USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Warren > The history of Warren; a mountain hamlet, located among the White hills of New Hampshire > Part 25
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* Captain Absalom Peters graduated at Dartmouth College in 1780. His health failed him and he settled on a farm in Wentworth, N. H. In Oct. 1780, a great alarm was occasioned by the destruction of Royalton, Vt., and from a report that 4,000 British troops had crossed Lake Champlain with the intention of proceeding to the Connecticut river. At this time Captain Peters marched at the head of six companies from the northern part of New Hampshire to Newbury, Vt., the place appointed for the rendezvous, and on his arrival was aid to Maj. Gen. Bailey which he sustained till the close of the war .- N. H. Hist. Coll. Vol. iii. 245.
Captain Peters lived in Warren in 1793, and had at that time living with him a " little nigger boy " named Prime. One very rainy day he told Prime to get the cows; but "young sooty " wouldn't, and unbeknown to Captain Peters, hid under the barn. About dark the Captain went after them himself and hallooed for Prime all over the pasture. He drove them up and hallooed " little nig" in the barn-yard, but got no answer. While milking, Captain P. happened to turn his head and saw
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HISTORY OF WARREN.
ing land of Wentworth for his home, went marching through our hamlet to the rescue, at the head of six companies. Hundreds of pounds of powder and balls, a thousand flints and more, tin ket- tles, borax, New England rum, files, and a screw-plate, were forwarded to " Cowass," to the care of Col. Charles Johnson and Maj. B. Whitcomb. They put all these munitions of war and men to good use, and did guard duty most valorously.
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But they could not do every thing; they could not prevent a panic, and to provide for that, our township of Warren went to work bravely. The citizens enlarged their houses, increased the number of their beds, raised more provisions, cut more hay to put in their barns, and then last of all called a town meeting to provide for emergencies in case of " great alarums."
Without a dissenting voice they determined March 22, 1780, in order to receive their neighbors properly, who generally came pretty much out of breath, " to lay up a stock of provisions to be delt out as it appears to be wanted." " Voted to raise two hun- dred wait of flour and two hundred wait of beef for this present year, to be dealt out in case of alarum." " Chose Joshua Copp and Obadiah Clement a Committee to provide the towns stock of provisions."*
Having thus handsomely provided for their friends, then, if the terrible foe should pursue across the highlands by Tarleton lake or up the wild roistering Oliverian, our mountaineers were also prepared to receive him in a manner which would not be quite so agreeable. They procured a good stock of lead, powder, and flints, scoured up their muskets, and bloodshed would have followed had the Britishers only ventured within the border. The Coos neighbors often came to Warren; but King George's troops and allies, never.
And now Warren had a different kind of warlike excitement.
Prime's white eyes and teeth looking out from under the barn. Peters was mad. He took Prime into the house, stood him on a case of drawers and told him to answer in the same tour he used. First, Peters whispered the word " Prime," and Prime answered back in a whisper. Taen ho raised his pitch until he shouted so that he could be heard half a mile, and"" little sooty " strained himself so much trying to answer, that he looked white in the fase and was well punished. The neighbors who heard were greatly amused, and it is said that Prime was a good boy and never hid under the barn again.
Captain Peters generally weut barefoot. When elected to the legislature by the town of Wentworth, he wore shoes; but he said it made his feet so tender it took more than six months to toughen them.
* Town Clerk's Records, Vol. i. 7.
291
COLONEL GREELEY ARRESTED.
When the tide of battle was rolling through the south and Genl. Greene was winning glory, fighting with Cornwallis, John Balch, who still rode post, brought the news that our great Committee of Safety were trying Col. Jonathan Greeley, one of the old proprie- tors " for practices inimical to the United States." Our citizens were greatly roused by the intelligence, for Col. Greeley had been one of their best patrons. But when they learned that he had been found guilty and sentenced to give a bond for his behavior to Gen. Folsom, and was confined to his own house and a certain portion of the highway, eighty rods or so in length, limited by the flag- staff on the east and the old burying ground on the west, they were almost as much excited as when they heard of Gen. Stark's great victory at Bennington. But Col. Greeley did not long remain in confinement. He had good friends on the committee and they well remembered what a fine fellow he was as mine host in old East Kingston, and they soon let him off easy .*
But in nine days this affair was an old story, so fast did events hasten in these troublesome times. Something new came almost every day and when the fortune of war hung trembling in the balance and victory inclined first to one side and then the other, away up in this northern country, in the wild forests of the New Hampshire Grants, discontent was fomenting, treason to the young republic of New Hampshire was hatching, and a power in the west, almost like Satan in Heaven, was trying to draw off one- third of New Hampshire's beautiful towns, Warren among them, lying in the vicinity of Connecticut river. Who did it? It was the delightful-would-be-Green-mountain State; that could not get admitted to the Union, that was determined not to go with old England, and so was planning how a free and independent repub- lic she might set up for herself.
