USA > New Hampshire > Cheshire County > Fitzwilliam > The history of Fitzwilliam, New Hampshire, from 1752-1887 > Part 3
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When, in 1759, the colonists suddenly attacked the Arosa- guntacook or St. Francis Indians in Canada and defeated them, among other things found in the settlement were six or seven hundred English scalps suspended on poles, the trophies of their barbarous warfare. And for forty years after 1703, wherever settlements were made in New Hampshire the Indians, incited by the French, were ready to fall upon them at the most unexpected moment, as when the people were at church or attending a wedding. Penhallow's sicken- ing record gives the names and particulars of the capture, torture, and murder in cold blood of hundreds during this period, as well as of the fearful sufferings that the prisoners of both sexes experienced while wading through the deep snows to Canada and during their captivity, before redemption or death put an end to their miseries. War could be no sooner proclaimed between France and England than the Indians seemed to become acquainted with the fact, as it were, in- stinctively, when the signal would be at once given to renew the work of pillage, burning, and butehery.
But were the Indians never provoked by double-dealing, perfidy, and cruelty on the part of the whites ? In 1703 we find the Colonial Government offering a bounty of forty pounds sterling for every Indian scalp that might be brought in ; and Penhallow tells us that a Captain Tyng was the first to avail himself of the privilege by securing two hundred pounds for five sealps, which he easily obtained by a quiet at- tack upon his victims in the depth of winter. From the " New Hampshire Provincial Papers" we learn that September 6th,
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CHARACTER AND HABITS.
1676, there was a sham fight with two hundred refugee Indians at Dover, when the Indians were suddenly seized. Some of them were soon set at liberty, but many of them were sent to Boston, where five or six were lung for crimes which they had previously committed, while others were sold as slaves. The spirit of kindness and conciliation is not apparent in snch transactions.
From the " Massachusetts Records" of 1676-77 we learn that a day was set apart for public thanksgiving because, among other things of moment, " there now scarce remains a name or family of them (the Indians) but are either slayne, captivated, or fled." Doubtless the wrong involved in the fearful con- fiets and losses of those days is not to be wholly charged to the Indians.
THEIR HABITS.
When not engaged in war they cultivated to some extent the soil, especially the rich lands upon the banks of the streanis and rivers, though it must be said that the squaws seem to have done this work generally. Sometimes ten or fifteen acres of maize could be found in one piece upon the banks of the Connecticut. To keep the surplus for winter use or for a time of famine they built granaries or underground storehouses from five to fifteen feet in diameter, and these they some- times lined with clay. White visitors occasionally applied the term " wigwams" to these granaries, but usually this was the name of their dwellings. These were huts, the best of which contained few if any of the conveniences and comforts of civ- ilized life. After the coming of the white inen they raised also large quantities of beans and squashes, but always depended largely for food upon hunting and fishing. Nuts also of vari- ous kinds were collected by them and stored for food. Ket- tles for boiling they made from soapstone. Except in ex- treme cases they seem to have had a good supply of food. In their domestic life they were like the wild Indians of the North-west at the present time. The squaws were the slaves of the braves, and all the degradation and hardships of savage life were their portion. In war the bow and arrow, the club,
3
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HISTORY OF FITZWILLIAM.
the spear pointed with a sharp stone, and a hatchet or toma- hawk made from the same material furnished their offensive and defensive weapons, but early they manifested a purpose to acquire fire arms if possible. Before 1688 Baron Castine, a French nobleman, had gone among the Indians east of the Penobscot and made a home with them, filling his house with Indian women. This infamous man furnished muskets to the Indians, and from that time forth they became doubly formid- able in warfare. One or two other renegade whites were proved guilty of the same crime against law and humanity, and severely punished. As early as 1626 the settlers at Dover found that the Indians had muskets, and upon investigation it appeared that one Thomas Morton, the ringleader of a com- pany of outlaws whose headquarters were at Braintree, Mass., had sold guns and ammunition to the neighboring Indians. He was at once seized and sent a prisoner to England. In 1631 the General Court ordered " Richard Hopkins to be severely whipped and branded with a hot iron upon one of his cheeks for selling guns, powder, and shot to the Indians."
THIE INDIAN CLAIMS TO THE LAND OF THE NEW WORLD.
