THE LIBRARY 
 
 OF 
 
 THE UNIVERSITY 
 OF CALIFORNIA 
 
 LOS ANGELES 
 
 Ex Libris 
 
 Katharine F, Richmond 
 
 and 
 Henry C. Fall
 
 H1STOEICAL SKETCHES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 DISCOVERY, SETTLEMENT, 
 
 AND PROGRESS OF EVENTS 
 
 IN THE 
 
 COOS COUNTRY AND VICINITY, 
 
 PRINCIPALLY INCLUDED 
 
 Between the Years 1754 and 1785. 
 
 BY REV. GRANT POWERS, A. M., C. H. S. 
 
 HAVERHILL, N. H. 
 PUBLISHED BT HENRY MERRILL. 
 
 1880.
 
 District of Connecticut, ss. 
 
 BE rr REMEMBERED, that on the ninth day of March, A. D. 
 1840, GRANT POWERS, of the said district, hath deposited in this 
 office the title of a book, the title of which is in the Words fol- 
 lowing, to wit : 
 
 "Historical Sketches of the Discovery, Settlement, and Pro- 
 gress of Events in the Coos Country and Vicinity, principally 
 included between the years 1754 and 1785. By Rev. Grant 
 Powers, A. M., C. H. S." 
 
 The right whereof he claims as author, in conformity with 
 an act of Congress, entitled " An act to amend the several acts 
 respecting copy rights." 
 
 CHARLES A. INGERSOLL, 
 
 Clerk of the District of Connecticut. 
 
 District of Connecticut, ss. 
 
 The foregoing is a true copy of the original record of copy 
 right, recorded March 9th, A. D. 1840. 
 
 Attest, CHARLES A. INGERSOLL, 
 
 Clerk of the District. 
 
 A true copy of copy right. 
 
 GRANT POWERS. 
 
 GaiBtte Printing Co. 
 
 Fin* Book and Job Printer*, 
 
 Northampton, Matt.
 
 F 
 
 PREFACE. 
 
 THE history of our nation ia peculiar in a number of 
 things, but in none more than this, that it records its own 
 origin. There is no other nation that does this, the Jews 
 excepted. No one of the present nations of Europe can tell 
 us a word of their earliest ancestors, or even specify the cen- 
 tury in which their territory was first taken possession of by 
 them, but all is involved in obscurity as are the years before 
 the flood. But it is far different with our early history as a 
 nation. We know the men who said they would be free, and 
 who laid the foundation of this mighty republic. We know 
 whence they came, the object for which they came, the spot 
 to which they came, and the year, the month, and the day 
 they took possession. Our nation owes a lasting debt of 
 gratitude to our ancestors for their fidelity in recording the 
 incipient steps taken by them in settling this new world. 
 But with regret must we say that their descendants soon 
 began to relax in their fidelity in this respect, and they con- 
 tinued to decline, until their delinquency was almost entire. 
 It may well be doubted, whether more than one-half of the 
 towns in New England have any well-authenticated history of 
 their early settlement, and had not the attention of the peo- 
 ple been called to this subject by recently organized Historical 
 Societies, and centennial addresses, a very few years had 
 buried all in oblivion with those towns whose history was not 
 already recorded. There seems, truly, an anomaly in the 
 human character, inasmuch as man delights to retrace the 
 line of his descent to his remotest ancestry, and has a strong 
 passion to live in the memory of his descendants, and yet 
 possesses very little inclination to do anything directly to fur- 
 
 1066149
 
 IV PREFACE. 
 
 nish the means to his posterity of knowing that he ever 
 existed. 
 
 One reason for the indifference manifested towards record- 
 ing present events, is the general impression that they can 
 have no important bearing upon what is to come, unless they 
 are such events as greatly interest the community in present 
 time the result of a great battle, a revolution in a kingdom, 
 or a destructive earthquake. But nothing is more delusive 
 than such an impression. What would the inhabitants of the 
 city of London now give for the year, the month, and the 
 day, in which the first man pitched his tent on that ground ? 
 What would they give if they could know his name, his 
 origin, whence he came, the circumstances in which he came, 
 the object for his coming, and, withal, a minute description 
 of the place as it then was ? An octavo pamphlet of ten 
 pages, containing well -authenticated facts of this kind, would 
 be worth millions sterling to the author or proprietor. And 
 the history of our ancestors' landing at Plymouth is infinitely 
 more important in our history than the history of the surren- 
 der of Burgoyne's army, or that of Cornwallis. And even 
 those occurrences which do not seem to stand intimately con- 
 nected with any great results, time will often vest with pecul- 
 iar interest, in the view of posterity. How unhappy is the 
 reflection, then, that the early settlement of our towns should 
 be permitted to be forever lost through the apathy or indiffer- 
 ence of their inhabitants, since the time will certainly arrive 
 when the subject will be duly appreciated, and our descend- 
 ants will reproach us for our stupidity and sloth in this 
 respect ! 
 
 It was in view of these and kindred considerations, that the 
 author of the following Sketches commenced, sixteen years 
 ago, visiting the survivors among the first settlers in the Coos 
 country, and in some towns in the vicinity. He was careful 
 to take down their statements in their presence, and they 
 were interrogated upon almost all subjects here introduced. 
 Some made further communications under their own hand-
 
 PREFACE. V 
 
 writing, and he has obtained written and published docu- 
 ments, as far as he was able, to aid him in this work. Hut as 
 it has been his main design to go back of written and pub- 
 lished documents, and to bring to light things which would 
 never have appeared, unless they were taken up in a work of 
 this kind, he could avail himself of those documents but in a 
 limited degree ; and in general, they are introduced as corrob- 
 orative testimony, or explanatory, merely. But he fears he 
 has already raised, by his remarks, expectations which lie will 
 by no means be able to satisfy ; and yet he has done what he 
 could with his means. He could not create means, and yet 
 had procured so many, that he could hardly feel justified in 
 permitting them to perish with himself. It will be perceived 
 that he writes things grave, things trivial, and things import- 
 ant, and this with a view to present as nearly as possible, to 
 the present and future generations, the circumstances, views, 
 feelings, habits and customs of our ancestors. 
 
 Before he concludes these remarks, he begs leave to suggest 
 what he views to be important for every family, and for every 
 town in this nation. 1. Let every family obtain as full and 
 as correct a record of their ancestry as is now possible, and 
 every child take a copy, and make additions as time furnishes 
 the means. 2. Let every town have its stated historian, who 
 shall delight in his duty, whose object will be to collect facts 
 of the aged, and by all other means which Providence may 
 afford him ; and to record passing events of an interesting 
 nature. Let this record be examined annually by the town 
 authorities and certified by the town clerk, and then preserved 
 in the archives of the town. Extracts from these documents 
 might furnish annually interesting materials in every state 
 for a volume of Historical Collections. And these volumes 
 would in a few years furnish matter for the richest history 
 that ever was possessed by a nation on earth. He suggests it 
 to his brethren in the ministry, of all denominations, to aid 
 in this cause. No class of men in the community enjoy so 
 many facilities for making such a record none would derive
 
 VI PREFACE. 
 
 more benefit from it, and it is by no means foreign to their 
 appropriate duties. Brethren, think of it ; think seriously, 
 and then act. 
 
 GRANT POWERS. 
 Ooshen, Ct., Jan. 1st, 1840.
 
 CoL Joshua Howard. 
 Hon. James Woodward. 
 Hon. Ezekiel Ladd. 
 Mrs. Ruth Ladd. 
 Mr. Charles Wheeler. 
 Mrs. Annis Wheeler. 
 Mr. John Page. 
 Mrs. Ruth Johnston. 
 CoL Joshua Bailey. 
 Mrs. Mary Kent. 
 Mr. Jonathan Tyler. 
 Andrew B. Peters, Esq. 
 John Mann, Esq. 
 Col. Otis Freeman, Esq. 
 Rev. Asa Burton, D. D. 
 Mr. Richard Wallace. 
 Mr. Joel Strong. 
 CoL Jonathan Elkins. 
 
 OTHER AIDS. 
 
 Belknap's History of New Hampshire. 
 
 Gazetteer of New Hampshire. 
 
 Gazetteer of Vermont. 
 
 Eastman's History of Vermont. 
 
 Marshall s Life of Washington. 
 
 Capt. Powers' JournaL 
 
 Rev. Jared Sparks' certified Copies. 
 
 David Johnson's Letters and Extracts. 
 
 Rev. Clark Perry's Sketches. 
 
 John Farmer's Extracts. 
 
 Mrs. Abigail Cross. 
 
 Mrs. Hannah Pearson. 
 
 Mrs. Sally Johnston.
 
 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 OF THE 
 
 COOS COUNTRY AND VICINITY. 
 
 So late as 1760, there was no settlement by the 
 English, in the Connecticut Valley, above the town 
 of Charlestown, in New Hampshire, which was 
 then called "No. 4." Nor were there more than 
 three towns settled south of Charlestown, in the 
 valley within the present limits of New Hampshire. 
 Hinsdale, or "Fort Dummer," was settled in 1683. 
 Westmoreland, or " No. 2," was settled in 1741 ; 
 Walpole in 1752. 
 
 These towns, with the exception of Walpole, were 
 all settled by Massachusetts men ; for, until 1741, it 
 was supposed the north line of Massachusetts would 
 include these towns. 
 
 At Hinsdale and Charlestown, forts were built at 
 an early period of their settlement, and soldiers were 
 stationed there for the double purpose of affording 
 
 protection to the settlers, and arresting the progress 
 1*
 
 10 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 of the Indians from Canada, while meditating incur- 
 sions upon the frontier towns in Massachusetts. 
 
 And so little interest did New Hampshire feel in 
 the settlement of the Connecticut Valley, which has 
 been very justly denominated the "Garden of New 
 England," that in 1745, when the Governor recom- 
 mended to the Assembly of New Hampshire the 
 taking and sustaining their newly-acquired "Fort 
 Dummer," which fell to them upon the establish- 
 ment of the line between the two colonies, the lower 
 House declined the acceptance of this place and that 
 of " No. 4 ; " alleging that the fort was fifty miles 
 distant from any towns settled by New Hampshire ; 
 that they did not own the territory ; and that they 
 were unequal to the expense of maintaining those 
 places. 
 
 Nor was it until 1752, that the Governor of New 
 Hampshire was permitted to adopt any measures to 
 secure to that colony this invaluable tract of country. 
 "He then made several grants of townships on both 
 sides of the Connecticut Kiver, and a plan was laid 
 for taking possession of the " Rich Meadows of 
 Cohos," * of which they had heard by hunters and 
 captives returned. 
 
 The original design was to cut a road from " No. 
 
 * Coos was spelt Cohos and Cowass by our ancestors.
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 11 
 
 4 " to the Cohos ; to lay out two townships, one on 
 each side of the river, and opposite to each other, 
 where Haverhill and Newbury now are. They were 
 to erect stockades, with lodgements for two hundred 
 men, in each township, enclosing a space of fifteen 
 acres ; in the centre of which was to be a citadel, 
 containing the public buildings and granaries, which 
 were to be large enough to receive all the inhabitants 
 and their movable effects, in case of necessity. As 
 an inducement for people to remove to this new plan- 
 tation, they were to have courts of judicature, and 
 other civil privileges, among themselves, and were to 
 be under strict military discipline. 
 
 "In pursuance of this plan," says Dr. Belknap, 
 vol. ii. p. 215, "a party was sent up, in the spring 
 of 1752, to view the meadows of Cohos, and lay out 
 the proposed townships." It seems that this project 
 embraced the two objects of possessing the Cohos 
 country, and establishing a military post there. It 
 was to be partly civil and partly military, and a 
 number of adventurers were about to enlist in the 
 enterprise. But the whole plan was defeated by the 
 timely remonstrance of the Indians of the St. Fran- 
 cis tribe. And notwithstanding, Mr. Belknap says, 
 "A party was sent up, in the spring of 1752, to view 
 the meadows of Cohos, and lay out the proposed
 
 12 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 townships," it is extremely doubtful whether that 
 party ever reached their destination, if they ever left 
 "No. 4." There were no returns made of this tour. 
 They certainly did not lay out the townships. And 
 we find in the Life of General Stark, that in 1754, 
 the General Court of New Hampshire determined to 
 send a party to explore this "hitherto unknown 
 region," referring to the Cohos country. 
 
 Now, if this country had been explored by the 
 party of 1752, it could not have been called the 
 "hitherto unexplored region" in 1754, seeing that, 
 in each instance, the General Court is represented as 
 the principal mover in these exploring parties. And 
 by the kindness of the late Mr. Farmer, of Concord, 
 N. H., I have been furnished with the extract from 
 Col. Israel Williams' letter, to which Dr. Belknap 
 refers for his authority in saying what he does of the 
 exploring party of 1752. And with the additional 
 evidence which has been obtained upon these trans- 
 actions since Dr. Belknap's time, I should feel that 
 Col. Williams' letter was insufficient to authorize the 
 assertion, that a party was actually sent into the 
 Cohos country in 1752. It is but a mere allusion to 
 such a thing, or to such an intention. 
 
 The letter of Col. Williams was written to the 
 Governor of Massachusetts, dated at Hatfield, 19
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 13 
 
 March, 1753, and speaks of "our people going to 
 take a view of the Cowass meadows last spring." 
 This by no means says they did go to view them, 
 but were "going," or were preparing to go, and view 
 them. And doubtless this was fact. A party might 
 have been sent on by the Governor as far as " No. 
 4," and even farther ; but the Indians remonstrating 
 and threatening, they relinquished their object. Dr. 
 Belknap states that the Indians came to "No. 4," 
 and made this threat ; that it was communicated to 
 the Governor of Massachusetts, and he sent the in- 
 formation to the Governor of New Hampshire, and 
 the project was laid aside. The only discrepancy in 
 all this testimony is found in Dr. Belknap's under- 
 standing Col. Williams to say that the party of 1752 
 did go into the Cohos country, when he did not say 
 it ; and as the evidence is now exhibited, we must 
 think he did not mean to say it. 
 
 But notwithstanding this project of exploring the 
 Cohos from "No. 4" was suspended, yet the Gov- 
 ernor and House of Assembly did by no means 
 abandon the idea of a future possession of those 
 meadows, and events hastened their attempt to ex- 
 plore and possess the Cohos country. 
 
 In the spring of 1752, John Stark, afterward 
 General Stark, Amos Eastman, afterward of Hollis,
 
 14 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 N. H., David Stinson, of Londonderry, and William 
 Stark, were hunting upon Baker's Biver, in the town 
 of Rumney. They were surprised by a party of ten 
 Indians. John Stark and Amos Eastman were taken 
 prisoners, Stinson was killed, and William Stark es- 
 caped by flight. John Stark and Eastman were car- 
 ried into captivity to the head-quarters of the St. 
 Francis tribe in Canada, and were led directly 
 through the " Meadows," so much talked of in 
 Massachusetts and New Hampshire. 
 
 These men returned from their captivity in the 
 summer of 1752, and gave an interesting account of 
 Cohos ; and as the country was expecting that the 
 war with the French and Indians would soon be 
 renewed, and that the French would be desirous of 
 taking the Cohos country for a military post, the 
 General Court of New Hampshire determined to 
 send a company to explore the region ; not to at- 
 tempt to ascend the Connecticut from "No. 4," but 
 to pursue the track of the Indians as they came from 
 the great valley to Baker's River and the Pemige- 
 wasset, and returned again with their prisoners. 
 
 Accordingly, in the spring of 1754, Col. Lovewell, 
 Maj. Tolford, and Capt. Page, were sent out at the 
 head of a company, with John Stark for their guide. 
 They left Concord, March 10, 1754, and in seven
 
 OP THB COOS COUNTRY. 15 
 
 days made Connecticut River at Piermont. They 
 spent but one night in the valley, and made a pre- 
 cipitate retreat to Concord, at which place they ar- 
 rived on the thirteenth day from their departure. * 
 
 The cause of this failure to explore the region to 
 which they were sent, I have not learned ; but that 
 it was a failure, we must know for one night spent 
 in the woods at Piermont could have returned to 
 the government no information concerning the Coos 
 meadows. The probability was, they feared an 
 Indian foe superior to their own force. 
 
 But the government was not discouraged by this 
 failure, and the same season, 1754, Ca'pt. Peter 
 Powers, of Hollis, N. H., Lieut. James Stevens, and 
 Ensign Ephraim Hale, both of Towusend, Mass., 
 wre appointed to march at the head of a company to 
 effect, if possible, what had hitherto been attempted 
 in vain. The company rendezvoused at Concord, 
 which was then called Rumford, and commenced 
 their tour on Saturday, June 15, 1754. 
 
 It may not be improper to state in this place, that 
 there is no record of this tour in the state papers of 
 that day, and no reference to it in any papers of sub- 
 sequent date, as I can learn. The evidence of its 
 having been performed consists, at this day, in the 
 * Stork's Life.
 
 16 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 tradition among the descendants of Capt. Powers, 
 that he was the first to explore the Coos country, 
 and in his manuscript journal, kept by himself du- 
 ring his tour, recently found among papers on file, 
 preserved by the late Samson Powers, of Hollis, 
 youngest son of the said Peter Powers. I have also 
 the same tin safe, of ample dimensions, which con- 
 tained his journal, and a piece of his tent cloth 
 which was spread over him at night, on this very 
 expedition. 
 
 The only rational explanation that can be given 
 for the silence of all public records in relation to 
 this exploring tour, may be found in the loose man- 
 ner in which such things were transacted at that 
 day, and in the commotion which immediately fol- 
 lowed Capt. Powers' return ; for already war was 
 renewed in Europe between France and England, 
 and the intelligence of it having reached Quebec, 
 the Indians renewed their incursions upon our fron- 
 tier towns, and made a descent upon Boscawen a few 
 days after the return of the exploring company. 
 This suspended all further thought of settling the 
 Coos country during the war that was then raging, 
 and Capt. Powers' report was not called for, or it 
 was lost during that war, or the war of the Revolu- 
 tion, which followed hard upon the restoration of 
 peace between France and England.
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 17 
 
 Capt Powers' journal is not entire some pages of 
 the returning expedition are lost, and, probably, some 
 prefatory remarks. I should think, also, that it is 
 not as full in description as he would have returned 
 to government, but general facts noted to enable him 
 to make out a correct statement in things essential ; 
 and, finally, it is an interesting document of antiqui- 
 ty, and must be so, especially, to the people of Coos, 
 who have for a long time felt an earnest desire to 
 know who first explored that part of the Great Val- 
 ley. I shall give the journal as it is found, only cor- 
 recting some of the orthography, and offering some 
 explanation in notes. 
 
 JOURNAL. 
 
 " Saturday, June 15th, 1754. This day left Rum- 
 ford," (now Concord,) "and marched to Contoocook, 
 which is about eight miles, and here tarried all night." 
 
 [The original Indian name of Concord was Pena- 
 cook. From 1733 it bore the name of Ruin ford, un- 
 til 1762, and then took the name Concord.] 
 
 " Sunday, June 16th. This day tarried at Con- 
 toocook, and went to meeting, and tarried here all 
 this night." 
 
 [Contoocook was present Boscawen. The Rev.
 
 18 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 Phinehas Stevens was minister in this place at that 
 time.] 
 
 Monday, June 17th. This morning fair weather, 
 and we fixed our packs, and went and put them on 
 board our canoes, about nine of the clock, and some 
 of the men went in the canoes, and the rest on the 
 shore. And so we marched up the River Merrimack 
 to the crotch, or parting thereof ; and then up the 
 Pemigewasset about one mile and a half, and camped 
 above the carrying-place, which carrying-place is 
 about one hundred rods long ; and the whole of this 
 day's march is thirteen miles. 
 
 Tuesday, June 18th. This day marched up the 
 Pemigewasset River, about eight miles, to Smith's 
 River, and then east one hundred rods, and then 
 north, two hundred and twenty rods, to the long car- 
 rying-place on Pemigewasset River, and there 
 camped." 
 
 [This encampment, I think, must have been on or 
 near the present line which divides Bristol from New 
 Chester upon the Pemigewasset. It might be inter- 
 esting to the present inhabitants of those towns to 
 mark out the spot which was thus occupied by swords 
 and bristling bayonets in 1754, whilst the whole 
 country around remained an unbroken wilderness. 
 And what may be true in this case, may be true of
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 19 
 
 others in respect to all places hereafter to be named 
 by the exploring party.] 
 
 " Wednesday, June 19th. We marched on our 
 journey, and carried across the long carrying-place on 
 Pemigewasset River two miles northeast, which land 
 bath a good soil, beech and maple, with a good quan- 
 tity of large masts. From the place where we put in 
 the canoes, we steered east, north-east, up the river 
 about one mile, and then we steered north-east one 
 mile, and north six miles up to Sawheganet Falls, 
 where we carried by about four rods ; and from the 
 falls we steered about north-east, to Pemigewasset in- 
 terval, two miles, and from the beginning of the in- 
 terval we made good our course north four miles, and 
 there camped on a narrow point of land. The last 
 four miles the river was extremely crooked. " 
 
 " TJiursday, June 20th. We steered our course, 
 one turn with another, which were great turns, west, 
 north-west, about two miles and a half, to the crotch, 
 or parting of the Pemigewasset River, at Baker's 
 River mouth ; thence from the mouth of Baker's 
 River, up said river, north-west by west, six miles. 
 This river is extraordinary crooked, and good inter- 
 val. Thence up the river about two miles north- 
 west, and there we shot a moose, the sun about a half 
 an hour high, and there camped.'' 
 
 [This must have been in the town of Rumney.]
 
 * 
 20 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 " Friday, June 21st. We steered up the said 
 Baker's River with our canoes about five miles as the 
 river ran, which was extraordinary crooked. In the 
 after part of this day, there was a great shower of 
 ' haile and raine,' which prevented our proceeding 
 any further, and here we camped ; and here left our 
 canoes, for the water in the river was so shoal that 
 we could not go with them any further." 
 
 " Saturday, June 22d. This morning was dark 
 and cloudy weather ; but after ten of the clock, it 
 cleared off hot, and we marched up the river near the 
 Indian carrying-place, from Baker's River to Connec- 
 ticut River, and there camped, and could not go any 
 further by reason of a great shower of rain, which 
 held almost all this afternoon." 
 
 " Sunday, June 23d. This morning dark and 
 cloudy weather, and we marched up this river about 
 one mile, and came to the Indian carrying-place, and, 
 by reason of the dark weather, we were obliged to 
 .follow the marked way, that way marked by Major 
 Lovewell and Capt. Tolford, and others, from Baker's 
 River to Connecticut River. And this day's march 
 was but about six miles ; and we camped between 
 the two first Baker Ponds. And it came on a great 
 storm of rain, which prevented our marching any 
 further. And on this day's march we saw a consid-
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 21 
 
 erable quantity of white pine timber, and found it 
 was something large, fit for thirty-inch masts, as we 
 judged. But before this day's march, we saw no 
 white pine timber, that was very large, on this Baker's 
 River, but a great quantity of small white pine, fit 
 for boards and small masts. And on this river there 
 is a great quantity of excellent interval, from the be- 
 ginning of it to the place where we left this river. 
 And it layeth of a pretty equal proportion from one 
 end to the other ; and back of the interval, there is 
 a considerable quantity of large mountains." 
 
 [Those more familiarly acquainted with the serpen- 
 tine course of Baker's River than the writer, may fix 
 on several encampments in Rumney and Wentworth 
 with tolerable accuracy ; but we shall all agree that, 
 at this last date, they were encamped between the 
 Baker Ponds, lying in the north-east part of the pres- 
 ent town of Orford. It is a little singular that it 
 should not have been discovered until recently, that 
 the south-western branch of Baker's River afforded 
 greater facilities for communication between the Con- 
 necticut Valley and Pemigewasset than those routes 
 which have been hitherto improved, seeing the In- 
 dians had given their preference to this south branch, 
 and it was improved by the first English parties 
 which explored the country.]
 
 22 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 " Monday, June 24th. This morning it rained 
 hard, and all the night past, and it held raining all 
 this day, and we kept our camp, and here we stayed 
 the night ensuing, and it rained almost all night." 
 
 " Tuesday, June 25th. This morning fair weather, 
 and we swung our packs, the sun about a half an hour 
 high, and we marched along the carrying-place, or 
 road marked, about two miles, and then steered our 
 course north, twelve degrees west, about twelve miles, 
 and came to that part of the "Coos interval that is 
 called Moose Meadow. And then steered our course 
 up the river by the side of the interval, about north- 
 east, and came to a large stream that came into the 
 interval, which is here about a mile wide. This 
 stream came out of the east, and we camped here this 
 night. There are on this river the best falls and con- 
 veniences for all sorts of mills. These falls are nearly 
 twenty feet perpendicular." 
 
 ["Moose Meadow" must have been the Indian 
 name for that part of Coos which they made first, 
 and I am quite confident that some of the old people 
 whom I consulted relative to the first settlements, 
 called the meadow owned by Major Merrill, in Pier- 
 mont, " Moose Meadow ; " but I have no minute of it, 
 and as at that time I had no knowledge of this doc- 
 ument, I was not particular to retain the locality of 
 Moose Meadow.
 
 OP THE C008 COUNTRY. 23 
 
 But we at length find the company encamped upon 
 the banks of the Oliverian in Haverhill, which river 
 was then without a name, as well as Haverhill it self. 
 They passed along, he says, 4< by the side of the in- 
 terval," that is, at the foot of the hill where the 
 meadows commence. He says the interval was " here 
 about a mile wide." He meant on both sides of the 
 river. He calls the Oliverian a "large stream." 
 The heavy rains, he has already described, rendered 
 it such. The falls, I should think, were accurately 
 described. He does not tell us on which side of the 
 Oliverian he made his encampment; probably south, 
 upon the elevated platform formerly owned by Richard 
 Gookin ; or, if he crossed the river that night, he 
 would select the dry spot where stands the dwelling- 
 house of the late Capt. Joseph Pearson. Permit me, 
 kind reader, to add a reflection. How dark is the 
 future with all to whom God has not revealed what 
 his future Providences shall be ! Capt. Powers, when 
 he camped upon the banks of the Oliverian, must 
 have marched in his meandering course at least sev- 
 enty miles, without seeing a human habitation ! 
 And what had been his astonishment, if it had been 
 revealed to him that night, that his first-born son 
 should be the minister of a church and people in that 
 place, in a less time than eleven years ; that he should
 
 24 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 sustain that relation nearly twenty years ; and that 
 his grandson, by his own youngest son, should hold 
 the same station about fifteen years, from the fifty- 
 seventh to the seventy-second year after his decease ! 
 This would have been an astounding vision, but no 
 more than what time has fulfilled.] 
 
 " Wednesday, June 26th. This morning fair 
 weather, and we marched up the interval to the great 
 turn of clear interval, which is the uppermost part of 
 the clear interval, on the westerly side of Connecticut 
 River, and there came a great shower of rain, which 
 held almost all this afternoon ; and we camped by 
 the river on the easterly side, above all the clear in- 
 terval ; and this day's march was about six miles, and 
 very crooked." 
 
 [It will appear, as we advance in these sketches, 
 that the Little Ox Bow on Haverhill side, and the 
 Great Ox Bow on Newbury side, were cleared inter- 
 val when the first settlers came in. They had been 
 cleared and cultivated to some extent by the Indians, 
 and this is the fact to which the journal alludes. 
 Their encampment was on the well-known Porter 
 place. ] 
 
 " Thursday, June 27th. This morning it was 
 cloudy weather, and it began to rain, the sun about 
 an hour high, and we marched, nothwithstanding,
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 25 
 
 up the river to Amonoosuck River, and our course 
 was about north, distance about five miles ; and we 
 camped here, for the River Amonoosuck was so high 
 we could not go over it without a canoe ; for it was 
 swift water, and near twenty rods wide. This after- 
 noon it cleared off fair, and we went about our canoe, 
 and partly built it. Some of our men went up the 
 River Amonoosuck, to see what discoveries they 
 could make ; and they discovered excellent land, and 
 a considerable quantity of large white pines." 
 
 "Friday, June 28th. This morning fair weather, 
 and we went about the canoe, and completed the 
 same by about twelve of the clock this day, and went 
 over the river ; and we concluded to let the men go 
 down the river in the canoe, who were not likely to 
 perform the remaining part of the journey, by reason 
 of sprains in the ankles, and weakness of body. 
 They were four in number ; and we steered our course 
 for the great interval about east, north-east ; and we 
 this day marched, after we left the river, about ten 
 miles. And the land was exceedingly good upland, 
 and some quantity of white pine, but not thick, but 
 some of them fit for masts." 
 
 [These four men, it would seem, were about to 
 take their chance upon the river, and to return by 
 the way of Charlestown.] 
 2
 
 26 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 " Saturday, June 29th. This morning was cloudy 
 but we swung our packs, and steered our course 
 about north-east, ten miles, and came to Connecti- 
 cut River. There it came on rainy, and we camped 
 by the side of the river, and it rained all this after- 
 noon, and we kept our camp all this night. The land 
 was, this day's march, very good, and it may be said 
 as good as ever was seen by any of us. The common 
 growth of wood was beech and maple, and not thick 
 at all. It hath a great quantity of small brooks. 
 This day and the day past, there were about three 
 brooks fit for corn-mills ; and these were the largest 
 of the brooks that we saw." 
 
 [It seems that the march of the two last days was 
 made between the valley of the Connecticut, and that 
 of the Amonoosuck, upon the high lands of Bath, 
 Lyinan, and Littleton, and we now find them en- 
 camped in the southern part of Dalton.] 
 
 " Sunday, June 30th. This morning exceeding 
 rainy weather, and it rained all the night past, and 
 continued raining until twelve of the clock this day ; 
 and after that, it was fair weather, and we marched 
 along up Connecticut Eiver ; and our course we 
 made good this day, was about five miles, east by 
 north, and there came to a large stream, which came 
 from the south-east. This river is about three rods
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 27 
 
 wide, and we called it Stark's River, by reason of 
 Ensign John Stark's being found by the Indians at 
 the mouth of this river. This river comes into the 
 Connecticut at the foot of the upper interval, and 
 thence we travelled up the interval about seven miles, 
 and came to a large river which came from the south- 
 east ; and it is about five rods wide. Here we con- 
 cluded to go no further with the full scout, by reason 
 of our provisions being almost all spent ; and almost 
 all our men had worn out their shoes. This river we 
 called Powers' River, it being the camping place at 
 the end of our journey ; and there we camped by the 
 river." 
 
 [It seems that John Stark had been taken twice 
 by the Indians while on his hunting expeditions 
 once on Stark's River, and once on Baker's River. 
 The river which they named Stark's River runs 
 through Dal ton,* and is now called John's River, be- 
 cause Stark's name was John, perhaps ; but I think 
 they had better preserved the original name, and this 
 would have perpetuated a historical fact, and borne 
 up a name that the whole town would delight to 
 cherish among them ; but who is to know whether 
 this is John Stark's River, or John Smith's River, or 
 any other John's River ? The river they called 
 Powers' River is in Lancaster, and is now called
 
 28 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 Israel's River. This, too, I think, ought to bear the 
 name they gave it, instead of a wandering, and per- 
 haps a worthless hunter. Capt. Powers was the first 
 man of English descent who ever visited that town 
 for discovery. He did it in imminent peril, and for 
 the good of his country. How much more gratify- 
 ing it would be to the present inhabitants of that 
 town, and to all future generations of theirs, did they 
 bear upon their river the name of the first man who 
 ever by authority discovered their town ! There has 
 been much wrong in these things in many of our 
 towns. Our worthy ancestors, who bore the toils and 
 went through the perils of exploring and settling our 
 forests, and of subduing them, richly merited this 
 cheap method of perpetuating a memorial of them- 
 selves. I do not attach blame to the people of Lan- 
 caster for this for they may not know, to this day, 
 that such a company ever visited their town, or that 
 their river was ever formally named by persons under 
 authority ; but these are the facts. There is no rec- 
 ord in the journal of any transaction on the first day 
 of July. It was probably spent in inactivity and 
 rest. J 
 
 " Tuesday, July 3d. This morning fair weather, 
 and we thought proper to mend our shoes, and to re- 
 turn homeward ; and accordingly we went about the
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 29 
 
 same ; and whilst the men were this way engaged, 
 the captain, with two of his men, marcljed up the 
 river to see what further discoveries they could make, 
 and they travelled about five miles, and there they 
 discovered where the Indians had a large camping 
 place, and had been making canoes, and had not 
 been gone above one or two days at most ; and so they 
 returned to the rest of the men again about twelve 
 of the clock ; and then we returned, and marched 
 down the river to Stark's River, and there camped. 
 This afternoon it rained hard, but we were forced to 
 travel for want of provisions. This interval is ex- 
 ceedingly large, and the farther up the larger. The 
 general course of this river is from north-east b^ east, 
 as far as the interval extends." 
 
 [The captain and his two men penetrated, proba- 
 bly, as far as present Northumberland, and must 
 have travelled nearly one hundred and forty miles 
 after they left the habitations of civilized men. At 
 Northumberland they first fell upon the trail of In- 
 dians, where they had, probably, been preparing 
 themselves canoes to enable them to descend upon 
 our frontier settlements.] 
 
 " Wednesday, July 3d. This morning cloudy, 
 weather, and thundered ; and after the sun an hour 
 high, it rained hard, and continued about an hour,
 
 30 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 and then we swung packs, and steered our course 
 west-south.- west, aiming for Amonoosuck Kiver ; and 
 this day we marched about fourteen miles, and 
 camped." 
 
 [We shall perceive that, for the last twelve days of 
 their march, the rain had fallen in unusual abun- 
 dance for that season of the year ; and it would not 
 be strange if they spoke of some small streams as lar- 
 ger than they are ordinarily found, especially since 
 the clearing of the country ; but as far as my knowl- 
 edge extends, they were not far from present truth 
 concerning them ; and as it regards distances, they 
 were remarkably accurate, seeing they were in a wil- 
 derness, followed the course of streams, and did not 
 carry a chain.] 
 
 " Thursday, July 4th. We marched on our course 
 west-south-west, and this day we marched about 
 twenty miles, and camped." 
 
 [This was the day on which the Delegates from six 
 of the Colonies signed, at Albany, articles of union 
 for mutual government and defence, anticipating the 
 renewal of war between France and England, " ex- 
 actly twenty-two years before the declaration of 
 American independence." Belknap,~\ 
 
 ''Friday, July 5th. We marched about three 
 miles to our packs at Amonoosuck, the same course
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 31 
 
 we had steered heretofore ; and we afterwards went 
 over Connecticut River, and looked up Wells' River, 
 and camped a little below Wells' River this night." 
 
 [At the west end of the bridge, perhaps, leading 
 from Haverhill to Wells' River.] 
 
 " Saturday, July 6th. Marched down the great 
 river to Great Coos, and crossed the river below the 
 great turn of clear interval, and there left the great 
 river, and steered south by east about three miles, 
 and there camped. Here was the best of upland, 
 and some quantity of large white pines." 
 
 [I think they crossed into Harerhill at the " Dow 
 Farm," so called, and the three miles brought them 
 to Haverhill Corner, and their description of it an- 
 swers to the description given by the first settlers. 
 I would say to the people of Haverhill Corner, that 
 eighty-five years ago, on the sixth of July last, (1839,) 
 your Common was the encampment of an exploring 
 company, sent out by the government of England ; 
 that this company felt themselves surrounded by a 
 vast wilderness ; and, while the towering trees of the 
 forest formed their canopy, they confided in their 
 own vigilance and prowess, under God, to protect 
 them from beasts of prey and savage men. Well may 
 you exclaim, while in your ceiled houses, and while 
 surveying from your windows your ample fields and 
 meadows, What hath God wrought f]
 
 32 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 I must inform the reader that, at this point of 
 time, the journal ceases to speak of their homeward 
 march, and no trace of the remainder can be found. 
 "We are left to suppose that they retraced their steps 
 the way they came, with hostile Indians pressing hard 
 in their rear ; for we learn from Belknap that by the 
 fifteenth of August, of that year, they were at Bak- 
 erstown and vicinity, (now Salisbury,) killing and 
 taking captive the inhabitants. 
 
 From this time until the fall of Quebec into the 
 possession of the British in 1759, no more efforts 
 were made to discover and settle new territories, but 
 every man had as much as he could do to retain what 
 he had already in possession. Nor does it appear that 
 any steps were taken towards the settlement of the 
 Connecticut Valley in 1760 ; for our men were still 
 employed in Canada in gathering up the fragments 
 of the French armies which were stationed in differ- 
 ent places, and had not as yet surrendered to the 
 English. But in 1761, when the Colonies no longer 
 feared the incursions of the French and Indians upon 
 their frontier towns, the spirit of emigration from 
 the older settlements, and of extending their pos- 
 sessions, revived, and surpassed all that had been be- 
 fore witnessed. Men from Connecticut, Massachu- 
 setts, and New Hampshire were now preparing to
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 33 
 
 transplant themselves into the then great western 
 valley of the Connecticut, and the Governor of New 
 Hampshire did not let slip the golden opportunity of 
 filling his coffers. In every township granted to pe- 
 titioners, five hundred acres of land were reserved 
 for the Governor, without fees or charges, and he was 
 well rewarded by petitioners for his services. No 
 less than sixty townships were granted on the west 
 side of Connecticut River, and eighteen on the east 
 side, in the year 1761. At this time, New Hamp- 
 shire claimed all the land west to New York line. 
 
