USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Warren > The history of Warren; a mountain hamlet, located among the White hills of New Hampshire > Part 6
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SAVAGE GENEROSITY.
carried away captive. Before the morning the Indians were off to their fastnesses among the mountains.
Gov. Cranfield's messenger arrived at Quocheco that very afternoon, but too late to prevent the slaughter.
An instance of generous forbearance on the part of a warrior is related: Mrs. Heard was by chance fastened outside of lier husband's garrison house. She hid herself in the bushes near by, so near that she witnessed the wild massacre and the burning of the buildings. A young Indian came towards her with a hatchet as if to kill her, but when he looked in her face lie turned away with a yell and fled. When the four hundred were seized in 1676, an Indian boy took refuge in her house, where she concealed him until he was able to effect his escape in safety. The young warrior was that boy. He had not forgotten her, and her kindness to him saved her life.
The Nipmucks had taken their revenge-their wrongs were in part cancelled.
The colonies were amazed-awe-struck. Kancamagus was outlawed, and a price set upon his head. Captain Noyes, with soldiers, marched to Pennacook, but the Indians had fled. Noth- ing was found but some corn, which was destroyed. Other sol- diers went as far north as the White mountains, and so much were the Indians pressed, as Acteon relates, that even the Pemi- gewassetts were compelled to leave their hunting grounds, and hurry away to the head-waters of the Connecticut and across the border into Canada.
About this time the first Indian captives were carried into our northern wil- derness. In 1695, Isaac Bradley, aged 15, and William Whittaker, aged 11, were taken prisoners and carried to Winnepissiogee lake .- Ms. H. C. 2d series, vol. 4, 128. In 1697 the celebrated Hannah Duston was captured at Haverhill, Mass., and went up the Merrimack river towards our Pemigewassett country, as far as the mouth of the Contoocook river. Here they lodged upon an island for some time and Mrs. Duston formed the plan of killing the whole party. Two other prisoners, Mrs. Neff and an English boy, readily agreed to assist her. To the art of killing and scalping she was a stranger, and that there should be no failure in the busi- ness, Mrs. Duston instructed the boy, who, from his long residence with them had become as one of the Indians, to inquire of one of the men how it was done. He did so, and the Indian showed him without mistrusting the origin of the inquiry. It was now March 31st, and in the dead of night following, this bloody tragedy was enacted. When the Indians were in the most sound sleep these three captives arose, and softly arming themselves with the tomahawks of their masters, allotted the number each should kill; and so truly did they direct their blows that but one escaped whom they designed to kill. This was a woman whom they badly wounded. There was also a boy, who for some reason they did not wish to harm, and accordingly he was allowed to escape unhurt. Mrs. Duston killed her master, and the boy, Leonardson, killed the man who but one day before had so freely told him where to deal the deadly blow and how to take off a scalp.
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HISTORY OF WARREN.
Kancamagus did not long remain idle. Captain Church, a noted Indian fighter, had attacked Worombo's fort, captured it, and with it the wife and child of Kancamagus. This stung the chieftain to the quick. With Worombo he fought Church at Casco, killed seven white men, and wounded twenty-four more, two mortally, as we have before narrated. His wife and child were then restored to him.
This famous Indian died about 1691, and tradition has it that he was buried in the land of the Pemigewassetts.
All was over before the dawn of day, and all things were got ready for leaving this place of blood. All the boats but one were scuttled, to prevent being pursued, and with what arms and provisions the Indian camp afforded, they embarked upon the boat remaining, and slowly and silently took the course of the Merrimack river to their homes, where they all soon after arrived without accident.
Several other white captives were carried into the New Hampshire woods about this time, and in this manner, probably, the first white persons entered the Asquamchumauke valley.
CHAPTER IX.
CONTAINING A SLIGHT ATTEMPT AT BIOGRAPHY, OR THE EARLY LIFE OF WATERNOMEE, OTHERWISE WATTANUMON,* SOMETIMES VULGARLY CALLED WALTERNUMUS, LAST CHIEF OF THE PEMI- GEWASSETTS.
IN a wigwam beside the Asquamchumauke, long years ago, as old Acteon said, was born a young pappoose, whose history is better known than that of any other member of the Pemigewassett tribe. At first, lashed to its cradle, it was borne about from place to place by its mother, or hung upon a branch of a tree while she was at work. Then the boy ran by the bright stream in spring- time, plucked wild flowers, and chased the butterflies. As the young Waternomee grew in years, he journeyed with his family throughout the whole length and breadth of the Nipmuck terri- tory. When he arrived at manhood he became the chief of his individual tribe, and often went back to the old hunting grounds, the land of his birth.
