USA > New Hampshire > Merrimack County > Concord > The history of Concord : from its first grant in 1725, to the organization of the city government in 1853, with a history of the ancient Penacooks ; the whole interspersed with numerous interesting incidents and anecdotes, down to the present period, 1885 > Part 17
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* Jonathan Eastman's fort, on the rocky knoll opposite Mr. Aaron Shute's.
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RUMFORD AS A DISTRICT.
NARRATIVE BY MR. REUBEN ABBOT,
Who drove the cart that contained the dead bodies, from the place of massacre to JAMES OSGOOD's garrison.
"I, with Abiel Chandler, was at work in the Fan, near Sugar Ball, making hay, on Monday morning, August 11, 1746, then in my twenty-fourth year. We heard three guns fired at Parson Walker's fort, which were the appointed signal of alarm at the approach or apprehension of the Indians. On hearing the alarm guns we ran up to the garrison, and found the soldiers who were stationed there, and such men as could be spared, had gone to where the men were killed. We followed on, and took the foot-path [by Capt. Emery's, near the prison, ] and arrived at the spot where the bodies lay as soon as those did who went round on the main road. When we arrived near the brook that runs through the farm formerly owned by - Mitchell, on the east side of the brook we found Samuel Bradley, stripped naked, scalped, and lying on his face in the road, within half a rod of the bridge over that brook. He was shot through the body, and supposed through his lungs ; the ball struck and spoiled his powder horn, which the Indians left. He was not otherwise wounded by the Indians than shot and scalped. Jonathan Brad- ley lay about ten fect out of the road, on the south side, and about two rods east of the brook. He was lieutenant in Capt. Ladd's company, from Exeter, and a number of years older than Samuel. He was not wounded by the Indians in their fire, and immediately after the Indians had first fired he ordered his men to fight them. As but few of the Indians fired the first time, Jon- athan supposed that he and his six men could manage them, and they fired at the few who had risen up from their ambush. Im- mediately the whole body of the Indians, about one hundred in number, rose up and fired. Jonathan, secing their number and receiving their fire, ordered his men to run and take care of them- selves. By this time, Obadiah Peters, John Bean, John Lufkin and Samuel Bradley, were killed. The Indians then rushed upon Jonathan Bradley, William Stickney and Alexander Roberts - took Stickney and Roberts prisoners, and offered Jonathan Brad- ley good quarter. But he refused to receive quarter, and fought
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THE MASSACRE.
with his gun against that cloud of Indians, until they struek him on the face repeatedly with their tomahawks, eut a number of gashes in his face, one large gash running obliquely across his forehead and nose down between his eyes ; another on the side of his head, and one on the back part of his head, which entered his skull and brought him to the ground. The Indians then des- patched him, took off his scalp, and stripped him nearly naked. Obadiah Peters we found shot through the head. Bean and Lufkin were shot, and ran from the brook toward the main road about six rods, and fell within a rod of each other, on the north side of the road as now travelled. Four of the Indians were killed and two wounded, who were carried away on biers .*
The soldiers from the garrisons were too late to avenge the lives of these brave men. Before their approach the Indians fled like cowards, leaving many of their packs and various things, which the soldiers took."
Mr. Abbot further related that the bodies of the dead - mangled, bloody, and some of them naked - were laid side by side in a cart which had been sent up with a yoke of oxen to convey them down to the main street. As all others refused, Mr. Abbot himself drove the team down to Mr. James Osgood's garrison. There a great multitude of men, women and children collected to see the dreadful sight; they wept aloud. Mothers lifted up their young children to see the dead bodies in the cart. The late Mr. Joseph Abbot, who died January 20, 1832, aged 90, then about four years of age, said his " mother lifted him up and he see the bodies dreadfully mangled." Next day they were all buried in two graves, near what was then the northwest corner of the old burying-ground. The Bradleys were buried in one grave, and Lufkin, Peters and Bean in another : the spot
* Some of these particulars were obtained from Roberts, who returned after about a year's captivity among the Indians.
