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 7
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(Annals, page 18.)
The fort here was manned with a few soldiers and armed inhabitants, and commanded by Capt. William Symes (or Simes), of the Massachusetts troops.
"Early in the morning of the 23d of April, Ephraim Dorman left the fort to search for his cow. He went north- wardly, along the borders of what was then a hideous and almost impervious swamp, lying East of the fort, until he arrived near to the place where the turnpike now is. Look- ing into the swamp, he perceived several Indians lurking in the bushes. He immediately gave the alarm, by crying 'Indians! Indians!' and ran towards the fort. Two, who were concealed in the bushes, between him and the fort, sprang forward, aimed their pieces at him, and fired, but neither hit him. They then, throwing away their arms, advanced towards him; one he knocked down by a blow, which deprived him of his senses; the other he seized, and, being a strong man, and able wrestler, tried his strength and skill, in his favorite mode of 'trip and twitch.' He tore his antagonist's blanket from his shoulders, leaving him nearly naked. He then seized him by the arms and
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body, but as he was painted and greased, he slipped from his grasp. After a short struggle, Dorman quitted him, ran towards the fort and reached it in safety.
"When the alarm was given, the greater part of the inhabitants were in the fort; but some had just left it, to attend to their cattle. Capt. Simms, the commander, as was the custom every morning before prayers, was read- ing a chapter in the bible. He immediately exclaimed, 'rush out, and assist those who are out to get in.' Most of the men immediately rushed out, and each ran where his interest or affections led him; the remainder chose positions in the fort, from which they could fire on the enemy.
"Those who were out, and within hearing, instantly started for the fort; and the Indians, from every direction, rushed into the street, filling the air with their usual horrid yell. Mrs. M'Kenny 1 had gone to a barn, near where Miss Fiske's house now stands, to milk her cow. She was aged and corpulent, and could only walk slowly. When she was within a few rods of the fort, a naked Indian, probably the one with whom Dorman had been wrestling, darted from the bushes on the East side of the street, ran up to her, stabbed her in the back, and crossed to the other side. She continued walking, in the same steady pace as before, until she had nearly reached the gate of the fort, when the blood gushed from her mouth, and she fell and expired. John Bullard was at his barn, below Dr. Adams's; he ran towards the fort, but the instant he arrived at the gate, he received a shot in his back. He fell, was carried in, and expired in a few hours. Mrs. Clark was at a barn, near the Todd house, about fifty rods distant. Leaving it, she espied an Indian near her, who threw away his gun, and advanced to make her prisoner. She gathered her clothes around her waist, and started for the fort. The Indian pur- sued; the woman, animated by cheers from her friends, out- ran her pursuer, who skulked back for his gun. Nathan Blake was at his barn, near where his son's house now stands. Hearing the cry of Indians, and presuming his barn would be burnt, he determined that his cattle should not be 'burnt with it. Throwing open his stable door, he let them loose, and presuming his retreat to the fort was cut off, went out at a back door, intending to place himself in ambush at the only place where the river could be crossed. He had gone but a few steps, when he was hailed by a party of Indians, concealed in a shop between him and the street. Looking back, he perceived several guns pointed at
1 In a record of births and deaths, kept by Mr. Ichabod Fisher, this name is spelt Maccaney.
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him, and at this instant several Indians started up from their places of concealment near him, upon which, feeling himself in their power, he gave himself up. They shook hands with him, and to the remark he made, that he had not yet breakfasted, they smilingly replied, that 'it must be a poor Englishman, who could not go to Canada with- out his breakfast.' Passing a cord around his arms above the elbows, and fastening them close to his body, they gave him to the care of one of the party, who conducted him to the woods.
"The number of Indians belonging to the party, was supposed to be about 100. They came near the fort, on every side, and fired whenever they supposed their shot would be effectual. They, however, neither killed nor wounded any one. The whites fired whenever an Indian presented himself, and several of them were seen to fall. Before noon, the savages ceased firing, but they remained several days in the vicinity.
