USA > New Hampshire > Grafton County > Warren > The history of Warren; a mountain hamlet, located among the White hills of New Hampshire > Part 7
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On looking over the ground, seven Indians were found killed on the spot, six of whom they scalped, leaving the other un- touched, the Mohawks patriotically saying they would give one scalp to the country. Each would then have one, which would make him rich enough.
Then they took their scalps and plunder, such as guns, skins, etc., loaded them into the canoes of the enemy, and started down the river. The stars shone in the sky above, and the gibbous moon, sinking behind the trees in the west, looked red. Owls hooted in the forest, the frogs sang a lullaby in the grass and lily- pads, and the muskrats splashed by the shore. When the sun came up they were twelve miles down the river, and knowing that more " strange Indians" were between them and home, they broke up and abandoned their canoes, and took to the woods.
They were now a hundred miles from the white settlements ; they had but one meal of victuals left, and as they soon came upon the trail of thirty Indians they dared not hunt for a subsistence. Caleb Lyman says that for five long days they marched, eating nothing "but the buds of trees, grass, and strawberry leaves, when, through the goodness of God, we safely arrived at North- ampton, on the 19th or 20th of the aforesaid June."
The Great and General Court of Massachusetts, being humbly petitioned, granted thirty-one pounds for these services. Why
* He was an elder of a church in Boston that sometimes hung witches.
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A MIRACLE.
they did not get £240, as they deserved, is more than we can tell. At any rate they merited it more than Captain Tyng, for it was a braver exploit.
The captain of the Marquas, Caleb Lyman, sagely concludes "That in consequence of this action the enemy were generally alarmed, and immediately forsook their fort and corn at Cowas- suck and never returned to this day as we could hear off to renew their settlement in that place."
That they were greatly alarmed there is no doubt, but that the Indians did not leave this upper country just then is a fact very well known to all great historians. For several more years they sojourned here; and during the war fought a number of great battles, as we shall be highly pleased to narrate.
a
CHAPTER XI.
OF SEVERAL THINGS THAT HAPPENED DURING THE PROGRESS OF THE WAR, AND HOW AS ONE OF THE RESULTS THE PEMIGE- WASSETT TRIBE WAS DESTROYED AND THEIR HUNTING GROUND -OF WHICH WARREN WAS A PART-MADE A SOLITUDE.
AND now there was marching and hurrying through all the wildwood. The Indians came down like wolves on the fold. Hadley and Quabaug,* Nashua, and Groton were attacked. Then, dividing into small parties, the red foe fell upon Amesbury, Hav- erhill, and Exeter, and did much mischief.
Captain Tyng and Captain How entertained a warm and slightly cordial dispute with them, but came off second-best, that is, got whipped; and then company after company of English- men went northward, and tramped the forest through and through, but had the poorest kind of luck in finding the head-quarters of the Indians. The latter were off to the swamps, the morasses, and the strongholds of the mountains.
Among those who ranged the woods was the brave Colonel Hilton. He came upon a trail and killed four Indians. At the same time he took a squaw alive, with a pappoose at her breast, both of whom he preserved. She was of great service in conduct- ing him to a body of eighteen Indians. These he succeeded in surprising, about break of day, as they lay asleep, and slew all but one, whom he made a prisoner. This was accounted a great feat of arms.
One Captain Wright also ventured far into the enemy's coun- try and fought the Indians with varying success.t
* Now Brookfield, Mass.
t Penhallow's Indian Wars, 1 N. H. Hist. Col. 60.
1
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LIEUTENANT BAKER'S EXPEDITION.
Then the Indians, in the most terrible manner, would retaliate. One party killed Colonel Hilton and another slew Major Tyng. * They scalped the Colonel, struck their hatchets into his brain, and left a lance in his heart. Major Tyng was rescued and carried to Chelmsford, where he soon expired.
Colonel Walton, with two companies of men, hastened away for revenge. He went to the ponds north of " Winnepisseocay " lake, where there were places of general resort for fishing, fowl- ing, and hunting. But he found no Indians-only a few deserted wigwams; for, as Mr. Penhallow politely says, being so closely pursued from one place to another, they removed to other nations, leaving only a few cut-throats behind, which kept the country in a constant state of alarm.
Thus, mutually killing and burning, the war went on with varying fortune, the English, afterwards called Yankees, having the poor luck to get the worst of it as a general thing, until near its close, when an expedition was planned and a blow struck by which our Pemigewassetts were annihilated.
