USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > Keene > History of the town of Keene, from 1732, when the township was granted by Massachusetts, to 1874, when it became a city > Part 11
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. On the 11th of June, 1754, the Indians came to the house of Nathaniel Meloon of Stevenstown (Salisbury) and carried him, his wife and three children away captives. On the 15th of August, they appeared again near the same place, killed Mrs. Call and Timothy Cook and cap- tured Enos Bishop. Those upper settlements were broken up and the inhabitants retired to the lower towns for safety.
1 Barstow's History of New Hampshire, page 197.
2 Lodge's History of American Colonies.
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Gov. Wentworth sent two detachments of twenty men each from Exeter and Kingston, and one of fifty men from Col. Blanchard's regiment, under Major John Goffe, to scout in the eastern and central parts of the province. Before the close of the month he also sent two detach- ments from Col. Blanchard's regiment under Major Benja- min Bellows to protect the Connecticut valley. One of twenty-one men was stationed at Walpole under Major Bellows himself, who served as lieutenant commanding the company, with the veteran Capt. Phineas Stevens as his orderly sergeant. These officers held the higher rank in the regiment of militia, and at the same time accepted positions of lower rank in the detachments for defence. Major Bellows was expected to cover Charlestown, Wal- pole, Westmoreland and Great Meadows, and even West- minster and Rockingham, but he had also the local militia to assist. The other company of twenty-six men was placed under Lt. Col. Josiah Willard, who also served as lieutenant commanding the company, and small detach- ments were stationed at Fort Dummer, Keene and other places in this vicinity. The men were mustered Sept. 13 and discharged Nov. 19, of that year. Ichabod Fisher of Keene was in Willard's company. These troops were in addition to the local militia; but beyond this New Hamp- shire did almost nothing for the protection of the settle- ments in the Connecticut valley.
Gov. Shirley of Massachusetts complained to the king of the neglect of New Hampshire, and asked to be relieved from the maintenance of those forts which were now beyond his jurisdiction. The king sent additional instruc- tions to Gov. Wentworth, who urged upon the legislature the necessity of making provision for the defence of the western frontier. But the legislature delayed action, alleged the poverty of the province as an excuse for shirking the expense, and gained time by sending an address to the king. The king's instructions to Gov. Wentworth had contained a threat to restore Fort Dummer to Massa- chusetts "with a proper district contiguous thereto " if New Hampshire did not provide for its maintenance; and the same threat applied to all these forts in New Hampshire
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which Massachusetts maintained. But to the document was also added : "But His Majesty, considering the import- ance of the said fort, and the great mischief that may happen to his subjects in those parts, in case the same should in the mean time fall into the hands of the enemy, doth therefore think it proper hereby to order and require the governor of Massachusetts Bay to represent to the assembly of that province the necessity of continuing to provide for the security of Fort Dummer until a final answer can be obtained from New Hampshire and His Majesty's pleasure be further signified herein."
Upon receiving this order the general court of Massa- chusetts voted to maintain those forts for three months; and they afterwards extended the time and kept troops there till the spring of 1757, when they were made places of rendezvous by the generals commanding the British forces, and remained under their control through the war. At this time there were thirty-two families at Charles- town, and they had left the fort and settled on their lots. The place was generally called No. 4 until after the close of this war, and even in the early part of the 19th century.
On the 30th of August that place was again visited by the savages. Eleven of them went to the house of Capt. James Johnson, about 100 rods north of the fort, captured him, his wife, three children, a young sister of Mrs. Johnson, Ebenezer Farnsworth and Peter Larabee, and took them to Crown Point and thence to Canada.
This and the outrages at Stevenstown were committed by the St. Francis Indians and their allies, the Schaghti- cokes and Squawkheags, who formerly inhabited this region.
Capt. Phineas Stevens, who was at No. 4, immediately sent a dispatch to his commanding officer on the frontier, Col. Hinsdale, at Fort Dummer, announcing the capture and stating the time to have been on the morning of the 30th of August. Maj. Bellows was at Westmoreland when the news reached him, and he immediately reported the fact to his regimental commander, Col. Blanchard, but makes an error of one day in the time of the capture ..
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Letter from Major Bellows to Col. Blanchard.