 The reason which Mr. Belknap gives for the great 
 rush into the Connecticut Valley at this time is, that 
 the continual passing of troops through these lands 
 during the war, caused the value of them to be more 
 generally known. This was undoubtedly true, es- 
 pecially after the successes of the English at Ticon- 
 deroga, Crown Point, and in Canada in 1759. There 
 was then no danger to be apprehended from the ene- 
 my, and il is not reasonable to suppose that Massa- 
 chusetts and New Hampshire men, returning from 
 those successful campaigns, would make the tour of 
 Lake Champlain and North River to Albany, rather 
 than cross the highlands of Vermont, and descend 
 the Connecticut River, a tour which some of them 
 must have previously made while captives to the 
 French and Indians. *2
 
 34 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 This fact, in connection with Capt. Powers' jour- 
 nal of an earlier date by some years, convinces me 
 that the traditionary tales which have been so long 
 rife in the Coos country, that their fathers were in- 
 debted for the discovery of their country to Major 
 Rogers' famished men, as they fled from the infuria- 
 ted Indians of the St. Francis tribe in 1759, are all 
 apocryphal. The truth is, when Major Rogers dis- 
 banded his men for their greater safety, he appointed 
 them to rendezvous at the Upper Coos, says Belknap ; 
 which could not have been done, if the place had not 
 been known. Some of Rogers' men, no doubt, made 
 the Coos, and some passed through it, whilst others 
 there perished, whose remains were found by the first 
 settlers ; but those who survived that disastrous re- 
 treat were the last men in the world to give a descrip- 
 tion of the country through which they passed, whilst 
 hunger, like an armed man, was threatening them 
 with dissolution at every step. 
 
 The tradition, that speaks of a company of men 
 sent up the river as far as Coos, for the relief of Rog- 
 ers' men, and of their returning just when Rogers' 
 men came up to witness the yet living embers of the 
 fires they had left behind them, must also be fabu- 
 lous. Rogers left Crown Point with two hundred 
 rangers on the thirteenth of September, 1759, to de-
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 35 
 
 stroy the Indians at St. Francis, who had committed 
 so many depredations and cruelties upon onr border 
 inhabitants. They were sent out with the utmost 
 secrecy. On the 5th of October he struck the fatal 
 blow, and commenced his retreat, which terminated 
 disastrously to many. How could the people of New 
 Hampshire know of this expedition ? How in time 
 to make this provision ? And how could they know 
 that their aid would be needed, or where it would be 
 needed ? 
 
 The probability is, that the Indians discovered the 
 exploring party of Captain Powers in 1754, and re- 
 lated the fact to the early settlers, and imagination 
 soon connected the two events of Powers' exploration 
 and Rogers' retreat, giving the latter as the cause of 
 the former. My view of this subject is, that the first 
 information which our people received of the " Coos 
 Meadows "was derived from Indians, hunters, and 
 captives. The second source of intelligence was from. 
 Captain Powers and his company. And the third 
 was from the soldiers of the old French war. But it 
 is time that I proceed to the settlement of the 
 " Cukos Meadows" 
 
 There were two men who were the principal agents 
 in the first settlement of Haverhill and Newbury in 
 the Coos country, Col. Jacob Bailey, of Newbury,
 
 36 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 Mass., and Capt. John Hazen, of Haverhill, Mass. 
 They were hoth officers in the old French war, and 
 stood high in the estimation of government. It is 
 supposed that they were taught to expect each a char- 
 ter of a township in the Coos, if they went on and 
 commenced settlements therein. They agreed to act 
 in conjunction, and to proceed harmoniously in the 
 undertaking. Hazen was to go on first, and take 
 possession of the east side of the river, and Bailey 
 was to take possession of the west side as soon as he 
 could find persons to do it, and come on himself as 
 soon as his affairs at home would permit. 
 
 Accordingly, Capt. Hazen sent on two men with 
 his cattle in the summer of 1761, viz., Michael 
 Johnston and John Pettie. They came from Haver- 
 hill, Mass., by No. 4, or Charlestown, and then up 
 the Connecticut River. They took possession of the 
 Little Ox Bow, on the east side of the river, in the 
 north parish of Haverhill, N. H. They found this 
 Ox Bow, and the Great Ox Bow on the west side of 
 the river, "cleared interval" according to what Capt. 
 Powers states in his journal ; and they had in former 
 years been cultivated by the Indians for the growth 
 of Indian corn. The hills were swarded over, and a 
 tali wild grass grew spontaneously and luxuriantly, 
 so that an abundance of fodder for the cattle was 
 easily procured.
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 37 
 
 The Indians dwelt at this time on these meadows, 
 east and west of the river, and were amicable. The 
 loss of their strong ally, the French, and the chas- 
 tisement which Rogers inflicted upon their brethren 
 at St. Francis, had cooled their ardor, and rendered 
 the idea of our men taking possession of those mea- 
 dows far more acceptable to them than it was in 
 1752, when they threatened war in case the country 
 was explored for the purpose of settlement. It was 
 not wonderful that the Indians should feel deep re- 
 pugnance at the idea of losing this country. It was 
 a fine country for them. It was easy of cultivation, 
 and suited to their imperfect means. The soil was 
 rich. The river abounded in salmon, and the 
 streams in trout, and the whole country was plenti- 
 fully supplied with game, bear, deer, moose, and 
 fowls. It was the half-way resting place between the 
 Canadas and the shores of the Atlantic ; and while 
 this was retained, it was the key that opened the 
 door to, or shut it against, the most direct communi- 
 cation between the Colonies and the Canadas. And, 
 what was more than all to the Indians, it was their 
 fathers' sepulchre. 
 
 I cannot but marvel somewhat at the conclusion of 
 the Rev. Clark Perry, in his "Annals and Historical 
 Sketches of Newbury, Vt., 1831." He says, p. 24,
 
 38 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 ""It does not appear that this section of country was 
 ever the permanent abode of Indians." Bnt why it 
 should not have been, I cannot conjecture. Certainly 
 there was no spot in New England which could have 
 presented to the Indian greater inducements for a 
 permanent abode ; and we know of no one place in 
 New England which has exhibited stronger indica- 
 tions of Indian settlements. 
 
 I have a communication from David Johnson, 
 Esq., of Newbury, touching this point, and I think 
 the evidence he gives of an old Indian settlement in 
 that place is conclusive. No man is better qualified 
 to judge impartially and correctly in this matter than 
 Mr. Johnson. He has always lived on the place of 
 which he speaks, and he is a gentleman who feels the 
 liveliest interest in antiquities ; has been accumu- 
 lating facts of this kind for many years; and I would 
 embrace this opportunity to express my obligations to 
 him for his prompt and persevering aid in the work 
 before me. I shall put down his communication as I 
 have received it. 
 
 " On the high ground, east of the mouth of Cow 
 Meadow Brook, and south of the three large project- 
 ing rocks, were found many indications of an old 
 and extensive Indian settlement. There were many 
 domestic implements. Among the rest were a stone
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 39 
 
 mortar and pestle. The pestle I have seen. Heads 
 of arrows, large quantities of ashes, and the ground 
 burnt over to a great extent, are some of the marks 
 of a long residence there. The burnt ground and 
 ashes were still visible the last time it was ploughed. 
 On the meadow, forty or fifty rods below, near the 
 rocks in the river, was evidently a burying ground. 
 The remains of many of the sons of the forest are 
 there deposited. Bones have frequently been turned 
 up by the plough. That they were buried in the 
 sitting posture, peculiar to the Indians, has been 
 ascertained. " 
 
 " When the first settlers came here, the remains of 
 a fort were still visible on the Ox Bow, a dozen or 
 twenty rods from the east end of Moses Johnson's 
 lower garden, on the south side of the lane. The 
 size of the fort was plain to be seen. Trees about 
 as large as a man's thigh were growing in the cir- 
 cumference of the old fort. A profusion of white 
 flint-stones and heads of arrows may yet be seen scat- 
 tered over the ground. It is a tradition which I 
 have frequently heard repeated, that after the fight 
 with Lovewell, the Indians said they should now be 
 obliged to leave Coossuck." * 
 
 It will appear in the sequel of these sketches, that 
 
 * Our Cooa.
 
 40 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 at a remote period, there was an intimate connection 
 between the Indians of Coos, of Maine, and of the 
 St. Francis. The connection between the Coos and 
 St. Francis tribe continued until the last. 
 
 We now return to Johnston and Pettie, whom we 
 have left on the Little Ox Bow. They made them- 
 selves a booth, and built a shed for their cattle, and 
 spent the subsequent winter in feeding out the hay 
 they had gathered during the summer. One would 
 suppose that these individuals must have felt them- 
 selves sufficiently solitary from November, 1761, to 
 June, 1762, not having, for a great part of this time, 
 a white man within sixty miles of them, yet sur- 
 rounded with Indians, and their cattle a temptation 
 for the latter to massacre them, that they might seize 
 upon the booty. But they survived the winter un- 
 harmed, and in the spring of 1762, Capt. Hazen 
 came to their relief, with hands and materials for 
 building a grist-mill and saw-mill, where the Swazey 
 mills now stand. 
 
 But before Capt. Hazen arrived, a family had 
 come into Newbury^ by the name of Sleeper. In 
 March, 1762, Glazier Wheeler, from Shutesbury, 
 Mass., came up with a brother of his, to hunt near 
 the head of the Connecticut River, and while on the 
 way, they fell in with Samuel Sleeper and his family,
 
 OP THB COOS COUNTRY. 41 
 
 at Charlestown. They were from Hampton, N. H. 
 Sleeper was a Quaker preacher, but was now em- 
 ployed by General Jacob Bailey to proceed to New- 
 bury, and take possession until the general could 
 come on in person. Sleeper contracted with Wheeler 
 to take him and his family on to his semi-sleigh and 
 semi-sled, and carry them to Newbury. 
 
 Sleeper pitched his tent a little south of where the 
 Kents now live, and have long lived. Thomas 
 Chamberlain next came from Dunstable, N. H., and 
 settled on "Mushquash Meadow," south of the 
 "Great Ox Bow," and a little at the north-west of 
 the ferry at the Dow farm. Richard Chamberlain 
 came on next from Hinsdale, N. H., and settled 
 on Mushquash Meadow. Chamberlain landed at the 
 ferry about noon with his family. Before night, a 
 hut was erected of posts and bark, which served them 
 three months for a habitation. In the centre stood a 
 large stump, which was their table. The house he 
 afterward erected stood near Josiah Little's barn, not 
 far from the river. The old cellar may yet be seen. 
 
 These two Chamberlains were not in the interest of 
 Hazen or Bailey, but were employed to come on and 
 take possession for one Oliver Willard, of Northfield, 
 Mass., who was endeavoring to supplant Bailey and 
 Hazen. But the latter being united in their peti-
 
 42 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 tions for grants ; being also in favor with the Gov- 
 ernor, and having taken possession by their agents 
 prior to Willard, succeeded, and Willard failed. 
 Willard's disappointment was great, and his anger 
 violent. He gave out vaunting threats that if he 
 could catch Hazen out of the settlement, he would 
 flog him to his heart's content. Hazen, however, 
 had seen too many tomahawks and bristling bayonets 
 around the walls of Quebec to be greatly disquieted 
 by a threat of this kind. But these two men after- 
 ward met in Charlestown, and upon Willard's at- 
 tempting to execute his promise, he caught the 
 severest flogging that any man need receive, and this 
 terminated the matter. 
 
 This same year, 1762, John Hazleton, from Hamp- 
 stead, N. H., moved into Newbury, and first lived at 
 the foot of the hill, south of the Johnson village, 
 but afterward settled in the south 'part of the town, 
 where Col. Moody Chamberlain now lives, near the 
 south bridge. In this family, in 1763, before they 
 moved from the Ox Bow, the first English child was 
 born in this town Betsey Hazleton, now the Widow 
 Lovewell, of the north parish in Haverhill, in her 
 77th year. 
 
 The same year, the first male child of English 
 descent was born in the family of Thomas Chamber-
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 43 
 
 lain, and was called Jacob Bailey Chamberlain. The 
 parents of this son received a hundred acres of land, 
 as a bounty, according to a promise of the original 
 proprietor, that the first mother of a son born in 
 that settlement should receive one hundred acres of 
 land. 
 
 I now return to Hazen and his party. I have said 
 he came on in the spring of 1762, with men and ma- 
 terials for building a saw-mill and grist-mill where 
 the Swazey mills now stand. With Hazen came Col. 
 Joshua Howard, of Haverhill, Mass., born April 24, 
 1740. He was then 22 years of age, and lived in 
 Haverhill until January 7th, 1839, almost 99 years of 
 age. He was a man of strict veracity, and at the 
 time when he gave his narration of events in the 
 early settlement of these towns (July 27, 1824), he 
 was of sound mind and good memory. I am much 
 indebted to him for materials in these sketches. 
 
 Howard labored that first season in preparing the 
 timbers for the mills, and was present at the raising 
 of them. He relates one providential escape from 
 death at the raising of those mills, which deserves 
 notice. One of their company, John Hughs, an 
 Irishman, fell from the frame, sixteen feet, and 
 struck perpendicularly upon the mud-sill, head down- 
 wards, without any thing to abate the force of the
 
 44 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 fall. He was taken up without signs of life ; but 
 Glazier Wheeler, from Newbury, found a penknife 
 with the company, and opened a vein, and after the 
 loss of blood, he revived, and soon recovered from 
 the tremendous blow. Physicians and surgeons, 
 those comfortable adjuncts to an improved state of 
 society, were then out of the question, and every 
 mind, in such an emergency, was put upon its own 
 resources. But I have a tale more melancholy to 
 relate. 
 
 Johnson and Pettie, who had spent the winter in 
 solitariness, now thought of visiting their friends at 
 the east ; and preparing themselves a canoe, they 
 took their departure in June, intending to descend 
 the river to Charlestown. They made their way 
 pleasantly until they came near the mouth of White 
 Eiver, in Lebanon. Here they were drawn into a 
 whirlpool ; their canoe was upset, and they were 
 plunged into the river. Johnston made every effort 
 to reach the shore, but sunk into the arms of death. 
 Pettie, being the better swimmer, gained the shore, 
 and was enabled to bear the melancholy tidings of 
 Johnston's death to his friends. 
 
 Some time after this event, a stranger, passing up 
 the river in a boat, discovered the body of a man 
 lying upon the shore of a small island in the river
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 45 
 
 between Lebanon, N. H., and Hartford, Vt. Not 
 knowing anything of Johnston or of his fate, and 
 being far from any settlement, he performed the 
 kindest office to a stranger corpse which remained in 
 his power. He digged a grave in the best manner 
 he could, interred the body, and left it the sole 
 proprietor of the island. It now bears his name, 
 " Johnston's Island." He is still the only occupant, 
 and will probably remain such, until the Great Pro- 
 prietor of the world shall assert his claim, recall the 
 dead, and extinguish all earthly titles. Col. Charles 
 Johnston, brother of Michael Johnston, after he 
 came to Haverhill, and learned the resting place of 
 his brother, went down to the island, found the 
 lonely grave, bedewed it with his tears, erected a 
 monument to his brother's memory, and resigned all 
 into the keeping of him who had given and taken. 
 Capt. Michael Johnston, now of Haverhill, was so 
 called to bear up and perpetuate the name of that 
 uncle who found this early grave. 
 
 Col. Howard relates that he and two others were 
 the first among the settlers who came from Salisbury 
 in a straight course to Haverhill. They came on in 
 April, 1762. Howard, Jesse Harriman, and Simeon 
 Stevens employed an old hunter at Concord to guide 
 them through. They came west of Newfound Pond,
 
 46 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 in Hebron, followed up the north-west branch of 
 Baker's River into Coventry, and down the Oliverian 
 to the Connecticut. They performed the journey in 
 four days from Concord. 
 
 In June, of this year, the first family moved into 
 Haverhill. Uriah Morse, and Hannah, his wife, 
 came from Northfield, Mass., and settled upon the 
 bank of Poole Brook, west of the bridge on the main 
 road, and a little south-west of the house where 
 David Merrill lived for many years. They boarded 
 Capt. Hazen's men, while they were building the 
 mills, and other adventurers as they came into the 
 settlement. The first child of English descent had 
 its birth in this family, in the spring of 1763 ; but 
 we hear of no bounty bestowed upon the parents, as 
 in Newbury, the same year, nor do we learn whether 
 it was male or female. Indeed, it survived its birth 
 but a few days. The first death of an adult occurred 
 in this family, also Polly Harriman died of con- 
 sumption, aged 18 years. She was buried a little 
 south-west of the present meeting-house in the north 
 parish of Haverhill, between the meeting-house and 
 the Southards. Her death was much lamented. 
 
 Poole Brook derived its name from a man whose 
 name was Poole, who lived fifty or sixty rods north 
 of Uriah Morse's house. Poole was drowned one
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 47 
 
 mile above the Narrows, in Connecticut River, above 
 Wells' River. Glazier Wheeler and his son Charles 
 found the body of Poole, seven days after drowning, 
 and it was brought down to the great Ox Bow and 
 interred. Polly, the only child of Mr. Poole, mar- 
 ried John Johnson, of Newbury, and was drowned 
 in the Connecticut, near where her father was buried. 
 
 Thomas Johnson, Timothy Bedel, Capt. Hazen, 
 and Jesse Harriman boarded in the family of Uriah 
 Morse in the autumn of 1762. Johnson was now in 
 his 21st year. He was born March 22, 1742, and 
 came into the settlement in the service of General 
 Bailey ; but the first season he boarded on the east 
 side of the river. He originated in Haverhill, Mass. 
 Thomas Johnson's first purchase in Newbury bears 
 date October 6, 1763. It is the united testimony of 
 the first settlers, that at that early period, moose, 
 bear, deer, beaver, otter, mink and sables were nu- 
 merous, and that salmon enriched and adorned the 
 river. Trout was not so abundant in the streams as 
 salmon in the river, and shad never appeared above 
 Bellows' Falls, in Walpole. 
 
 We now come to speak of the events of 1763, in 
 those settlements. This was the year of charters 
 with them. Newbury's charter bears date March 18, 
 1763, signed by Benning Wentworth, and I think 
 Haverhill charter bears the same date.
 
 48 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 The first town meeting under the charter was held 
 by the freemen of Newbury, June 13, 1763, and not 
 less than 100 miles from the location of their grant, 
 viz., at Plaistow, N. H. And before this meeting 
 was adjourned, they voted to unite with Haverhill in 
 paying a preacher for the term of two or three 
 months, "this fall or winter," a very worthy ex- 
 ample, while they were yet so few and feeble. 
 
 This was a year of enlargement with Haverhill 
 and Newbury. Benjamin Hall, from Massachusetts, 
 came in and settled near, the Porter place, where the 
 Southards now live. Jonathan Saunders and Sarah 
 Eowell, both from Hampton, N. H., came and 
 settled near the present house of Dr. Carleton, late 
 deceased. Jacob Hall, from Northfield, Mass., came 
 and settled on the Dow farm, so called. Hon. James 
 Woodward, of Hampstead, N. H., came and settled 
 on his place at the age of twenty-two years. He 
 purchased his farm at twenty cents per acre. Mr. 
 John Page, father of the present governor of New 
 Hampshire, came into Haverhill this year from 
 Lnnenburg, Mass. He was employed by his uncle, 
 David Page, to assist in driving up his cattle to tan- 
 caster, and this was the beginning of the settlement 
 of that town David Page's son having been iip in 
 the preceding June of that year, and marked out a
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 49 
 
 way for them from Haverhill. John Page returned 
 from Lancaster, and bought his farm in Haverhill, 
 but spent the subsequent winter in taking care of 
 Gen. Bailey's stock in Newbury, which arrived that 
 season, and not in 1762, as many have supposed. 
 This was Mr. Page's account, Captain Howard's, and 
 Col. Joshua Bailey's, who came with his father to 
 Newbury in 1764, at eleven years of age. Page con- 
 tinued to labor for (ren. Bailey until he was able to 
 pay for his farm. He then came to Haverhill, mar- 
 ried Abigail Saunders, daughter of the first settler 
 south of him, and lived to the age of eighty-two, 
 and departed this life in 1823. 
 
 This year Noah White came into Newbury, with 
 his family, and settled. Thomas Johnson established 
 himself in the Ox Bow, and Col. Jacob Kent came 
 into Newbury, November 4, 1763, the twelfth family 
 in both towns. There were a number of young men 
 boarding in those families. Col. Kent was born at 
 Chebacco, Mass., June 11, 1726, and Mary White, 
 his wife, was born at Plaistow, N. H., August 14, 
 1736. Mrs. Kent survived her husband many years, 
 and lived to a great age. She was nearly ninety 
 years of age when I visited her to obtain information 
 relative to the first settlers, and I found her memory 
 good upon subjects of ancient date. In answer to 
 3
 
 50 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 the question, "Were there many wild animals in the 
 town when you first came here, such as bears and 
 wolves?" she replied, "O, yes, there were enough 
 of them creatures ! I was once frightened almost 
 out of my wits by them. It was on a Sabbath 
 day. The colonel was gone to meeting, and I 
 was left alone, and there came three great bears 
 to the door, and looked right in upon me ! I 
 expected nothing but they would come in and de- 
 vour me; but after looking at me awhile, they turned 
 away, and trotted off, and glad was I." Ladies of 
 Newbury and Haverhill, how would you like, at this 
 time, to have your devotions interrupted, or your do- 
 mestic concerns thus unceremoniously inspected, by 
 stranger gentlemen, such as these ? Mum ! 
 
 In this year, says Col. Joshua Bailey, John Fore- 
 man and several others of Pennsylvania, having en- 
 listed into the British army near the commencement 
 of the old French war, and having been retained in 
 Canada after peace was restored, deserted and made 
 through the woods until they came upon the head 
 waters of the Connecticut, and following down the 
 stream, they came into the north part of Haverhill. 
 But here they found themselves famishing through 
 lack of sustenance, and as they knew not that there 
 was an English settlement within a hundred miles of
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 51 
 
 them, they were prepared to seize upon any thing 
 which could satisfy the demands of hunger. They 
 unexpectedly came in sight of a horse upon the plain 
 north of the north parish meeting-house, and suppos- 
 ing it to be wild, or one that had gone far astray, 
 they shot it, and fed themselves upon its flesh. Re- 
 plenishing their packs with the residue of the meat, 
 they proceeded south, but soon diecovered smokes as- 
 cending from chimneys on the Ox Bow and vicinity. 
 They were alarmed at the idea of falling into the 
 hands of hostile Indians, especially since they had 
 killed one of their horses. But after some consulta- 
 tion, they concluded that one of their number should 
 cross the river, make what discoveries he could, and 
 then return and report. He accordingly swam the 
 river, and, to his great joy, found these were English 
 settlements. The news and a boat were soon carried 
 back to his companions. They were brought on to 
 the Ox Bow, where they found food, a shelter, and 
 sympathizing friends. Col. Bailey says, this fact of 
 their killing the horse on that plain gave the name 
 " Horse Meadow " to that section of the town, and 
 not the traditionary story of horses finding a rush 
 grass there sooner in the spring than elsewhere. 
 
 At this time, 1763, we are told, there were no roads 
 in any direction, and that their bread-stuffs were
 
 52 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 brought from Charlestown in boats. It is a little ex- 
 traordinary that none of the first settlers make men- 
 tion of the great drought which prevailed in the Col- 
 onies for the years 1761 and 1762.* It must have 
 affected them whatever were their seasons at Coos ; 
 for as yet they were depending on foreign supplies. 
 
 We now come to speak of the progress of these set- 
 tlements in 1764. This was a year of increase, and 
 they realized an accession which seemed to give char- 
 acter to the settlements for many years. Deacon 
 Jonathan Elkins with his family, from Hampton, N. 
 H., came into Haverhill, and settled near Doctor 
 Carleton's. Deacon Elkins was a valuable acquisi- 
 tion to the town ; but he remained here but little 
 more than ten years, before he removed to Peacham, 
 Vt., and was one of the first settlers, and most effi- 
 cient, in that town. Col. Timothy Beedel, from 
 New-Salem, moved his family to this place, and set- 
 tled on Poole Brook, where David Merrill long lived. 
 Hon. Ezekiel Ladd came in and settled on the place 
 where he lived fifty-four years, and died at the ad- 
 vanced age of eighty years, (1818.) He married Ruth 
 Hutchins. They both belonged to Haverhill, Mass. 
 Mrs. Ladd died 1817, aged seventy-six. 
 
 Newbury was enlarged and blessed, also, this year, 
 
 * See Belknap, vol. ii. p. 238.
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 53 
 
 by the arrival of Gen. Jacob Bailey with his family. 
 He had been from the first the principal mover in the 
 settlement. His influence was felt in every proceed- 
 ing, and now he had come to bless himself, and to 
 save much people alive, in the approaching contest 
 between Great Britain and her Colonies. He arrived 
 in Newbury, October, 1764. He lived, at that time, 
 south of the Johnson Village, and north of the hill, 
 on the east side of the road. He was thirty-eight 
 years of age when he came to Newbury, and lived 
 until March, 1815, when he resigned a long life, that 
 had been devoted to his country, to his town, and, 
 for a considerable length of time, to his God. He 
 died at eighty-nine years of age. 
 
 This same year came the Rev. Peter Powers, of 
 Hollis, N. II.. t<> labor with this people in holy 
 things. Mr. Powers was born in Dunstable, N. H., 
 November 29, 1728, moved to Hollis with his father, 
 January, 1731, which was the first settlement in that 
 town. He graduated at Harvard College in 1754, 
 the year his father explored the Coos country. He 
 was first settled in the ministry at Newent, then a 
 parish in Norwich, Conn., now the town of Lisbon, 
 where he labored some years ; but taking a dismission 
 from that charge, he came to Newbury at thirty-six 
 years of age. Through his instrumentality a church
 
 54 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 was gathered and organized in Newbury, in the fall 
 of 1764, composed of members from both sides of 
 the river. The two settlements united, also, in form- 
 ing an ecclesiastical society, which union continued 
 nearly twenty years. 
 
 We now enter upon the transactions and events of 
 1765. Daring this year, the settlements at Coos be- 
 gan to have some neighbors. One or two settlements 
 were made at Bradford, Orford, Lyme, Thetford, 
 Hanover, Lebanon, and Plymouth ; but more of 
 these hereafter. 
 
 On the 24th of January, 1765, the Rev. Mr. Pow- 
 ers received a call to take the spiritual charge of this 
 newly constituted church and society in the wilder- 
 ness. He gave his answer in the affirmative, Feb- 
 ruary 1, 1765. They then voted that " the install- 
 ment be on the last Wednesday of this instant, and 
 voted, that the Reverend Messrs. Abner Bailey, Dan- 
 iel Emerson, Joseph Emerson, Henry True, and 
 Joseph Goodhue, with their churches, be a council 
 for said installment. Voted, that Jacob Bailey, 
 Esq., shall represent the town of Newbury at the 
 council, which was voted to meet for said installment 
 down country where it is thought best. Jacob Kent, 
 Town Clerk. 
 
 There is, to us, some novelty in this vote for in-
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 55 
 
 stall UK Mit somewhere ; but the necessity of the case 
 explains the whole affair. There were no ministers 
 or churches in all the region, and they must go by 
 their delegation until they found them. The minis- 
 ters selected for the council belonged in Hollis and 
 vicinity, and the Rev. Mr. Powers was installed at 
 Hollia, February 27, 1765, as the title page to the 
 sermon that was preached on the occasion showeth, 
 which is as follows : 
 
 " A Sermon preached at Hollis, February 27, 1765, 
 at the Installation of the Rev. Peter Powers, A. M., 
 for the towns of Newbury and Haverhill, at a Place 
 called Coos, in the Province of New-hampshire. By 
 Myself. Published at the desire of many who heard 
 it, to whom it is humbly dedicated by the unworthy 
 author. Then saith he to his servants, the wedding 
 is ready, Go ye therefore into the high ways, and 
 as many as ye shall find, bid to the marriage. Matt. 
 xxii:8, 9. Portsmouth, in New-hampshire. Printed 
 and sold by Daniel and Robert Fowle, 1765." 
 
 Th'ere is novelty in the circumstance of Mr. Pow- 
 ers' preaching his own installation sermon, but it was 
 nothing uncommon at that day ; and there is room 
 for doubt whether the moderns have made an im- 
 provement in this particular. 
 
 Mr. Powers' goods were brought from Charlestown
 
 56 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 to Newbury upon the ice on the river, the last of 
 February, by the people of Newbury and Haverhill ; 
 but the family did not arrive until April of that year. 
 A circumstance occurred on the journey with the 
 goods, which gave rise to an anecdote which was rife 
 among the old people, down to a late period. It has 
 been related to me by persons belonging to several 
 different towns. There was a man living in New- 
 bury, and a member of the church, by the name of 
 Way. He was an eccentric character, and would on 
 some occasions speak unadvisedly, yet was a very 
 friendly man. and was neld in general esteem. He 
 was one who volunteered his services to bring up the 
 goods upon the ice. It was so late in February, that 
 in some places, especially where tributaries came in, 
 the ice was thin and brittle. They, however, made 
 their way without serious difficulty, until they came 
 to the mouth of Ompompanoosuc, at the north-east 
 part of Norwich, where Way's sled broke through, 
 and had like to have gone down, sled, team, Way and 
 all. But by timely effort on the part of his travelling 
 companions, they were all extricated. As soon as 
 Way and his team reached firm footing, he turned 
 around and surveyed the danger he had been in ; and 
 as he saw the waters boiling and eddying with a 
 frightful aspect, he said to his companions, "That is
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 57 
 
 a cursed hole." When the party had arrived at 
 Newbury, and they were relating the trials and dan- 
 gers of the way, some one mentioned what Mr. Way 
 said of Ompompanoosuc. It was not loug before 
 this came to the ears of Mr. Powers, and he resolved 
 to go, as his custom was in like cases, and have a 
 conversation with Mr. Way, and admonish him, if he 
 should be found to have been delinquent. He ac- 
 cordingly went and told Mr. Way that he had been 
 told he had been speaking unadvisedly and wickedly. 
 " What, what is it ? " said Mr. Way. " Why, they 
 say you said of Ompompanoosuc, that it was a 
 cursed hole." " Well, it is a cursed hole," said Way ; 
 " I say, it is a cursed hole, and I can prove it." " 
 no, you cannot," said Mr. Powers, "and you have 
 done very wrong you must repent." " Why," said 
 Way, " did not the Lord curse the earth for man's 
 sin?" " Yes," said Mr. Powers. " Well," replied 
 Way, " do you think that little divilish Ompompa- 
 noosuc was an exception?" Mr. Powers turned 
 away, and exclaimed, "0, Mr. Way, Mr. Way, I 
 stand in fear of you," and recording his nolle prosequi, 
 departed. 
 
 Mr. Powers lived in a house a little north of the 
 house of Gen. Bailey, and south of Thomas John- 
 sou's. He preached for a time at Gen. Bailey's 
 3*
 
 58 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 house, and in the mean time, they built a log meet- 
 ing-house, south of Gen. Bailey's, and north of the 
 hill, where they worshipped some years. This was 
 the house voted to be built, 28 feet by 25 feet, in 
 October, 1764, as stated by the Rev. Mr. Perry in his 
 manuscript of 1831, but which he concludes never 
 was builded (pp. 14 and 16, in manuscript). The 
 truth is, Mr. Perry was laboring under a mistake in 
 regard to meeting-houses. The first meeting-house 
 stood where I have located it. A framed meeting- 
 house was some years afterward erected near where 
 the present Congregational meeting-house stands ; 
 but as there was dissatisfaction in regard to its loca- 
 tion, it was pulled down, and re-erected on the spot 
 where Mr. Perry speaks of the first meeting-house 
 standing, viz., "west of the burying ground;" but 
 it was not for a meeting-house that it was erected 
 there, but for a court-house and jail; still, divine 
 service might have been maintained there after the 
 first house had become too small to accommodate the 
 congregation, and before the present meeting-house 
 was erected in 1790. 
 
 I wish here to be indulged with a single remark in 
 respect to Brother Perry's manuscript. It was a very 
 laudable undertaking. I am not altogether unaided 
 by it ; but he was in too much haste in preparing it ;
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 59 
 
 depended too much on common report, and did not 
 compare notes sufficiently. It will not guide us 
 safely through the labyrinth of the twenty-five first 
 years in these settlements. But as I have said, they 
 worshipped at the Ox Bow some years, and Haverhill 
 people assembled with them, with great punctuality. 
 There was a foot-path leading from Judge James 
 Woodward's late residence, north-westerly, to the 
 river, where was a log canoe to set them across, and 
 from the point of landing a serpentine path through 
 tall grass, bushes, and sometimes towering trees, led 
 them to the place of worship. They had another ca- 
 noe at the Dow farm, and another at the Porter 
 place. 
 
 At that day it was a sin and disreputable in the 
 view of all, for persons to absent themselves from the 
 place of worship without valid cause ; and parents 
 were seen uniformly carrying their children in their 
 arms from Dr. Carleton's place to the Johnson Vil- 
 lage and back again, the same day, and sometimes 
 when the grass and bushes were wet, and the trees 
 from above dropped upon them their dewy blessings ; 
 and all this, that they might hear the word of life 
 dispensed. Going and returning in their meandering 
 course could not have been a less distance than twelve 
 miles, and sometimes each parent had one to carry.
 
 60 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 Nor was the attendance at worship less uniform and 
 punctual with those on the west side of the river. 
 Some females walked from Moretown, now Bradford, 
 and others from Ryegate, a distance of ten miles. 
 Those from the latter place, when they came to Well's 
 Kiver, (there being no canoe,) would bare their feet, 
 and "trip it along as nimbly as the deer." The men 
 generally went bare-footed ; the ladies, certainly, 
 wore shoes. 
 
 The wife of Judge Ladd related to me her extreme 
 mortification on the first Sabbath she attended meet- 
 ing at the Ox Bow. She and her husband had been 
 recently married. They came from Haverhill, Mass., 
 and had seen and tasted some of the refinements of 
 life. She thought she must appear as well as any of 
 them, and put on her wedding silks, with muffled 
 cuffs, extending from the shoulder to the elbow, and 
 chere made fast by brilliant sleeve-buttons. (Ladies 
 of the toilet of eighty years' experience will under- 
 stand all this.) She wore silk hose and florid shoes. 
 Her husband, appeared, also, in his best, and they 
 took their seats on benches early in the sanctuary. 
 But she remarked that " they went alone, sat alone, 
 and returned alone ; for it was not possible for her to 
 get near enough to any one of the females to hold 
 conversation with them ; and she was so home-sick,
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 61 
 
 she thought she should die, and would have given 
 any thing could she have formed some acquaintance 
 with those who were to be her female neighbor?," but 
 they were actually afraid of her, and each sat, or 
 stood, at a proper distance, lest they should soil her 
 dress. On their return home, she told her husband 
 she had learned one lesson, and that was, When 
 among Romans, conform to Romans. The next Sab- 
 bath she appeared in a clean check-linen gown, and 
 other articles in accordance, and she found very so- 
 ciable and warm-hearted friends. 
 
 But their worship was destined to interruptions in 
 the summer of 1765. I have already spoken of Sam'l 
 Sleeper, the first settler in Newbury, in 1762 ; that he 
 was a Quaker preacher, and that he came on to take 
 possession for Gen. Bailey. We do not hear of any 
 irregularities practised by Sleeper until after the set- 
 tlement of Mr. Powers. Then he claimed the right 
 to hold forth at any time, and on all occasions, when 
 the Spirit moved him ; and while Mr. Powers was 
 speaking, he would sometimes say " Thee lies, friend 
 Peter." And at other times he would vociferate 
 " False doctrines ! false doctrines ! " Then again 
 " Glorious truths ! glorious truths !" The principal 
 men used all means to dissuade him from such a 
 course of conduct ; but he grew more insolent and
 
 62 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 boisterous, and they at length incarcerated him in a 
 cellar on Musquash Meadow ; but as soon as Sleeper 
 was disposed of, one Benoni Wright, a convert and 
 pupil of Sleeper, volunteered to fill the vacated seat 
 of his master, and if Sleeper had chastised the sin- 
 ners with whips, Wright would do it with scorpions*. 
 He permitted his beard to grow at full length, and 
 by this, he became a professed prophet of the Lord, 
 and delivered his messages in the most boisterous and 
 frantic manner. But he gained no converts, and as 
 he resisted every remonstrance of the people, they 
 adopted a summary course with him. The elders of 
 the people in both settlements took him on to the 
 meadow, near where Sleeper was in duress, held a 
 court upon him, convicted him, and doomed him to 
 receive " ten lashes, well laid on." Wright was 
 stripped and received the judgment of the court upon 
 the spot, and the same self -constituted court passed 
 a decree, and sent it to Sleeper, that if he appeared 
 again after confinement, to make the least disturb- 
 ance, he should receive thirty lashes in full tale. 
 This was decisive, and these prophets concluded to 
 sacrifice their consciences at the shrine of their 
 bodies. Peace and order were restored. 
 
 But the next season, 1766, Sleeper and Wright left 
 the settlement in Newbury, and removed into Brad-
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 63 
 
 ford, and settled on the meadow, north of Mr. Hun- 
 kins, and east of what was Johnson's tavern, in the 
 north of Bradford. Here Wright undertook to sus- 
 tain a fast of forty days, and withdrew to a cave in a 
 mountain, at the north-west part of Bradford. And 
 that he might gird himself for his conflict with hun- 
 ger and the Prince of the power of the air, he pro- 
 cured him a strap with forty holes in it, and was to 
 buckle himself up one hole each day ; but long be- 
 fore he had attained to a "good degree," he was so 
 pressed upon by hunger, that he concluded to return 
 home to his wife, and get her to prepare him a good 
 supper. She did so, and just as Wright was sitting 
 down to his repast, in bolted Sleeper, who exclaimed, 
 "Friend Wright, dost thou break thy fast?" 
 Wright was moon-struck for a time ; but his appetite 
 prevailed, and he returned not to the mountain, 
 which has from that time borne his name, Wright's 
 Mountain. From this time these two men wholly 
 disappear from our history. 
 
