The history of Weare, New Hampshire, 1735-1888, Part 14

Author: Little, William, 1833-1893. cn
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Lowell, Mass., Printed by S. W. Huse & Co.
Number of Pages: 1240

USA > New Hampshire > Hillsborough County > Weare > The history of Weare, New Hampshire, 1735-1888 > Part 14

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The Indians killed twenty-seven persons, burned ten houses, took thirteen captives, including Mrs. Dustin and Mary Neff, and then plunged into the woods. Some snow was still on the ground, the streams were swollen, Mrs. Dustin had but one shoe, and with bleeding feet tracked through the forest. The Indians dashed out the brains of her infant against a tree, and when the captives lagged behind, brained them with their tomahawks. All were thus killed except Mrs. Dustin and her nurse.

They reached the island at the mouth of the Contoocook, in three days, and found a boy, Samuel Lannardson, there who had been a captive for a year. All the Indians soon left for another expedition but twelve; two men, three women, and seven children. Mrs. Dustin and her white friends planned to escape. The Indians had learned the boy where to strike the deadly blow and how to take off a scalp. They stayed here thirteen days, then in the night of March 31st, killed ten of the Indians,-a woman and a boy getting away in the darkness. Mrs. Dustin did up their scalps, fresh and bleeding, in a towel, took all the arms, what food they wanted, the best canoe, they scuttled the others to prevent pursuit, and started down the river. They carried round the falls, shot the rapids and for a wonder reached home in safety.

Friends were astonished when she showed her bloody trophies. The General Court of Massachusetts, voted her a present of £50, and private citizens gave her many memorials for her heroic conduct. No wonder Paul Dustin was proud of his ancestor.

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HISTORY OF WEARE, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

[1762.

Mr. Dustin, Nov. 28, 1761, bought part of lot forty-four, range one, of Joshua Corliss. In 1762 he sold fifty acres of lots forty- three and forty-four, range one, to John Mudgett of Hampstead, for £500 old tenor. The land began at William Hutchins' west corner and ran west thirty-five degrees north to Asa Heath's. We men- tion these bounds to show that those men were in town. He soon after moved to North Weare and was the earliest settler in that section. He cleared his first acre and set up his log house either on lot forty-three or on lot forty-four, range six, on the left bank of the Piscataquog, just west of Dustin brook and at the place where Edwin Gove now lives. In time he built a framed house in place of his log hut, boarded and shingled, a very fine house for those days ; it would be considered a poor one now. It is still standing, but has been moved a short distance to the east side of the road from North Weare to Henniker.

He served in the old French and Indian war and for several years was in the army of the Revolution. Chevey Chase said he was the poorest man in flesh he ever saw, simply skin and bones; his legs were seemingly nothing but bones with the skin drawn tight on them. He came of a lean race.

WILLIAM DUSTIN was Paul Dustin's distant relative. He also came from Chester, in the fall perhaps, for he bought, Sept. 20, 1762, the south-east corner of lot twenty-six, range one, of Nathaniel Martin and probably for a short time resided near where Martin had lived. Two years after, 1764, he bought ninety acres of lot thirty-seven, range one, of Asa Pattee. He was very poor and had nothing when he came but his jug and his axe. He ran in debt for his land, but raised corn enough the first year to pay for it. He built his cabin a few rods north-east of Meadow brook, op- posite the present blacksmith shop in South Weare and a little south-east of Dearborn's tavern. Jesse Gould now lives on the spot. Afterwards he built a good house where the tavern now stands.

William Dustin also served in the old French and Indian war. While in the army he did something whereby he incurred the dis- pleasure of several Indians. After he returned home they came prowling about his dwelling, threatening to kill him. He at once left for safety. When he came back he found some men had squat- ted on his land, cleared up several acres and planted it with corn. He bought out the squatters, paying them in corn raised that year.

Mr. Dustin was a thrifty farmer, acquired considerable property

115

ASA HEATH.

