HISTORY OF NASHUA, NEW HAMPSHIRE - Part III
FRONTIER HARDSHIP AND STRUGGLES 1730 and BEYOND
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SOURCE: History of Hillsborough County, New Hampshire 
Philadelphia: J.W. Lewis & Co., 1885, 878 pgs.

page 153
NASHUA, N.H.
by John H. Goodale

EXCERPTS ONLY... SEE ORIGINAL DOCUMENT FOR COMPLETE DOCUMENT

CHAPTER VI
FRONTIER HARDSHIPS AND STRUGGLES
Dunstable in 1730-- Poverty of the Settlers-- Bears and Racoons--
New Towns Organized-- Settlement of the Boundary Line-- 
Dunstable Under New Hampshire Laws-- Religious Dissensions--
A Tramp Through the Wilderness-- Lost in the Woods--
Night on Lovewells Mountain-- A Safe Return--

The close of the Indian war in 1725 found the people of Dunstable few in number 
and extremely poor. War taxes were heavy, ransoms had been paid for captive
relatives from dire necessity; the destruction of houses, cattle and crops, and
the destruciton of all regular employment had been ruinous. The general povery
had been such that from 1693 to 1733 the voters declined to send a representative
to the Massachusetts Assembly. When necessity required, a special messenger
was employed.

Money was so scarce that the Assembly issued bills of credit to the amount of
fifty thousand pounds, to be distributed among the several towns. Lieutenant
Henry Farwell and Joseph Blanchard were trustees to distribute among the 
residents of Dunstable, in such sums that "no man should hve more than five or
less than three pounds, paying five percent yearly for interest." Had the issue
been limited to this amount, it might have been of service; but larger issues
followed, with subsequent depreciation and much loss and distress.
  Voting by ballot became an established rule in all important matters, and in
1723 jurymen were first chosen in this manner. Bridges began ot be built, roads
extended and better houses built. It was a favorable event that a saw-mill was
built soon after the first settlement on Salmon Brook, at the little bridge on
the road running east from the Harbor, and which for many years was owned by
John Lovewell, the fathe rof the hero of Pequawket.  The first cabins had the
ground for a floor and logs chinked with clay for walls. Plank and boards now
came into use, and framed houses began to be built by the older settlers. The
selectmen were allowed five shillings per day for services. There were no
laywers, and the cases of litigation that occurred were settled by a justice,
who was not goverened by rule or precedents, but by a common-sense view of what
was right. If important, an appeal could be made to the General Assembly.

The amount of taxes from 1726 to 1733 varied from two hundred and fifty to
four hundred dollars, including the support of the minister. In March, 1727,
the town raised twenty dollars to build a ferry-boat to corss the Merrimack at
Blanchard's farm (near the Little stand) as Hudson was then included in 
Dunstable, and settlers were locating on that side of the river.  In the fall
of that year, Joseph Blanchard, Sr. the only and earliest inn-keeper in the town
died, and Henry Farwell Jr. petitioned for and obtained a license for the same
business.  During October, 1727, several severe shocks of an earthquake
occurred, overturning chimneys and attended by unusual noises. At this time corn
was the most important field product of the farmer. It was the staple article
for man, if not beast. In early autumn it was exposed to depredations from
raccoons and bears.
  According to tradition.... it was about 1726 that potatoes were first
introduced into Dunstable.  A Mr. Cummings obtained two or three, which he
planted. When he dug the crop, some of them were roasted and eaten merely from
curiousity, and the rest were put into a gourd-shell and hung up in the cellar.
The next year he planted all the seed, and had enough to fill a two-bushel
basket. Thinking he had no use for so many, he gave some of them to his 
neighbors. Soon after, one of them said to him "I have found that potatoes are
good for something. I have boiled some of them, and eat them with meat, and
they relished well."  It was some years later, however before potatoes came into
general use. At this time tea was rarely used, and tea-kettles were unknown.
The water was boiled in a skillet. When the women went to an afternoon visiting
party each one carried her tea-cup, saucer and spoon. The tea-cups were of the
best china and very small, containing about as much as a common wine-glass.
Coffee was unknown until more than half a century later.
  Under the colonial laws of Massachusetts, the public-school system was first
established with the provision that "every child should be taught to read and
write." Every town having fifty householders was to employ a teacher for twenty
weeks of the year. But deeply as the people of Dunstable felt the importance of
education, it was not safe nor practicable in a frontier town where a fierce
Indian war was raging, when the inhabitants dwelt in garrisons, and were every
day liable to an attack, to establish a common school.  The dense adjacent
forest, from whence the quiet of the school-room might be broken at any hour by
the yell of the savage, was no fitting place for children. Still, home
education was not neglected, as the ancient records of the town clearly show.
There was no school in the town until 1730. That year, by reckoning in the
settlers within the present limits of Hudson, Hollis and Tyngsborough, the
required "fifty householders" were obtained, and ten pounds were granted for the
support of a teacher. But the school was not successful, and after a brief
existence was neglected for some years.
  There is no data for ascertaining the number of inhabitants in "Old Dunstable,"
or in that part now included in Nashua, in 1730. In the latter territory there
may have been forty families over a wide area, and the new-comers were largely
settling in Hollis, Hudson and other outlying localities. Already they were
demanding that, for schools, for convenience to public worship and local
improvements, that they should be set apart from Dunstable, and erected into
separate townships.  The General Court of Massachusetts was disposed to grant
their petitions.

