USA > New Hampshire > Coos County > Incidents in White mountain history, fourth > Part 16
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This region has been very much infested with bears, especially during the summer months. Many live now on the mountains, preventing entirely the raising of sheep. Though much of the land, especially on the mountains, is well adapted to grazing, still it is never safe to trust sheep and young stock far from the settlements. So late as the summer of 1852, a most desperate encounter took place between one of the farmers in this vicinity and a large black bear of the white-face breed - the most savage of that variety.
A Mr. Bean was to work in his field, accompanied by a boy twelve years of age. The bear approached him, and having his gun with him, charged for partridges, he fired, but with little effect. The bear bore down upon him; he walked backwards, loading his gun at the same time, when his foot caught by a twig, which tripped him up, and the bear leaped upon him. He immediately fired again, but with no visible effect. The bear at once went to work,- seizing his left arm, biting through it, and lacerating it severely. While thus amusing himself, he was tearing with his fore paws the clothes, and scratching the flesh on the
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young man's breast. Having dropped his arm, he opened his huge mouth to make a pounce at his face. Then it was that- the young man made the dash that saved his life. As the bear opened his jaws, Bean thrust his lacerated arm down the brute's throat, as far as desperation would enable him. There he had him! The bear could neither retreat nor ad- vance, though the position of the besieged was anything but . agreeable. Bean now called upon the lad to come and take from his pocket a jack-knife, and open it. The boy marched up to the work boldly. Having got the knife, Bean with his untrammelled hand cut the bear's throat from ear to ear, kill- ing him stone dead, while he lay on his body ! It was judged the bear weighed nearly four hundred pounds. One of his paws weighed two pounds eleven ounces.
The earlier annals of this town are full of adventure, nearly equalling this in daring and bravery. The older in- habitants can recall many a scene of thrilling interest which took place within sight of their very cabins.
A man by the name of York, living in the woods, one day came rather suddenly upon a full-grown bear. They both stopped and looked each other steadily in the face. Neither seemed disposed to retreat. The bear bade defiance in her look, and York did the same. An encounter seemed unavoidable, partly because he dare not retreat now if he might, and partly because he had the pluck not to do it if he could. So they both addressed themselves to the battle. The bear raised herself on her hind feet, standing upright, and spread her fore legs to receive her antagonist. York responded by open- ing his arms, and a close grip succeeded. Then followed a struggle for dear life, the issue of which no one could have decided but for one circumstance. York had the advantage in it from having an open, long-bladed jack-knife in his right
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hand when it commenced. This, of course, he used in the best way he could, not stopping to ask whether it was fair or not. Making a little extra exertion on the first good opportunity, he drew the blade across the bear's throat, and she relaxed her hold and soon bled to death. The victory was his.
One dark night Mr. Oliver Peabody, living in a log hut, was disturbed by his cattle in the hovel near by. Supposing that one of them had broken from his fastening, and was goring the rest, he arose from his bed, and, with nothing on . but his night-dress, ran towards the hovel to search out the cause of the trouble. As he came to the entrance, which was merely a hole in its side, he espied some black creature standing just inside, and, thinking it one of his cattle, stepped forward a little, and struck it on the rump with a stick he had in his hand, crying, "Hurrup ! hurrup there !" The creature, deeming this rather a rough salutation, turned round, and, with the full force of his huge paw, gave him a heavy slap on the side. By this time he began to imagine that he was in no very delicate, refined company, and must look out for himself. The salutation he received from the creature was a little more unceremonious and rude than the one he first gave him. He was fully aware, now, that some- times a person must take blows as well as give them, and hard ones, too. Certain it was, he had no disposition to re- peat his stroke, or his cry of "Hurrup ! hurrup !" and, per- ceiving that the bear was about to repeat the blow, he sounded a retreat, and made haste back to his hut. Whether the bear kept his ground, and proceeded to annoy the cattle fur- ther, we were not informed.
In the autumn of 1804, it required all the vigilance and courage of the inhabitants to preserve their cattle and hogs
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from the ferocious creatures. The nuts and berries, their usual food, had failed them, and, driven on by hunger, the infuriated beasts would rush almost into the very houses of the settlers. Young hogs were caught and carried off in sight of their owners, and within gunshot of their pens. A huge, growl- ing monster, seized a good-sized hog in his paws, and ran off with it, standing on his hind legs, satisfying his hunger as he went.
