Chapter II: New England, 1689-1763 (5)

Further down the Kennebec River and opposite the upper end of Swan Island stood Fort Richmond, which had been built by the Massachusetts people about 1723. Near the present Augusta the Plymouth Company founded Forts Shirley and Western in 1754. There are plans and views of them in J. W. North’s _Augusta_, pp. 47-49. Cf. Nathan Weston’s _Oration at the Centennial Celebration of the Erection of Fort Western, July 4, 1854_, Augusta, 1854.

Col. John Winslow planned, in 1754, on a point half a mile below Teconick Falls, the structure known as Fort Halifax, according to the extent shown by the dotted line in the annexed cut.[451] Winslow’s letter to Shirley, with the plan, is in the _Mass. Archives,_ and both are given in North’s _Augusta,_ pp. 59, 60. The fort was completed the next year by William Lithgow, as shown by the black part of the cut, the rear flanker, forming the centre of the original plan, having been built, however, by Winslow. This block-house measured 20 × 20 feet below, and on the overhang 27 × 27 feet. The narrower of the large structures was the barracks, also raised by Winslow, but removed by Lithgow, who built the other portions.

The cut follows a reconstruction-draft, made by Mr. T. O. Paine, which is given by North (p. 62). The flanker nearest the river is still standing, and the upright planks on the side, as shown in the annexed cut, mark the efforts which have been made of late to secure the timbers. In the Maine Historical Society’s _Collections,_ vol. viii. p. 198, is a history of the fort by William Goold, as well as the annexed cut of a restoration of the entire fort, drawn by that gentleman from descriptions, from the tracings of the foundations, and from the remaining flanker. The preceding volume (vii.) of the same _Collections_ had contained “materials for a history” of the fort, edited by Joseph Williamson,—mainly documents from the _Mass. Archives._ A journal of the march of Capt. Eleazer Melvin’s company in Gov. Shirley’s expedition to the Norridgewock country, when Fort Halifax was erected in 1754, kept by John Barber (May 30, 1754-Aug. 17, 1754), is in _N. E. Hist. and Gen. Reg._, 1873, pp. 281-85. Cf. further in Williamson’s _Maine_, i. 300; Hutchinson’s _Massachusetts_, iii. 26. A plan (1754) of the Kennebec River forts, by John Indicott (measuring 3-8/12 × 1-5/12), is noted in the _Catalogue of the King’s Maps_ (i. 580), in the British Museum. The forts on the Kennebec, and the chief localities of that river, are described by Col. William Lithgow in 1767, in a deposition printed in the _N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg._, 1870, p. 21. Lithgow was then fifty-two years old, and had known the river from childhood.

In 1752, when there was some prospect of quieting the country, and truck houses were built at Fort Richmond and St. Georges, William Lithgow and Jabez Bradbury were put in charge of them.

A paper by Richard Pike, on the building and occupancy of Fort Pownall, on the Penobscot, is in the _N. E. Hist. and Gen. Reg._, 1860, p. 4. In Williamson’s _Belfast_, p. 56, is a conjectural view of the fort, drawn from the descriptions and from a survey of the site in 1828. _A Survey of the river and bay of Penobscot, by order of Gov. Pownall_, 1759, is among the king’s maps (Catal., ii. 167) in the British Museum. A journal of Pownall’s expedition to begin this fort was printed, with notes, by Joseph Williamson in the _Maine Hist. Coll._, v. 363. Cf. Williamson’s _Maine_, i. 337. This fort was completed in July, 1759, at a cost of £5,000, and stood till 1775. Cf. _N. E. Hist. and Geneal._ Reg., 1859, p. 167, with an extract from the _Boston News-Letter_, May 31, 1759.

This enumeration covers the principal fortified posts in the disputed territory at the eastward; but numerous other garrison posts, block-houses, and stockades were scattered over the country.[452] A view of one of these, known as Larrabee’s garrison stockade, is given in Bourne’s _Wells and Kennebunk_, ch. xxi. The view of a block-house built in 1714, near the junction of the Kennebec and Sebasticook rivers, as sketched in 1852, is annexed.

West of Maine the frontier stretched from the Piscataqua to the valley of the Housatonic.

