USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > Fitzwilliam > The history of Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire, from 1752-1887 > Part 2
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There are many towns in New England that are popularly regarded as having a great superabundance of rocks and stones. and as chiefly remarkable for these, and Fitzwilliam is doubt- less one of them ; but the present generation has learned to re- gard its bowlders and ledges as anything but a nuisance, as will be seen when the industries of the town shall be consid- ered. There is a mine of wealth in these.
Over a large part of Fitzwilliam there is found, at no great depth in digging wells, an almost solid rock. This is generally of a somewhat finer grain, though of a similar character to the rocks and bowlders on the surface of the ground. Nearly all these rocks are granitic. Many of them are unfit for monu- mental or ornamental work, while nearly all over the town numerous ledges and bowlders are found which afford the best material for such purposes. Generally the underlying rock is reached at a greater depth in the valleys than on the tops and sides of the hills, but it seems to extend under nearly the whole territory and to present on its upper surface something like the variations of hill and valley now visible. The water obtained from wells sunk into this rock is generally hard rather than soft, but is sweet and healthful for drink and all domestic uses.
These statements will show the reason why the attempt to obtain water by what are called " driven wells" (that have been found so serviceable in many parts of the country) has been unsuccessful in Fitzwilliam. Upon the sides of the hills springs of the purest water are found in considerable number, and this is conveyed to many of the dwellings, to the great comfort and convenience of the people.
The geological structure of this entire region has been so often described and is so well understood that it need not be
20
HISTORY OF FITZWILLIAM.
enlarged upon in this connection. Rev. Mr. Sabin says of Fitzwilliam that
it appears to be a spur of Monadnock, lower, but much of it of like material. It looks as though at some time, either at that of the Flood or by some volcanic eruption, there has been hereabout an awful convul- sion and struggle of nature. Of this the mountain itself stands as the more prominent witness.
This town is elevated above most of the adjoining territory, as will be seen from the statistics that follow. The figures give, in feet, the altitude above the level of the sea at mean tide-water :
Fitzwilliam, at hotels (barometric). 1150.
Jaffrey Centre 66
1057
Richmond
1080.
Winchester 66 400.
Winehendon, Mass., measurement by levelling ... 992.
East Jaffrey
66 . . 1032.
Troy
66
.. 1002.
Marlborough
66
.. 789.
Keene
66
. . 479.
Altitude at points on the Cheshire Railroad,
State Line Station . 89S.
Collins Pond, water, 1062 ; track 1067.
Fitzwilliam Station. 1063.
Summit. 1151.
Rockwood Pond (water) 1112.
The highest elevation in Fitzwilliam is West Hill, some- times called Little Monadnock, about sixteen hundred feet. Then follows the Pinnacle, fourteen hundred feet. Gap Mountain is about sixteen hundred feet in height, but both summits are in Troy.
SOIL.
This cannot be said to be naturally rich, like the soil in large portions of the valley of the Connecticut River, and yet it is strong, as the heavy forests which covered this territory one hundred and fifty years ago gave ample testimony. When
21
SOIL AND CLIMATE.
the stones and rocks have been so far removed that the soil is fairly open to cultivation, very good crops of grass, corn, and potatoes are raised. Still, owing to the great labor and ex- pense involved in clearing the land, agriculture is not carried on as extensively or profitably as in some of the other towns in the southern part of Cheshire County ; while it is very plain that in considerable portions of the town the land is more valuable for the growth of wood and timber than for any other purpose. Trees here increase in size rapidly, and what may be called the waste lands of the town will doubtless soon have a value attached to them that the present generation can hardly appreciate.
CLIMATE.
A town as elevated as Fitzwilliam and in as high a latitude (this being about 42° 50' north) must have a climate of con- siderable severity in the winter season. Throughout the en- tire region about Mount Monadnock the snow usually falls to a great depth, and is often driven into deep drifts by the heavy winds that prevail. Fitzwilliam is like the adjoining towns in this respect, as the large bills for breaking out the roads after severe snow-storms attest. But though the winters are far from mild, and often tax the patience and strength of the aged and feeble, there is much that is commonly called " steady cold weather," and this is not in any way detrimental to health. The mercury often sinks low, but not as low as it frequently does in the vicinity of Boston. Very cold days some- times occur, but this is true all over New England, and more notably still in the North-west States and Territories. The compiler of these pages well remembers the cold day of the winter of 1871-72. It was March 13th ; the sky was over- cast, the wind from the north-west blew a hurricane, and at the warmest hour of the day the glass indicated from 12º to 16° below zero. In Keene the high school dispensed with its afternoon session, so dangerous was exposure to the blast. But in nature, as in much else, disadvantages are not without their compensations. Late frosts in the spring may occasion- ally hinder planting and injure the springing crops in Fitz-
22
HISTORY OF FITZWILLIAM.