One dark night Mr. Oliver Peabody, the same we have spoken of before, was disturbed by the loud squealing of his hogs. As unsuspecting as before, he rushed out in his night- dress to the yard where they were kept, back of his barn. Scarcely yet fully awake, he placed his hands upon the top rail, and stood peering out into the darkness, shouting lustily to whatever might be disturbing his hogs. So intent was he on driving away the intruder, that he was conscious of nothing until he felt the warm breath of a large bear breathing directly in his face. The huge monster had left the hogs on his first approach, and, rearing herself on her hind legs, placed her paws on the same rail, near his hands, and stood ready for the new-year salutation of the Russians - a hug and a kiss. Realizing fully his danger, he darted away for his house, the bear following close at his heels. He had barely time to reach his door, and throw himself against it as a fastening, when Madam Bruin came rushing against it. The frail thing trembled and squeaked on its wooden hinges, but his wife had placed the wooden bar across it, and thus it with- stood the shock. Opening the door slightly, on the first op- portunity, he let out his dog. The dog, used to the business, seized the bear fiercely by the throat, as she sat on her haunches eying the door. Not so easily driven off, however, she threw the mastiff with tremendous force against the house,
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and leaping a fence near at hand, sat coolly down. The noble dog, as soon as he could recover from the stunning blow, again attacked her. With still more force she threw him this time against the cabin, displacing some of its smaller timbers, near where some of the children were asleep in a truckle-bed. Bounding away, she ran some eighty rods, to the house of one Stephen Messer, seized a large hog, and leaping a fence three feet high with it in her arms, ran thirty rods, and sat down to her feast. Before Messrs. Peabody and Messer could reach her, she had finished her repast and walked slowly off into the woods.
About the middle of June, 1850, one of the most tragical scenes transpired in this town that ever took place in any region. Happily the principal actors in it were not natives of the town or region, but foreigners. A contractor on the Atlantic and St. Lawrence Railroad, which was then being constructed through the Androscoggin valley, after burying his wife in Bethel, went to board with a Mr. George W. Freeman, a blacksmith. This man was in the employ of the contractor, helping him build a very expensive bridge over Wild river. Mr. Freeman's family consisted of a wife and three children. He had been somewhat remarkable as a kind and faithful husband and indulgent parent, and nothing had ever occurred to mar the peace of the family until the advent of the contractor into it. Mrs. Freeman, young and beauti- ful, was very attractive in looks and address, but in all re- spects, heretofore, had shown herself an exemplary woman and devoted wife. Freeman, unable to harbor the thought of anything wrong in his wife, for a long time passed by many things which caused him much uneasiness. The particular attentions of the contractor to his wife he tried long and hard to construe as only the civilities due from a gentleman to a
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lady. As each day the attentions became more marked, and the evident partiality of the two for each other's society be- came more manifest, the loathed suspicion worked itself grad- ually into the terrible conviction that his companion was yielding to the wiles of the seducer. So bold had they be- come in their course, that scarcely a day passed but they rode out together, sometimes extending their rides to late hours in the night. At last they went to Bethel, a distance of nine miles, to attend a ball, and did not return until near morn- ing. This fully roused Mr. Freeman from his heretofore almost stupid forbearance. He undressed and put his chil- dren to bed, and then calmly awaited the return of the guilty pair. Not in anger, but intensely in earnest, he expostu- lated with them, warning them of the consequences of their guilty course. Passionately he besought his wife to remember their hitherto happy life, and spare himself and her babes the disgrace and loss of such a companion and a mother. It was all, however, to no purpose.
Shortly after the ball at Bethel, Mrs. Freeman threw off all restraint, and asked her husband for a divorce. Her affection, she said, for him was gone, and it was better for them to separate. She could never again love him as she had, and to live with him in her present state of mind was unendurable. She not only asked him for divorcement, but told him that, with or without it, she should certainly leave him. That she was in earnest was clearly manifest. She commenced her preparations for a journey, proceeding even so far as to pack some of her things.