 Col. Joshua Howard related to me in 1824, and 
 confirmed the same in 1832, that the origin of Sleep- 
 er's opposition was this : Gen. Bailey found it some- 
 what difficult to procure a man to come on and take 
 possession of that land amidst the Indians, who 
 would not like as well to take possession for himself,
 
 64 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 as for another ; and such a man he did not want. 
 He at length came across Sleeper, who promised he 
 would go on, provided he might become their Quaker 
 preacher, when they had obtained their grant, and 
 had formed a Christian society. Bailey, willing to 
 indulge his whim, said to him pleasantly, " 0, yes, 
 Sleeper, you shall be our minister." Sleeper took it 
 all for specie, and in process of time, Bailey found 
 there was more of Quakerism than poetry in Sleeper. 
 In the fall of this year, 1765, Judge Woodward 
 was married to Hannah Clark, and it was the first 
 marriage ceremony ever performed in the county of 
 Grafton ; and as there were some things attending it 
 out of the ordinary course, and as I had the particu- 
 lars from the judge himself, I will relate them, as 
 they will serve to show that some things could be 
 done then, as well as at this time. I have stated that 
 Judge Woodward came into Haverhill in 1763, and 
 bought his meadow farm. He built his first tent 
 upon the meadow, as nearly all the first settlers did 
 in Newbury, and some in Haverhill, not knowing 
 that they would be in danger from floods ; but being 
 driven off by a flood in 1771, they afterwards built 
 upon more elevated ground. But Woodward was 
 now enjoying single blessedness in his tent. He 
 felled trees by day, went to the Dow farm for his
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 65 
 
 meals, and slept on the meadow at night. And al- 
 though ho sometimes dreamed of fairy forms, of 
 sparkling eyes, and ruby lips, yet he knew not that 
 Providence had any thing of this kind in reserve for 
 him, and if he had, he knew not where it might be 
 found ; for young females, in those days, were duly 
 appreciated. But the next year, when Judge Ladd 
 came on, he brought with him a blooming little 
 maid, Hannah Clark, of fifteen, to live in his family 
 a year or two, and then, in the mind of Judge Ladd 
 and wife, she would become the wife of John Ladd, 
 a brother of Judge Ladd. Woodward went to see his 
 neighbor Ladd, and there he saw the object, which 
 took, at once, full possession of his soul ; and he 
 could not see why he might not enjoy it, as well as 
 John Ladd ; and from that moment, he resolved to 
 secure Hannah Clark for his wife, if it was in his 
 power. He called at Judge Ladd's occasionally, and 
 had some brief opportunities for conversation with 
 Hannah, enough to satisfy him that his views and 
 feelings were reciprocated, before Judge Ladd or his 
 wife suspected the choice or intention of either ; but 
 as soon as their suspicions were awakened, Woodward 
 was prohibited the privilege of visiting at the house, 
 and a strict watch was maintained over this little 
 blushing girl. But after ail, they had their friends,
 
 66 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 and billets, and flowers, and compliments passed be- 
 tween them ; and occasionally an interview was ob- 
 tained through the intervention of friends. This 
 kind of innocent conspiracy was carried on against 
 Judge Ladd and wife one full year, and then the 
 parties thought, seriously of deciding the controversy 
 by a clandestine marriage. The plan was laid and 
 executed in the following manner : 
 
 Woodward went to Newbury, and told all his heart 
 to Ephraim Bailey, son of Gen. Bailey, and brought 
 him to espouse his cause, and to co-operate with him. 
 Woodward told Bailey they must have one female en- 
 listed in their interests. Bailey said he believed he 
 could find one that would sustain that part. He was 
 then paying his addresses to a young girl by the name 
 of Hannah Fellows, and he could initiate her into the 
 secret, and secure her aid. It was accordingly con- 
 fided to her, and it was so arranged that Hannah 
 Fellows was to pass over to Haverhill, and spend the 
 afternoon in visiting Hannah Clark, tell her what was 
 expected of her, and the sun about an hour high, she 
 was to solicit the favor of Mrs. Ladd to have Hannah 
 Clark walk with her as far as the river on her return 
 to Newbury. In the mean time, the Rev. Mr. Pow- 
 ers was to be requested to be upon the west bank of 
 the river precisely at such an hour, and Ephraim
 
 OP THB COOS COUNTRY. 67 
 
 Bailey was to set him across in the canoe, and then 
 all were to step into Woodward's tent, and the mar- 
 riage ceremony be performed. Woodward had al- 
 ready taken out license from under the king to au- 
 thorize his being married without publishment, and 
 every thing succeeded according to previous arrange- 
 ment. The moment the two Hannahs came on to 
 the meadow, Mr. Powers and Ephraim Bailey were 
 seen coming up from the river. They all entered in- 
 to Woodward's tent, and in a short time Woodward 
 and Hannah Clark were joined in lawful marriage. 
 Those who belonged to Newbury returned forthwith 
 and Hannah Clark, now Hannah Woodward, ran for 
 Judge Ladd's. She had not been absent long enough 
 to excite suspicion in the mind of any one. Hannah 
 continued to do for Judge Ladd as heretofore, and 
 Woodward labored on the meadow. 
 
 At length, it was reported by Mr. Powers, that he 
 had married Woodward to Hannah Clark, not know- 
 ing that there was any secret to be kept. After some 
 little time, a woman came over to pay a visit to Mrs. 
 Ladd, and told her what kind of a story was going 
 the rounds in Newbury, that James Woodward was 
 married to Hannah Clark. Mrs. Ladd told her, 
 " There was not a word of truth in the story ; that 
 Woodward had been endeavoring to court Hannah,
 
 68 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 but they would not hear to it." The woman replied, 
 " It was a little extraordinary that such a story should 
 be made from nothing, and she had understood that 
 it came from Mr. Powers. And do you know," said 
 she, "that.it is not true ?" " Why, yes," said she, 
 "it cannot be true." At that moment she paused 
 and reflected, as though Hannah's walk with Hannah 
 Fellows had just streaked across her mental horizon. 
 " But," said she, "if I don't know, I will," rising 
 up at the same time, and making for the kitchen, 
 where Hannah was carding wool or tow : " Hannah," 
 said she, " they say you are married to James Wood- 
 ward ; is it true?" "Yes, ma'am," said Hannah. 
 " Then I have nothing more for you to do," replied 
 Mrs. Ludd ; " I shall not part man and wife." Han- 
 nah put her cards together, laid them into her basket 
 rose up, and ran for the meadow, and lived happily 
 with her husband forty years, and departed this life 
 Oct. 21, 1805. Hon. James Woodward lived to the 
 advanced age of eighty, and departed this life 1821. 
 
 I perceive that Thompson, in his Gazetteer of 
 Vermont, states that the crank for the first saw-mill 
 in Newbury was drawn upon a hand-sled from Con- 
 cord, N. H., to Newbury, Vt. Distance seventy 
 miles. I suppose it could not have been much less 
 than seventy miles from Concord to Newbury, since
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 69 
 
 it is seventy-two miles from Haverhill Corner direct 
 to Concord. They would have been much nearer the 
 true distance at that time, had they stated it at 
 eighty miles. But the whole of this tour I have in 
 minutes from the lips of two of the adventurers 
 themselves, Judge Woodward and John Page. I do 
 not know the precise number of men who went for 
 the Irons, but I think as many as six. They prepared 
 a rude hand sleigh, I do not recollect the technical 
 name for it. They split a hard wood sapling, and 
 shaved the two flat sides, as the cooper would do a 
 hoop for a hogshead. The flat and wide side was the 
 bottom of the runner, arid it was bent up forward, 
 and the end being shaved down small, it entered a 
 hole in a thick ribbon ; and the runner and ribbon 
 were supported apart by studs entering the runner 
 and ribbon, or nave, at short distances from each 
 other, from end to end. The cross-bars rested upon 
 the ribbons. This vehicle secured several advantages. 
 It was light ; the runners were wide, and would not 
 readily cut through the snow ; the beams were high 
 from the ground, so that rocks and stubs were not 
 likely to strike the cross-beams. Being thus equipped, 
 they took in their provisions and set sail with light 
 hearts. There was more sport, however, in going to
 
 70 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 Concord with an empty sled, than in returning with 
 a ponderous freight. 
 
 f acilis descensus Averni : 
 
 Sed revocare gradum, 
 
 Hoc opus, hie labor est. 
 
 The snow was deep, and it proved to be a very cold 
 week, and before one half the distance was gained on 
 their return voyage, they felt themselves exhausted 
 by fatigue, and benumbed with the cold. They came 
 through Hebron, and came on to Newfound Pond, 
 because the way was more level, yet the cold more 
 severe, for they had not the forest to break the force 
 of the wind. Having gained somewhat more than 
 mid way of the pond, which is six miles in length, 
 they made a halt, and took their seats upon their 
 sled for rest. Page arose and went some little dis- 
 tance to a glade, or opening in the ice, to drink, and 
 when he returned, he found all his companions sink- 
 ing down into a sleep, from which, if it had been in- 
 dulged, no power short of Omnipotence could have 
 aroused them. Page was not lost to a sense of his or 
 their danger ; the thought of which proved the nec- 
 essary stimulus to excite him to effort in redeeming 
 them from death. He cried out to them that they 
 were all dead men, if they did not instantly awake, 
 and bestir themselves. He seized them by their
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 71 
 
 shoulders, shook them, and made them stand up ; 
 and he so preached terror to their auditory nerves, 
 that they revived, and resolved to make every possi- 
 ble effort to reach a cump in the woods ; and they 
 were successful, and thus saved themselves alive. 
 
 I speak of their reaching a camp. It may be 
 proper for me to state in this place, that our fathers 
 had taken the precaution to build camps on the route 
 from Haverhill to Salisbury, one camp in every 
 twelve or fifteen miles, and each was supplied with 
 fireworks and fuel, so that a traveller could soon kin- 
 dle him a fire ; and he had the boughs of the hem- 
 lock for his bed. 
 
 But this same party came near perishing when they 
 had arrived in sight of Haverhill, in the north-east 
 part of Piermont ; and had it not been for Woodward 
 to perform for Page, in that instance, what Page had 
 done for them upon the pond, they would have given 
 up the ghost But they were told it required but 
 one effort more, and all danger was past ; but if they 
 gave way to sleep for a few minutes, as one of them 
 proposed, they never would awake in the body. 
 They were induced to persevere, and they came into 
 Haverhill, where they found the blessings of a fire- 
 side, of food, comfortable lodgings, and anxious 
 friends to sympathize with them.
 
 72 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 This saw-mill crank was the one which was so long 
 in use at Atwood's mills in Newbury, but I know not 
 its location or its use at this time. But what hard- 
 ships were these above related ! How unlike the con- 
 dition of their children and grand-children ! How 
 unequal are their descendants to such services ! 
 Many of our young men would now groan under the 
 task of travelling on foot from Haverhill to Plymouth, 
 a distance of thirty-two miles, on a road which may 
 be passed over in safety, by horse and carriage, at the 
 rate of ten miles per hour. But the memory of one 
 man will carry him back to a different generation. 
 There he will see a hardy race, minds trained to 
 deeds of daring, and muscular powers, seldom, if 
 ever, surpassed. And these qualities did not apper- 
 tain to the first settlers of Coos exclusively, but they 
 characterized those several generations which felled 
 our forests, subdued our soil, conquered savage men, 
 destroyed the beasts of prey, made roads, built habi- 
 tations, mills, school-houses, churches, supported the 
 gospel, founded colleges and academies, sustained a 
 war of eleven years with the combined forces of 
 French and Indians, and finally gained our national 
 independence. They had a great work assigned 
 them, and Providence fitted them, in an eminent de- 
 gree, for the discharge of their duties.
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 73 
 
 I will hero mention, that roads direct from Haver- 
 hill to Boston were not opened until after the war of 
 the revolution I mean such as would admit the 
 passing of heavy teams, and until then, the freight 
 of goods from our seaports was very expensive. 
 Heavy articles which were not brought up from 
 Charlestown upon the ice, in winter, were brought on 
 pack-horses from Concord through the woods, and 
 ten bushels of wheat have been exchanged for one of 
 salt. The glass for Col. Thomas Johnson's house 
 was brought across the woods in this manner ; and 
 Col. Robert Johnson, who opened the first tavern in 
 Newbury, in a house a little south of where his son 
 Robert now lives, supplied his bar with spirits im- 
 ported in the same way. This being the state of 
 things in respect to roads, we shall readily conceive 
 that the means of communicating between this isola- 
 ted settlement and the eastern part of the state were 
 very limited, and were not an every day occurrence. 
 A passenger arriving in the settlement with packages 
 direct from friends in the east created a more lively 
 interest in the settlers, than the arrival of the British 
 Queen steamer now does in the great emporium of 
 this nation. I will give an anecdote from Mr. Perry's 
 sketches, illustrative of the state of things in these 
 respects. The story comes from Richard Chamber- 
 lain, one of the first settlers. 4
 
 74 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 Early in the settlement of the Coos, it so happened 
 that the annual Thanksgiving was passed, before in- 
 telligence of it arrived here. But soon after, a Dr. 
 White came up to visit his friends at Newbury, and 
 brought with him a proclamation. This proclama- 
 tion was read publicly on the Sabbath by Mr. Powers, 
 and by him it was proposed they should keep a 
 thanksgiving, notwithstanding the time specified by 
 the governor was passed. And he proposed the next 
 Thursday. Upon this a member arose, and gravely 
 proposed that it might be deferred longer; "for," 
 said he, " there is not a drop of molasses in the 
 town ; and we know how important it is to have mo- 
 lasses to keep Thanksgiving. My boys have gone to 
 No. 4, and will be back, probably, by the beginning 
 of next week, and they will bring molasses ; and it 
 had better be put off till next week Thursday." It 
 was unanimously agreed to. But the molasses not 
 coming, it was deferred another week ; and finally, 
 Thanksgiving was kept without molasses. This, 
 which is enough to provoke a smile, will nevertheless 
 show us the simplicity and destitution of those days. 
 But from 1766 to 1769, we have no special occur- 
 rences to relate. The settlements continued to in- 
 crease, society to improve, and the means of subsis- 
 tence rewarded the hand of industry most bounti-
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 75 
 
 fully. Indeed, the Coos meadows became to other 
 infant settlements, north and south of them, what 
 the granaries of Egypt were to Canaan and surround- 
 ing nations, in the days of the seven years' famine. 
 An aged gentleman in Lyme, N. H., says, "he can 
 very well recollect when they used to carry up their 
 silver shoe-buckles to the Coos, and exchange them 
 for wheat." 
 
 As to the state of religion in those years, we do not 
 learn of any powerful revivals among the people, 
 such as had been experienced in Whitfield's time, in 
 many parts of New England ; or such as have since 
 been experienced in those settlements. There are no 
 church records to guide our bark in these polar seas ; 
 but if there were revivals, in the modern sense of the 
 term, the ancients would have told us of them. 
 There were additions to the church from time to 
 time, from both sides of the river, until it consisted 
 of a goodly number of members. The Rev. Mr. 
 Powers was a serious, godly man, and more distin- 
 guished, I should think, for his plain, faithful, and 
 pungent preaching, than for grace in style or diction. 
 He preached mostly without notes, and yet he gener- 
 ally studied his sermons. Those I have seen in print 
 exhibit thought, arrangement, a deep knowledge of 
 the Scriptures, and a soul full of the love of Christ
 
 76 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 and of the souls of men. His labors were abundant. 
 As there were no ministers north of Charlestown, 
 for some years after Mr. Powers settled at Coos, he 
 was frequently called to attend funerals, weddings, 
 and to preach lectures at infant settlements upon the 
 river. Until there was a foot-path marked out upon 
 the bank of the river for passengers, Mr. Powers 
 used to perform his journeys up and down the river 
 in his canoe. When he saw young men felling trees 
 near the river, he would call to them, and say, if 
 Providence favored him, he would preach to them in 
 that place, on such a day, and at such an hour. 
 These were welcome propositions, generally ; and if 
 there were other settlements near, they were informed 
 of the appointment ; and Mr. Powers, at the hour 
 specified, would find his hearers seated on stumps and 
 logs, all ready to receive the word. Mr. Powers was 
 characterized by his punctuality in meeting his ap- 
 pointments, and seldom, if ever disappointed his as- 
 sembly. 
 
 John Mann, Esq., of Orford, told me that Mr. 
 Powers passed down the river at a certain time, and 
 gave out an appointment to preach at a particular 
 hour, on a subsequent day. But during his absence, 
 there fell a great rain, which swelled the river, and 
 increased the rapidity of the current very much.
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 77 
 
 The people generally felt that he could not meet his 
 appointment ; but they assembled notwithstanding, 
 and waited to know the result. One man was very 
 con6dent Mr. Powers would not, and could not re- 
 turn, and was disposed to charge their assembling to 
 a stupid credulity in the people. But another man 
 seemed to be confident he would return to his ap- 
 pointment ; and, finally, a bet was made between 
 them. Neither one was pious. This altercation had 
 awakened some interest in the audience generally, 
 and all eyes were directed down the river. The ap- 
 pointed hour now drew on, and not more than twen- 
 ty-five or thirty minutes remained in which Mr. Pow- 
 ers could make good his appointment, and he who 
 bet against his return felt sure of his prize, for, if he 
 was already in sight, he could not gain the ground 
 within the time allotted ; but more than this, no man 
 or boat appeared in the river. But while all were 
 anxious, and looking, the boat, on a sudden, rode in- 
 to full view, as by magic, and not half the distance 
 from them as was the spot on which their eyes were 
 fixed. He had kept so near the shore next to them, 
 to avoid the force of the current, that they could not 
 see him until he threw his boat into the stream to pass 
 an obstruction ; and when he did appear so suddenly 
 and so near, the assembly could not suppress their
 
 78 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 surprise and gladness, but welcomed him with a 
 shout which rebounded from hill to valley. Mr. 
 Powers stood before them at the appointed moment. 
 
 Col. Otis Freeman, of Hanover, related to me the 
 particulars of the first marriage ceremony that was 
 ever performed in that town. It was in 1767, and 
 Mr. Powers officiated. Col. Otis Freeman attended 
 the wedding. A transient man came into the town 
 of Hanover, by the name of Walbridge, and made 
 suit to Hannah Smith, daughter of a Mr. Smith, 
 who lived on the place which Timothy Smith im- 
 proved some years ago, and, for aught I know, does 
 at this time. The parents of Hannah were very 
 much averse to their daughter's connection with that 
 man ; but she resolved, and so was resolved. Wai- 
 bridge happened to see Mr. Powers one day descend- 
 ing the river in his canoe, and he hailed him, and de- 
 sired to know if he could return by such a day, and 
 marry him at the house of Mr. Smith. Mr. Powers 
 said he would do so, if Providence prospered him. 
 He accordingly appeared at the house a little after 
 sunset ; the guests were assembled ; the house being 
 lighted up, the couple presented themselves, handed 
 in their certificate, and wished Mr. Powers to pro- 
 ceed. 
 
 It was Mr. Powers' practice to call on the parents
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 79 
 
 of the candidates for marriage to know if they had 
 aught to object to the marriage ; and when, in this 
 case, he called for the parents of the bride, behold, 
 they wore not there ! Mr. Powers wished to know if 
 they were not living. " Yes, they were living they 
 supposed." He asked, if they were not in town. 
 " They supposed they were ; but they did not know." 
 " How long since they were seen here ? " "Just at 
 night ? " " Are the parents averse to this marriage ?" 
 " They supposed they were, some." "Could they 
 not be brought to attend there that night ? " If they 
 could not, he should not proceed to the marriage cer- 
 emony that night. This was an unpleasant predica- 
 ment for all parties. But a lantern or a torch was 
 found, and a scout was sent forth in search of the old 
 folks. They were found at the nearest neighbors, 
 which was not very near, and after much persuasion, 
 they were prevailed on to return home. 
 
 All parties were by this time cool and collected. 
 The parents took their seats in the middle of the 
 room, between the minister and the anxious couple. 
 Mr. Powers arose, and addressing himself to the par- 
 ents, said, "Is this young lady your daughter?" 
 They bowed assent. " Are you willing I should pro- 
 ceed to join this couple in marriage ? " The father 
 fixed his eyes full on Mr. Powers some time, and a
 
 80 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 dead silence reigned, until Freeman saw the tears 
 swelling in the old man's eyes, and his chin shook like 
 an aspen leaf, and then came a sudden and convul- 
 sive response " Yea ! " which electrified the whole 
 of them, the a in yea was sounded as broad as A in 
 hall, and the e not sounded at all. All sympathized 
 with the old people, and Mr. Powers could scarcely 
 proceed with the ceremony ; but it was performed, 
 and the connection proved an unhappy one. Wai- 
 bridge was a worthless character. But this was the 
 first marriage in Hanover, as Judge Woodward's was 
 the first in Huverhill the results widely different. 
 
 Mr. Powers being thus known, and being generally 
 loved and respected, did much to increase the settle- 
 ment at Coos. Persons often attended worship there 
 from Thetford, Orford, Bradford, and Piermont. 
 There was one Deacon Howard, who lived near the 
 river in Thetford, who used to ride to Newbury often 
 with his wife to hear Mr. Powers, and he loved him 
 as his own soul. 
 
 At this time there were no taverns between Char- 
 lestown and Coos, and adventurers were necessitated 
 to stop at such houses as they could find for refresh- 
 ment and lodgings. They had called on this Deacon 
 Howard, some making him compensation, and some 
 not, until his means for subsistence were running
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 81 
 
 low ; and he had resolved that it was not his duty to 
 entertain any more strangers ; and this he could do 
 more conscientiously, as there was a sort of an inn 
 opened for their accommodation three miles north of 
 him. 
 
 Mr. Powers, at a certain time, passed down the 
 river on horseback, undiscovered by the deacon, and 
 as he was on his return home, he found he should be 
 overtaken by the darkness of night before he could 
 reach the inn, and as it began to rain just before he 
 came to Deacon Howard's, he thought he would 
 there stop and spend the night. He accordingly rode 
 up to the door, in the dusk of the evening, and 
 tapped with his whip upon the door. The deacon 
 came to the door, and asked what he wished for. 
 Mr. Powers replied, that he was journeying up the 
 river ; that he was overtaken by the night and by 
 rain ; and he should like to put up with him for the 
 night. The deacon answered in an abrupt and gruff 
 tone of voice, " I cannot keep you. Folks have come 
 here until they have eaten me out of house and home, 
 and we cannot consent to take you in." Mr. Powers 
 replied that he was much fatigued, and he knew not 
 how to proceed farther ; he would pay him whatever 
 he was disposed to charge him. " No," said the dea- 
 con, " I cannot keep you. There is a house for en- 
 4*
 
 82 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 tertainment three miles ahead, and you must go 
 there." 
 
 By this time, the ojd lady had come forward, and 
 was looking over her husband's shoulder, listening to 
 the conversation as it proceeded ; and as Mr. Powers 
 began to turn his horse away from the door, she said 
 to her husband, "It seems to me, that man speaks 
 like Mr. Powers of Newbury." "Mr. Powers! no, 
 he don't," said he. " But why don't you ask him 
 who he is ?" said she. "I don't care who he is," 
 said he ; "I can't keep him ; " but, at the same time, 
 stepping from his door, and advancing along after 
 Mr. Powers, he said, " Where are you from, sir ? " 
 "Newbury," replied Mr. Powers. "From, New- 
 bury'?" "Yes, sir. '' "Well, you know the Kev. 
 Mr. Powers, then, don't you ?" "Yes, very well.'*' 
 "And he is a very good man, aint he?" "Some 
 have a good opinion of him," said Mr. Powers, 
 "much better than I have." "Well, you may go 
 along." 
 
 By this time, the old lady had come up to her hus- 
 band in the rain, and as the deacon was turning to go 
 into the house, she said, " Husband, I verily believe 
 that is Mr. Powers." On hearing this, he turned 
 suddenly on his heel, and making rapid strides after 
 the stranger, he cried out, " Sir, what is your name?"
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 83 
 
 "My name is Powers," was the reply. "You 
 rascal!" exclaimed the deacon ; and seizing him by 
 one leg, drew him from his horse, held him fast until 
 he got him into the house, and there he made all 
 concessions to the man whom he loved above all oth- 
 ers. A very happy interview they had of it, and the 
 deacon continued to relate the particulars of this ad- 
 venture with peculiar emotions until the close of life. 
 He related them to Dr. Burton; and the doctor to 
 myself. 
 
 Mr. Powers spent nearly twenty years at Newbury 
 and Haverhill, and with the exception of the troubles 
 which grew out of the revolutionary war, I believe 
 their union was a happy and prosperous one. 
 
 Mr. Powers was a high whig, and by his preaching 
 and efforts for the common cause of the colonies, he 
 drew upon him the fierce resentment of the tories, 
 and they threatened his life, which induced him to 
 remove over into Haverhill, in the spring of 1781. 
 This displeased many of his friends in Newbury, and 
 although he continued to preach in Newbury one half 
 the time, for a year or two, yet it resulted in his dis- 
 missiou from the church in Newbury, some time in 
 1782. But he preached still a year or two in Haver- 
 hill, and sometimes in Newbury, to particular 
 friends ; but he finally left, and went and settled on
 
 84 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 Deer Isle, Me., where he closed his labors by his de- 
 cease in May, 1800, aged 72. He died of a cancer. 
 When told by his son Jonathan, who was then a set- 
 tled minister at Penobscot, Me., that he was dying, 
 he looked around on his family, and replied, "The 
 will of the Lord be done," and yielded up the ghost. 
 Mrs. Powers was Martha Hale, of Sutton, Mass. 
 She was an intelligent, pious, and superior woman. 
 She survived her husband until January, 1802, and 
 died suddenly while on a visit to her children in 
 Newbury. 
 
 To those who sat under the ministry of Mr. Pow- 
 ers, of whom there are some still living, and those 
 who have looked upon him as their spiritual father, 
 it will be pleasing to learn by what means their min- 
 ister was prepared to preach to them the unsearcha- 
 ble riches of Christ. The facts which I shall here 
 record I received from an eye and ear witness of what 
 she related. It was the sister of the Rev. Peter Pow- 
 ers. 
 
 I have already related that Mr. Powers was the 
 oldest child of Capt. Peter Powers and Anna, his 
 wife ; that they were the first settlers in the town of 
 Hollis. I now relate that for about two years their 
 nearest neighbor was at the travelling distance of ten 
 miles, and this solitary family sustained all the pri-
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 85 
 
 vat ion s and hardships which were incident to pio- 
 neers in these New England settlements. For about 
 twelve years they had neither schools, or a preached 
 gospel ; but they carried with them the Holy Scrip- 
 tures and the love of God in their hearts. Their 
 children were instructed in the principles of the gos- 
 pel, and they witnessed the blessedness of godliness 
 in the daily walk of their parents. At an early age 
 Peter became a devoted child of the Lord Jesus, and 
 was endeared to his parents by a thousand ties ; for 
 they looked to him as their first helper, under God, 
 and fondly hoped he would be their support and sol- 
 ace in old age. But as Peter grew in years, a flame 
 was kindled in his breast which could neither be ex- 
 tinguished nor suppressed ; and his parents often 
 heard him say, " He had an ardent desire to enjoy 
 the advantages of an academic and a collegiate edu- 
 cation." But as these seemed altogether incompati- 
 ble with their circumstances, and militated against 
 all their previous arrangements, those desires of the 
 son were treated by the parents as visionary ; and in- 
 admissible, and for a time no human ear was offend- 
 ed by the importunities of the son ; and the parents 
 hoped that the subject was relinquished and forgotten 
 by him, until it was revived to them in the following 
 manner :
 
 86 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 These parents were of Puritan strictness in the 
 government of their family, and neither their sons 
 nor their daughters were allowed in ordinary cases to 
 be absent from the family at nine o'clock in the eve- 
 ning, which was the hour of prayer. But it appeared 
 oft a calm summer's evening that Peter was absent at 
 the hour of prayer ; nor did he appear when it was 
 necessary to close and secure the house against the 
 intrusion of the Indians. The parents passed the 
 night in agitation of spirits. At one moment, they 
 trembled in view of his having fallen a victim to In- 
 dian treachery and violence, and their imaginations 
 presented him pierced and lacerated upon the ground, 
 or hurried away into a captivity more appalling than 
 death. At another time they were vexed with the 
 apprehension that their son had for the first time ab- 
 sented himself in wanton disregard of their views and 
 feelings. The night was at length spent, and the 
 father rose at the dawn of day ; and as he unbarred 
 the door, he saw his joung son emerging from the 
 forest, and approaching the dwelling with a solemn 
 and down-cast look. The father beheld his son with 
 the mixed emotion of joy and resentment ',joy, be- 
 cause he had received him safe and sound resentment 
 because he supposed there could be no adequate cause 
 to justify the elopement ; yet he restrained himself
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 87 
 
 and called for no explanation until the hour of prayer 
 when he was accustomed to administer reproof, if it 
 was necessary. The family being seated, and a por- 
 tion of Scripture having been read, the father paused, 
 and fixing a reproving look upon Peter, said, " Where 
 did you spend the night, Peter ?" The son was Ex- 
 ceedingly embarrassed, and did not return a prompt 
 and explicit answer. The father more sternly re- 
 peats, "Peter, where did you spend the night?" 
 The son faintly and meekly replied, while the tears 
 coursed down his cheeks, " I spent it in the woods, 
 sir." "In the woods?" said the father; hoio did 
 you spend it?" "In prayer, sir." A pause of a 
 moment succeeded, and the subdued soul of the 
 father rushed to the eye, to seek the relief which ut- 
 terance now denied. But soon the father resumed 
 the inquiry, and, in an altered and subdued tone, 
 said, " My son, what were you praying for, during 
 the night?" "That I might go to college." 
 " What would you go to college for, Peter ? " " That 
 I might be prepared to preach the gospel to sinners." 
 The father turned and looked upon Anna, his wife 
 in the deepest emotion, but could not speak. As 
 soon as he possessed the power of utterance, he led 
 in devotion, and as soon as Peter had gone out, the 
 father said to Anna, in a soft and tremulous voice,
 
 88 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 " I do not see but we must give up the matter, and 
 let Peter go to college." The result was a collegiate 
 course, a life of eminent usefulness, a triumphant 
 death, and that eternal reward which is promised to 
 those who turn many to righteousness. 
 
 'Mr. Powers' dismission from Newbury church was 
 the first step towards a dissolution of the union be- 
 tween Haverhill and Newbury in all ecclesiastical 
 concerns ; and it does not appear that they ever as- 
 sisted each other in supporting the gospel afterwards. 
 And the probability is each town was beginning to 
 feel itself able to support preaching independent of 
 the other. We find a proposition coming from Mr. 
 Powers to Newbury church and society, so early as 
 December, 1781, "for an agreement between the 
 town of Haverhill and the town of Newbury to be 
 separate parishes." This proposition was undoubted- 
 ly from the people of Haverhill, and' therefore we 
 find a vote of Newbury, December 31, 1781, "That 
 the above committee treat with the town of Haverhill, 
 relative to the Rev. Peter Powers." They also vote 
 to make a settlement with Mr. Powers for all arrear- 
 ages. Mr. Samuel Powers, of Newbury, son of the 
 Rev. Peter Powers, and a very worthy citizen, says, 
 "he can well remember the time of his father's dis- 
 mission from Newbury ; that Newbury church did
 
 OF THB COOS COUNTRY. 89 
 
 not unite in the council for his dismission, and the 
 council sat in Hivverhill." But the church in Haver- 
 hill was not constituted a separate church until some 
 years after the sitting of this council, an event to be 
 noticed hereafter. 
 
 I will in this place relate an extraordinary case of 
 instinct in a cow, as related to me by Capt. Howard, 
 and I relate it here, before I proceed to the events of 
 1769, because it occurred in the first years of these 
 settlements. Col. John Hurd came into Haverhill at 
 an early period of the settlement, from Portsmouth, 
 and lived a little north of Moses Southard's, or the 
 old Porter place, at Horse Meadow. He came first 
 to Charlestown, and then up the river, as most others 
 did. With him he brought a valuable cow, which he 
 turned upon the meadow, where, for aught that ap- 
 peared, she was well content to abide ; but, after a 
 lapse of a few weeks, the cow was on a sudden among 
 the missing, and nothing could be found of her. 
 They went through both settlements, and searched 
 in vain ; ho one had seen her. The colonel then 
 employed Indian runners to go in pursuit of her ; 
 they were out one full week, and returned without 
 her, but reported that they had been on her trail in 
 Coventry ; but east of that, they could discover no 
 trace of her. Hurd gave her up as lost. But the
 
 90 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 next autumn, there came a man from Portsmouth, 
 bearing letters from friends, and in one of them it 
 was stated that on such a morning, the old cow was 
 found in the barn-yard from which she took her de- 
 parture some months before. She was in good keep- 
 ing. Now, we must consider, that from Portsmouth 
 to Charlestown is at this day, in the most direct 
 route, ninety-six miles ; from Charlestowu to Horse 
 Meadow nearly seventy miles ; and from Horse Mead- 
 ow to Portsmouth cannot be less than one hundred 
 miles, for it is the hypotenuse of the triangle, which 
 has Portsmouth, Charlestown, and Haverhill for its 
 angles. The cow unquestionably travelled all three 
 sides of the triangle ; and what seems most surpris- 
 ing is, that after travelling more than one hundred 
 miles, as the roads then were, north of west, and 
 much of that distance was woods, then more than 
 seventy miles east of north, all woods, the cow should 
 have kept in her mind the direct bearing of Ports- 
 mouth, and that she should have made the journey 
 from Haverhill to Portsmouth, an entire wilderness, 
 and have reached her old home in safety, without 
 guide or protector. She might have fallen in with 
 Barrington or Stratford, twenty miles north-west of 
 Portsmouth, but she did not do it, probably, or she 
 would have been taken up ; yet she performed her 
 tour, and gained her destination.
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 91 
 
 I now come to speak of events of 1769, and on- 
 ward. It was in April, of this year, that Col. Chas. 
 Johnston came into Haverhill, and settled at the 
 Corner. Col. Johnston was born at Hampstead, N. 
 H., 1737. He married Ruth Marsh, of Londonderry, 
 N. H., and came to Haverhill at thirty-two years of 
 age. 
 
 Col. Johnston had departed this life prior to my 
 coming to Haverhill, and I am wholly dependent up- 
 on others for the information I have respecting him. 
 But no man's character could be better established in 
 the public mind, and seldom can we find greater 
 unanimity with the public in bestowing on one man 
 the meed of commendation. There is still a blessed 
 savor of him remaining in Haverhill and vicinity. 
 
 I am in possession of an interesting occurrence 
 which took place on the journey of Col. Charles and 
 bis family from Hampstead to Haverhill. I have it 
 in the hand-writing of Mr. Richard Wallace, of Thet- 
 ford, Vt., who was born in Nova Scotia, in 1753, and 
 at the age of sixteen years accompanied Mr. Johnston 
 to Haverhill, I shall give it in his own words, with 
 the correction of some errors in orthography and 
 grammatical construction of sentences. Mr. Wal- 
 lace's early opportunities for an education were lim- 
 ited, as nearly all were at that day ; but he sustained
 
 92 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 a character above suspicion for veracity, and had 
 been a professed disciple of Christ many years when 
 he wrote me this statement. He says : 
 
 "On the second day's journey from Hampstead, 
 N. H., (this was in April, 1769, in the afternoon of 
 this day) my feet became tender and swollen, and 
 much parboiled, as was the common phrase at that 
 day. This caused me to fall in the rear of the family 
 many rods. I then concluded I would take off my 
 shoes and stockings, and travel bare-footed, expecting 
 by this means to be able to overtake the family. 
 But my feet being swollen, and stockings wet, I was 
 hindered in drawing them a good while, and I fell far 
 in the rear. I then hastened my steps forward as 
 fast as I could, the sun being about a half an hour 
 high at night, as near as I can recollect. After wad- 
 ing a large brook, I entered the eleven-mile-woods, for 
 the first time, in the upper part of Boscawen. I had 
 not travelled far before I came to ice in the sled road, 
 both in the middle and at the side, although the 
 snow was for the most part gone in the woods. But 
 I made all the speed I could, till it was almost dark, 
 when I came to a brook or stream, that I dared not 
 attempt to ford without daylight, nor could I find 
 any tree fallen across the stream, on which I might 
 pass over. But concluding I must stay there for the
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 93 
 
 night, I went in immediate search of a convenient 
 place to rest. I soon found a large tree fallen on the 
 side of a knoll, the butt end lying np from the 
 ground, leaving just room enough for me to crawl 
 under. I took my long stockings, and drew the dry 
 part of them on to my feet, and crawled under the 
 tree, and being very tired, I soon fell asleep ; and I 
 think it likely I slept two or three hours, or more I 
 cannot tell exactly. But my anxiety did not leave 
 me when asleep ; and when I awoke, I was very cold, 
 as there was a hard frost that night. Besides this, I 
 found myself saluted from all parts of the solitary 
 and dreary wilderness, by all the animal inhabitants 
 of the forest, like a band of instrumental music, the 
 wolves taking the chief lead, and carrying the high- 
 est notes ; or something like a bass-viol and bassoon 
 in their different strains. They did not appear to be 
 far off, but did not come near me to offer any vio- 
 lence ; yet their noise was some alarming, and very dis- 
 agreeable, since the whole region of the forest seemed 
 to be alive with these different kinds of animals. By 
 and by, somebody cried out over my head, and 
 barked like a little dog, then again screamed in the 
 voice of women, and laughed out like parrots. I 
 had not learned their grammar, nor to raise and fall 
 their notes, for I was but a boy from the sea coast,
 
 94 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 and had never heard the like before. But I thought 
 I would not make any disturbance with them, if they 
 would let me alone until morning. But as soon as 
 morning appeared, I crawled out from under the 
 tree, and suddenly screamed with all my might, 
 "Stop your noise!" I was immediately obeyed. 
 And behold, the noisy creatures over my head were 
 no other than great owls, roosting upon a branch of a 
 tree ! But I soon made ready to decamp, though my 
 shoes and stockings were so frozen, that I could only 
 get on my shoes slipshod. After some search, I found 
 a log which enabled me to get over the brook, and I 
 found the road, and I walked and ran as I could, 
 some miles, and I reached Favor's tavern in New- 
 Chester, that now is, just as the sun arose. Some of 
 the company were up, and some getting up, and 
 friends never came together in greater joy. I never 
 shall forget how Col. Charles looked when he told me 
 what concern he had had for me through the night. 
 