william, but early frosts in the autumn, which are so destruc- tive often in what are deemed the best localities in New England, rarely check the growth of vegetation in this town. Sometimes a heavy frost that will occasion much damage in the lower towns, even as far south as the central portions of Connecticut, will not injure the growing crops in Fitzwilliam. In summer the climate is thoroughly enjoyable, for thought the heat at noon may be called oppressive, there is a cleanness and clearness in the air that make breathing a luxury, while the breezes of the morning and evening greatly refresh the physical system.
That the climate of this town has been healthy from the first settlement of it the bills of mortality, which will be noticed hereafter, give the most conclusive testimony.
PRODUCTIONS.
Formerly, as was true in the adjoining towns, flax was raised in considerable quantities, all of which was used in the manufacture of clothing. Corn, rye, oats, harley, and pota- toes are the crops chiefly raised at the present time, but these are not produced as extensively as they were fifty years ago, owing chiefly to the more pressing demand for labor in other and more remunerative industries.
That the fertility of the soil has been largely exhausted (which is a complaint that comes up to us from some of the adjoining towns) would hardly be a truthful statement, for the decrease in the agricultural products of Fitzwilliam is easily accounted for by the increased demand for manual labor in other and more inviting occupations. A Fitzwilliam farmer once told the writer that every bushel of corn which he raised cost him one dollar and a half at ordinary wages, when he conld purchase the same quantity for one half of the money ; but he plainly omitted some important elements in his calenla- tions, such as the improvement of his field for a crop of grass, the fodder for his cattle from the stalks of the corn, and the loads of turnips and pumpkins that the corn land yielded. Fitzwilliam, in common with the neighboring towns, has good
23
PRODUCTIONS-THE RHODODENDRON.
pastures, in which cattle from Central Massachusetts fatten during the summer and autumn.
The wild small fruits, such as the strawberry, the blueberry, the blackberry, and the raspberry are nowhere more abundant, and seldom elsewhere have as rich a flavor.
THE RHODODENDRON. (The Rose-tree.)
This remarkable flowering shrub (which sometimes attains to the height and size of a small tree) is cultivated very largely in the vicinity of Boston, notably by Mr. H. H. Hunnewell in his beautiful gardens in Wellesley, that are so conspicuous across Waban Lake from Wellesley College. By careful cultivation the rhododendron is there brought to wonderful perfection ; and its blossoms, which are very large, rival the famous azaleas of the same locality in the variety and exquisite delicacy of their color.
About two miles north-west from the centre of Fitzwilliam. on the old Patch Place, is a locality where the rhododendron is found in its natural state. Once this tract must have em- braced some acres, and even now, after not a little of the land has been partially cleared up, the shrub is very abundant. As it grows in the edge of the thick forest, its clusters of leaves and beautiful blossonis may be seen among the branches of the trees twenty or even thirty feet from the ground, suggesting a vine rather than a shrub.
The blossoms, which are very large, are, in color, of a pearly. white, while the long leaves of the shrub are noted for their wonderful gloss. This locality is visited annually by many tourists and summer residents that pass two or three months of the year in Fitzwilliam and the towns adjoining. So far as is known, the wild rhododendron is found at no other place in New Hampshire, and in but two or three localities in New England.
The mountain laurel attains great perfection in Fitzwilliam, especially in the southern part of the town. When this shrub is in full bloom, the scene is a gorgeous one in the vicinity of the South Pond.
24
HISTORY OF FITZWILLIAM.
FORESTS.
These were very heavy when the town was opened for set- tlement, and the work of clearing the land for tillage was ex- tremely exhausting. A hill in the township over which a fire had spread twenty or thirty years before the first settlers came, was seized upon by them for their earliest farming oper- ations, because the trees on it were young and comparatively small. The white pine was a noble tree in all this region one hundred and fifty years ago, and all of sufficient size were ex- pressly reserved "for His Majesty's navy," in the charter stipulations of this town. Oaks, beeches, birches, ashes, and especially maples, both the rock and the white, abound. Less maple sugar is made than formerly, as the ancient maple orchards have been largely removed for timber and fire-wood.
