USA > New Hampshire > To Monadnock; the records of a mountain in New Hampshire through three centuries > Part 2
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Sabbath 18. I fixed the men out with the stores.
Monday 19. We marched toward Ware River and there camped and sent out our scouts and tracked some Indians and heard two guns.
Tuesday 20. We lay still by reason of foul weather.
Wednesday 21. We marched over Ware River and camped, for we saw it like to rain.
Thursday 22. We lay still by reason it rained hard all day.
24
THE WESTERN FRONTIER, 1723-5
Friday 23. We marched above six miles and, it being very hot, we camped about the middle of the afternoon by reason several of our weak men could not travel, their packs being so heavy. I sent out three scouts and ordered them [to] travel five or six miles, which they did three several ways.
Saturday 24. We marched about seven miles northerly and sent out our scouts, which heard a gun but discovered nothing else.
Sabbath day 25. Four of our men not being able to travel, I sent them home, who are by name Thomas Burt, Robart Gray, Jacob Moor and Jeremiah Belcher. I also sent Joshua Parker home with them. We marched northeast about three miles.
Monday 26. Lay still by reason of rain. We sent out scouts, who scouted about three miles round but discovered nothing.
Tuesday 27. We could not travel by reason of rain, but we sent out several scouts and discovered nothing.
Wednesday 28. Mr. William Brintnall being sick and Daniel How lame, I sent them home. We marched about 13 miles north and by west round some ponds and camped at the south end of Nockeeg pond [Naukeag Lake, Ashburnham, Mass.] and sent out scouts three miles each way and discovered nothing.
Thursday 29. We marched north and by west about nine miles and crossed several branches of Miller's River and camped and sent out scouts, which found where the Indians had lived last year and made a canoe, at the north end of a long pond [Lake Monomonac, Rindge, N. H.].
Friday 30. We marched north in the forenoon and came to a pond which run [s] into Contocook River. In the afternoon we marched northwest in all about 12 miles and camped at Peewunseun [Contoocook] pond and sent out scouts four miles and they found two wigwams made last year. They also found
25
TO MONADNOCK
a paddle and some squash shells in one of them, which we suppose they carried from Rutland.
Saturday 31. We marched 12 miles and I with fourteen men camped on the top of Wannadnack Mountain [the first recorded ascent of Monadnock] and discovered 26 ponds. Saw Pigwackett lying one point from said mountain and Cusagee [Kearsarge] Mountain and Winnepeseockey lying northeast from said Wannadnack. The same day we found several old signs which the Indians had made the last year and where they camped when they killed the people at Rutland, as we imagine.
Sabbath day, August the 1st. We marched from the west side of Wenadnack [Monadnock] and crossed three streams that run into Contocook and then camped and sent out our scouts and found two wigwams made in June or July, as we suppose, and found sixteen of their spits which they roast their meat with, all in said wigwam, and one of our scouts went so far that they could not return the same night.
Monday 2. We marched about seven miles and crossed a great branch of Contocook River and sent out our scouts up and down the river. Each scout traveled about 8 miles.
Tuesday 3. We marched N. E. about sixteen miles and camped and sent out our scouts, who found many old signs of Indians.
Wednesday 4th. We lay still by reason of foul weather. We sent out our scouts and they heard a gun.
Thursday 5. We marched about 16 miles northerly and crossed two streams that run into Merimack and sent out our scouts and discovered nothing.
Friday 6. We marched about 18 miles. In the morning we found a moccasin track and spent some time scouting after said track. We camped near a little pond.
26
THE WESTERN FRONTIER, 1723-5
Saturday 7. We traveled about 20 miles N. E. and crossed two streams that run into Merimack.
Sabbath 8. We returned homeward by reason of our In- dians having no provision and several of our English but little. We came to a stream that run[s] into Merimack. We trav- eled about 24 miles south and by east.
Monday 9. We traveled about east till we came to Meri- mack, being about 10 miles, and met with Capt. Blanchard com- ing from Pemisewassett; and in afternoon came to the lower end of Pennicook, which is about sixteen miles, and camped.
Tuesday 10th. We traveled 24 miles down the [sic] to Cohasett Falls.
Wednesday 11. We came 14 miles and came to Dunstable. Thursday 12. We came 24 miles and came to Lancaster.
SAMUEL WILLARD.
In the House of Representatives November 10, 1725, read.