If a long and undisputed occupaney can give a valid title to land, they certainly owned this territory. A foreign king, three thousand miles away, who had never set foot upon these lands had no just claim to them ; but he gave them away or permitted the Council of Plymouth in England to dispose of them just as if they had been inherited or obtained by fair purchase.
It is to the credit of the settlers generally that they were not satisfied with the principles and acts of their kings and coun- cils in this respect. The Old Indian Chronicle asserts that " any one will find, by an examination of all the public records of New England, that in no instance was the land taken from the Indians without their consent and without what was then considered a fair compensation." " However small the com- pensation, it was as a general thing all the land was worth."' And Professor Sanborn, in his "History of New Hamp- shire," says, " The New England colonists did generally pur-
3.5
INDIAN CLAIMS.
chase their lands from the Indians. They paid but small sums, and in articles of but little value to themselves, yet the Indians prized them highly ; and they alone had a right to judge of the worth of their territory and of the price of the goods given in exchange for it. They sold willingly, and received their pay with joy." But the same anthor adds that " the settlers of New Hampshire were perhaps less careful than others to ex- tingnish the Indian claim, because chartered companies and royal proprietors assumed the ownership of the soil." In the same line of testimony, the Hon. Charles Bell said before the New Hampshire Historical Society, a few years ago, " There is abundant evidence still surviving to show that every rood of land occupied by the white men for a century after they sat down at Piscataqack was fairly purchased from the Indian proprietors, and honestly paid for."
And in support of these and similar assertions, we have in the appendix of Belknap, Vol. I., the copy of a deed given in 1629 to John Wheelwright and others of Massachusetts Bay, " to them, their heirs and assigns forever," of nearly all the south-eastern part of New Hampshire, "twenty Eng- lish miles into the woods," with various conditions and provisos ; and " for a competent valuation in goods already received, in coats, shirts, and kettles ;" the chief Sagamore and his successors forever to receive, if lawfully demanded. "one coat of trucking cloth a year" for each township laid ont within said tract of land, while the said Wheelwright is to have from the grantors "two bushels of Indian corn each year," etc.
" In witness whereof," etc. Signed by Passaconaway, Runaawitt, Wahangnonawitt, and Rowls, each with his mark and seal, in the presence of two Indians and two whites.
We are obviously unable to determine the real value of the " shirts, coats, and kettles" " already received," but this con- tract has the features of honest business rather than of robbery.
And yet it is very plain that Sir Ferdinando Gorges and Captain John Mason (to whose great ambition and most per- sistent efforts for securing wealth and renown out of the lands in Southern New Hampshire, attention will be directed in
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HISTORY OF FITZWILLIAM.
Chapter IV.) did not make the least effort to satisfy the claims of the Indians to the large territory which they professed to own. And the probability is that the Indian title to the lands about Monadnock was never extinguished in any way by those who purchased and settled this territory between 1740 and 1775 ; for before this period the great chiefs of the Penna- cooks had died, and the tribes subordinate to them had been largely broken up and dispersed.
THE REMOVAL OF THE INDIANS FROM THIS TERRITORY.
Their numbers and power as tribes seem to have waned rapidly after the close of the sixteenth century. Contact with the whites had not generally improved their physical or moral condition. Fewer children were born to them, and they lost, in a great measure, their ambition. Many of their braves had perished in the wars, and those that survived were discour- aged. Gradually the young men and then whole families and tribes withdrew from all contact with civilization. Some went to the East and North-east, and cast in their lot with their old enemies, the Tarrateens ; but the larger part appear to have gone North and joined the Indians on the St. Francis in Canada. But wherever they went they soon lost all tribal distinctions, and practically disappeared from the face of the earth. A few came annually, for a number of years, to hunt about the old mountain and fish in our lakes and streams, but soon returned to Canada or Eastern Maine.
How late the Indians were found roaming over Fitzwilliam it is impossible to say. In 1754, or nearly three years after Monadnock No. 4 was sold to Roland Cotton and others, it was considered hazardous to commence building a meeting- house in Monadnock No. 1 or Rindge, because Indian attacks were feared (see " History of Rindge," p. 63) ; while later than that murders were committed by the Indians in Walpole, Keene, and Hinsdale.
