History of Newbury, Vermont, from the discovery of the Coos country to present time, Part 2

Author: Wells, Frederic Palmer, 1850- ed
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: St. Johnsbury, Vt., The Caledonian company
Number of Pages: 935

USA > Vermont > Orange County > Newbury > History of Newbury, Vermont, from the discovery of the Coos country to present time > Part 2

Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).

State Officers. - Senators. - County Officers. - Town Clerks. - Members of Constitutional Conventions. - Representatives. - Votes for Governor. -Moderators of Annual Town Meetings. - Selectmen. - Listers. - Constables. - Treasurers. - Superintendents of Schools. - Overseers of the Poor. - Road Commissioners. 355-367

CHAPTER XLVI.

Revolutionary and Miscellaneous Papers. - The New Hampshire Charter .- The New York Charter. - Diary of Gen. Jacob Bayley in the Old French War .- Journals of Col. Jacob Kent .- Col. Frye Bayley's Diary in 1776 .- Col. Thomas Johnson's Journal while in Canada. - Thomas Mellen's Narrative. - Letters. - Revolutionary Muster Rolls. - New- bury Lands in 1808. - Miscellaneous. 368-414

PART II.

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCHES AND FAMILY RECORDS, 417-743

PART I.

HISTORY OF NEWBURY,

VERMONT.

CHAPTER I.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION.

LOCATION .- AREA .- MEADOWS .- THEIR NAMES .- SCENERY .- MOUNT PULASKI .- INGALL'S HILL .- CHANGES IN THE RIVER .- WASTE REGION .- HALLS, ROUND AND LONG PONDS .- JEFFERSON HILL .- LIME-KILN .- HEIGHT OF MOUNT PULASKI .- WRIGHT'S MOUNTAIN .- BLUE MOUNTAIN .- HIGHEST FARM .- MOUNT WASHINGTON, LOWEST POINT FROM WHICH IT IS SEEN .- FALLS AT BOLTON- VILLE .- FALLS AT WEST NEWBURY .- SCOPE OF THIS VOLUME.

N EWBURY, Vermont, occupies the north-easterly corner of Orange county, and is separated by Connecticut river from Haverhill in the county of Grafton and state of New Hamp- shire. It is bounded on the south by Bradford and a small part of Corinth, on the west by Topsham, and on the north by Ryegate, in the county of Caledonia.

Speaking with more geographical accuracy, the parallel of forty- four degrees, north latitude, crosses the river about a mile below the southern extremity of the town. The meridian of seventy-two degrees, west longitude, passes through Haverhill at nearly the same distance from the most eastern point of Newbury.

·It contains about 36,450 acres, comprising a great variety of soil-rich tracts of meadow, fertile upland, high hills and deep valleys, with some square miles of land whose broken and ledgy surface forbids cultivation.

A glance at the map of the town shows its principal streams, the location of its villages and post offices, and the highways and railroads which enable its inhabitants to communicate with each other, and the surrounding towns. But a more particular descrip- tion is necessary toward the understanding of those natural features which so much influence the early development of a town and its subsequent history.

The longest settled, and best known parts of Newbury, are the meadows, or intervale lands, which border the Connecticut. These

HISTORY OF NEWBURY, VERMONT.

meadows have an average breadth of about one mile between the Newbury and Haverhill hills, and it is understood that the portion allotted by the river to this town is considerably the larger.

Through this intervale the river flows, with an average width of about five hundred feet, at times taking a straight course for some distance, then bending and doubling, touches the feet of the Newbury hills, now stretching away toward those of Haverhill. Midway of the town, it makes a circuit of nearly four miles, returning within a half mile of its starting point, enclosing a tract of wondrous beauty and fertility known as the Great Ox-bow. The scenery of the Connecticut valley has called forth the admiration of all who have beheld it. It would be easy to quote pages of description, which travelers from our own and other lands have written. One of the earliest, President Dwight of Yale College, wrote thus of the Ox-bow in 1803: "Its whole extent is one vast meadow, covered with the richest verdure, except a tract converted into arable ground, and it is scarcely possible for mere earth to exhibit a more beautiful surface."

The names of the several meadows, borne by them since the town was settled, beginning at the north, with their ancient limits, are: Upper meadow, from Stair hill at Wells River to the foot of Ingall's hill; Cow meadow, from the foot of Frye Bayley's hill to the ridge of land on which the houses at the Ox-bow are built; then the Ox-bow; next, Musquash meadow, which extends from the mouth of Harriman's brook to the point of rocks opposite the Dow or Keyes farm in Haverhill; Kent's meadow, from the point of rocks to White's cove, now Bailey's eddy; Sleeper's meadow, from the bend of the river to Bedell's bridge, and Hall's meadow, from the bridge to Bradford line.

