By John N. McClintock, A.M.
On the morning of September 4, 1724, Thomas Blanchard and Nathan Cross,
of Dunstable, started from the Harbor and crossed the Nashua River, to
do a day's work in the pine forest to the northward. The day was wet
and drizzly. Arriving at their destination they placed their arms and
ammunition, as well as their lunch and accompanying jug, in a hollow
log, to keep them dry. During the day they were surrounded by a party of
Mohawks from Canada, who hurried them into captivity.
Their continued absence aroused the anxiety of their friends and
neighbors and a relief party of ten was at once organized to make a
search for the absentees. This party, under the command of Lieutenant
French, soon arrived at the place where the men had been at work, and
found several barrels of turpentine spilled on the ground, and, to the
keen eyes of those hardy pioneers, unmistakable evidence of the presence
of unfriendly Indians. Other signs indicated that the prisoners had been
carried away alive. The party at once determined upon pursuit, and
following the trail up the banks of the Merrimack came to the outlet
of Horse-Shoe Pond in the present town of Merrimac, where they were
surprised and overwhelmed by a large force of the enemy. Josiah Farwell
alone of that little band escaped to report the fate of his companions.
Blanchard and Cross were taken to Canada. After nearly a year's
confinement they succeeded in effecting their own ransom and returned to
their homes. The gun, jug, and lunch-basket were found in the hollow log
where they had been left the year before.
Enraged by these and similar depredations, the whole frontier was
aroused to aggressive measures. John Lovewell, Josiah Farwell, and
Jonathan Robbins at once petitioned for, and were granted, the right to
raise a scouting party to carry the war into the enemy's country.
At this time the settlements of New Hampshire were near the coast
outside of a line from Dover to Dunstable, except the lately planted
colony of Scotch-Irish at Londonderry. Hinsdale, or Dummer's Fort, was
the outpost on the Connecticut. To the north extended a wild, unbroken
wilderness to the French frontier in Canada. Through this vast region,
now overflowing with happy homes, wandered small bands of Indians
intent on the chase, or the surprise of their rivals, the white trappers
and hunters.
A large section of this country, fifty miles in width, was opened for
peaceful settlement by the bravery of Captain John Lovewell and the
company under his command. In this view their acts become more important
than those of a mere scouting party, and demand, and have received, an
acknowledged place in New-England history.
The company, which was raised by voluntary enlistments, was placed under
the command of John Lovewell. This redoubtable captain came of fighting
stock--his immediate ancestor serving as an ensign in the army of Oliver
Cromwell. Bravery and executive ability are evidently transmissible
qualities; for in one line of his direct descendants it is known that
the family have served their country in four wars, as commissioned
officers; in three wars holding the rank of general.[2]
At this time Captain John Lovewell was in the prime of life, and burning
with zeal to perform some valiant exploit against the Indians.
The first raid of the company resulted in one scalp and one captive,
taken December 10, 1724, and carried to Boston.
The company started on their second expedition January 27, 1724-5,
crossing the Merrimack at Nashua, and pushing northward. They arrived
at the shores of Lake Winnipiseogee, Februrary 9, and scouted in that
neighborhood for a few days, when, from the scarcity of provisions, a
part of the force returned to their homes.
Traces of Indians were discovered in the neighborhood of Tamworth by the
remaining force, and the trail was followed until, February 20, they
discovered the smoke of an Indian encampment. A surprise was quickly
planned and successfully executed, leading to the capture of ten scalps,
valued by the provincial authorities at one thousand ounces of silver.
Captain Lovewell next conceived the bold design of attacking the village
of Pigwacket, near the head waters of the Saco, whose chief, Paugus, a
noted warrior, inspired terror along the whole northern frontier.