For the New Hampshire part of this line, Belknap’s _Hist. of New Hampshire_ must be supplemented for a general survey by B. H. Hall’s _Eastern Vermont_. So far as the muster-rolls of frontier service show the activity in New Hampshire, it can be gathered from the second volume of the _Report of the Adjutant-General of New Hampshire_, 1866, supplemented by others given in the _N. H. Revolutionary Rolls_, vol. i. (1886). The volumes of the series of _Provincial Papers_ published by that State (vols. ix., xi., xii., xiii.), and called “Town Papers, 1638-1784,” give the local records. The principal town histories detailing the events of the wars are Potter’s _Manchester_; Bouton’s _Concord_; Runnel’s _Sanbornton_; Little’s _Warren_; C. C. Coffin’s _Boscawen_; H. H. Saunderson’s _Charlestown_; B. Chase’s Old Chester; C. J. Fox’s _Dunstable_; Aldrich’s _Walpole_; and Morrison’s _Windham_.

In 1704 the assembly of New Hampshire ordered that every householder should provide himself with snow-shoes, for the use of winter scouting parties. (_N. H. Prov. Papers_, iii. 290.) In 1724 Fort Dummer was built near the modern Brattleboro, in territory then claimed by Massachusetts. (_Hist. Mag._, x. 109, 141, 178; _N. H. Hist. Soc. Coll._, i. 143; _N. H. Adj.-Gen. Rept._, 1866, ii. p. 122.) In 1746, after the alarm over the D’Anville fleet had subsided, Atkinson’s New Hampshire regiment was sent north to meet any invasion from Canada. (_N. H. Adj.-Gen. Rept._, 1866, ii. 83.) The next year (1747), Walter Bryent advanced with his regiment as far as Lake Winnepesaukee. (_N. E. Hist. and Geneal. Reg._, July, 1878, p. 297; N. H. Prov. Papers, v. 431, 471; Belknap, ii. 228.)

In 1747 the fort at “no. 4,” or Charlestown, the outpost towards Canada, was attacked. (Saunderson’s _Charlestown_; Stone’s _Sir William Johnson_, i. 260.)

In 1752-54 there is record of the hostilities on the New Hampshire borders in the _N. H. Prov. Papers_, vi. 301, 310-319.

The St. Francis Indians confronted the settlements of the upper Connecticut, and in 1752 Shirley sent Capt. Phineas Stevens to treat with them in the presence of the governor of Canada. (_N. Y. Col. Docs._, x. 252.) For the massacre at Hinsdale in 1755, and attacks in the Connecticut valley, see _N. H. Prov. Papers_, vi. 412, and _Adj.-Gen. Report_, 1866, vol. ii. 153.

(_Restoration._)]

In 1694-95, the frontier line of Massachusetts was established by law as including the towns of Amesbury, Haverhill, Dunstable, Chelmsford, Groton, Lancaster, Marlborough, and Deerfield. Five years later this list was increased by Brookfield, Mendon, and Woodstock, with a kind of inner line, running through Salisbury, Andover, Billerica, Hatfield, Hadley, Westfield, and Northampton.

For the border troubles of Massachusetts, beside Penhallow and Niles, Neal and Douglass, and the _Magnalia_, we turn to Hutchinson with confidence in the facilities which he enjoyed; but John Adams says (_Works_, x. 361), “When Mr. Hutchinson’s _History of Massachusetts Bay_ first appeared, one of the most common criticisms upon it was the slight, cold, and unfeeling manner in which he passed over the Indian wars.”

The most exposed towns fronting the New Hampshire line were Haverhill, Andover, and Dunstable. The _History of Haverhill_, by G. W. Chase (1861), gives the story of the Indian troubles with much detail.[453] For Andover they may be found in S. L. Bailey’s _Historical Sketches of Andover_ (Boston, 1880); and for Dunstable in Elias Nason’s _History of Dunstable_ (1877). Just below Dunstable lay Groton, and Dr. Samuel A. Green’s _Groton during the Indian Wars_ supplies the want here,—a good supplement to Butler’s _Groton_. The frontiers for a while were marked nearly along the same meridian by Lancaster, Marlborough, Brookfield, and Oxford. The _Early records of Lancaster, 1643-1725_, _edited by H. S. Nourse_ (Lancaster, 1884), furnishes us with a full reflection of border experiences during King William’s, Queen Anne’s, and Lovewell’s wars, and it may be supplemented by A. P. Marvin’s _History of Lancaster_. The sixth chapter of Charles Hudson’s _Marlborough_ (Boston, 1862), and Nathan Fiske’s _Historical Discourse on Brookfield and its distresses during the Indian Wars_ (Boston, 1776), illustrate the period. The struggle of the Huguenots to maintain themselves at Oxford against the Indians is told in Geo. F. Daniels’ _Huguenots in the Nipmuck Country_ (1880), and in C. W. Baird’s _Hist. of the Huguenot Emigration to America_ (1885).