All the territory and the greatest population possible was essential in the highest degree, and so, as has been softly insin- uated, in imitation of the fond mother country, agents from west of the Connecticut crossed that bright stream and labored in all the bordering eastern towns. Their logic was powerful, and their tongues persuasive, and a score of young democracies were almost influenced to cast their lot with that of the young empire to the
* N. H. Hist. Coll. Vol. vii.
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HISTORY OF WARREN.
west. So much progress was made that a convention was called to meet at Charleston, N. H., and the townships agreed to send delegates.
Warren was wide awake. Still business must be performed in a manner that should comport with the solemnity and dignity of the occasion. A town meeting was called. It was held Jan. 3d, 1781, and was " to see if the town will send one man to attend on the convention to be held at Charlestown on the third Tuesday of January, inst., at one o'clock afternune, according to an enno- tification sent from the county of Chester."*
After a long discussion chose Obadiah Clement to attend the convention at " Charlestown, No. 4," and as it was very important whether they should belong to the great " Amphictyonic council," of the east or to that of the west, a committee consisting of the most dignified and influential men of the hamlet, was chosen to instruct the delegate elect how he should act. It consisted of Joshua Copp, William Butler, John Whitcher, Thomas Clark, and Isaiah Batchelder. .
They performed their duty faithfully, and in mid winter Col. Clement mounted on his strong black stallion, rode away through the woods, over the mountains, down the Connecticut to " Charles- town, No. 4."
Col. Clement attended the Convention thoroughly. What transpired has never been fully written in any history. Like the transactions of the old Hartford Convention, or the mighty mys- tery of the Iron Mask, its acts will never be known.
Suffice it to say, our delegate heard all that was to be said, pondered upon it deeply, and then came home. He was not pleased, and plainly said so. To cross the mountainous Height- o'-land, to ford the Connecticut, to climb the Green mountains that they might reach the future capital' of the would be empire, was not so easy as to ride down the banks of the delightful Asquamchumauke and Merrimack, to the bright lands from which they had emigrated, to the homes and pleasant associations of childhood, and the happy intercourse of those with whom they had done business for years, and with whom by far they had rather be united as members of a great Amphictyonic Council.
* Town Clerk's Records, Vol. i. 8.
1
293
THE FIRST REPRESENTATIVE.
So our grand little hamlet among the hills gave her western friends the go-by and determined to remain as she was.
But Col. C. did not feel quite right in relation to the " Charles- town No. 4," Convention. He felt he was not aiding the cause in the least which of all others was most dear to him. So, to ease his conscience, he went to work, like a true lover of office, to get elected Representative to the Great and General Court of New Hampshire. Warren, Wentworth, and Coventry, were then classed together, and Dec. 11, 1782, the free and independent voters of these several towns being met at the house of our friend Joshua Merrill, familliarly called farmer Joshua, Obadiah Clement was chosen Representative. That night "he felt complete." He was the first man in Warren to enjoy this high and immortal honor.
The Great and General Court met at Exeter, N. H., in those days, and at the opening of the session, Col. C. was as usual promptly on hand to attend to his duty. And he did it faithfully. The war of the revolution, although rapidly drawing to a close, was not as yet finished; much remained to be done, and our pat- riotic Representative was not behind hand in voting men and money. He was for pushing on until independence was fully secured. His constituents sustained him in this, and afterwards gave him a triumphant re-election.
And now what a proud satisfaction our citizens possessed if they could only see it. They had done their duty, and were more than ever prepared to move on in the grand march of democracies, well knowing that the taxes were all raised promptly, the men for the army all furnished and more too, supplies of provisions, moose-hide breeches, ammunition, and West India rum, always forthcoming, and herself and representatives loyal to the core, and as true to the New Hampshire republic, her lover, as the needle to the pole.