Accordingly, in 1732, the inhabitants on the east side of the Merrimack River
were authorized to established a new township, with the name of NOTTINGHAM.
When the settlement of the border-line brought it within New Hampshire, the name
was changed to NOTTINGHAM WEST, as there was already a Nottingham in the eastern
part of the State. In 1830, the town assumed the more appropriate name of HUDSON.

In 1733 the inhabitants on the north side of the Nashua River and west of the
Merrimack River petitioned for an act of incorporation; but as nearly all
the petitioners lived on the Souhegan and the intervale at its mouth, the
General COurt made the Pennichuck Brook the southern boundary to the new
township, with the name of RUMFORD. It was called Rumford only a short time, for
the settlers, annoyed by the insinuation that the first syllable of the name
indicated the favorite beverage of the inhabitants, hastened to change it to the
name of the beautiful river that flows along its eastern border--MERRIMACK.

In 1734 the settlement across the river, from Merrimack, then known as
"Brenton's Farm," was incorporated, because, as the petitioners claimed, they
"had supported a minister for some time." It was called LITCHFIELD.

In 1736 the fertile lands in the west part of Dunstable were being rapidly
occupied by an enterprising people, and were incorporated under the name of
WEST DUNSTABLE. The Indian name was Nissitissit.  After the establishment of
the boundary line, the Legislature, by request, gave to the town the name of
HOLLES.  For fifty years the name of the town was spelled HOLLES; but after
the colonies became the American Republic, the orthography was changed to HOLLIS.

In the mean time settlements were extending rapidly all around, and the forest
was bowing before the onward march of civilization. Township after township
was parceled out from the original body of "Old Dunstable," until, in 1740,
the broad and goodly plantation was reduced to that portion which is now
embraced within the limits of Nashua, Tyngsborough and Dunstable.

SETTLEMENT OF THE BOUNDARY LINE--For many years prior to 1740 the boundary line
between the provinces of New Hampshire and Massachusetts had been a subject of
bitter controversy. More than seventy years ago Governor Endicott, of
Massachusetts, said he had caused a monument to be fixed three miles northward
of the junction of the two rivers forming the Merrimack, in the town of
Sanbornton, and Massachusetts claimed all the territory in the present State of
New Hampshire south of an east and west line passing through that point, and 
lying west of the Merrimack River.
  On the other hand, New Hampshire claimed all the territory lying north of
a line running due east and west through a point three miles north of the
Merrimack River, measured from the north bank of that river just above its
mouth.  At length a royal commission was appointed to settle the controversy.
It met at Hampton Falls, in this State, in 1737, the General Court of each
province attending the sittings of the commission.
  The commission at Hampton Falls did not agree, and the question was reserved
for the King in Council. The decision was finally made in 1740, fixing the
province line where the State line now is. This decision took from Massachusetts
her claim, and gave to New Hampshire not only all that New Hampshire claimed,
but also a tract of territory south of that in controversy, seventeen miles in
width and extending from the Merrimack to the Connecticut River, to which
New Hampshire had made no pretensions. It included all that part of "Old
Dunstable" north of the present State line.
  This new line, which proved to be the permanent boundary between the two
States, was run in 1741, leaving in Massachusetts that part of the old township
now in Tyngsborough and in Dunstable [MA], in that State and adding to New
Hampshire the present territory of Nashua, Hudson, Hollis and all the other
portions of "Old Dunstable," north of the designated line.  The name 'Dunstable,'
however, was still retained by the territory which now constitutes the city of
Nashua until the New Hampshire Legislature of 1836 changed the name to NASHUA.
  This decision came upon the settlers in Dunstable north of the new line with
mingled surprise and consternation. Dunstable was eminently adn wholly a
Massachusetts settlement. The settlers were nearly all from the neighboring
towns in that province, with whose people they were connected in sympathy, in
business and by the ties of marriage and blood. Their town and parish charters
and the titles to their lands and improvements were all Massachusetts' grants,
and their civil and ecclesiastical organizations were under Massachusetts' laws.
This decision of the King in Council left them wholly out of the jurisdiction
of that province, and in legal effect made all their charters, the titles to
their lands and improvements, and all statue laws regularting their civil and
church polity wholly void. The decision of the King was final, and therew was no
appeal. Though disappointed, embarassed and indignant, there was no alternative
but submission.
  