NOTE. November 30, 1747, it was put to vote whether or no they would raise any sum or sums of money for the hiring or maintaining of a school for the present year in Rumford, and it passed in the negative.
1748.
February 5, 1747. Voted, To choose a man to make application to the General Assembly for a suitable number of men to guard the inhabitants of Rumford the year ensuing.
Voted, That Lt. John Webster make application to the General Assembly for a suitable number of men to guard the inhabitants of Rumford the ensuing year.
11
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RUMFORD AS A DISTRICT.
cannot now be exactly identified, but it was very near the place now enclosed and occupied as the burial-plat of the Bradley and Ayer family.
NOTICES OF THE PERSONS WHO WERE MASSACRED, AND OF THE CAPTIVES.
Lieut. JONATHAN BRADLEY was a son of Abraham Bradley, who came from Haverhill, Massachusetts, to Penacook, in 1730. He married Susanna Folsom, of Exeter, who at first settled on the farm with his father, but afterward disposed of his property in Penacook and moved to Exeter, a year or two before the time of the massacre .* He was Lieutenant in Capt. Daniel Ladd's company, and only two weeks before, as appears from Clough's Journal, had been " very sick," and was not yet entirely recov- ered. He was a brave man, about thirty years of age, and when he met the Indians would neither flee nor fall alive into their hands. The ancestors and relatives of Mr. Bradley, in Haverhill, had had a bitter experience of Indian cruelty. Dan- iel Bradley was killed there, August 13, 1689. Isaac Bradley, at the age of fifteen, was captured in the fall of 1695 .; Daniel Bradley, (son of Daniel,) and Hannah his wife, and two of their children, Mary and Hannah, were killed, March 15, 1697, when Mrs. Dustin was made prisoner ; and Joseph, Martha and Sarah Bradley, children of Joseph Bradley, were slain at the same time. The house of Joseph Bradley, grandfather of Lieutenant Jonathan, was burnt by the Indians, February 8, 1704, and his wife taken prisoner a second time, and her infant child, born in cap- tivity, was sacrificed by her barbarous captors. The story of this Mrs. Bradley's captivity and sufferings, (grandmother of Jonathan and Samuel,) is so intensely interesting as to justify a place in this narrative. It is abridged from Mirick's History of Haverhill. " On the 8th of February, 1704, about three or four o'clock in the afternoon, a party of six Indians attacked the garrison of Joseph Bradley, which, unhappily, was in an unguarded state - even the sentries had left their stations, and the gates were open. The Indians approached cautiously, and were rushing into the
* See account of his family in the Bradley Genealogical Record.
t See narrative in Mirick's Hist. of Haverhill, pp. 78- 84.
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THE BRADLEYS.
open gates before they were discovered. Jonathan Johnson, a sentinel, who was standing in the house, shot at and wounded the foremost; and Mrs. Bradley, who had a kettle of boiling soap over the fire, seized her ladle, and filling it with the streaming liquid, discharged it on his tawny pate- a soap-orific that almost instantly brought on a sleep, from which he has never since awoke. The rest of the party immediately rushed forward, killed Johnson, made prisoner of the intrepid woman and some others.
" Mrs. Bradley was in delicate circumstances and in slender health. * * The weather was cold, the wind blew keenly over the hills, and the ground was covered with a deep snow ; yet they obliged her to travel on foot and carry a heavy burden, too large even for a man. In this manner they proceeded through the wilderness, toward Canada ; and Mrs. Bradley informed her family, after she returned, that for many days in succession she subsisted on nothing but bits of skin, ground-nuts, the bark of trees, wild onions and lily roots.