Commanding a company of forty-six trained men, Captain Lovewell started
from Dunstable on his arduous undertaking, April 16, 1725. Toby, an
Indian ally, soon gave out and returned to the lower settlements. Near
the island at the mouth of the Contoocook, which will forever perpetuate
the memory of Hannah Dustin, William Cummings, disabled by an old wound,
was discharged and was sent home under the escort of Josiah Cummings, a
kinsman. On the west shore of Lake Ossipee, Benjamin Kidder was sick and
unable to proceed; and the commander of the expedition decided to build
a fort and leave a garrison to guard the provisions and afford a shelter
in case of defeat or retreat. Sergeant Nathaniel Woods was left in
command. The garrison consisted of Dr. William Aver, John Goffe, John
Gilson, Isaac Whitney, Zachariah Whitney, Zebadiah Austin, Edward
Spoony, and Ebenezer Halburt. With his company reduced to thirty-three
effective men, Captain Lovewell pushed on toward the enemy. On Saturday
morning, May 8, in the neighborhood of Fryeburg, Maine, while the
rangers were at prayers, they were startled by the discharge of a gun,
and were soon attacked by a force of about eighty Indians. Their rear
was protected by the lake, by the side of which they fought. All through
the day the unequal contest continued. As night settled upon the scene
the savages withdrew, and the scouts commenced their painful retreat of
forty miles toward their fort. Left dead upon the field of battle were
Captain John Lovewell, Lieutenant Jonathan Robbins, John Harwood, Robert
Usher, Jacob Fullam, Jacob Farrar, Josiah Davis, Thomas Woods, Daniel
Woods, John Jefts, Ichabod Johnson, and Jonathan Kittredge. Lieutenant
Josiah Farwell, Chaplain Jonathan Frye, and Elias Barron, were mortally
wounded, and perished in the wilderness. Solomon Keyes, Sergeant Noah
Johnson, Corporal Timothy Richardson, John Chamberlain, Isaac Lakin,
Eleazer Davis, and Josiah Jones, were seriously wounded, but escaped to
the lower settlements in company with their uninjured comrades, Seth
Wyman, Edward Lingfield, Thomas Richardson, Daniel Melvin, Eleazer
Melvin, Ebenezer Ayer, Abial Austin, Joseph Farrar, Benjamin Hassell,
and Joseph Gilson,--names which should be held in honor for all time.
[Illustration: Township of Bow, NH, and vicinity.]
Both parties seemed willing to retreat from this disastrous battle, each
with the loss of its chief. Paugus and many of his braves fell before
the unerring fire of the frontiersmen, and the tribe of Pigwacket, which
had so long menaced the borders, withdrew to Canada.
The ambitious young men of the older settlements had seen with jealousy
a band of strangers, Scotch-Irish Presbyterians, granted a beautiful
and fruitful tract, which already blossomed under the industrious
work of the newcomers. They clamored for grants which they, too, could
cultivate. Every pretext was advanced to secure a claim. No petitioners
were better entitled to consideration than the representatives of those
who had rendered so large a section habitable.
Massachusetts Bay Colony had long claimed as a northern boundary a line
three miles north of the Merrimack and parallel thereto, from its mouth
to its source, thence westward to the bounds of New York. Under the
pressure brought to bear by interested parties, the General Court of
Massachusetts granted, January 17, 1725-6, the township of Penacook,
embracing the city of Concord, New Hampshire.
In May, 1727, a petition from the survivors of Lovewell's command was
favorably received by the General Court, and soon afterward Suncook, or
Lovewell's township, was granted. Only two of the company are known to
have settled in the town--Francis Doyen, who was with Lovewell on his
second expedition, and Noah Johnson. The latter was the last survivor of
the company. He was a deacon of the church in Suncook for many years,
received a pension from Massachusetts, and died in Plymouth, New
Hampshire, in 1798, in the one hundredth year of his age.
Captain John Lovewell was represented in the township of Suncook by his
daughter Hannah, who married Joseph Baker, settled on her father's
right, raised a large family, and died at a good old age. A great
multitude of her descendants are scattered throughout the United States.
The original grantees of the township, for the most part, assigned their
rights to persons who became actual settlers.
In the year 1740, the King in council decided the present line as the
boundary between New Hampshire and Massachusetts, thus leaving Suncook,
and many other of the townships granted by the latter Province, within
the former. For a score of years following, the settlers were harassed
by the proprietors of the soil under the Masonian Claim, until, in 1759,
a compromise was effected, and Pembroke was incorporated.
In 1774, a new township in the District of Maine, was granted, by the
General Court of Massachusetts, to the "proprietors of Suncook," to
recompense them for their losses. The township was called Sambrook, and
embraced the present towns of Lovell and New Sweden; it was located in
the neighborhood of the battle-field, where, a half century before, so
many brave lives had been sacrificed.
NOTE.--The townships of Rumford and Suncook, both granted by
Massachusetts authorities, made a common cause in the defence of their
rights against the claimants under New Hampshire, known as the Bow
proprietors. The latter, who were, in fact, the New Hampshire Provincial
authorities, and who not only prosecuted but adjudicated the cases,
brought suits for such small extent of territory in each case, that
there was no legal appeal to the higher courts in England. The two towns
therefore authorized the Reverend Timothy Walker, the first settled
minister of Rumford, to represent their cause before the King in
council. By the employment of able counsel and judicious management of
the case, he was eminently successful, and obtained a decision favorable
to the Massachusetts settlers. In the meanwhile, the proprietors of
Suncook had compromised with the Bow proprietors, surrendering half of
their rights--for them the decision came too late. The Rumford
proprietors, however, were benefited, and Concord, under which name
Rumford was incorporated by New Hampshire laws, maintained its old
boundaries as originally granted,--which remain practically the same to
this day.
[Footnote 2: General Timothy Bedel served during the Revolution; his
son, General Moody Bedel, served in the War of 1812; his son, General
John Bedel, was a lieutenant in the Mexican War, and brigadier-general
in the Rebellion.]
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