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 4
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49 | Part 50 | Part 51 | Part 52 | Part 53 | Part 54 | Part 55 | Part 56 | Part 57 | Part 58 | Part 59 | Part 60 | Part 61 | Part 62 | Part 63 | Part 64 | Part 65 | Part 66 | Part 67 | Part 68 | Part 69 | Part 70 | Part 71 | Part 72 | Part 73 | Part 74 | Part 75 | Part 76 | Part 77 | Part 78
" The humble request of yr petitionr is that this honord Courte wolde pleas to grante vnto vs a parcell of land for or comforta- able cituation, to be stated for our Injoyment ; as also for the comfort of oths after vs ; as also that this honerd Court wold
26
INDIAN HISTORY.
pleas to take into yr serious and grave consideration the condi- tion and also the request of yr pore suplicant, and to a poynte two or three persons as a Committee to [assist] sum one or two Indians to vew and determine of some place and to Lay out the same, not further to trouble this honored Assembly, humbly crav- ing an expected answer this present session I shall remain yr humble servante
Wherein yu Shall commande
Boston, 9 : 3 mon. 1662.
PAPISSECONEWA."
The order of the Court upon this petition is as follows, viz. : " In answer to the petition of Papisseconneway, this Court judg- eth it meete to grant to the saide Papisseconneway and his men, or associates about Naticot, above Mr. Brenton's lands, where it is free, a mile and a half on either side Merrimack river in breadth, three miles on either side in length, provided he nor they do not alienate any part of this grant without leave and license from this Court first obtained."
This grant included two small islands near Thornton's Ferry, now known as Reed's Islands. The whole tract afterwards reverted to the government, and was granted in 1729 to John Richardson, Jos. Blanchard, and others.
Here, however, probably Passaconaway closed his long and eventful life, in weakness and poverty, but a firm friend to the English, and praying to God. The date of his death is unknown. Drake says, there can be no doubt that he was dead some years before Phillip's war. His son Wonalancet was chief of the Pen- acooks in 1669, and his dying charge-as this son testified- was : " Never be enemies to the English ; but love them and love their God also, because the God of the English was the true God, and greater than the Indian gods."
Passaconaway left four sons and two daughters, viz .: Nana- mocomuck, sachem of the Wachusetts ; Wonalancet, sachem of the Penacooks; Unanunquoset; Nonatomenut ; a daughter that married Nobhow, and a daughter that married the sachem of Saugus.
WONALANCET.
THOUGH Wonalancet was the successor of Passaconaway as sagamore of the Penacooks, yet his history belongs as much to Amoskeag, Chelmsford or Pawtucket as to Concord .* In his pacific temper and friendliness to the English, he resembled his father ; but his life seems to have been one of trial, disappoint- ment and sorrow. He was wronged by the whites ; distrusted by the Indians ; a wanderer in the wilderness, in unknown but re- mote places from Penacook ; at one time a prisoner at Dover ; for many years under the watch and supervision of Col. TYNG, of Chelmsford ; and at last he died, like his father, in poverty. The first notice we have of him, as connected with Penacook, is in 1670: "Ile moved to Pawtuckett and built a fort on the heights southeast of the river." Hutchinson thus notices this event : " The Penacooks have come down the river and built a fort at Pawtuckett Falls. They were opposed to Christianity, and obstinately refused to pray to God. They joined in the expedition against the Mohawks, and were almost all destroyed. Since that time the Penacooks were several of them become pray- ing Indians."
In 1674, Wonalancet embraced the Christian faith. His con- version was regarded as an event of great importance, of which Gookin gives the following account : " May 5, 1674, Mr. Elliot preached from Matt. 22 : 1-4, the marriage feast. We met at the wigwam of one called Wonnalancet, about two miles from the town, near Pawtucket Falls, and bordering on Merrimack river. This person Wonnalancet is a sober and grave person, and of years between fifty and sixty. He hath always been loving and friendly to the English. Many endeavours have been used several years to gain this sachem to embrace the
* See IIon. C. E. Potter's notice of Wonalancet, in Farmers' Visitor, 1852.
28
INDIAN HISTORY.