 "RICHARD WALLACE." 
 
 I would, in conclusion of this narration, raise the 
 inquiry of those youth of sixteen, into whose hands 
 the above statement may come, whether they would 
 covet such a night's rest ; and whether such a sere- 
 nade from the beasts of the wilderness would be to 
 them "some alarming, and very disagreeable ! "
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 95 
 
 When Col. Johnston arrived at Uaverhill, ho pur- 
 chased the ground where Uaverhill Corner now is, 
 and located himself on the ground where Capt. Pow- 
 ers pitched his camp for the night, in July, 1754, 
 and wrote in his journal " Here was the best of up- 
 land, and some quantity of large white pines." 
 
 I had it from the widow of Col. Johnston, who 
 survived the death of her husband several years, and 
 died, in 1816, at the age of seventy-five, that when 
 they came to Haverhill, and found themselves hem- 
 med in on every side by those towering trees and a 
 dense underwood, she became very much discontented, 
 and endured for some time all the melancholy and 
 depression which arise from home-sickness. When 
 suffering from the strongest paroxysms of this mala- 
 dy, she would sometimes go out to her husband, 
 while he was felling trees upon what is now the com- 
 mon, and relate her distresses to him, in hopes that 
 he might be induced to relinquish his hold on Coos, 
 and return to their friends at the east. But the col- 
 onel, to amuse her, and to dissipate her melancholy 
 would scat her upon a large stump, and then begin to 
 describe to her the future village which they should 
 ere long witness in that place. " On such a line 
 would be the main street ; on such a spot the court- 
 house would stand ; the academy would occupy such
 
 96 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 a site, and the meeting-house stand there I " For the 
 moment, she would seem to fancy it a reality ; but 
 the next sober thought would dissipate her relief, and 
 she would exclaim, " Mr. Johnston, there can't be 
 any such thing ! I know there can't. It never will 
 be in this world ! " 
 
 It is probable that the colonel thought as little of 
 this ever being realized by them as she did ; and yet 
 both lived to witness, almost to a jot and tittle, those 
 very predictions fulfilled. And no man in that town 
 ever contributed more towards converting that wil- 
 derness into a delightful village than Col. Johnston. 
 He was laborious and prudent, yet generous and 
 brave. He accumulated a handsome estate ; and by 
 his beneficence, he often caused the poor, the widow, 
 and the fatherless to sing for joy, and their blessings 
 came upon him. 
 
 He was a man of great muscular powers, and he 
 often put them forth, not to foment quarrels and 
 broils, as is often the case in a rude state of society, 
 but to suppress outbreakings and fightings ; and 
 those who were acquainted with him, refrained from 
 those hostile attacks in his presence, for they knew 
 the colonel would immediately stand between the 
 parties, the advocate of peace and good order. 
 
 It is related of him that he was passing the inn at
 
 OP THE COO3 COUNTRY. 97 
 
 the Corner, at a certain time, just when two stran- 
 gers, who had met there, fell into a violent conten- 
 tion, and came to blows. The encounter was sharp 
 and bloody ; but, as the colonel's custom was, he 
 walked up to the combatants, and placing his hands 
 gently upon their shoulders, began to expostulate 
 with them in the kindest manner, when they mutual- 
 ly left beating each other, and commenced dealing 
 blows at him, who would have set them as one again. 
 Upon this, the colonel held one in each hand firmly 
 by the shoulder, and suddenly extending his arms to 
 the right and left, he threw the assailants apart, but 
 brought them again in contact, face to face, in front 
 of him, with such power, that before this was re- 
 peated the third time, they called out for quarter, 
 nor did he let go of them until they promised to be 
 at peace with each other. 
 
 It was said in his day, and is said to this day, that 
 Col. Johnston was a peace-maker, both in church 
 and state. I have one instance of this, given by Mr. 
 Wallace, who lived with the colonel after they came 
 to Ilaverhill. He says, in a letter bearing date De- 
 cember 25, 1828, " Esquire Charles was the only jus- 
 tice of the peace in Haverhill prior to 1773. I will 
 relate one anecdote of him in honor to his memory, 
 and for a pious example for his descendants and 
 5
 
 98 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 others. Soon after his appointment for justice of the 
 peace, there came a man to him with an earnest re- 
 quest for a writ against one of his neighbors. Es- 
 quire Johnston put him off by relating to him the 
 unhappy consequences of neighbors going to law with 
 each other ; and recommended that he should go 
 home and see his neighbor in a subdued temper of 
 mind, and see if he would not pay him. The man 
 went away, but soon returned with a bitter complaint 
 and demanded a writ. The colonel left his business, 
 called for his horse to be saddled, and said to the 
 man, ' I am going with you to see if this matter can- 
 not be settled without expense and strife.' When 
 they came to the man so much complained of, the 
 colonel told him his business, and that he came for 
 the sake of peace. The man told him he was ready 
 to settle the account, and always had been ; and be- 
 fore they separated, all matters were adjusted, and 
 the men parted in friendship." How much expense 
 and strife might be avoided annually, if all our mag- 
 istrates were of the same stamp ! We say, " Blessed 
 are the peace-makers." 
 
 I have another anecdote of the colonel, related to 
 me by Esquire Jonathan Hale, of Coventry, N. H., 
 who was knowing to the story. A poor man of Cov- 
 entry bought a cow of Col. Johnston upon credit.
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 99 
 
 The cow was the principal support of the family ; but 
 after she had been kept through the winter, she sick- 
 ened and died at the opening of sprihg. The man 
 was distressed in view of the wants of his family, for 
 he saw no way of relief. He knew it would be next 
 to impossible for him to purchase a cow at that sea- 
 son, as it was generally known that he was still owing 
 for the cow that he had lost ; and he had nothing to 
 pay for that, or another. He felt that he could not 
 go to Col. Johnston for another, while he was still 
 owing him for the first ; but as it is said, " Hunger 
 will break through a stone wall," so the distresses of 
 his family impelled him to return to Col. Charles, as 
 he was the only man living who inspired him with a 
 gleam of hope. He went, and found the colonel at 
 labor in his field. He related to him his disaster, and 
 his distresses. The colonel sympathized with him 
 deeply, and knew not what he could do. The poor 
 man then told him his object in visiting him, which 
 was to see if he could not obtain another cow of him. 
 The colonel told him, " He did not see how he could 
 supply him, for they had but two cows that season, 
 and they were going to building, must have an unus- 
 ual number of laborers, and they should need all that 
 could be afforded by two cows." The poor man 
 replied, " I did not come to you, colonel, with this
 
 100 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 request, supposing that you could relieve ine without 
 great inconvenience to yourself, and a sacrifice of 
 interest, yet I was emboldened to make known my 
 necessity." 
 
 The colonel paused in silence for a time, and man- 
 ifested that there was a deep conflict between his 
 sympathies and his circumstances. At length he 
 said, " I will go to the house and see what Mrs. John- 
 ston says." They went to the house, and the colonel 
 related to his wife what had befallen the man, and 
 what was his present object. Mrs. Johnston very 
 naturally exclaimed, " You are not a going to let one 
 of our cows go, are you ? " And here she related 
 what a demand they would have that season for both 
 cows. The colonel heard her through patiently, and 
 then said, " Do you not think that we can do better 
 with one cow than this poor man can do, with his 
 young children, without any ? " Mrs. Johnston was 
 silent. The colonel turned to the man, and said, 
 "You will take my cow." 
 
 The poor man took his cow, and returned joyously 
 with her to his family. How blessed is fellow-feeling ! 
 and still more blessed, when it is cherished by true 
 piety and benevolence ! If I know my own heart, I 
 would rather have this written of my son than leave 
 him in possession of the most splendid crown in
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 101 
 
 Europe. I have wondered a thousand times, and still 
 wonder, why men of wealth do not secure to them- 
 selves, more frequently than they do, the happiness 
 which Col. Johnston experienced in sending that man 
 home with a light and grateful heart. We have no 
 means of knowing whether that poor man was ever 
 able to remunerate the colonel or not. No matter. 
 If he did not, the Lord has done it, a thousand fold, 
 and verily, there is a reward for the righteous. 
 
 I have spoken of the extraordinary muscular pow- 
 ers of Col. Johnston. I must relate one more event 
 of his life, illustrative both of his physical power and 
 of his courage. At the time when the New Hamp- 
 shire troops signalized themselves at the battle of 
 Bennington, under Gen. Stark, Col. Johnston was 
 there, and sustained a part in the brilliant achieve- 
 ments of that ever-memorable day. After Col. Baum 
 had surrendered to the American troops, and the 
 battle was renewed by the arrival of Col. Breyman, 
 Col. Johnston, in obedience to orders from Gen. 
 Stark, was necessitated to pass through a narrow strip 
 of woods on foot and alone, to bear some orders to 
 another division of the American army. He had no 
 weapon of defence but a stout staff, which he had cut 
 in the woods that day, as he was passing on to Ben- 
 ningtou from New Hampshire. Thus equipped, he
 
 ,>* 
 
 102 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 came suddenly upon a British scout, in ambush, 
 placed there to intercept communications between the 
 different divisions of the Americans. The party in 
 ambush was commanded by a Hessian lieutenant. 
 As Johnston came up, this officer stepped forth, sword 
 in hand, and claimed him as his prisoner. The word 
 was no more than uttered, before the sword was 
 struck from the hand of the officer by Johnston's 
 staff, and as soon did Johnston have possession of that 
 sword, and pointing it at the breast of the Hessian, 
 declared to him, that he was that moment a dead 
 man, if he and his party did not throw down their 
 arms. The officer turned to his men and said, "We 
 are prisoners of war." The soldiers threw down their 
 arms, and Johnston marched them before him to the 
 American lines, where they were received by our 
 troops. 
 
 The colonel returned with the sword to his family, 
 and presenting it to his only son, Capt. Michael John- 
 ston, now of Haverhill, said, "This sword was won 
 by valor let it never be retaken through cowardice." 
 The sword I have seen. It was a splendid article of 
 the kind. There was a good deal of writing upon it, 
 formed by etching, and the officer's name, which I do 
 not now recollect. This sword, I have been told, was 
 brought forth and exhibited for the mournful gratifi-
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 103 
 
 cation of spectators on the day of the colonel's funeral 
 solemnities. I am told that it was the colonel's 
 expressed wish, before his death, that that sword 
 might descend from him in the line <> the oldest 
 male heir, and that it has already gone into the pos- 
 session of the Rev. Charles Johnston, of the town of 
 Locke, Cayuga County, N. Y. 
 
 Col. Johnston was the first captain in the town of 
 Haverhill ; was for many years a justice of the peace ; 
 a colonel, a representative of the town many years ; a 
 judge of probate, and a deacon in the church. Col. 
 Johnston's house was surrounded by a fort at Haver- 
 hill Corner, during the revolutionary war, as was 
 Judge Ladd's, a little north of the old meeting-house, 
 on Ladd street ; also, Capt. Timothy Barns', who 
 lived near the tavern, opposite the meeting-house, in 
 the north parish in Haverhill. Col. Johnston depart- 
 ed this life, March 5, 1813, aged seventy-six. 
 
 In the summer of 1770, this whole section of coun- 
 try was visited by an extraordinary calamity, such a 
 one as this country never experienced before or since, 
 beyond what I shall here specify. It was an army of 
 worms, which extended from Lancaster, N. H., to 
 Northfield, in Massachusetts. They began to appear 
 the latter part of July, 1770, and continued their 
 ravages until September. The inhabitants denomi-
 
 104 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 nated them the " Northern Army," as they seemed 
 to advance from the north- west, and to pass east and 
 south, although I do not learn that they ever passed 
 the high lands between the Connecticut and Merri- 
 mack Elvers. They were altogether innumerable for 
 multitude. Dr. Burton, of Thetford, Vt., told me 
 that he had seen whole pastures so covered that he 
 could not put down his finger in a single spot, with- 
 out placing it upon a worm. He said, he had seen 
 more than ten bushels in a heap. They were unlike 
 any thing which the present generation have ever 
 seen. There was a stripe upon the back like black 
 velvet : on either side a yellow stripe from end to end ; 
 and the rest of the body was brown. They were 
 sometimes seen not larger than a pin ; but in their 
 maturity, they were as long as a man's finger, and 
 proportionably large in circumference. They appear- 
 ed to be in great haste except when they halted to 
 devour their food. They filled the houses of the in- 
 habitants, and entered their kneading-troughs, as did 
 the frogs in Egypt. They would go up the side of a 
 house, and over it, in such a compact column, that 
 nothing of boards or shingles could be seen ! They 
 did not take hold of the pumpkin-vine, peas, pota- 
 toes, or flax ; but wheat and corn disappeared before 
 them as by magic. They would climb up the stalks of
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 105 
 
 wheat, eat off the stalk just below the head, and 
 almost as soon as the head had fallen upon the ground, 
 it was devoured. To prevent this, the men would 
 " draw the rope," as they termed it ; that is, two men 
 would take a rope, one at each end, and pulling from 
 each other until it was nearly straightened, they would 
 then pass through their wheat fields, and brush off 
 the worms from the stalks, and by perpetual action 
 they retarded the destruction of their wheat ; but it 
 was doomed, finally, to extinction. 
 
 There were fields of corn on the meadows in Haver- 
 hill and Newbury standing so thick, large and tall, 
 that in some instances it was difficult to see a man 
 standing more than one rod in the field from the out- 
 ermost row ; but in ten days from the first appearing 
 of the Northern Army, nothing remained of this corn 
 but the bare stalks ! Every expedient was resorted 
 to by the inhabitants to protect their fields of corn, 
 but all in vain. In the first place, they dug trenches 
 around their fields, a foot and a half deep, hoping 
 this might prove a defence ; but they soon filled the 
 ditch, and the millions that were in the rear went 
 over on the backs of their fellows in the trench, and 
 took possession of the interdicted food. 
 
 The inhabitants then adopted another expedient to 
 save those fields yet standing. They cut a trench as 
 5*
 
 106 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 before ; then took round and smooth sapling sticks, 
 of six or eight inches in diameter, and six or eight 
 feet in length, sharpened them to a point, and with 
 these made holes in the bottom of the ditch, once in 
 two or three feet ; and, as their meadows were bot- 
 tom lands, they experienced no difficulty in extending 
 these holes to two and three feet in depth, below the 
 bottom of the trench. The sides of these holes were 
 made smooth by the bar or lever which made the 
 holes, and as soon as the worm stepped from the prec- 
 ipice, he landed at the bottom, and could not ascend 
 again ; indeed, he was soon buried alive by his unfor- 
 .tunate fellows, who succeeded him in his downfall. 
 Now, those who made these holes to entrap their in- 
 vaders, went around their fields, and plunged these 
 pointed levers into the holes filled with worms, and 
 destroyed every one of them at a single thrust, wheth- 
 er it was a peck or half a bushel. By unremitting 
 effort in this way, some reserved to themselves corn 
 enough for seed the next year. 
 
 About the first of September, the worms suddenly 
 disappeared ; and where they terminated their earthly 
 career is unknown, for not the carcass of a worm was 
 seen. In just eleven years afterward, in 1781, the 
 same kind of worm appeared again, and the fears of 
 the people were much excited ; but they were com-
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 107 
 
 paratively few in number, and no one of the kind has 
 ever been seen since. 
 
 This visitation, which destroyed the principal grains 
 of that year, was felt severely by all the new settle- 
 ments ; for it not only cut off their bread-stuffs, but 
 it deprived them of the means of making their pork 
 to a great degree, and reduced the quantity of fodder 
 for their cattle. The settlements at Haverhill and 
 Newbury did not feel this calamity quite so much as 
 those infant settlements in the towns north and south 
 of them. They had been longer in their settlements, 
 had some old stock of provisions on hand, and had 
 more means to procure supplies from Charlestown, or 
 by the way of Charlestown. Jonathan Tyler, of 
 Piermont, related to me, that the settlements in that 
 town were left without the means of subsistence from 
 their own farms. His father drew hay on a hand 
 sled upon the ice, from the great Ox Bow in Newbury, 
 to support his cow the following winter. And had it 
 not been for two sources opened for their support, 
 they must have deserted the town. One was the ex- 
 traordinary crop of pumpkins in Haverhill and New- 
 bury. The corn being cut off, and the pumpkins re- 
 maining untouched by the Northern Army, they grew 
 astonishingly, and seemed to cover the whole ground 
 where the corn had stood, and the yield was great.
 
 108 HISTOKICAL SKETCHES 
 
 The people of Haverhill and Newbury gave the set- 
 tlers in Piermont the privilege of carrying away, 
 gratis, as many pumpkins as they would. They went 
 up, made a kind of raft and transported them by 
 water to Piermont. Their raft was a novelty in its 
 kind, and will show us how truly " necessity is the 
 mother of invention." They cut them two straight 
 trees from forty to fifty feet in length, and from fif- 
 teen to eighteen inches in diameter ; and enough of 
 these were generally found, already felled and dry, to 
 answer their purpose. They bored holes near the 
 ends of these trees, and introduced slats to hold them 
 together at each end, in the manner that the long 
 body of a hay-cart is made, only at twice or thrice 
 the distance from each other that the sides of a hay- 
 cart are placed. These two sides were first placed in 
 the water, and then joined together. The pumpkins 
 were then brought from the fields, which were con- 
 tiguous to the river, and placed in the water, in this 
 oblong square, until it was filled ; the pumpkins, be- 
 ing buoyant, would not sink, and could not escape 
 from their pen. Two men in a skiff would then 
 weigh anchor, and tow the raft of tons' weight to 
 Piermont shores, where the freight was landed, and 
 conveyed to the habitations of men ! 
 
 Another source of support was opened to them in
 
 OF TUB COOS COUNTRY. 109 
 
 the immense number of piguuns which Providence 
 sent them immediately upon the disappearance of the 
 Northern Army. Nothing could equal their num- 
 ber, unless it was the worms which had preceded 
 them. The Tylers of Picrmont, Daniel, David, and 
 Jonathan, commenced taking pigeons on the meadow, 
 west of Haverhill Corner, and in the space of ten 
 days, they had taken more than four hundred dozen ! 
 They carried them to Piermont, and made what is 
 defined, in the Yankee vocabulary, "a bee," for 
 picking pigeons ; and two or three times a week the 
 people of Haverhill were invited down to Mr. Tyler's 
 to pick pigeons. Those who went had the meat of 
 all they picked, and the Tylers had the feathers ; 
 and they made, says Jonathan Tyler, "four very de- 
 cent beds of those feathers." The bodies of those 
 pigeons, when dressed, dried, and preserved for the 
 winter, were very palatable and nutritrious, and 
 proved a good substitute for other meats, of which 
 the inhabitants had been despoiled by the Huns and 
 Goths of the north. And we are bound to recognize 
 the Divine Goodness in this providential supply, when 
 the ordinary means of subsistence were cut off. It 
 generally characterizes the Divine Government, when 
 He has tried his people. 
 I have already stated that the first settlers at Coos,
 
 110 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 a number of them, at least, pitched their tents upon 
 the meadows, with a view of making their permanent 
 residence there, but were driven off by a flood in 1771. 
 Mr. Wallace, of Thetford, has furnished me with 
 some particulars relative to that freshet. He says, 
 this was a destructive flood to many of the settlers. 
 Some of their fields were buried in sand to the depth 
 of two and three feet, and they not only lost more or 
 less of their crops for that year, but their soil for a 
 number of years. Some of their habitations were in- 
 vaded and taken possession of by the water. Wallace 
 went to the relief of a family in Bradford, who lived 
 on the place now owned by Mr. Hunkins. It was the 
 family of Hugh Miller. His wife was the sister of 
 the far-famed Robert Rogers, the hero of St. Fran- 
 cois. When Wallace reached this habitation, he 
 rowed his canoe into the house as far as the width of 
 the house would receive it, took the family from the 
 bed whereon they stood, and bore them to a place of 
 safety. But Mrs. Miller, the next day seeing their 
 few sheep standing on a small eminence on the mead- 
 ow, surrounded by water, her husband being absent, 
 resolved on rescuing them from their perilous situa- 
 tion. She pressed into her service a young man by 
 the name of George Binfield, and they took a canoe, 
 and set sail for the sheep. They reached the place,
 
 OP THB COOS COUNTRY. Ill 
 
 caught the sheep, tied their legs, placed them on 
 board, and set out on their return voyage to the high 
 lands ; but when they came into a strong current, 
 they were carried down stream, until the canoe 
 struck a pine stub, and was capsized. All were pre- 
 cipitated into the water of the depth of ten feet. 
 When our heroine arose, and her companion in ad- 
 ventures, they caught hold of a stub standing about 
 five feet out of the water, and maintained their grasp 
 until another boat was obtained, and they were liber- 
 ated from their perilous situation ; but the wrecked 
 canoe and sheep were never heard from more. From 
 this time, the people sought a more elevated situation 
 for their habitations. 
 
 Jonathan Tyler, of Piermont, related an extraor- 
 dinary fact which occurred in this great freshet. He 
 said, a horse was tied to a log in a stack-yard, upon 
 the great Ox Bow, in Newbury, and when the water 
 arose, it took away the horse and the log to which he 
 was made fast, and the horse was taken out of the 
 river in Hanover alive, but soon died upon reaching 
 the shore. He would, doubtless, have perished soon 
 after breaking from his moorings in Newbury ; but 
 the log to which he was tied kept his head above 
 water, and prolonged his life many hours. Col. 
 Howard told me, that in this same freshet some swine
 
 112 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 were taken away by the water in the north part of 
 Haverhill, and were carried down to the Ox Bow, 
 where they made good their standing upon the top of 
 a hay-stack, where they remained capering about 
 until the waters subsided, and the owners procured 
 their property again. This calamity was not of equal 
 extent with that of the Northern Army ; but it was 
 so intimately connected with it, it was severely felt, 
 and it seemed as though God had a controversy with 
 these people. 
 
 We may learn something of the facilities for travel- 
 ling south and east from Haverhill Corner, so late as 
 1771, by the following facts. Jonathan Tyler came 
 into Piermont in the autumn of 1768, and he says, 
 "They seldom attempted to ride on horseback to 
 Haverhill for several years after they came to Coos, 
 owing to the badness of the road ;" and I have heard 
 it said by Judge Ladd and others, that a man from 
 Charlestown came to Haverhill, and mired his horse 
 so deeply on Haverhill Common, near Towle's tavern, 
 that was, that he had to procure assistance to extri- 
 cate the animal ; and the horse was rendered so lame 
 as to be unable to proceed on the journey for some 
 days. 
 
 About this time, Col. Charles Johnston and several 
 others had been to Plymouth, and thought they
 
 OF THB COOS COUNTRY. 113 
 
 would return by Tarleton's Pond. They were re- 
 tarded by the roughness of the travelling, beyond 
 their expectations, and they were overtaken by night- 
 fall. They made their way for a time by feeling of 
 the trees to see if they were spotted; but they at 
 length could feel no spots, and despaired of finding a 
 settlement, or camp, that night ; and making a vir- 
 tue of necessity, they resolved to stand upon their 
 posts like good soldiers; and wait for the return of 
 day. It was a long night ; but day at length dawned 
 upon them, and, to their surprise and joy, they 
 found themselves posted near the little brook, east of 
 the establishment of Andrew Martin, one hundred 
 and fifty rods, perhaps, east of the colonel's own 
 habitation ! For this reason, and because, I think, 
 the brook is yet nameless, I would call it Happy 
 Brook, we and our children, forever! 
 
 In the autumn of 1772, John McDonnell and 
 family left Pembroke, N. H., for the Coos, and when 
 they came upon Baker's River, the intelligence 
 reached Haverhill that they were advancing. Upon 
 this, Jonathan McConnel, brother of John, went 
 forth on horseback to meet them, and to render them 
 assistance. The next morning early, Richard Wallace 
 left Col. Johnston's on horseback, to go out and ren- 
 der them still further aid, taking in a freight of pro-
 
 114 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 visions. Jonathan McConnell met the family sixteen 
 miles from Haverhill, took one of the children and 
 some baggage, and set out for Haverhill. Wallace 
 met Jonathan returning near the height of land, and 
 he promised to stop at the camp near Eastman's 
 Brook, and wait until Wallace and the family should 
 come up, and all spend the night together. Wallace 
 proceeded on, and met the family near night. They 
 were in a miserable plight. They were all on foot, 
 without shoes or stockings, and an old beast, a mere 
 apology for a horse, staggering under the weight of a 
 few necessary articles for the family ; some scolding, 
 some crying, and some laughing. It was soon agreed 
 that Wallace should take two of the children, one a 
 huge girl of twelve years, and another of two years, 
 (which would have been the infant, had there not 
 been another younger,) and return to Eastman's 
 Brook, and the rest of the family was to reach there, 
 if possible. 
 
 But in carrying this resolve into effect, Wallace 
 met with an unexpected embarrassment. It would 
 be impossible for the girl of twelve to hold on, in 
 passing the sloughs and over logs, to ride in the 
 usual manner of females. But as Wallace was at his 
 wit's end to know how to arrange matters to his 
 mind, the mother stepped forward, and, by a single
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 115 
 
 flash of her genius, cut the Gordian knot. " In 
 fa'th," said she, " there must be a leg on each side o' 
 the horee." And so the girl came into Haverhill. 
 
 But as Wallace ascended the height of land, he 
 became pretty well convinced that the family could 
 not make Eastman's Brook that night, and us there 
 was a camp on the height of land, which they must 
 pass, he dismounted, took a loaf of bread, run a pole 
 through it, and raised it above the top of the camp 
 outside, for the double purpose of keeping it from 
 the wolves, and of exhibiting to the family ; but, by 
 some fatality, they did not see it, and passed on ; but 
 as they did not reach the camp at Eastman's Brook, 
 they laid out all night, without food or covering. 
 
 Wallace had a hard task of it, likewise ; for when 
 he came to the camp at Eastman's Brook, where 
 Jonathan McConnel proposed to stop, and to have a 
 fire for their comfort, he found no McConnel, no fire, 
 and not anything to make one of. McConnel had 
 concluded to make Haverhill that night, and leave 
 the rest to shift for themselves. Wallace now found 
 himself under the necessity of pursuing his journey 
 under circumstances "somewhat alarming, and very 
 disagreeable," as he said in a prior adventure. Be- 
 side this great lump of animated nature holding on 
 to him in the rear, he carried the child of two years
 
 116 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 before him ; and as the night drew on, it became 
 drowsy, and sunk down into his arms very heavily. 
 For a time, he kept it awake by calling its attention 
 to the howling of the wolves in the vicinity ; but at 
 length nature was overpowered, and the child sunk 
 down into a profound slumber, and he bore it into 
 the Corner in this condition. They arrived at Col. 
 Charles' house at twelve at night, a full moon favor- 
 ing them. The colonel was up, and had a good fire, 
 some expecting them, from what Jonathan McConnel 
 had told him. But Wallace was so much exhausted 
 by fatigue, and benumbed by the cold, that he 
 fainted on coming to the fire. The family arrived 
 the next day, and in just six months from that time 
 the girl whom Wallace brought in, was married to 
 Jonathan Tyler, of Piermont, at the age of twelve 
 years and six months. The Rev. Peter Powers mar- 
 ried them. This was the first marriage in Piermont. 
 At the time when these events, already stated, 
 occurred, and for some years afterwards, it was not 
 the expectation of the people at Coos that they 
 should ever have a road through to Plymouth for 
 loaded teams, but their hopes rested on Charleston 
 for heavy articles ; and the first time an ox-team 
 went through, it was effected by a company, who 
 went out expressly for the purpose, with Jonathan
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 117 
 
 McConnel at their head. It was an expedition that 
 excited much interest with the inhabitants at home, 
 and the progress of the adventurers was inquired for 
 from day to day ; and when they were making 
 Haverhill Corner upon their return, the men went 
 out to meet and congratulate them ; and, as they 
 came in, the cattle were taken possession of in due 
 form, and conducted to sweet-flowing fountains and 
 well-stuffed cribs for the night. Their masters were 
 served in the style of lords, and their narrations of 
 the feats of " Old Broad " at the sloughs, the patient 
 endurance of "Old Berry" at the heights, and the 
 stiff hold-back of "Old Duke" at the narrows, were 
 listened to by their owners, with the liveliest demon- 
 strations of joy. 
 
 What feeble impressions do the children and grand- 
 children of those early adventurers have of the diffi- 
 culties which their ancestors surmounted to put their 
 descendants into their present inheritance ! Nor is 
 the change greater in the face of the country, and in 
 the condition of the roads, than it is in many other 
 things. Contemplate the then state of schools. Mr. 
 Wallace, to whom I am indebted for so many facts 
 in respect to the first settlers, writes, that when he 
 came to Haverhill, in 1769, at the age of sixteen, he 
 did not know his alphabet, could not write his name,
 
 118 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 and his first attempt at writing was upon birch bark, 
 with a turkey's quill. He further thinks that in 
 1772, not more than one school could be found in 
 every ten miles, on either side of the river, from 
 Orford to the Upper Coos. These were generally 
 constituted by a few neighbors combining and hiring 
 an instructor for a few weeks in the winter ; their 
 teachers being very inadequate, and their only books 
 the Psalter and Primer. Compare these means with 
 those now enjoyed by the rising generation ; and let 
 those who have made themselves merry by reciting 
 the grammatical errors and orthographical blunders 
 of their ancestors, perform a more splendid part in 
 the great drama of human life ; or let them ingenu- 
 ously confess that they are debtors to those who re- 
 ceived little, but did much, and left an example 
 worthy of imitation by all their descendants ; for it 
 is to be had in lasting remembrance, that by these 
 men, thus educated, our freedom was obtained, and 
 those institutions founded, which are our blessing 
 and our boast, and are the admiration of the world. 
 
 Speaking of the first settlers, Mr. Wallace further 
 says, "Those who first settled Haverhill and New- 
 bury were, for the most part, men of some property, 
 and were able to furnish themselves with land, some 
 stock, and tools, to hire laborers, and, in a short time,
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 119 
 
 their houses were well furnished, /or that day. They 
 were laborious, prudent, and economical, but were 
 very kind to the poor and sick. They were strict in 
 their religious principles, and all attended religious 
 worship on the Sabbath, neither men nor women 
 esteeming it a hard service to travel on foot, four or 
 six miles, with children in their arms, to hear the 
 gospel." 
 
 Another class of persons, he mentions, that were 
 in more indigent circumstances. They labored hard 
 in the house and in the field, and whose earthly fare 
 was coarse, and sometimes scanty. Their beds con- 
 sisted principally of straw, and it was no uncommon 
 thing for families to lie on the floor, and some on the 
 ground, before the fire. Their bowls, dishes and 
 plates were all of wood, although in a few families, a 
 little pewter was seen. This class of persons, he 
 relates, more generally settled in Piermont and Brad- 
 ford, although there were families there in more eligi- 
 ble circumstances. The style of living in all the 
 settlements was similar where they possessed the 
 means. Boiled meat, peas or beans, and potatoes, 
 formed their repast at noon ; at night and morning, 
 pea or bean broth, and sometimes milk porridge ; 
 "but," says Mr. Wallace, " we never thought of hav- 
 ing meat more than once a day, and I never drank a
 
 120 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 cup of tea during the three years and a half that I 
 lived at Coos." Many wore Indian stockings and 
 moccasins of raw hide, when tanned leather could 
 not be obtained ; and some of the wealthier had In- 
 dian blankets cut into box coats, and wore buff caps. 
 Their clothing, in general, consisted of linen. 
 
 I will now leave the settlements at Coos for a time, 
 in their peaceful and thriving situation, and proceed 
 to give a concise history of some of the settlements 
 in towns south of them, which brought neighbors to 
 Haverhill and Newbury, and opened the wilderness 
 between them and Charlestown. For seven years 
 subsequent to the settlement of Coos, there was no 
 inhabitant in the town of Piermont. But in the 
 spring of 1768, Ebenezer White, Levi Root, and Dan- 
 iel Tyler, came into the town, and settled on the 
 meadows. In the autumn of that year, David Tyler, 
 wife, and son Jonathan came on from Lebanon, in 
 Connecticut. This is that Jonathan Tyler, who mar- 
 ried Sarah McConnel, as already related. Tyler 
 relates that wild game was exceedingly abundant in 
 Piermont in the winter of 1769. Moose yarded upon 
 the meadows that winter. Bears, wolves, and deer 
 were ever present, and some of them quite officious. 
 Several years after David and Jonathan Tyler came 
 into the town, a bear came into their barn -yard at
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 121 
 
 different times, "while men slept," and destroyed 
 their sheep. This was sport for Bruin, but death to 
 the Tylers. At length, Jonathan Tyler was aroused 
 to a just sense of the injury and indignity inflicted 
 upon them, and he resolved on revenge. He procured 
 three guns, and charged them heavily with powder 
 and ball, and retained them as " minute men," for 
 any emergency. A few nights after this array of de- 
 fence, Tyler heard the cry of distress in his yard. He 
 sprang from his bed, threw on some light article of 
 dress, seized his guns, and sallied forth, breathing 
 slaughter and death. As soon as he came near the 
 yard, he saw his bearship devouring his prey beneath 
 his feet. Without preamble or apology, the three 
 guns were "let off" in rapid succession, and every 
 ball took effect. One penetrated the heart, and the 
 assassin fell dead upon his prey, a huge enemy to the 
 fleecy fold. 
 
 At this time, Tyler says, they went to Gen. Morey's 
 mill at Orford, for grinding, which mill stood near 
 where Capt. Daton's mill now stands. He had been 
 to Charlestown for seed corn ; and to North field, 
 Mass., in a canoe, for bread-stuffs. But this must 
 have been when the crops were cut off at Coos. 
 
 At one period of this settlement, the greater por- 
 tion of the inhabitants bore some one of the following
 
 122 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 catalogue of names : Eoot, Crook, Cox, Stone, Da- 
 ley, Bailey. They employed Dr. Samuel Hale, of 
 Orford, for their physician. He was a high free-liver, 
 and a facetious character, and used to amuse himself 
 by speaking of his patrons in Piermont in the follow- 
 ing couplet : 
 
 "The Roots, and Crooks, and Elijah Daley, 
 Coxes and Stones, and Solomon Bailey." 
 
 But the merry doctor had to bear the expense of his 
 own amusement ; for when these families came to 
 learn the use he made of their names, they took it in 
 high dudgeon, and would never afterward employ 
 him as their physician. 
 
 Jonathan Tyler, of whom I have spoken repeatedly, 
 served his country in the time of the revolutionary 
 war, and when our troops retreated from Ticonderoga, 
 at the approach of Burgoyne's army, he was taken 
 captive, but did not remain long in captivity. The 
 manner of his escape was on this wise : He was held 
 as a prisoner of war for a time on the west side of 
 Lake George, now called Lake Horican. For a time, 
 he and two or three others of his fellow-prisoners were 
 kept in "durance vile," and were watched with the 
 utmost vigilance ; but as they manifested no uneasi- 
 ness themselves in their novel circumstances, their 
 masters began to relax their vigilance, and they were
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 123 
 
 permitted to go among the British troops, and to 
 labor with them. At length, the British determined 
 on building a block-house on the east side of the lake, 
 and Jonathan Tyler, Daniel Bean, and another by 
 the name of Cowdry, volunteered to go and help build 
 it. After laboring a daj or two, their axes needed 
 grinding, and they were permitted to go to a spring 
 of water just over a rise of ground, to bring water 
 for grinding, and for other uses of the company. A 
 bark had been laid down into the fountain, which 
 conducted the water off, and rendered it very conven- 
 ient in taking water at the lower end of the spout. 
 Tyler hung his pail on the end of the spout, and while 
 it was filling, he, Bean, and Cowdry, concluded to 
 take French leave, and did so ; and Tyler says, " He 
 don't know but. his pail hangs there yet." But the 
 poor fellows had like to have perished with hunger. 
 They left without a particle of food, and without 
 arms and ammunition, and the first four days after 
 their elopement, while they were hid in the woods 
 west of the Hudson River, they had nothing to satisfy 
 the cravings of hunger but leaves, buds and twigs of 
 trees, and the roots which they dug out of the ground. 
 And between the Hudson and the Connecticut, they 
 sustained a like fast ; but when they came to settle- 
 ments in the Connecticut Valley, they were the hap-
 
 124 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 piest of mortals, and concluded they had done their 
 part towards the achievement of our independence. 
 David Tyler and wife, the parents of Jonathan Tyler, 
 both lived to a great age. They attained to nearly 
 ninety-five years. 
 
 The Congregational church was constituted in this 
 town in 1771. The Rev. John Richards was settled 
 as their pastor in 1776, and labored with them twenty- 
 six years, and took a dismissal in 1802. The Rev. 
 Jonathan Hovey was settled over them in 1810, and 
 continued his labors five years. Rev. Robert Blake 
 commenced his labors among them in 1819, and con- 
 tinued them, with some interruptions, until 1836. 
 The statement in the Gazetteer of New Hampshire, 
 that the first settlement in Piermont was in 1770, is 
 an error. 
 