INDIAN REMAINS.
There is no evidence that what is now Fitzwilliam was ever a favorite resort for the Indians, like Hinsdale and Keene, but
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INDIAN REMAINS.
we are assured that for a considerable time after its settlement and incorporation as a town the remains of Indian wigwams were found in the southern part of it, not far from the line that separates New Hampshire from Massachusetts.
Rev. John Sabin is our authority for the following state- ment, which is taken from one of his lectures :
When Mr. Wait dug his cellar, in the south part of the town, a few years ago, he found it thickly laid over, at not more than a suitable dis- tance from each other, with what he supposed once graves, bodies de- posited there. He was satisfied from the lightness of the earth, the color, the smell, and I should think he found something like hair, that human bodies had, at some remote period, been laid there and laid in an orderly manner. It may be as hard to account for them, perhaps, as for the mounds at the west. It may more seem than in any other way of which we know, that the Aborigines, at some period, had their burying- place there, and that makes it more probable that they inhabited not very far distant.
Upon the banks of Camp Brook, near the house where John Camp lived eighty or ninety years ago, the remains of at least two Indian wigwams were found and some Indian utensils. And the same was true of the Lot 1 of the tenth range, in School District No. 11, where Joshua Twitchell built a log- house and lived for a number of years.
A manuscript history of School District No. 11, written many years since, and carefully preserved by Mr. D. Francis White, of that district, informs us that the Indians who visited that part of the town before its settlement were few in number, and that these took up their abode near the large brook which runs through the district, drawn hither plainly by the good fishing which the brook afforded. " My grand- father," says the writer, " told me that the remains of two of their huts or wigwams were to be seen long after his remem- brance, one on the side of the hill near where Benjamin Hay- wood's house now stands, the other on the east side of the brook, on land owned by Benjamin Fisk. The cellar that was dug into the hillside many years ago by the Indians is now plain to be seen."
In confirmation of the opinion expressed in this chapter that
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HISTORY OF FITZWILLIAM.
the region about Mount Monadnock was a favorite resort of roving Indians and Indian families during a part of each sea- son, the testimony is abundant. Of this two items only have been selected, and the details of both are set forth in the vol- ume, " Groton ( Mass.) in the Indian Wars," by Samuel A. Green, M.D. This book is a very valuable contribution to our Indian history. Groton was one of the frontier towns of Massachusetts for a considerable period near the close of the seventeenth century, and every precaution against the sudden and repeated incursions of the Indians was not only required by law, but was found by the inhabitants to be an imperious necessity.
February 16th, 1706, a court-martial was held in that town, by the order of Governor Dudley, for the trial of Lieutenant Seth Wyman, who was charged with the crime of bringing a false report of "the discovery of the Indian Enemy near Monadnock on the 6th instant, and for their re- turn home in a mutinous, disorderly manner without endeavors after a sufficient discovery." The proceedings of this court- martial would occupy too much space for insertion here, but the facts in the case seem to have been as follows : Lieutenant Wyman commanded a small company of men, who were sent out to watch the Indians about the base of Monadnock, that, in case of danger, they might give the alarm to the exposed inhabitants of the frontier towns of Massachusetts ; and hav- ing, as he supposed, if his scouts were truthful, discovered the presence of a large body of advancing savages, he ordered a retreat toward their homes, which retreat, through fright, was conducted in a disorderly manner.
The testimony of the accused officer was as follows :
On the 6th instant on our incamping on Son about an hour high wee sent out Two Scouts, of four men each ; one to march on the left wing ; the other on the Right ; to march about a mile and a half right out upon discovery from the Noyse of our Hatchetts.
He farther saith that after they had bin upon the scout about an hour, that he Saw both Scouts returning together, running toward our Camp as men affrightened, and called to me at a distance to put out our fires for they had discover'd a Body of the Enemy. Then Corp1 Tarbol coming up to me told me that he had discover'd the Enemy ; the first of their
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HUNTING FOR INDIAN SCALPS.
Camps that he discover'd, He said the Noyse of their Hatchetts, were as bigg as our Company, and so reached halfe a mile.
The other part of our Scout told me they had discover'd the Track of Doggs which they Judg'd to be Twenty or Thirty.