1762.]

and owned a female slave, after he came to Weare, named Rose ; the children called her " old Rose." She used to go out with a boy to catch the horses, and could ride like a centaur. She leaped on and off as spry as a circus man, and with her swift steed jumped all fences and bars. Once, when the boy was riding with her, she shouted " whoa," to his horse, and the beast stopped so suddenly the youngster was thrown over the animal's head. Mr. Dustin, who was by, caught him uninjured in his arms as he came through the air. Rose finally went to Boston to live, and there ended her days.

Mrs. William Dustin, his wife, had the very enviable reputation of being a witch, and was known all the country round.

JOHN MUDGETT, from Hampstead, bought, Dec. 13, 1762, parts of lots forty-three and forty-four, range one, of Paul Dustin, for £500 old tenor. In 1764, he bought a third part of lots forty-one and forty-two, of Samuel Blunt.

He built his first cabin on lot forty-three, but soon after moved up to Deering road and built a house on lot forty-four, a half-mile east of Emmons brook, and where Daniel Peaslee now lives.

BENONI COBURN's history is under a cloud. The only certain knowledge we have of him is that he was living in town as early as 1762. He was one of those who never staid long in a place, moving farther into the woods when the settlers got too thick for him.

There is a dim tradition that he was a rough frontiersman and dressed like the wild animals he captured. He wore moose-hide trousers, a bear-skin coat and an immense wolf-skin cap in winter. In summer he had tow pants, a tow and linen shirt, and went bare- headed. Coburn soon left town and went to Henniker.

ASA HEATH probably came from Haverhill, Mass., or from that vicinity, in 1762. He failed to put his deeds on record, and none have been found to him of that date. We know he was here, for Paul Dustin bounded some land against his that year. He lived on the south-west side of Mount Misery, on lot forty-three, range one. In 1764 the selectmen laid out a road from Oil Mill to his premises.

Soon after he came to town he was badly troubled with bears. They came into his little clearing and ate up his corn. He told his wife one night he would try and kill one ; so he shut up his dog and charged her to let it out at once when she heard him fire. He went to the corn-field, hid himself and waited a long time. About ten a bear came from the woods, tore down a shook of corn and began to eat the ears. Heath was used to shooting, took deliberate aim

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HISTORY OF WEARE, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

[1762.

and fired, wounding the bear ; then ran to the house for his dog. He found it barking furiously, trying to get out, but his wife was fast asleep. She had either eaten too much supper, or was like the other good woman, when her husband was having a close hug with a bear, and kept shouting " Go it old man, go it old bear." Heath and the dog went to the field, but could not find bruin. In the morning he tracked it a long way by its blood, but it got off. He used to compliment his wife all the rest of her days on what a fine sleeper she was when he was hunting bears.

Mr. Heath was out in the old French war, but when the Revolu- tion came on he refused to sign the Association Test and had him- self classed as a Quaker. He soon changed his mind, enlisted and served honorably for nearly six years. He was sharp and shrewd in his trades. In 1780, he sold lot six, in the gore, to Dudley Pet- tengill, his son-in-law, of " Mething " [Methuen], for six hundred bushels of good Indian corn. He did not take his pay in depreci- ated currency.

NATHANIEL CORLISS was from Haverhill, Mass. He bought, Jan. 9, 1762, one-half of lot fifty-eight, range one, of Benjamin Leavitt.

His cabin was on the south side of the north road from Oil Mill to South Weare, about fifty rods east of Meadow brook and a little west of Francis Eastman's present house. He was the son of Tim- othy Corliss, who settled in 1753, and a brother of Timothy the hunter. He did not live long in town. His name drops from the tax list, and it is said he sold to Thomas Worthley and went to Maine.

WILLIAM HUTCHINS, probably from Haverhill, Mass., bought, in 1762, part of lot forty-four, range one. His cabin was on the south end of the lot. Sept. 24, 1772, he sold to Nathaniel Weed. He then built himself a good house on the north end of lot sixty-four, range two. It stood on the road from South Weare to Center Square, and a few rods east of Meadow brook. Here he kept tavern, sold an abundance of flip, egg-nog, punch and apple toddy, kept a fire that was always bright and a loggerhead always hot, and was so genial that travelers liked to stop with him, and his neighbors on cold winter days, to come in to gossip, hear the news and discuss politics.