 ORFORD. 
 
 The town of Orford, which is ten miles south of 
 Haverhill, and seventeen north of Hanover, was first 
 settled in 1765. Daniel Cross and wife were the first 
 who came into the place, from Lebanon, Ct. They 
 came in June of this year, and pitched their -tent 
 near where the Sawyers afterward settled, upon the 
 river road, south of Orfor.d village. John Mann, 
 Esq., and wife, whose maiden name Lydia Porter,
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 125 
 
 both of Hebron, Conn., came into Orford in the au- 
 tumn of 1765. Mann was twenty-one years of age, 
 his wife seventeen years and six months. They left 
 Hebron on the 16th of October, and arrived in Orford 
 on the 24th of the same month. They both mounted 
 the same horse, according to Puritan custom, and 
 rode to Charlestown, N. H., nearly one hundred and 
 fifty miles. Here Mann purchased a bushel of oats 
 for his horse, and some bread and cheese for himself 
 and wife, and set forward Mann on foot ; wife, oats, 
 bread and cheese, and some clothing, on horseback. 
 From Charlestown to Orford there was no road but 
 a horse-track, and this was frequently hedged across 
 by fallen trees ; and when they came to such an ob- 
 struction, which could not be passed round, Mann, 
 who was of a gigantic stature, would step up, take 
 the young bride, and set her upon the ground ; then 
 the oats, bread and cheese ; and, lastly, the old mare 
 was made to leap the windfall ; when all was reship- 
 ped, and the voyage was resumed. This was acted 
 over, time and again, until the old beast became 
 impatient of delay, and coming to a similar obstruc- 
 tion, while Mann was some rods .in the rear, she 
 pressed forward, and leaped the trunk of a large tree, 
 resisting all the force her young rider could exert ; 
 and when Mann came up, which he did in a trice,
 
 126 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 there lay the bride upon the ground, with all the bag- 
 gage resting upon her. The old creature, however, 
 had the civility not to desert them in this predica- 
 ment, and as no bones were broken, and no joints 
 dislocated, they soon resumed their journey ; Mann, 
 for the rest of the way, constituted the van instead of 
 the rear guard. 
 
 When they arrived in Orford, they very naturally 
 made Daniel Cross' tent their first resting place. 
 They were received with all that cordiality and hospi- 
 tality which characterize those who are separated from 
 all friends, and are enclosed by the solitudes of a vast 
 wilderness. Cross had reared a shelter for his cow 
 adjoining his own tent, and for that night the cow 
 was ejected, and Cross and his wife occupied her 
 apartment, while Mann and his wife improved the 
 parlor. But they were doomed to a sad adventure 
 that night. Cross had felled a large tree, the butt 
 end of which constituted no inconsiderable portion of 
 one side of his house. Into this log he had bored two 
 holes, about four feet apart, and sharpening two sap- 
 ling poles, he had driven them horizontally into the 
 log, to form the two side pieces of a bedstead. The 
 other end of the poles were supported by two perpen- 
 dicular posts, in the manner of ordinary bedsteads. 
 Elm bark served for cord and sacking. This rigging
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTEY. 127 
 
 was adequate to sustain Cross aud his companion, a 
 light couple ; but when Mann and his partner came 
 into possession, it was another affair. Mann was of 
 gigantic stature. Soon after all had retired to rest, 
 this frail fabric of a bedstead suddenly gave way with 
 a loud crash, which frightened the tenants of both 
 apartments prodigiously. Mrs. Mann screamed, and 
 this was suddenly responded to from Cross' apartment, 
 "What is the matter ?" But after mutual explana- 
 tions and apologies, Mann and his wife resumed a 
 recumbent position upon the floor, and enjoyed a 
 refreshing sleep, with the exception of an occasional 
 interruption from a sudden burst of laughter in the 
 cow apartment, where Cross and his wife lay, reflect- 
 ing upon the startling scene through which they had 
 passed unscathed. Esquire Mann related this adven- 
 ture after he was more than eighty years of age, and 
 he did it with that impassioned emotion, which tend- 
 ed to impress the mind of the hearer as though it was 
 an event that had recently transpired. 
 
 Soon after Mann came to Orford, he took a log- 
 canoe near where Cross lived, and ascended the river 
 to the place where the Orford bridge now is. He 
 went ashore to reconnoitre and to spy out the laud. 
 The soil supported a huge growth of wood and a 
 dense, underbrush. The surface was covered with a
 
 128 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 tall, thick, and white moss, and had every appearance 
 of being boggy. Mann thought he would penetrate 
 a little way into the forest, and take some care and 
 not needlessly wet his feet. He accordingly stepped 
 with caution, jumped from one little mound to an- 
 other, and when he got upon a windfall, he would 
 improve the whole length of it. But while thus 
 making his way, he lost the centre of gravity, when 
 on an old log, and fell to the ground. But instead of 
 plunging into a bog, as he expected, he came " plump 
 on to hard and dry soil," that beautiful bottom land 
 which he and others have so long cultivated to great 
 advantage. 
 
 Mrs. Mann, after they were settled in their own 
 tent, went to the river, and brought all the water 
 they used in a three-pint basin, with the exception of 
 washing days. 
 
 John Mann, Jun., Esq., was the first English child 
 born in the town, May 21, 1766, and if now living, 
 must be in his seventy-fourth year. The same au- 
 tumn in which Mann came into Orford, Jonathan 
 and Edward Sawyer, Gen. Israel Morey, and a Mr. 
 Caswell, all from Connecticut, came in and settled. 
 
 The first church in Orford was constituted in 1770. 
 The Rev. Oliver Noble, their first minister, was or- 
 dained, November 5, 1771, and was dismissed, De-
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 129 
 
 oember 31, 1777. Then there was an interregnum 
 of about ten years, and the Rev. John Sawyer was 
 ordained over them, October 22, 1787. He continued 
 with them but about eight years, and was dismissed 
 1795. Rev. Sylvester Dana was ordained over them, 
 May 20, 1801. He continued their pastor twenty-one 
 years dismissed, April 30, 1822. Rev. James D. 
 Farnsworth was ordained, January 1, 1823. Mr. 
 Farnsworth has been dismissed, and he has a success- 
 or, Mr. Campbell ; but the dates of those events I 
 must leave to my successor in gathering statistics. 
 
 Mr. Mann relates that when he came into the town, 
 and for some years after, deer and bear were very nu- 
 merous, and some moose in the east part of the town. 
 He has been up on the elevated ground, east of the 
 river road, after a new-fallen snow, and seen deer 
 tracks almost as plentifully imprinted as we see sheep 
 tracks where the latter are yarded. 
 
 As Mann came on from Charlestown, he found in 
 the town of Claremont, two openings by young men 
 of the name of Dorchester. In Cornish there was 
 but one family, that of Moses Chase. In Plainfield 
 there was one family, Francis Smith. The wife was 
 " terribly " home-sick, and she declared she " would 
 not stay there in the woods." In Lebanon, there 
 were three families, Charles Hill, son, and son-in- 
 C*
 
 130 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 law, a Mr. Pinnick. In Hanover, there was one fam- 
 ily, Col. Edmund Freeman, and several young men, 
 who were making settlements. In Lyme, there were 
 three families, all by the name of Sloan John, Wil- 
 liam, and David. This statement differs materially 
 from what we find in the Gazetteer of New Hampshire 
 in respect to the first settlers in those towns. But I 
 have long since lost all confidence in gazetteers, when 
 they attempt to give facts anterior to recorded facts, 
 and they never can be depended upon, so long as no 
 better means are employed than those which have 
 been used to gain information. The method has or- 
 dinarily been to write to some post-master, justice of 
 the peace, or some other man, and request him to 
 furnish them with the early settlement of the town, 
 both recorded facts and traditionary tales. But 
 where is there a man, who, upon such an application, 
 will devote one week to the examination of records, 
 or to visit the aged to gain information ? Not one, 
 we believe, in fifty, if there is one in a hundred. 
 And in most cases, it would require all of one month 
 to make a correct report. In general, there is not 
 one line on record in regard to first settlers. Their 
 records begin with the charter, which might have 
 come into existence years before the settlement, or 
 years afterward ; but most persons are ready to take
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 131 
 
 it for granted, that their town was settled the year it 
 was chartered, and that some of the first names spec- 
 ified in the charter were the first settlers. But noth- 
 ing can be more uncertain than this. Besides, every 
 town has its favorite stories derived from tradition, 
 which they wish to establish ; and almost every man 
 wishes to bring forward his ancestors to figure as 
 principal characters, which never were such, and it 
 may be, never were distinguished for anything, unless 
 it were stupidity or knavery. But this application 
 furnishes him with an opportunity to palm upon the 
 public a bloated account of his pedigree, and, instead 
 of going to the ancient records, if there are any, or 
 to the aged, he sits down and writes what is most sat- 
 isfactory to himself, and it soon appears as matter of 
 history. I need not specify particular instances of 
 this fraud. They are many. Almost every town, if 
 they should make a thorough investigation, will find 
 that they have been misrepresented, and in some in- 
 stances grossly insulted. I invite the attention of 
 the people of Haverhill, especially, to these remarks. 
 I would not diminish the interest which the public 
 may feel in Farmer and Moore's Gazetteer of New 
 Hampshire. They have done well. Every family 
 ought to possess it. It is worth a million of Thomp- 
 son's Gazetteer of Vermont ; but they ought to have
 
 132 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 sent a competent agent into every town in the state to 
 collect statistics, before they had published. Leba- 
 non is made the first town settled north of Charles- 
 town, before Haverhill or Newbury, contrary to the 
 united testimony of the first settlers in all the towns 
 above them. Esquire Mann and Esquire Otis Free- 
 man agree in their statement in respect to Lebanon. 
 Has Lebanon authentic documents to show that their 
 town was settled as early as 1760, or the spring of 
 1761 ? They can show that their town was chartered 
 then; but can they show that it was settled? If they 
 can, let the truth stand. Plainfield, Mann and Free- 
 man tell us, had one family in it in 1765 ; our 
 Gazetteer shows us two men there, L. Nash and J. 
 Kussell, in 1764, and the next year, when Mann and 
 Freeman came through, 1765, it tells us of a church 
 organized, and a settled minister, Kev. Abraham 
 Carpenter. Has the town these documents ? If 
 they have, it is the first instance in which I have 
 found the first settlers deviating from the truth ; but 
 they harmonize with wonderful exactness when we 
 compare all their statements. 
 
 I have nothing further to speak of Lyme, that is 
 prior to what is recorded and published. The 
 church, according to the Gazetteer, was constituted 
 in 1772. Rev. William Conant was settled as their
 
 OF THE OOO8 COUNTRY. 133 
 
 pastor in 1773. Rev. Nathaniel Lambert, previously 
 settled at Newbury, Vt., was settled in Lyme in 1811. 
 Rev. Baxter Perry was settled, 1821. The Rev. 
 Erdix Tenney is their present pastor. 
 
 The first family which came into Hanover was that 
 of Col. Edmund Freeman, who lived in the east part 
 of the town. He came in May, 1765, from Mans- 
 field, Conn. He brought with him a wife and two 
 children, and his brother, Otis Freeman, then of the 
 age of seventeen. Several other young men came in 
 the same season. Deacon Jonathan Curtis and son 
 came ; but he did not move his family until 1766. 
 Col. Edmund Freeman gave the name of Hanover to \ 
 the town. 
 
 I have already related the circumstances of the 
 first marriage in the town. The first death which 
 occurred was that of a child in the family of Deacon 
 Benton ; it died of consumption at the age of four- 
 teen months. The first meeting-house was built of 
 logs, and stood near the river, between Timothy 
 Smith's and Mr. Tisdale's. The proprietors of the 
 town first employed the Rev. Knight Saxton, of Col- 
 chester, Conn., to preach to these settlers in the 
 summers of 1766 and 1767. Subsequently, Dr. Mc- 
 Clure, of Boston, was employed to preach to the 
 people ; and Eden Burroughs, D. D., of Stratford,
 
 134 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 Conn ., who had been previously settled at Killingly, 
 Windham Co., Conn., was installed over this church 
 and people in 1772. Dr. Burroughs was dismissed 
 in 1809, and Rev. Josiah Towne was ordained, June, 
 1814. Mr. Towne has been dismissed, and another 
 clergyman has been settled ; but I know not his 
 name. 
 
 A full ^and satisfactory account of the origin of 
 Dartmouth College, in the town of Hanover, of its 
 progress and prosperity, has been given to the public 
 through different channels, and is so far above my 
 feeble praise, it needs not to be further noticed in 
 these sketches. 
 
 I now pass on to the west side of the river, and 
 speak of the settlement of Norwich, Vt. I shall re- 
 late a plain story, which I took from the lips of Rev. 
 Asa Burton, D. D., of Thetford, Vt., when he was 
 at the age of 72, and sound, both in mind and body. 
 He relates that his father, Jacob Burton, of Stoning- 
 ton, Conn., came to Norwich first in the summer of 
 1764, and viewed the country for the purpose of lo- 
 cating himself, provided he was suited with appear- 
 ances. "At that time," he says, "there was no in- 
 habitant in the town." The next year, 1765, his 
 father returned to Norwich, and laid out a part of 
 the town into lots ; and in June, 1776, he came with
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 135 
 
 Asa, his son, then in his fourteenth year, and some 
 other hands, and built a saw-null, a little west of 
 Norwich Plain. Dr. Burton says, "There were then 
 but two families in the town ; one by the name of 
 Messenger, who lived at the west end of the present 
 bridge leading from Hanover to Norwich ; and a Mr. 
 Hutchinson, who lived near where the Military Acad- 
 emy now stands. Hanover Plain was at this time a 
 thick pine forest." Messenger and Hutchineon came 
 into Norwich either in 1765, or the spring of 1766. 
 He further says, "There was no minister, at that 
 time, nearer than Newbury and Haverhill, at Coos ; 
 but in a few years Mr. Conant settled at Lyme, Dr. 
 Burroughs at Hanover, Mr. Isaiah Potter at Leba- 
 non, and Mr. Lyrnan Potter at Norwich." Where, 
 now, is Rev. Mr. Carpenter of Plainfield, in 1765, 
 at the distance of twelve or fourteen miles from 
 Norwich ? 
 
 But now for Thompson's Gazetteer of Vermont, 
 published at Montpelier, in 1824. He has it, that 
 in 1763, Jacob Fenton, Ebenezer Smith, and John 
 Slafter, came into Norwich from Mansfield, Conn. ; 
 that at this time there were two men settled in Han- 
 over ; that in July, Smith and Slafter left Fenton on 
 Wednesday, for the purpose of hoeing corn in Leba- 
 non, and that on their return on Saturday, at even-
 
 136 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 ing, they found Fenton dead in their camp. It 
 appeared afterwards, that a Mr. Freeman, of Han- 
 over, happened over at Norwich, and found Fenton 
 sick, tarried with him until he died, and then went 
 to Lebanon to procure help to bury him, and he was 
 buried, July 15, 1765 ; that there were four families 
 moved into Norwich in 1764, and from that time the 
 settlement advanced rapidly. Now, for the correct- 
 ness of this statement. He says, that in 1763, there 
 were two men in Hanover, and one of them, at least, 
 was a -Mr. Freeman. But the very Mr. Freeman here 
 alluded to, which was Col. Otis Freeman, gave me 
 the particulars of his finding Fenton sick in his 
 tent he had had a fit ; and that it was the same 
 year he and his brother came into Hanover, viz., 
 1785. Thompson further states, that Fenton was 
 taken sick, and died in July, 1763, and was buried 
 July 15, 1765. According to this, there were but 
 three years which intervened between his death and 
 burial ! But this might be owing to his sudden 
 death, and the extreme warmth of the season. 
 Again, four families moved into Norwich in 1764, 
 and from this period the settlement advanced with 
 considerable rapidity. But in 1765, when they con- 
 cluded to bury Fenton, they had to depend on Free- 
 man, of Hanover, to go after Smith and Slafter to
 
 OF THB COOS COUNTRY. 137 
 
 Lebanon, to procure help for the burial, and Fen ton 
 is left "alone" in the town ! Now, let us take this 
 which way we will, it is nothing but jargon ; and it 
 shows conclusively that there was not one moment 
 given to the examination of dates by the compiler of 
 this work, but whatever was sent to him in the form 
 of a statistic, was received as authentic. 
 
 I notice these egregious blunders to confirm what I 
 have already said, that gazetteers cannot be relied 
 upon for statements which are not supported by 
 written documents. And I have another object in 
 view, which is, to show those who would be compilers 
 of gazetteers, that they have something to do besides 
 calling for crude papers, and publishing them. No 
 man ought to think of publishing another gazetteer, 
 either of New Hampshire or Vermont, in a less com- 
 pass than nine hundred pages of large octavo, first 
 expending three thousand dollars in collecting and 
 arranging materials, and then giving it to the public 
 at three dollars per copy. 
 
 There is but one apparent discrepancy between 
 Dr. Burton's statement, and Col. Otis Freeman's. 
 I say apparent, because it can be easily reconciled. 
 Dr. Burton says there were but two families in the 
 town when he came in 1766 ; whilst Freeman says, 
 Smith and Slafter were there in 1765, and the fami-
 
 138 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 lies mentioned by Burton bore the name, Messenger 
 and Hutchinson. But suppose Smith and Slafter 
 were there in 1766, Burton was not speaking of 
 single men, but of men with families. I find the 
 first settlers made this distinction in all their state- 
 ments. Again, nothing was more common than for 
 young men to come in, and labor one season, and 
 then retire, and we never hear of them again : they 
 have sold out to another ; or they were in the service 
 of another man. Smith and Slafter might have 
 been in Norwich in 1765, and not in 1776, but there 
 again in 1767. But we must keep in mind that Mr. 
 Jacob Burton, father of Asa, said there was no one 
 in the town in 1764. 
 
 I again take up the thread of history. Asa Bur- 
 ton continued to labor for his father until he was 
 twenty-one years of age, at which time he entered 
 upon his studies preparatory for college, under the 
 tuition of Mr. John Smith, subsequently the pro- 
 fessor of the learned languages in Dartmouth College, 
 and he entered college in a little more than one year 
 from the commencement of his studies. 
 
 There was one adventure of young Burton, at the 
 age of eighteen years, which deserves a place in these 
 sketches, and which cannot fail to call the attention 
 of the people of Norwich to times gone by. A large
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 139 
 
 female bear had followed a cow belonging to Jacob 
 Burton, until they both came near the house ; when 
 the bear was discovered by one of the sons of Jacob 
 Burton, and was driven off from the cow on to a 
 ledge of rocks, north of Norwich Plain, and east of 
 the road which runs north and south. But the 
 young man was not content with releasing the cow 
 from danger, but he determined to worry the bear ; 
 and as he saw she was clambering up the rocks to 
 pass over the ledge, he ran round, and gained the top 
 of the ledge first ; and here he hallooed Asa, who 
 was chopping on the plain south of them. As soon 
 as Asa heard the call, he ran at the top of his speed 
 with his axe to the scene of action. By this time, 
 the bear had ascended to the verge of the rocks, 
 where Asa's brother stood, and she seemed inclined 
 to contest for a prior claim she had to a passage that 
 way. Asa saw the predicament of his brother, and 
 fearing he should lose his game, if the bear made 
 good her standing on the top of the precipice, he 
 pressed up the rocks in the rear of the bear with all 
 the haste he could possibly make. This inspired his 
 brother aloft with fresh resolution to keep the bear 
 from gaining the top, and with kicks and thrusts he 
 succeeded in keeping her below the precipice. And 
 so sharp was this contest, that the bear did not up-
 
 140 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 pear to notice the approach of her assailant in the 
 rear, until Asa drew upon her with the head of his 
 axe, and laid the blow upon her rump, which 
 knocked her down ; and as he was unacquainted 
 with the hardiness and strength of the bear, he sup- 
 posed the victory was already achieved ; but she soon 
 found her legs again, and plied them with greater 
 diligence than ever in making her escape. The bear 
 now relinquished her hope of ascending the precipice, 
 and commenced descending the hill in an oblique 
 direction, with Asa pressing hard upon her rear. 
 But in his endeavors to surmount some windfalls 
 over which the bear had passed, he fell backwards 
 upon the ground ; at which moment the bear turned 
 back, sprang upon the log, showed her terrific teeth, 
 and appeared in the very attitude of leaping upon 
 him. This was the first moment that taught young 
 Burton his danger, and it brought him upon his feet 
 with new inspiration, and he resolved that henceforth 
 he would neither give or take quarter. He made at 
 the bear with redoubled fury, and compelled her to 
 retreat down the hill, and as she came near the base 
 she became entangled among the logs, and here our 
 young hero made a second onset, and fetched her to 
 the ground ; then turning the edge of the axe, he 
 sunk it into her throat to the very bone, and the vie-
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 141 
 
 tory was his. This bear was one of the largest class, 
 and gave tokens that she was then employed in rear- 
 ing her young. My only remark in the conclusion 
 is, that others may kill bears, and I will record their 
 deeds. 
 
 The Rev. Lyman Potter was ordained over the 
 church and congregation in Norwich, in 1775, and 
 was dismissed, 1800. Rev. James Woodward was in- 
 stalled over this church and society, 1804. Previous 
 to 1820, a new church and society was formed upon 
 Norwich Plain, and the Rev. Rufus W. Bailey was 
 settled over them in 1820, and was dismissed in 1824. 
 Rev. James Woodward was dismissed from the north 
 church, and the Rev. Samuel Goddard was installed 
 their pastor, 1822. The Rev. Thomas Hall has been 
 settled over the church and society upon the Plain, 
 but is now dismissed from that charge. 
 
 Thetford was first settled, in 1764, by John Cham- 
 berlain, from Hebron, Conn. And in 1765, at the 
 time when Esquire Mann came into Orford, there 
 were two other families, one by the name of Baldwin, 
 and the other by the name of Hosford. Chamberlain 
 was very industrious, and somewhat parsimonious 
 withal, and soon rose to a kind of independence of 
 his neighbors, which he, as well as they, seemed to be 
 fully conscious of. Chamberlain did not rise, how-
 
 142 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 ever, above the reach of envy, and the wags of that 
 day selected him for their butt, at which they aimed 
 their pointed arrows of wit and sarcasm. It was not 
 long before Chamberlain was furnished with a penult- 
 ima to his gift name, as he seemed to feel that his 
 parents had wronged him in infancy by deciding that 
 he should bear the undignified appellation John, it 
 being only a monosyllable. He was, therefore, dub- 
 bed Quail John, for what reason I have never learned ; 
 but it adhered to him through life. And in proof of 
 the fact that the Muses either preceded in their flight 
 to this section of country the first settlers, or very 
 soon followed their trail, I will put down some lines 
 which were composed, and often repeated in the hear- 
 ing of him whose praises they would celebrate : 
 
 " Old Quail John was the first that came on, 
 
 As poor as a calf in the spring ; 
 But now he is rich as Governor Fitch, 
 And lives like a lord or a king." 
 
 Fitch, to whom reference is here made, was one of 
 the governors of Connecticut about these days. But 
 Chamberlain was destined to higher and less perisha- 
 ble honors than the simple elongation of his name. 
 To him was born the first English child that was ever 
 born in the town ; his name was Samuel. 
 
 Thetford did not settle a minister until the summer 
 of 1773, when a man by the name of Clement Sum-
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 143 
 
 Der was installed their pastor. We know not the 
 placo of his nativity. He graduated at Yale College 
 in 1758, settled in Keene, N. H., June 11, 1761, and 
 was dismissed, April 30, 1772. He remained in Thet- 
 ford but little more than two years. He became a 
 tory, left them without asking for a dismission, and 
 went to Swanzey, N. H., where he became a Univer- 
 salist preacher, and continued in that persuasion until 
 his death. He was the source of much trouble to the 
 town of Thetford. He took from them a fine right of 
 land which fell to him by settlement, and divided the 
 church and town. Wallace says, " He was no more 
 fit to preach than a fox is to make a gold watch." 
 We do not learn that there was ever any lack of fel- 
 lowship between him and his Universalist brethren at 
 Swanzey. 
 
 Wallace settled in the west part of Thetford, six 
 miles from the river, where he lived to an advanced 
 period of life. He relates a distressing scene which 
 was occasioned by an alarm that was spread through 
 the country in the summer of 1777. Wallace was at 
 Charlestown, N. H., when an American scouting 
 party came in with a British scouting party, as pris- 
 oners of war, from Burgoyne's army. Upon these 
 prisoners were found papers, purporting that three 
 detachments of British soldiers and tories were to be
 
 144 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 sent out to the Connecticut valley one to Newbury, 
 one to Koyalton, and one to Charlestown, N. H. 
 This was nothing but a strategem of Burgoyne's to 
 divert the Americans from his army, and the scout 
 was sent out for the purpose of being taken with these 
 papers on their hands, and it succeeded wonderfully. 
 The news spread through the country like electricity. 
 Wallace made all speed for Thetford, and found on 
 his arrival that the people had gained the intelligence 
 that they were to be invaded by the enemy, and they 
 were pressing in for the river from Strafford and other 
 settlements, in the utmost consternation. This was 
 done by order of the Committee of Safety. Strafford 
 was literally emptied. There were a number of tories 
 in that town. There were eight brothers in one fam- 
 ily went over to the British at once, and they carried 
 some others with them ; and their property was all 
 taken and sold for public use. Those who remained 
 true to their country's cause expected to feel the ven- 
 geance of these enemies ; and when Wallace came 
 home, he met, between the place where Thetford 
 meeting-house now stands and his habitation, men, 
 women and children, who had forsaken houses and 
 lands, and everything which they could not conven- 
 iently carry ; some in carts, some on sleds, some in 
 sleighs, in mid-summer, and some on foot. They had
 
 OP THE OOO8 COUNTRY. 146 
 
 their hands full of light articles of clothing, and 
 packs stuffed upon their backs, and were driving 
 before them cattle, horses, sheep, and swine. The 
 mixed noise of these different kinds of animals, and 
 the cries of women and children, who expected to be 
 overtaken every minute, murdered and scalped by the 
 infuriated Indians, tories, and British, were enough 
 to affect the stoutest heart. Wallace was looking out 
 for his wife, whom he supposed to be in the caravan ; 
 but they all passed him, and he saw nothing of his 
 beloved Creusa. Several times he was confident that 
 bright image appeared to his view in the motley 
 throng ; but, as they advanced, behold ! it was an- 
 other, and not she 
 
 " tenuesque recessit in auras. " 
 
 Wallace now put spurs to his steed, that he might 
 the sooner dissolve the doubts which had arisen in his 
 own breast, allay the anxiety he felt for his better self. 
 When he arrived at his hut, he found his wife stick- 
 ing by the stuff. Having no horse or oxen to aid her 
 in transporting the goods to the river, she had re- 
 solved to wait and see if there was cause for all this 
 trepidation and flight. She had, however, com- 
 menced carrying their household stuff into the woods, 
 and covering it with bushes, that it might not fall in- 
 to the hands of the invaders, should they suddenly
 
 146 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 appear. They both completed the work which his 
 wife had so heroically commenced, and then both 
 mounted their horse, and rode for the settlements at 
 the river. The next day, Wallace and another took 
 a team, and went and brought in the goods ; and as 
 soon as they were disposed of, Wallace enlisted to go 
 in pursuit of Burgoyne and his army, wisely conclud- 
 ing it best so to press the lion in his den, that his 
 whelps should not feel at liberty to go abroad and de- 
 vastate. the surrounding country. And this was the 
 effect of Burgoyne's stratagem generally. It returned 
 upon his own head. After the surrender of Burgoyne 
 and his army, October 17, 1777, Wallace returned to 
 his hut in December, where he and his wife lived 
 through the succeeding winter, without any chimney, 
 hearth, or floor, except three or four loose boards to 
 set their pole bedstead upon, that was corded with 
 elm bark. 
 
 Mrs. Wallace deserves distinct notice in this place. 
 At the time of the alarm, Wallace had corn, oats, 
 and potatoes growing on his newly-cleared land. 
 After he bad gone in pursuit of Burgoyne, and the 
 alarm had somewhat subsided, Mrs. Wallace travelled 
 out six miles to see to their crops. She found the 
 oats ripe for harvesting, and many of them lodged. 
 She was all alone, and no man could be procured to
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 147 
 
 assist her in gathering them, for all that could be 
 spared had gone to the field of battle. Nothing 
 daunted at this, she took a scythe and mowed them, 
 dried them, raked them into bunches, bound them, 
 and stacked them in good style. She then took an 
 axe, cut poles, fenced them about, and then went 
 back to the river. When her corn-stalks were ripe 
 for cutting, she went out, cut them, bound them, and 
 put them on the top of her stack of oats. In like 
 manner she went out and gathered the corn, and dug 
 her potatoes, and secured both. She then went to 
 work at clearing some ground which had been felled, 
 and was burnt over the year before ; and when her 
 husband returned from the army, she had cleared and 
 sown one acre of wheat ; and during the absence of 
 her husband she had travelled, in going to and from 
 the river, seventy-two miles ! 
 
 The following year they procured some sheep, 
 which they had to yard in a pen near the house every 
 night, to preserve them from the wolves, which were 
 numerous. Wallace being at work at the river on a 
 certain time, Mrs. Wallace could not find her sheep 
 to yard them at evening, and as soon as it came on 
 dark, the wolves set up a frightful howling, as it 
 seemed, within twenty rods of the house. What to 
 do for the safety of her sheep, she did not know ; but
 
 148 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 on examination she found the gun was loaded ; she at 
 once sallied forth and discharged the gun, to inform 
 the wolves that something was there besides mutton. 
 At twelve at night, she reloaded, and went forth and 
 discharged her piece a second time. And before day- 
 light, they heard from her the third time ; and at 
 sunrise, she went out and found all her sheep near the 
 pen, safe and sound, and the wolfish gentry swift on 
 the retreat. 
 
 This woman became the mother of eleven children, 
 nine of whom lived to enter into the married state, 
 and to have families. In 1828, these parents had fif- 
 ty grandchildren, and five great-grandchildren. 
 
 But the best part remains to be told. This woman 
 served as an accoucheuse forty-five years, rode in sev- 
 en towns, was present at the birth of twenty-one pair 
 of twins, and one thousand, six hundred and twenty- 
 four single births ; making, in all, one thousand, six 
 hundred and sixty-six, and never lost a mother of 
 whom she had the care. 
 
 Gentlemen and ladies of 1840, sitting in your 
 broadcloth, silks and satins, what say you to these 
 things ? Could not some things be done without 
 steam, railroad, or piano forte ? I would leave you 
 to pleasant reflections. Fidelity in a historian is a 
 jewel.
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 149 
 
 There is one adventure of Wallace which must be 
 recorded before we take leave of him. It took place 
 in the fall of 1777, a little time before he returned to 
 Thetford from the pursuit of Burgoyne, as I have al- 
 ready stated. I receive the facts in this case from 
 two sources, viz, from David Johnson, Esq., of New- 
 bury, Vt. , to whom Wallace and Webster both related 
 the story, and from the Hon. Simeon Short, Esq., of 
 Thetford, who was Wallace's agent in procuring a 
 pension, and who had, in behalf of Wallace, trans- 
 mitted the following particulars to the Pension Office 
 at -Washington. 
 
 It will be recollected by those who are acquainted 
 with the history of the war of the revolution, that as 
 soon as the battle was fought at Bennington, and the 
 Americans began to hope that Burgoyne's army would 
 fall into their hands, they set about retaking the forts 
 of Ticonderoga and Mount Independence, on the 
 shores of Lake Champlain, which forts Burgoyne had 
 left in his rear, supplied with troops for their defence. 
 Ticonderoga was taken, and Mount Independence 
 was straitly besieged for some time. There was a 
 good deal of hard fighting, and it was confidently 
 looked for, that Mount Independence would surren- 
 der ; but they did not. The British shipping had 
 full possession of the lake. Ticonderoga was upon
 
 150 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 the west side of the lake, and Mount Independence 
 on the east side. Our troops on the west side could 
 hold no communication with those who had invested 
 Mount Independence, and of course they could have 
 no concert in action. It was at this time, when the 
 greatest solicitude was felt by the two American com- 
 manders to know each others' minds, that the follow- 
 ing expedient was adopted by the commander at Ti- 
 conderoga. He called on his men to know if there 
 were any two of them who would volunteer to swim 
 the lake in the evening, and carry dispatches to Gen. 
 Lincoln, near Mount Independence. For a time, 
 none offered to undertake the hazardous enterprise ; 
 but when informed how much was probably depend- 
 ing upon it, Wallace of Thetford stepped forward, 
 and said he would attempt it ; and then followed him 
 Ephraim Webster, of Newbury, who originated in 
 New-Chester, N. H. The documents were made out 
 and about sun-down, an officer took these two men on 
 to an eminence which overlooked the lake, and he 
 pointed out to them the course they must take to 
 avoid discovery by the British shipping, and then 
 about where they would probably find the American 
 camp. At dusk of evening, the same officer attend- 
 ed them to the margin of the lake, assisted them to 
 prepare for the voyage, and saw them set sail, little
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 151 
 
 expecting, probably, ever to hear from them again ; 
 for as they had to swim up and down the lake, in a 
 zigzag course, to avoid the enemy, they must swim 
 more than two miles before they could make terra 
 firma, and it was so late in the season the water was 
 quite cold. They rolled their dispatches in their 
 clothes, and bound their clothes upon the back part 
 of their neck, by cords passing round their foreheads 
 and their clothes. As soon as they entered the water 
 Wallace said to Webster, " We shall never reach 
 shore, it is so cold ; " but this he said without any 
 thought of relinquishing the enterprise. When about 
 mid-way of the lake, the cords which fastened Wal- 
 lace's clothes to his neck slipped down from his fore- 
 head to his throat, and it cut him so hard as almost 
 to strangle him. He made several attempts to re- 
 place the string upon his forehead, but failed, and he 
 was on the point of giving up all for lost. The 
 thought, however, of the importance of his under- 
 taking seemed to inspire him with new life and vigor, 
 and he succeeded in replacing the string, and passed 
 on without saying a word to dishearten Webster. 
 They passed so near the British shipping as to hear 
 the oft- repeated cry, " All's well ! " They took no 
 care to contradict that report, but buffeted the 
 waves with stout hearts and sinewy limbs. They
 
 152 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 kept in company until they came near the eas- 
 tern shore of the lake, when Webster seemed to fall 
 into the rear, a few rods at the north of Wallace ; 
 and just as Wallace struck the twigs of a tree which 
 lay extended into the lake, he heard Webster say, 
 " Help, Wallace, I am drowning ! " Wallace sprung 
 to the shore, caught a stick, and rushed into the 
 water, and extended it to Webster in the act of sink- 
 ing, and drew him ashore. Webster could not stand ; 
 but Wallace rubbed him briskly, and got on his 
 clothes, and he soon recovered so as to walk. How 
 aptly the poet's description of Ulysses, when cast up- 
 on the coast of Phaeacia, will apply to Webster, as 
 drawn ashore by Wallace, the reader will judge : 
 
 " From mouth and nose the briny torrent ran, 
 And lost in lassitude, lay all the man ; 
 Deprived of voice, of motion, and of breath, 
 The soul scarce waking in the arms of death." 
 
 Webster was so full of expressions of gratitude to 
 Wallace for the preservation of his life, that Wallace 
 had to caution him not to speak so loud, for the ene- 
 my would hear them. 
 
 But new difficulties now presented themselves. It 
 was now dark, and they were in a strange place. The 
 enemy was near, and had their sentinels on shore as 
 well as the Americans. And, what was worst of all, 
 they knew not the countersign of the Americans on
 
 OF THB COOS COUNTRY. 153 
 
 that side of the lake. They started, however, in 
 quest of the American camp, and after travelling 
 about, nearly one hour, they were hailed by a British 
 sentinel, and did but just make their escape. They 
 then took a different direction, and Wallace gave both 
 despatches into Webster's hands, and told him to 
 keep in the rear, and he would go forward, and if he 
 should happen to fall into the hands of the enemy, 
 Webster might have opportunity to escape with the 
 despatches. But they had not proceeded a great 
 ways before Wallace was hailed by a sentinel " Who 
 comes there?" "A friend," says Wallace. "A 
 friend to whom?" says the sentinel. "Advance 
 and give the countersign." This was a fearful mo- 
 ment. Wallace hesitated for an instant, and then re- 
 plied by way of question " Whose friend are you ?" 
 The sentinel responded "A friend to America!" 
 " So am I," said Wallace, " and have important de- 
 spatches for your general." They were immediately 
 conducted to the general's quarters, the despatches 
 were delivered, and Wallace and Webster were re- 
 ceived with every mark of surprise and gratitude, and 
 every thing was done to render them comfortable and 
 happy. But Wallace never enjoyed the degree of 
 health afterwards that he did prior to that chill and 
 almost incredible effort. Wallace departed this life, 
 7*
 
 154 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 February 7, 1833, aged eighty. Mrs. Wallace died, 
 May, 1831, aged eighty-one. 
 
 Webster's subsequent history is worthy of a passing 
 notice. The last time he visited Newbury, he was 
 residing among the Oneida Indians, New York. 
 They had adopted him as their brother, promoted him 
 to be chief in their tribe, and, to render the tie indis- 
 soluble, they had given him one of the black-haired 
 maidens of the forest. Webster's health was not per- 
 manently injured by his dangerous adventure. 
 
 The church and people in Thetford remained in a 
 divided state more than three years after Sumner left 
 them, until Dr. Burton came among them, in 1778, 
 at the age of twenty-seven years. He graduated at 
 Dartmouth College in 1777, read divinity with Dr. 
 Eleazer Wheelock, president of the college, until he 
 was licensed to preach the gospel, and he then went 
 and read with Dr. Hart, of Preston, New London 
 Co., Conn. As soon as Dr. Burton came into Thet- 
 ford, the unhappy divisions which had existed among 
 them were all dissipated as by enchantment. They 
 were all united in him, and all reconciled to each 
 other. They gave him a unanimous call to settle 
 with them in the gospel ministry, and he was ordain- 
 ed their pastor, January 19, 1779. 
 
