USA > New Hampshire > Coos County > Stratford > History of the town of Stratford, New Hampshire, 1773-1925 > Part 3
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They caught the moose, the deer and the bear in the winter season, by shooting with bows and arrows, by snaring and by pit- falls. They cooked their fish by roasting it before the fire, on the end of a long stick, or by boiling in closely woven baskets, or in stone or wooden vessels. They made water boil, not by hanging
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it over the fire, but by constant immersion of hot stones. The corn boiled alone was "hominy," with beans, "succotash."
Such were the traditions and customs of the Indians who hunted in Stratford's forests and fished in her streams. From her bluffs they watched for the approach of their hereditary enemy, the fierce Mohawk, who claimed what is now Vermont as his hunting ground for beaver. They enjoyed the rich profusion of game and fish. The bear, moose, and feathered game were of a superior quality, while the clear, cold streams furnished salmon and trout. The fertile soil yielded large crops of corn, wherever their rude planting covered the kernels. Fur-bearing animals abounded by wood and streams. The Cohos was a rich and select country for the Indian and he jealously guarded any encroachment on his territory. No intruder was allowed to remain, and was hurried through as a captive.
These ideal conditions for the Indian were ended by the advent of the white man. The red man, friendly at first, became sus- picious and hostile under the usurpations of the newcomers. Soon embroiled in the old world quarrels of the French and Eng- lish, war and bloodshed followed.
The French were the powerful allies of the Abenaquis, and un- der their fostering care the village of St. Francis became a large and powerful center, a refuge for the outlaws from other tribes, like those of King Philip, who joined the St. Francis Indians, to wreak their vengeance upon the English. Here the bounties for scalps were paid and the expeditions against the English settle- ments were planned.
The narrowness of the valley in Stratford and the entrance of the Nulhegan into the Connecticut here made Stratford a strategic point in Indian warfare, the Nulhegan forming a very important link with the Clyde River, to the lakes and rivers of Vermont and Canada. Over these waters and through the dark defiles of the White Mountains were hurried their captives from the lower set- tlements. Not until after the fall of Quebec and the destruction of the village of St. Francis was Cohos safe for settlement. They did not wholly abandon their loved hunting grounds even then. During the Revolutionary War they made descents upon the town, pillaging and carrying away prisoners. They watched from a bluff on the other side of the river the building of the fort, but did not attempt to attack it.
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The old sugar maples at Baldwin Homestead are said to have been tapped by them before the war. On the same farm a crop of grain was growing, belonging to a settler living farther down the river, who was prevented from coming to harvest his grain on the day planned upon; who found on the day following that the In- dians had preceded him and harvested his wheat, the smoking embers showing how narrow had been his escape.
However, their visits to the early settlers, except in time of war, were friendly for the most part, coming to trade their furs for the white man's barter and whiskey. One of the earliest buildings erected in Stratford was the old trading post, whose site has been marked by a granite boulder.
In speaking of the Indians who aided the English settlers, men- tion should be made of "Captain Joe" and "Captain John," two friendly chiefs, and of "Black Lena, " the scout. (See Appendix.) "Captain John" was known among the Indians as Soosup, or Sessup, and left one son called Pial Sessup; Pial being the name for Philip. There is some reason for the belief that this Philip, the son and heir of Captain John, an original Cooashauke chief, who went from the upper Coös to St. Francis and who returned with a small band of Cohos Indians to aid the patriots, was the "Philip, Indian chief, resident in Upper Cohos and chief therof," who gave to Thomas Eames of Northumberland the now famous deed of June 28, 1796, conveying to him and his associates the present county of Coös, together with a portion of the county of Oxford, Maine, then a part of Massachusetts, being the instrument known as the "King Philip's Deed." (See Appendix.) We quote the above, together with much of the other material in this chapter, from Col. Henry O. Kent's brilliant article, in the "Coös County History." We would also refer the reader to that article for his beautiful sketch of Old Metallak, the last of the Abenaquis in Coös, the final hunter of the Cooashaukes over the territory of his fathers.