"Sir: We have the news from Charlestown, that on Thursday morning, the 29th of this instant, the Indians came to the house of James Johnson, broke in and took said Johnson, his wife, and three children, and a maid, and one Ebenezer Farnsworth and Larabee and they suppose have carried them all off. They have not found any of them killed. The people are in great distress all down the river and at Keene and at Swanzey, and the few men sent, will not supply more than one town, and the people cannot secure their grain nor hardly keep their garrison &c.
"BENJAMIN BELLOWS.
"Westmoreland, Aug. 31, 1754. Colonel Joseph Blanchard.
"P. S. I have got no further than Westmoreland, when B. B." I wrote this, and got all the men safe there.
Mr. Hale in his Annals of Keene says: "In this year, the savages again committed acts of hostility. - Some time in the fall, an express arrived at Keene, bringing informa- tion, that a party of the enemy had appeared in the vicin- ity of Penacook (Concord), where they had killed, and captured, several whites. This was in the afternoon. The inhabitants immediately assembled, and appointed several persons to keep guard, through the night, directing them to walk, continually, from the house of David Nims (near Lewis Page's house, in Prison-street), to the meadow gate (near Mr. Carpenter's); and agreed immediately to com- plete the fort, the re-building of which had already been commenced. The next day every one able to labor, went to work upon the fort, and soon prepared it for the recep- tion of the settlers." (That is, repaired the eighteen or twenty houses inside the fort for families to occupy. Mr. Carpenter lived where Mr. E. F. Lane now does.)
The spring of 1755 opened with the movement of three expeditions against the strongholds of the French on our borders. One under Gen. Braddock to Fort Duquesne; one under Gen. Shirley of Massachusetts against Niagara; and one commanded by Gen. Johnson against Crown Point.
However delinquent New Hampshire may have been in protecting the settlements in the Connecticut valley, she did nobly in furnishing troops for outside expeditions. For the army of Gen. Johnson, the province raised a regiment of 600 men under Col. Joseph Blanchard of Dunstable, with Josiah Willard of Keene lieutenant colonel. That regiment was ready to take the field on the 1st of April, and was
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ordered to rendezvous at the fort in Stevenstown, now Franklin. The fort was on the bank of the Merrimac river, on the farm since owned by Daniel Webster. The regi- ment marched from there to No. 4, and thence via Fort Dummer and Albany to join Gen. Johnson, and was posted at Fort Edward. No names of Keene men are found on the rolls of this regiment except that of Lt. Col. Willard, doubtless for the reason that all were needed to protect their own settlement.
Early in the season the Indians began their ravages in these valleys. At No. 4 they killed a number of cattle, carrying away every part that was valuable for food or for any other purpose. So free from these raids had the country been for several years that people had pushed out into the wilderness and taken up lands beyond the protec- tion of the forts. These advanced settlers, some of them miles away from any fort or neighbors, were now in great peril. Several families in this vicinity, among them Mr. Peter Hayward, the first settler in what is now Surry, hastened to the fort in Keene. His next neighbor, Mr. Ebenezer Day of Keene, came at the same time.
In June the Indians attacked a party at Hinsdale, on the west side of the Connecticut, in what is now Vernon, Vt., killed two men and captured one. The others escaped to the fort. On the 27th they surprised Caleb How, Hil- kiah Grout and Benjamin Gaffield near the same place. How was killed, Gaffield was drowned in attempting to cross the river, and Grout escaped. The savages then went to Bridgman's Fort, where these men belonged, cap- tured fourteen persons and burned the fort. Among the prisoners was the wife of Caleb How, "The Fair Captive," whose pathetic story is told in a brilliant manner by Col. Humphrey in his "Life of Gen. Israel Putnam."1 On the 30th of the same month, they appeared again at Keene.