The contractor's office was in Freeman's house, and his clerk was almost constantly employed in it. By chance Freeman overheard one day a conversation between his wife and the clerk. She had come for advice, and imagining nc
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opposition from the clerk, disclosed to him her plans. Con- trary to her expectations, the noble young man reprimanded her severely for her conduct, and warmly advised her for her good. Freeman heard all, and it confirmed his worst suspi- cions.
Previous to these active preparations of Mrs. Freeman for her departure, the contractor had left for New York. Before leaving, it seems, it had been arranged between them that Mrs. Freeman should soon follow to meet at some place yet to be agreed upon. Freeman learned these facts but too soon. Not long after the contractor had left, a beautiful trunk, marked for Mrs. Freeman, was one day left at the door, when Mrs. Free- man chanced to be out. With a shop-key Freeman opened the trunk in his shop, and there full evidence of the intentions of the pair was manifest. Beautiful dresses and jewelry for herself and children were the contents, and under all a letter disclosing the plans. She was to meet the contractor at Syra- cuse, N. Y. There were minute directions as to the routes to travel, and particular caution to fasten the door of her bed- chamber, at night, in the different hotels. The day for her departure was named. He concealed from his wife the trunk and letter, and she never probably knew of its arrival.
The day for Mrs. Freeman's departure was already fixed, and the night preceding her leaving in the morning had ar- rived. Calmly Freeman sat among his family during the evening, and on their retiring had embraced and kissed then according to his usual custom. Long he lingered near his wife, but at length, bidding her the last good-night, retired to his room. They had not slept together for some time, a servant- girl occupying the bed with his wife and young child. Still- ness had settled down upon the house, when suddenly a piercing shriek broke upon the night, startling every sleeper
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from his slumbers. "I am murdered ! I am murdered !" was all that could be distinguished in the confusion which ensued. Each hurried whence the voice proceeded, and there, in Mrs. Freeman's room, weltering in blood, lay the unhappy" wife, shrieking in paroxysms of terror. She rose up in bed, as they entered, the mutilated, bleeding arm hanging at her side. Medical assistance was soon at hand, the wounded limb amputated and carefully dressed, but to no effect; from loss of blood the murdered woman died but a few hours after. A few buckshot were taken from the head. The shattered con- dition of the arm, and the broken window, made it evident in what manner the poor woman had been murdered. Sleeping on her side, the murderer had aimed directly at her heart, but, missing, had discharged the whole contents of the gun into her arm. He had accomplished, however, his purpose as well as though he had not missed his aim.
The murdered wife was conscious who had murdered her. Her husband was the only one of the large family who gathered not around her bedside at her fearful summons. "It was my husband," were her words. And the full weight of her great guilt bursting upon her too late, she could but groan and ejaculate, " O, my own dear husband ! And will he not come ! O, George, my husband, shall I not see him, to be forgiven ! " She died, not suspecting that her husband was dead, but that he avoided seeing her from grief. Fully forgiving him, she died with his name upon her lips.
But to turn from the sad spectacle of the wife to the still sadder sight of her husband. Instant search was made for him as the murderer of his wife, and after long hours of hunting, about a mile from his house, he was found dead, lying in a pool of his own blood. His throat was cut from ear to ear, his hand still grasping the fatal razor. By him
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lay his gun and a piece of rope. The gun, it seems, he had tried, but it had not done its work, merely bruising badly one cheek.
A jury of inquest was holden on his body, and a verdict rendered according to facts. On examination of his affairs, letters were found, written by his own hand, giving directions in regard to his children, and the disposition he wished to be made of his property when he was dead. It is supposed, from some things in his case, especially one important inci- dent, that until a late period in his life, he did not intend to kill his wife, but the contractor.