Of the common fruit trees, the apple is almost the only one that secures general confidence for a long term of years. The pear does tolerably well in some localities ; the peach is disap- pointing. The earlier (and these are often the choicest) kinds of grapes can doubtless be cultivated with success in Fitzwil- liam. The season is too short for the Isabella and other late varieties, but the Hartford prolific, and, better still, a number of Rogers seedlings will doubtless ripen here nearly as well as in the other lower towns of New Hampshire.
BIRDS AND WILD ANIMALS.
Throughout the entire Monadnock region the same varieties of these are found, and, with the exception of some of the lat- ter, the kinds have not changed during the last one hundred and fifty years. Originally the deer, the bear, the wolf, and the catamount were found here in considerable numbers. The three last mentioned were a source of constant terror and of considerable loss to the early settlers, as will be seen in the sequel. These ferocious beasts found a safe retreat, for a long time, among the rocks and clifts of Monadnock ; but as the population increased and the forests were removed abont the base and upon the sides of the mountain, their retreats were no longer secure, and they gradually disappeared. Probably none now exist in this region.
25
LAKES AND PONDS.
LAKES AND STREAMS.
Fitzwilliam has, according to Farmer's New Hampshire Gazetteer, four natural ponds :
South Pond, which, as its name indicates, lies in the south- ern part of the town, is a large and handsome sheet of water nearly a mile in length and about one third of a mile in its greatest breadth. Forests nearly encirele it, and it furnishes at the outlet good water- power for the mills at Howeville. The view of the pond and its surroundings, taken from the bridge at its outlet, showing the picturesque sheet of water embowered among the hills, with the grand old Monadnock towering over all in the distance, is one of surpassing beauty.
Farther east, and near the south-east corner of the town, lies another large and attractive sheet of water called Sip Pond, a name given it early in the history of the town, from Scipio Jawhaw. Sip was a negro who lived near the pond, and was possibly a runaway or freed slave. His wife is said to have been an Indian, and from her this sheet of water was sometimes called Squaw Pond. This pond was famous early for its un- common supply of large and fat pickerel.
Rockwood Pond, called at first Foster Pond, lies in the north-west part of the town, and its outlet furnishes the valu- able water-power in the village of Troy. Various kinds of tish abound in it, particularly the horned pont, which when skinned and fried furnishes a wholesome and welcome dish for the table.
Collins Pond is the fourth of the natural ponds, and is smaller than either of those already mentioned. To these may be added as a natural pond the one in Troy village, which was within the original limits of Fitzwilliam.
There are several artificial ponds or mill reservoirs of con- siderable size, among which may be mentioned Bowker Pond, Meadow Pond, and the Scott Reservoir.
It will be observed that Fitzwilliam has not as many lakes or large ponds as some of the adjoining towns, notably Rindge and Jaffrey, for Rindge has thirteen and Jaffrey more than half as many.
26
HISTORY OF FITZWILLIAM.
As the streams of Fitzwilliam generally rise in the town and run out of it, it cannot be expected that any of them will be large. As a matter of fact, all are small. The larger ones are Scott or Priest Brook, in the eastern part of the town, and Camp or Chaplin Brook, in the south-west part. The larger ponds mentioned discharge a body of water of considerable size, but in each case the course of these streams in Fitzwilliam is short, and they soon reach the adjoining towns.
Nearly or quite all the brooks were originally well stocked with fish, but these have largely disappeared, as the streams have been improved for manufacturing purposes.
The drainage of the town is all into the Connecticut River. The three streams that flow into Massachusetts continue south- ward and make three branches of Miller's River, entering the Connecticut at Montague. These streams receive the water of all the south and east parts of the town, comprising about three fourths of the entire area of the original township. The streams from the north and north-west parts of the town unite with the south branch of the Ashuelot, and enter the Connecti- eut in Hinsdale.
A semicircle drawn from West Hill through the Pinnacle to Gap Mountain defines the water-shed of the town with sufficient accuracy.
CHAPTER II.
THE INDIANS OF SOUTHERN NEW HAMPSHIRE.
Indian Names-The Five Great Tribes of New England-Numbers-Char- acter and Habits-Sales of Land-Removal-Remains-Confirmatory Statements.