The prospect of these meadows, with their alternating intervales on the Haverhill side, green with grass, interspersed with fields of corn and grain, through which the river winds, here hidden by the trees which bend over it, and there presenting its broad expanse to the sunshine, is one of loveliness and peace. Above and beyond, the hills of Haverhill with their farms and villages, the woods which clothe the higher elevations, the bulwark of Moosilauke lifting its bare and wind-swept top far into the sky, the attending and more remote mountains, present a scene of grandeur rarely surpassed.

Several points along the chain of rocky hills west of the meadows offer different aspects of the scene. The most noted view is along the road from Mr. Moore's house, passing over Mount Pulaski, behind Newbury village. Another prospect, scarce inferior, is from the heights in the rear of Ingall's hill.

In spring, or when great rains have fallen upon the country north of us, the scene takes on a new aspect. The winding channel of the river cannot carry away the water as fast as it is poured in by the swifter streams above us; the river overflows its banks; and

GENERAL DESCRIPTION.

the valley becomes a long narrow lake, with trees, buildings and the railroad embankment rising above the flood.

Could we know the history of these intervales, how they were formed in the course of long ages, the record would be more interesting than anything we can say about its human inhabitants. But the speculations and conclusions of geologists form no part of this history.

The course of ancient river beds is to be seen in many places on the meadows. The stream has, at several points, worn away acres of land from different farms. It has, moreover, changed its channel in more than one place, and detached portions of land from one town and annexed them to the other, without consulting the authorities of either Vermont or New Hampshire, or the wishes of those who imagined themselves the owners of the soil. An elm which is said to mark the spot where James Woodward in 1762 made his first pitch in Haverhill, now stands about ten rods from the river, on the Newbury side.

According to a statement of Gen. James Whitelaw in 1795, a line from the southeast to the northeast corner of Newbury would cut off about 2,040 acres lying east of it. The same line would take in a valuable part of Haverhill. The number of acres would be somewhat different now.

West of the meadows, and of the small tracts of plain which lie at the foot of the hills, for more than half the length of the town, extends a region which bears a striking contrast to that which we have been considering. Rising from the lower lands in precipices, or in pastures hardly less abrupt, extending back an average distance of about a mile, and stretching from Wells river to Hall's brook, is a region of hills which in some instances rise to a height of more than eight hundred feet above the river. Extensive ledges, bare or covered with shallow soil, are mostly clothed with woods, the second, third, and in some instances the fourth or fifth growth since the original forest was removed. It contains some tracts of good pasture, and in various parts farms were begun and abandoned. Wood roads wind about among the hills, and there is still some good timber growing on them. Two roads only from the west to the east part of the town cross this territory, and there is only one dwelling in the tract, which embraces fully one-tenth of all the land in town.

This wilderness, interposed between the villages along the river and the farms of the west part of the town, is a great disadvantage to Newbury. Had this section consisted of excellent farming land, the social, religious and political history of Newbury would have been very different.

Vermont is a land of hills, and Newbury has its full share. The wide and deep valley of Hall's brook bisects the town from north- west to southeast, drains about one-third of its area, and has

HISTORY OF NEWBURY, VERMONT.

furnished the power, at some twenty sites along the main stream and its branches, for mills of various kinds. It receives the waters of Hall's pond, which covers about three hundred acres, and lies a mile south of the geographical centre of the town. Round and Long ponds, which reflect the hills in the west part of the township, near the road from Newbury to Corinth, find their outlets in the same stream. Quite a large section of the town is drained by branches of Waits river in Bradford.

The hills south of Wells river rise high and steep, affording excellent pasturage. Jefferson hill, with its deep strong soil and long northern slope toward Ryegate, lies in the northwest corner of the town. Lime, burned to a small extent many years ago in a deep valley near the Topsham line, gave its name to the Lime-kiln neighborhood. Other local designations will be duly explained.

The railroad track where it enters Newbury from Bradford is said to be 375 feet above the sea-level. The highest cultivated land in town, long called the "Mountain Carter place," from which is a prospect of vast extent and variety, lies a mile or two north west of the hamlet of West Newbury. A wooded hill behind this elevated farm, shares with two others, several miles from it and from each other, the claim of being the highest land in town.