Soldiers in the Revolution .- The following men served in the war of the Revo- lution, going from Warren at or about the date given :
William Heath, 1775; Reuben Clement, 1775; Joseph Whitcher, 1775; Ephraim Lund, 1775; Joshua Copp, 1775; Simeon Smith, 1775; Chase Whitcher, 1776; John Marston, 1776; (1) John Hinchson, 1776; Joseph Lund, 1776; Jonathan Fellows, 1777; John Mills, Jr., 1776, 1777, and 1781; Moses Copp, 1779; David Merrill, 1779; Caleb Young, 1780; Charles Bowles, 1781; Henry Shaw, 1782; William Tarleton, 1782. (2)
(1) John Marston was in Captain Joshua Hayward's Company in 1776. He settled in Warren before 1780. Alex. Craig was Lieut. of a Company.
(2) William Tarleton was Captain of the 8th Company of Col. Timothy Bedel's regiment, raised in 1778, and doing duty on the northern frontier.
CHAPTER III.
THE FIRST FUNERAL OF A WHITE MAN IN WARREN; OR HOW JOHN MILLS DIED AND WAS BURIED.
JOSHUA COPP, Jr. was the first white child born in Warren. John Marston was the first man married; but eleven years went by after the settlement, before old father Time on spec- tral wings, with hour-glass and scythe, lighted down in our Asquamchumauke valley, and claimed a victim.
It happened thus : John Mills, the first settler, who brought his family to Warren, was engaged " falling a piece" on the west side of the river by Indian Rock, near old Coos road. He was a very . smart chopper, and his son, Captain John Mills, who was at home from the war on a furlough, was helping him. They had notched or partly cut more than two acres of trees, but had not brought one to the ground. Then they fell a great pine upon a clump of spruces ; this broke them down, and they falling broke down their neighbors, and so, like boys setting up bricks the whole forest that had been notched was driven to the ground. This was called " driving a piece," and two smart men would fell several acres a day.
But unfortunately a large pine had not been sufficiently. notched, and it stopped the drive. John Mills, Senior, ventured under to cut the pine; it fell before he could escape, a limb struck him on the head, and instantly he was dead.
The son bore his father home on his shoulders, laid him upon the bed and summoned the neighbors. They came and tried to
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THE FIRST DEATH IN WARREN.
console the grief-stricken family. But they almost refused to be comforted. There was sorrow and sadness, and wretchedness, and tears in that humble log cabin, and they felt that now the father was dead, the world was hardly worth living for, and that they too, might as well die. Captain John Mills, Jr., had seen a thousand men dead on battle-fields, but never had death come home to him so terribly before.
The third day was the funeral. How long and lonely and terrible were the hours of waiting. But the time came at last, and all the neighbors began to assemble. There was no minister in town, no church, no tolling bell; but 'Squire Joshua Copp read a chapter in the Bible, a hymn was sung, and then he offered a prayer.
The coffin was brought out and placed on a bier under the trees. Sunlight and shadow, fit emblems of the hour, flickered over the scene, not more breathless, hushed, and solemn, than were the voice, step, and heart of those sympathizing neighbors.
The rough coffin lid was turned back and they approached one by one to take a last look of the remains; then sunk away into the silently revolving circle. The mourners presently came out and indulged a tearful, momentary, final vision, and the lid was closed. Col. Obadiah Clement took the charge. The bier, carried on the shoulders of four men, was followed by the relatives, and then the friends - every family in town were friends then - came two and two abreast.
There was no graveyard in our hamlet, and they carried John Mills down the bridle-path, the road was on the other side of the Asquamchumauke then, to the cluster of hard pines on the river bank .* Here beneath the deep shade, the first grave of a white man in Warren had been dug, and here was the first burying ground of the settlers. There was no fence, no tomb stones, nor turfy mounds, no choir, no singing at the burial, but the wind sighing in the scattered pines, and the voice of the murmuring river seemed a requiem to the departed.
* The little woods where John Mills was buried was used for a graveyard for more than twenty years. Then Pine hill burying ground was laid out, and the place where John Mills and his kindred lie sleeping, fell into vandal hands. To- day, few persons know or dream that the unsightly spot on the river bank, where wild brakes and bushes are growing, and gravel is dug for the roads, is the last resting place of Warren's second settler. The graveyard was on the east bank of the river, about thirty rods below the old deep hole.