Hitherto the history of Nashua has been associated with that of the extended
territory of "Old Dunstable," an appendage of Massachusetts.  Henceforth it is
to be a distinct, independent town in New Hampshire, comprised within the same
limits as the Nashua of to-day.

DUNSTABLE UNDER NEW HAMPSHIRE LAWS--Fortunately for the people of Dunstable,
the colonial government of New Hampshire was not in condition to extend its
authority immediately, and the Dunstable people remained substantially
under the Massachusetts charter until  April, 1846, when the town was
incorporated by the General Court of New Hampshire. In the mean time a 
compromise was made with the adverse claimants of their lands and improvements,
and their titles to their possessions being secured, they gradually became
reconciled to their new political status.

In 1746 the main road through Dunstable was greatly improved. From the surveyors
record there would seem to have been only a few houses on the road at that time.
The following are all that are mentioned: Captain Joseph French's house was 
eight rods north of the State line; Colonel Joseph Blanchard's house, three
hundred rods north of the State line, and twenty-nine rods south of Cummings'
Brook; Cyrus Baldwin's near Colonel Blanchard's; John Searles' house, sixty-six
rods north of Cummings' Brook; Henry Adams's, eighty rods north of Searles'
house (the old ditch which led to the fort was ninety rods north of Adams'
house); Thomas Harwood's house was ninety rods north of the old ditch; no other
house mentioned between Harwood's and Nashua River excepting Jonathan Lovewell's,
which was two hundred and eighty-three rods south of the river, or at the
Harbor, south of Salmon Brook.  Perhaps the above schedule included only the
larger land-holders and tax payers.
  At this time there were neither schools nor school-houses in the town.
On September 29, 1746, it was voted that "Jonathan Lovewell be desired to hire
a school-master until next March for this town, upon the cost and charge of
the town."  Two dwelling-houses, one in the northern, and one in the southern
part of the town, were designated in which the school should be kept, if they
could be obtained. Only one teacher was employed, and he was to keep school
half of the time at each place. The number of inhabitants was probably about
three hundred.
  During this year (1746) the Indians from Canada came in small parties to the
new settlements in the western and northern parts of Hillsborough County. Their
defenseless condition compelled the few families in Peterborough, Lyndeborough,
Hillsborough and New Boston to retire to the older towns, chiefly to Northern
Massachusetts.  In their haste they buried their cooking utensils and farming
tools, taking their cattle and lighter goods with them. The only persons taken
from Dunstable were Jonathan Farwell and a Mr. Taylor who were taken by 
surprise while hunting. They were taken to Canada, sold to the French and 
remained in captivity three years, but finally succeeded in obtaining a release
and returned to their friends. Many of the descendants of Mr. Farwell, under
several surnames, reside in this vicinity.

