INDIAN NAME-ORIGIN OF THE RACE NOT ESTABLISHED--ALGONQUINS-PENACOOKS IN THE MERRIMACK VALLEY--PASSACONNAWAY-WONNALANCET--KANCAMAGUS--CHARACTERISTICS OF THE INDIAN--WIGWAMS--MODE OF COOKING--AGRICULTURE--THEIR WEAPONS--CANOES--CHILDREN--MEDICINAL KNOWLEDGE LIMITED--FISHERIES AT AMOSKEAG--MODE OF FISHING--MADE GREAT ACCOUNT OF THE FISHING SEASON--MR. ELIOT PREACHED HERE--TRAIL FROM AMOSKEAG TO GORHAM POND--INDIAN ROCK--JOB KIDDER--SHIRLEY HILL--SETTLEMENT AT GOFFSTOWN VILLAGE--CAPT. DANIEL PECKER'S SCOUTING PARTY--JONATHAN ROBBINS--EARLY SETTLERS FREE FROM ATTACKS--THEIR PLACE FINALLY SUPPLANTED BY THE ENGLISH

The name Indian was erroneously applied to the people first found in America by Americus Vespucius, an Italian from Florence, Italy, who discovered the northeastern part of South America about 1500. He, like other early explorers, particularly Columbus and Cabot, when they had discovered land in America, supposed it to be the eastern part of India and they named the people Indians, and the name had obtained such a hold upon the aborigines of America that it could not be changed.

Much has been written relative to the origin of the American Indian, how long he had been an inhabitant of the American continent and from whence he came.

Since the Indians themselves have never been able to give a connected account of their origin it is of small wonder that writers upon the subject so disagree. One theory advanced is that the Indian came from Asia across Behring Strait, another that he is the result of the development theory evolving through countless ages, but we shall have to leave this matter in doubt the same as we found it by quoting the words of Paine:

It is not our purpose to attempt an explanation where the Indian came from, or how long he had been a resident of America. One thing is certain: when the early explorers first visited New England they found the American Indian and very soon after made his acquaintance, and had it not been for the terrible plague that visited the Indians upon Cape Cod, they would in all probability have utterly exterminated the Pilgrim Fathers.

The Indians of New England were Algonquins, a tribe which occupied the Canadian province as far westward as the Mississippi and that portion of the United States east of the Mississippi and north of North Carolina with the exception of the state of New York, northern part of Pennsylvania and a small country north of Lake Erie. This excepted territory belonged to the Iroquois tribe.

The Algonquins were divided into many small tribes, and the tribes into classes or clans.

The Indians from the interior were known by the name of Nipmucks or Fresh Water Indians, but the Indians in the Merrimack Valley, although probably Nipmucks, were usually called by the English Penacooks, from the fact that the tribe at Penacook was the most powerful one in the valley and under the rule of Passaconnaway had become the head of a powerful confederacy.

The tribes on the Merrimack partook the name of the location they inhabited geographically.

The Nashuas occupied the land upon the Nashua River and at its mouth. The Penacooks lived at Penacook, and the Namoskeags resided at the falls in the Merrimack, known now by the name of Amoskeag. It has been variously written as Namaske, Namaoskeag, Naumkeag, Naimkeik.

Passaconnaway seems to have been one of the most noted Indian chiefs in New England and his dominion extended over a good deal of country even as far as the Piscataqua. He resided at Penacook and lived to a great age; he is said at the age of one hundred and twenty to have delivered an address to his children, friends and tribe stating that he was nearly through his earthly career and exhorting them to take earnest heed how they quarrel with the English, because the English would be the utter extermination of them if they did.¹

In 1662 he petitioned the General Court of Massachusetts for a grant about "Naticot" above Mr. Brenton's land, a mile and a half on either side of the Merrimack River in breadth, three miles on either side in length, provided he nor they do not alienate any part of this grant without leave or license from this court first obtained.²

His request was granted. Naticot is another version of Naumkeag. This petition was based on the fact of his growing needs and inability to meet them inasmuch as numbers gradually decreased and the poverty of the survivors became greater.