In the year 1709, February 27th, Thomas Baker was taken captive from Deerfield, Massachusetts. They took him straight up the Connecticut river, over the carrying-place to Memphrema- gog lake, and from thence to the happy land of Canada. He was ransomed a year afterwards, and came home well knowing one of the routes to the haunts of the Indians. He also learned some- thing during his captivity about the great tribes we have men- tioned, their homes and hunting grounds, and in the spring of 1712-the border war raging fiercer than ever-he raised a com- pany of thirty-four men to fight some of the enemy, who lived in a beautiful place he had heard of while in Canada. Thirty-three of his company were white soldiers, and there was one friendly Indian to guide them across the highlands.
Lieutenant Baker left Northampton,f Mass., in April, as soon as the snow was gone, and pursued his old route up Connecticut
* Formerly Capt. Tyng. He had been promoted.
+ In the county of Hampshire.
Lieut. Thomas Baker was born at Northampton, Mass., May 14, 1682. He married Christine Otis, otherwise Margaret Otis, and lived once at Brookfield, and afterwards at Dover, N. H. He died about 1753, of lethargy. Margaret Otis was once taken prisoner by the Indians, carried to Canada, and was there called Christine Otis by the French.
F
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HISTORY OF WARREN.
river. In four days he was upon the Cowassuck intervals. Snow banks were still scattered about, and the eastern mountains were white as winter. The friendly Indian had told him of the old Indian trail up the Oliverian, and by nightfall they had looked at the mighty precipice of Owl's Head mountain and were camped on the shore of Wachipauka pond.
The next morning, passing Oak falls, they proceeded down the Mikaseota, as Acteon called it, now plain Black brook, and discovering signs of Indians, who appeared to have been in the neighborhood hunting, they marched all day on the right bank of the Asquamchumauke with great caution.
At night Lieutenant Baker and his men camped without fire, and ate a cold supper, for they knew they were in the immediate neighborhood of the Indians.
In the morning early he sent out scouts to reconnoitre. These cautiously advanced, and at about eight o'clock discovered numer- ous Indian wigwams grouped in a circle upon the east bank of the river .* Some squaws were at work near by, seeming to be getting ready to plant corn. A few men were fashioning a canoe and several children were playing among the trees upon the shore. A large portion of the warriors, as was afterwards learned, were away hunting. The scouts, after gazing upon this scene a few moments, returned and reported their discovery.
The Lieutenant, after a short consultation with his men, now moved forward with all possible circumspection. No sound -not even the breaking of a twig or the snap of a gun-lock - warned the Pemigewassetts of their impending fate. He chose his posi- tion, and at a given signal his company opened a tremendous fire upon the Indians, which carried death through their village, and was as sudden to them as a clap of thunder. Some shouted that the English were upon them, and that dreaded name echoed from mouth to mouth, filling all with dismay. Many of the chil- dren of the forest bit the dust in death, but those who survived ran to call in the hunters.
The company immediately crossed the river in pursuit, but all who were able to flee were beyond their reach. They fired the
* 1 Farmer & Moore's N. H. Hist. Col. 128.
Whiton's Hist. of N. H., 70,
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DEATH OF WATERNOMEE.
wigwams, and as the flames streamed upward and the smoke rolled aloft on the air, a shout from the Indians came sounding down the valley, informing Lieutenant Baker that the warriors were collecting to give him battle.
While the wigwams were being kindled, part of the company were searching for booty. They found a rich store of furs deposited in holes in the banks, in the manner bank-swallows dig to make their nests. Having obtained these, Lieutenant Baker ordered a retreat, knowing that the Indians would soon return, and he feared in too great numbers to be resisted by his single company. As they moved swiftly down the river, the sounds of the war-whoop greeted their ears. This served to accelerate their speed. Often it was repeated and each time grew nearer. When they had reached a poplar plain,* in what is now the town of Bridgewater, a shrill, maddened yell, and a volley of musketry in their rear, told Baker that the Indians were upon him, and that he . must immediately prepare for action. This they did by retreating to a more dense wood.
The Indians, commanded by their chief, Waternomee-called vulgarly by some historian, Walternumus-immediately pursued, and, swarming on all sides, poured volleys of musketry into the woods which concealed their enemies. On the other hand, the little party, concealing themselves behind rocks and trees, plied their muskets vigorously and with good effect. Balls rattled in showers around, scattering twigs and branches of the trees in every direction.