Christian religion ; but he hath stood off from time to time, and not yielded up himself personally, though for four years past he hath been willing to hear the word of God preached and to keep the Sabbath. A great reason that hath kept him off, I conceive, hath been the indisposition and averseness of sundry of his chief men and relations to pray to God ; which he foresaw would desert him, in case he turned Christian. But at this time, May 6, 1674, it pleased God so to influence and overcome his heart, that it being proposed to him to give his answer concerning pray- ing to God, after some deliberation and serious pause, he stood up, and made a speech to this effect :
" Sirs, you have been pleased for four years last past, in your abundant love, to apply yourselves particularly unto me and my people, to exhort, press and persuade us to pray to God. I am very thankful to you for your pains. I have all my days used to pass in an old canoe, (alluding to his frequent custom to pass in a canoe upon the river,) and now you exhort me to change, and leave my old canoe, and embark in a new canoe, to which I have hitherto been unwilling :- but now I yield up myself to your advice, and enter into a new canoe, and do engage to pray to God hereafter."
Brother Elliot was desired to tell this sachem, " that it may be, while he went in his old canoe, he passed in a quiet stream - but the end thereof was death and destruction to soul and body : But now he went into a new canoe, perhaps he would meet with storms and trials ; but yet he should be encouraged to persevere, for the end of his voyage would be everlasting rest." Since that time, says Gookin, " I hear this sachem doth persevere, and is a constant and diligent hearer of God's word, and sanctifieth the Sabbath, though he doth travel to Wamesit meeting every Sabbath, which is above two miles ; and though sundry of his people have deserted him since he subjected to the gospel, yet he continues and persists."
During the period of Phillip's War, as it is called, 1675, Won- alancet, to avoid being involved in any way in the war, withdrew with his men from the banks of the Merrimack into the woods, which excited the suspicions of the English ; and messengers were dispatched to search him out and invite him back. The
29
THE PENACOOKS-WONALANCET.
Court of Massachusetts assured him of a safe pass, if he would come back ; but " he could not be persuaded on to return, but travelled up into the woods still further, and kept about the heads of Connecticut river all winter, where was a place of good hunting for moose, deer, and other wild beasts, and came not either to the English, or his own countrymen, our enemies."
Gookin says, that about the time Wonalancet withdrew into the woods, " Capt. Mosely, with a company of about one hundred soldiers, was sent to Penacook, where it was reported there was a body of Indians; but it was a mistake, for there were not above one hundred in all of the Penacook and Namkeg Indians, whereof Wonalancet was chief. When the English drew nigh, whereof they had intelligence by seouts, they left their fort and withdrew into the woods and swamps." But under these circum- stances Wonalancet evinced his friendly disposition to the Eng- lish ; for he would not allow his men either to lie in ambush, nor in any case to shoot at them, although the English burned their wigwams and destroyed some dried fish.
Returning from his retreats, in 1676 he went to Dover, and submitted himself, with his men, to Maj. Waldron. He also brought back from captivity six English captives-a Widow Kimball and her five children, of Bradford- whom, it seems, he was the means of saving alive, after they had been condemned to death, and fires made ready to burn them. This year, also, Wonalancet and his men were, according to order of the court, placed near Mr. Jonathan Tyng's, at Dunstable, and under his inspection. He also resided next year awhile on land which had been granted him, at Chelmsford, and there he conducted him- self, says Gookin, like " an honest Christian man, being one that in his conversation walks answerably to his knowledge. He prays in his family, and is careful of keeping the Sabbath ; loves to hear God's word, and sober in conversation." Being par- ticularly friendly to the minister of Chelmsford, Rev. Mr. Fiske, it is said that Wonalancet called on him after his return, at the close of the war, and asked him " if the town had suffered much from the enemy." Mr. Fiske replied, " they had not, for which he desired to thank God." " Me next," said Wonalancet, with a smile, concious of the influence he had exerted.
30
INDIAN HISTORY.
The last we hear of Wonalancet was in 1697, when he was again placed under the care of Jonathan Tyng, and the General Court allowed £20 for keeping him. The time and place of his death is unknown. But he never committed an act injurious to the English.
WANUCHUS,
THE DAUGHTER OF PASSACONAWAY; OR,
"THE BRIDAL OF PENACOOK."
THE following story is related by Thomas Morton, in his " New English Canaan," 1632 :*
" The Sachem, or Sagamore of Sagus, made choise, (when hec came to man's estate.) of a Lady of noble discent, Daughter to Papasiquinco, the Sachem or Sagamore of the territories neare Merrimack River- a man of the best note and estimation in all those parts, (and as my Countryman, Mr. Wood, declares, in his prospect,) a great Nigromancer. This Lady the younge Sachem, with the consent and good liking of her father, marries, and takes for his wife. Great Entertainment hee and his receaved in those parts at her father's hands, where they weare fested in the best manner that might be expected, according to the Cus- tome of their nation, with reveling, and such other solemnities as is usuall amongst them. The solemnity being ended, Papasi- quineo causes a selected number of his men to waite upon his Daughter home; into those parts that did properly belong to her Lord and husband-where the attendants had entertainment by the Sachem of Sagus and his Countrymen. The solemnity being ended, the attendants were gratified.