According to Mr. Hubbard he was considered a great pow-wow or sorcerer among his people, and his fame was very extensive. They seemed to think he could perform many incredible things. The year of his death is not known but it occurred between 1663 and 1669. His son Wonnalancet succeeded after his death, and he like his father was friendly to the English.

Upon the retirement of Wonnalancet in 1677, his place was supplied by Kancamagus, who was otherwise known as John Hogkins. He had trouble with the English which first originated when General Cranfield employed the Mohawks to fight against the Indians in New Hampshire and it continued to increase and culminated in the murder of Major Waldron and his party at Cocheco, now Dover.

He was a brave and polished chief and it is very fortunate that he was at the head of the Indians at this time rather than at an earlier date. After the affair at Cocheco he and his followers quit the valley of the Merrimack and joined the St. Francis tribe.

The Penacook Indians were typical North American Indians. Physically they are described by Dr. Palfrey as follows: "Symmetrical frame, tall, straight and well made, the skin of cinnamon color, long black coarse hair, scant beard, high cheek bones, small deep set snaky eyes and broad nose."

In their untutored state they possess neither science nor culture. Naturally stolid and taciturn, seldom eloquent, shrewd and deeeptive; their physical and mental powers undeveloped and weak.

They lived in wigwams which were usually constructed about twelve feet in diameter, conical shape by setting poles around in a circle, joining them together at the top with a withe, covered with barks of trees or skins. They were often fitted up quite comfortable. A hole was left open at the top for the smoke to pass out. There was an opening on the side which served as a door and in the winter was generally covered with a skin.

Each wigwam had a center pole reaching to the top and into the pole at the proper height a pin or peg was driven upon which to hang the kettle. Against the bottom of the pole and directly under the pin a large flat stone was set up which answered for the back of the fireplace and also prevented the pole from burning.

Upon the front side of this rock a rude fireplace was constructed. Mats were placed upon the ground upon which they sat, and partook of their meal and slept. Their cooking was very primitive. They roasted their meat upon split sticks or spits, or by heating holes in the ground. In the absence of a kettle they heated water in a wooden vessel or trough by the aid of hot rocks and in this way boiled their vegetables and cooked their mush.

The wigwam for the summer was a temporary affair and was set up at the fishing place, the planting ground or wherever necessity required. Household duties were necessarily very light. They ate their food from their fingers without the aid of a fork.

Their method of agriculture was laborious; the Indian women or squaws cultivated the ground and raised the crops. The soil was dug up with the axe or hoe.

The axe or tomahawk was made of granite or slate and a groove cut round near the head, the handle was a withe bent around the axe in this groove and tied with roots or sinews.

Sometimes they formed their axe handles by splitting open a sapling oak or hickory while standing, inserted the axe and allowed the parts to close around the axe in the groove made for that purpose. They let it remain until the growth of the sapling enclosed the axe firmly, when they cut the young tree and fashioned the handle.

Their hoe was made somewhat like a carpenter's adz, with a groove instead of an eye for the handle, which was fastened the same as the handle of the axe.

Their ouly dressing for the soil was fish, putting a fish in each hill of corn or other vegetables and this custom the earlier settlers adopted from the Indians.

Their corn was used in various ways, some when green either boiled or roasted; the ripe corn they pounded in wooden mortars with stone pestles; but sometimes before pounding they parched their corn. They made from their pounded corn a kind of hasty pudding.

Their clothing was scanty, made from the skins of animals, also their moccasins. Their weapons, offensive and defensive, consisted of the bow, tomahawk and knife. The arrow was pointed with fine granite or quartz. With the bow and arrow they became very proficient. It is said an athletic Indian would send an arrow entirely through a bear or moose. They secured a great deal of game by means of traps, snares, "Kulheag," etc.

For travel upon the water they made canoes, very light and serviceable. A canoe capable of carrying six persons could be easily carried across a portage by two Indians, and when carried was placed bottomside up upon the head and shoulders of each Indian.

