, who formed themselves into an association for the purpose of settling their several rights - of making divisions of their lands from time to time among themselves in the modes and proportions mutually agreed upon - and also for the making of sales and setting off the lands disposed of to purchasers and actual settlers.
The meetings of these original proprietors, and of those who suc- ceeded to their estates, afterwards continued to be held (sometimes at intervals of many years,) for more than a century, the last of them as late as 1816. The doings of this association, including the partitions and sales of land made by the proprietors were carefully recorded in books kept by them for the purpose, now worn and mutilated, but still to be found in the office of the city clerk of Nashua.
Before the year 1729, most of the land of these proprietors lying in the present towns of Nashua, Hudson and Litchfield, N. H., and Tyngsborough and Dunstable, Mass., had changed ownership, and much of it was then in the occupation of actual settlers. Previous to ' that year, no record of any sale or grant to any one of the early settlers of Hollis of land in that town is to be found in the books kept by these proprietors. But in the month of January, 1729-30, O. S., as is shown by these records, the modest quantity of 37 1-2 acres was set off by the proprietors to Peter Powers, in the right of John Usher. The survey of it was made by Col. Joseph Blanchard,
32 .
SETTLEMENT OF DUNSTABLE.
[1730 to 1739
an honored citizen of Dunstable, and a noted surveyor of the time, and was set off' to Powers by Henry Farwell, Joseph French and William Lund as a committee acting for the association. This tract is described in the record as lying in that part of Dunstable called "Nissitissit," which was the Indian name of Hollis. It was laid out in an oblong 120 rods east and west, and 50 rods from north to south. Some years afterwards, as is shown by these records of the proprie- tors there were set off to Powers as purchaser and grantee, in a simi- lar way several other tracts of land in Hollis, amounting in all to nearly 1400 acres, among which was one tract of 1000 acres lying between Long and Pennichuck ponds, but he is the only person among the early settlers of Hollis whose name is found as a grantee upon the books of that association.
Mr. Powers, afterward known as " Capt. Powers," and as a lead- ing and prominent citizen of Hollis, was born at Littleton, Mass., in 1707. In 172S he was married to Anna Keyes of Chelmsford, and the same year removed with his wife to that part of Dunstable now known as Nashua. During the summer and fall of 1730, he made the first clearing and built the first dwelling house in Hollis. In the month of January, 1731, with his wife and two infant children he made his way through the then dense, unbroken forest to his new home and thus became the first permanent settler of the town. The site of this humble dwelling, no doubt built of logs, was about one- half mile N. W. of the present Hollis meeting-house, but a short distance from the house formerly owned by Thomas Cumings, after- wards by his son-in-law, Mr. John S. Heywood, now deceased, where vestiges of the old cellar, as is said, may be still seen. For nearly two years this family had no neighbor within about ten miles of them. On the 9th of March, 1732, their eldest daughter, Anna Powers, was born, who was the first child of English descent born in the town.
In the summer of 1732, Eleazer Flagg from Concord, Mass., settled in the S. W. part of the town, on or near the place after- wards owned by his grandson, Capt. Reuben Flagg, and now by Timothy E. Flagg, Esq., about two miles from Mr. Powers. The house of Mr. Flagg is said to have been fortified against the attacks of the Indians, and was used as a garrison house. Mr. F. was the second settler. The third family is said to have been that of Thomas Dinsmore from Bedford, Mass., who settled on the farm now owned by John Coburn, Esq., about one and a half miles south of the meeting-house, on the road from Hollis to Pepperell. In the year 1736 the number of settlers is said to have increased to nine families.
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33
1730 to 1739.] SETTLEMENT OF WEST DUNSTABLE. .
The whole of the township of Dunstable, as we have already stated, from the date of the charter, till the new province line was settled in the spring of 1741, was believed to be in the county of Middlesex and a part of it. The office of the Register of Deeds for that county was and still is at Cambridge, where, by the province law of the time, the deeds of all real estate within the county were to be recorded. But no records of deeds of land in Hollis, to persons known to have been early inhabitants of the town, are to be found in that office of a date prior to 1731.