* See Hist. Tracts, by Peter Force, vol. ii., 1838.
31
THE BRIDAL OF PENACOOK.
" Not long after, the new married Lady had a great desire to see her father, and her native country from whence shee came. Her Lord, willing to pleasure her, and not deny her request, (amongst them) thought to be reasonable, commanded a selected number of his owne men to conduct his Lady to her Father, where, with great respect, they brought her ; and having feasted there a while, returned to their owne country againe-leaving the Lady to continue there at her owne pleasure, amongst her friends and old acquaintance : where she passed away the time for a while, and, in the end, desired to returne to her Lord againe. Her father, the old Papasiquineo, having notice of her intent, sent some of his men on ambassage to the younge Sa- chem, his sonne-in-law, to let him understand that his daughter was not willing to absent her selfe from his company any longer ; and, therefore, (as the messengers had in charge,) desired the younge Lord to send a convoy for her ; but hee, standing upon tearmes of honor, and the maintaining of his reputatio, returned to his father-in-law this answere : that when she departed from him, hee caused his men to waite upon her to her father's terri- tories, as it did become him; but, now shee had an intent to returne, it did become her father to send her back with a convoy of his own people ; and that it stood not with his reputation to make himself or his men so servile to fetch her againe. The old Sachem, Papasiquineo, having this message returned, was in- raged, to think that his young son-in-law did not esteeme him at a higher rate than to capitulate with him about the matter, and returne him this sharpe reply ; that his daughter's bloud and birth deserved no more respect than to be so slighted, and, therefore, if he would have her company, hee were best to send or come for her.
" The younge Sachem, not willing to under value him selfc, and being a man of a stout spirit, did not stick to say that he should either send her, by his owne Convey, or keepe her, for hee was not determined to stoope so lowe.
"So much these two Sachems stood upon tearmes of repu- tation with each other, the one would not send her, and the other would not send for her, lest it should be any diminishing of honor on his part, that should seeme to comply, that the Lady (when I
32
INDIAN HISTORY.
came out of the Country) remained still with her father ; which is a thinge worth the noting, that Salvage people should seeke to maintaine their reputation so much as they doe."*
The poet Whittier has made the above story the foundation of a beautiful poem, called the " Bridal of Penacook," whom he names " Weetamoo;" and the Sagamore-groom he calls " Win- nipurkett." The real name of the bride was Wenuchus, or Wanunchus, and of her husband, Montowampate. His English name was James, brother of John, of Lynn. Governor Dudley, in his letter to the Countess of Lincoln, March 12, 1631, says : " Vpon the river of Mistick is seated Saggamore John, and vpon the river Sawgus, Saggamore James, his brother, both so named by the English. John is a handsome young [a line missing,] conversant with us; affecting English Apparell and howses, and speaking well of our God. His brother James is of a perworse disposition, yet repaireth often to us. Both theis brothers com- mand not above thirty or forty men, for aught I can learne. Near to Salem dwelleth two or three families, subject to the Saggamore of Agawam. This Saggamore is himself tributary to Saggamore James-having been before the last yeare in his [James'] minority." This determines the age of the Saugus- groom to be about twenty.
How long his bride was absent, or how she got back, is matter of conjecture. Whittier, with poetic license, represents her as leaving her father's home at Penacook in the spring, alone, in a canoe. She was seen going over the Falls of Amos- keag, where her frail bark was dashed in pieces, and the bride seen no more.
" Sick and a-weary of her lonely life, Heedless of peril, the still faithful wife Had left her mother's grave, her father's door, To seek the wigwam of her chief once more.
" Down the white rapids, like a sear leaf whirled, On the sharp rocks and piled up ices hurled, Empty and broken circled the canoe, In the vexed pool below -But where was ' Wetamoo ?'"
* See " New English Canaan," by Thomas Morton, 1632, in second volume of Tracts, by Peter Force, 1838, pp. 27, 28.
33
THE BRIDAL OF PENACOOK.
Then follows the responsive dirge, chanted by the "Children of the Leaves :"
" The dark eye has left us, The spring bird has flown ; On the pathway of spirits She wanders alone - The song of the wood-dove has died on our shore ; Mat wonck Kunna-monee !* We hear it no more !
" Oh, dark water spirit ! We cast on thy wave These furs which may never Hang over her grave ; Bear down to the lost one the robes that she wore ; Mat wonck Kunna-monee! We see her no more !