ABRAHAM JOHNSON, from Hampstead, is said to have lived on lot sixty-four, range two, in a hut by Mount William pond. He sold to William Hutchins in 1762, moved to lot two, in the gore, and

117

ABRAHAM JOHNSON.

1763.]

built a house, the second one north of Oil Mill on the east side of the Piscataquog, where he lived many years.

WILLIAM DARLING, 1762, from Kingston, settled on lot eighty- seven, range seven, east of Sugar hill. His father, John Darling, gave a deed of this lot to his two sons, William and John, April 11, 1768. William signed the petition for the incorporation of the town in 1764.

JOHN SIMONS was from Plaistow. In 1763 he bought lot forty- four, range one, south of Mount Misery, of Joshua Corliss, and settled there soon after. He was the ancestor of all the Simonses of Weare. For many years he was a member of the Calvinist Baptist church and afterwards of the Freewill Baptist church. He was a man of resolute disposition, of strong will and had much trouble with both societies. They could not drive him, and he did not care for admonishments.

Soon after coming to town he bought a few sheep, being one of the first to keep them. He had to pasture them near his house and put them in the barn every night, to save them from being killed by the bears and wolves. From their fleeces his wife and daughters made all the woolen cloth they wore, while the other settlers got their wool from down country.

SAMUEL NUTT, from Chester, bought, May 23, 1763, lots twenty- two and twenty-three in the gore, "of Benning Wentworth, Esq., captain-general, governor and commander-in-chief in and over his majesty's Province of New Hampshire in New England, for £1,500 old tenor." He settled there soon after, but only remained a few years.

JOHN PEASLEY, 3d, settled, in 1763, one-fourth mile east of Choate brook on lot ninety-seven, range five. He built his cabin just west of Dunbarton line, on the old road that was cut in 1753, and about fifty rods north of the present Peasley tavern. He was an excellent blacksmith and the ancestor of several John Peasleys, one of whom built the tavern in 1827. The old cabin of the first settler was moved down back of the hotel for a shop, and in it John L. Manning started a fire, November, 1835, which destroyed both houses.

JONATHAN CLEMENT came from Hampstead April 19, 1764. He bought of Nathaniel Martin, our first settler, for £4,717 old tenor, the farm of one hundred and forty acres on which Martin then lived, it being part of the strip of land between New Boston and " Weirstown" and known as lot three in the gore. Nathaniel Martin

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HISTORY OF WEARE, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

[1764.

reserved to himself three-fourths and two-eighths of one-fourth of the saw-mill with the privilege thereto belonging.

Mr. Clement at once built a grist-mill where the grist-mill now stands, at Oil Mill, the first one in town. He got his mill-stones out of a hard boulder on the south-east slope of Barnard hill, at a place called Spring-Horse hill. The rock from which they were taken is still to be seen. The mill was a great convenience, and here for many years all the settlers got their grain ground. In the fall the selectmen laid out a road from this mill to Asa Heath's, in the west part of the town.

EZRA CLEMENT, son of Jonathan Clement, came to Weare with his father. He was a farmer, and lived on the top of the ridge on the old road west from Oil Mill. Some years later his father gave him a deed of the lot on which he resided. He was greatly troubled with bears. They caught his sheep and destroyed his crops. One night, when he was near New Boston line after his cows, he found an old bear. He drove her up a tree along with her two cubs, then shouted so loud that Stephen Emerson, his neighbor, came and they captured the whole.

CAPT. GEORGE LITTLE, from Hampstead, bought lot sixty-nine, range five, and was probably the third settler in North Weare. At Hampstead he lived near Island pond, was a captain in the militia, served as selectman and seems to have been a prominent citizen. He held a commission as justice of the peace and was styled "gentleman " in deeds. At Weare he was an active man ; paid a tax in 1764 of £1 13s. 5d., was paid in 1767 "six shillings lawful money for Swaring the Town offerseers," and was an officer and "rider" in an association to arrest and punish the horse-thieves that then infested the country. Captain Little, about 1770, sold his farm in Weare to Moses Green and Edmond Gove and moved to his New Boston farm.