" While in this situation - in the midst of a thick forest- she gave birth to a child. The Indians then extended their cruelties to the babe. For the want of proper attention it was sickly ; and when it cried these remorseless fiends showed their pity by throwing embers into its mouth. They told the mother that if she would permit them to baptize it in their manner, they would suffer it to live. They took it from her, and baptized it by gashing its forehead with their knives. Not long after, while she was absent for a short time from the child, they seized it and piked it upon a pole, where the mother saw it dead.
" When they arrived in Canada Mrs. Bradley was sold to a French master for eighty livres. She was treated kindly. It was her custom, morning and evening, when she milked her master's cow, to take with her a crust of bread, soak it with milk and eat it. With this and with the rations allowed her by her master, she eked out a comfortable subsistence."
In March, 1705, her husband, hearing she was in Canada, started on foot with a small sled, accompanied only by a dog, and succeeded in redeeming her.
Knowing, as Lieut. Bradley doubtless did, the story of these
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RUMFORD AS A DISTRICT.
sufferings which his immediate ancestors experienced, it is no wonder that " he refused to receive quarter " from the Indians, and that he chose death rather than captivity.
SAMUEL BRADLEY.
Samuel Bradley, brother of Jonathan, resided at Rumford with his father Abraham, after Jonathan removed to Exeter. He married Mary Folsom, sister of his brother Jonathan's wife, by whom he had two children, viz., John, born February 13, 1743, and Mehetabel, born January 16, 1745. In Rev. Mr. Walker's notes is the following : " February 19, 1744, baptized John, son of Samuel Bradley, and Anne, daughter of Jona. Bradley. Dec. 22, 1745, baptized Mehetabel, daughter of Sam. Bradley." Mr. Bradley was a young man of great enterprise and promise. The anguish of his wife on hearing of his massa- cre, and seeing his mangled body, was intense and overwhelm- ing. His little son John, then less than four years old, was shown the bloody bodies of the slain, as they lay together at Osgood's garrison, and retained through life a lively impression of the scene. Indeed the impression was so strong, that a terror of the Indians haunted him for many years afterward, and his grandfather's faithful servant, Pompey, used to accompany him, as a sort of life-guard, and to carry him, when quite a large boy, on his back. Mrs. Bradley afterward married Robert Calfe, Esq., of Chester, and died at Concord, in the family of her grandson, Richard Bradley, Esq., August 10, 1817, aged ninety- eight. She was a woman of remarkable powers. In the latter years of her life she used to speak with great affection of the husband of her youth, and of his tragical end ;* to relate many little incidents of his life, and to repeat expressions which she said he used in the last prayer he offered in his family ; also, the last chapter which he read in the Scriptures.
OBADIAH PETERS
Was of Rumford, son of Seaborn Peters, one of the first settlers. " He had been out in the Louisburg expedition, and was at the
* See further notice of Samuel Bradley's family in the Genealogical Record of the Bradley family
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THE MASSACRE.
capture of Cape Breton the year before his death" - one of Capt. Ebenezer Eastman's company. About the time he was killed he appears to have been a soldier in the Rumford com- pany of militia, commanded by Capt. Nathaniel Abbott, as he is named in his muster roll, and his death there recorded. Peters' father and family lived near Eastman's fort, to which the party was going at the time they were attacked and massacred by the Indians.
JOHN BEAN was from Brentwood, and JOHN LUFKIN from Kingston.
WILLIAM STICKNEY, who was taken captive, was son of Capt. Jeremiah Stickney, of Rumford, and a brother of the late Col. Thomas Stickney. " After about one year's captivity in Can- ada, he found means to escape with a friendly Indian, and proceeded on his way home to within about one day's journey of the white settlements, when they fell short of provisions. The Indian directed Stickney to light a fire and encamp, while he would go in quest of game. After Stickney had prepared his camp, he also went out to hunt, and in attempting to cross a river on a log, fell in and was drowned." This was the story the Indian told when he came to Rumford ; but from the circum- stance of his being dressed in Stickney's clothes, many were led to doubt the truth of it.