It is a pathetic story, this, of the old chief in his lodge on the waters of the Ameriscoggin. One by one his comrades fell, his children left him for other companionship, but he would not abandon the home of his fathers. Then his old wife, Molly, died. Half blind he took her in his canoe, and, guided by the sound of the rushing water, reached Umbagog, where he buried her on an island, now known by her name. He returned to his solitary life,
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and was occasionally seen by man. In 1846 some hunters found him totally blind and nearly exhausted by starvation. They took him to Stewartstown, where he lingered for a few years, a county charge.
The reign of the red man in Cohos was ended.
RAS ESTABLISHED THE FIRST
INDIAN TRADING POST MARKER
CHAPTER IV STRATFORD'S EARLY HISTORY
CHARTERS AND SETTLEMENTS
In January, 1749, Benning Wentworth, New Hampshire's royal Governor, began to issue those famous "New Hampshire Grants," which were the cause of so much controversy in colonial history, but out of which grew a sturdy democracy that changed the policy of the State, and saved to the American colonies a section of coun- try that would naturally have reverted to Canada.
Before 1764 Governor Wentworth had granted 129 townships west of the Connecticut River, besides six large grants to individ- uals; while on the east bank his charters, though less in number, extended a long way up the river. The townships were nearly six miles square, and the wording of the grants was almost identical. The conditions were:
That every grantee, his heirs or assigns, should cultivate five acres within the term of five years, for every fifty acres of his share, and should continue to improve and settle the same under pain of forfeiture; that all pines fit for masts for the royal navy should be reserved for that use; that a tract near the center of the town should be laid out in lots, and that every grantee should have one acre thereof; that there should be an annual quit rent of an ear of Indian corn if demanded; that every proprietor, settler, or inhabitant should pay to the Governor, his heirs and successors, yearly and forever, after the expiration of ten years, one shilling for every one hundred acres. The Governor did not forget to reserve five hundred acres in each reserve for himself, except in a few cases, where he took eight hundred acres. He also reserved one share for "The Society for the Propagation of the Gospel in Foreign Parts"; one share for a glebe for the Church of England; one share for the first settled minister of the Gospel in the town; and one share for the benefit of a school in said town. (Stackpole, "History of New Hampshire," Vol. I, p. 365.)
Three charters were issued to groups of proprietors princi- pally from Connecticut, where the land had largely been taken up, and firewood was becoming scarce after 120 years of settlement. The proprietors assumed the duty of finding people to settle on their holdings, from whom in due course
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of time they expected to receive payment. They were often unsuccessful, so that the same town would be granted over again, after forfeiture, to another set of proprietors. ("The Descendants of Jacob Schoff," p. 51.)
The grantees shall, at their cost, cut, clear, and bridge and make passable for carriages of all kinds, a road of four rods wide through the said Tract, to be completed in two years; that the said grantees shall settle or cause to be settled twelve families by the First of June, 1774, who shall be actually cultivating some part of the land and resident thereon to continue, etc. ("History of Coös County," p. 448.)
The survey and mapping of the northern country along the line of the Connecticut River as a base was made by Hubertus Neal, as deputy surveyor of the King's Woods, in 1761-62. He extended his survey sixty miles on both sides of the river, up to the north line of the town of Lemington, Vt. (Idem.)
Settlement in New Hampshire progressed slowly. As late as 1760 there was no settlement by the English in the Connecticut valley above the town of Charlestown, in New Hampshire, which was called "No. 4"; nor were there more than three towns settled south of that town in the valley within the present limits of New Hampshire. Hinsdale was settled in 1693; Westmoreland, or No. 2, was settled in 1741, and Walpole, in 1752. These towns, with the exception of the last-named, were settled by Massachu- setts men, for until 1741 it was supposed that Massachusetts would include these towns. At Hinsdale and Charlestown forts were built at an early date, and soldiers were stationed there for the double purpose of affording protection to the settlers and ar- resting the progress of the Indians from Canada meditating in- cursions upon the frontier towns of Massachusetts. And so little interest did New Hampshire feel in the settlement of the Connec- ticut valley, which was called the garden of New England, that in 1745, when the Governor recommended to the Assembly of New Hampshire the taking and sustaining of the newly acquired Fort Dummer, which fell to them upon the establishment of the line between the colonies, the lower House declined the acceptance of this and that of No. 4, alleging that the fort was fifty miles distant from any towns settled by New Hampshire, that they did not own the territory, and that they were unequal to the expense of main- taining these places. Is the Connecticut valley aware how nearly it came to being ruled out of the Granite State? But fifty miles
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through the wilderness was a long distance, and New Hampshire only a small, thinly settled colony struggling for existence.