NATHANIEL FIFIELD, from Kingston, settled on Sugar hill in 1764. In 1762 he bought lot ninety-four, range seven, and the next year, 1763, he came up and felled four acres of trees. The following spring, 1764, he came again, burned and cleared his felled piece and sowed it with oats, that he might have something with which to winter his cattle, built a log cabin and barn, and then went for his family - wife and three children. They set out from Kingston with an ox team and came by the way of Rumford, now Concord. They were three days and two nights getting from the latter place to

119

JEREMIAH ALLEN.

1764.]

Sugar hill. His oxen broke their yoke, and he had to stop on the way and make a new one. The only auger he had was too small for the bow holes, but he bored through with it, then built a fire, heated his iron bar and with it burned them out to the proper size, and in that way managed to get through.

The numbers of the lots had been marked on trees near their south-west corners,* and Fifield soon found he had made a mistake, that his clearing and cabin were not on lot ninety-four, which he owned, but on lot ninety-five, which he did not own. He was much discouraged, and proposed to his wife to go to Newburyport and there work at his trade, that of a tailor. She said no ; she had got up here and intended to stay, and in ten years she would have ten cows, and she did. He soon after went to Chester and bought this lot of Ebenezer Dearborn, Jr., and sold lot ninety-four to Joseph White of Plaistow. Fifield was an officer in the Revolutionary war, became a colonel of militia, held some town office and lived on the place of his first settlement till he died in April, 1813.

JEREMIAH ALLEN was a moving character, never living very long in any one place, and speculated in land in nearly all the new towns. He came to Weare in 1764, or prior to that year. It is said he bought lot thirty-six, range one, of John Jewell. His house was on the north road from Oil Mill to South Weare, where Alonzo Wood now lives. He kept tavern and sold much liquor. Travelers must have been plenty to have needed three inns in town at this early date. He was a justice of the peace, but we have not been able to find when and where he was commissioned; had something to do with calling the first town meeting, and it was held at his inn. Dec. 13, 1764, he sold lot thirty-six, range one, to Ebenezer Mudgett of Hampstead, "merchant," who was afterward a somewhat noted man in Weare.

JOSIAH BROWN, from Hampton, or some of the neighboring towns, came in 1764. He bought lot fifty-six, range one, and built his house at its north end on the rangeway. It was a third of a mile west of Meadow brook on the road from South Weare over the hill to Deering, and stood where Jeremiah G. Davis' house now stands. It was built by the compass, facing the south, so that the

* The number of the lot was eut or blazed into a tree on or near the corner of the same. Baker the surveyor commenced measuring the width of the lots on the Center rangeway to each side of the town, and commeneed numbering the lots at the starting point. In this way the seventh range of lots east of the rangeway would be numbered on their south-west eorner.

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HISTORY OF WEARE, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

[1749.

sun might "shine square" on the floor, making a good domestic sun- dial, by which his wife would know when to call him to dinner. Nearly all the houses in town were set this way by the compass. Then his windows were peculiar: lights of glass three inches by five, and they opened outward with hinges. Mr. Brown loved a good fire, and in his great fire-place burned more than thirty cords of wood a year. What a roaring it made on cold winter days!

The requisite number of families were now in town, and in addi- tion there were John Jewell's two sons, one of whom had a clearing of his own, Thomas Worthley's four boys, now men grown, Marden Emerson and probably several squatter families whose names have not come down to us. By having time the Robiestown proprietors had complied with the terms of their grant and averted a forfeiture. The old French and Indian war, of which we shall treat in our next chapter, was their salvation .*

CHAPTER XI.

THE FRENCH AND INDIAN WAR.