ALEXANDER ROBERTS, who was one of Capt. Ladd's company, made his escape from captivity, after being carried to Canada. On his return to Rumford, next year, Roberts stated that four Indians were killed and several wounded -two mortally, who were conveyed away on litters, and soon after died. Two they buried in the Great Swamp, under large hemlock logs, and two others in the mud, some distance up the river, where their bones were afterwards found. Roberts claimed a bounty from govern- ment, for having, as he said, killed one of the Indians at the time of the attack, whose bones he afterwards found. On the 19th of November, 1747, the General Assembly of New-Hampshire passed the following resolution, which was approved by the Gov- ernor :
" Whereas Alexander Roberts and. others have been carefully examined upon oath, of and concerning a human skull-bone,
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RUMFORD AS A DISTRICT.
which said Roberts and company found at or near the place where said Roberts supposes he killed an Indian man, and where he saw said Indian buried ; and inasmuch as it appears to the House, upon the evidence produced, that the said skull is really the skull of the aforesaid Indian : Therefore,
" Voted, That there be paid out of the money in the public treasury, unto the said Alexander Roberts and company, the sum of seventy-five pounds, in the following proportions, viz. : To the said Alexander Roberts, fifteen pounds ; to Daniel Gilman, seven pounds ten shillings ; to the widows of Jonathan and Samuel Bradley, each eleven pounds five shillings ; and to the heirs or legal representatives of Obadiah Peters, John Lufkin, John Bean and William Stickney, each seven pounds ten shillings."
The Assembly also, April 3, 1747, Voted, " That there be allowed to John Osgood twelve shillings sixpence for expense for coffins, &c., for the men killed at Rumford last year."*
The initials of the names of the persons who were massacred, soon after were marked on a large tree which stood near the fatal spot, and which remained as the only monument of the event for many years, when the tree was cut down. But it was fit that an event of so much tragic interest should be commemo- rated by a monument, that should stand for succeeding genera- tions to behold.
The MONUMENT - which the annexed engraving well repre- sents - bears the inscription beneath it.
* To the House of Representatives :
GENTS. : - I desire that your honors do allow to Abner Clough what expense and charge he was at on the account of burying them five men that were killed last year at Rumford, namely, Lieut. Jonathan Bradley, Samuel Bradley, and John Luffkin, John Bean and Oba- diah Peaters.
To bords for making of 5 coffins, and making of 5 coffins, £1 10 0
To expense for drink for the peopel, 1 00 0
In old tenor, £2 10 0 JAMES OSGOOD.
Warrant to pay Clough, July 2th, 1747.
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THE MONUMENT.
KATHY VNWHIT
HERRICK
This Monument is in memory of SAMUEL BRADLEY, JONATHAN BRADLEY, OBADIAH PETERS, JOHN BEAN AND JOHN LUFKIN, Who were massacred Aug. 11, 1746, by the Indians. Erected, 1837, by Richard Bradley, son of the Hon. John Bradley, and grandson of Samuel Bradley.
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RUMFORD AS A DISTRICT.
The following notice of the erection of this Monument, and the event it commemorates, appeared in the New-Hampshire States- man and State Journal, August 26, 1837.
THE MONUMENT.
On Tuesday last, the 22d instant, corresponding with the 11th of August, O. S., the ceremony of raising the Monument in com- memoration of the massacre of the Bradleys and others, on that day, 1746, was attended near the scene of the event, in this town, by a large concourse of people. The procession was formed under the direction of Col. STEPHEN BROWN, Chief Marshal, at the residence of Mr. B. H. WEEKS, in the following order.
Teachers and Scholars of the several Public and Private Schools. Chief Marshal.
Music. Committee of Arrangements. Orator. New-Hampshire Historical Society. Descendants of the persons killed in 1746. His Excellency the Governor. Officers of the State Government. Past Officers. Citizens generally.