 There were fifty-seven families in the town when
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 155 
 
 Dr. Burton settled among them. There were bat 
 two families then living west of the present meeting- 
 house, viz, Richard Wallace, and a Mr. Osborn, liv- 
 ing near Mr. Wallace. They had no meeting-house ; 
 and in the summer they held their meetings in a barn, 
 nd in a private dwelling in the winter. The first 
 meeting-house was built of logs, and stood near the 
 place where Dr. Solomon Hcaton used to live, from 
 half to three-fourths of a mile north-east of the 
 present meeting-house, on the road leading from 
 Thetford to East Fairlee and Orford. The seats in 
 this meeting-house were movable forms, or benches, 
 like those often found in school-houses for children 
 to sit upon, and they were ranged on each side of the 
 house, the ends pointing towards one broad aisle in 
 the centre. 
 
 Dr. Burton related, in much good humor, one in- 
 cident which occurred in that house, that was of a 
 stirring quality. The doctor had a parishioner by 
 the name of John Osman, and he was an abominable 
 sleeper in the house of God. His habit in this was 
 so inveterate as to resist all remonstrance. It so hap- 
 pened, on a very warm Sabbath in mid-summer, that 
 Osman was seated on the end of one of those benches 
 next to the aisle. He was facing the aisle, and, in 
 order to find secure repose, he placed his elbows upon
 
 156 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 his knees, folded his arms, and leaned forward ; and 
 in this position he fell into a profound slumber. The 
 doctor saw him paying his devotions to Somnus, by 
 now and then a significant nod and a reel of the 
 body, but said nothing to disturb his repose. At 
 length, Osman lost his balance, and pitched his 
 whole length on to the floor, where he lay in the mid- 
 dle of the aisle, sprawled out like a spider ! The 
 shock with the audience was electrical. Many sprang 
 upon their feet, and some females shrieked out ; but 
 when they saw Osman gathering up his limbs in the 
 most deliberate manner, rubbing his eyes, and 
 scratching his head, the transition from surprise to 
 risibility was so sudden and powerful, that the im- 
 pulse was irrepressible, and for a few moments the 
 speaker himself labored to maintain the dignity and 
 gravity of his station. But it proved a specific in 
 Osman's case, for he was never known to sleep in 
 meeting after that event. It might be well, perhaps, 
 for some of our modern sleepers at the house of God, 
 if they were to descend as low in the Valley of Hu- 
 miliation as Osman did, provided their resurrection 
 should be as triumphant. 
 
 At the settlement of the town of Thetford, and 
 for a number of years subsequently to that period, 
 bears, deer, and sables were numerous ; but we hear
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 157 
 
 of no moose. Joel Strong, of Hebron, Conn., came 
 into the town on the 7th of May, 1768, and found 
 twelve families in the town. He first settled on the 
 bottom lands of the Ompompanoosuc, and as soon as 
 he began to raise corn, he was exceedingly annoyed 
 by bears in his field, devouring his unripe corn. For 
 a time he bore these injuries with all the meekness 
 which necessity laid upon him ; but seeing increasing 
 waste and destruction, he arose and shook himself, 
 and resolved he would seek reprisal. And now the 
 waxing moon smiled on his enterprise. He loaded 
 his gun with two balls, took his powder-horn and 
 bullet-pouch, and sallied forth to reconnoitre the po- 
 sition of his enemies. He had not proceeded far be- 
 fore he heard the ears of corn snap from their parent 
 stalks, as though there were a husking with the Bruin 
 gentry. Strong advanced slowly and cautiously until 
 he secured a good shot, and then he " let off," and 
 brought one huge fellow to the ground. This was 
 a signal for others to retreat, and without looking to 
 him whom he had disposed of, he pursued the flying 
 foe as fast as his legs would carry him ; and two 
 others ascended a large tree which stood near the bor- 
 der of the field. It was not sufficiently light for him 
 to distinguish his game in the boughs, and he struck 
 him up a fire at the foot of the tree, and there waited
 
 158 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 for the return of day. The returning sun showed 
 him two sleek and lusty fellows, sitting in appropriate 
 angles of the tree, formed by the union of large 
 branches with the trunk. Strong now took deliber- 
 ate aim at the heart, and down came his bearship 
 from a goodly height, which made the ground trem- 
 ble again. With all expedition he charged his gun 
 the third time, and in a few moments the remaining 
 bear joined his comrade upon the ground, and as they 
 had been lovely in the eyes of each other in life, so 
 they were not divided in their death. Strong was 
 now at liberty to visit the one that was slain the night 
 before, and he found them all bears of the first-class, 
 which remunerated him for all previous losses, and 
 their death secured his field from further depreda- 
 tions. 
 
 I have said Dr. Burton was ordained, January 19, 
 1779. The ministers called to ordain him were the 
 following : Rev. Messrs. Powers of Newbury, Conant 
 of Lime, Burroughs of Hanover, Potter of Lebanon, 
 and Potter of Norwich. The last-named gentlemen 
 preached the sermon. But those who imposed hands, 
 and he who received hands, have alike gone down to 
 the dust. A new order of things has arisen ; and 
 how forcibly are we impressed with the words of the 
 apostle, For what is your life ? It is even a vapor,
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 159 
 
 that appeareth for a little time, and then vanisheth 
 away. 
 
 But very few clergymen labored longer in their pro- 
 fession than Dr. Burton did ; very few have been 
 more successful in bringing sinners to salvation ; and 
 there are very few whose influence has been more ex- 
 tensively realized than his. He prepared more than 
 a hundred young men for the ministry ; and his 
 Book of Essays, published in 1824, is rich in ideas, 
 and although we may differ from him in our meta- 
 physics, yet when men come to pay more regard to 
 ideas than to their dress, and when they shall prefer 
 thinking to light reading, Dr. Burton will be read 
 with profit by every student in theology. 
 
 Dr. Burton departed this life, May 1, 1836, in the 
 eighty-fourth year of his age, and in the fifty-seventh 
 of his pastoral relation to the church and people of 
 Thetford. "The memory of the just is blessed." 
 
 FAIRLEE. 
 
 Of Fairlee, East or West, I have little to say. In 
 1766, Mr. Baldwin, who is mentioned as one of the 
 families settled in Thetford in 1765, moved from 
 Thetford to East Fairlee, and commenced a settle- 
 ment about half a mile south of the present meeting- 
 house, near where they turn off from the river road
 
 160 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 to go to Fairlee or Morey's Pond. Mr. Thompson 
 in his Gazetteer dates the settlement of this town in 
 1768, and then he finds six men on the ground to 
 begin the settlement. Esquire Mann, of Orford, 
 says, Baldwin was his first neighbor west of him, and 
 he is sure he came into Fairlee the year after Mann 
 came to Orford. They both came from Hebron, 
 Conn. Mann knew that Baldwin spent a year or so 
 in Thetford, and then came up to Fairlee, and he 
 tells us the very spot where he commenced. Mann- 
 could not mistake in this. I find that a new neigh- 
 bor, in those days, was not looked upon as a trivial 
 affair, and the time of its occurrence was retained 
 with great accuracy. It may be there were six men 
 in Fairlee in 1768 ; but Baldwin had been there two 
 years previous. 
 
 BRADFOED. 
 
 Bradford was first settled in 1765, by a man by the 
 name of John Osmer. He settled near the mouth of 
 Wait's Eiver, on the north bank, and I have been 
 told there were traces of this settlement so late as 
 1824. This town was originally called Moretown ; 
 but afterward it was changed to Bradford. This 
 Osmer, or Hosmer, was a facetious character, and 
 would make himself sport at the expense of others.
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 161 
 
 In 1765, soon after llostner moved into Bradford, 
 there came to his hut a transient Irishman, and spent 
 several days, laboring what he would for his board. 
 It turned out, however, that the Irishman was deeply 
 infected with a cutaneous eruption, which in some 
 modern languages has been denominated " the itch." 
 Osmer, resenting the exposure of himself and family 
 to this vile disease, by the intrusion of this Hiber- 
 nian, resolved on being revenged, and, at the same 
 time, have something to relate which would secure 
 him mirth at another time. Osmer, accordingly, re- 
 strained all appearance of resentment, and gravely 
 told the fellow that he knew a sure remedy for his 
 loathsome disease ; but it was a secret, and he did 
 not wish to divulge it. The poor fellow became very 
 importunate for Osmer to prescribe for him, promis- 
 ing to follow the prescription to the letter, and swear- 
 ing by the blessed Virgin that he would never reveal 
 the secret. Osmer at length took the man out on to 
 the meadow, where grew a forest of nettles, and told 
 him if he would strip himself, and run through those 
 weeds, it would insure him healing. No sooner said 
 than done. Paddy went through them with a lion's 
 heart ; but his misery for a time was excruciating. 
 This, together with the mortification of seeing how 
 well Osmer enjoyed his suffering, opened his eyes to
 
 162 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 the fact that he had been imposed upon, and he im- 
 mediately took up his line of march, calling on the 
 Virgin to redress his wrongs. But this was not the 
 last of it with Osmer. As soon as Osmer's neighbors 
 were made acquainted with the fact, they dubbed 
 Doctor, and he bore this adjunct title with him to 
 the grave. 
 
 The next year, viz., in 1766, Samuel Sleeper and 
 Benoni Wright came into Bradford, and pitched 
 their tent a little north-east of Mr. Hunkins' dwel- 
 ling, in the north part of Bradford, as I have already 
 stated in my history of Newbury. In 1771, Andrew 
 B. Peters, Esq., born in Hebron, Conn., January 29, 
 1764, came into this town. He came with his father 
 to Thetford in 1766 ; in 1769, he moved into Pier- 
 mont ; and in 1771, he came into Bradford, at which 
 time there were but ten families in the town. 
 
 Esquire Peters relates that the first grist-mill in 
 the town was built by John Peters, in 1772, and that 
 it stood on the south side of Wait's River, just above 
 the bridge on the great river road. The first saw- 
 mill was built by Benjamin Baldwin, Esq., in 1774, 
 and stood on Wait's River, where Baldwin's mills 
 now stand, or did stand, a few years since. Esquire 
 Peters relates a long-standing tradition, which went 
 to account for the name Wait being given to the
 
 OF THE C008 COUNTRY. 163 
 
 principal river of Bradford. It states that a man by 
 the name of Wait belonged to Col. Rogers' party, 
 which marched to the St. Francois in 1759; that this 
 man and some others, in their hasty retreat, came 
 upon the northern branch of Wait's River, and in a 
 famishing state, they followed down this river in 
 quest of game. Just as they entered what is now 
 Bradford, Wait and one or two others proposed to go 
 in advance of the rest, and see if they could not find 
 something to satisfy their hunger. They had not 
 gone but two or three miles before they shot a deer, 
 and when they had satisfied their appetites, they 
 hung up the rest of the savory meat upon a tree for 
 the relief of their suffering companions in the rear; 
 and that they might know who killed the deer, and 
 for what purpose the meat was there suspended, Wait 
 cut his name in the bark of the tree on which the 
 meat hung. When the rear came up, and found the 
 rich supply of food in readiness for them, they ex- 
 pressed their gratitude to Wait by giving his name to 
 the stream they were then upon, and designed it as a 
 remembrancer in all after-time, of the deliverance 
 which was there wrought for them. There is noth- 
 ing extravagant or unnatural in this narration ; and 
 if the town cannot give a more satisfactory account 
 of the origin of this name to their river, it may 
 stand for the true one.
 
 164 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 About sixty years ago, a little son of Absalom 
 Fifield, who lived in the easterly part of Corinth, 
 strayed from home, and was lost. As is usual in 
 such cases, there was a very great excitement in the 
 public mind, as well as in the minds of the parents, 
 and multitudes went in search of the child. They 
 sought for him unremittingly three days, and began 
 to despair of the child, for they thought he must 
 perish with hunger, if he was not already drowned, 
 or devoured by wild beasts. But just at the close of 
 the third day, he was discovered ou an island in 
 Wait's River, about five miles from the Connecticut, 
 and three miles from his father's. When he was dis- 
 covered, he was in company with a little lamb, and 
 was picking tall blackberries, without any apparent 
 anxiety. The boy was four or five years of age. He 
 and the lamb were the only tenants of the island. 
 They had contracted a friendship for each other, and 
 the lamb followed in the footsteps of the boy 
 wherever he went. Butjhow either of them ever 
 got on to the island remains a mystery. 
 
 The Rev. Gardner Kellogg was the first settled 
 minister in the town ordained, 1795; dismissed, 
 1809. The Rev. Silas McKeen was his successor ; 
 but I have not the date of his settlement or dismis- 
 sion. I might here notice some of the errors of
 
 OP THB 0008 COUNTRY. 165 
 
 Thompson's Gazetteer in respect to the first settlers ; 
 but it is useless. There is no end to them. 
 
 PLYMOUTH, N. H. 
 
 I shall now pass into New Hampshire again, and 
 state a few particulars in regard to the settlement of 
 Plymouth, seeing it was one of the first, towns settled 
 in the county of Grafton, after Haverhill. This was 
 the first town settled between Haverhill and Salis- 
 bury Lower Village. I received the following par- 
 ticulars from Samuel Dearborn, one of the first set- 
 tlers, and from the Rev. Drury Fairbanks, who 
 consulted the proprietors' records, and the church 
 records, for my assistance. Samuel Dearborn origi- 
 nated in Old Chester, April 15th, 1745, and came 
 into Plymouth, September, 1764. The two first 
 families which came into the place, were Capt. James 
 Hobart and Lieut. Zachariah Parker. They came 
 from Hollis, N. H., in June, 1764. Hobart married 
 Hannah Cummings, of Hollis, sister of the Rev. Dr. 
 Cnmmiugs, of Billerica, Mass. Parker married Bet- 
 sey Brown, of Hollis, niece of Benjamin Farley, 
 Esq., late of Hollis. Hobart settled on Col. Ed- 
 munds' place, and Parker settled where Capt. Moses 
 George did live, and perhaps does at this time. In 
 September of this same year (1764), came Capt.
 
 166 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 Jotham Cummings, Col. 'David Webster, Lieut. 
 Josiah Brown, Ephraim Weston, James Blodgett, 
 Deacon Stephen Webster, and Samuel Dearborn, all 
 from Hollis, with the exception of Weston and Dear- 
 born. At this time there was no bridge across any 
 stream between Plymouth and Salisbury Lower Vil- 
 lage, and no road but spotted trees. The first set- 
 tlers from Hollis passed over the Merrimack into the 
 town of Litchfield, and kept on the north side of the 
 Merrimack until they came into the town of Holder- 
 ness, and then crossed the Pemigewasset into Ply- 
 mouth, a little south of Baker's River. Some of the 
 early settlers of Haverhill and Newbury took the 
 same route from Pembroke, kept on the north side 
 of Baker's Eiver, into Coventry, and then down the 
 Oliverian. 
 
 The proprietors of the town of Plymouth voted at 
 Hollis, April 16, 1764, " to hire Mr. Nathan Ward, 
 of Newtown, Mass., to preach to the settlers at 
 Plymouth, four days this spring ; " this meant four 
 Sabbaths. It appears that the proprietors expected 
 that the settlement would be made sooner than it 
 was ; but Mr. Ward went on with the settlers, and 
 preached the time specified, and dwelt with them in 
 their tents. Mr. Ward received a call from them, 
 which he accepted, and was ordained at Newbury-
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 167 
 
 port, in the meeting-house of the Rev. Jonathan 
 Pearsons, July 10, 1765. At this time there were 
 but eight families in the town of Plymouth. The 
 proprietors voted to give the Rev. Mr. Ward one hun- 
 dred and fifty ounces of silver for his salary, until 
 there were one hundred families in the town, and 
 then his salary was to be increased five ounces annually, 
 until it amounted to two hundred ounces, and at that it 
 was to remain as his permanent salary, with thirty 
 cords of wood. He drew, also, one right of land, as 
 the first settled minister, and they voted him one 
 hundred and twenty dollars, as an additional settle- 
 ment. But what was the amount of Mr. Ward's 
 salary ? I find in Belknap's History of New Hamp- 
 shire, vol. i. p. 151, in note, that an ounce of silver 
 was estimated at six shillings and eight pence, lawful 
 money; and accordingly, Mr. Ward's salary at the 
 first was equal to one hundred and sixty-six dollars 
 and fifty cents ; and- that at the last it amounted to 
 two hundred and twenty-two dollars, exclusive of the 
 wood. This, at first thought, was a limited salary 
 for a minister. But upon a more thorough inspec- 
 tion of the matter, I think, we shall find it was better 
 than most ministers receive at the present day. That 
 money would purchase more bread-stuffs, taking one 
 year with another, at that day, than twice, and per-
 
 168 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 haps thrice that amount, would purchase at this day. 
 They had little, and next to no company. Their 
 style of living was all different, and less expensive. 
 Then he had a settlement, and a full right of land, 
 which was enough to make two good farms. And I 
 think we shall all agree that there is not a minister 
 in the whole county of Grafton at this day, whose 
 means of living from the people are as ample as were 
 Mr. Ward's on the day of his settlement. 
 
 Mr. Ward labored in the ministry in Plymouth 
 twenty -nine years ; was dismissed April 22d, 1794 ; 
 died in June, 1804, aged eighty-three. A man of 
 God, and a great blessing to the town. Their first 
 meeting-house was built of logs, and stood a little 
 west of the Rev. Jonathan Ward's late dwelling- 
 house, at the foot of the hill, east of the old meet- 
 ing-house. 
 
 In April, 1765, Lydia Webster was born, daughter 
 of Stephen and Lydia Webster. She was the first 
 English child born in the town. At this birth, every 
 woman was present in the town, and every husband 
 attended his wife as far as the premises, and there 
 remained until the vote was declared ! This was a 
 great day in Plymouth. That child is dead; but the 
 mother was living with her third husband in Rum- 
 ney, the last I heard from her. She was the wife of
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 169 
 
 Joseph Dearborn. Josiah Hobart was the first male 
 child born in the town ; but he is dead, also. These 
 first settlers went to Concord, N. H., for their meal, 
 for one or two years after they commenced their 
 settlement, and drew it up on a hand-sled ; but they 
 soon raised an abundance, for their meadows were 
 very fertile. 
 
 Ephraim Lund built the first saw and grist-mill 
 near where Cochran's mills now are. Mr. Dearborn 
 says that in 1765, James Heath, from Canterbury, 
 Daniel Brainard, Esq., and Alexander Craig, made 
 settlements in Rumney. Soon after, a Mr. Davis 
 moved into Wentworth, and Joseph Patch into War- 
 ren. Mr. Dearborn says he knows that these were 
 the first settlers in these towns, but will not be posi- 
 tive as to the year they made their entrance. Joseph 
 Hobart was the first who settled in Hebron, and a 
 Mr. Bennet first settled in Groton. Both of these 
 towns were settled by people from Hollis. About 
 the same time William Piper came into Holderness. 
 It was certainly as late as 1765. The same year, 
 Isaac Fox and a Mr. Taylor settled in Campton; and 
 Benjamin Hoit from Old Chester settled Thornton 
 in 1770. 
 
 Mr. Dearborn says that when Plymouth was first 
 settled, and for some years, moose, bears, deer, and 
 8
 
 170 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 wolves were numerous. We may recollect that here 
 Capt. Powers and his company "shot a moose," in 
 1754. Mr. Dearborn relates one anecdote of one 
 Josiah Brown, who was famous for hunting at that 
 early period of the settlement. He was well ac- 
 quainted with Brown. He went out with snow- 
 shoes. Hunter started some deer, and in the pro- 
 gress of the chase the deer crossed the river into 
 New Hampton, and Brown attempted to follow ; but 
 in doing so where there was swift water, he broke 
 through, and fell in up to his arms. He labored to 
 throw himself on the ice ; but the water had so 
 much power upon his snow-shoes that his feet were 
 carried down stream in an instant, and he would 
 have to catch hold of the edge of the ice to keep 
 himself from being drawn immediately under. Find- 
 ing all his efforts ineffectual, and feeling himself 
 nearly exhausted, he began to despair of life for more 
 than a few minutes longer ; but at this critical mo- 
 ment, who should appear but his true and faithful 
 Hunter, who came directly up to him ! Brown with 
 one hand seized Hunter by the tail, and with the 
 other he helped himself. Hunter drew for his life, 
 and as the ice was rough, so that he had good foot- 
 hold, he drew powerfully, and they both were enabled 
 to overcome the force of the water, and Brown re-
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 171 
 
 gained his standing upon the ice, happy in the reflec- 
 tion that both he and his anticipated game were still 
 at liberty to make the best use of their feet. 
 
 Mr. Dearborn tells us an affecting story of a lost 
 child in this town, in the time of the revolutionary 
 war. A Mr. James Barnes sent his little son of seven 
 or eight years of age, on an errand to a neighbor's ; 
 but he lost his way, and did not return at the time he 
 was expected. The father went in pursuit of him, 
 but not finding him, the neighbors were called on to 
 go in search of him ; and as the news spread that a 
 child was lost, the whole town came together, and 
 very many from other towns in the vicinity, and al- 
 though the search was continued eight days, no trace 
 of the child was ever discovered. It is very extraor- 
 dinary, that if this child perished by hunger, his re- 
 mains were never discovered ; and if he was drowned, 
 it seems that his body would have been ultimately 
 found afloat. But the great day will disclose the 
 facts in the case. 
 
 Much has been said in Plymouth and vicinity in 
 respect to the naming of Baker's River. It was called 
 Baker's River when the first settlers came on, and it 
 was called so in the journal of Capt. Powers, in 1754. 
 They have a tradition in the town, and they have al- 
 ways had from its first settlement, which explains the
 
 172 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 how and the wherefore, in this case. It is said that 
 while Massachusetts was claiming the province of 
 New Hampshire, prior to the old French war, Massa- 
 chusetts sent a Capt. Baker, from Old Newbury, at 
 the head of a company to ferret out the Indians, who 
 had their encampment somewhere upon the waters of 
 the Pemigewasset. Baker procured a friendly Indian 
 who led them on to Plymouth. When Baker and his 
 party had arrived on these meadows, the friendly In- 
 dian signified it was now time for every man to gird 
 up his loins, and they did so, moving forward with 
 all possible circumspection. When they had reached 
 the south bank of Baker's River, near its junction 
 with the Pemigewasset, they discovered the Indians 
 on the north bank of Baker's River, sporting in 
 great numbers, secure, as they supposed, from the 
 muskets of all "pale faces." Baker and his men 
 chose their position, and opened a tremendous fire 
 upon the Indians, which was as sudden to them as a 
 clap of thunder. Many of the sons of the forest fell 
 in death in the midst of their sports. But the living 
 disappeared in an instant, and ran to call in their 
 hunters. Baker and his men lost no time in crossing 
 the river in search of booty. They found a rich 
 store of furs deposited in holes, dug into the bank of 
 the river horizontally, in the manner bank-swallows
 
 OP THB COOS COUNTRY. 173 
 
 make their holes. Having destroyed their wigwams, 
 and captured their furs, Baker ordered a retreat, 
 fearing that they would soon return in too great 
 force to be resisted by his single company ; and the 
 Indians were fully up to his apprehensions for not- 
 withstanding Baker retreated with all expedition, the 
 Indians collected, and were up with them, when they 
 had reached a poplar plain in Bridgewater, a little 
 south of Walter Webster's tavern. A smart skirmish 
 ensued ; but the Indians were repulsed with loss. 
 Mr. Dearbon has visited that plain, and seen and ex- 
 amined a number of skulls, which he supposed fell 
 in that engagement. One or two of them were per- 
 forated by a bullet. But notwithstanding the Indians 
 were repulsed, the friendly Indian advised Baker and 
 his men to use all diligence in their retreat, for he 
 said their number would increase every hour, and 
 that they would return to the attack. Accordingly, 
 Baker pressed on the retreat, with all possible de- 
 spatch, and did not allow his men to take refreshment 
 after the battle. But when they came into New 
 Chester, having crossed a stream, his men were ex- 
 hausted through abstinence, forced marches, and 
 hard fighting, and they resolved they would go no 
 further without food, saying to their commander, 
 " They might as well fall by the tomahawk as by
 
 174 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 famine." The captain acquiesced, and they prepared 
 to refresh themselves ; but here was a call for Indian 
 stratagem. The friendly Indian told every man to 
 build as many fires as he could in a given time ; for 
 the Indians, if they pursued them, would judge of 
 their number by the number of their fires. He told 
 them, also, that each man should make him four or 
 five forks of crotched sticks, and use them all in 
 roasting a single piece of pork ; then leave an equal 
 number of forks around each fire, and the Indians 
 would infer, if they came up, that there were as many 
 of the English as there were forks, and this might 
 turn them back. The Indian's counsel was followed 
 to the letter, and the company moved on with fresh 
 speed. The Indians, however, came up while their 
 fires were yet burning, and counting the fires and 
 forks, the warriors whooped a retreat, for they were 
 alarmed at the number of the English. Baker and 
 his men were no longer annoyed by those troublesome 
 attendants, and he attributed their preservation to 
 the counsel of the friendly Indian. Now, it is said 
 that Baker's River was so called, to perpetuate the 
 brilliant affair, by Baker, at its mouth. 
 
 There was formerly another token of the presence 
 or influence of a Mr. Baker, not very remotely con- 
 nected with Baker's River. Salisbury was originally
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 175 
 
 chartered by Massachusetts, prior to the old French 
 war, and it was called Bakerstown. As this was the 
 last chartered town in the direction from Massachu- 
 setts towards Plymouth, where Baker is said to have 
 had his adventure, it would not be very unnatural for 
 Massachusetts to honor his memory by calling this 
 township after him. 
 
 The Rev. Drury Fairbanks was settled in Plymouth 
 January 8, 1800, and was dismissed, March 18, 1818. 
 Rev. Jonathan Ward was installed, August, 1818, 
 and was dismissed about the year 1829. 
 
 I am now prepared to return to Haverhill and New- 
 bury, and to relate some events which occurred there 
 at a later period of their history. And as I have a 
 sad tale to relate of the Indians, who lived at Coos 
 for many years after the settlement by the English, I 
 will here commence it. 
 
 I have already stated the evidence we have, that 
 Newbury was an old Indian encampment, and that it 
 was with great reluctance the Indians yielded up 
 their interest in the Coos. That was a fatal step with 
 the Indians, when they connected their destiny with 
 that of the French ; for they became identified with 
 the enemy. They were greatly reduced in number, 
 and when the French were subdued, the Indians fell
 
 176 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 with them, and they lost their remaining possessions, 
 principally in New England. But after the old 
 French war, there were some of the St. Francois 
 tribe returned to the Coos, and lived until a more re- 
 cent date, when they became entirely extinct. 
 
 Among those who returned, there were two fami- 
 lies of special distinction John and Joe, or Captain 
 John, and Captain Joe, as they preferred to be called. 
 John belonged to the St. Francois tribe, and had 
 been a chief of some note with them. He was at the 
 battle of Braddock's defeat, and used to relate how 
 he shot a British officer, after he had been knocked 
 down by the officer ; and how he tried to shoot young 
 Washington, but could not. He had repeatedly used 
 the tomahawk and scalping knife upon the defence- 
 less inhabitants of Massachusetts and New Hamp- 
 shire ; and when he was excited by spirit, he would 
 relate his deeds of barbarity with fiendish satisfac- 
 tion. He related how he mutilated a woman by cut- 
 ting off her breasts, at the time of an assault upon 
 the inhabitants near Fort Dummer, and he would 
 imitate her shrieks and cries of distress. He was 
 present at Boscawen, N. H., at the time the Indians 
 surprised the inhabitants of that place. It must 
 have been in 1746, or 1754. He related how they 
 took an old woman, and as they found she could not
 
 OF THB COOS COUNTRY. 177 
 
 travel as fast as they wished to retreat, he struck her 
 on the head with a tomahawk, and he said she made 
 a noise like a calf that is wounded on the head. He 
 was a fierce and cruel Indian, and was the terror of 
 the boys at Coos as long as he lived. He was, how- 
 ever, a staunch friend to the Colonies during the war 
 of the revolution. He received a captain's commis- 
 sion, raised a part of a company of Indians, and 
 marched with the Yankees against Burgoyne. 
 
 John had two sons Pi-al, and Pi-al-Soosup,* both 
 very different from their father in their disposition, 
 being mild and inoffensive in their deportment. 
 Pi-al-Soosup was in the company commanded by 
 Capt. Thomas Johnson, near Fort Independence, in 
 1777, and as it was his first essay in arms, he was a 
 good deal terrified when the battle commenced, on 
 account of the tremendous roar of cannon from the 
 fort and a British ship in the lake ; but as the firing 
 from the ship and fort went over them, and did not 
 much execution, except among the tops of the trees, 
 Pi-al became reassured, and turning to Capt. John- 
 son, said, " Is this the way to fight ?" " Yes," said 
 Johnson ; " fire ! fire !" "I say," said he, " this is 
 good fun ; and, raising his gun, fired. 
 
 Captain Joe was a young man when he came to 
 
 * French sound of i, like 0. 
 8*
 
 178 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 Coos. He belonged to a tribe in Nova Scotia ; but 
 when Louisburg was taken, his tribe was scattered 
 when he was very young, and a remnant, he among 
 the rest, made their way to the St. Francois tribe, 
 and he grew up with them. This will show that 
 there was some connection between the eastern In- 
 dians and those of the north ; and it confirms the 
 tradition with the Indians at Coos, that when their 
 fathers heard of Lovewell's tight, they said, "They 
 must soon leave Codssuck." Undoubtedly, Coossuck 
 was the connecting link between Canada and all 
 south and east in New England. 
 
 Joe was a very different character from John. He 
 was aimiable, and never sought a quarrel. It used to 
 be his boast, that he never "pointed the gun;" 
 meaning, at his fellow man. Joe's wife went by the 
 name of Molly, and she had two sons by a former 
 husband when they came to Coos. The history of 
 this affiair is, that Joe was a great favorite among the 
 fair daughters of St. Francois, and that Molly proved 
 unfaithful to her first husband, and eloped with her 
 two children, in order to enjoy the society of Joe in 
 the States. Her sons' names were Toomalek and 
 Muxa-Wuxal. Muxa-Wuxal died without causing 
 Joe and Molly any more grief than they experienced 
 in his loss ; but it was far different with Toomalek.
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 179 
 
 He was literally a child for the fire. He was low in 
 etature, wanting two inches of five feet, but had 
 broad shoulders and haunches, and possessed extra- 
 ordinary muscular powers. His thick, stiff hair grew 
 down upon his forehead within one inch of his eyes, 
 and his countenance was truly fiendlike. He had a 
 murderous disposition, as the sequel will show. As 
 he grew up, he became enamored of a young squaw, 
 named Lewd ; but another Indian, named Mitchel, 
 was his successful rival, and married Lewd. But 
 Toomalek determined on murdering Mitchel, and 
 taking his wife. He accordingly prepared his gun, 
 and watched for an opportunity to execute the horrid 
 deed. It was not long before Toomalek discoverd 
 Mitchel and his wife seated by a fire in the evening, 
 at the upper end of the Ox Bow in Newbury, at the 
 foot of the hill, just where the river turns north. 
 They were seated side by side, happy for the present, 
 and happy in anticipations, to all human view. Too- 
 malek took aim, and discharged his gun at Mitchel ; 
 but Lewd received the ball in her breast, and expired 
 that evening. Mitchel was wounded, also, by the 
 same ball which killed Lewd, or there were two balls 
 discharged ; but he soon recovered from his wound. 
 Toomalek was tried for his crime by his Indian peers, 
 Old John presiding, and he was acquitted upon the
 
 180 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 ground that he did not mean to kill Lewd, but 
 Mitchel ; and as he did not kill Mitchel, he was no 
 murderer ! This was making nice distinctions, and 
 it shows that these untutored beings were adepts in 
 the science of casuistry. Bat Old John was the sole 
 means of his acquittal. 
 
 But Toomalek still cherished a rancorous enmity 
 towards Mitchel, and his escape from justice, in the 
 first instance, encouraged him to make a second at- 
 tempt upon the life of Mitchel, who had taken an- 
 other wife as attractive as Lewa. Toomalek took a 
 bottle of rum and a white man, Ebenezer Olmsted 
 by name, and went to the wigwam of Mitchel, and 
 commenced treating the compamy. Olmsted ob- 
 served that Toomalek drank but little, whilst Mitchel 
 indulged freely in his potations. When Mitchel be- 
 gan to be excited by the spirit he drank, he com- 
 menced upbraiding Toomalek for the murder of his 
 wife, and for the wound inflicted on him. After 
 much crimination and recrimination, promoted and 
 aggravated by Toomalek for a specific purpose, 
 Mitchel drew his knife upon his foe, and made a fee- 
 ble pass at him. Toomalek then drew his knife on 
 Mitchel, and gave him his death-wound at once ! 
 For this offence, Toomalek had his trial, and was ac- 
 quitted, because Mitchel made the first assault, and
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 181 
 
 Toomalek argued that he killed Hitchel in self-de- 
 fence ; yet all were satisfied that Toomalek was the 
 sole means of promoting the quarrel, and that he did 
 
 
 
 it that he might have an excuse for killing Mitchel. 
 
 But Old John, who delighted in blood, was still 
 using his influence to preserve the life of Toomalek ; 
 and he did it, as Providence overruled it, to bring 
 upon himself and family a terrible calamity nothing 
 less than the murder of his elder son, Pi-al ; and he 
 did it on this wise. Toomalek, Pi-al, and several 
 others were over on Haverhill side, and called at 
 Charles Wheeler's house, son of Glazier Wheeler, on 
 the little Ox Bow, about eleven o'clock in the fore- 
 noon. They were disposed to be somewhat noisy and 
 turbulent at that time, and manifested that they 
 had been drinking spirit. They asked for some 
 there, but obtained none. They left Wheeler's before 
 noon, and proceeded eastward. Some time in the 
 afternoon, they came along near where the old court- 
 house stood in the north parish in Haverhill, west of 
 Major Merrill's house, now Mr. Hibbard's, where 
 they met a young squaw from Newbury, who began 
 to rally Pi-al on some past acts of gallantry. Pi-al 
 returned upon her measure for measure, which the 
 young lady took in dudgeon. She could give, but 
 not receive a joke. Perhaps Pi-al jested too near the
 
 182 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 truth. She turned aside, and held a brief conversa- 
 tion with Toomalek, in a low voice, and then passed 
 on. Toomalek then stepped back to his companions, 
 and walked south by the side of Pi-al ; and in a few 
 moments he drew his long knife, and by a back-hand 
 stroke, plunged it into Pi-al's throat. It entered at 
 the top of the sternum, and descended to the lungs. 
 Pi-al ran with the blood spouting from the wound a 
 few rods, and fell lifeless upon the ground. It was 
 supposed that in this instance Toomalek killed Pi-al 
 in obedience to the expressed wish of the young 
 squaw ; but he never criminated her. His compan- 
 ions ran and carried the news of the murder to their 
 English neighbors, and Toomalek was taken into 
 custody, without resistance, or an attempt to escape, 
 and was carried across the river into Newbury, for his 
 trial the next day. When the news came to Old 
 John that Toomalek had killed his son Pi-al, he was 
 overwhelmed with it, and his conscience awoke to its 
 duty. He was almost frantic through agony. He 
 confessed his sin in sparing the life of a murderer in 
 the two previous instances already stated. He said, 
 God had brought this calamity upon him for his sin ; 
 and both he and his wife spent the whole night in 
 loud lamentations and self-reproaches. 
 
 The next day, in the forenoon, a court was called
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTBT. 183 
 
 to try Toomalek, and after all the evidence was ob- 
 tained, they unanimously gave verdict against him, 
 and said he must be shot. They appointed, however, 
 a deputation to wait on the Rev. Mr. Powers, to 
 know whether that decision was agreeable to the 
 word of God. After hearing the evidence, he told 
 them he believed it was, and they immediately set 
 about carrying it into effect. By Indian law, Old 
 John must be the executioner, as he was the nearest 
 by blood to the slain, and he must avenge the blood 
 of his son. The ground floor of the old court-house, 
 standing opposite the burying ground at the west, 
 was the place designated for the execution. Tooma- 
 lek came to the place himself, without, guard or at- 
 tendance, where John stood in readiness with his 
 loaded musket. He seated himself upon the floor, 
 said his Catholic prayers, covered his eyes, and said, 
 "Mack bence;" that is, "Kill me quick!" John 
 stepped forward, put the muzzle of the gun near his 
 head, and he was dead in an instant ! Joe and 
 Molly were both present at the execution of her son ; 
 and as soon as it was over, Joe took one arm, and 
 Molly the other, and they dragged the body from the 
 house and buried it. Molly had mourned and wept 
 bitterly for the death of Muxa-Wuxal, which hap- 
 pened the same season ; but she never shed a tear
 
 184 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 over the grave of Tomalek, nor was she ever heard 
 to speak his name afterward. Old John was after- 
 ward found dead by the side of a log, at the foot of 
 the hill, near the present garden of William. Johnson. 
 Old Joe was a staunch whig, although he had no 
 predilection for war himself. The "red coats" had 
 broken up and dispersed his tribe in Nova Scotia, 
 and he never would forgive them. He rejoiced in 
 every success of the Colonies. He and Molly paid a 
 visit to General Washington, at his head-quarters on 
 North River, and he was received with marked atten- 
 tion. It was his boast to the last, that he had shook 
 hands with Gen. Washington, and he and Molly were 
 invited to sit at the general's table, after he and the 
 other officers had eaten . And so great was his anti- 
 pathy to the king of England, that he never would 
 enter his dominions after the war. Some of his 
 friends of the St. Francois tribe came down to New- 
 bury on purpose to persuade him and Molly to re- 
 turn ; but Captain Joe would hear nothing to it. 
 He would take his hunting excursions at the extreme 
 north of Vermont, but not pass into Canada. He 
 and Molly went to Derby one season for a hunt, and 
 built them a wigwam. The Indians of St. Francois 
 heard of it, and came out and stole Molly when Joe 
 was hunting, and carried her off to their quarters, in
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 185 
 
 hopes that Joe would follow ; but he would not. 
 And having followed a moose two days in full expec- 
 tation of taking him, when he came to find that the 
 moose had crossed into Canada, he stopped short, 
 and said "Good bye, Mr. Moose !" turned upon his 
 heel, and sought his repose in the states. 
 