Corporal Tarbol, who commanded one company of the scouts, testified that they " saw a smoak," and upon approaching it " heard a great discourse of men which I took to be Indians and French," and upon retreating he said he met the other scout, who reported having seen " a Track of twenty or Thirty Doggs, which they Judg'd to be the Enemyes Doggs," ete. The scouts seem to have been divided in opinion about the presence of the dogs, some supposing the tracks were made by a female wolf with her whelps ; but when they had compared notes the fright became general, and nothing Wyman could do could keep the men together.
This officer seems to have been brave enough, but he was in a region where Indian surprises were to be expected, and his men failed him .*
The second item alluded to is as follows : " Governor Sal- tonstall, of Connecticut, writes from New London, under date of July 23d, 1724, that the friendly Indians of that neighbor- hood seem inclined to hunt for scalps around Monadnock, and the farther side of Dunstable and Groton." (Massachusetts Archives.)
" This was owing," says Dr. Green, " to an offer made about this time (already alluded to in this chapter) by the governments of Massachusetts and New Hampshire, of a bounty of forty pounds for every Indian's sealp that should be taken and shown to the proper authorities. This expedient stimulated volunteers to scour the wilderness for the purpose of hunting Indians ; and Captain John Lovewell, of Dunstable, organized a company, which soon became famous."
This Captain Lovewell seems to have led at least two expedi- tions against the Indians before he started out upon the one which proved so disastrous to himself and nearly all his com- mand on the borders of Lovewell's Pond, near Fryeburg, Me.
* According to the best information relative to this matter, the scene of this fright was in the south-east part of Fitzwilliam, or in the neighboring town of Rindge.
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HISTORY OF FITZWILLIAM.
After one of these forays he entered Dover, N. H., in triumph, bearing stretched on hoops ten Indian scalps. These he took to Boston, and obtained the large bounties offered by the Massachusetts government.
The region about Monadnock was plainly regarded as very favorable for such expeditions because no large company of Ind- ian warriors would there be encountered. A roaming sav- age with his squaw could be shot down without great personal peril.
CHAPTER III.
THE MONADNOCK REGION IN 1740-TIIE OLD MILITARY ROAD.
Appearance of the Country-Old Road.
THE towns that chuister around the base of this mountain, T of which Fitzwilliam is one, have in some respects a pe- culiar history. The size and isolation of the mountain and its distance from any other lofty elevations with which to com- pare it make this entire region unlike any other in New Eng- land, while, as we shall see in the next chapter of this history, the early negotiations for the sale, purchase, and settlement of these towns had many singular features.
As a matter of course, that which gives character to this en- tire region of country is the grand old mountain itself. The height of this is not so remarkable, as its loftiest peak is only three thousand one hundred and eighty-six feet above the level of the sea, and many of the peaks in Northern New Hampshire have a greater altitude. But it stands out alone, the one great mountain of Southern New Hampshire and of the north-eastern and northern central parts of Massachusetts, while the beauty and grandeur of its outlines never fail to rivet the attention and move the sensibilities of the beholder. From an early period it was styled " the Grand Monadnock," and this distinctive name is plainly of Indian origin.
When this part of New Hampshire was opened for settle- ment the entire mountain, with the exception of one com- paratively unimportant peak, is said to have been covered with trees similar to those that now eover the lower portions of it, though, of course, much smaller, and stunted to a much greater degree as the top was approached. This forest seems to have been largely prostrated by a heavy gale near the be- ginning of the present century, and at a later period wholly
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HISTORY OF FITZWILLIAM.
consumed by fire. Then the rains and melting snows carried forward the process of denudation rapidly, while the winds aided in the work, till from the upper portions of the moun- tain nearly all the soil that had been accumulating for cen- turies disappeared, leaving the great mass of coarse rock bare as we see it to-day.
These statements come to us by tradition mostly, but there is no reason to question their substantial truth.