The procession moved to the ground on which the Monument was to be ereeted, when it was raised into its place ; after which the pro- cession moved in the order above to the grove of oaks on the south side of the road, when the following order of exercises was observed :
1. Hymn, by the Rev. JOHN PIERPONT, of Boston, and sung under the direction of Mr. WM. D. BUCK.
Not now, O God, beneath the trees That shade this vale at night's cold noon, Do Indian war-songs load the breeze, Or wolves sit howling to the moon.
The foes, the fears our fathers felt, Have, with our fathers, passed away ; And where in death's dark shade they knelt, We come to praise thee and to pray.
We praise thee that thou plantedst them, And mad'st thy heavens drop down their dew - We pray, that, shooting from their stem, We long may flourish where they grew.
And, Father, leave us not alone : Thou hast been, and art still our trust : Be thou our fortress, till our own Shall mingle with our fathers' dust.
2. Prayer, by Rev. N. BOUTON.
3. Address, by Mr. ASA MCFARLAND.
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THE MONUMENT.
[This highly appropriate and well written address was published in the New-Hampshire Statesman, the following week, and was republished, nearly entire, in the sixth volume of the New-Hamp- shire Historical Collections, 1850, pp. 112-121, to which we refer the reader.]
4. Ode, by GEORGE KENT, Esq.
On this devoted spot - Never to be forgot, Till time shall end - Manhood's high hopes were crush'd, And mercy's voice was hush'd, While blood in torrents gush'd From foe and friend.
Pas'conaway's kindly aid, That erst had been display'd, Was now withdrawn ; And Wonalancet's skill, Ready cach feud to still, And cultivate good will A hope forlorn.
Mild Kancamagus,* too, With love could not imbue His recreant sons ; But Hope-Hood's hostile art Possess'd each mind and heart, And led them to depart From peace at once.
No council fires around Told of the battle's sound, Or signal gave ; But by the white man's path, Sudden as lightning's seath, The red man in his wrath Ambush'd the brave.
Five gallant yeomen fell - While loud the Indian yell Echoed the deed ; PETERS, LUFKIN and BEAN, With BRADLEYS bold, were seen, Staining with blood the green, Without remead.
Not unaveng'd was done The work of death, begun In treachery base : Four of the tribe lay low, To bleach in winter's snow ; Unstrung for aye, the bow ; Unjoined the chase.
Hallow the memory, then, Of the devoted men
* The poet mistook the character of Kancamagus.
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RUMFORD AS A DISTRICT.
Who bravely fell ! Long may TIns STONE display, In the broad light of day, The deeds their children may With honor tell.
5. Reading, by RICHARD BRADLEY, Esq., of an original petition of the inhabitants of Rumford, to the Governor, Council and Assem- bly, for succor against the Indians, with autographs of the orig- inal settlers ; after which a conveyance of the Monument and grounds was presented to the New-Hampshire Historical Society, by Mr. Bradley, [which was received by Rev. N. Bouton, in behalf of said society, and, being duly recorded, was deposited in the society's archives.]
6. An Historical Ballad, by Miss MARY CLARK, of Concord, read by Mr. T. D. P. Stone,* entitled, " A Ballad commemorating the fall of the Bradleys, Peters, Bean and Lufkin, near this spot, on the 11th of August, 1746, O. S., ninety-one years ago this day.
I sing a tale of days of old, When Penacook was young,- A tale that often has been told, But never yet was sung.
It was a mournful tragedy, Most doleful to relate : How five young men all suddenly Met with a horrid fate.
The settlement at Penacook Was girt with forests then, Where savage beasts a shelter took, And still more savage men.
England and France a cruel war Had with each other waged ;- Woe to the colonies ! for there Its bloodiest contests raged.
The fierce Canadians, (Frenchmen they,) Had set the Indians on ; 'Twas sad to see for many a day The mischief that was done.