THE chief cause of the war was a dispute about boundaries and who owned the Ohio valley. King George, in 1749, granted six hundred thousand acres to the Ohio Company. Surveyors were sent to lay it out, and men went to trade with the Indians. The French put the first in prison and drove off the traders. This led to war.

The Indians, incited by the pious Jesuit priests, soon began to murder the settlers on the frontier, burn their houses and carry cap- tives to Canada.

* The following persons also settled in Weare in 1764 :-

THOMAS EASTMAN, from Newton, built his house on lot 2, range 2, a little east of where 'Squire Eastman now lives, and was a near neighbor to Aaron Quimby, inn- holder. He brought a half bushel of corn on his shoulder when he moved to Weare.

JAMES DICKIE bought lot 22, in the gore, of Samuel Nutt. He paid £6 tax this year.

MOSES HUSE bought lot 46, range 1, of Mark Hunking Wentworth. He had sev- eral children born there. His wife died, he moved to Henniker and married an Indian lady.

JOSEPH QUIMBY lived near his brothers, Moses and William, on lot 54, range 1.

EBENEZER COLLINS, JR., from Kingston, bought lot 91, range 7, and built his house on the south-west corner of the north half of the lot.

ZEPHANIAH PATTEE lived west of the Otter, lot 32, range 1, on the road to the mountain. He was not taxed in 1764.

SAMUEL JOHNSON lived on lot 11, range 2, west of the Piscataquog, and above the Emerson bridge. He was not taxed this year.

121

INDIAN INCURSIONS.

1752.]

Their first act in New Hampshire, April 28, 1752, was to fall upon a party of hunters, John Stark, William Stark, Amos Eastman and David Stinson, who were trapping on the river Baker in the town of Rumney. They shot and scalped David Stinson, fired at Wil- liam Stark, but he escaped, and they carried to Canada John Stark and Amos Eastman, as prisoners, who had to pay a large ransom for their liberty .*

The first battle was in Pennsylvania. Troops under Colonels Frye and Washington, then but twenty-two years old, were sent to take Fort du Quesne, now Pittsburgh. They surprised an advance party of the French, May 28, 1754. Washington fired the first gun of the war. The French were defeated, and Jummonville, their leader, killed.

In New Hampshire, June 11th, the Indians fell upon the house of Nathaniel Meloon, in that part of Stevenstown now Salisbury. They captured Mr. Meloon, his wife and three children. Gov. Ben- ning Wentworth at once sent a company of foot, John Webster, captain, after the Indians, but they got away with their captives to Canada.

In Captain Webster's company were Jeremiah Bennett and Jo- seph Emmons, t names familiar in the history of Weare.

Aug. 15th, the Indians made another attack on Stevenstown, in that part now Franklin. They killed Mrs. Philip Call with a toma- hawk, shot Timothy Cook, scalped them, and took Enos Bishop prisoner. The governor sent a company of "fifty foot" up the Merri- mack, and two companies to the Connecticut river to protect the settlers. Our Col. John Goffe led the first, and with him were Jacob Jewell, John Worthley, Stephen George, Joshua Corliss, Jer- emiah Corless, Joseph Ordway, § men who then or afterwards lived in our town of Weare. In the companies on the Connecticut were Jonathan Atwood and Jonathan Flood.

But these troops did not keep off the Indians. Aug. 29th, they

* In Capt. John Goffe's scouting party, 1748, were Caleb Emery, sergeant, Jonathan Corliss, private. Later in the season Captain Goffe had another scouting party in which was Caleb Emery. In Capt. Moses Foster's (Suncook) company, 1748, was Jeremiah Allen. In Capt. Ebenezer Stevens' troop (Kingston), in 1750, was Moses Quimby. - Adjt .- Gen.'s Report, vol. ii, 1866, pp. 104, 112, 114.

t In Capt. John Webster's at Stevenstown and Contoocook, 1754, were Jeremiah Ben - net, serjeant, Joseph Emmons, John Darling .- Adjt .- Gen.'s Report, vol. ii, 1866, p. 116.