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HISTORY OF WARREN.
As they approached, the men took off their hats, the four bier- men lowered the coffin by leathern straps, and then all looked in. 'Squire Copp, as the last obsequiel act, in the name of the bereaved family, thanked the people for their kindness and attention to the dead and the living, and the procession returned to the house.
Mrs. Stevens Merrill, Mrs. Joseph Patch, and other women, had cooked a plain dinner of pork and beans and Indian pudding for all. The mourners had a little spirit to take, but Stevens Mer- rill went to the well for pure water for the others to drink. They had no pumps then, and he found the long sweep piercing the skies ; the bucket swinging to and fro in the wind. He reached up and caught it, and grasping the pole drew it down hand over hand until the iron bound vessel almost touched the limpid water. He paused; the mouth of the well was shaded and narrowed with green mosses and slender ferns, which bore on every leaf and point a drop of water from the waste of the bucket. Below the calm surface of the water appeared a reversed shaft, having its sides begemed with the moss-borne drops which with a singular effect of darkened brilliancy, shone like diamonds in a cave. Through a small green subterranean orifice he could look into the nethermost, luminous, boundless space, a mysterious, etherial abyss, an unknown realm of purity and peace below the earth, the mirror faintly revealing the bright heaven above, the place to which, as he believed, the pure spirit of John Mills had gone. Then he drew up a bucket full of clear water, spattering on all the rocks, and returned to the house where dinner was waiting.
The meal over, each friend tried to say a comforting word and then went mournfully home, fully realizing that there was no spot on earth where men could live forever, and that death swift and sudden, had stricken down one of their number in Warren. How solitary and dreary was that house of mourning when all the friends had gone away home from the funeral.
A week later and Captain John Mills' furlough was out, and he went away again to the wars. Captain William Butler had married a sister of the deceased man, and henceforth he was the head of the family.
CHAPTER IV.
ABOUT A GREAT ARMY IN WARREN; HOW IT MARCHED AND COUN- TER-MARCHED; OF THE PRETTY NAMES IT WAS CALLED, AND HOW IT WAS SUBSISTED.
IN these troublous times when all was dire consternation along the border, and the sounds of war came from every quarter, it was necessary to keep up a powerful military force throughout the country. Measures, therefore, were immediately taken to organize the whole people into companies, regiments, and divisions, and the citizens of Warren must become soldiers, of course.
The scenes and experiences of the old French war and the Revolution gave a martial turn of mind, and when the order came to form a military company in our mountain hamlet, they went at the work with alacrity.
February 8, 1780, Obadiah Clement was commissioned Cap- tain of the 9th Company of the 12th Regiment of militia, at this time commanded by Col. Israel Morey. No sooner was the docu- ment placed in his hands than he immediately began with his usual energy to organize his company. He quickly procured commissions for Lieut. William Butler and Ensign Ephraim True, and then when the time arrived he warned the good inhabitants of Warren, who had much increased in numbers, to meet for May . training, armed and equipped as the law directs.
The place where they were ordered to assemble was in the dry little field situated about half way between Farmer Joshua's and 'Squire Copp's; and on that third Tuesday of May, familiarly
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HISTORY OF WARREN.
known as "Little Training Day," every man, woman, and child, almost, came together to execute and witness the mighty military evolutions that were to be performed.
It was one of the brightest of May mornings, a sunshiny breezy day, balmy in hollows and dells, and on southern uplands, but fresh blowing on the ridges and along the northern mountain slopes. There was music in the air, for the robins sang in the maples, and the blackbird and the wood thrush warbled the sweet- est melody in the white flowering sugar plum and the wild cherry trees. Then the red squirrel chattered in the spruces, and the hairy woodpecker rat-tap-tapped on the hollow beech tree, or on Farmer Joshua's sap-buckets, not yet gathered; the partridges drummed on the hill-side, and the little chipmonk -the striped squirrel -sunning itself by its burrough, startled by the children, uttered the sharpest notes. Overhead the swallows, on twittering wings, skimmed along the blue sky, or diving down with arrowy rush, laved for an instant their wings in the cool water of Black brook - the Mikaseota-and flew away to their nests in the log barns of the settlers. There were flowers opening by the path, violets springing up by the hedges, dandelions growing on grassy banks, moosemissa, white and odorous, skunk cabbage, adder- tongues putting out in the shadows of the trees, making the air so fresh and sweet smelling, while the children, shouting and laugh- ing, chased the first golden butterfly, hunted birds' nests and snail shells, and turning over stones and old logs, explored the haunts of thousands of ants, just thawed out into life. Then they found the blue-tailed skink, the salmon colored salamander and the crim- son-spotted triton, along the high, warm banks of little runnels, and by the loud rill that comes down from Beech hill woods.