THE authorities chiefly consulted in preparing this chapter are :
1. Penhallow (Samuel), The History of the Wars with the Eastern Indians. Boston : Printed by T. Fleet for S. Ger- rish, at the lower end of Cornhill, and D. Henchman, over against the Brick Meeting-House in Cornhill, 1726. The in- valuable diary of this author was destroyed by the great fire at Portsmouth, N. H., December, 1805. Mr. Penhallow was born in England, but came to America in 1686. The " Soci- ety for Propagating the Gospel among the Indians" offered him twenty pounds sterling a year, for three years, if he would acquire a knowledge of the Indian language, and sixty pounds annually during life if he would become a preacher to the Indians. The latter offer he declined, as he became a suc- cessful Portsmouth merchant and official of New Hampshire, dying December. 1726. His history is very rare in its orig- inal form, but has been wisely reprinted by private enterprise, and also in its collections by the New Hampshire Historical Society.
2. Belknap's History of New Hampshire, two volumes, 1784 and 1791. The great storehouse of knowledge upon the early history of this State. The edition of Farmer, Secretary of the New Hampshire Historical Society, has very valuable notes.
3. New Hampshire Historical Collections, edited by Rev. Dr. N. Bouton.
4. New Hampshire Provincial Papers.
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HISTORY OF FITZWILLIAM.
5. Histories of New Hampshire, by Barstow, Sanborn, and Whiton.
6. History of Northfield, Mass., by Rev. J. H. Temple and Mr. George Sheldon, 1875. A work of great merit, and al- most the only recent town history that throws light upon the Indians of Southern New Hampshire.
7. Groton (Mass.) During the Indian Wars, by Samuel A. Green, M.D., Librarian of the Massachusetts Historical Society.
8. Massachusetts Records.
9. Old Indian Chronicles, published after the war with King Philip.
10. Plymouth (Mass. ) Records.
11. Drake's American Biography.
ORTHOGRAPHY OF INDIAN NAMES.
This seems to be mostly mechanical, and no uniformity has been observed by different writers. Professor Sanborn says that there are more than forty different modes of spelling the name of the lake Winnepesaukee, which means "the beauti- ful water in the high place." Hardly any two persons would use the same letters in spelling a word pronounced by an Indian.
Hawaii, the name of the largest of the Sandwich Islands, was spelled Owyhee fifty years ago. On an ancient survey (1774) of the Nipmuch or Nepent Indian country, Monadnock is spelled Menadnock. See " Old Indian Chronicles."
To furnish a brief sketch of the Indians that roamed over rather than inhabited the region about Mount Monadnock from one hundred and fifty to two hundred years ago is all that will be here attempted.
Rev. J. H. Temple, of Framingham, Mass., who has studied the Indian history most carefully, says, in a private letter to the writer, that "in all the published works relative to the history of the Indians of New England, you will find a gener- ality and indefiniteness that is perplexing. The contemporary writers say so much that you know they could have said much
29
INDIAN TRIBES.
more, and this much more is just what you want to find out." This is the experience of all who undertake to investigate this matter.
When the first white settlers arrived in New England it was inhabited by five great tribes or divisions of Indians.
1. The Pequots, who dwelt in Connecticut.
2. The Narragansetts, that had their abode in Rhode Island.
3. The Pawnannankitts, of Nantucket and the adjacent islands.
4. The Massachusetts, that inhabited the State named for them ; and
5. The Pantucketts, of New Hampshire and Maine.
We are chiefly concerned in this history with the division last mentioned. This was divided into various tribes, the most im- portant of which was the Pennacooks, who had their home on the Merrimac, in the vicinity of Concord. The Pennacook Lake perpetuates their name. Many of the smaller tribes of this region were subordinate to the Pennacooks, and among them, according to Farmer, were the four tribes in the valley of the Connecticut River, located north of Springfield, Mass., and these were the tribes that appear to have been more or less concerned in the destructive attacks upon the settlements in the western part of Cheshire County.
Among the other subordinate tribes inhabiting Eastern New Hampshire and South-western Maine were the Amoskeaks, who, as tradition informs us, had their permanent quarters where the village of Amoskeag now stands, just north of Manchester above the Amoskeag Falls. These falls were the favorite resort of the Indians of all the region, because the salmon-fishery there was regarded as the best in the territory of New Hampshire.