While the battle was going on, Waternomee, who was lead- ing the Indians, accidentally encountered Lieutenant Baker. They knew each other well, having met on the frontier and in Canada. They saw each other at the same moment, and fired almost simul- taneously. The ball from the sachem's gun grazed Baker's left eye-brow, but did him no injury. Baker's bullet went through the breast of the chief. Immediately upon being struck, with a loud whoop, he leaped four or five feet high and fell dead.
Waternomee was richly attired, and Baker snatched his blan-
* Mr. Dearborn has visited that plain and seen and examined a number of skulls which he supposed fell in that engagement. One or two of them were per- forated by a bullet .- Power's Hist. of Coos, 171.
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HISTORY OF WARREN.
ket, which was covered with silver brooches, his powder-horn and other ornaments, and hastened to join the main body of his men .*
The Indians having now lost their chief, and a considerable number of their warriors being wounded, and a few killed, retired.
Lieutenant Baker also immediately collected his men and again ordered a retreat, for he believed that the Indians, though repulsed, would soon rally to the attack, and their numbers con- stantly swell by those who would join them. On he went, allow- ing his men no refreshment after the battle, For many miles they travelled without food, until, hunger oppressing them, they de- clared that they might as well die by the red men's bullets as by famine. At length, upon crossing a stream in New Chester, Lieutenant Baker, finding it useless to try to proceed further, ordered a halt, and the men prepared to refresh themselves. While building the fires to cook their food, the friendly Indian who had acted as guide proposed a stratagem by which the war- riors when they came up would be deceived, in regard to the number of men in Lieutenant Baker's marching party. He told each one to build as many fires as he possibly could in a given .time, and in roasting the meat to use several forks about the same piece; then, when they were done, to leave an equal number around each fire. This advice was followed, and after enjoying a hasty meal they again moved swiftly on.
The Indian warriors, coming up shortly after, found the fires still burning; they counted the array of forks, and being alarmed at the supposed number of the English they whooped a retreat, and Baker and his men were no more annoyed by them on their return.
Without the loss of a man, Lieutenant Baker and his march- ing party hurried down the Merrimack river to Dunstable, and on the 8th of May, 1712, made application in Boston for the bounty. They brought but one scalp, yet claimed pay for many more, as they believed they had killed several Indians, but were unable to
* These trophies were kept among Captain Baker's descendants for many years. Long afterwards he used to show them to the Indians; they would shed tears and make gestures as though they would sometime kill him when war once more arose. - Genealogical Register.
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THE LAST OF THE PEMIGEWASSETTS,
get their scalps. The governor and council heard this statement and allowed them twenty pounds, or pay for two scalps, and wages for the Lieutenant and company from the 24th of March, to the 16th of May, 1712 .*
But this did not satisfy Lieutenant Thomas Baker and his men. They drew up a petition and presented the evidence of the Indians themselves, and on Wednesday, June 11th, were allowed twenty pounds additional for two more Indians proved to have been killed. Captain Baker, in addition to a promotion in rank, also received another honor. The stream on which the battle commenced, and called by the Indians the " Asquamchumauke,"t has ever since been known as Baker river.
On the retreat of the Indians they visited the battle-field and looked with sorrow on the once proud forms of their brothers. After burying their dead, they went to the place of their formerly beautiful village. Through fear the survivors had not collected, and, as the warriors approached, their hearts were filled with emotions far different from those which but a few hours before possessed them. All was ruin.
"No wigwam smoke is curling there, The very earth is scorched and bare; And they pause and listen to catch a sound Of breathing life, but there comes not one - Save the fox's bark and the rabbit's bound - And here and there on the blackening ground White bones are glistening in the sun."
Here, too, the last sad offices were performed to departed shades. This done, they erected a few temporary wigwams, and gradually the fugitives who had fled from the assault of the Eng-
Allowed to Thos. Baker's Company.
--
*" Resolved that the sum of Ten pounds be allowed and paid out of the Public Treasury to Thomas Baker, commander of a company of marching forces in the late expedition against the enemy to Coos and from thence to the west branch of the Merri- mack river and so to Dunstable, in behalf of himself and com- pany, for one enemy Indian, besides that which they scalped, which seems so very probable to be slain.
Consented to, J. Dudley."
" Wednesday, June 11th, 1712. Upon reading a petition from Lieut. Thomas Baker, commander of a party in a late expedition to Coos and over to Merrimack river, praying for a further allowance for more of the Indian ene- my killed by them than they could recover or their scalps, as re- ported by the enemy themselves.