Subsequent however to 1731 and before the spring of 1741 it is shown by these records that between those dates a very considerable number of deeds of land now in Hollis were made to the early set- tlers of the town. Many of these deeds, in addition to their date, a description of the land sold, and \the name of the grantee, give also his occupation, and place of former residence. Among these deeds of land in Hollis, made before 1741, are to be found the following names of the early settlers of the town as grantees, viz .. Thomas Dinsmore, weaver. David Nevins, carpenter, and widow Margaret Nevins, all of Bedford, Mass. : William Nevins, of Newton, Mass., husbandman ; Jonathan Danforth and Joseph Farley, of Billerica ; Eleazar Flagg and Jonathan Melvin, of Concord : Enoch Hunt and James McDonald, of Groton; Stephen Harris, of Littleton, and Samuel Cumings, of Groton.
Dunstable, as originally chartered, as we have seen, was bounded on the south, in part, by the north line of Groton. As chartered in 1655. Groton lay on each side of the Nashua River, its north- easterly corner being about two miles east of that river, at a place. then and still known as Buck Meadow, now in the town of Nashua, about one half mile from the south line of that town. The original north-west corner of Groton was in the line between the towns of Pepperell and Townsend. Mass., about one mile south of the present south line of New Hampshire. This corner is still marked by a stone monument now standing on the farm of Addison Wood. This old north line of Groton crossed the Nashua river, and the present state line at a point very near the Hollis Depot on the Worcester & Nashua Railroad.
In the summer and fall of 173S. a few of the settlers then living in the north part of Groton, and most of those residing in the west part of Dunstable, became desirous of being organized into a new township, and together with a considerable number of non-resident
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SETTLEMENT OF WEST DUNSTABLE. [1730 to 1739-
proprietors. these settlers united in a petition to the Massachusetts General Court for a township charter. The reasons for this appli- cation for a township charter are very clearly and pertinently set forth in the following petitions, the originals of which. with the doings of the General Court in respect to thein, have been preserved in the office of the Secretary of State at Boston.
PETITION OF THE INHABITANTS OF DUNSTABLE AND GROTON FOR A TOWN CHARTER.
"To his Excellency Jona Belcher, Esq., Captain General and Governor in chief, &c. ; The Honble the Council and House of Reptives in General Court Assembled, at Boston, Nov. the 29th. 1738.
" The Petition of the subscribers, Inhabitants and Proprietors of the Towns of Dunstable and Groton. Humbly Sheweth,
" That your Petitioners are situated in the westerly side of Dun- stable Township, and the northerly side of Groton Township - those in the Township of Dunstable. in general, their Houses are nine or ten miles from Dunstable Meeting House, snd those in the Township of Groton, none but what lives at least on or near six miles from Groton Meeting House - by which means your Petition- ers are deprived of the benefit of preaching the greater part of the year. nor is it possible at any season of the year for their families in general to get to meeting : under which Disadvantages your Peti- tioners have this several years Labored, excepting the Winter Sea- son for the two Winters past, in which they have at their own cost and charges hired Preaching amongst themselves, which Disadvan- tages has very much prevented Peoples settling Land there.
" That there is a Tract of good Land well situated for a Town- ship of the Contents of about six miles and a half square. bounded thus, beginning at Dunstable Line by Nashaway River, so running by the Westerly side of said River, Southerly one mile in Gro- ton Land; then running Westerly. a parallel Line with Groton .North Line till it comes to Townsend Line ; and then turning and running North to Groton North-west Corner, and from Groton North-west Corner by Townsend Line and by the Line of Groton New Grant till it comes to be five miles and a half to the North ward of Groton North Line; from thence due East seven miles : from thence South to Nashua River, and so by Nashua River. South-westerly to Groton Line, the first mentioned bound. Which
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1729619
1738.]
FIRST PETITION FOR A TOWN-CHARTER. 35
described Lands can by no means be prejudicial to the Town of Dunstable or Groton. (it. not coming within six miles or thereabouts of either of their Meeting Houses at the nearest place) to be taken off from them and erected into a separate Township.
.. That thers is already settled in the bonnds of the afore described Tract. near Forty Families, and many more ready to come on were it not for the difficulties and hardships aforesaid of getting to Meet- ing. These with many other Disadvantages we find very trouble- some to us, our Living so remote from the Towns we respectively belong to.
" Wherefore your Petitioners most humbly pray that your Ex- cellency and Honors would take the premises into your consideratiun and make an Act for the Erecting the aforesaid Lands into a sepe- rate and distinct Township, with the Powers. Privileges and Im- munities of a distinct and seperate Township under such restrictions and Limitations, as you in your great Wisdom shall see meet.