" Oh mighty Sowanna!t Thy gate-ways unfold, From thy wigwam of sunset Lift curtains of gold ! Take home the worn spirit whose journey is o'er, ' Mat wonck Kunna-monee! We see her no more !' "
This is indeed beautiful poetry ; but the fact is, that " We- tamoo," alias Wanuchus, found means to get back alive to her sagamore lord. The remaining incidents in her history, and that of her husband, James, are thus related by ancient historians :
" On the 8th of August, 1632, about one hundred Tarrotines landed from their canoes, at Ipswich, in the night, and killed seven of Masconomo's men, wounded Monohaquaham and Mon- towampate, who were on a visit to that place, and carried away Wanuchus, the wife of Montowampate, a captive." Hubbard says : "About the same time, [5th of August, 1632,] came a company of Eastern Indians, called Tarrotines, and, in the night, assaulted the wigwam of the sagamore of Agawam. They were near a hundred in number, and they came with thirty canoes. They slew seven men, and wounded John and James, two sagamores that lived about Boston, and carried others away captive, amongst whom was the wife of the said James, which they sent again (that is, returned,) by the mediation of Mr. Shurd, of Pemaquid, that used to trade with them; and
* Indian phrase -We shall see her no more. t The south-west Heaven.
3
34
INDIAN HISTORY.
sent word by him that they expected something in way of ran- som." On the 4th of September following, there is recorded a sentence of the court on Richard Hopkins, of Watertown, " for selling a gun and pistol, with powder and shot, to Montowampate, the Lynn sagamore"-to "be severely whippt, and branded with a hot iron on one of his cheekes." Winthrop writes, De- cember 5, 1633-" John Sagamore died of the small-pox, and almost all his people-above thirty buried by Mr. Maverick, of Winiscemit, in one day." "James, Sagamore of Saugus, died also, and most of his folks."
But what finally became of Wanuchus, the " Bridal of Pena- cook ?" It is unknown ; but possibly, after the death of Mono- wampate, in 1633, she returned to her aged father ; for that she had two grand-daughters living at Penacook, in 1686, appears from the following testimony: "September 17, 1686. Thomas Guakusses, alias, Capt. Tom, now living at Wamesit, neare Paw- tucket Falls, aged about seventy-five years, testifieth and saith - ' I know two squaws were living about Pennicooke, one named Pahpocksit, and the other's name I do not know; and I knew the grandmother of these squaws, named Wanunchus. She was a principal proprietor of those lands about Naumkeage, now Salem.' "*
TAHANTO.
IN the first notice we have of TAHANTO, he stands before us the earnest opposer of the rum traffic. In the summer of 1668 an Englishman, by the name of Thomas Dickinson, was mur- dered at Penacook by a drunken Indian. The particulars of the murder, with the evidence relative thereto, are detailed in official papers published in the third volume of the N. H. Historical Collections. The summary of the affair is this : By virtue of a
* History of Salem, by Felt.
35
THE PENACOOKS-TAHANTO.
warrant from Gov. Bellingham, of Massachusetts, Thomas Hinks- man, with a sufficient aid, the 18th of August, 1668, " repaired to the trucking house of Capt. Richard Walderne, at Penny- cooke, to make enquiry concerning the killing of an Englishman at the said trucking house, and, also, of what strong liquors have been sold there, and by whom, and when, taking the Indians' evidences therefor, about and concerning the same." Among others examined by Mr. Hinksman, was TAHANTO, sagamore, and Pchaungun, sagamore ; and they say "that one Thomas Payne and the Englishman that is slain, sent several Indians to their masters, Capt. Walderne's and Mr. Peter Coffin's, to Pis- cataque, who told those Indians that they should bring from them guns, powder, shot and cloth ; but instead thereof, Capt. Wal- derne, and the said Peter Coffin returned those Indians back to Pennycooke, loaded only with cotton cloth and three rundletts of liquors, with which liquors there were at least one hundred of the Indians drunk for one night, one day and one half together ; in which time of their being so drunk, the Examinants say, that all the Indians went from the trucking house except one, who re- mained there drunk, and who killed the Englishman-the other Englishman being at the same time in the fort."
The Indians who were examined, further testified, "that an Indian, hearing the slain Englishman cry out, he swam over the river, and went to the trucking house, where he found the Englishman dead ; and presently after he saw the Indian who killed the Englishman going towards the fort with his knife bloody in his hand. The murderer being examined why he had killed the Englishman, said that he was much sorry, and that he had not done it had he not been drunk. When told that they must kill him for it, the murderer answered, he was willing to die for it, and that he was much sorry for the death of said Englishman."