There is in the cabinet of the Mass. Hist. Soc. (_Misc. Papers_, 41.41) an early plan of the Connecticut and Housatonic valleys, showing the former from the sea as far north as Fort Massachusetts, and the latter up to Fort Dummer, and bearing annotations by Thomas Prince.

In the valley of the Connecticut, Northfield held the northernmost post within the Massachusetts bounds as finally settled. One of the best of our local histories for the details of this barbaric warfare is Temple and Sheldon’s _History of Northfield_. Deerfield was just south, and it is a centre of interest. The attack which makes it famous came Feb. 29, 1704-5, and the narrative of the Rev. John Williams, who was taken captive to Canada, is the chief contemporary account. Gov. Dudley sent William Dudley to Quebec to effect the release of the prisoners, and among those who returned to Boston (Oct. 25, 1706) was Williams, who soon put to press his _Redeemed Captive_,[454] which was published in 1707,[455] and has been ever since a leading specimen of a class of books which is known among collectors as “Captivities.”

Further down the Connecticut than Deerfield lies Hadley, which has been more fortunate than most towns in its historian. Sylvester Judd’s _History of Hadley, including the early history of Hatfield, South Hadley, Amherst, and Granby, Mass., With family genealogies, by L. M. Boltwood_, Northampton, 1863, follows down the successive wars with much detail.[456] A systematic treatment of the whole subject was made by Epaphras Hoyt in his _Antiquarian Researches, comprising a history of the Indian Wars in the Country bordering on the Connecticut River_, etc., to 1760, published at Greenfield in 1824. There had been published seventy-five years before, _A short narrative of mischief done by the French and Indian enemy on the western frontiers of the Province of Massachusetts Bay, Mar. 15, 1743-44, to Aug. 2, 1748, drawn up by the Rev. Mr. Doolittle of Northfield, and found among his manuscripts after his death_. Boston, 1750.[457]

By the time of Shirley’s war (1744-48), the frontier line had been pushed westerly to the line of the Housatonic,[458] and at Poontoosuck we find the exposed garrison life repeated, and its gloom and perils narrated in J. E. A. Smith’s _History of Pittsfield_, 1734-1800 (Boston, 1869). William Williams, long a distinguished resident of this latter town, had been detailed from the Hampshire[459] militia in 1743 to connect the Connecticut and the Hudson with a line of posts, and he constructed forts at the present Heath, Rowe, and Williamstown, known respectively as forts Shirley,[460] Pelham, and Massachusetts. In August, 1746, the latter post, whose garrison was depleted to render assistance during the eastward war, was attacked by the French and Indians, and destroyed.[461]

Fort Massachusetts was rebuilt, and its charge, in June, 1747, committed to Major Ephraim Williams.[462] It became the headquarters of the forts and block-houses scattered throughout the region now the county of Berkshire, maintaining garrisons drawn from the neighboring settlers, and at times from the province forces in part. The plans of one of these fortified posts are preserved in the state archives, and from the drawings given in Smith’s _Pittsfield_ (p. 106) the annexed cuts are made.[463]

In 1754 the charge of the western frontier was given to Col. Israel Williams.[464]

These Berkshire garrisons were in some measure assisted by recruits from Connecticut, as that colony could best protect in this way its own frontiers to the northward. Beside the general histories of Connecticut, this part of her history is treated in local monographs like Bronson’s _Waterbury_, H. R. Stiles’ _Ancient Windsor_, Cothren’s _Ancient Woodbury_, Larned’s _Windham County_, and Orcutt and Beardsley’s _Derby_.[465]