"The guns first fired were heard at the fort in Swan- zey, the commander of which immediately sent an express to Winchester, with information that the Indians had made an attack upon Upper Ashuelot. From Winchester an ex- press was sent to the next post, and so on from post to post to Northampton, where Col. Pomeroy commanded. Collecting all the troops, and militia there, and pressing all the horses in the place, he instantly, at their head, set out for Upper Ashuelot, and on his way added to his num- ber all the disposable force in the intermediate settlements. In little more than 48 hours from the time the express started from Swanzey, he, with 400 or 500 men, arrived at Upper Ashuelot, the distance down and back, being, at least, ninety miles. The arrival, so soon, of this relief, was as unexpected, as it was gratifying to the settlers. The next morning, Pomeroy sent out his men to scour the woods in search of Blake. While these were absent, the Indians again showed themselves on the meadow, south-east of the fort, where they killed a number of cattle. To recall the troops an alarm was fired, but was not heard. In the afternoon, they returned unsuccessful, and that evening Mr. Bullard and Mrs. M'Kenny were buried. The next morning, they found the track of the Indians, and followed it, until they came to the place of their en- campment at night. This was East.of Beech Hill, not far from the present residence of Capt. Chapman. It appear- ing that they dispersed, when departing from this place, they were pursued no farther. Col. Pomeroy, on his way back to the fort, found that a house, belonging to a Mr. Heaton, and standing near the place.where his son's house
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now stands, had been burnt. Among the ashes, they discovered human bones, and the leg of an Indian, uncon- sumed. As it is known to have been the custom of the Indians to take the most effectual means in their power to conceal the amount of their loss, they had doubtless placed in this house, before they set it on fire, the bodies of such of their party as had been killed, which they had not other- wise concealed. The number, as near as could be ascer- tained, was nine, and one or two were burnt in the barn of Mr. Blake.
"The next day, inquiry was made for Mark Ferry, the hermit. As he did not reside among them, and had never performed the duties of relation, friend or companion to any of the settlers, they felt little solicitude for his fate; but Col. Pomeroy, offering to send a party of men, they agreed to send a pilot to the place where they sup- posed he might be found. This was Ferry meadow, on the stream called Ferry brook, within the present limits of Sullivan, whither he had repaired, as to a place of safety, when driven by the flood from his cave on Bul- lard's Island. They found his horse confined under the shelter of the root of a fallen tree, and looking further, espied him perched high upon the limb of a large tree, mend- ing his clothes. His personal appearance indicated that he had not received the benefit of shaving, nor ablution, for months. They compelled him to descend, brought him to the fort, led him to the officers' quarters, and, with mock formality, introduced him to all the officers and gentlemen of the party.
"Apprehending no farther danger to the settlers, Col. Pomeroy and his men returned to their homes.
"In the early part of May, the same, or another party of Indians, hovered about the settlement, watching for an opportunity to make prisoners, and to plunder. For several successive nights, the watch imagined that they heard some person walking around the fort. When it came to the turn of young M'Kenny, whose mother had been killed, to watch, he declared he should fire, on hearing the least noise without the fort. In the dead of night, he thought he heard some person at the picket gate, endeav- oring to ascertain its strength. Having loaded his gun, as was usual among the first settlers of the country, with two balls and several buck shot, he fired through the gate, which was made of thin boards. In the morning blood was discovered on the spot, and also a number of beads, supposed to have been cut, by the shot, from the wampum of the Indian."
(Annals, pages 19-22.)
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The Indians appeared also at other settlements. On the 27th of April a garrisoned house at Hopkinton was surprised, and eight persons were carried away captives. At No. 4, early in the evening of the 2d of May, the women went out to milk the cows, as was the custom in those days, guarded by several soldiers under Major Josiah Willard, son of Col. Willard, the commander at Fort Dum- mer. Eight Indians were concealed in the barn, and as the party approached they fired, killing Seth Putnam. The Indians sprang out to secure his scalp, were met by a volley from the guard, and two of the Indians were mor- tally wounded. The Indians seized their dying companions and made a hasty retreat. The same day two men were killed and one captured at Contoocook. On the 6th of May, at Lower Ashuelot, Deacon Timothy Brown and Robert Maffett were captured and taken to Canada but they afterwards returned.