But hark ! the drum-beat is heard in the little training field, and the shrill notes of the fife go piercing through the forest. Captain Obadiah Clement is giving the note of command in clear ringing voice, and every loiterer is hurrying to see the company drill.
It is a beautiful training field, full of charred stumps, and here and there a great black log heap not yet wholly burned up. But Captain Clement managed to find a clear space to draw up his whole company in single file, and then the work commenced in
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THE OLD TIME MILITIA.
good earnest. The lieutenant and the ensign took their places, the sergeants and the corporals were properly posted, care being taken not to select too many, as it was necessary to have some privates as well as officers ; for the whole company did not number more than forty men, though every man and boy old enough to do mili- tary duty was present, except those who were away in the army, and Stevens Merrill and Jonathan Clement, who declared " they would not train in such a string-bean, slam-bang, flood-wood, light infantry company as Col. Clement had; they would pay a fine first."*
Captain Clement told his grandson, Jim Clement, all about what beautiful uniforms they wore. Some had cocked hats, and some woodchuck and wolf skin caps, with the fur well worn off; one or two had nice straw braided hats which their wives and mothers had made them. And then there were all kinds of coats ; some of which had been in the army; many had short frocks of every day wear, and some did not have anything over their rough tow shirts. Their breeches were almost invariably of one kind,- moosehide, home tanned,- a kind not easily worn out, untorn and no holes in the seat. Moccasins were worn on the feet, but some of the men, as it was a warm day, were barefoot; their tough soles being less liable to be hurt than the moccasins themselves. They had belts of every sort and kind, canteens of various pat- terns, priming wires and brushes, and well worn cartridge boxes that had seen service in the old French and Indian wars, and some in the Revolution now going on. Their guns were of almost every pattern, muskets, fowling pieces, one or two old match locks, queen's arms, and some were the very guns also that Chase Whitcher had procured from the Committee of Safety.
Captain Clement said he was better dressed than the rest. He had prepared himself for the occasion. His hair was not pow- dered, and he had no wig on his head. But a white cockade glistened on his three-cornered cocked hat, silver epaulettes rounded off his shoulders, his coat was faced with blue, a scarlet sash ornamented his waist, and his yellow buckskin breeches were
* A poor excuse was better than none. It was not safe for them at that time to say they would not train with rebel soldiers, and so they called the company all manner of names, and said it was so mean they would not be seen in it.
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HISTORY OF WARREN.
graced with silver lacings. He made a fine appearance, and as his said grandson, " Jim," well expressed it, " He felt complete."
" To the right face," was one of the first commands, and the men looked "every which way." "Eyes right," the Captain sung out, and they all looked at him. "Shoulder arms,"-the accoutre- ments rattled and jingled, and up went musket, rifle, fowling- piece, match lock, old queen's arm, and the three or four bayonets, gleaming " like rotten mackerel by moonlight," flashed in the bright spring sun. " Shoulder arms," he shouted again in a sharp tone, for some had hold of the breech, some by the small part of the stock and some by the lock; but every man looked blank, and did not shoulder arms. Then he showed each man how to do it, and soon they could carry arms and present arms, ground arms and arms aport, without the least difficulty.
" Music !" ordered the captain, and the drums beat again and the fife flourished wonderfully. "Mark time!" and their feet moved up and down in the most remarkable manner. "To the right face "-" To the left face "-" Forward,"-"File in platoons," " Into sections," " Into divisions !" And then they marched and countermarched in single file and double file, and four abreast in quick time, in slow time and in no time at all. Then they wheeled round the log heaps, and flanked the stumps, and circled round the edge of the clearing next to the woods, where stood the trunks of the old trees that had been killed by the fire. For four long hours they thus manœuvered, until all were convinced they understood the whole thing perfectly, and could go through every sort of tactics ever thought of since by Scott or Hardee.
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