For fifty years the meeting-house of Dunstable had been located near the state
line. But in Dunstable reconstructed it was desirable that the house for
worship should be centrally located. There was a divide opinion as to the new
site and a worse dissension as to the minister. Rev. Samuel Bird, who was
installed August 31, 1747, was an Arminian, and accused of being a follower of
Whitefield. His friends, at the head of whom was Jonathan Lovewell, stood by
him and built a meeting-house, in the autumn of that year, on a spot of
rising ground about six rods west of the main road, or just south of the old
cemetery, opposite the residence of J.L.H. Marshall. It was about twenty-eight
feet by forty, had a small gallery and, like most church edifices of the time,
was divided into the "men's side" and the "women's side." Meanwhile Colonel
Joseph Blanchard, the leader of the opposing faction, continued to hold services
in the old house, near the Tyngsborough line.
  Twenty-two years had now passed since the loss by Dunstable of some of her
prominent citizens in Lovewell's fight, at Fryeburg, Me.  Since then the
population had doubled, and a new generation were coming into active service.
Among the leading families were the Lovewells, Blanchards, Farwells,
Cummingses, Frenches and Lunds.  The number of young persons between the ages
of eighteen and twenty-five had largely increased, and the young men, after the
gathering of the fall crops, made frequent explorations and hunting-trips. These
excursions were still hazardous, for the unbroken forests on the west and north
were occasionally traversed by savages, usually in small parties of from six to
eight, who were stimulated by the rewards paid in Canada by the French
government for the delivery of prisoners.   Usually their objective point was to
surprise and make prisoners of the solitary fur-hunters, who, late in autumn,
found it profitable to set traps for the beaver, mink, musk-rat and otter, to be
found on the banks of the Souhegan, Piscataquog, Contoocook or in the more
northern waters of the lakes in Grafton and Belknap Counties. An illustration
of the habits and daring enterprise of the young men of that time will be seen
in the following sketch of:

A TRAMP THROUGH THE WILDERNESS--In the fall of 1747 two explorers from Dunstable,
Nehemiah Lovewell and John Gilson, started from the present site of Nashua for
the purpose of examining the slope of the Merrimack Valley and of crossing the
height of land to Number Four (now Charlestown), which was then known as the most
northern settlement in the Connecticut Valley. Knowing the difficulties in
traversing hills and valleys covered with underbrush and rough with fallen
timber and huge bowlders, they carried as light an outfit as possible--a
musket and camp-blanket each, with five days' provisions. Following the 
Souhegan through Milford to Wilton, they then turned northward, and, crossing
the height of land in the limits of the present day Stoddard, had, on the
afternoon of the third day, their first view of the broad valley westward, with
a dim outline of the mountains beyond. The weather was clear and pleasant, the
journey laborious, but invigorating. On their fourth afternoon they reached and
camped for the night on the banks of the Connecticut, some ten miles below
Charlestown. At noon of the next day they were welcomed at the rude fort, which
had already won renown by the heroic valor of its little garrison. At this time
the forst was commanded by Captain Phineas Stevens, a man of great energy and
bravery.  Lovewell and Gilson were the first visitors from the valley of the
Merrimack, and their arrival was a novelty. That night--as in later years,
they used to relate--they sat up until midnight, listening to a recital of the
fierce struggles which the inmates of this rude fortress, far up in the woods,
had encountered within the previous eight months.
  Tarrying several days at the fort, during which the weather continued clear 
and mild, the two explorers were ready to return homeward. In a direct line
Dunstable was about ninety miles distant. With the needed supply of salt pork
and corn bread, Lovewell and Gilson left Number Four at sunrise on the 16th of
November. THe fallen leaves were crisp with frost as they entered the deep
maple forests which skirt the hills lying east of the Connecticut intervales.
The days being short, it was necessary to lose not time between sunrise and
sunset.  The air was cool and stimulated them to vigorously hurry forward.
Coming to a clear spring soon after midday, Gilson struck a fire and resting
for half an hour, they sat down to a marvelously good feast of boiled salt pork
and brown bread. One who has never eaten a dinner under like conditions can have
no idea of its keen relish and appreciation.
  It was now evident that a change in the weather was at hand. The air was
growing colder and the sky .... [the remainder of this story in the original
document is not repeated here... to read same, see original document... the
Lovewell mentioned in this story was the son of Captain John Lovewell.]