As the alarm increased Massachusetts sent more troops to guard the settlers. Capt. Daniel Paine was sent to No. 4 with a troop of horse to reinforce Capt. Stevens and to patrol the country, arriving on the 24th of May, while the enemy in large numbers were lying in ambush near the fort. Some of his men had a curiosity to see the place where Putnam was killed, and went out with some of the inhabitants to view the spot. They were warned of the danger by Capt. Stevens, but persisted in going. As they started out, the Indians rose and fired, and at- tempted to get between the party and the fort. But Capt. Stevens rushed out with his men, and a sharp fight ensued in which five white men were killed and about the same number of the Indians. Ensign Obadiah Sartwell was captured and taken to Canada. The Indians retreated, leaving arms, packs and blankets behind them.
At this time John Hawks of Deerfield, one of the pro- prietors of Upper Ashuelot, who assisted in laying out and surveying the lots, was a sergeant in com- mand of Fort Massachusetts (at North Adams) with twenty men. On the 9th of May he and John Mighills were out a short distance from the fort. "Mighills was mounted, and Hawks got up behind to cross
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Hoosac river. He was in the act of dismounting. when two Indians appeared; one fired upon them, wounding both. Mighills escaped to the fort, but Hawks fell to the ground, with a shot in his left arm. Both Indians dropped their guns, and rushed towards him for his scalp; but Hawks was not ready to part with that useful appendage. He rallied instantly, and resting his gun on his wounded arm, covered the approaching foe. Both dodged; one down a bank, the other behind a tree, from which shelter neither dared venture to reach the loaded gun which one Indian had dropped, in an exposed place. Hawks kept them both at bay until they called for quarter, as it afterwards ap- peared, which the wounded man unfortunately did not understand. Finding, after a while, that Hawks had the best of the game, both ran off in different directions. The spirit shown by Hawks on this occasion earned him the confidence of his officers and the respect of his enemies, and neither had cause to change their sentiments at his next appearance before the public." (History of Deerfield, vol. 1, page 542.)
A few days later Capt. Ephraim Brown, of Sudbury, Mass., was sent to No. 4 with an additional company of troops. On the 19th of June, Captains Stevens and Brown, with about fifty men, went out to look after the horses of the troopers and others which had been turned into the meadow to graze. Their dogs warned them of Indians near, and they discovered an ambush of about 150 of the enemy. The savages started up, and the soldiers gave them the first fire and followed it up with a brisk fusilade, killing and wounding many. Finding themselves at dis- advantage, as they were on higher ground and as they shot over and hit but few of the whites, the Indians re- treated into a swamp, leaving behind them arms, packs, blankets, etc., which "sold for 40 pounds old tenor. This was reckoned a great booty from such beggarly enemies." But the troops were glad to escape from such numbers, and retired into their fort.
In July two men were killed, two wounded and two captured at Fort Bridgman. During the same month Capt. Eleazer Melvin was sent with a company of fifty rangers
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to scout in the Connecticut valley, with headquarters at Northfield.
A company of scouts under Capt. Jeremiah Clough, of Canterbury, patrolled the borders of Lake Winnepesaukee and the Pemigewasset river, and others under Captains Drake and Todd were kept active in the eastern part of the province.
On the 3d of July, 1746, Col. Willard went from Fort Dummer to Hinsdell's mills with a team and twenty men to grind corn. After the guard had been set they discov- ered Indians in ambush, and opened fire. Col. Willard shouted to his men to rush at them. His defiant manner terrified the Indians and they fled, leaving behind them what the Indian never parted with if he could avoid it- their packs of provisions. Only one soldier was wounded.
Sometime in July Capt. Joseph How of Marlboro, Mass., was sent to No. 4 with his troop of thirty-eight horsemen. Dogs played an important part in the strife of the pioneers with the Indians. Their instincts led them to distrust and hate the savages, their peculiar movements and suggestive growl gave warning of the approach of the stealth'y foe, and they were often used to follow the Indian trail.
On the 3d of August these faithful companions gave warning to the inhabitants of No. 4 that Indians were near. To ascertain the facts, Capt. Stevens sent out a scouting party. Immediately upon leaving the fort they were fired upon and Ebenezer Philips was killed. The Indians then advanced in large numbers and laid siege to the fort. They burned buildings and killed cattle, while the soldiers from behind their works watched their oppor- tunity to bring down a redskin. At the end of two days the Indians withdrew and went down the river, commit- ting outrages at several places. About thirty of them waylaid a party in the road at Winchester. As six men were passing along they fired on them, killing Joseph Rawson and wounding Amasa Wright. They also mortally wounded young Benjamin Wright, at Northfield. On the 5th, Captain Stevens with sixty men followed them to Great Meadows, where he remained two days to
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guard the settlers while they reaped their grain. Return- ing to No. 4 on the 8th, he found that the remainder of the cattle, horses and most of the hogs had been killed during his absence.
