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