27
"THERE STOOD THE MOUNTAIN CALLING TO THEM"
I WALPOLE, 1730
New Hampshire Provincial and State Papers XXIV, 330.
October 14, 1730. A petition of John Flint, Esq., and others, inhabitants of the towns of Concord, Groton, Littleton, Lexington and Westford, praying for a tract of land of six miles square on the west of Monadnock, on the easterly branch of Ashawelot River, or in any other place as shall be thought fit, for the ends and reasons therein mentioned.
Received, and referred to the next session [of the Great and General Court of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay] for further consideration.
28
THERE STOOD THE MOUNTAIN, 1730-
II A TOWNSHIP CALLED ROWLEY CANADA, MONADNOCK NO. 1, RINDGE
From History of the Town of Rindge, N. H., by Ezra S. Stearns, 1875.
A plat of a tract of land of the contents of six miles square, laid out by Nathan Heywood, surveyor, and chainmen on oath, to satisfy a grant made by the Great and General Court of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay held at Boston the 24th of November, 1736, to John Tyler, Joseph Pike and others, that were either officers or soldiers in the Canada expedition, anno 1690, or the descendants of such of them as are deceased, which tract lieth to the southward of the Grand Monadnuck, so called, and adjoining to the township lately granted by said Court to Samuel Haywood, etc. ..
NATHAN HEYWOOD, Surveyor.
[See post, 1749-52, plan of the Monadnock Townships, and, a few pages before it, Dr. Douglass's map.]
29
TO MONADNOCK
III A TOWNSHIP CALLED EAST MONADNOCK, CONCORD, SOUHEGAN, PETERBOROUGH
From History of the Town of Peterborough, N. H., by Albert Smith, M.D., LL.D., 1876.
May the 21st, 1738. Then finished the surveying and lay- ing out of a township, of the contents of six miles square, to satisfy a grant of the Great and General Court of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay, made the 16th day of January, 1737, on the petition of Samuel Haywood and others, and their asso- ciates, lying on the easterly side of a great hill, called Manad- nock Hill. . .
[Joseph Wilder, surveyor, thus made his report. Twenty- one years later the little township petitioned an act of incor- poration.]
About the year of our Lord 1739 [the petition records], in consequence of a grant of a tract of land had and obtained from the Great and General Court or Assembly of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay by Samuel Haywood and others his associates. . . a number of people immediately went on to said tract of land and began a settlement (though then very far from any other inhabitants) which we have continued increas- ing ever since the year 1739, except sometimes when we left the said township for fear of being destroyed by the enemy, who several times drove us from our settlement soon after we began, and almost ruined many of us. Yet what little we had in the world lay there. We, having no whither else to go, returned to our settlement as soon as prudence would admit, where we have continued since and have cultivated a rough part of the wilderness to a fruitful field. The inhabitants of said tract of land are increased to the number of forty-five or fifty families. . .
30
THE MASSACHUSETTS-NEW HAMPSHIRE LINE, 1741
I
[Whether Monadnock Mountain should lie within the bounds of Massachusetts or of New Hampshire was settled incidentally in 1740 by the King's decree. The boundary-line dispute between the two provinces grew out of a misapprehen- sion, at the time the Massachusetts charter was granted, of the course of the Merrimac River. Originally it was supposed to flow from west to east, and "three English miles to the north- ward of the said river called Monomack, alias Merrymack, or to the northward of any and every part thereof" was the north- ern line granted by charter to the Province of Massachusetts Bay. This line, after the true course of the Merrimac became known, Massachusetts interpreted as extending parallel with the Merrimac up to a point over forty miles north of the present Massachusetts-New Hampshire line, and thence west; fortify- ing her claim by the grant of many townships. (See supra, 1730 -; and post, (1749, 1753), Dr. Douglass's map.) Monad- nock is about ten miles north of the present Massachusetts-New Hampshire line. But Richard Hazzen, employed by the province of New Hampshire to run the line in 1741, looking north from a meadow he and his company were crossing, called it near eight miles to the "Grand Menadnuck."]
31
TO MONADNOCK
II RICHARD HAZZEN'S JOURNAL
New Hampshire Provincial and State Papers, XIX, 491-502.
The journal of Richard Hazzen and company from Haver- hill to Albany and back again, in running the northern boundary line of the Province of the Massachusetts Bay in New England from a point three miles due north of Pentucket Falls in Mer- rimack River on a due west course till it meet with his Majes- ty's other governments. ..