He asked the clerk of the contractor, one day, which side of the bed they held in common he, the contractor, slept ? giving an occasion by this for an inference that he had some design upon him. But the contractor leaving before the design could be executed, and determined, as he had declared, that the contractor should never enjoy his wife, he made up his mind to kill her, and did actually perform the dreadful deed we have rehearsed. How strongly this whole affair im- presses upon us the importance of watching against the first emotions of any great sin, and praying earnestly the prayer taught us by the Saviour, " Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from evil," we certainly need not say. There being no minister in Gilead at this time, Rev. Mr. Leland, of Bethel, attended the funeral on the occasion. He preached to a very large concourse of people on the text, " When lust hath conceived it bringeth forth sin; and sin, when it is finished, bringeth forth death."
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CHAPTER XVII.
SEGAR'S NARRATIVE.
ATTACK ON BETHEL. - SEGAR. - INDIANS. - CAPTURE OF SEGAR AND COM. PANIONS. - MRS. CLARK. - THE JOURNEY TO CANADA. - PETTENGILL'S HOUSE. - IIOPE AUSTIN. - CAPT. RINDGE. - MURDER OF POOR. - CLARK'S ESCAPE. - ENCAMPMENTS AT NIGHT. - UMBAGOG LAKE. - SUFFERINGS FROM HUNGER. - ARRIVAL AT ST. FRANCIS RIVER. - INDIAN DANCE. - BRITISH PROTECTION. - RETURN HOME.
" With hearts unbent, and spirits brave, They sternly bore Such toils as meaner souls had quelled."
ON the third of August, 1781, a party of six Indians from Canada, in the employ of British officers, made an attack upon Bethel, then Sudbury, Canada, and Shelburne, killing three men, and carrying as many more into captivity. It was the last of a long series of outrages upon the frontier settle- ments, commencing with King Philip's war, and ends the bloody Indian history of this region.
Segar, one of the three men captured; who published an account of this surprisal and captivity after his return, and whose narrative we have more particularly followed, had early removed to Sudbury, Canada, from Massachusetts. He had been a soldier in the revolutionary army on the breaking
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out of war, had retreated from Bunker Hill, and had helped to garrison the fort at Ticonderoga.
With three others he had built a hut, and at the time of his capture was residing six miles from any white settlement. No danger was apprehended from the Indians. Since the decisive victories of Norridgewock and Pequawket, they had appeared perfectly subdued, and lived on the most friendly terms with their more powerful neighbors. Since the break- ing out of war there had been some indications of returning hostility, but not enough to excite alarm. Frequently they had come to the settlements, painted and decorated for war, and occasionally, for a moment, assumed their old demeanor of insolent brutality ; but their generally kind and frank man- ner quieted all fear, and no one imagined harm.
On the day above stated Segar and two others, Jonathan Clark and Eleazer Twitchell, were at work in the field some distance from any house. Suspecting nothing, they were . entirely unarmed. Suddenly six Indians, headed by one Tomhegan, a bold, impudent fellow, well known to the set- tlers, painted and armed with guns, tomahawks and scalping- knives, with a shrill war-whoop, sprang from a piece of woods near by, and made captives of the three.
Having secured their prisoners they marched them to Clark's house, the nearest to the party. Here they bound them down, and, with threats of killing them if they attempted to escape, commenced plundering the premises. Clark's wife, a courageous, resolute woman, did not admire the operation, and determined by stratagem or fight to oppose it. While they were filling their bottles with some rum they had found in the cellar, she took her husband's valuable watch and hid it in the ashes. Some old clothing she allowed them to take, without making any objection : but when they demanded the
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gold necklace on her neck, she plainly told them they could not have it, and summoned all her strength to fight it out. In the struggle which ensued, the string broke, the beads flew about the floor, and the Indians were never the richer by one. Not succeeding in obtaining the beads, they next demanded the silver buckles on her shoes; but the undaunted woman gave them to understand, in plain words and a shrill voice, that her feet and the buckles on them were her own, and their safety lay in not meddling with them; and so thoroughly were the fellows frightened, that they made no more attempts on her.
While this was going on, her husband and the others were quaking with fear that the Indians would become infuriated, and kill the whole party together. Says one of the trem- bling captives : "My fears were that they would kill her ; she was very bold towards them, and showed no fears."