" And whereas it will be a great benefit and advantage to the non- resident proprietors owing Lands there. by increasing the value of their Lands or rendering Easy settling the same, your Pet" also pray that they may be at their proportionable part according to their re- spective interest in Lands there for the building a meeting house and settling a minister and so much towards Constant Preaching, as in your Wisdom shall be thought proper.
SETTLERS ON THE AFORESAID LANDS.
"ORADIAH PARKER
PETER POWERS
PHILIP WOOLERICH
JOSIAH BLOOD
ABRAHAM TAYLOR, Jun
NATH'L BLOOD
JEREANIMAEL CUMINGS
BENJ. FARLEY
WILLIAM ADAMS
EBEN'R PEARCE
HENRY BARTON
JOSEPH TAYLOR
WILLIAM COLBURN
PETER WHEELER
MOSES PROCTOR
STEPHEN HARRIS
ROBERT COLBURN
WILLIAM SHATTUCK
THOMAS DINSMORE
DAVID NEVINS
THOS. NEVINS
NON-RESIDENT PEOPRIETORS.
SAMUEL BROWNE
JOSEPH EATON JOHN MALVIN
W .. BROWNE
JOSEPH LEMMON JONA. MALVIN
JOSEPH BLANCHARD
JEREMIAH BALDWIN
JAMES CUMINGS
JOHN FOWLE, Jun
SAM'L BALDWIN
ISAAC FARWELL
NATH'L SALTONSTALL
DANIEL REMANT
EBEN'R PROCTOR."
ORDER OF THE GENERAL COURT.
"In the House of Representatives Dec" 12. 173S.
Read and ordered that the Petitioners seave the Towns of Groton and Dunstable with Coppys of this Petition.
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36
SECOND PETITION FOR A CHARTER. [1739.
"In Council January 4th 1738-9.
Read and again ordered that the further consideration of this Pe- tition be referred to the first Tuesday of the next May session, and that James Minot and John Hobson Esqrs, with such as the Hon- orable Board shall joine be a Committee at the charge of the Peti- tioners to repair to the Lands petitioned to be Erected into a Town- ship, first giving seasonable notice as well to the Petitioners as to the Inhabitants and non-resident Proprietors of Lands within the said Towns of Dunstable and Groton of the time of their going by caus- ing the same to be published in the Boston Gazette : That they care- fully view the s.d Lands, as well as the other parts of the s.d Towns so far as may be desired by the Partys or thought proper : That the Petitioners. and all others concerned be fully heard in their Pleas and allegations for as well as against the Prayer of the Petition : and that upon mature consideration on the whole the committee then report what in their opinion may be proper for the Court to do in answer thereto. Sent up for concurrence.
J. QUINCY, Speaker.
In Council Jany 9th 1738-9.
Read and concurred, and Thomas Berry Esq' is joined in the affair.
Consented to.
SIMON FROST Dep' Secry. J. BELCHER."
A very large majority of the settlers whose names appear on the above Petition lived in the west part of Dunstable. Many of the settlers residing at the time in the north part of Groton were not satisfied with this Petition. but wanted a much larger part of the new township to be taken from Groton than was contemplated by the signers of this first Petition. With this purpose in view these settlers in Groton, with such of the residents of the west part of Dunstable as were willing to join with them. presented a second Petition to the General Court for a township to be formed from the two towns. This second Petition bearing date Dec. 12. 1739, was as follows :
To his Excellency Jonathan Belcher. Esq., Captain General and Governor-in-Chief. ac, &c.
" The Petition of Richard Warner and others, Inhabitants of the Towns of Groton and Dunstable, most humbly sheweth :
" That your Petitioners dwell very far from the place of Public Worship in either of said Towns -- many of them eight miles distant; and some more, and none less than four miles; whereof your Petitioners are put to great Difficulties in Travelling on the Lord's Day with ou
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1739.] REMONSTRANCE AGAINST THE SECOND PETITION.