Such a region of high hills, deep valleys and wide stretches of rolling upland, presents many fair prospects. Mount Mansfield and Camel's Hump may be seen on a clear day, to the northwest, from one or two hills, and Ascutney, far to the south. But the finest prospects are those of the Connecticut valley and the New Hampshire mountains. Moosilauke dominates the landscape in its direction. The "house on Moosilauke" can be seen from four out of five of the houses in Newbury, its elevation being 4,810 feet above the ocean and its distance from the river about nine miles as the bird flies.

Toward the south the mountains rise in lessening height. But east and north the Franconia and White Mountains stand like a wall beneath the sky. The long line of their summits, the inter- vening hills, and the pcaks that rise far to the north arc only seen in days of rarest atmospheric purity, and form a picture of which the eye seldom tircs.

NOTE. Mount Washington is seen from the windows of about thirty houses in this town. From the house of Mr. Charles W. Eastman, near Wells River, and from a few points much lower than the house it is visible, and is the lowest spot in the Connecticut valley from which the highest peak in New England can be seen. At some points in the upper Coos the river is sech at high water from Mount Washington, but it must be remembered that the valley is there many feet higher above sea-level than at Newbury.

The height of Mount Pulaski has been ascertained by Prof. G. N. Abbott to be 379 feet above the fountain on the common, and 855 feet above the ocean. The ledge southwest is 70 feet higher. The summit of Wright's mountain in Bradford is 2,100 feet above the sea, and that of Blue mountain in Ryegate is 2,192 fect.

MUSQUASH MEADOW. FARM OF F. E. KIMBALL FROM HAVERHILL.

NORTHWEST FROM WRIGHT'S MOUNTAIN.

GENERAL DESCRIPTION.

There are no natural curiosities worthy of especial notice in this town. The falls at Boltonville, down which the river pours over a succession of ledges, are picturesque at high water. Near the church at West Newbury, a small stream which comes down from the hills to the north, falls almost perpendicularly for about forty feet into a deep ravine, whose rocky walls, overhung by dense foliage, shut in a cascade well worthy of a visit when the brook is swollen by spring or autumn rains.

Such may serve for a general description of Newbury. Its hills have not yielded any mines of useful ore or precious metal. There are no quarries here to furnish the stone for the walls, or rich marbles for the costly adornment of great edifices in the cities.

No man of national fame was born in Newbury. It was never the birth-place of a President or even a Governor. It has not been the scene of any famous event. On the other hand we do not have to admit that any criminal whose evil deeds appalled the world, first drew breath here. It has never been the scene of any of the great crimes which have shocked humanity. But it has been the birth- place or residence of a great many men and women who helped make the world wiser and better. Not a few of them acted a modest part in great events. Its schools have trained thousands for the active work of life. Its churches have been ministered to by godly men. The farmers of its hills and valleys left to their children the legacy of honest, industrious lives. Their names and deeds are passing into oblivion. To chronicle the annals of the town, and to preserve their names and the records of their families in the town where they lived, and among the sons and daughters of Newbury who are scattered abroad, will be the scope of this volume.

CHAPTER II.

THE COOS COUNTRY.

THE LOWER COOS .- INDIAN TRIBES .- INDIAN RELICS .- SETTLEMENT OF HARTFORD, CONN .- BRATTLEBORO .- LONDONDERRY, N. H .- CONCORD .- WELLS RIVER .- ORIGIN OF THE NAME .- WRIGHT'S EXPEDITION .- "THE REDEEMED CAPTIVE."- ANCIENT MAPS .- BAKER'S EXPEDITION .- CHARLESTOWN, "NUMBER FOUR."- CAPT. SYMES'S PROJECT .- JOHN STARK .- LOVEWELL'S EXPEDITION .- ROGERS'S EXPEDITION .- THE RETURN THROUGH THE WILDERNESS.

W HAT we now call Newbury, formerly comprised, with the portion of the Connecticut valley as far south as Orford, the "Lower Coos," and was still called by that name by the older people, within the memory of men yet living.

The name Coös, sometimes spelled Cohass and Cowass, was applied to two extensive tracts of land in the upper Connecticut valley, the other or "Upper Coös," being the broad intervales near Lancaster. The meaning of the appellation has been variously held to be, "a crooked river;" "a wide valley;" "a place of tall pines ;" "a place of deer ; " and "a great fishing place."

We will leave to special students the search among the confused mass of facts and theories concerning the various Indian tribes which, from time immemorial, dwelt or wandercd here. It was, probably, neutral or disputed ground between large tribes, visited by various bands or families, for the purpose of fishing or cultivating the meadows.