Additional allowance to Lieut.Thos.Ba- ker & Com- pany for scalps. Concurred with a resolve passed thereon, viz: That the sum of twenty pounds be allowed and paid out of the Public Treasury to the petitioner and Company. . Consented to, J. Dudley."
-Journal of the Mass. Legislature for 1712.
t Asquamchumauke is from Asquam, water, Wadchu, mountain, and Auke,- mountain-water-place.
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HISTORY ON WARREN.
lish were gathered together. A few days later the remainder of their tribe joined them, and after a long council it was decided to unite with the Arosagunticooks, or St. Francis Indians, as many other eastern tribes were doing. It was hard to leave their pleas- ant hunting grounds, but stern necessity compelled them, and in a few days those dear and sacred places were solitary and deserted. A few of the tribe remained about the shores and islands of Squam lake, occasionally visiting Lake Winnepisseogee, and there dwelt, a passive people, until the settling of the towns around them. Thus the Pemigewassett country, including the beautiful valley of Warren, once possessed by a brave people, became a solitude, and for many years after was seldom visited, save by a few white hunters, or straggling bands of hostile St. Francis, on their way to or from the English frontiers.
ROCKY FALLS.
BOOK II.
TREATING OF INDIAN FIGHTS AND MASSACRES, EXPEDITIONS AND EXPLORATIONS, RESULTING IN OPENING TO THE WHITE MAN THE LAND OF THE PEMIGEWASSETTS, AND MAKING THE VALLEY NOW CALLED WARREN-AND ALL THE ADJACENT COUNTRY - A SAFE PLACE TO LIVE IN.
CHAPTER I.
OF TWO WARS AND MORE THAN A DOZEN BATTLES.
IN the previous book we have shown how the Indians were dispossessed of our beautiful Asquamchumauke valley. But the driving out of the red men did not render the land a safe place for white people. Hunters and frontiermen equally were liable to have their scalps taken off, or daylight made to shine through them by a bullet, and in order that this history may be complete, it will be necessary to relate the whole series of remarkable events that opened to the hardy settlers our woodland paradise. Conse- quently this second book must be one of general history, applying alike to a large section of country of which the little territory of Warren is the centre.
Now, in the first place, we have seen how all the Nipmucks of 'New Hampshire had gone to Canada, except a few called Pequawkees, and the Amariscoggins, and that these Nipmuck braves in Canada formed a considerable part of the great Arosa- gunticook tribe, sometimes known as the St. Francis Indians.
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HISTORY OF WARREN.
But under another name the Nipmucks had not forgotten the wrongs which they fancied the English had done them, and their priests, the French Jesuits, helped to keep their recollection fresh upon these subjects ; for the Jesuits hated the Protestant English. So when, in 1723, King Williams' war was about to break out, our Indians began to annoy their English neighbors, "killing their cattle, burning their stacks of hay, and robbing and insulting them."
In 1724 two men, Nathan Cross and Thomas Blanchard, were taken captive at Old Dunstable, now Nashua, and started towards Canada. Ten brave men went out in pursuit, under the direction of Lieut. French, and were all killed beside the Merrimack river, at Thornton Ferry, except Josiah Farwell, who took to his heels and escaped.
Everybody was terribly excited at this, and the famous Captain Lovewell raised a scout of thirty men and started north into the woods for revenge. He also wanted a slight bounty of a hundred pounds per scalp for every Indian he could kill. With his company he marched beyond Lake Winnepisseogee to the Pemigewassett country, up towards the land to be called Warren, and discovered an Indian wigwam in which was a man and a boy.
December 19th, 1724, they killed and scalped the man, and brought the boy alive to Boston, where they received the promised reward of two hundred pounds, and the Massachusetts Legislature kindly gave them a gratuity of two shillings and sixpence per man by way of encouragement.
By reason of this success Captain John Lovewell's party was augmented to seventy. They marched again in midwinter, visited the Pemigewassett land, found the dead body of the Indian they had before scalped still lying in the wigwam, and then turned off eastwardly towards the country of the Pequawkees. About the middle of February the Captain discovered the trail of a party of Indians, fresh upon the war-path.