CHAPTER VII
COLONIAL HOMES AND hABITS
Earliest Schools in Dunstable-- New Meeting House-- Horseback Riding--
Deep Snows and Snow-Shoes-- Longevity-- Last French and Indian War 1755--
Paper Currency-- Effects of Rum-Drinking-- Era of Peace and Prosperity--
Improved Dwellings-- Bannocks and Bean Porridge-- Hard Labor--
Fording Streams-- Roads and Bridges--- Growth of Farms--
Scarcity of Brooks, Newspapers and Luxuries

EXCERPTS FROM ORIGINAL DOCUMENT ONLY

Dunstable, where in our time, more than two thousand daily newspapers are every
day circulated, had at that time only a weekly circulation of three
newspapers.... In the fall of 1749 the town voted to begin the coming year with
a school for eight months; one teacher only was to be employed, and the school
was to be kept in different parts of the town alternately. The only studies
taught were the three "R's" and spelling.  There was very little classification.
ALmost all the instruction was given to each scholar individually. No
arithmetic was used, but the msater wrote all the "sums" on the slate. The
reading-books were the Psalms and the New Testament, and on Saturday morning
the Westminster Catechism.  No spelling-books were used except the reading-
books. The slates were rough, and when wanting, as they sometimes were,
birch bark was used as a substitute. The remoteness of a part of the scholars
occasioned irregularity of attendance. With no aids, not even a map or
black-board, the improvement was slow and unsatisfactory. Schools existed,
however, until the beginning of the French War, in 1755, when they were
discontinued until 1761.
  
The strife between the old and new schools of religious thinkers still
continued.  Rev. Samuel Bird continued to oppose the doctrine of "foreordination"
and the harsh declarations of the Westminster Catechism. Having a call from
Connecticut, he left in 1751; but the dissensions in the church continued.
It is creditable to the town that at that early period there were those among
its citizens who boldly avowed their disbelief in the absurdities of a
traditional creed.  Subsequently milder counsels prevailed, and the belligerents
agreed to disagree. The Bird meeting-house was taken down and its materials made
into a dwelling-house, long known as the "Bowers place," at the Harbor.
On December 21, 1753, the town voted to build a new meeting-house "at the crotch
of the roads, as near as can be with convenience to the house of Jonathan
Lovewell."  Mr. Lovewell's house still exists, and is now the residence of
Mrs. Alfred Godfrey, two miles south of the city hall. The meeting-house was
built on the little triangular "green" which is nearly in front of Mrs.
Godfrey's house.  It was an improvement upon the previous structures, having
square pews, a spacious sounding-board, seats for deacons and tythingmen, two
painted doors in front, with a suitable number of horse-blocks at convenient
distances for the accomodation of those women and children of the congregation
who rode to meeting on a side-saddle or a pillion. This meeting-house had a long
occupation, not having been abandoned until 1812.  Several of the older
citizens of Nashua remember to have attended services within its walls.

For a century after the first settlement of Dunstable, no carriages were used,
and journeys were performed on horseback. The only wheeled vehicles used were
the cumbersome lumber-wagon and the two-wheeled cart. The good man and his wife
were accustomed to ride to church on the same horse, she sitting on a pillion
behind him, and not unfrequently carrying a child in her arms, while another 
and older child was mounted on the pommel of the saddle before him. No person
thought of buying or exchanging a horse without ascertaining whether the animal
could "carry double," as some otherwise valuable horses were in the habit of
elevating their heels when "doubly loaded."  In winter, when the snow was deep,
a pair of oxen were attached to a sled, and the whole family rode to meeting on
an ox-sled.  Sometimes and entire household, seated upon an ox-sled, would
start in the morning to spend the day with a friend five or six miles distant.
In the eighteenth century greater quantities of snow fell in winter in Southern
New Hampshire than now, and snow-shoes were in general use.  The invention
originated with the Indians. The snow-shoe was elliptical in shape, with its
rim made of ash, and the space within the rim interwoven with strips of raw-hide,
so that the large breadth of surface resting upon the snow would sink but
slightly below the surface. The feet were attached to the snow-shoes by
fastening a common shoe at the toe, leaving the heel loose, to the central part
of the snow-shoe.  The Indians and early settlers made constant use of them
during the deep snows of the long winters.  The snowfall usually reached the
depth of five feet and continued from ten to twelve weeks.

In 1752 the elder John Lovewell, father of the hero of Pequawket, died at an
advanced age. The current rumor of his extreme longevity (one hundred and twenty
years) is a mistake. The error arose from confounding the events of his life with
those of his father, who was a soldier under Cromwell, and whose bravery the
son inherited.  Born in England, and fighting under Church, in King Philip's
War, he was among the earliest settlers of Dunstable. During the Indian attacks,
about 1700, he was, on one occasion, spared by them on account of his kindness
in time of peace. In his alter years he lived on the north side of Salmon Brook,
just below the Main Street bridge. He lived to be a centenarian, and was so
vigorous at that age as to be a terror to the boys who attempted to steal his
apples. The family name has now disappeared from Nashua.