"On one of the last days of June, an attack was made on the fort at Keene, then in command of Capt. William Syms. The savages were beaten off; but in their retreat they killed many cattle, burned several buildings, and cap- tivated Benjamin Twitchell." 2
1 See also Belknap's History of New Hampshire, vol. 3.
2 Massachusetts Archives.
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"When traces of Indians were discovered, near any of the frontiers, it was the custom to fire, as an alarm to all within hearing, three guns in regular and quick succession. If heard at any of the posts, it was answered in the same manner; if not answered, the alarm was repeated. In June, the people at Westmoreland, discovering traces of Indians, fired an alarm, which was heard at Keene. A body of men was immediately sent to their relief; but they returned without discovering the enemy. That they were lurking in the vicinity, and that they followed home the party from Keene, is probable, as, the next day they captured Benja- min Twitchell. He had been to Ash Swamp; on his re- turn, he took with him a tub, which, it is supposed, he carried upon his head. This tub was afterwards found, on the East bank of the river, near where the mills now stand; and there the Indians probably seized him. He was con- ducted up the river; in the meadows, West and North of deacon Wilder's, the Indians killed several oxen, a horse and colt. The colt was cut up, and the best pieces of meat carried off. In this meadow, they left a bow made of lev- erwood, and several arrows. They encamped, for the night, in M'Curdy's meadow, in Surry, where four crotched sticks were discovered driven into the ground, in such positions as led to the belief that to each was confined one of the limbs of the prisoner. The party then proceeded to Que- bec, where Twitchell met with Josiah Foster and his fam- ily, who were captured at Winchester. For the honor of Foster, the particulars of his capture should be recorded. Returning home, one evening, he found his house in the possession of Indians, who had captured his wife and chil- dren. He could have escaped, but he determined to give himself up, that he might share their fate, and have an op- portunity to alleviate their sufferings. He accompanied them to Quebec, carrying his wife on his back, a great part of the way. There they remained until, being ransomed, they were sent, by water, to Boston. Twitchell was put on board the same vessel, but, being taken sick, he was set on shore, and died in a few days.
"A month or two afterwards, a party of Indians were discovered in the meadow, South of the town line, by the people of Swanzey. They, with four soldiers to guard them, were coming, in a body and armed, to work in the North meadows. The soldiers, who were in advance, heard a rustling in the bushes, and one, supposing it caused by a deer, fired his musket at the spot. The Indians, supposing they were discovered, rose and fired at the soldiers, who, frightened, ran to the quarter, now called Scotland. The people, coming up, saw the Indians, attacked them, and
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drove them to the plain, West of the factory. An express was instantly sent to Keene; and a party of fifteen men, under Capt. Metcalf, went out to meet them. This party went first to the foot of the hill, beyond Mr. Heaton's, supposing the Indians would there cross the Branch. Re- maining there a short time, without discovering any In- dians, a Mr. Howard proposed to go to another ford still farther up. Josiah French, a shrewd man, observed, 'those who wish to meet with the Indians, had better stay here: I feel no desire to see them, and will go over the hill with Howard.' It was agreed to go over the hill; but no sooner had they reached the top of the nearest eminence, than they discovered nine Indians crossing at the ford they had left. They lay in wait for them a few hours, but did not see them afterwards. Returning to the fort, Howard received no mercy from the men, women and children within it. Several days afterwards, the men went, in a body and armed, to hoe Mr. Day's corn, near Surry, and discovered that an old house, in that neighborhood, had been burnt; it was supposed to have been set on fire by the same party of Indians.
"Afterwards, but in what year is not recollected, an- other, and the last party of Indians made a visit to Keene. The inhabitants had cleared and fenced a large common field consisting of about two hundred acres, laying south- wardly of Mrs. Lanman's [Thomas Thompson's] house. This field was used as a cow pasture, and the access to it was by a path which led southwardly along the high ground East of the place where the turnpike and Baker's lane unite. When driving their cows to this pasture, it was the custom of the inhabitants not to go in the path, for fear of a surprise, but on one or the other side of it. Early one morning, they came suddenly upon a party of Indians, concealed in thick bushes, and busily engaged in mending their moccasons. They instantly started up and escaped. It was afterwards ascertained that the leather, with which they were mending their moccasons, had been stolen, the night before, from a tannery at Walpole or Charlestown." (Annals, pages 32-4.)
In July came the depressing news of Braddock's defeat in his attempt on Fort Duquesne. The province had been drained of men to swell those three armies of inva- sion, every one of which was defeated. In many places the crops were lost or greatly injured from want of men to cultivate and gather them, and the outlook for the coming winter was exceedingly gloomy.
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July 25, Seth Field of Northfield, writes: "Since the disastrous tidings from Ohio, and the delay of the Crown Point forces, the mischief done above us together with our circumstances, has so discouraged the hearts of our people that they are almost ready to give up all and care only for their lives. A fine harvest is on the ground, and likely to be lost for want of a guard. The few soldiers we have are constantly on duty, and not half sufficient to guard the laborers." (History of Northfield.)