During the struggle with Mrs. Clark, another Indian joined the party with Mr. Benjamin Clark, whom he had just taken. Him they secured, and sat down to count their gains, and make their arrangements for escaping undetected with their prisoners. Twitchell, seeing them thus engaged, and somewhat emboldened by the courageous bearing of the woman and the timidity of the savages, slipped his fasten- ings, and left suddenly for the woods, where, hiding himself among the logs, he escaped the search made for him.
The Indians, having determined on their course, packed up their plunder into large, heavy bundles, which they fastened on the backs of their prisoners. Whether fearing to take Mrs. Clark or not, they left her unharmed, simply remark- ing, as the fearless matron followed her husband to the door, that, if she remained in the house, she would not be mo- lested; but, if she attempted to follow, she would be killed,
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for there were hundreds of Indians in the woods. Numbers, they might have thought, would terrify her, who, if they had undertaken to lead her off with them with their present forces, would have been quite likely to have turned upon them with
" Nay, then, Do what thou canst, I will not go to-day ; No, nor to-morrow, nor till I please myself."
It was now late, and they could go but a few miles before it would be dark. With heavy hearts the poor men trudged on under their heavy burdens, their hands bound closely behind them, and their captors continually hurrying their speed, fearing their booty might be taken from them. Con- tinuing on as long as they could see, the darkness at length compelled them to halt for the night in the hut of one Peter Austin, who, fortunately, chanced to be from home. Here they found but little to plunder. Two guns,- one of them not good for anything, which they broke to pieces,- and a little sugar, were all they could find.
Tightening the cords with which they were tied until their hands were benumbed, they compelled their captives to lie down, and, surrounding them, the savages went to sleep. Says our narrator : "Here we spent a gloomy night, which none can realize except those who have been in a like con- dition." At daylight the Indians were astir, and lading their captives for the march. In Gilead, then Peabody's Patent, they stopped at the house of one Pettengill. Pet- tengill himself was not in the house, but some distance from it, in sight; and, the Indians calling him, he instantly came in. They searched the house, as usual, and found sugar and some cream in a tub, on which they breakfasted, "eating like hogs," but gave none to the prisoners.
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After finishing the repast, they told Pettengill he must go with them, and to make himself ready. But he pleaded his want of shoes ; and fearing, perhaps, resistance, or the danger of having too large a number of captives, they left him, but strictly charged that he should not leave the house. Mrs. Pettengill and the children, remaining quiet, received no abusc.
They had gone but a short distance from the house when two of the Indians returned, captured and bound Pettengill, and gave him his load among the others. But, for some reason, they feared him. They dared not take him with them, and they dared not leave him free. But one course was left, and, after having proceeded but a little way, they killed him on the spot. His wife, a few days after, discov- ered his body, and friends from Bethel buried it.
At Shelburne the Indians became greatly alarmed. Ques- tioning some children, whom they found at play near a small brook, concerning the number of men in an adjoining house, they replied there were ten, and that they all had guns. This so terrified them that they placed all the packs on the prisoners, and prepared themselves to take to their heels if attacked. The poor fellows, thus loaded down, were ordered to cross the Androscoggin river at a place where "it was never forded before or since." None of the men could swim, and how they succeeded in getting over, our narrator says he "cannot imagine." The fright, however, was groundless, as not a man was in the house. At the house of Hope Austin, which they passed, they found money, and other booty of less value, but left Mrs. Austin unharmed, bidding her remain in the house.
They were now on the very outposts of the scattered fron- tier settlements. Some miles after leaving the house of
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Austin, Tomhegan, the instigator of these barbarities, left the party, and struck out into a by-path. He had not been gone long, when a gun was heard, and, soon after, Tomhegan returned with a negro, named Plato. He had been lurking round the premises of a Capt. Rindge, and, as one Poor and Plato were going out to work, Tomhegan had called to them to come to him. Poor, suspecting treachery, turned to run, when Tomhegan instantly shot him, and captured the black.
After learning from Plato that there was no one to fear but Capt. Rindge and wife, it was determined to march the captives to the house. Rindge was exceedingly terrified. He not only submitted patiently to the plundering of the savages, but even brought them articles they would never have found. Here the poor prisoners fared well. While they were eating, the Indians went out and scalped Poor. A boy named Ingalls was seized, but, by the persuasion of Rindge, was left.
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