The Indian children were kept lashed to the cradle until they could sit alone. The cradle consisted of a board about two and one-half feet in length by one foot in width, with a row of holes upon each side to which the Indian babe was tied, and when moving from place to place the child was carried in this position, suspended upon its mother's back.

The Indian woman had to perform all that was laborious; build the wigwam, till the ground, transport the luggage and attend to the culinary duties.

With the men, war was their delight. They usually went in companies or squads varying from six or eight to forty. They rarely engaged in an open conflict but preferred a sly, sneaking way, falling upon their victims by stratagem from the ambush or when asleep. The captives they tortured cruelly and scalped the dead.

They had very little knowledge of the medicinal qualities of roots and herbs and very little science was shown in ministrations to the sick. With the old and enfeebled death was their nurse and grave the hospital. One reason for the fine formation physically and good health was that the weak, slender and feeble were allowed to die and those of good physique and health live. They buried their dead in a sitting posture, facing the rising sun, and his ornaments and implements with him. The living were much attached to the graves of their friends and kept them especially marked by mounds or stones, and planted wild flowers on the same.

The Indians made great account of the fishing season, as it was termed, and when the fish began to run in the spring all flocked to Amoskeag from the surrounding country. Ancient residents and historians corroborate the fact that they had a permanent wear at Amoskeag Falls upon the westerly side of the river known as the eddy. Here fish were taken in vast numbers by the Indian fishermen with nets and when a sufficient quantity had been obtained they were taken to the shore where the squaws stood ready with their knives to dress and prepare the fish for drying or smoking.

Their custom of curing the fish was to split them and lay them in the sun to dry, or smoke them over a slow fire, or hang them on the center pole of their wigwams. In the early spring and fall they took fish extensively by means of a torch and spear. Another method in which they were less successful in fishing was by means of a bone hook attached to a line, with which they hooked the fish and pulled it to the surface.

In regard to the habits and customs of the Indians, Potter's "History of Manchester," Drake's "American Indians," Little's "History of Weare," Sanborn's "History of New Hampshire" were referred to.

Amoskeag was early a celebrated fishing place and a place of considerable importance. The place was of no ordinary advantage to the Indian on account of his sustenance derived from the fisheries.

Namaoskeag, for a long time, was not only the great point of attraction to all provident Indians but was the royal residence of the ancient Sagamons of the Merrimack Valley. It was the home of a tribe who annually welcomed their confederates from near and more remote regions; and during these annual gatherings, when the duties of the day were over, the night was passed in feasting and dancing. At these fishing seasons lovers' vows were plighted, marriages consummated, speeches made and treaties signed. Here on this ground Passaconnaway probably made his dying speech exhorting his followers to live in peace with the white man.

Mr. Eliot found opportunity to visit Amoskeag and both preached and taught here as early as 1650. Passaconnaway and Wonnalancet both listened to his preaching, and set the example to their followers by adopting the doctrine which he advocated.

One of their villages or camping grounds was situate upon the bluff west of the falls and considerable quantities of Indian arrow heads were found there as late as 1875.

The Indians had a trail from Amoskeag Falls to Gorham Pond in Dunbarton which was a minor resort for them. They followed the valley of the Black Brook to a point somewhere near the present sawmill owned by G. F. Robertson upon the same, and then bore to the northwest through lots 3 and 4 in their respective ranges, crossing Harry Brook somewhere in the vicinity of the Walker place where George E. Waite now lives and thence by the Indian rock to Gorham Pond. The Indian rock is on the southeasterly side of the road near the bars on land of Charles H. Hazen, and nearly opposite of the road leading to the John Kidder or Frank H. Woodman farm. It is a rock known to the earliest inhabitants, and has an Indian arrow marked upon it.

Dr. Carr in "Hillsboro County History" speaks of "Job Kidder when warned by his faithful dog of the approach of the Indians, who frequently passed his clearing in going from Amoskeag Falls to Gorham Pond, retreated to his log shanty and there with his three guns and no other companion, let them have the alternative to pass on or fight."