Friday, March 20, 1741. At eight o'clock forenoon we set out from my dwelling house in Haverhill with our provisions on small hand sleds, which we hauled up Merrimack River on the ice, with great difficulty and danger of falling through, most of the falls in the river being then broke up, and in other places the ice was thin and rotten; and the same night came to Mr. Richard Hall's of Tewksbury at about eight o'clock and lodged by his fire side.
Saturday, March 21. At break of day we went from Mr. Hall's and passed over Concord River on the ice without any apparent danger, notwithstanding the river was open a little above us and below, and at nine o'clock forenoon came safe to Col. Varnum's, where about ten o'clock George Mitchell, Esq., and company, who had been taking the bends of Merrimack River from the Atlantick Sea in order to run similar lines in a proper season for it, also arrived; and the Colonel having generously entertained both companies at his own expense and cost, and determined at what part of the falls to begin to measure a due north line (the place concluded on being called the Great Bunt and directly opposite to Tyng's saw mills),
32
THE MASS .- N. H. LINE, 1741
the said Mitchell set forward on his course and measured three miles, which ended about fourteen rods southerly of Colburn's old meadow and near the easterly end of it, where the said Mitchell caused a pitch pine tree to be marked and lettered with M on the southerly side and N H on the opposite side, denoting it to be a boundary between the Province of the Mas- sachusetts Bay and New Hampshire, and erected a pillar of stones round the same tree; and then we parted, the said Mitchell returning home to Portsmouth, and I set forward on my course which was due west, allowing ten degrees' variation north according to my instructions from the Governor and Council; and the same night I measured from the said pine tree one mile and sixteen poles to Beaver River. 1m 0º 16». ..
Sunday, March 22d. I was kindly entertained by the Rev. Mr. Parker and went to his church both parts of the day, and at night lodged at Mr. William Richardson's, it being near the place I left off measuring Saturday night. This day was fair and warm and the wind southwesterly, which caused the snow to melt very fast.
Monday, March 23d. This day we began to measure a little after sunrise and went on our course 4:2:24 [4 miles, 2 quarter miles, 24 poles]. . . The morning was cloudy and about one o'clock afternoon it began to snow, and snowed fast all the remainder of the day, which hindered our moving further. Here Caleb Swan and Ebenezer Shaw were sworn chainmen before Eleazer Tyng, Esq., pursuant to his excellency's instruc- tions. We lodged at Dunstable this night, some of us at the house of Joseph Blanchard, Esq., who generously entertained us, and the rest of the company at French's Tavern.
Tuesday, March 24th. It snowed very fast all this day, which hindered us from proceeding on our journey, so we lodged at Dunstable as we did last night.
33
TO MONADNOCK
Wednesday, March 25. At ten o'clock it cleared up. And we immediately set forward and measured to Nashua River, which was 4:3:44, and at night lodged by James Blood's fire. . .
Thursday, March 26. We set out early and with great dif- ficulty passed Nashua River in a canoe which could carry but two men at one time and leaked half full every time she crossed the river, for which ferriage I paid ten shillings, though the river was not more than twenty rods over; and then trav- eled down the river and began to measure at the same in the line where we left off last night, and we measured six miles, 6:0:0, which measure ended in Samuel Wheeler's lot in Townsend. . .
Friday, March 27th. We set out where we left off the line last night, being helped forward by some of the inhabitants of Townsend, and measured six miles, 6:0:0, which ended about thirty poles west of the path leading from Townsend to New Ipswich. . . The snow this day's measure was near three feet deep. We had the heavens over us and snow and a few hem- lock boughs under us, which was all the covering except our blankets we had this night. The weather was fair and warm and the wind southerly, which made the snow soft and heavy traveling.
Saturday, March 28th. We set forward before sunrise and this day measured 4:2:40. . . The snow in general was three feet deep, and where we lodged near five; the weather was fair and wind northwest.
Sunday, March 29th. We measured this day 4:0:40. . . We saw no remarkable mountain, only Watatuck [Watatic, in Ashburnham], which we went two or three miles north of. The land in general was good land, and the trees that grew on it beech, maple and white ash, intermixed with hemlock and
34
1838633
THE MASS .- N. H. LINE, 1741
little underbrush. The snow for the most part was two feet and half deep or more, the weather was fair and warm, and the wind westerly, and bad traveling the latter part of the day. In the night it clouded up and sometime before day snowed, which obliged us to stretch our blankets and lie under them, having no other covering.