Families. Your Petitioners therefore pray your Excellency and Honors to take their circum stances into your wise and compassionate consideration, and that a part of the Town of Gro- ton, - Beginning at the Line between Groton and Dunstable, where it crosses Lancaster " Nash- un) River, and so up the said River until it comes to a place called and known by the name of Joseph Blood's Ford Way on said River -- thence a West Point till it comes to Townsend Line. &e., with such a part and so much of the Town of Dunstable, as this Honorable Court in their great Wisdom shall think proper, with the Inhabitants thereon, may be Erected into a separate. and distinct Township, that so they may attend the Public worship of God with more Ease than at present they can by reason of the great distance they live from the places thereof as aforesaid. And your Petitioners as in Daty bound Shall Ever Pray, &c.
INHABITANTS OF GROTON.
RICHARD WARNER, EBENEZER PIERCE,
BENJAMIN SWALLOW,
SAMUEL FISK, JOHN GREENE,
WILLIAM BLOOD, JEREMIAH LAWRENCE, STEPHEN EAMES.
WILLIAM ALLEN,
ISAAC WILLIAMS,
JOSIWHI TUCKER,
EBENEZER GILSON.
ZECHARIAH LAWRENCE, JUN.,
INHABITANTS OF DUNSTABLE.
ENOCH HUNT, GIDEON HONEY, SAMUEL, FARLEY,
ELEAZER FLAGG. JOSIAH BLOOD,
WILLIAM ADAMS,
SAMUEL CUMINGS. SAMUEL PARKER,
PHILIP WOOLERICH,
WILLIAM BLANCHARD,
Shortly after the presentation of this second Petition most of the settlers in Dunstable united in a Remonstrance against any part of Dunstable being set to Groton, and appointed Abraham Taylor. Jun .. and Peter Powers to show forth their "earnest desire that a Town- ship be made entirely of Dunstable Land."
This Remonstrance was dated at Dunstable. Dec. 21, 1739. and was as follows :
" We the Sub'rs Inhab'ts of ye Town of Danstable, and resident in that part of it called Nis- sitisitt. Do hereby Authorize and fully Empower Abraham Taylor, Jun., and Peter Powers to represent to the General Court our unwillingness that any part of Dunstable should be sett to Groton to make a Township or Parish and to shew forth our Earnest Desire that a Township be made entirely out of Dunstable Land, Extending Six Miles North from Groton Line which will bring them on the Line on ye Brake of Land and just include the present settlement; or otherwise as ye Honorable Committee Reported, and Agreeable to the tenour thereof, as the Honorable Court shall see meet, and as in Duty bound, &c.
THOMAS DINSMORE, JAMES WHITING, PETER WHEELER,
JERAHMAEL CUMINGS, JAMES MCDANIELS,
DAVID NEVINS,
JOSEPH WHITCOMB, RANDALL MCDANIELS,
THOMAS NEVINS.
JONATHAN MELVIN, JOSEPH MCDANIELS,
NATHANIEL BLOOD.
WILLIAM ADAMS, WILLIAM COLBURN. WILLIAM SHATTUCK,.
WILLIAM WILSON, ROBERT COLBURN, JOSHUA WRIGHT.
MOSES PROCTOR,
STEPHEN HARRIS, HENRY BARTON."
REPORT OF THE COMMITTEE APPOINTED BY THE GENERAL COURT.
" The committee appointed on the petition of the inhabitants and proprietors situated on the westerly side of Danstable and northerly side of Groton, after notifying all parties, having repaired to the lands petitioned to be erected into a township and carefully viewed the same. And a very good tract of land in Dunstable, west of Nashaway river, between said river and Noubegan river, extending front Groton New Grant and Townsend line six mfles east lying in
38
WEST DUNSTABLE CHARTER.
[1739.
a very commodious form for a township, and ou said lands there is now about twenty families and many more settling. That none of the inhabitants live nearer to a meeting-house than seven miles, and if they go to their town have to pass over a ferry the greater part of the year.
We also find in Groton a sufficient quantity of land accommodable for settlement, and a considerable number of Inhabitants thereon, that in some short time, when they are well agreed, may be erected into a Precinct or Parish, and that it will be very inconvenient to erect a township in the form prayed for. * *
The committee are of opinion that the Petitioners in Dunstable are under such circumnustances as necessitates them to ask relief which will be fully obtained by their being made a township. **
The committee are further of the opinion that it will be greatly for the good and interest of the township that the non-resident proprietors have liberty of voting with the inhabitants as to the Building and Placing a meeting-house and that the lands be equally taxed, and that for the sup- port of the Gospel ministry among them the lands of the non-resident Proprietors be taxed at two pence per acre for the space of five years.
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