The Indians made frequent attacks on the New Hamp- shire frontiers during the summer, particularly in the Con- necticut valley. Sometime in July, Daniel Twitchell and John Flint were cutting timber for oars on the hill half a mile east of the town of Walpole. Both were shot dead, one was scalped, the other cut open and his heart taken out and laid on his breast-a threat of continued war.
On the 22d an attack was made on Hinsdell's fort, and two men were killed and two or three captured. In a letter of Col. Hinsdell to Gov. Wentworth, written at this time, he says: "I entreat your Excellency's com- passionate regards for myself and the people in these parts, and earnestly pray your Excellency will send us a suitable protection. We are loath to tarry here merely to be killed."
Gov. Wentworth sent a company of twenty-one men to No. 4, under Capt. James Neall, to scout that part of the country, and Massachusetts sent two companies to the posts below. Capt. Neall's company was mustered into the service on the 13th of August, and discharged on the 1st of October.
John Kilburn, the first settler of Walpole, had built his log cabin on the border of the rich intervale a little to the south of Cold river. About noon on the 17th of August, Kilburn and his son John, seventeen years old, and a man named Peak, and his son, were returning home from their work, when they discovered Indians "as thick as grass- hoppers" concealed among the bushes. They hastened to the house, fastened the door and prepared for defence. Mrs. Kilburn and the daughter Hetty bravely seconded their efforts, ran the bullets and aided in every way pos- sible.
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Their game having escaped and taken refuge in the house, the Indians decided to make their first attack on Col. Bellows, whose house, or fort, was a mile and a half south of Kilburn's. As they crawled up the bank and crossed a foot path east of their house the Kilburns counted 197 of them, and there were as many more lying in ambush near the mouth of Cold river. Col. Bellows had a mill on "Blanchard's brook," a mile east of Kil- burn's, where he was at work with his gang of about twenty-some authorities say thirty-men. The Indians waylaid his path. Bellows and his men, each with a bag of meal on his back and his gun in his hand, started for his fort, and soon their dogs gave warning of Indians. Bellows ordered his men to throw down their meal, ad- vance to a rise of ground just in front of them, crawl up the bank, then spring to their feet, give one whoop, and drop into the sweet ferns.
The manoeuvre succeeded admirably. Upon hearing the whoop, the Indians rose in a semicircle across the path, and Bellows' men gave them a volley that laid several of them low, and so disconcerted the whole body that they fled into the bushes without firing a shot. Bellows filed his men off to the south, and reached the fort in safety.
The whole body of Indians then returned to Kilburn's house. One of them, "Philip," who had previously made Kilburn visits of pretended friendship, came forward and called out from behind a tree: "Old John, young John, I know you; come out here. We give ye good quarter." "Quarter!" replied Kilburn in a voice of thunder, "You black rascals, begone or we'll quarter you."
Philip retired, a consultation was held, and then the war-whoop sounded, as if "all the devils in hell had broke loose," and a furious assault began.
"Probably no less than four hundred bullets were lodged in Kilburn's house at the first fire." The enemy were on higher ground, and when the fight was over "the roof was a perfect 'riddle sieve.'" Some fell to butch- ering cattle, others to destroying hay and grain, "while a shower of bullets kept up one continued pelting against the house." The two men and two boys poured in their
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shots with deadly aim. The two women loaded the guns, and the firing was so rapid as to heat the barrels till they were compelled to wait for them to cool. The Indians believed that a much larger force was in the house. The women gathered up the bullets that fell through the roof and ran them over for their own use. All that afternoon the incessant firing was kept up. As the sun went down the savages began to creep away, taking their dead and wounded with them; and when night came on, the brave little garrison was relieved from the strain and left to enjoy the victory it had so gallantly won. Peak was wounded in the thigh, and died five days later from want of surgical care. All the others escaped unhurt.
Thus Keene was covered and protected by these more advanced settlements, and her battles were fought on their ground.