" The Indians then belonging to the fort held a council what to do with the said murderer, who, after some debate, passed sentence that the said murderer should be shot to death ; which sentence was accordingly performed the then next ensuing day, about noon. The said murderer died undauntedly, still saying that he was much sorry for the Englishman's death."
In further investigations, it was testified by John Page, Robb.
36
INDIAN HISTORY.
Parris, Thomas Tarball and Joseph Bloud, October 27, 1668, " That going to Pennycooke on or about the month of June last, and riding to the fort there, they were told that an Eng- lishman was killed by an Indian, and that all the Indians were drunk, else it had not been done. And further, they testify, ' That TAHANTO, a sagamore, being afraid that we had brought liquors to sell, desired us, if we had any, that we would pour it upon the ground, for it would make the Indians all one Divill.'"
In the sequel it appeared that the chief blame in this mur- derous affair was thrown upon Thomas Payne, who was in Peter Coffin's employ, and upon his associate, Dickinson, who was murdered. Capt. Walderne cleared himself, upon his oath, of having any participation in it; but Peter Coffin, who, it seems, was "licensed to trade with the Indians"- though he must do it according to law-was so far implicated with his man Payne, that he confessed " his grief for the miscarriage, and more especially for the dishonor of God therein ;" and "I doe, there- fore, cast myself upon the favor of this honored court, to deal with mee therein as in pytie they shall see cause." Accordingly the court, finding that " said Coffin hath traded liquors irreg- ularly, and contrary to Law, do therefore Judge that he shall pay as a fine to the Country the sum of fifty pounds, and all charges which hath accrued thereby." The next year, May, 1669, it appears from the court record " that Thomas Payne, trader among the Indians at Pennecook, confessed he sold rum to the Indians ; said he did this when Thomas Dickinson was killed by an Indian, and was fined £30."
In honor of Tahanto, for his noble-hearted remonstrance against the rum trade, a temperance society was formed in Concord, in 1835, under the name of Tahantoes, and his fame celebrated in the following stanzas, written by GEORGE KENT, Esq. :
Chieftain of a wasted nation ! Thine no words of promise were - But, in hour of dark temptation, Thine to do, and thine to dare ! When the white man, hovering round thec, Tempted oft thy feet to stray, Indian shrewdness nobly bound thee To the straight and narrow way,
37
THE PENACOOKS-KANCAMAGUS.
With fre-water when invaded, Thine the evil to foresee - Nature's light alone pervaded Minds that ranged the forest free ; But -shame on thy Christian brother ! He, with " light of life " endow'd, Sought, with " liquid fire," to smother Life's true light in death's dark shroud.
When approaching with temptation, Thine to see and shun the snare - Thine to utter, from thy station, Firmly the prevailing prayer :
" Were, of liquor, they the vender, " On the ground at once to pour-
" For the Indians it would render " All one deril, o'er and o'er."
Honor to the chieftain ever ! High his name by fame enroll'd - From his bright example never Be our own departure told ; - Meet for Penacook to rally Under his tee-total name,
Whose resolve, in her fair valley, Quench'd the demon's liquid flame !
KANCAMAGUS.
KANCAMAGUS, known by the English name John Hogkins, or Hawkins, was the last sagamore of the Penacooks. He was a grandson of Passaconaway, and probably son of Nanamoco- muck. He is first mentioned in 1685, when some of the Pena- cooks, who had been to Albany, reported, on their return, that the Mohawks threatened to destroy all the Indians from Narra- gansett to Pechypscot, in Maine. He seems to have possessed some of the worst traits of Indian character-cunning, deceit, treachery and revenge. Conceiving himself slighted by Gov.
38
INDIAN HISTORY.
Cranfield, on his report against the Mohawks, he ever after- even amid professions of friendship, and when begging protec- tion-cherished a spirit of revenge against the English. He seems to have acquired some education, and was able to write. Some letters, reputed to have been written by him, are pre- served ;* the first of which the following is a copy, addressed to Gov. Cranfield, of New-Hampshire :
" May 15, 1685.
" HIONOUR GOVERNOR, MY FRIEND, -
"You my friend I desire your worship and your power, because I hope you can do som great matters this one. I am poor and naked, and I have no man at my place because I afraid allways Mohogs he will kill me every day and night. If your worship when please pray help me, you no let Mohogs kill me at my place at Malamake river, called Panukkog and Nattukkog, I will submit your worship and your power. And now I want powder and such alminishon, shott and guns, because I have forth at my hom, and I plant theare.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.