# In Capt. Joseph Blanchard's company on " Merrymac " river, 1754, were Joseph Ordway, Joshua Corliss, Stephen George, John Worthley, Jeremiah Corliss, William Hutchins, Jacob Jewell. In Lieut. JJosiah Willard's company, 1754, were Jonathan Atwood, Jonathan Flood. In Capt. John Chandler's company, 1754, at Concord, were Moses Eastman, Jonathan Fifield. - Adjt .- Gen.'s Report, vol. ii, 1866, pp. 117, 118. § Adjt .- Gen.'s Report, vol. ii, 1866, p. 117.

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HISTORY OF WEARE, NEW HAMPSHIRE.

[1755.

captured James Johnson and his whole family, eight persons, at Number Four, now Charlestown, and carried them to Canada. The troops gave no help and did not even try to rescue them .*

Of course our new town, as we have shown, did not flourish now, and hardly any one moved into Weare. The war was begun in good earnest.

In 1755, armies were sent against three points: Fort du Quesne, Niagara near Lake Erie, and Crown Point on Lake Champlain ; New Hampshire raised a regiment of six hundred men, divided into ten companies. Joseph Blanchard was colonel, John Goffe was captain of the second company, t our Nathaniel Martin was his ensign, and Joseph George, Stephen George, Aaron Quimby, John Worth- ley, Thomas Worthley and Jacob Jewell were among his men. Joseph Ordway was in the fourth company ; Robert Kennedy, Jr., Caleb Emery and Timothy Blake in the fifth company; Joseph Perkins and Josiah Brown in the sixth company; John Kimball in the ninth company. Philbriek Colby,# James Emerson and Joshua Corliss were in a company from Haverhill. These were all Weare men.

The regiment went into camp at Franklin. Governor Went- worth, who was a fine scholar and a great geographer, had the troops build boats to sail up the Pemigewasset river to Crown Point, and he sent Robert Rogers with his company of rangers to the upper Coos to build a strong log fort, into which they could re- treat in case of necessity. It was called Fort Wentworth, but it ought to have been Fort Folly. But Governor Wentworth soon found out his mistake and ordered the troops to march through the woods, over the Green Mountains to Albany.§ There was no road, no path, not even a line of spotted trees to follow. Their route was through the trackless wilderness. Their guns, ammunition, food for many days, clothing and blankets, forty to sixty pounds to each man, were all carried on their backs. They forced their way through tangled thickets and windfalls, threaded cold, dismal swamps, waded rapid streams and crossed broad rivers on rafts. No friendly cabin received them at night, no tent sheltered them, they had not even a hunter's camp, but wrapped in their blankets

* Potter's Manchester, pp. 291, 294.

t Adjt .- Gen.'s Report, vol. ii, 1866, p. 130.

# Philbrick Colby, blacksmith, settled in Weare on lot 38, range 1. He built his cabin near Deering line.

§ Adjt .- Gen.'s Report, vol. ii, 1866, p. 143.

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FORT EDWARD.

1756.]

they lay down on a few spruce boughs to sleep. When it rained, their clothing was saturated, which added to their discomfort. None but hardy frontiersmen could endure the hardships of such a march.

Our regiment's first service was at Fort Edward, of which it had charge for a short time, then it went with the main army to Lake George. At the battle there with the French under Baron Dieskau, they took some part and saw the hundreds of dead men, who were killed in the woods. The French and Indians were repulsed. Cap- tain Folsom, of our ninth company, had a fight with some of the enemy on the shore of the lake, killed a great number, lost eight of his own men, and captured the entire baggage of the French army. It was a brilliant exploit.

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The history of Weare, New Hampshire, 1735-1888, Part 14

Author: Little, William, 1833-1893. cn Publication date: 1888 Publisher: Lowell, Mass., Printed by S. W. Huse & Co. Number of Pages: 1240

Author: Little, William, 1833-1893. cn
Publication date: 1888
Publisher: Lowell, Mass., Printed by S. W. Huse & Co.
Number of Pages: 1240