Monday, March 30th. The trees and bushes being laden with the snow that fell last night, we did not set forward till near nine of the clock in the forenoon, and then measured 2:0:60. . . At the distance of one hundred and eighty poles we crossed Wonommenock [Monomonac] pond, which was forty poles over at the place where we crossed it and is a main branch or head of Miller's River; thence two hundred and eighty poles to a large brook, being another branch of said Miller's River; we named it Deer Brook from the great signs of deer we saw there. The snow this day was about as deep as yesterday, but the land more broken and rocky. The weather was fair and windy, the wind northwest.
Tuesday, March 31. We set forward on our journey before sunrise and the same day measured five miles and forty poles, 5:0:40. . . At half a mile from where we began to measure this morning we came to a large stream running northerly or northwesterly, which we supposed to be that branch of Con- toocook River which runs along by Grand Menadnuck and thence through Hopkinton and joins the other branches of that river in the town of Rumford and empties into Merrimack River. At two miles further we came to a meadow, a large stream running southerly through the same, and here we found some stacks of hay; we supposed the stream to be a branch of Miller's River, and the hay to be Boynton's, who lives on the road leading from Northfield to Lunenburgh. At this meadow we had a fair prospect of Grand Menadnuck bearing north of
35
TO MONADNOCK
us and distant, as we judged, near eight miles; from thence one mile, three quarters and forty poles we crossed another branch of Miller's River. The land in general was good, and good traveling in the forenoon but soft in the afternoon. The snow two feet and an half deep or more, the wind northwest and weather fair.
Wednesday, April 1st. This day we measured 5:3:34. . . In this day's travel we crossed sundry branches of Miller's River; . . we crossed all these streams on the ice. The land this day was broken land, producing chiefly spruce, hemlock, fir, etc., the snow betwixt two and three feet deep, the weather fair and cold and the wind northwest.
Thursday, April 2d. This day we measured from where we left off last night 7:3:0, seven miles and three-quarters. . . At the end of 292 poles from where we began this morning we ascended a large mountain, Grand Menadnuck then bearing northeasterly of us and distant near twelve miles. At four miles from where we began our measure this morning we crossed a great brook running north, called Muddy Brook; at 620 poles more we crossed another large brook running the same way and called Roaring Brook, both which are branches of Ashwelott River. From thence two hundred and twenty poles we came to the top of a very high hill from whence we had a fair view of Northfield, and thence we measured to a sled path about two miles and half northerly of Northfield meeting house, and left off and traveled to Capt. Feilds of Northfield and lodged by his fire side. The snow was about two feet deep till we came to the top of the hill last mentioned, after that the ground was bare in some places. The weather was fair and wind northwest.
Friday, April 3d. This day we measured only to Connetti- cutt River which was 0:3:4. . .
36
THE MASS .- N. H. LINE, 1741
Thursday, April 16th. We measured to Hudson's River. . .
Saturday, April 25th. . . Arrived at my own house in Haver- hill about eight o'clock at night, all in perfect health through the goodness of almighty God to us, and for which his name be praised.
RICHARD HAZZEN.
The company were:
RICHARD HAZZEN, Surveyor. ZECHARIAH HELDRETH. CALEB SWAN. EBENEZER SHAW. BENJAMIN SMITH. WILLIAM RICHARDSON. RICHARD HAZZEN, JR.
N.B. The weather proved so fair that we never stopped a day in the woods for any foul weather, never built a camp one night, and stretched our blankets but three times; but lodged on the snow without any covering except our blankets, not- withstanding we traveled more than four hundred miles and were absent thirty-seven days.
37
MOUNTAINS AND A MAP, 1749 AND 1753
[In 1749 was published, in two learned volumes, "A Sum- mary, Historical and Political, of the First Planting, Progres- sive Improvements, and Present State of the British Settle- ments in North America." The author was a distinguished physician of Boston, a Dr. William Douglass, who thus re- corded his interest in the mountains of New England:]
The great Blue Hill, 12 miles S. S. W. from Boston, with a continued ridge of hills running eastward to Boston Bay: upon this hill the townships of Milton, Braintree and Stough- ton meet. The summit of this hill is very proper for a beacon in case of any sudden invasion by an enemy; from thence a fire and great smoke may be visible to seven-eighths of the province. In a clear day from it are distinctly to be seen Pigeon Hill, N. E. easterly about 40 miles, a noted landmark upon Cape Ann, the northern promontory of Massachusetts; the great Watchuset, the great Menadnock, Wateticks, and other noted mountains. The great Watchuset Hill in Rutland lies W. N. W. northerly about 50 miles. The grand Menad- nock, in waste lands of the province of New Hampshire, lies about 20 miles further north than Watchusets.