It was there Acteon first saw him. He said he was well built, tall, "straight as a pickerel," a fine smooth face, and with "an eye like a hawk." He was a good hunter, and was much given to farming ( hence his name), and could use a spear better than any other man of his tribe. On the river he could make his canoe fairly fly, and he had marched through the forest a hundred miles in a day .; He was the admiration of his tribe, and
** The word Wattanumon means a farmer, or planter .- Potter, 258.
There were other Indians by the same name: One lived at Concord, long after the death of the Pemigewassett chief.
t They are generally quick on foot, brought up from the breasts to running; their legs being also from the womb stretched and bound up in a strange way on their cradle backward, as also annointed. Yet they have some that excel : So that
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HISTORY OF WARREN.
he soon had great influence in every other clan among the whole Nipmuck people .*
In 1689 he is first mentioned in English history, as a brave but kind-hearted Indian. March 5th of that year "Waternumon, an Indian who lived at Newbury," as he is described and his name spelt, in a company of thirty or forty Indians made an attack upon Andover and killed five persons. Colonel Dudley Bradstreet and family were his friends, and when there was danger of their being killed, he rushed forward and preserved them.
The same year, in May, he went northward to his old haunts, and he is reported by those who went to treat with the northern Indians as one of the chief captains of Wonalancet.
At the attack on Quocheco, as ancient tradition has it, he was present under Kancamagus, and witnessed one of the wildest slaughters that ever happened on the New Hampshire frontier. The part he took in it, however, is now unknown.
Then came ten years of peace, and the chief Waternomee went back among the mountains and made his home in the pleas- ant hunting-grounds of his boyhood.
There was a beautiful planting place at the confluence of the Pemigewassett and Asquamchumauke rivers; good fishing waters were at Sawheganet and Livermore falls, and round about was the best of hunting in all the northern woods. Moose and deer were in the valleys and upon the hills, and he got large supplies of beaver skins from the solitary beaver meadows and ponds, high up on the streamns, even to their very sources among the moun- tains. Waternomee was a most successful hunter, and he well.
I have known many of them run between fourscore or an hundred miles in a day, and back within two days. They do also practice running races, and commonly in the summer they delight to go without shoes, although they have them hanging at their backs. They are so exquisitely skilled in all the body and bowels of the country by reasons of their huntings, that I have often been guided twenty, thirty, vea sometimes forty miles through the woods a straight course, out of any path .- Roger Williams' Key, 3 Mass. H. C. 234.
* Waternomee, it is said, had as friends, who lived up and down the river, Tohanto, Sagurmoy, Weranumpee Sagurmoy, Pacohunte, Quangecun, Naseum, Monamusque, and Pehaungun. The latter was a well known warrior, and his name was indicative of his character, Pehaungun meaning, "Beware of Me !" He was killed in a drunken frolic in 1732, at the age of 121 years, and was buried very carefully-the Indians treading the dirt in his grave, crying all the time like maniacs, " He no get up," "He no come back now." They feared his ghost would return from the land of shades to haunt them.
Drake more particularly locates the Nipmucks upon the Nashua river, a branch of the Merrimack. He gives the following spellings of the name : Nopnats, Nipnets, or Nipmuks .- Ind. Biog. 82.
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THE HOME OF GITCHE MANITO.
knew every pond and stream, and flashing waterfall in all his pleasant country.
Acteon saw his wigwam fire blazing once by the mouth of tlie Mikaseota or Black brook, and heard the crack of his rifle, as he shot some of the smaller game up by "Indian Rock." Then, as he once travelled northward to the land of the Coosucks, lie en- camped, as the Indians were wont to do, by Wachipauka pond, the leaping waters of Oak falls making pleasant music in his ears. Tradition avers that Acteon told the story how Waternomee, with a few other Indians, once followed the Asquamchumauke up to its very source in the mountains. There they camped beside a beaver pond, where the beaver, Tummunk, had built houses. These they did not molest, but set out, just as the sun rose, to go over Moosil- auke to the "Quonnecticut " valley.
Not often did the Indians climb the mountain, and they only did it now to save time and distance. It was a hard ascent for their moccasined feet, over the stones and through the hackma- tacks, as they called the dwarf firs and spruces; but upon the bald mountain crest the way was easier, and the little birds, Psukses, were whistling and singing among the lichens and rocks. When they reached the summit, the heaven, Kesuk, was cloudless, and the view unobscured.