It was not until 1752 that the Governor was permitted to adopt measures to secure to New Hampshire this invaluable tract of country. He then made several grants of townships on both sides of the Connecticut River, and a plan was made for taking posses- sion of the "rich meadows of Cohos," of which they heard from captives and hunters. The original Cohos of the Indians was the present site of Haverhill, N. H., and Newbury, Vt. Lancaster and above was called Upper Cohos. The original plan was to cut a road from No. 4 to Cohos; to lay out two townships on each side of the river, where Haverhill and Newbury now are. They were to erect two stockades, with lodgments for two hundred men, in . each township, enclosing fifteen acres, in the center of which was to be a citadel containing the public buildings and granaries, which were to be large enough to receive all the inhabitants and their movable effects, in case of necessity. In 1752 it was planned to send a party for this purpose, and Dr. Belknap says a party was sent. But no record was made of such an expedition, and these townships were not laid out. In the "Life of General Stark" it is said that in 1754 the General Court of New Hampshire determined to send a party to explore this "historic and unknown region." It is thought that this plan failed on account of a threat which the St. Francis Indians made of coming to No. 4. The information was sent to the Governor of Massachusetts, and by him to the Governor of New Hampshire, in consequence of which the project was abandoned. In the spring of 1752 John Stark, Amos East- man, David Stinsant, and William Stark were hunting on Baker's River in Rumney, and were surprised by a party of Indians, and Stark and Eastman were taken prisoners and carried to the head- quarters of the St. Francis tribe in Canada, and were led through the Cohos meadows, so much talked of in New Hampshire and Maine. The men returned from captivity in the summer of 1752, and made glowing accounts of the Cohos; and as the country was expecting war with the French and Indians, and as the French would be desirous of taking the Cohos country for a military post, the General Court of New Hampshire determined to send a com- pany to explore the region-not to ascend from No. 4, but to pur- sue the track of the Indians as they came from the great valley of Baker's River and the Pemigewasset. Accordingly, in the spring
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of 1754 Colonel Loveland, Major Tolford, and Captain Page were sent out at the head of a company, with John Stark as guide. They left Concord March 10, 1754, and in seven days made Con- necticut River at Piermont. They spent but one night in the valley, and made a precipitate retreat to Concord, arriving there on the thirteenth day from their departure. It is probable that they feared an Indian foe superior to their own force. Another company was formed the same year, and Capt. Peter Powers of Hollis, N. H., Lieut. James Stevens and Ensign Ephraim Hale, both of Townsend, Mass., were appointed to march at the head of the company to effect, if possible, what had been attempted in vain. The company left Concord June 15, 1755. The only rec- ord of this journey is the journal of Captain Powers, kept by his descendants. As the French and Indian War began, and all thought of settling the Cohos was given up, probably the report was not called for, or was lost in the confusion of a few days after the company's return. We give extracts from this journal, as it is undoubtedly the account of the first company of white men that ever came into this region, they having come as far as Northum- berland:
Saturday, June 16. This day tarried at Contoocook and went to meeting. (This is what is now Boscawen, and the Rev. Phineas Stevens was the minister.)
Monday, June 17th. This morning fair weather, and we fixed our packs and went on and put them on our canoes. About nine of the clock some of the men went out in the canoes and the rest on this shore. And we marched up the Merrimack to the crotch or parting thereof, at Franklin, and then up the Pemigewasset about one mile and a half, and camped above the carrying place, which carrying place is about one hundred yards long, and the whole of this day's march is thirteen miles.