From the high lands at the meeting-house of old Rutland district near the Watchuset Hills are the following bearings:
Great Watchuset Hill N. E. half N. East end of Wateticks N. N. E. northerly.
Great Menadnock N. half W. Mount Tom in Northampton W. b. N. half W.
Mount Tobit in Sunderland W. N. W. Middle of Northfield Hills N. W.
38
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MOUNTAINS AND A MAP, 1749 AND 1753
These [he adds] are only general expressions of what I ob- served by a pocket compass; and as a specimen, how with proper compasses or needles from several well-concerted places of obser- vation and with actual particular surveys compared and ad- justed, an exact plan of the country (for utility or amusement) may be obtained. I have employed some vacant and sometimes borrowed time in this affair, which I design as a present to the province.
[The careful map resulting from Dr. Douglass's labors was not made public until after his death. Then, probably in 1753, it was published by his executors, with the following in- scription : "This plan of the British Dominions of New Eng- land in North America, composed from actual surveys, is dedicated to the several General Assemblies or Legislatures of the Province of Massachusets Bay, of the Province of New Hampshire, of the Colony of Conecticut, and the Colony of Rhode Island by William Douglas, M.D." A section of this map showing the "Menadnock Hills" is presented herewith. Both the Massachusetts-New Hampshire line and the Massa- chusetts township grants in New Hampshire are plotted. Of especial interest is the "frontier double line of townships as a barrier against the Indians," seen to the north of the "Menad- nock Hills."]
39
THE MONADNOCK TOWNSHIPS, 1749
From "The Grand Monadnock" by Edward W. Emerson, M.D., New England Magazine 1896.
It has been asserted that those who open a new country are not the practical, money-making people,-those come later,- but the visionary men whose imagination presses the service of their stout hearts and strong arms. One may well believe that the majesty of this presiding mountain drew and kept about its feet the men whom the niggard soil and long winters might well have repelled. That the mountain was an influence the names of the region show. It was called the Grand Monad- nock; the beautiful twin summits ten miles eastward in Peter- borough and Temple were the Pack Monadnocks ;* a minor hill to the south, Little Monadnock; and the townships granted around in Cheshire County, Monadnock Number One or Row- ley-Canada (now Rindge) ; Monadnock Number Two or Jaf- frey; Number Three, Dublin; Number Four, Fitzwilliam; Number Five, Marlborough; Number Six, Packersfield (now Nelson) ; Number Seven, Limerick (now Stoddard) ; Number Eight, Camden (now Washington). These towns, though granted much earlier and settled as soon as it was in any way safe, were incorporated in the ten years before the Revolution; and so attractive had this region of rocks and woods and wolves become that in 1775 Cheshire County already had more than eleven thousand inhabitants.
*[Pack Monadnock lies between Peterborough and Temple; North Pack Monadnock is in Greenfield.]
40
Monadnock No. 8 (Washington)
The Monadnock Townships
Monadnock No .? (Stoddard)
granted by the Masonian
Proprietors* 1749-1752
Monadnock No. 6 (Nelson)
incorporated 1768-1776
Monadnock No. 3 (Dublin)
Monadnock No. 5 (Marlborough)
MT. MONADNOCK
Monadnock No. 2 (Jaffrey)
Monadnock No. 4 (Fitzwilliam)
Monadnock No. 1 (Rindge)
N. H.
MASS.
*The title of the Masonian Proprietors may be traced "through the right in the Crown of Great Britain by discovery; the grant of King James I to the Council of Plymouth, in the County of Devon, in Eng- land; the grant of that corporation to Capt. John Mason; a devise by him to his grandson, Robert Tufton, who took the name of Mason; thence as an entailed estate, through several descents, to his great- grandson, John Tufton Mason; and after a recovery, his conveyance in 1746 to Theodore Atkinson and eleven other persons, who after- wards became known as the 'Masonian Proprietors.'" [Joel Parker, LL.D., in History of the Town of Jaffrey, N. H., by Daniel B. Cutter, M.D., 1881.]
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