It was a sight, the like of which they had never seen before. Great mountains, Wadchu, were piled and scattered in the wild- est confusion in all the land; and silver lakes, Sipes, were spark- ling; and bright rivers, Sepoes, were gleaming from the forest.
As they sat upon that topmost peak, the wind was still, and they could hear the moose bellowing in the gorges below; could hear the wolf, Muquoshim, howling; and now and then the great war-cagle, Kenen, screamed and hurtled through the air.
A feeling of superstitious reverence took possession of those Indians as they drank in the strange sights and wild sounds, for they believed that the peak was the home of Gitche Manito, their Great Spirit. Does the unlettered Catholic have reverence at the altar ?- much more was the untutored savage filled with awe as he stood in the very dwelling place of his God, afraid that the deity would be angry at the almost sacrilegious invasion.
As the sun, Nepauz, was going down the western sky, a light.
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HISTORY OF WARREN.
mist collected around the eastern peaks, and above all the river valleys in the west, clouds, at first no larger than a man's hand, began to gather. Soon hanging over every valley was a shower- the heavens above them clear-the sun shining brightly upon the vapor. Quickly the wind freshened, and the great clouds, purple and gold and crimson above, black as ink below, hurried from every quarter towards the crest of Moosilauke. Then thunder, Pahtuquohan, began to bellow, and the lightning, Ukkutshaumun, leaped from cloud to cloud, and streamed blinding down to the hills beneath, while the great rain-drops and hailstones, crashing upon the infinite thick woods, sent up a roar loud as a hundred moun- tain torrents.
"It is Gitche Manito coming to his home angry," muttered Waternomee, as with his companions he hurried down the moun- tain to the thick spruce forest, Soshsumonk, for shelter. Such scenes, the wildest exhibitions of nature, made the mountain sum- mits to be dreaded, and he was a brave Indian who dared ascend them .*
Through all his hunting grounds, never tarrying long in any place, he travelled-building his wigwam now beside the fishing- place, then by the maize-field, and then where game was plentiest. Thus the years went by, and the Pemigewassett chief with all his people lived happily and greatly increased in numbers. Their range was far away in the wilderness, and their English friends had as yet never invaded their homes. But this state of things could not long continue, for causes were at work whereby war would be brought about in the old world, and the Indians would be again compelled to dig up the tomahawk in the new.
* For a vocabulary of Nipmuck words see Schoolcraft, vol. i. 291.
CHAPTER X
HOW THE PEMIGEWASSETTS ENGAGED IN QUEEN ANNE'S WAR,-OF SUNDRY EXPEDITIONS-AND HOW SEVERAL PEMIGEWASSETTS WERE SURPRISED AND SLAIN BY FIVE TERRIBLE MARQUAS, LED BY THE BRAVE CALEB LYMAN.
WHILE the eastern continent shook to the bloody tread of the great Marlborough, and Eugene of Savoy, the primitive "sal- vage" of the western world was playing his part on a narrower though equally as bloody stage. Did those loving nations, Eng- land and France, but set the sanguinary ball in motion, and the peaceable forest children, instigated by pious emissaries, immedi- ately dug up the tomahawk.
The New England colonists had heard of the war commenced in Europe, and well knowing its reciprocal influence and effect in the new world, they immediately began to bestir themselves, to avert as much as possible the storm that was sure to burst. They conceived that it would be an excellent idea to make a solemn treaty with their red-skinned foes, and keep peace if possible in the great northern forest, where with numerous other tribes the Pemigewassetts resided. Accordingly the good Gov. Dudley, who at that time was ruler over the Colony of Massachusetts Bay, sent messengers to all the northern and eastern tribes and invited their chiefs to meet him and his council on the peninsula of Fal- mouth, Maine, to make a treaty of friendship. This accomplished the red warriors at least would not fight on the side of the French.
On June 20th, 1702, they came together in great numbers. Mauxis and Hopehood,* from Norridgewolk; Wanungunt and
* Wahowa, alias Hopehood, was son of Robinhood. His career was a series of warlike and bloody exploits. His attacks upon Berwick, Salmon Falls, and at Fox Point, are among his most celebrated acts. At the latter place 14 whites were
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HISTORY OF WARREN.