It was, perhaps, the residence, for many years at a time, of some of these companies. But the testimony is so vague, and the time so distant, that nothing positive can be asserted. Those who have made a study of Indian relics are of opinion, from the examination of the' stone arrow and spear heads and domestic utensils, that many of them came from far distant parts of the country, even from beyond the Mississippi, but whether through

THE COOS COUNTRY.

actual visits from those remote tribes, or by purchase, cannot be known.

The antiquity of these visits, or periods of habitation, is attested by these relics of the stone age, articles of greatest necessity, and therefore of greatest value in Indian eyes. These have been found upon all the meadows, and along the valley of Hall's brook. But the greatest quantity and variety, attesting their frequent visits, and long periods of residence, are found upon the Ox-bow and upon the ridge between it and Cow meadow. These consist of arrow and spear heads, axes, chisels, and domestic utensils. A stone mortar and pestle were found by the early settlers. The great Ox-bow seems to have been a spot beloved by the Indians. The remains of an Indian fort were found upon the Ox-bow by the settlers. These relics of a departed race possess a singular and mysterious interest.

Some mounds along the meadows in Haverhill have been thought to be the work of Indian hands. But the few who lingered here after the white men came were degenerate, and soon disappeared.

Almost equally uncertain is the time when the region was first visited by white men. In 1635, fifteen years after the landing at Plymouth, the first settlements began at Hartford, Connecticut, and Springfield, Massachusetts. From that date, in spite of Indian wars and the hardships of the wilderness, the frontier of civilization advanced up the river. Hadley was settled in 1647, and a few families ventured their lives in Northfield in 1673, whence they were, in a few years, driven by the Indians, so that a permanent settlement was not gained until 1713.

The first settlement in Vermont was made in what is now the southeast corner of Brattleboro, in 1724, when Fort Dummer was built to curb the Indians.

On the Merrimack, the progress was equally slow. In 1719, a colony from the north of Ireland, to which their ancestors had emigrated from Scotland about a century before, came over and began to settle at Londonderry, soon taking up land in the adjacent towns. From this remarkable body of people, known as the Scotch-Irish, came some of our best families. This colony was never molested by the Indians. Concord was settled in 1725, and a few families came to Boscawen and Canterbury before 1730.

For some years, the smoke from the log cabin of Ebenezer Webster, father of Daniel Webster, marked the outpost of civilization. Beyond, the country lay an unbroken wilderness to the French settlements along the Saint Lawrence. There, white men of another race, and another creed, had begun a civilization, which was, eventually, to measure its strength with the English race for the mastery of a continent. It is probable

HISTORY OF NEWBURY, VERMONT.

that the first white men to view the Coos country were Catholic missionaries or fur traders from Canada.

Future research may yet reveal the date and circumstances of the earliest visits to this part of New England, which now lie concealed among the archives of the Catholic missionaries. There is reason to believe that the records of discovery exist, and, aside from such probability of future confirmation from the recitals which are contained among the records preserved at Montreal and Quebec, are other considerations which favor the belief that the first explorers of this valley were Frenchmen and not English- men. It is certain that the Kennebec valley was explored by the Jesuit missionaries at a period which long antedates the first recorded visits of white men to the Coos country. It can hardly be supposed that these hardy and astute men who traced the paths along the Kennebec to the English settlements by the sea, overlooked the trails which passed down the Connecticut. Our knowledge of the sagacity displayed by the Jesuit missionaries and French soldiers, forbids us to suppose that the men who explored the chain of the Great Lakes to the western extremity of Lake Superior; who traced the Mississippi to its source and followed its waters till they minglcd with those of the Gulf of Mexico; who planted their missions and trading posts along the Missouri, would have left unvisited the Connecticut valley at their doors.

So far as our present knowledge of the past reveals, the Coös country emerges into the light of history about the beginning of the eighteenth century,-two hundred years ago.

In the spring of 1704, (says Penhallow's "Wars of New England with the Eastern Indians") word came from Albany that a band of French Indians had built a fort and planted corn at Coös, high up the river Connecticut. On this, Caleb Lyman with five friendly Indians, probably Monhegans, set out from Northampton and after a long march through the forest, surprised, under cover of a thunder storm, a wigwam containing nine Indians, and killed seven of them.