Wednesday, June 26. This morning clear weather, and we marched up the interval to the great turn of clear inter- val, which is the uppermost part of the clear interval on the westerly side of Connecticut River, and there came upon a great shower of rain, which held almost all this afternoon, and we camped by the river on the easterly side almost [opposite] the clear intervale, and this day's march was six miles, and very crooked. (This was opposite the present site of North Haverhill and what is known as the Great and Little Ox Bows, and these had been cleared by the Indians for the raising of corn.)
Thursday, June 27th. This morning it was cloudy
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weather, and it began to rain, the sun about an hour high, and we marched, notwithstanding, up the river to [Lower] Amonoosuck River, and our course was about north, distance about five miles; and we camped here, for the River Amonoo- suck was so high that we could not go over it without a canoe; for it was swift water, and near twenty rods wide. This afternoon it cleared off fair, and we went about our canoe, and partly built it. Some of our men went off up the River Amonoosuck, to see what discoveries they could make; and they discovered excellent land, and a considerable quantity of large white pines. (This place was the present site of Woodsville.)
Friday, June 28th. This morning fair weather, and we all went about the canoe and completed the same by about twelve of the clock this day, and went over the river; and we concluded to let the men go down the river in the canoe who were not likely to perform the remaining part of the journey by reason of sprains in the ankles and weakness of body. They were four in number; and we steered our course for the great intervale, about east northeast, and we this day marched, after we left the river, about ten miles.
Saturday, June 29th. This morning was cloudy, but we swung our packs and steered our course about northeast ten miles, and came to the Connecticut River. There it came on rainy and we camped by the side of the river, and it rained all this afternoon and we kept our camp all night. (The march of the last ten days was between the valley of the Connecticut and the Amonoosuck River, on the highlands of Bath, Lyman and Littleton, and their pres- ent camp was in Dalton.)
Sunday, June 30th. This morning exceedingly rainy, and it rained the night past and continued raining until twelve of the clock this day, and after that it was fair weather. We marched along up the Connecticut River, and our course we made good this day was about five miles east by north, and we came to a large stream which came from the northeast. This river is about three rods wide, and we call it Stark's River, by reason of Ensign John Stark being found by the Indians at the mouth of this river. This river comes into the Connecticut at the foot of the upper intervale;, and thence we travelled up the intervale about seven miles and came to a large river, which came from the southeast, and it is about five rods wide. Here we concluded to go no further with full scout, by reason of our provisions being almost all spent, and almost all our men had worn out their shoes. This river we call Powers' River, it being the camping place at the end of our journey, and there we camped by the river. (These two rivers were John's in
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Dalton, and Israel's in Lancaster. The former was named by this first party "Stark's River," in honor of Gen. John Stark, and the latter, "Powers' River," in honor of the captain of their party.)
It will be observed that they spoke of all these streams as being large, and this will be apparent when we remember the almost incessant rains which are mentioned in this journal. No record is found for July Ist, and it is probable that the day was spent in rest.
Tuesday, July 2nd. This morning fair weather, and we thought proper to mend our shoes, and to return homeward; and accordingly we went about the same. And while the men were this way engaged, the captain with two more of his men marched up the river to see what discoveries they could make; and they travelled about five miles, and there they discovered where the Indians had a large camping place and had been making canoes, and had not been gone more than two days at most; and so they returned to the rest of the men about twelve of the clock, and then we returned and marched down the river to Stark's River and then encamped. This afternoon it rained hard, but we were forced to travel for want of provisions.
These three men penetrated into Northumberland, and this was the limit of the expedition. Here also they fell upon the trail of the Indians, and this with the failure of their supply of food, as also their worn condition in body and clothing, hastened their return.
Saturday, July 6th. Marched down the great rivers to Great Coös, and crossed below this great turn of clear inter- vale, and then left the great river and steered south by east about three miles, and then camped.
This brings them to the vicinity of Haverhill, and here the jour- nal ends. It is probable that they crossed to the Pemigewasset valley and reached Concord by the route they went; and it is also probable that they were hard pressed by the Indians, who, Belknap says, were at Salisbury the 15th of August, killing and taking captive the inhabitants.