Wanadugunbuent, from Penobscot; Adiwando and Hegan, from Pennacook and Pigwacket; Messambomett and Wexar, from Amasconty, with two hundred and fifty men in sixty-five canoes, all came to Falmouth peninsula. The several chieftains with their adherents were well armed and mostly painted with a variety of colors. It was a rude gathering there in the wilderness-the Governor and his white friends, painted savages, rough wig- wams, camp fires burning, and on the shore a fleet of birchen canoes. All were seemingly affable and kind, although in some instances causes of jealousy and distrust were not wanting.
But they did not proceed immediately to business. Wattan- umon, * otherwise Waternomee, whom we so politely introduced in our last entertaining chapter, as a chieftain from the northwest, had not arrived, and the other chiefs were unwilling to proceed until he came .;
After waiting several days, in a tent which had been fixed for their lodgment, the Governor made them a short brotherly speech, saying he desired to settle every difficulty which had happened between them.
Captain Simmo, a warrior, replied as follows: " We thank you, good brother, for coming so far to talk with us. It is a great favor. The clouds fly and darken-but we still sing with love the songs of peace. Believe my words. So far as the sun is above the earth are our thoughts from war or the least rupture between us."
A belt of wampum was then presented to the Governor, and they invited him and his white friends to the two pillars of stone which were erected at a former treaty and called by the significant name of the "Two Brothers," unto which also both parties went and added a great number of stones.
Everything now seemed lovely. Many presents were given. There was singing and dancing. Lond acclamations of joy were® heard, and the Englishi began to feel. that Queen Anne's War in
killed, six captivated, (sic) and several houses burned. The pious Cotton Mather says this was as easily done " as to have spoiled an ordinary hen-roost." The same author says that shortly after he went to the westward with a design to bewitch another crew at Aquadocta into his assistance. Some time after he was met by some Canada Indians, who, taking him to be of the Iroquois nation, slew him, with many of his companions .- Drake's Ind. Biog. 302.
* He is mentioned in Penhallow's Indian Wars as from Pigwacket. t Hubbard's History of Maine.
1
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FORTY POUNDS FOR A NIPMUCK SCALP.
Europe would not trouble them much in America. But they were destined to be terribly mistaken, and quickly got an inkling of what might happen. A parting salute must be fired. The very polite-not a bit jealous-English wished to honor the Indians by having them fire first, and when they did so the English were greatly alarmed at discovering that the guns of the Indians were loaded with balls, which rattled terribly among the leaves and dry branches of the trees overhead. Very greatly alarmed-and this notwithstanding the curious fact that their own muskets were likewise fully charged for service.
Some of the Indians furthermore had gently intimated that certain French Jesuits had recently come among them and en- deavored to seduce them from their allegiance to the crown of England, but without success, for, as they said, they were " as firm as mountains, and should continue so as long as the sun and moon endured."
But all this was a pleasant kind of cheat. The gentle salvages did not mean a word they said. They did not expect the warrior Wattanumon-our Waternomee of the mountains-at the treaty of peace at all. He was to come at the head of a war party, and Governor Dudley with his English friends were to be swept from existence. Three days after they were gone back to Boston, two hundred more French and Indians were sounding their war whoop in the forest where the Two Brothers were erected. Six weeks later, and Queen Anne's war had broken out in fury, and the whole frontier was in a blaze. Not a house was standing nor a garrison unassaulted. Woe to him then whose musket bore no lead.
War raged universally in New England, and our beloved Pemigewassett tribe of course took a hand in it. So fierce were the incursions of the Northern Indians that Massachusetts was exceedingly alarmed. Her general assembly was convened, and a law passed offering a bounty of forty pounds for every Indian scalp that could be procured.
So tempting an offer could not long be withstood, and Capt. Tyng, a brave Indian fighter, was the first to embrace the tender. In the deep mid-winter of 1703, he with his party went on snow- shoes to the head-quarters of the Indians among the mountains,
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HISTORY OF WARREN.
and got five scalps. Massachusetts was prompt, and paid him two hundred pounds for them .*
But the Indians took a sweet revenge for all this, and Haver- hill, Deerfield, and other settlements in Massachusetts were attacked, and more than two hundred whites were killed and cap- tured. Ample reparation for five Indian scalps.
This would not do. More than ever the colonies were alive to the fact that the Indians must be punished and subdued. So Major Hilton, ¡ with five companies, and Captain Stevens with one; ranged all the northern woods, went up the Pemigewasset and the Asquamchumauke and eastward along the base of the White mountains, but not an Indian did they discover.