A tradition handed down from Col. Frye Bayley, and others of the first settlers, relates that in the same year, one Capt. Wells with a small force of men descended the Connecticut. At the mouth of Wells river several of the men fell sick with the smallpox, and the party spent the winter or a part of it there, building a small log fort for their protection, subsisting by hunting, fishing, and upon supplies purchased from the Indians. It is said that some of the men died there, and that the river took its name from their leader, who may have been Capt. Jonathan Wells of Deerfield.

This much is certain, that in 1725, Capt. Benjamin Wright of Northampton, with a scouting party of sixty men, ascended the Connecticut to the mouth of Wells river, which they followed, and

THE COOS COUNTRY.

having passed several ponds, crossed the height of land, and descended Winooski river to Lake Champlain, returning by the same course. The journal of their expedition expressly mentions "the fort at the mouth of the Wells river." Many descendants of this Capt. Benjamin Wright are now living in Newbury.

Upon an ancient map, the name is spelled Weld's river. When Er Chamberlin, about 1770, began to clear land in what is now Wells River village, he found the remains of a log building, just above the mouth of that stream. Human bones have been dug up near that spot.

Other evidence of early visits to the Coös country is found in the narratives of those unfortunates who were taken captive by the Indians, and hurried through the wilderness from burning villages in Massachusetts and Connecticut, who lived to recount their sufferings.

One of the best known of these was Rev. John Williams. He was minister at Deerfield, Mass., when the village was destroyed February 29, 1704, and one hundred and twelve prisoners, men, women and children, were carried off to Canada, by a party of three hundred and forty-two French and Indians. Mr. Williams lived to return and published a narrative of his sufferings called "The Redeemed Captive Returning to Zion." A copy of the first edition of this little volume is now worth more than its weight in gold.

He tells us that at the mouth of White river the company divided, and a part of the force, with some of the captives, went up that stream, while the remainder ascended the Connecticut and tarried some time at the Coos meadows. Their provisions giving out, they subsisted by hunting and fishing, and barely escaped starvation, two of their number, Jacob Holt and Daniel Hix, dying of hunger. Subsequently in his narrative he mentions Coös, as if the region was well enough known, even at that early day for its location to be understood by the mention of its name.

It would be easy to cite many similar involuntary visits to this part of New England. An ancient map, made about the time of the old French war, gives the correct course of both the Connecticut and Wells rivers, and says, "Along this route (up both these rivers), many captives have been carried to Canada."

Other Indian trails led up the Passumpsic, and by streams which descend from the heights near the source of the Connecticut. It is probable that most of these unhappy prisoners viewed the region with no favorable eye. Those who were hurried along with the prospect of a fearful captivity or a horrible death, were not likely to admire a country where each forward step made return more hopeless.

But there were others, hunters and adventurous spirits, who were capable of intelligent and leisurely observations and who saw the possibilities of the region as a desirable place for

HISTORY OF NEWBURY, VERMONT.

future settlement. By degrees it began to be generally known that, far up the great river, were fertile meadows waiting for the plow, and wooded uplands which could be turned into productive farms. But there was little to induce people to come here, and make new homes in the wilderness. There was still plenty of good land nearer the sea coast to be taken up. It was pleasant to be near the older towns which had become seats of wealth and culture. More than anything else, the fear of the Indians kept settlers out of Coös. From the breaking out of King William's war in 1689, till the surrender of Quebec, seventy years later, there was almost continual war. The line of the frontier was marked with fire and blood. Yet in spite of that, settlements advanced steadily into the wilderness.

On the 27th of February, 1709, Thomas Baker was taken captive at Deerfield, and was carried to Canada up the river, and over the carrying place to Lake Memphremagog. He remained among the Indians for a year, and learned much of the country, the rivers, and the passes through the mountains. In the spring of 1712, he raised a company of thirty-four men, with whom he reached the Coös in four days. They seem to have spent some time in exploring the locality, and having a friendly Indian for their guide passed through the trail along the Oliverian, and killed some Indians in what is now Rumney. They were pursued, but by a stratagem evaded their pursuers and reached Dunstable without the loss of a man. For this exploit they received by special resolution of the legislature of Massachusetts, a bounty of twenty pounds, in addition to their wages from March 24th, to the 17th of May.

Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.

History of Newbury, Vermont, from the discovery of the Coos country to present time, Part 2

Author: Wells, Frederic Palmer, 1850- ed Publication date: 1902 Publisher: St. Johnsbury, Vt., The Caledonian company Number of Pages: 935

Author: Wells, Frederic Palmer, 1850- ed
Publication date: 1902
Publisher: St. Johnsbury, Vt., The Caledonian company
Number of Pages: 935