This was undoubtedly the first expedition of white men sent into this region, and its mission was probably to ascertain whether the French were building forts in Cohos, alarming reports having reached the Governor that such was the case.
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The same year (1755) Captain Robert Rogers was sent to the Coös Meadows, on the Connecticut above Lancaster, which, from the lack of geographical knowledge, were supposed to be on the direct route from Salisbury to Crown Point. He came and par- tially built a fort on the Connecticut about one-third of a mile above the mouth of the Upper Ammonoosuc. This was called Fort Wentworth, and it was to be used as a refuge in case of disaster.
In 1759 General Amherst ordered two measures of great value to the future settlement of New Hampshire. One was the con- struction of a military road from Crown Point to Charlestown; the other was the destruction of the village of St. Francis. Rog- ers, with 200 of his famous Rangers, was selected for the latter undertaking. After many casualties, the Rangers, with a de- pleted force of 142 men, reached the village, surprised and destroyed it. Two hundred Indians were killed upon the spot, and twenty women and children were taken prisoners. This massacre seems terrible; but in the camp they found, waving from tall poles, 600 scalps of both sexes. The power of the St. Francis Indians was broken forever. Then the Rangers began their march back to the Connecticut. Rogers' intention was to occupy Fort Wentworth and wait for supplies that were expected from General Amherst. It was a march for life. Their provisions failed, and twenty were taken prisoners. They divided into different companies; some reached Fort Wentworth, but fifty men perished from starvation on the way. When the survivors reached Forth Wentworth they found that the relief expedition which had been sent had returned, taking the provisions with them. Rogers and his brave men were obliged to push on south, finally reaching their headquarters in a terrible condition. By such heroic deeds was the way to the settlement of Cohos prepared.
In 1761 the French and Indian War closed, and steps were taken for the settlement of the Connecticut valley. In this year no less than eighteen townships were granted by the Governor of New Hampshire on the east side of the river, and as many as sixty on the west side, as at this time New Hampshire claimed all the land to the New York line. Men from New Hampshire, Massa- chusetts, and Connecticut were preparing to settle in this great valley. It had been advertised by returning captives and soldiers of the French and Indian War, recently happily closed. A sense
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of security was felt, as because of the victory of the English over the French the Indians had lost their ally, the French had been severely chastised by Rogers and his Rangers, and were reconciled to the settlement of their Cohos.
Haverhill and Newbury were settled this year, and a saw and grist-mill were built in 1762 by Captain Hazen, the first pro- prietor. Thus, previous to 1770, the territory as far as Haverhill had felt the touch of the pioneer. David Page, from Lunenburg, Mass., with his family, settled in Lancaster, in 1764. He had sent men and cattle. the year before. In 1767 Thomas Burnside and David Spaulding settled in Northumberland. And now the stream of immigration reaches Stratford.
Before proceeding further, it may be well to center our interest upon the locality from which these settlers came, their character and the homes that sent them out. It is a matter of pride and congratulation that Stratford was settled mainly by men from Connecticut; for Connecticut pioneers have always carried into their colonies a sturdy independence and a liberty-loving spirit that manifested itself in New Hampshire by changing the aristo- cratic ruling of the few into the democratic self-government of the town.
The pioneers of Stratford came from the beautiful valley of the Hoosatonic. Woodbury, Stratford, Norwich, Newton, Milford, and other towns in Litchfield and Fairfield Counties, furnished those hardy and adventurous men and women who braved the wilderness, lured by the promise of establishing homes there to replace those that, through some misfortune, had been lost; or to give a young man the opportunity to acquire what would be difficult of attainment in Connecticut. .
Extracts from early State Papers depict the hardships and poverty of these early settlers. These were the original docu- ments in the New Hampshire archives, copied and printed at the expense of the State. We include some extracts from surround- ing towns also, because of names and dates connected with Strat- ford history. They are especially valuable, for from them we obtain the history of the first twenty-five years of Stratford, the town records affording little information until the year 1800.
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