 Joe and Molly have each a pond called after them 
 in the town of Cabot. Joe's Pond empties itself into 
 the Passumpsic by Joe's Brook. Molly's Pond dis- 
 charges its waters into Lake Champlain by Onion 
 River. Joe survived Molly many years. When he 
 became old, and was unable to support himself, the 
 legislature of Vermont voted him a pension of 
 seventy dollars annually. He spent his last years 
 with Mr. Frye Bailey, of Newbury. He departed 
 this life, February 19, 1819, aged 79 years. Report 
 made him much older than that ; but it could not be 
 true, if he was so young at the taking of Louisburg 
 that he could not recollect the name of his tribe. 
 At his funeral, the principal men of the town at- 
 tended. He was buried in the south-eastern corner 
 of the burying ground. His gun, which was found 
 loaded after his death, was discharged over his grave. 
 His snow-shoes are with Mr. Frye Bailey. With 
 Capt. Joe fell the last of the Indians at Coossuck, 
 that once fairy land of long-slumbering generations !
 
 186 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 We have already spoken of the war of the revolu- 
 tion when upon individual character, fortified houses, 
 and commanders of companies, &c. But these times 
 require more distinct consideration in these annals, 
 because they form an epoch in our history ; and be- 
 cause they embrace many things which serve to de- 
 velop causes which for a long period have lain con- 
 cealed from general observation; which causes cannot 
 fail to interest the descendants of those who bore the 
 burden and heat of the day in which our independ- 
 ence was achieved. The first settlers at Coos sus- 
 tained, in common with their brethren, all the hard- 
 ships which were brought on the Colonies by the war 
 of the revolution; and, owing to their peculiar circum- 
 stances, they were called to additional burdens, almost 
 too grievous to be borne; They were yet struggling 
 with the privations and inconveniences necessarily 
 attendant upon new settlements, remote from old 
 towns and a ready market. They were frontier set- 
 tlements. They were contiguous to the strongholds 
 of the enemy, and were continually exposed t their 
 savage incursions. And what was worst of all, Ver- 
 mont was not an acknowledged state, although she 
 had often requested to be received into the Union. 
 This was owing to conflicting claims to these Grants, 
 set up by the states of New York, New Hampshire,
 
 OF THB COOS COUNTRY. 187 
 
 and Massachusetts. No two of them could agree 
 who should have them, yet all could agree to oppose 
 in Congress the admission of Vermont into the Union 
 as an independent state ; and so influential were those 
 three states at that time, that Congress did not dare 
 to decide contrary to their wishes, although they 
 might see manifest injustice in their opposition. 
 The British were fully aware of the excited state of 
 feeling in Vermont in regard to this subject, and as 
 Vermont was rejected by her sister Colonies, they en- 
 tertained strong hopes that they should detach her 
 from the common interest of the Colonies, and bring 
 her to espouse the cause of the mother country. To 
 this end the British made every possible effort by 
 promises and threats. Their scouts traversed the 
 whole territory, promising the most liberal rewards to 
 all who would befriend them, and threatening ven- 
 geance upon the lives and property of those who 
 should adhere to the interest of the Colonies. 
 
 Vermont had a difficult part to sustain in the grand 
 drama then being acted. She stood between two or 
 more fires, and it required all her physical powers, 
 and all her finesse, not to founder in Scylla or Chary- 
 bdis. The alluring promises of the British had ac- 
 tually brought many to feel favorably inclined to 
 their cause, and it is thought that there were some
 
 188 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 of this description in high places. Others would lis- 
 ten to these proposals of the British for self-preserva- 
 tion ; for now these Grants were left to repel all in- 
 vasions single handed. It was also true that tories 
 from other states sought a retreat in the Grants, 
 where they were less liable to arrest, and where they 
 could with greater facility maintain correspondence 
 with the British. And so it was, that the British 
 came in possession of all the movements -of the Amer- 
 icans, as soon as any plan was matured against the 
 enemy. But we ought here to state that there were 
 many true-hearted Americans in the Grants ; men 
 who were ready to sacrifice their property and to lay 
 down their lives in defense of their country ; and 
 those who took the field did nobly, and by their he- 
 roic deeds, they gained the distinctive appellation, 
 the Green Mountain Boys, a title which their de- 
 scendants are proud to bear to this day. 
 
 The policy which the leading men of that day 
 adopted was, not to declare, either that they would 
 or would not be independent of the mother country ; 
 intending thereby to save themselves from an invasion 
 by the British, and, at the same time, to present mo- 
 tives to Congress for receiving them into the Union. 
 This was a difficult part to perform, owing to the ar- 
 dor with which the British pressed the subject for an
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 189 
 
 immediate decision ; but it was maintained, and 
 Vermont finally secured her utmost wishes. 
 
 But while these things were transacting, there were 
 men, in almost every town, who had rendered them- 
 selves very obnoxious to the displeasure of the British 
 and tories, and they were unwearied in their endeav- 
 ors to get them into their hands. The tories were 
 relied upon by the British for those captures, and 
 they were by far the most dangerous foe that our 
 men had to contend with. They would intrude 
 themselves into the families of the whigs under the 
 mask of friendship, draw forth the secrets of their 
 breasts, convey them to the British, and then lead on 
 a scouting party to the threshold of their neighbor, 
 or, in his absence, kill his cattle or set fire to his 
 dwelling in the dead hour of night. We can hardly 
 conceive how distressing such a state of suspense and 
 watchful anxiety must have been during the long 
 period of eight years. But Newbury was annoyed 
 by these means far more than Haverhill, for those 
 scouts of the enemy had not the temerity to cross the 
 river, well knowing that a retreat would be next to 
 impossible. 
 
 There were several men in Newbury who had, by 
 their devotion to their country, excited^the enmity of 
 the British and tories to a high degree, and they
 
 190 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 were resolved on taking them. One was the Rev. 
 Peter Powers, who had preached and done everything 
 in his power to sustain the cause of the Colonies, and 
 he had already buried his oldest son, Peter, in the 
 army. But, as I have previously stated, Mr. Powers 
 moved on to Haverhill side for his security. Gen. 
 Jacob Bailey was another of these men. He was a 
 very prominent man at that day. He possessed 
 great influence with his countrymen, and the Indians 
 looked up to him as a father. He acted as quarter- 
 master-general to the troops stationed at Newbury 
 and in the vicinity, and the Indians were not over- 
 looked in the distribution of the daily rations. He 
 retained their friendship during the war. The Brit- 
 ish felt it so important to secure Gen. Bailey, that 
 they offered a heavy reward for his person, and many 
 plans were concerted for his capture ; but they never 
 succeeded. Col. Thomas Johnson was another man 
 whom they considered as a notorious rebel, as he had 
 distinguished himself at the taking of Ticonderoga 
 and the seige of Mount Independence, in the autumn 
 of 1777. At that time, Johnson went out as captain 
 of a volunteer company from Newbury ; but he acted, 
 a part of the time, as aid to Gen. Lincoln. When 
 the British surrendered at Ticonderoga, one hundred 
 of the prisoners were given in charge to Col. John-
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 191 
 
 son, and ho marched them back into the country, 
 where they would not be exposed to a recapture, and 
 where they would not diminish the rations of our men 
 at the fort. The British, of course, were desirous of 
 taking Col. Johnson ; but he eluded all their vigi- 
 lance until the spring of 1781, when they succeeded 
 in capturing him. It was on this wise. Col. John- 
 son had contracted to build a grist-mill in Peacham, 
 and when he went up with the mill-stones in March, 
 he put up at the house of Deacon Jonathan Elkins, 
 in Peacham, which house was surrounded in the night 
 by some British and tories, was broken open, and 
 Johnson, Jacob Page, Jonathan and Moses Elkins, 
 sons of Deacon Elkins, were taken prisoners. But as 
 I have Col. Johnson's journal of this date, it may be 
 more interesting to give the journal itself. 
 
 "March 5, 1781. This morning early, went over 
 to Haverhill with my teams for my mill- stones. Re- 
 turned before dinner, shod my oxen, took dinner, 
 and set out for Peacham at 2 P. M. This night put 
 up at Orr's, in Ryegate. 
 
 Tuesday, Oth. This day, being thawy and bad go- 
 ing, I was obliged to leave one of my mill-stones 
 within one mile of the place where we lodged. This 
 night arrived at Peacham with the other mill-stone. 
 Lodged at Mr. Elkins'.
 
 192 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 " Wednesday, 7th. This morning, finding rny oxen 
 lame, I sent Mr. Josiali Page, with the oxen, home. 
 Hired Jonathan Elkins, with his oxen, and went back 
 and took the other mill-stone, and returned to Peach- 
 am. Should have returned home myself this even- 
 ing, but was a little unwell. 
 
 " Thursday, 8th. This morning, about twelve or 
 one o'clock, I awaked out of my sleep, and found the 
 house beset with enemies. Thought I would slip on 
 my stockings, jump out of the window, and run. 
 But before that, came in two men with their guns 
 pointed at me, and challenged me for their prisoner, 
 but did not find myself the least terrified. Soon 
 found two of the men old acquaintances of mine. 
 I saw some motions for tying me, but I told them 
 that I submitted myself a prisoner, and would offer 
 no abuse. Soon packed up, and marched, but never 
 saw people so surprised as the family was. When we 
 came to Mr. Davis', I found the party to consist of 
 eleven men, Capt. Prichard commanding. Then 
 marched seven or eight miles, when daylight began to 
 appear. I found Moses Elkins looked very pale. I 
 told the captain he had better let him go back, for he 
 was drowned when he was small, and that he would 
 not live through the woods. He said he would try 
 him further ; but on my pleading the pity it would
 
 OF THB COOS COUNTRY. 193 
 
 be to lose such a youngster, he sent him back. We 
 soon halted for refreshment. To my great surprise, 
 I found John Gibson and Barlow of the party. Then 
 marched about four miles, and obtained leave to 
 write a letter and leave on a tree, then marched. I 
 was most terribly tired and faint. Camped down on 
 the River Lamoille this night. 
 
 " Friday, 9th. This day marched down the River 
 Lamoille, about twelve miles below the forks. One 
 of the finest countries of land that ever I saw. 
 Camped about eleven o'clock at night. 
 
 " Saturday, 10th. This day marched to the lake. 
 Underwent a great deal by being faint and tired. 
 The captain and men were very kind to us. A 
 stormy and uncomfortable night. 
 
 " Sunday, llth. This morning went on to the 
 lake ten miles, north of the mouth of the River La- 
 moille ; marched fifteen miles on the lake, then 
 crossed the Grand Isle ; marched ten miles to Point 
 Au Fer. Dinner being on the table, I dined with the 
 commandant of that fort, and supped with him. 
 Was well treated. 
 
 " Monday, 12th. This day marched to the Isle 
 Au Noix, went into the fort, into a barrack, got a 
 cooking ; but the commandant ordered the prisoners 
 
 out of the fort to a block-house ; but soon had sent 
 9
 
 194 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 me a good dinner and a bottle of wine. Then Capt. 
 Sherwood called on me to examine me. In the even- 
 ing, Capt. Sherwood and Capt. Prichard waited on 
 me to Mr. Jones, where we driuked a bottle of wine. 
 Capt. Prichard and I slept there. 
 
 " Tuesday, 13th. This day marched to St. John's. 
 Col. St. Leger took me to his house, and gave me a 
 shirt, gave me some refreshment, which I much need- 
 ed. Told me I was to dine with him. Major Rogers 
 and Esq. Marsh and others dined there. Then gave 
 me my parole, which I am told is the first instance of 
 a prisoner having his parole in this fort without some 
 confinement. Lodged with Esq. Marsh. 
 
 " Wednesday, 14th. This morning, Esquire Marsh 
 and I were invited to Capt. Sherwood's to breakfast. 
 Then Capt. Sherwood took charge of me, and I lived 
 with him. To my great satisfaction, this evening 
 came Mr. Spardain to see me, who was a prisoner to 
 me at Ti. He said, on hearing that I was a prisoner, 
 he went to the commandant to inform him of the 
 good treatment he and others had from me while they 
 were prisoners to me. The commandant sent him to 
 my quarters to inform me that my good treatment of 
 them was much to my advantage." 
 
 In this same journal, under date of June 14th, we
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 195 
 
 have the colonel's impressions from witnessing a Ro- 
 man Catholic procession, and his views of the Cana- 
 dians. He was at this time at Three Rivers. 
 
 "June 14th. This day there was a Roman Catho- 
 lic procession. Their walks, their shows, very extra- 
 ordinary. Their carrying God Almighty about the 
 streets is something new to me. I think it is a curee 
 to the land, and a curse to their king, to have such a 
 miserable set of inhabitants as these Canadians. 
 They are the most ignorant, superstitious, idle, and 
 careless set of people that can be thought of, spend- 
 ing half of their time in holidays and going to mass. 
 The women wear riding-hoods the hottest weather." 
 
 This journal of Col. Johnson will show clearly the 
 policy of the British towards different individuals of 
 the Grants, treating those of some distinction with 
 great urbanity and kindness, in hopes of winning 
 them over to their cause, and treating others with 
 needless severity. Col. Johnson was treated with mark- 
 ed attention during his whole stay in Canada ; but 
 it fared differently with Page and Elkins. Johnson 
 was for some time kept at St. John's, and was allowed 
 his parole not a parole to go where he pleased, but a 
 parole known in the military profession, which dis-
 
 196 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 tinguishes between friends and enemies in camp ; 
 and it is a privilege granted to certain individuals 
 every day, and proclamation of it is made every day 
 by a certain officer. 
 
 Page was sent directly down to Montreal, and we 
 never hear of him afterwards. Jonathan Elkins was 
 carried directly down to Quebec, and was there im- 
 prisoned, and suffered immensely from want until 
 late in the fall of 1781, when he and one hundred and 
 fifty others were put on board a ship and sent to 
 England, where they were confined in Mill Prison 
 from February 9, 1782. till the 24th of June follow- 
 ing. They had but two-thirds the allowance of a 
 common soldier, and they were miserably clad, most 
 of them. Dr. Franklin, who was then our minister 
 at France, hearing of their poor condition, sent each 
 prisoner one shilling sterling per week, in addition to 
 their allowance from the British government, and this 
 was a great relief to them. Col. Elkins says to me 
 under his own hand " There were among us forty 
 captains of vessels, and many others who had some 
 learning ; and when we got our shilling a week from 
 Dr. Franklin, it was proposed that we, who had no 
 learning, should pay four coppers a week for school- 
 ing, and soon many schools were opened. Among 
 the rest, I procured paper, pen and ink, and a slate,
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 197 
 
 and paid my four coppers per week for tuition. By 
 this means, many who could neither read nor write, 
 got so much learning, that they were capable of trans- 
 acting business for themselves, and a number of us 
 learned the mariner's art, so as to be capable of navi- 
 gating a ship. On the 24th of June, 1782, there were 
 one thousand seven hundred and thirty-three prison- 
 ers put on board a cartel, and sent to America in ex- 
 change for Lord Cornwallis* grenadiers and light in- 
 fantry. And I returned with them to my native 
 country. 
 
 "JONATHAN ELKINS. 
 
 14 Peacham, Vt, Deo. 8, 1832." 
 
 We return again to see how it resulted with John- 
 son. Notwithstanding Johnson was treated with so 
 much apparent respect, he could not but observe that 
 he had his quarters often shifted from St. John's to 
 Montreal, then to Chambly, then to Three Kivers, 
 and at each place he would be interrogated by differ- 
 ent officers relative to flie views and feelings of the 
 inhabitants of the Grants, and what he thought of 
 the prospects of the Colonies. To all these and sim- 
 ilar inquiries he replied with as much apparent indif- 
 ference to the cause of America as he could show, 
 never relating to them an untruth, and still reserving
 
 198 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 to himself whatever he thought might be advanta- 
 geous to them, and detrimental to America. And he 
 had cause to congratulate himself for having adhered 
 to this uniform course ; for he found out, after a 
 while, that all his conversation with these different 
 officers, at different places, was penned down and sent 
 to the supreme commandant, to be inspected by him, 
 to see if his statements agreed. He caught the read- 
 ing of a note, also, which was sent from one in high 
 command to the young officer who had the charge of 
 him. The purport of it was this " I take you to be 
 a person of too much sense and intelligence to be im- 
 posed upon by the prisoner." The young man's 
 sense and intelligence were not enough to restrain 
 him from occasional hard drinking, and at one of 
 those seasons, he left this note exposed to Johnson's 
 inspection. These things taught Johnson that after 
 all their show of confidence in him, they were still 
 suspicious of him ; and he thought, if they were dis- 
 posed to play Yankee with him, he would take a game 
 with them at that. He accordingly affected more and 
 more indifference to the cause of the Colonies, until 
 they began to feel that if he was in other circum- 
 stances, he would render them essential service. Ac- 
 cordingly, after retaining him between seven and 
 eight months, they told Johnson if he would give
 
 OF THB COOS COUNTRY. 199 
 
 them information of the movements of the Ameri- 
 cans, supply their scouts with provision if called up- 
 on, and return to them when they demanded, he 
 might return home upon his parole. Johnson assent- 
 ed to these stipulations, and signed the following in- 
 strument : 
 
 ."I, Lieut. Col. Johnson, now at . John's, do 
 hereby pledge my faith and word of honor to his ex- 
 cellency, Gen. Holdimand, whose permission I have 
 obtained to go home, that I shall not do or say any 
 thing contrary to his majesty's interest or govern- 
 ment ; and that whenever required so to do, I shall 
 repair to whatever place his excellency or any other 
 his majesty's commander-in-chief in America shall 
 judge expedient to order me, until I shall be legally 
 exchanged, and such other person as shall be agreed 
 upon, sent in my place. 
 
 " Given under my hand at St. John's, this fifth 
 
 day of October, one thousand seven hundred 
 
 and eighty-one. 
 
 " Col. THOMAS JOHNSON." 
 
 Upon Col. Johnson's signing this instrument, he 
 returned home to his family at Newbury, and neither 
 received any intelligence from the British, nor gave
 
 200 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 any, until January following, as we learn from a 
 communication of Col. Johnson to Gen. Washington, 
 bearing date, May 30, 1782. In January, Col. John- 
 son received a letter from Capt. Prichard, by the 
 hand of Levi Sylvester, of Newbury, and one from 
 George Smith, in Canada. In February, 1782, Col. 
 Johnson wrote a letter to Gen. Holdimand and one 
 to Prichard, and sent them by Sylvester. He sent, 
 also, two newspapers containing the account of the 
 surrender of Lord Cornwallis. A copy of those letters 
 was sent to Gen. Washington the May following, and 
 a copy of Smith's letter to Johnson was also enclosed. 
 Sylvester informed Col. Johnson that Major Rogers 
 had come into the Grants at the head of a strong 
 scout, and was then at Mooretown, now Bradford, 
 and wished to see him that night ; but Johnson was 
 detained, and did not go until some days after, and 
 then he did not find Rogers, and did not see him at 
 all. 
 
 At this time Col. Johnson feeling oppressed with 
 his peculiar situation, being liable, on the one hand, 
 to be viewed and treated as a traitor by the British, 
 and on the other, to be numbered with the enemies 
 of his country, determined to communicate to Gen. 
 Washington all he had learned in his captivity, all he 
 had done to obtain his liberty, and all he had done
 
 OP THB COOS COUNTRY. 201 
 
 from the time of his leaving Canada, and his motives 
 for doing so, and solicit the general's advice in respect 
 to the course he had better pursue. He accordingly 
 wrote a detailed account, covering about nine pages 
 of common-sized paper, too long to be inserted in 
 these sketches, agreeing, to wonderful exactness, with 
 the statement the colonel made to me, near the close 
 of life, although he did not know at that time that a 
 single line of it was in existence, and expressed the 
 deepest regret that he had not kept copies of his let- 
 ters to Washington, and of Washington's letter to 
 him. They have, however, since come to light, hav- 
 ing been found among Washington's private paperp, 
 and are now in the possession of the Rev. Jared 
 Sparks, of Cambridge, Mass., and have been by him 
 transcribed and certified, at the request of Mr. David 
 Johnson, of Newbury. This first paper to which I 
 allude is an interesting document, and, would my 
 limits permit, I should be pleased to give it entire to 
 my readers ; but the letter accompanying, and those 
 which followed this communication, will explain this 
 whole affair, and revive many interesting facts which 
 have lain dormant, perhaps, in the minds of the aged 
 for many years. The letter accompanying the docu- 
 ment bears the same date of the document itself, and 
 is as follows : 
 9*
 
 202 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 "THOS. JOHNSON TO GEN. WASHINGTON. 
 
 "Newbury, 30 May, 1782. 
 
 "May it please your excellency to indulge me 
 while I say, that in the month of March, 1781, I 
 was taken a prisoner, as set forth in my narrative, 
 continued in Canada until September, when I ob- 
 tained liberty to return home on parole, which I 
 could effect only by engaging to carry on a corres- 
 pondence with them. This was my view, to get 
 what intelligence I was able respecting their plans 
 and movements, and in hopes to be exchanged, that 
 I might be able, in a regular way, to have given some 
 important intelligence. I have taken such measures 
 as appeared most likely to effect the same ; but as 
 these have hitherto failed, I find the season so far 
 advanced as not to admit of further delay without 
 acquainting your excellency. 
 
 " The proposed plans of the enemy for the last 
 campaign were frustrated for want of provisions ; 
 but they determined to pursue them this spring as 
 early as possible. To this end, they have used their 
 most unwearied endeavors with Vermont to prepare 
 the way, which they have, in a great and incredible 
 degree, brought to pass, and is daily increasing ; arid 
 unless some speedy stop is put to it, I dread the con- 
 sequences. I entreat your excellency, that if possi-
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 203 
 
 ble, by a regular exchange, I may be enabled to give 
 nil the intelligence in my power without hazarding 
 my character, which, otherwise, I am determined to 
 do, at the risk of my honor, my all and, perhaps, to 
 the great injury of hundreds of poor prisoners now 
 in their hands. Having had experience, I am grieved 
 to think of their situation. This infernal plan of 
 treachery with Vermont (as I have often heard in 
 Canada) was contrived before Ethan Allen left the 
 British, and he was engaged on their side. It ran 
 through the country like a torrent, from New York 
 to Canada, and the present temper of Vermont is a 
 piece of the same. Were the people in general upon 
 the Grants, on this side the mountains, to declare for 
 New Hampshire or New York, it would be contrary 
 to the agreement of their leading men ; and, unless 
 protected by your excellency, the innocent with the 
 guilty would share a miserable fate. This part of 
 the country being sold by a few designing men, of 
 whom a large number are very jealous, a small num- 
 ber have by me their informer, or otherwise, got the 
 certainty of it, and it puts them in a most disagreea- 
 ble situation. They are desirous of declaring for 
 New Hampshire ; but many of their leaders earnestly 
 dissuading them from it, it keeps us in a tumult, and 
 I fear the enemy will get so great an advantage as to
 
 204 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 raise their standard to the destruction of this part of 
 the country. They keep their spies constantly in this 
 quarter without molestation, and know every move- 
 ment, and transmit the same directly to Canada ; and 
 when matters take a turn contrary to their minds, 
 we are miserably exposed to their severest resentment. 
 I am entirely devoted to your excellency's pleasure. 
 Should my past conduct meet your excellency's ap- 
 probation, my highest ambition will be satisfied ; if 
 not, deal with me as your wisdom shall dictate. I 
 most earnestly entreat your excellency to meditate a 
 moment on my critical and perplexing situation, as 
 well as that of this part of the country, and that I 
 may receive by Capt. Bailey, the bearer, who will be 
 able to give you further information, your excellency's 
 pleasure in this affair. I beg leave to subscribe my- 
 self your excellency's most sincere and most devoted 
 servant. 
 
 "THOS. JOHNSON." 
 
 Col. Johnson stated in this letter what he verily 
 believed to be true of the men in the Grants, who 
 were carrying on a correspondence with the British. 
 He viewed it just as it was viewed by the British, and 
 he had no means of knowing any thing to the con- 
 trary ; but it ultimately appeared that some of these
 
 OF THB COOS COUNTRY. 205 
 
 men, who were considered friends to the British, were 
 playing a deep game, in which the British, the Con- 
 tinental Congress, and themselves, were distinct par- 
 ties. These men were determined that Vermont 
 should be a distinct and independent community, like 
 the other states ; but as Congress would not receive 
 them, and had withdrawn their troops that had been 
 sent for their defence, they managed as they could 
 with the British to preserve the Grants from invasion. 
 There is no doubt but the British were completely 
 deceived by them, and Ethan Allen procured an en- 
 gagement, on the part of the British, that no hostili- 
 ties should be carried on against Vermont. The 
 principal men in this understanding were Thomas 
 Chittenden, Moses Robinson, Samuel Safford, Ethan 
 Allen, Ira Allen, Timothy Brownson, John Fasset, 
 and Joseph Fay. But at the same time, the British 
 correspondence, with them was transmitted to Con- 
 gress, by these men, to operate as an inducement for 
 Congress to receive them into the Union, and Ethan 
 Allen wrote to Congress in the following bold and 
 impassioned language : "I am resolutely determined 
 to defend the independence of Vermont, as Congress 
 are that of the United States, and rather than fail, 
 will retire with the hardy Green Mountain Boys into 
 the caverns of the mountains, and wage war with hu-
 
 206 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 man nature at large." But surely there was enough 
 seen and heard in Canada, at the time Col. Johnson 
 was prisoner there, to make any friend of his country 
 tremble for the consequences. But we have Gen. 
 "Washington's answer to Col. Johnson's letter of the 
 30th May, 1782. 
 
 " To Capt. Thomas Johnson, Exeter, N. H. 
 
 Head-Quarters, 14 June, 1782. 
 
 " Sir, 
 
 " I have received your favor per Capt. Bailey, and 
 thank you for the information contained, and would 
 beg you to continue your communication whenever 
 you shall collect any intelligence you shall think of 
 importance. It would give me real pleasure to have 
 it in my power to effect your exchange ; but some un- 
 happy circumstances have lately taken place, which, 
 for the present, cut off all exchange. If you can fall 
 upon any mode to accomplish your wishes, in which I 
 can with propriety give you my assistance, I shall be 
 very glad to afford it. 
 
 I am, sir, &c. 
 
 "G. WASHINGTON." 
 
 "THOS JOHSON TO GEN. WASHINGTON. 
 
 Exeter, July 20, 1782. 
 
 "I am obliged by your excellency's favor of the 
 14th June, to acknowledge your excellency's goodness 
 in offering your assistance in my exchange. I think
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 207 
 
 it proper to give a more particular account of my sit- 
 uation, and have enclosed a copy of my parole for 
 your perusal. I think, agreeable to the parole, they 
 cannot refuse a man in my room, although there is 
 no exchange agreed upon. Your excellency will de- 
 termine on my rank. I was held at Canada a lieuten- 
 ant-colonel in the militia. I was a captain, and after- 
 wards chosen a lieutenant-colonel in the militia, 
 agreeable to the order of the Assembly of New York ; 
 but being at a groat distance, before my commission 
 could reach me, Vermont claimed jurisdiction, and I 
 never had the commission, and I told them the same ; 
 but I was obliged to acknowledge myself as such in 
 my parole, or I could not have accomplished my de- 
 sign. My situation grows more distressing. I have 
 been exposed by the infirmity or imprudence of a 
 gentleman, one that we could not have expected it 
 from. I have received nothing of much importance 
 since my last. I have since received a confirmation 
 of their intentions to execute rigorous measures 
 againt the opposers of Vermont. I have fears of an 
 invasion on that part of New Hampshire by the im- 
 prudence above mentioned. I have fears of the cor- 
 respondence being stopped ; have wrote to Canada ; 
 since which, by agreement, Capt. Prichard was to 
 meet on Onion River, the 10th of this instant. Pri-
 
 208 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 vate concerns brought me here at this time. If sus- 
 picion don't prevent, I expect something of impor- 
 tance waiting for me ; should it prevent, shall stand 
 in the greatest need of a man to send in exchange for 
 me. 
 
 "I am, sir, your most humble servant, 
 
 "THOS. JOHNSON." 
 
 We have another letter from Col. Johnson to Gen. 
 Washington, dated at Atkinson, N. H. , September 
 20, 1782. This is a letter of four pages, and as it 
 differs not materially from the two former, I omit it 
 in these sketches. 
 
 I give place to a letter of Meshech Weare to Gen. 
 Washington on the subject of Col. Johnson's peculiar 
 circumstances. This Mr. Weare was governor of 
 New Hampshire in 1784. 
 
 "MESHECH WEARE TO GEN. WASHINGTON. 
 
 " Hampton Falls, Nov. 25, 1782. 
 "Sir, 
 
 " The bearer, Col. Thomas Johnson, of whose 
 conduct with respect to procuring intelligence from 
 the enemy, your excellency has been informed, now 
 waits on you to communicate some things which ap- 
 pear to be important. From every information I 
 have been able to obtain, I have no reason to suspect
 
 OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 209 
 
 his honesty or fidelity. His situation at this time is 
 very difficult, as he will fully inform you, and re- 
 quests your assistance in such way as you may think 
 proper. I cannot help expressing my fears of what 
 may be the consequence'of the negotiations carrying 
 on between Vermont and Canada, of which there 
 seems now to be scarce a doubt. 
 
 " I have the honor to be, with the greatest respect, 
 yours, &c. 
 
 " MESHECH WEARE." 
 
 We have one other interesting letter on this sub- 
 ject. It is from Nathaniel Peabody, of Atkinson, 
 N. H. Mr. Peabody was a member of the council in 
 New Hampshire, in 1785, and subsequently a mem- 
 ber of Congress. 
 
 " NATH. PEABODY TO GEN. WASHINGTON. 
 
 " Atkinson, State of New Hampshire, 
 Nov. 27, 1782. 
 
 "Sir I take the liberty to address your excellency 
 respecting the unhappy situation of Lieut. Col. John- 
 son, of Newbury, Coos, who will take charge of this 
 letter, and do himself the honor to wait on your ex- 
 cellency in person. Col. Johnson is desirous of giv- 
 ing to your excellency every information in his power, 
 relative to the situation, strength, and designs of the
 
 210 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 enemy at the northward, the embarrassed state of af- 
 fairs in the country where he lives, and more particu- 
 larly the ineligible circumstances in which his own 
 person, family, and domestic concerns are unhappily 
 involved. 
 
 " I have no doubt he hath been ungenerously de- 
 ceived, injured, and betrayed by some persons with 
 whom he found it necessary to intrust certain secrets, 
 to him of great importance, and from whom he had 
 a claim to better treatment. 
 
 " The latter end of last month I received a letter 
 from Col. Johnson, the contents of which he will 
 make known to you ; and I should have then done 
 myself the honor of transmitting the same, with 
 some other information, to your excellency ; but on a 
 conference I had with the president of this state, it 
 was concluded that intrusting affairs of that nature 
 by common post-riders would be unsafe for the pub- 
 lic, and dangerous for Col. Johnson, and that it was 
 expedient to despatch an express on purpose, as it was 
 adjudged probable your excellency had such a variety 
 of other channels for information, that there was lit- 
 tle prospect of giving new and important intelligence. 
 From the best information I have been able to obtain, 
 my own observation, and the personal knowledge I 
 have had for some years past, of Col. Johnson, I am
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 211 
 
 led without hesitating to conclude that he is a faith- 
 ful and sincere friend to the independence of these 
 United States ; that he would contribute every thing 
 in his power to promote the political salvation of this, 
 his native country ; and that he is a gentleman on 
 whose declaration your excellency may place full de- 
 pendence. 
 
 " I have the honor to be yours, &c. 
 
 "NATH. PEABODY." 
 
 The above has been copied from the originals now 
 in my possession. 
 
 JARED SPARKS. 
 Cambridge, Sept. 17, 1835. 
 
 There is nothing on paper to show the result of 
 Col. Johnson's interview with Gen. Washington ; but 
 it is well known with what feeling and interest the 
 colonel related the particulars of that interview until 
 the close of life. It is not probable that Gen. Wash- 
 ington was at that time in circumstances to effect an 
 exchange of prisoners, so as to set Johnson at liberty, 
 nor does this seem to be the main object of his visit ; 
 but he obtained the full approbation of Washington, 
 and enjoyed his sympathies, as he had previously ex- 
 pressed in his letter. But the treaty of peace, which
 
 212 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 was signed on the 20th of January, 1783, in less than 
 two months after Col. Johnson's visit to Washington, 
 set Johnson at liberty, dissipated all anxieties, and 
 conveyed peace and independence to the states. 
 
 I have given place to the preceding documents for 
 two reasons : one is, they give the present generation 
 a more lively and distinct idea of the trials and dan- 
 gers which the inhabitants of Coos sustained in the 
 revolutionary struggle, than any general history of 
 those times gives, or can give ; the other is, to do jus- 
 tice to the injured. All know what aspersions were 
 heaped upon Col. Johnson for the part he was said to 
 perform at that eventful period, and what pain it in- 
 flicted on him through life, although conscious of in- 
 nocence in respect to those charges. He supposed 
 time and Providence had forever deprived him of the 
 means to demonstrate his innocence ; and under this 
 apprehension, he resigned this life, January 4th, 1819, 
 aged seventy-seven years. But it seems that Provi- 
 dence designed ultimately to refute all those charges ; 
 and what God undertakes is thoroughly done. If 
 ever mortal man was vindicated in any supposed case, 
 and his character set above all suspicion, that man is 
 Col. Thomas Johnson, touching his patriotism in the 
 day that tried men's souls. 
 
 I have already stated how desirable an object it was
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 213 
 
 with the British to get in possession of Oen. Jacob 
 Bailey. A bold and determined effort to effect this 
 was made on the 17th of June, 1782, while Col. 
 Johnson was at home on parole. Gen. Bailey lived 
 at the Johnson village, in a house where now stands 
 the brick house of Josiah Little. Gapt. Prichard 
 and his scout, to the number of eighteen men, lay 
 upon the heights west of the Ox Bow, and they made 
 a signal for Col. Johnson to visit them. Johnson 
 went, as he was bound to do by the terms of his pa- 
 role, and he learned that they had come to capture 
 Gen. Bailey that evening. Johnson was now in a 
 great strait. Bailey was his neighbor, and a host 
 against the enemy, and Johnson could not have him 
 go into captivity ; and yet he must seem to conform 
 to the wishes of Prichard, or he would be recalled to 
 Canada him self, and in all probability have his build- 
 ings laid in ashes. Johnson returned to his house, 
 and resolved to inform Bailey of his danger, at the 
 hazard of every thing to himself. But how was thia 
 to be done ? Bailey, with two of his sons, was 
 ploughing on the Ox Bow. Prichard's elevated situ- 
 ation on the hill enabled him to look down upon the 
 Ox Bow as upon a map. The secret was intrusted 
 to Dudley Carleton, Esq., the brother of Col. John- 
 son's wife. Johnson wrote on a slip of paper this
 
 214 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 laconic sentence "The Philistines be upon thee, 
 Sampson!" He gave it to Carleton, and instructed 
 him to go on to the meadow, pass directly by Bailey 
 without stopping or speaking, but drop the paper in 
 his view, and return home by a circuitous rout. Car- 
 leton performed the duty assigned him well. Gen. 
 Bailey, when he came to the paper, carelessly took 
 the paper and read it, and as soon as he could, with- 
 out exciting suspicion in the minds of lookers on, 
 proposed to turn out the team, and said to his sons, 
 " Boys, take care of yourselves ! " and went himself 
 down to the bank of the river, and the sons went up 
 to the house, to carry the tidings to the guard that 
 was stationed there. The guard consisted of Capt. 
 Frye Bailey, commandant, Ezra Gates, Jacob Bailey, 
 Jun., Joshua Bailey, Sergeant Samuel Torrey, a hired 
 man of Gen. Bailey, three boys John Bailey, Isaac 
 Bailey, and Thomas Metcalf and a hired maid, 
 Sarah Fowler. 
 
 Although the guard was apprised of the general's 
 apprehensions, yet it would seem they thought his 
 fears were groundless, for they were taken by surprise 
 at early twilight, while they were taking their eve- 
 ning grog ; or, we might more significantly say, per- 
 haps, that they were taking in a freight of prowess to 
 be tested at a late hour of the night. The enemy
 
 OP THB COOS COUNTRY. 215 
 
 were not discovered until they were within a few rode 
 of the frontdoor. Sergeant Torrey met them at the 
 door, and levelled Ins piece at them ; but Prichard 
 knocked aside the gun, made Torrey his prisoner, 
 and the enemy rushed in. The guard dispersed in 
 all directions. Ezra Gates was wounded in the arm 
 by a ball, as he ran from the south front door, and a 
 gun was discharged at John Bailey, as he was jump- 
 ing the fence to run for the Ox Bow, and two balls 
 lodged in the fence close to him. Thomas Metcalf 
 reached (he meadow, where he tarried all night. 
 Gates was brought in and laid on the bed, where he 
 lay bleeding and groaning, whilst the enemy were 
 searching the house for prisoners and papers. 
 