The attacks of the enemy were so frequent and the troops so few that in September the citizens of No. 4, despairing of aid from New Hampshire again petitioned the authorities of Massachusetts for protection, stating that on ten different occasions attacks had been made on that place within the two years preceding. Massachusetts responded and again sent her soldiers for the defence of that town and others in the vicinity, and a guard remained at the fort until it came under the control of the British generals in 1757. With the exception of killing and driv- ing away some cattle, no more outrages were committed in the Connecticut valley during that autumn.
The season of 1755 had been one of great distress to the people of these frontier towns. They were harrassed with the constant danger of attack from the savages, and those dangers frequently culminated in massacre or cap- tivity. At Hinsdale and vicinity eighteen persons had been killed or captured during the season.
"The exertions made for the reduction of Crown Point, not only failed of their object, but provoked the Indians to execute their mischievous designs against the frontiers of New Hampshire; which were now left wholly uncovered, and exposed to their full force. Between the rivers Con- necticut and St. Francis there is a safe and easy communi- cation by short carrying places with which they were
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perfectly acquainted. The Indians of the latter river, therefore, made frequent incursions, and returned unmo- lested with their prisoners and booty." (Belknap's History of New Hampshire, vol. 2, page 293.)
At this time Lieut. John Hawks was in command of a line of forts on the western frontier of Massachusetts, from Northfield through Greenfield, Colrain and Charle- mont to Hoosack mountain. Indian scouts were seen along the border and it was a time of general alarm.
In the provincial council at Portsmouth, Jan. 2, 1756, was read :
"The Humble Memorial & Petition of Josiah Willard Benjamin Bellows & Isaac Parker (of Claremont) in behalf of the Inhabitants of the Towns of Keene, Swansy, Win- chester, Walpole, Putney & New Charles Town all in the Province of New Hampshire, Shews-
"That the Towns aforesaid are Situate on the Frontiers of the Province aforesaid, and tho they are very Con- siderably Improved So as to Raise all the Necessary Pro- visions for the Inhabitants, yet are now but Weak handed many of their ablest Men having Listed in the Late Expe- dition & are Still absent- And by their Situation the Said Inhabitants are Greatly Expos'd to Danger from the Incur- sions of the French & Indian Enemy from whom there Seems to be a Greater Probability of an Attack now * * * than at any time Since the Last War. That the Said Inhabitants have at their Own Expense Built Good Forts which would be Sufficient for their Defence with a Competent number of Men which they did & De- fended their Settlements while they got their Daily Bread at the Peril of their Lives During the Last War. But as there Seems to be no other Rout for the Enemy to take or at Least not any where they are Invited by an Equal Prospect of Success, As there is no Room to Doubt of their Inclination or Vigilance to Improve Every Opportunity to Annoy us, nor of their Ability to Execute their Schemes for making a Descent upon Our Settlements, which they Look upon with a very Envious Eye, the Said Inhabitants Cant but Apprehend their Danger Greater now than Ever -This Fear is Quicken'd also by the Remembrance of their Great Sufferings During the Last War & which they now begin to feel again with others of the Same kind Coming upon them with Double Weight-For besides the Loss of many Lives wch they then Sustained, it is not a most un- comfortable Situation to be kept always in fear of being Ambushed to have Life Continually hang in Suspence &
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Doubt, from those who Lye in Wait to Destroy-to fear being Suddenly Dispatched or Captivated by a Barbarous Enemy when about Business in the Secure Retreat they have-that the very Water they use is Purchased with the hazzard of their Blood as well as their Bread at the Peril of their Lives and to have no Prospect of Help nor Asylum to fly to for Safety This State of Life Every One on the Least Attention will See is most Pittiable -* *
* That the Said Inhabitants Weary of Such a Precarious Condition will not Endure it much Longer but Will & must Quit their Habitations tho' they now begin to be Pleasant (in other Respects) as Well as Profitable yet they had Rather part with all than Risque their Lives in the * * manner aforesaid *
* But whether this will be for the Public Good-whether the Advantage Arising to the Province by Maintaining & Supporting these Settlements will Countervail the Charge is what your Petitioners would Humbly Suggest to be Considered And which Way Soever it Shall be Determined they Pray they may have an Explicit & Speedy Answer That they may not be kept in Expectation till they have no Way of Escape-till they are either Killd Captivated or have their Substance Destroyed And as they Apprehend the Danger Great wch is Impending they Pray Your Speedy & wise Resolution upon the Premises and they Shall as in Duty Bound Ever Pray &c-
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