NOTE ON THE MOHAWKS.
This powerful tribe dwelt on the Mohawk River and upper Hudson in New York, but was a terror to the Indians in the Connecticut Valley, and even as far east as the Merrimac. The name of these Indians, Mohogs, which signifies men-eaters, from moho, to cat, became at length Mohawks. (Eliot's Key.) The following petition tells its own story. Hogkins was one of the sachems of the Pennacooks.
30
HISTORY OF FITZWILLIAM.
Honor Governor my friend. May 15, 1685.
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 men at my place because I afraid allwayes 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 in 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 plant there.
This is all Indian hand, but pray do not consider your humble servant John Hogkins.
Witnessed by fourteen Indians, all but one of whom signed by marks.
The great chief of the Pennacooks was Passaconaway. Belknap gives this account of him :
He excelled the other sachems in sagacity, duplicity, and moderation ; but his principal qualification was his skill in some of the secret opera- tions of nature, which gave him the reputation of a sorcerer and extended his fame and influence among all the neighboring tribes. They believed that it was in his power to make water burn and trees dance, and to metamorphose himself into flame ; that in winter he could raise a green leaf from the ashes of a dry one, and a living serpent from the skin of one that was dead.
Passaconaway was more friendly to the settlers than his subordinate sachems generally ; and it is added that at a great dance and feast, being an old man, he made
his farewell speech to his children and people ; in which, as a dying man, he warned them to take heed how they quarrelled with their Eng- lish neighbors ; for though they might do them some damage, yet it would prove the means of their own destruction. He told them that he had been a bitter enemy of the English, and by the arts of sorcery had tried his utmost to hinder their settlements and increase, but could by no means succeed.
His son and successor, Wonolanset, seems to have inherited his father's caution and sagacity, for later, when a general Ind- ian war broke out, he led his people into a region quite re- mote from the scene of action that they might not be involved in the conflict. At a later period still Wonolanset is said to have heard Eliot preach to the Indians, and to have professed conversion to Christianity.
31
NUMBERS, CHARACTER AND HABITS.
In F. G. Drake's " Biography of Distinguished Americans," it is asserted that Passaconaway invited Eliot to take up his abode near the Pennacooks, that he and his people " might be taught the Christian religion," as he had avowed his belief in God.
Such was the great chief that for a long time held sway about Monadnock .*
NUMBERS OF THE NEW HAMPSHIRE INDIANS.
It is impossible to arrive at any definite conclusions upon this matter. They doubtless seemed to the whites vastly more numerous than they actually were. In their attacks upon the settlements they never appeared upon the open field in a body, but would shoot down their victims from behind trees and roeks ; and as the firing came from many quarters at the same moment, a few dozen warriors would be magnified into thou- sands in popular estimation. The four tribes in the Connecti- cut Valley alluded to above did not probably exceed twelve hundred all told, with two hundred braves, while the early settlers were establishing themselves in Keene, Walpole, Winchester, and Hinsdale. And it is nearly certain that the entire Indian population of Central and Southern New Hamp- shire in the year 1700 did not exceed four thousand, of whom possibly six hundred were warriors.
CHARACTER AND HABITS OF THE NEW HAMPSHIRE INDIANS.
With regard to the Indian character in general, this must be said : while the apostles to the Indians, Eliot and the May- hews, found those with whom they dealt often tractable and, to a considerable extent, kind, generous, and faithful, the gen- eral verdict of the settlers was that they were naturally deceit- ful, treacherous, and cruel to the last degree. Penhallow, in his introduction to " The History of the Indian Wars," speaks of the Indians " as implacable in their revenge as they are terrible in the execution of it ; and will convey it down to the third and fourth generation. No courtesy will ever oblige
* The Concord Railroad Company perpetuates the memory of these ancient Indian chiefs by giving their names to some of their engines.
32
HISTORY OF FITZWILLIAM.
them to gratitude ; for their greatest benefactors have fre- quently fallen victims to their fury."
And almost every one of the one hundred and forty broad pages of this old history is simply a harrowing record of Indian atrocities. Of their treachery, the same author assures us that at the conclusion of a treaty with them in 1703, when volleys were to be fired on both sides to ratify it, and the English were asked (as they supposed by way of compliment) to fire first, which they readily did, it was soon learned that the guns of the Indians were charged with bullets as well as powder.
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