IIonses were burnt and cattle slain, And smiling fields laid waste : To seek the lurking foe was vain,- His steps might not be traced ;
For the dark, trackless woods concealed Ilim, issuing whenee, he seized The unwary laborer in the field, A captive, if he pleased ;
* Timothy Dwight Porter Stone, from Andover, Mass., then Principal of the Concord Lit- erary Institution and Teachers' Seminary.
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THE MONUMENT.
Or else, more merciful, despatched Him at a single blow ; Then his defenceless home attacked, And laid his loved ones low ;
Or led into captivity The children and the wife, In hardship, pain and misery, To drag a weary life.
Such seenes as these, we understand, Were acted o'er and o'er, Beginning first at Westmoreland, Not far from Number Four .*
In both those towns, in Keene likewise, Were killed and taken some ; And then eight persons, by surprise, They took in Hopkinton.
In Rumford, alias Penacook, The people all alarmed, Themselves to garrisons betook, Nor ventured out unarmed.
Oh! faces gathered paleness then, Hearts trembled with dismay ; For foes without and fears within, Disturbed them night and day.
A hundred Indians, near about, Blood-thirsty, fierce and strong, Seen now and then in straying scout, As they had passed along ;
In August, '46, came down Direct from Canada ; Bent to destroy the embryo town, If in their course it lay.
Yet did the people not forget The holy Sabbath day ; In their log meeting-house they met To hear, and praise, and pray.
Each carrying his gun, went in, For fear what might betide ; And Parson Walker there was seen, With musket by his side.
No prayer from feigned lips arose - With death and danger near, Their eries to Ileaven, we may suppose, Went up from hearts sincere.
Hid in an alder thicket, nigh The meeting-house, the foc (A little girl did them espy,) Were laid in ambush low.
* Now called Charlestown.
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RUMFORD AS A DISTRICT.
A military company Had come the place to guard, Yet truly might the people say Their help was from the Lord ;
For not a single hand was raised To harm them on that day ; They safely came unto the place, And safely went away.
But ah ! the morrow comes, and then In Penacook was seen Such slaughter of their bravest men As never yet had been.
Eight of the men set out to go To Eastman's garrison ; Full two miles off -but did not know The risk they were to run.
Arriving early at the spot Where now secure we stand, Two fell beneath a fatal shot From unseen Indian hand.
They wounded Samuel Bradley, too - At every step he bled - Another shot his body through, Laid him among the dead.
Lieutenant Bradley cried ont, "Lord, Have mercy on me ! - Fight ;" He fired - but as he spake the word They rush'd on him outright.
But stontly he resisted, still Refusing proffered life ; They, horrid ! mangling him, until Death closed the unequal strife.
As they rush'd out, the echoing woods With Indian yells they filled ; And kept their work of death and blood Till three more men were killed.
Then seizing the remaining two, They quickly left the place ; A dreadful sight it was to vicw Those bodies in such case.
Some of the foe were slain, 'tis said, How many, is not known, For leaving there the other dead, They bore away their own.
And thus did end this dire affray : The names of all who fell, I need not in these verses say, For yonder stone will tell.
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THE MONUMENT.
One of the men, it seems, went on Some rods before the rest, And safely reached the garrison, Which they did not molest.
But sad the news he carried there, For he had seen the fight ; And sad were they who stood to hear, O'erwhelmed with grief and fright.
And having gathered what he knew, A man was posted down To bear the woeful tidings to The people of the town.
And there were sounds of keen distress, " And hurryings to and fro," So deep is human tenderness, So bitter human woe.
When speedily a cart, prepared The bodies to convey, Was sent, attended by a guard, Along the fearful way.
The rustic hearse came heavily O'er the uneven ground ; Returned, their slaughtered friends to see, The people gathered round.
Oh ! what a day for Penacook ! The widow - what a day ! A long, a last heart-rending look, And in the earth they lay.
The Bradleys were distinguished men ; Brothers, they were, so brave, And many a tear was shed for them, Laid in untimely grave.
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