When the report of this attack on No. 4 reached Bos- ton, Gov. Shirley sent a company of fresh troops, mounted, under Capt. Josiah Brown, to relieve Capt, Ephraim Brown and his company; and soon afterwards sent Capt. Win- chester with another troop of horse, each of the companies taking all the provisions they could carry, for the relief of the garrison.
It was by those troops, scouting and holding the ad- vanced posts, that Upper Ashuelot was protected. But cavalry was not adapted to warfare against the Indians in those dense forests, and late in the fall they were re- called to Massachusetts.
During the same months there were raids in the central and eastern parts of the province. At Rochester five men were killed and two captured, and two were captured at Contoocook. At Penacook, on the 11th of August, Lieut. Jonathan Bradley and seven men were ambushed about one mile west of the fort. The lieutenant, his brother Samuel and three others were killed, two were captured, and one escaped.
Sergt. John Hawks was still in command of Fort Massachusetts. On the 20th of August about 750 French and Indians under Gen. Rigaud de Vaudreuil made a furious attack on the fort. Hawks and his men defended the post bravely and kept the enemy at bay for twenty- eight hours in spite of their numbers. The French general then asked for a parley, and offered protection if they would surrender. Finding that their ammunition was nearly expended and that several of the men were sick, they surrendered, prisoners of war to the French. Thirty- two men, women and children were taken to Canada, where several of them died. So vigorous and determined had been the defence that nearly fifty of the enemy had been killed or mortally wounded. Few were slightly wounded, for the besieged were sparing of their ammuni- tion and shot to kill. Hawks lost but one man. We
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shall have more to relate of this daring soldier and pioneer of Upper Ashuelot farther on. The fort was burned (but afterwards rebuilt), and about one hundred and fifty build- ings of the Dutch settlers on the Hoosack river were destroyed on the retreat of the enemy towards Canada. After this there was quiet in the Connecticut valley for the rest of the year.
Finding the defence of the frontiers costly and ineffec- tual, Massachusetts withdrew her soldiers from all the posts in the autumn of that year, except Fort Dummer. Four families remained in Shattuck's fort in Hinsdale. On the 30th of March a party of thirty to forty Indians made an attack and attempted to burn the fort. They succeeded in setting fire to the south end, but the wind suddenly changed and the fort was saved. Struck with superstitious fear at this incident the savages abandoned the attempt and with- drew.
According to the records the proprietors held their last meeting in Upper Ashuelot previous to abandoning the place on the 19th of March, 1747-David Nims, moderator. "Upon ye 1st article voted The sum of Forty Pounds Law- ful Money of New England, or one Hundred and Sixty pounds old Tenor for ye Revd Mr. Bacon's support for ye Present year, we will be out October ye 18th, 1747, or this Date." Certain sums were voted to those who had fur- nished labor and materials for finishing the meetinghouse. No record is found of any meeting of the proprietors after this date until 1753, although there is evidence that some of them returned as early as 1749.
Wise counsels prevailed on the Massachusetts legisla- ture to resume their defence of the settlements in the Con- necticut valley, and on the opening of spring, 1747, a company of forty men under Lieut. Bradstreet was sent to Fort Dummer, and a few soldiers were sent to each of the smaller posts along the frontier.
