“When the number of inhabitants had increased so that it was called a village, earthen plates and pewter plates and iron spoons were brought into town from the town and larger settlements. Men carried the flax wheel on their backs, and their mechanical skill enabled them to construct looms.
daniel webster on his farm.
“As the settlement increased in number, and the people began felling trees, the Indians, who from time to time passed there on their way to Penacook, Contoocook, Hooksett, etc., seeing the whites encroaching upon their lands, began their maraudings and became so troublesome, that the settlers regarded it as no sin to kill a redskin who was known to watch about for an opportunity to secretly send an arrow with deadly intent at their white brothers whenever they ventured beyond the limits of their little settlement.
birth-place of daniel webster.
“There was one, Mr. Baker, whose delight was, we learned of the Indians,—being at their camping-ground, near the union of what is now Baker’s River with the Pemigewasset River, about a mile above Plymouth,—to take his gun, as he termed it, and play hide-and-seek with the redskins. His scouting about would seem to be known, and an Indian would come out to spy his enemy, hiding from tree to tree. Baker did the same, and as each peeped for the other Baker placed his hat on the muzzle of his gun, and held it so that the Indian saw, as he thought, a white man’s head. Then he sent an arrow whizzing through Baker’s old hat, and, seeing it fall, stepped out to finish his foe by raising the hair, when Baker sent a slug through the redskin. Soon another Indian came peeping from trees to learn the cause of that report and the fate of his chief. In a few minutes Baker played the same game on him and several others. Baker became so notorious an Indian exterminator that they gave the river his name; hence Baker’s River.”
[TO BE CONTINUED.]