Waternomee with his people were too careful for these march- ing parties. The old men, women, and children were off to the fastnesses of the mountains and the deep, impenetrable swamps, where pursuit was useless.
But one man, at the head of five Marquas, Mohog, or Mohawk Indians, accomplished more than the six great marching companies together. By chance some of the Pemigewassetts had crossed the highlands, as old Acteon reported, and had set down to plant on the banks of the Connecticut. The Coosucks, with a strong fort, were on the great meadows above them, and on the banks of the stream below were numerous other families of friendly Indians. Thus surrounded they thought themselves secure.
Some time in May, 1704, word came from Albany that the Mohawks had discovered the fort upon the Connecticut river and knew that the Coosucks were planting corn there.
June 6th, Mr. Caleb Lyman, a brave man, placed himself at the head of five Mohawk warriors, and leaving Northampton,
* Another party marched directly up the Merrimack river to the Pemigewassett land. The fourth day from home they discovered an Indian settlement a short distance from the river; and after carefully reconoitering and finding that the number of the Indians was less than their owni, they advanced to the attack. The Indians did not discover the English until they were close upon them, when they were accidentally observed by a young warrior who cried, "Owanux, Owanux !" -"Englishmen, Englishmen !" This frightened the other Indians, who, rising up quickly, were fired upon by the Englishmen, who killed eight upon the spot. The rest immediately fled, and the company, with considerable booty and the scalps of the slain Indians, returned home without the loss of a man.
t In the spring of 1704 Col. Winthrop Hilton commanded a party to scour the woods to the heads of the Winnepisseogee and Pemigewassett, and was not only this summer but most of the time, when not engaged in more important and dis- tant expeditions, employed in ranging the frontier from Massachusetts to Maine. -1 Farmer & Moore's Col. 246.
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CALEB LYMAN'S EXPEDITION.
Massachusetts, struck into the wilderness. They were soon in the enemy's country. They found his tracks and heard the noise of his guns in the woods. For nine days they pursued their course northward. Then, discovering fresh tracks, they followed them till they came to the river. Supposing that hostile Indians were in the immediate neighborhood they halted, consulted what method was best to pursue, and soon concluded to send out a spy- witlı green leaves for a cap and vest, to prevent his own discovery, and to find out the enemy.
But before he was out of sight they saw two Indians at a con- siderable distance in a canoe, and immediately called him back. Soon after they also heard the firing of a gun up the river, upon which they concluded to keep close until sunset, and then, if they could make any further discovery of the enemy, to attack if pos- sible in the night.
Sitting down concealed upon the south shore they looked out upon the scene. The noble river swept round a little wood- crowned height in the east, and then ran straight into the west, till, meeting the lowibluff on that side of the meadow, it turned short and flowed away to the south. Before them was the long reach of sparkling water, reflecting the green woods upon its bank; in the light fairy canoe, near where the river came out of the forest in the east, were the two Indians spearing fish; and looking in over the green hills beyond them was the round, bald top of Moosilauke, gemmed with snow fields not yet melted in the summer sun. Even the wood-thrush-sweetest songster of the forest-was here; and with the frogs in the swamp, and the par- tridges' drumming, and the warbling of the white-throated finch, made melody in the solitude.
When the evening came on they moved up the river, and at the distance of half a mile saw a smoke and found where the wig- wams were built. At two o'clock in the morning everything was quiet, and the deadly Marquas with Caleb Lyman were within twelve rods of the slumbering Pemigewassetts.
Here they met a difficulty which, as Mr. Lyman in his narra- tive relates, nearly ruined their plan. For the space of five rods the ground was thickly covered with dry sticks and brush, over which they could not pass without danger of alarming their enemy
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HISTORY OF WARREN.
and giving him a chance to escape. But while they were contriv- ing how they might compass their design, God-as the pious Caleb* would have it-in his good Providence assisted them with a miracle. A very small cloud arose. It gave a smart clap of thunder and a sudden shower of rain descended. The Mo- hawks with their leader rush forward, they clear the thicket, come unperceived in full sight of the wigwams, and discover by the noise that the enemy within are awake. Creeping still nearer on their hands and knees, in a moment they are at the side of the rude dwellings. Rising, they pour into them a murderous fire; then, flinging down their guns, with their clubs and hatchets they knock on the head every Indian they meet. Two only of the whole number of Pemigewassetts escape, one mortally wounded, the other, as was afterwards learned, unhurt.
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