 But there was one belonging to the house, who dis- 
 played great presence of mind and intrepidity. It 
 was woman ! woman, who in ten thousand instances, 
 has risen superior to danger, and performed astonish- 
 ing deeds of heroism, when man, her lord by consti- 
 tution, has forfeited his claim to superiority by timid- 
 ity and flight ! Sarah Fowler, the servant-maid 
 spoken of, remained upon the ground with a babe of 
 Mrs. Bailey in her arms, undismayed at the sight of 
 loaded muskets and bristling bayonets, and repeated- 
 ly extinguished a candle, which had been lighted for 
 the purpose of searching the house. Not succeeding
 
 216 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 with a candle, one of the party took a firebrand, and 
 attempted to renew the search ; this the dauntless 
 maid struck from his hand, and strewed the coals 
 around the room. This was too much for British 
 blood ; and one of the soldiers swore, by a tremen- 
 dous oath, that if she annoyed them any more, he 
 would blow out her brains, showing at the same time 
 how he -would do it. She then desisted, as she had 
 good reason to believe he would execute his threat. 
 
 Mrs. Bailey had, at the moment of the onset, es- 
 caped through an eastern window, and lay concealed 
 in currant bushes in the garden. The enemy, having 
 destroyed one gun, and taken what papers they could 
 find, commenced their retreat, greatly disappointed 
 in respect to the main object of their pursuit, for the 
 general was resting securely on Haverhill side. They 
 took with them prisoners, Gates and Pike, the hired 
 man of Gen. Bailey, and proceeded south. An 
 alarm was given, but not in time to arrest the enemy. 
 About a half a mile south, they met James Bailey, 
 son of Gen. Bailey, whom they took prisoner, and 
 kept until the close of the war. They took also 
 Pelatiah Bliss, who lived near where Harry C. Bailey 
 now lives. Bliss whined and cried, and made so 
 much ado about his wife and babes, and exhibited 
 so many symptoms of a weak mind, that, after con-
 
 OF THB COOS COUNTRY. 217 
 
 sul tat ion, they permitted him to escape. They called 
 at one other house, Andrew Carter's, drank all the 
 pans of milk the old lady had, and then prosecuted 
 their march into Canada, to report the failure of 
 their expedition. " But," says Col. Elkins, of 
 Peacham, in his letter of December 7, 1832, "this 
 failure of the British, in the main object of their ex- 
 pedition, brought fresh trouble upon Col. Thomas 
 Johnson. The tories in the vicinity, who had laid 
 the plan for taking Gen. Bailey, learning that he was 
 not at home that night, and knowing that he was not 
 in the habit of being absent from his family over 
 night, unless on business out of town, said at once, 
 Johnson was a traitor to their cause, for he must 
 have given Bailey information of his danger. Thig 
 rumor went with the party back to Canada, and 
 produced strong sensations of jealousy and resent- 
 ment there. Johnson was now the man to be ob- 
 tained, and his buildings were to be destroyed by fire 
 the next spring, if not before. But the disposition to 
 peace in the mother country, and the actual treaty 
 before the year came about, saved Johnson from the 
 calamities threatened upon him. 
 
 From this time the people of Coos moved on in the 
 even tenor of their way to ease and independence in 
 their circumstances. But even at the late period of 
 10
 
 218 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 which we have been speaking, a one-horse pleasure 
 carriage had never been seen at Coos. The first that 
 was ever seen in Newbury, was brought into the place 
 by a Rev. Mr. Goddard, who was preaching as a can- 
 didate to the people there, after the dismission of the 
 Rev. Mr. Powers. He rode up to Gen. Bailey's, as 
 he came into town, in a chaise or sulkey. There was 
 living at the general's a young miss, who happened 
 to be in at a neighboring house to visit an aunt, at 
 the time Mr. Goddard passed. So strange a vehicle 
 greatly excited her curiosity, and she called out to 
 her aunt, " 0, come here, aunt ! come here, and see 
 a man riding in a cart with two tongues !" On 
 horseback in summer, and in sleighs in winter, were 
 the only methods of riding at that day. 
 
 I have previously said that Haverhill and Newbury 
 were never one ecclesiastical society after the dismis- 
 sion of the Rev. Mr. Powers. The Rev. Jacob Wood 
 was the successor of Mr. Powers in Newbury. He 
 was ordained on the second Wednesday in January, 
 1788 ; departed this life, February 10, 1790, aged 33. 
 Rev. Nathaniel Lambert was ordained, November 17, 
 1790 ; dismissed April 4, 1809. Rev. Luther Jewett 
 was ordained, February 28, 1821 ; ceased to officiate, 
 February 3, 1825 ; dismissed, February 19, 1828.
 
 OP THE COOS COUNTRY. 219 
 
 Rev. Clark Perry was ordained, June 4, 1828 ; dis- 
 missed, June 15, 1835. Rev. George Campbell was 
 installed, January 27, 1-636, and remains their pastor. 
 Let us hope for a long, successful, and happy union. 
 From the time Mr. Powers closed his labors at 
 Haverhill, the people enjoyed but little preaching 
 until the year 1790. There was no organized church 
 in Haverhill, as they had belonged to Newbury 
 church, and there were but two males, members of 
 Newbury church, who belonged on Haverhill side, 
 viz., Col. Charles Johnston and the Hon. James 
 Woodward. The prospects of Haverhill were at that 
 time very gloomy in respect to religion, and for nine 
 months preceding the spring of 1790, there had not 
 been a sermon preached in the place. But in the 
 spring of that year, a melancholy death of a woman 
 occurred in the house now occupied by Capt. Uriah 
 Ward, which seemed to impress all minds with so- 
 lemnity. She had lived far from righteousness, and 
 died in great agony of soul in view of her endless 
 ruin. And now the precious grain, sown by the Rev. 
 Mr. Powers, which had lain buried long, being 
 watered by the dews and rains of divine grace, and 
 warmed by the vivifying rays of the Sun of righteous- 
 ness, began to germinate and to appear, to the great 
 joy of those few who had waited and prayed for con-
 
 220 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 solation in Israel. The holy and blessed spirit seemed 
 to come down upon them as a rushing, mighty wind ; 
 and it was but a short time before there was but one 
 house, from the Dow farm to Piermont line, in which 
 there was no special awakening with the occupants. 
 That house was at the Ayers' place. In all other 
 habitations there were wailings for sin. People 
 pressed together for prayer and instruction, and 
 clergymen, hearing of the wonders of God at Haver- 
 hill, came to obtain and to impart a blessing. The 
 Eev. Dr. Burton, of Thetford, and Rev. Dr. Bur- 
 roughs, of Hanover, were peculiarly helpful, and 
 their labors are remembered with gratitude to this 
 day by those who obtained the pearl of great price, 
 and still survive. During that season, more than 
 seventy persons became hopeful subjects of renewing 
 grace. And although that church and people have 
 witnessed repeated revivals of religion with them 
 since that period, yet the elders among the people 
 have never witnessed, as they think, the power of di- 
 vine grace in equal degree. I have myself, while re- 
 joicing with the newly converted in that place, and 
 feeling that we witnessed great things, been reminded 
 of the different feelings that were experienced by the 
 Jews at Jerusalem, at the laying of the foundation 
 of the second temple, on their return from captivity,
 
 OP THB COOS COUNTRY. 221 
 
 when I heard the old saints speak of what they had 
 witnessed. It will be recollected that the younger 
 Jews, who had never seen the first temple, rejoiced 
 greatly in the prospect of having a temple for wor- 
 ship. The older Jews rejoiced also ; but when they 
 contrasted their then present circumstances with 
 what they had been in the glory of the first temple, 
 for a time grief preponderated in their breasts, and 
 there was a mixed shout of joy and grief. So it has 
 repeatedly been at Haverhill. The converts of 1790 
 have ever been disposed to meditate on the power of 
 divine grace of that year ; and although they could 
 rejoice in the day of small things, yet they have 
 longed to see one more day of the right hand of the 
 Most High. 
 
 On the 13th of October, 1790, the church was first 
 organized. Rev. Dr. Burton, Rev. Dr. Burroughs, 
 and Rev. Mr. Ward, of Plymouth, officiated. Twen- 
 ty-two members constituted the church at its organ- 
 ization. Rev. Ethan Smith was their first pastor. 
 He was ordained, January 25, 1792, and continued 
 their pastor a little more than seven years ; dismissed 
 June 23, 1799. The Rev. John Smith succeeded Mr. 
 Ethan Smith, and was ordained, December 23, 1802, 
 and continued their pastor a little more than four 
 years ; dismissed, January 14, 1807. From this time
 
 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 to January 4, 1815, the church and ecclesiastical so- 
 ciety had no pastor, nor had they uninterrupted 
 preaching, but had many candidates and occasional 
 preaching. And here we have a melancholy exhibi- 
 tion of the mutable state of every church on earth. 
 The church that was so flourishing in 1792, was re- 
 duced in July, 1814, at the time when I commenced 
 my labors among them, to twelve members in the 
 south parish three males, and nine females, and a 
 covering of sackcloth was spread upon the tent of 
 Zion. But eight persons within the limits of the 
 parish had made a public profession of religion for 
 the last twenty-two years. Two were received under 
 the Rev. Ethan Smith, from 1792 to 1799 ; two un- 
 der the Rev. John Smith, from 1802 to 1807 ; and 
 four under the Rev. David Sutherland, of Bath, their 
 moderator, from 1807 to 1814. In the same time 
 there were one hundred and eight baptisms, four of 
 whom were adults. 
 
 In the autumn early of 1814, the people began 
 again to flow together to hear the word of life, and a 
 still, small voice was heard by many, saying, This 
 is the way walk ye in it. Many obeyed that voice. 
 It was impressively true, that the Lord did not ad- 
 vance, in this instance, in a "great and strong wind," 
 nor in the "earthquake," nor in the "fire ; " but his
 
 OP THB COOS COUNTRY. 223 
 
 coming was as the ushering in of day. The first ev- 
 idence of the King's presence was seen in the pro- 
 found stillness which reigned in the worshipping as- 
 sembly, and the fixed attention of the hearer. 
 Christiana began to feel that they were newly anointed 
 from on high, and they prayed with tenderness and 
 fervor, and sinners would drop a tear, when pointed- 
 ly addressed upon the concerns of their souls. Soon 
 we were told that this one, and that one, were deeply 
 anxious for their spiritual interest. And these in- 
 stances were multiplied until very many were pricked 
 in heart, and would inquire to know what they must 
 do to be saved. In a short time, some began to re- 
 joice in hope ; and this solemn and joyful state of 
 things continued through the remaining part of 1814, 
 and more or less through 1815. On the 4th of Jan- 
 uary, 1815, I received ordination, and before the close 
 of that year, I think, more than sixty were added to 
 the church ; some became pillars, and remain so to 
 the present day, although some have fallen asleep. 
 
 In 1822, we were blessed with another revival, but 
 not so extensive as the former. Some were called and 
 added to the church in 1826 ; and at the close of my 
 ministry in this place, which occurred, April 28, 
 1829, nearly fifteen years after I came among them, 
 there had been added to the church one hundred
 
 224 HISTORICAL SKETCHES 
 
 and nineteen members. There had been one hun- 
 dred and ninety-one baptisms, thirty-fire of whom 
 were adults. 
 
 The Rev. Henry Wood was installed their pastor, 
 December 14, 1831, and was dismissed, March 3, 
 1835. The Rev. Joseph Gibbs was ordained their 
 pastor, June 16, 1835, and departed this life, April 
 11, 1837. Rev. Archibald Fleming was installed, 
 June 27, 1838, and still remains their pastor. 
 
 With my best wishes and my prayers for their mu- 
 tual prosperity and final salvation, I close these 
 Sketches. 
 
 Your much obliged and ever grateful friend, 
 
 GRANT POWERS.
 
 APPENDIX. 
 
 The two following anecdotes were originally written for 
 newspaper publication ; but the publishers of the Historical 
 Collections of New Hampshire, learning through the late Jesse 
 Worcester, Esq., of Hollis, the historical accuracy of the two 
 pieces, in point of fact, adopted them both, as I have under- 
 stood, into their Collections. But as comparatively few will 
 ever read them in those Collections, and as the writer of the 
 present Sketches was the author of those two communications, 
 he feels that he has an undoubted right to append them to this 
 work ; and when we consider the peculiar agency and interest 
 the two individuals, who are the hero and heroine in the anec- 
 dotes, had in the discovery and the settlement of the Coos, we 
 cannot but feel that our readers will be gratified in the perusal 
 of those adventures. The writer often heard the aged widow 
 of Capt Powers relate the facts as here stated ; the language is, 
 of course, his own. 
 
 THE BOAR AND THE BEAR. 
 
 The town of Hollis, in the county of Hillsborough, N. H., is 
 OIK- of the oldest towns in the county, and was first settled by 
 Capt. Peter Powers, and Anna, his wife, from Hampshire, Dun- 
 stable, 1831. Those early settlers were accustomed to the rear- 
 ing of many swine, by permitting them to run at large in the 
 woods, and to subsist upon roots, acorns, and nuts, which were 
 produced in great abundance in the place. In the fall of the 
 year, or at the time of the first deep snow, the older members 
 of the herd, that were originally tame, would lead their numer- 
 ous progeny into winter quarters, at a shed erected for that 
 purpose some distance from the house, where the owner dis- 
 posed of them as he pleased, although many of them were as 
 10*
 
 226 APPENDIX. 
 
 untame and as ferocious as the beasts of the mountains. At 
 that time, bears were plenty, and very hostile to swine. It be- 
 came necessary, therefore, to provide for the defence of the 
 herd by permitting one of the males to live several years be- 
 yond the period of life ordinarily assigned to that species by 
 man ; at which time he became literally the master of the flock. 
 His tusks protruded on either side, in nearly semi-circles, to the 
 distance of six or seven inches. He seemed conscious of his su- 
 periority and responsibility. He was fierce in the extreme, and 
 courted danger ; and when the heard was assailed, he instantly 
 presented himself to the foe, with eyes darting fire, with tusks 
 heated to blueness, and foaming at the mouth in a terrific man- 
 ner. He roamed the forest, unconscious of danger ; he led the 
 herd ; and but few of the untamed tribes had the temerity to 
 dispute his title to supremacy. 
 
 It happened, however, on a certain day in autumn, when 
 Anna stood in the door of her cabin, listening to the oft-repeat- 
 ed sound of the descending axe, or the crash of falling trees, 
 while her husband was at his daily task, that she heard from a 
 great distance the faint, yet distinct, cry of one of their herd. 
 She thought it was the cry of expiring nature. She remained 
 in this state of suspense but a short time, before the heard came 
 rushing from the forest in the greatest apparent trepidation. 
 The oldest dams of the herd, much exhausted, and without 
 their common leader and protector, seemed inclined to take 
 refuge in the apartment which had been their retreat in former 
 winters ; but the younger branches of the family would not fol- 
 low them. The dams, seeing this, dashed on through the 
 cleared space, and disappeared in the forest on the north side. 
 The cries of the wounded were still heard, but grew fainter and 
 fainter, until wholly lost in death. But the anxious Anna had 
 not removed from her position, before the old boar came rush- 
 ing through the bushes in eager pursuit of his charge, which 
 had eloped and left him in the rear by many a rood. He was 
 fresh from the field of combat. He was bathed in blood, foam- 
 ing at the mouth, gnashing his tusks, and exhibited a terrific 
 aspect. Regardless of home, he approached a field of corn 
 which grew near the cabin, and leaped the fence, not touching 
 the topmost knot, although it was proof against horses which 
 strayed through the woods from neighboring towns in Massa-
 
 APPENDIX. 227 
 
 chuMtts. He passed directly through the Hold without touching 
 a kernel of corn, and leaping the fence on the opposite side, dis- 
 appeared in the woods. Not long after, the wished-for husband, 
 whose presence the gathering shades of evening, the deep soli- 
 tude of the place, and the stirring events of the afternoon, had 
 rendered peculiarly inviting to the young partner of his toils 
 and hopes, returned with his axe upon his shoulder, enlivening 
 the forest with his evening whistle, and driving his old bell- 
 cow before him, which summoned Anna with her milk-pail to 
 her evening task. 
 
 Scarcely had he secured the topmost rail to his yard enclosure, 
 when Anna from the window of her cabin saw her husband 
 held in anxious suspense. For some moments he paused and 
 listened ; but turned and called, " Anna, Anna, bring me my 
 gun and ammunition in a minute, for the Old Master himself is 
 worsted." They were at his hand in a trice, " Look to your- 
 self," said the husband,* and bounded into the forest. Pursuing 
 with great speed the course whence the sound proceeded, which 
 alone broke the silence of the evening, our adventurer soon 
 found himself at a distance of about a mile and a half from his 
 cabin, surrounded with black alders, so thickly set as to be al- 
 most impenetrable to man and beast. Before him lay Long 
 Pond, so called, about one mile in length, and from a quarter to 
 a half a mile, perhaps, in width. He was near mid-way of the 
 pond, and the sound from the laboring boar and his antagonist 
 (a mixed, frightful yell) proceeded directly from the opposite 
 shore. Nothing now remained but for him to plunge into the 
 pond, and make the opposite shore by beating the waves, or to 
 divide him a passage amidst the alders around one of the ex- 
 tremities of the pond, which could not be done short of travel- 
 ling the distance of another mile. But no time was to be lost. 
 The cries of the boar bespoke the greatest need, and the latter 
 course was adopted ; and in a space of time, and with the cour- 
 age and energy which are scarcely conceived by the present 
 generation, he arrived at the scene of action. Whose heart 
 does not now misgive him, while nearing the battle ground, 
 alone, in darkness, and all uncertain as to the nature of the foe ? 
 But young Powers advanced with undaunted firmness. He was 
 
 Indians were then numerous In the town.
 
 228 APPENDIX. 
 
 under the necessity of approaching near to the belligerents be- 
 fore he could make any discovery, by reason of the darkness of 
 the night, rendered more dark by the towering trees, which 
 mingled their branches at some sixty or seventy feet from the 
 ground, and a dense underwood, which stood like a hedge con- 
 tinually before him. But as soon as he entered the area which 
 had been beaten down during the action, he discovered the boar 
 seated upon the ground, and still defending himself against the 
 furious assaults of the hugest bear his eyes ever beheld ! She 
 was like his old bell-cow for magnitude ! He drew his gun to an 
 aim, when he perceived, obscurely, that the bear was on a line 
 with him and his hog, and he could not discharge his piece 
 without putting the life of the latter in jeopardy ; and, as he 
 was moving in a circular direction, to procure a safe discharge, 
 he was discovered by the bear, and she bounded into the bushes. 
 Powers now came up to the boar, and witnessed such tokens of 
 gladness as surprised him. It was, however, too solemn an 
 hour with the swine to lavish upon his deliverer unmeaning 
 ceremonies. As soon as he found himself released from his too 
 powerful antagonist, he prostrated himself upon the ground, 
 and lay some time, panting and groaning in a manner truly af- 
 fecting to his owner. Powers now discharged his gun, with a 
 view to terrify the beasts of prey, and keep them off during 
 the night. He struck and kindled a fire, and upon a slight ex- 
 amination, he found that his hog was lacerated in his rear in a 
 shocking manner. He was utterly disabled from rising except 
 upon his fore feet. But to show the indomitable nature of the 
 animal, I will relate that the boar, after some little time, re- 
 covered in a degree from his extreme exhaustion, and gaining 
 the same position he had when his owner found him, began to 
 beat a challenge for a renewal of the combat. Again his eyes 
 flashed with rage, he stamped with his fore feet, he chafed, 
 gnashed with his tusks, and foaming at the mouth, he looked 
 around with the greatest apparent firmness for his antagonist. 
 Our adventurer now drew together fallen wood sufficient to 
 support a fire through the night, burnt powder around his 
 swine, and returned to his cabin, where he was never more joy- 
 fully received by the young wife, who, during all this while, 
 had remained listening at the window in painful solicitude.
 
 APPENDIX. 229 
 
 
 
 The next day, some help wag obtained, as one family* had, 
 prior to this, moved in and settled in the south-west part of the 
 town, and the battle ground was revisited. The boor had not 
 moved out of his place, but was still weltering in his blood. 
 With much labor he was conveyed home in a cart, and, as 
 he never could become the defence of the herd again, he was 
 yarded, fattened, and killed, and helped by his death to pro- 
 mote that existence to the family which he could no longer do 
 by his life. 
 
 With a view to account for the melancholy fate of the boar, 
 Powers and his associates went in search of the swine that was 
 destroyed in the afternoon of the preceding day. They found 
 one of their largest hogs slain by a bear, and, near to, a large 
 bear was as evidently slain by the boar. From this they in- 
 ferred that the first hog was mortally wounded by a bear in 
 the absence of the boar ; but the cries of the wounded soon 
 brought the Matter, when a battle ensued, in which the bear 
 was slain, not, however, without loss of blood with the boar ; 
 that during this first action, the rest of the herd fled, and that 
 the boar was in pursuit of them when he passed the cabin 
 through the field ; that after running some miles, at the point 
 of exhaustion, he fell in with a still more powerful antagonist, 
 when his fight was comparatively feeble, and he fell overpow- 
 ered, but not subdued, as it has fallen out with many a Greek 
 and Roman hero. 
 
 AN ADVENTUROUS VISIT. 
 
 When Capt. Peter Powers and Anna, his wife, first pitched 
 their tent in Hoi Us, 1731, which was a little north-west of the 
 present meeting-house, the traces of which are still visible, 
 their nearest neighbor lived in the south-eastern part of Dun- 
 stable, N. H., a distance, probably, at this time, of ten miles, 
 and could not be made at that period at a less travelling dis- 
 tance than twelve miles, as they had no road but a single track, 
 and spotted trees for their guide. 
 
 Kleaxer t\gg.
 
 230 APPENDIX. 
 
 This journey could not be made in the summer season with- 
 out fording the Nashua, which was done a little southeast of a 
 small island, visible at your left, as you now pass the bridge, 
 going from Hollis, N. H., to Dunstable, Mass. ; and here the 
 river was fordable only when the streams were low. Of course, 
 these lonely adventurers made their visits but seldom, and never 
 with a view to be absent from their habitation during the 
 night, as they were then the parents of two children, whom 
 they were necessitated to leave at home, in a cabin surrounded 
 by Indians. Indeed, never did both parents leave their children 
 and perform this route in company. 
 
 Now, it happened on a summer's morning, in the month of 
 August, that the wife, Anna, found it convenient to visit her 
 neighbor, and mounting at an early hour a fine Narraganset, a 
 faithful and tried companion in adventures, the river was soon 
 forded, and the whole distance was made, long ere it was high 
 noon. The interview was such as characterized the first set- 
 tlers in this new country, where warmth of affection more than 
 supplied the place of a thousand ceremonies, and a sense of de- 
 pendence promoted to the discharge of kinder offices than mere 
 refinement would recognize as obligatory on her. 
 
 The hours passed swiftly away they lived fast they ate, 
 they drank, they talked much, and blessed God and their king. 
 Nor did a single occurrence tend to interrupt their festivity un- 
 til about three past meridian, when all were suddenly aroused 
 by a distant, though heavy, discharge of heaven's artillery. 
 All rushed to the door to witness the aspect of the elements, 
 when, lo ! it was most threatening and appalling ! Nature all 
 around slept, or seemed to be awed into a deathlike silence. 
 Not a leaf moved but when the foundations of the earth re- 
 sponded to the voice of heaven. Already, from north to south, 
 the whole western horizon was mantled in black, and the gath- 
 ering tempest moved forward as slowly and sublimely as though 
 conscious of its power to deride all resistance ! Not until this 
 moment did anxious concern possess the breast of Anna for the 
 objects of her affections, whom she had left in that lone, dear 
 cell. In a kind of momentary distraction, she demanded that 
 Narraganset should be pannelled, for she must return to her 
 family that afternoon, whatever might be the consequence to 
 herself. She had rather brave the tempest returning, than en-
 
 APPENDIX. 231 
 
 dure her forebodings with her sheltered friends. But a sudden 
 change in the elements, did more to dissuade her from so raah 
 an attempt than the entreaties and expostulation of her friends. 
 From an apparent calm, nature now awoke and seemed to be 
 rushing into ruin. As though the north called unto the south, 
 and the west unto the east, the four winds came on to the con- 
 flict. Clouds were driven hither and thither in angry velocity 
 and all seemed to be propelled in directions counter to each 
 other. The tempest soon burst upon them, and on the whole 
 adjacent country, in an unparalleled torrent. Nothing was heard 
 but the crack or roll of thunder, and the roar of winds and 
 waters nothing seen but the successive blaze of lightning I 
 
 " Intonuere poll, et crebris niicat ignibu* thr." 
 
 The said Anna lived until rising somewhat of ninety years, 
 and could remember distinctly more than eighty years ; but, in 
 all this time, she never witnessed such a scene, nor could she 
 relate any thing which seemed to raise such sublimity of feel- 
 ing in her mind as this. 
 
 The tempest lay upon them with unabated force several 
 hours, nor did it appear to spend itself until the sun was just 
 sinking below the horizon, when it broke in upon drowned na- 
 ture in all its smiles, and reflected its golden beams upon the 
 black cloud at the east, in the most enchanting manner. This 
 was the moment for Anna to renew her resolve of returning to 
 her family that night ; and, contrary to all reasoning and per- 
 suasions, she instantly put it in execution. 8he mounted her 
 horse, and bidding adieu to her friends, she entered the twelve- 
 mile forest ju&t as the sun took his leave of her. She calculated 
 upon a serene and starlight evening, and the extraordinary in- 
 stinct of her beast, as well as her experience in the way and at 
 the fords. But in regard to the former, she was wholly disap- 
 pointed. The wind soon shifted, and rolled the same cloud 
 back again ; the rain recommenced as the night set in, and the 
 wind ceased. 
 
 At that season of the year, the time of twilight was short ; 
 the earth being warmed and moistened, evaporation was rapid, 
 and a dense fog arose, which soon obstructed vision, and, long 
 ere she arrived at the fords, she was enveloped in total dark- 
 ness. Her only guide now was her faithful Narraganset, and
 
 232 APPENDIX. 
 
 the beasts of the forest her companions. She, however, made 
 the best of her circumstances. She entered into conversation 
 with her mare, as was her custom when riding alone ; and 
 when her beast stopped suddenly and tossed up her head, and 
 snorted at some wild animal crossing her track, as was sup- 
 posed, Anna would exhort her to possess courage, assuring her 
 "that nothing could harm her, for the beasts were mere cow- 
 ards in the presence of a brave horse," &c. 
 
 After this manner, the long way to the fords was passed over 
 in Egyptian darkness ; nor had the thought once occurred to 
 Anna that so considerable a river as now rolled before her 
 would be materially affected by a thunder storm of a few 
 hours ; whereas, so great was the fall of water in this time that 
 the river, although wide at this place, was bank full, and swept 
 on with great rapidity. Nor could the rushing of the waters 
 be heard by reason of the rain still pouring upon the forest 
 around her. She therefore determined to give the rein to her 
 experienced beast, believing that she would keep the ford, and 
 land her on the opposite shore at the proper place. The horse 
 entered the stream as soon as at the bank, and in a moment 
 lost her foot-hold on terra fir ma, and was plunging in the 
 waves at a full swim. Such, however, was Anna's presence of 
 mind, that she made no exertion to rein her beast, but endeav- 
 ored simply to retain her seat, which was now under water, 
 whilst the waves beat against her waist. The faithful animal 
 made for the opposite shore ; but so strong was the current, 
 that she was either carried below the ford, or, in her exertions 
 to resist it, she overacted and went above it, where, at one 
 sweep of her fore feet, she struck upon a rock in the bed of the 
 river, which suddenly raised her somewhat from the water 
 forward ; but she as soon plunged again, for the rock was 
 cleared the second sweep. This plunge was so deep that Anna 
 was borne from her pannel by the gravity of the water, but 
 pitching forward, she seized Narraganset's mane as she rose, 
 nor did she quit her grasp, until they were both safely landed 
 on the happy shore ! adjusting her clothes, she remounted, and 
 soon found that her beast was in her accustomed track, and, in 
 little more than one hour, she alighted at the door of her peace-
 
 APPENDIX. 233 
 
 ful cabin, where, by her well-known signal,* she broke the 
 lumber of her husband and babes, and on entering related, in 
 no purer gratitude or greater joy than they experienced in 
 hearing, the result of that adventurous night. 
 
 * Capt. Powcra und wife agreed on a peculiar nip; whlrh served M a kind of 
 countersign to Inform th* one within that tin- other bad arrived and desired 
 admission. This wai necessary to prevent the intrusion of Indian*, who 
 would often rap at different hours of the night.
 
 DEED OF THE COOS COUNTRY. 
 
 To.all persons to whom these Presents shall come, Greeting : 
 
 Know ye, that I Philip, an Indian, a native of America now 
 resident in upper Coos & Chief thereof, 
 
 For & in consideration of the sum hereafter named for which 
 I have received security to my full satisfaction of Thomas 
 Eames of Northumberland in the County of Orafton & State 
 of New Hampshire & his associates namely, John Bradley & 
 Jonathan Eastman of Concord, county of Rockingham & 
 Nathan Hoit of Moultonborough in the County of Stratford all 
 in the state of New Hampshire Esqrs, all my peculiar friends. 
 I this day have given, bargained sold, released, conveyed & con- 
 firmed & by these presents do give, grant, bargain, sell, convey 
 & confirm to them the said Thomas, John, Jonathan & Nathan 
 their heirs & assigns forever al) that tract or parcel of land & 
 waters situate within the following boundaries, Viz, Beginning 
 on the East side of Conneetteecook now called Connecticut 
 River at the mouth of Ammanoosuck River, then up said 
 Ammanoosuck river to Head Pond to the carrying place, 
 then across the carrying place to a small pond on the head of 
 Peumpelussuck or dead river, then down said river to Andrew- 
 scoggin river, then up Andrewscoggin River to the Lake Ham- 
 bagog, including all the waters of said Lake & Islands from 
 said lake up Andrewscoggin River to Allogunanabagogg Lake, 
 including all the waters & Islands in said Lake, then up said 
 Andrewscoggin River to Molleychungomuck Lake, thence 
 along the easterly side of said Lake to the outlet of Mooseluk- 
 megantick, then up said river to said Lake Mooseluckmegantick 
 including all the waters & Islands thereof, then across the car- 
 rying place Quasuktecuck, thence down said river till it emp- 
 ties into Awsisgowassuck River, then up said river to Palmach- 
 inanabagogg Lake including all the waters & Islands thereof, 
 thence up Awsisgowassuck River to the carrying place that
 
 236 APPENDIX. 
 
 leads into Awseecunticook River or St. Frances River, thence 
 down said river till it falls into the branch which empties from 
 Lake Mamsloobagogg, then up said River to Skessawannoock' 
 Lake, thence up said River to said Mamsloobagogg, including 
 all the waters & Islands thereof, from thence up Masskeecoow- 
 anggawnall River to the head thereof, then across the carrying 
 place to the head of Nulpeagawnuck, then down said river to 
 Conneeteecook or Connecticut river then down said river in- 
 cluding all the. Islands thereof to the mouth of Ammunoosuck 
 river, the place began at, agreeably to a plan I have this day 
 given to them, their heirs & assigns forever with the following 
 conditions & reservations, namely that I reserve free liberty to 
 hunt all sorts of wild game on any of the foregoing territories, 
 and taking fish in any of the waters thereof for myself my 
 heirs & sucksessors & all Indian tribes forever, also liberty of 
 planting four bushels of corn & beans ; & this my trusty friend 
 Thomas having given me security to furnish me & my Squaw 
 with provisions & suitable clothing which I have accepted in 
 f ulL I have for myself & in behalf of all Indians who hunted 
 on or inhabited any of the foregoing lands or waters, forever 
 quitclaimed & sold as aforesaid to them the said Thomas, John, 
 Jonathan & Nathan as a good estate in fee simple, and do cove- 
 nant with them that myself & my ancient Fathers forever & 
 at all times have been in possession of the above described 
 premises, & that I have a good right to & wtll warrant & de- 
 fend the same to them the said Thomas, John, Jonathan & 
 Nathan their heirs and assigns forever against the claims of all 
 or any persons whatever. In Witness whereof I have hereunto 
 set my hand, seal & signeture, this twenty eighth day of June 
 1796. 
 
 PHILIP +" INDIAN CHIEF. [SEAL.] 
 MOLLEY +' MESSELL. [SEAL.] 
 
 mark 
 
 MOOSELECK + SUSSOP. [SEAL.] 
 
 mark 
 
 Signed Sealed & Did j 
 
 in presence of ( 
 
 Ely Buel f" 
 
 Jeremh Eames. 1
 
 APPENDIX. 237 
 
 State of New Hampshire. Grafton, sa. June 30th, 179A. 
 Personally appeared Philip Indian Chief, Molley Messell & 
 Mooseleck & acknowledged the foregoing instrument by them 
 respectively subscribed to be their voluntary act & deed. 
 Before me 
 
 JERH EAMES, .hmticr Peace. 
 
 GRAFTON, 88. Nov. 22, 1796. 
 
 Received, Recorded & examined. 
 Attest, 
 
 JOHN ROGERS, Regr. 
 
 State of New Hampshire, 
 
 GRAFTON, 88. December 9, 1879. 
 
 I, Charles H. Day, Register of Deeds, for the County of Graf- 
 ton, hereby certify that the foregoing is a true copy of Grafton 
 County Records, Libro 23, Folio 206. 
 Attest, 
 
 C. H. DAY, Reg. Deeds.
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Bailey, Gen. Jacob 35, 53 
 
 190, 213-218 
 
 Bailey, Col Joshua 50 
 
 Baker's River 171174 
 
 Barnes, J., lost son 171 
 
 Bradford. Vt 160 
 
 Brook, Poole 46 
 
 Brown, Josiah 170 
 
 Burton, D. D., Rev. Asa 83 
 
 134141, 154158, 159 
 
 Campton 169 
 
 Cart with two tongues 218 
 
 Chamberlain, John . . . 141142 
 
 Charters 47 
 
 Claremont 129 
 
 Connel, John Me 113116 
 
 Cornish 129 
 
 Cow, instinct of a 89 
 
 Crank, saw-mill 6872 
 
 Dearborn, Samuel 165 171 
 
 Eastman, Amos 14 
 
 Elkins, Col. Jonathan 191 
 
 197, 217 
 
 Elkins, Dea. Jonathan 52 
 
 Fairlee, East 159 
 
 Fifleld's, A., lost son 164 
 
 Flood 110 
 
 Freeman, Col. Otis 78 
 
 Foreman, John. 50 
 
 Groton... ..169 
 
 Hamver 7880, 130133 
 
 Harriman, Polly 46 
 
 Hazen, Capt. John 36, 43 
 
 Hebron 169 
 
 Hobart, Capt. James 165 
 
 Holderness 169 
 
 Howard, Col. Joshua 43 
 
 Howard, Deacon 8082 
 
 Hughs, John 48 
 
 Indians ......172186 
 
 Instinct of a cow 89 
 
 Johnston, Capt. Michael 46 
 
 Johnston, CoL Charles 45 
 
 91, 95103 
 
 Johnston, Michael 36, 40, 44 
 
 Johnson, Col. Thomas. .47, 177 
 190, 217 
 
 Kent, CoL Jacob 49 
 
 Kent, Mary 49 
 
 Ladd, Hon. Ezekiel 52 
 
 Ladd, Mrs. Ruth 60, 67 
 
 Lancaster 48 
 
 Lebanon 129 
 
 Living and Dress 119120 
 
 Lyme 130 
 
 Mann, Esq., John 124128 
 
 Morse, Uriah 46 
 
 Norwich. Vt 1*4 144 
 
 Orford 126 
 
 Osmer, John 160163
 
 240 
 
 INDEX. 
 
 Ox Bow, Great, old Indian 
 
 Settlement 36-39 
 
 Page, John- 49, 69, 71 
 
 Parker, Lieut. Z 165 
 
 Peabody, Nathaniel 209 
 
 Peters, Esq., Andrew B....162 
 
 Pettie, John 36,40, 44 
 
 Piermont 119120 
 
 Pigeons 109 
 
 Plainfleld. 129 
 
 Plymouth 165, 168175 
 
 Plymouth, first ox-team 
 
 from 116 
 
 Powers, Capt. Peter,.... 15 32 
 
 8487 
 Powers, Rev. Peter 5357 
 
 7588 
 
 Revivals. 219-221 
 
 Rogers, Col. Robert . . . .3435 
 
 Rumney 169 
 
 Sleeper, Samuel 40, 6163 
 
 Sparks, Jared 211 
 
 Stark, Gen. John 1314 
 
 Strong, Joel 157 
 
 Thanksgiving 74 
 
 Thetford, Vt 141159 
 
 Thornton 169 
 
 Tyler, Jonathan 120124 
 
 Wait's River. 163 
 
 Walbridge 7880 
 
 Wallace, Mrs. 146148 
 
 Wallace, Richard 9194 
 
 113118, 143153 
 
 Warren 169 
 
 Washington, Gen 202212 
 
 Ward, Rev. Nathan... 166 168 
 
 Way, Mr 56,57 
 
 Weare, Meshech .208 
 
 Webster, Ephraim . . ..150154 
 
 Webster, Lydia 168 
 
 Wentworth, 169 
 
 Wheeler, Charles 181 
 
 Wheeler, Glazier, 40, 44 
 
 Willard, Oliver 41, 42 
 
 Woodward, Hon. James.... 48 
 6471 
 
 Worms 103108 
 
 Wright, Benoni 62, 63
 
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