The log shanty referred to stood in the field south of Henry Blaisdell's house in the fork of the roads, one leading to Goffstown village and the other to Grasmere. The "History of Weare" speaks of the trail leading still further over the Kuncanowet Hill, up the Piscataquog River, over the high land and the Contoocook to Claremont on the Connecticut River.

Mrs. Andrew McDougall related that the Indians early had a clearing on Shirley Hill which they planted with corn, and on account of abundant yield they called it "Pudding Hill."

They probably had a settlement on the northerly side of the Piscataquog River in Goffstown Village north of the gristmill, as traces of them have there been found. In 1891 when the Goffstown waterworks were constructed human bones were dug up, when the workmen were digging the ditch near the residence of the late Isaac J. Paige, which bore every resemblance to Indian remains.

In November, 1723, Capt. Daniel Pecker of Haverhill led a scouting party through Goffstown evidently heading for a band of Indians, who were residing near the height of land between the Merrimack and Contoocook rivers. He said the object was to first get their scalps then the bounty on them. On the 3d of December he marched by Unhenonuck Hill (Uncanoonuc) and on the 5th he crossed the Piscataquog (south branch), and on the 6th he crossed another part of the Piscataquog River (north branch), and dispatched a portion of his men under Jonathan Robbins up the Contoocook River. He was evidently following up the north branch of the Piscataquog River and was then in Weare. On his return he marched by way of Black Brook and then to the Merrimack River at Suncook. Black Brook bears the same name today as two hundred years ago.

On the 12th he returned to Haverhill. No mention is made of securing Indian scalps or of bounty receipts, but the hardship of such a march in snow, sleet and rain, through a trackless forest in December weather, momentarily expecting an attack from a hostile band was no pleasurable task.

The Jonathan Robbins mentioned was subsequently killed in Lovewell's fight with the Indians at Fryeburg, Me., May 8, 1725.

The earlier settlers of our town were very fortunate in freedom of attacks from the Indians as compared with the neighboring towns. The scalping tomahawk and flaming torch, which had caused death and destruction in so many of the neighboring settlements, came not within our borders. The flocks and herds were not molested and our improvements remained intact. The door posts of the rude cabins were not sprinkled with blood where the brains of helpless infants had been dashed out against them before the eyes of a loving mother. Our brave men and fair women escaped the suffering and untold hardships in inclement weather during the long weary march to the Canadian frontier, and there being sold to servitude as was the misfortune of neighboring townspeople.

This perehanee may be attributed to the friendly relation that existed between Passaconnaway, Wonnalancet and the English; and, perhaps, it may have been from the fact that the Indians were so dependent upon the fisheries at Amoskeag Falls.

The Indians which inhabited our town had a history, although never written by the historian or ever in state of preservation, that future generations might realize the epochs of their lives, their vicissitudes, hardships and sufferings, or the eventualities that were mingled in their every day life to cause pleasure and happiness.

From the summit and beneath the shadow of the then interminable forest of the Uncanoonucs, they pursued their hunt. In the fertile valleys of the Piscataquog and the Merrimack the devoted squaw toiled with her rude implements in their limited agricultural pursuits. From the cove in the Piscataquog, known to them as the "Salmon place," they drew forth that species of fish that left our waters with their departure. From the foaming waters of the Amoskeag Falls, they annually supplanted that portion of their livelihood not obtained from the soil and the hunt. In the valley and on the hillside the smoke arose from their wigwams. Their counsel fires at times burned brightly on the bluff in Amoskeag Village.

But the axe of the white man and the advent of civilization caused a decrease and a waning. With the advance of civilization they wasted away almost as the dew before the morning sun. The waters of the Piscataquog and the Merrimack flow as in the days of yore, but their power is utilized to give employment to thousands. Sometimes we feel to sympathize and even drop the tear of pity for a race that once flourished, but has now withered from the land.

We cannot better note the change that two centuries have brought about than by quoting the words of Stark:

¹Drake's History, Chap. VII, p. 90. Return
²Drake's History, p.92. Return