Towards the last of March, Capt. Phineas Stevens was sent to No. 4 with his company of thirty rangers. He found the fort in good condition and the cabins still stand- ing. His arrival was timely, for, on the 4th of April, the faithful dogs again gave warning that the enemy was
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near. A force of several hundred French and Indians under Gen. Debeline lay in ambush near the fort. Being discovered they began an attack, set fire to the buildings and fences on all sides, and shot flaming arrows into the fort in a determined effort to burn it. Capt. Stevens had trenches opened under the walls to allow his men to go through and extinguish the flames. The fire from the fences and buildings did not reach the fort, and the arrows were harmless. The enemy continued the attack for two days, with hideous shouts and yells, and then asked for a cessation of the fight and a parley. The next morning, Gen. Debeline came forward with sixty men under a flag of truce, and Capt. Stevens met him with twenty men. Debeline proposed a surrender of the fort, which Stevens refused. They returned to their commands and the fight was kept up all that day. On the morning of the fourth day, another parley was held, and the enemy made urgent appeals for provisions to be sold to them. The poor wretches were starving, and were fighting with desperation to obtain food. Their request was very properly refused, and with some parting shots they withdrew. Capt. Stevens and his thirty men had had no rest or sleep dur- ing all this time, and, although they were under a terrific fire, all behaved with great gallantry. Their loss was but two men wounded, so well did their works protect them. An express was sent to Boston, and the news caused great rejoicing. Commodore Sir Charles Knowles, the naval officer in command there, was so pleased that he gave Capt. Stevens an elegant sword in token of appreciation of his gallantry. In return, when the place was chartered by New Hampshire in 1753 it was named Charlestown in honor of Sir Charles.1
It was at this time that Upper Ashuelot was aban- doned and the inhabitants returned to their former homes, or sought safety in towns less exposed to attack. And Lower Ashuelot and Winchester were abandoned at the same time. We have seen that a few days previous, on the 19th of March, the proprietors had held a meeting in
1 Belknap's History of New Hampshire, vol. 2, page 251; Barstow's History of New Hampshire, page 184.
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the fort, passed the usual votes in town affairs, and pro- vided for the salary of their minister, whose year was to expire in October-all indicating that at that time they had no intention of leaving. But a few days were sufficient to change the whole aspect of affairs. The fight at No. 4 had been a very important one. Debeline had a large force for those times- Whiton puts the number at 400, and some writers much higher than that-while Stevens had but thirty. The combined forces of all the posts in the Con- necticut valley north of Deerfield did not exceed 100 men; and there was no movable force to meet this active body of French and Indians.
After Debeline's repulse at No. 4, he divided his follow- ers and sent them in small parties to attack other settle- ments. At Northfield they killed and scalped Nathaniel Dickinson and Asahel Burt. Other bodies of the enemy were also operating in western Massachusetts, and in east- ern New Hampshire attacks were made at Rochester, Pen- acook, Suncook and other places in that part of the prov- ince. It was a time of general alarm.
"The inhabitants remained in the fort until March, or April, 1747. About this time they passed an informal vote ['on the common, in the haste of their departure'] releasing Mr. Bacon, their minister, from all his obligations to them, and resolved to abandon the settlement, which resolution was immediately executed. Soon after, a party of Indians1 visited the place, and burnt all the buildings, except the mill on Beaver brook, and the house in which the miller had resided."
(Annals, page 22.)
"There were Thirty-one Dwelling houses * * Sun- dry barns and a Fort,' a meetinghouse, a saw mill and a grist mill. All were burned except four houses, one barn and the mills. And such horses as they could not take with them and all the cattle, sheep and swine were killed." (State Papers, vol. 12, page 310.)
Another reason for leaving the place was that for two years they had been able to raise but very little on their land from fear of being attacked by the Indians, and they must have been short of provisions, with no likelihood of
1 "Doolittle's Narrative" says that when repulsed at Shattuck's the Indians burned on their retreat the deserted settlements at Winchester, Hinsdale and Upper and Lower Ashuelot.
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raising anything in the season approaching. The terror- stricken inhabitants therefore gathered up the few valu- ables they possessed, packed such as were portable on horses or took them on their persons, buried some, left the remainder with their cabins, to be destroyed by the savages, and turned their steps in haste and sadness away from those homes they had so recently established, where they had hoped to spend many years of happiness and prosperity.
They fled to Fort Dummer, where Capt. Josiah Wil- lard, Jr.,1 had a small company of soldiers, under his father, Col. Josiah Willard, commander of the post. The women and children, and most of the men, continued their journey to the lower towns, but several of the men from Upper Ashuelot, and some from the lower township, joined Capt. Willard's company to fight the Indians. The com- pany then numbered twenty-six men besides the captain. That company was stationed at "Ashuelott," June 21, and remained, with additions in 1748 and reductions in 1749, until Nov. 27, 1749; serving part of the time at Fort Dummer. Capt. Melvin's company of rangers at North- field was increased to sixty men, and he remained in the Connecticut valley through that season, scouting the country and doing good service.
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