February 20th, the tracks becoming fresher, the scout marched with more wariness some five miles on, and came upon a wig- wam but lately deserted, and pursuing " two miles further discov- ered their smokes." This was near sunset, and the Indians were encamped for the night. Lovewell's party laid in concealment till
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KING WILLIAM'S WAR.
after midnight, when they advanced and discovered ten Indians asleep round a large fire by the side of a frozen pond.
Lovewell now determined to make sure work, and placing his men conveniently, ordered a part of them to fire-five at a time, as quick after each other as possible-and another part to reserve their fire. He gave the signal by firing his own gun which killed two of them; the men, firing according to order, killed five more upon the spot; the other three starting up from their sleep, two of them were immediately shot dead by the reserve. The other, though wounded, attempted to escape by crossing the pond, but was seized by a dog and held fast till they killed him .*
Then the brave company, with the ten scalps stretched on hoops and elevated on poles, entered Dover in triumph and pro- ceeded thence to Boston, where they received the bounty of one hundred pounds for each out of the public treasury.
This success was hailed with joy and triumph throughout the Provinces. Other expeditions were immediately set on foot. Captain Samuel Willard, with forty-seven able-bodied men, went up the Pemigewassett river and looked up the Asquamchumauke. He was gone thirty-five days, but did not find an Indian. Captain Jabez Fairbanks also traversed the whole country south of the White mountains, and went up the Asquamchumauke valley even to Coos, but with no better luck. Colonel Tyng, of Dunstable, also headed an expedition, and marched into the country betwixt Pemigewassett and Winnepisseogee, but after a month's absence returned without taking a scalp.
Lovewell was greatly elated with his success. He raised another company and boldly marched through the southerly por- tion of the Pemigewassett country towards Pequawket to obtain a few Pequawkee scalps. Paugus was chief of the tribe, and his name was a terror to the frontier.
" 'Twas Paugus led the Pequ'k't tribe; As runs the fox, would Paugus run ; As howls the wild wolf would he howl; A huge bear-skin had Paugus on."
On Friday, May 7th, 1725, they had reached the Saco river,
* These Indians were marching from Canada, well furnished with new guns and plenty of amunition, they had also a large number of spare blankets, mocka- seens, and snow shoes for the prisoners whom they expected to take, and were within two days' march of the frontiers. The pond by which this exploit was per- formed has ever since borne the name of Lovewell's pond .- Belknap, 200. 209.
Penhallow adds : "Their arms were so good and new that most of them were
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HISTORY OF WARREN.
and on the morning of the 8th (May 19th new style) Ensign Wy- man discovered an Indian on a stony point of land running into a pond from the east. He had in one hand some black ducks he had just killed, and in the other two guns. The Indian, seeing death was his fate, as quick as thought levelled his gun, fired, and Lovewell fell badly wounded. Ensign Wyman, taking deliberate aim, shot the poor hunter, and he was scalped by the chaplain. The latter had been very anxious for the conflict, and in the morn- ing thus patriotically prayed : "We came out to meet the enemy ; we have all along prayed God we might find them; we had rather trust Providence with our lives, yea, die for our country, than try to return without seeing them, if we might, and be called cowards for our pains."
In the meantime Paugus with eighty Indians was watching the English, and when the latter marched again by the way they came, to recover their packs, he prepared an ambush to cut them off or take them prisoners, as fortune should will.
When these Indians rose from their coverts they nearly encir- cled the English, and at first offered to give the latter quarter. This only encouraged Lovewell and his men, who answered: "Quarter only at the muzzles of our guns !" and then, rushing towards the Indians, fired and killed several of them. But they soon rallied, forced the English to retreat, and killed nine of them, Captain Lovewell with the rest.
The party then retreated to the shore of the pond, where they had a brook on the right, a pile of large boulders on the left, and to the north and front of them a swamp partly filled with water, forming a long, narrow peninsula, only accessible from the plain at the westerly extremity, over the pile of rocks. Here they fought all day long. At one time the Indians ceased firing and drew off among the pines at a little distance to pow-wow over their success. They had got earnestly engaged in the ceremony, dancing, jumping, howling, and beating the ground -in a word, pow-wowing,-when the intrepid Wyman crept up behind the
sold for seven pounds apiece, and each of them had two blankets, with a great many moccasons, which were supposed to be for the supply of captives that they expected to have taken. The plunder was but a few skins : but during the march our men were well entertained with moose, bear, and deer, together with salmon trout, some of which were three feet long, and weighed twelve pounds apiece."- N. H. Hist. Col. vol. i. 113.
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