The " Bald Peaks" on the mountain (as the naked spot before alluded to is said to have been called) doubtless presented to the early explorers the only place from which an uninter- rupted view could have been obtained, and seen from this, the entire region, with the exception of some small natural mead- ows and the ponds, was one immense forest. From that ele- vation the sharp and long hills, which are so prominent a fea- ture in all these towns, disappeared and the beholder looked out upon what seemed to be a level country, a plain extend- ing as far as the eye could reach. The explorers and settlers of some of the towns of Northern Massachusetts, thirty or forty miles south of us, were similarly deceived as they sur- veyed the region from the summit of Wachusett, and fondly supposed they were locating their farms and building their log houses upon a great plain, with a soil as deep, rich, and easily worked as is that which attracted the pioneers in the valley of the Connecticut River.
Such was the appearance of these rugged towns about Monadnock in 1740. The country seemed to be one great and fertile plain, interspersed with the many shining lakes that are now so prominent a feature of the landscape, with the little threads of brooks and larger streams running in various direc- tions. Then as now in all the surrounding country the grand feature of the whole was the massive and majestic mountain. This, though legally belonging to our neighbors, Dublin and Jaffrey, is in a large sense common property ; and these neighbors are not jealous of their rights in this valuable in- heritance. We are always welcome to feast our eyes upon the inspiring scenery which makes the whole region glad, and to drink in the pure air which is so delicious and healthful a draft
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MONADNOCK-OLD MILITARY ROAD.
to multitudes of the weary workers that come up, year by year. from our crowded cities. No views of the mountain are bet- ter than many from the homes of Fitzwilliam, while a good carriage-road of five miles' length from the centre of our town brings us to the base of the mountain.
The following extracts from the historical lecture of Rev. John Sabin, in 1842, may be of interest to such as are disposed to complain of the roughness, the stones and rocks of this region :
Some almost wonder that this town was ever built on, and that a com- munity should settle here. But in early days it was a land of high credit, and I am told by the old minister of Jaffrey, Mr. Ainsworth, that the Monadnock region since his remembrance has been as much extolled as now is any part of the West. Within two days I am told by a son of an early settler in this part of Jaffrey that the fear at first was there would not be stone for fencing. We can have no question but in its natural state this town had its beauties, nor did its rocks appear as they have since.
THE OLD MILITARY ROAD.
During the almost constant wars with the French and Ind- ians from 1735 to 1760, it was a matter of the first impor- tance to keep open some way of direct communication between Eastern Massachusetts and the frontier toward Canada. In the early part of this period Massachusetts claimed as a part of her territory all that now constitutes the States of Maine, New Hampshire, and Vermont, and for some time manned and supported the forts on the Connecticut River at Great Meadow ( Westmoreland), at Upper Ashuelot (Keene), at No. 4 (Charlestown), * and Fort Dummer at Brattleborough, Vt. But in order to transport the munitions of war with the
* In 1733 the government of Massachusetts granted to Josiah Willard and others a township named Arlington, which embraced the main portion of the territory now constituting the towns of llinsdale and Winchester. At a little later date four town- ships were granted extending northward along the east bank of the Connecticut River, which were named Nos. 1, 2, 3 and 4, and which were nearly identical with the present towns of Chesterfield, Westmoreland, Walpole, and Charlestown. The settlement of the boundary-line between Massachusetts and New Hampshire in 1740 brought all these towns within the limits of New Hampshire, of course invalidating all the Mas- sachusetts grants ; but the designation of Charlestown as No. 4 being found convenient to distinguish it from Charlestown, Mass., it was retained for a long time, and is some- times heard even at the present day.
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HISTORY OF FITZWILLIAM.
troops through the wilderness to the frontier forts, roads for wheel vehicles became a necessity, and accordingly were con- structed. The records of the times inform us that during those wars such a road was made between No. 4 (Charlestown) and Crown Point on Lake Champlain, and, without doubt, it was built by the province of Massachusetts. To hold posses- sion of the place last mentioned was a matter of the first im- portance, as Crown Point, in a good measure, commanded Lake Champlain, and the route through it was the one generally taken by the French and Indians in their incursions upon the British possessions and settlements. The military road just named was, therefore, an important link in the route between Eastern Massachusetts and Canada, especially since the passage through the wilderness from Portland, Me., to the St. Law- rence was attended by the greatest hardships and perils. The Indians had trails through Northern Massachusetts and Southern New Hampshire over which they passed with their captives and booty, but these were of no value for the trans- portation of provisions, guns, and ammunition for the forts and offensive operations beyond.
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