The longevity of many of the early settlers is worthy of notice. In Judge
Worcester's "History of Hillis," Widow Lydia Ulrich is authentically recorded
as having died in that town in her one hundred and fifth, and Lieutenant Caleb
Farley in his one hundred and third year.  This great longevity and good health
of the early settlers was no doubt due to the regularity of their habits, 
and the simplicity of their diet.

THE LAST FRENCH WAR, 1755--Near the close of 1748, a treaty of peace had been
made between England and France. By this treaty, no question in dispute was
settled.  England yieled up Louisburg, whose conquest had shed much glory on the
colonial arms, and received in return, Madras.  The English government had shown
neither skill nor energy in the management of the war, but had left the colonies
to protect themselves.  King George the Third and his ministry had allowed a
dangerous enemy to harass the colonies, that they might feel more keenly their
dependence on the mother-country.  They were already enforcing that restrictive
policy in trade which subsequently led to the Revolution. The fruit of this war
to the colonies was only debt and disgrace. They felt that is was an inglorious
surrender of their interests. 
  The peace was only nominal.  In the spring of 1755 it was manifest that the
French were aiming at the control of the Lakes and the Mississippi Valley, and,
if successful in these designs, of the subjugation of the colonies. War was
openly declared, and New Hampshire raised a regiment of five hundred men to
join an expedition, under Sir William Johnson, for the capture of Crown Point.
The command was given to Colonel Joseph Blanchard, of Dunstable. One of the
companies of this regiment was the famous "Rangers," of which Robert Rogers,
of Dunstable, was captain and John Stark lieutenant. Several members of the
company were from this town.
  This regiment was disbanded at the end of the year. After the failure of the
campaign of 1755, and the death of General Braddock, Lord Loudon was appointed
to the chief command. Another New Hampshire regiment was called for and raised.
But the campaigns of 1756, 1756 and 1758 were disastrous from the incapacity of
the British commanders.  Nothing saved Lord Loudon from an utter defeat but the
brilliant and persistent efforts of the Rangers, under Rogers and Stark.
  The war still continuing, New Hampshire was ordered to furnish another
regiment of a thousand soldiers, which, on the death of Colonel Blanchard,
was commanded by Colonel Zaccheus Lovewell, brother of the famous John Lovewell.
It did good service at the capture of Ticonderoga and Crown Point. The next
year (1760) a regiment of eight hundred was raised by this State, under the
command of Colonel John Goffe, of Bedford. Dunstable furnished her full quota
of soldiers, who were at the surrender of Montreal and Quebec, which wrested
all Canada from France and closed the war.
  This result, due to the statesmanship of the new British premier, William Pitt,
decided whether Catholicism or Protestantism should prevail in North America.
A different result would have changed the whole current of civilization on the
western continent.  It was a conflict of ideas, and not the mere encounter of
brute forces.  The New England colonies rang with exultation; the hills were
lighted with bonfires; Legislatures, the pulpit and the people echoed the
general joy.  In this last of the French and Indian colonial wars, the men of
Dunstable bore well their part in the field and forest engagements. Besides the
two colonels, Blanchard and Lovewell, and the commissary, Jonathan Lovewell,
it is known that the sons of Noah Johnson, the last survivor of Lovewell's
fight, were in the war, both of whom were killed.  In all, about thirty
Dunstable men served in the war, and the survivors returned at its close to
their farms.
 ... During the active operations of the war, the harvest were bountiful, and
there was little suffering for food at home or in the army.  But during the
years 1761 and 1762 a severe drought cut off the crops, so that the corn was
imported from Virginia, and the Dunstable farmers cut the wild, coarse grass
which grew in the swamps to save their live-stock from starvation.  The
scarcity of feed compelled the slaughter of many sheep and cattle.

[The Chapter on intoxicating drinks, found in original document, not included
here]

Two years before the close of the war, on April 7, 1858, Colonel Joseph Blanchard
died at the age of fifty-three. His grandfather, Deacon John Blanchard, was one
of the first settlers of the town. His father was an active, useful citizen,
holding positions of trust and dying in 1727. On the death of his father, though
young, Joseph Blanchard succeeded to his father's business. He became widely
known as a surveyor of land, and in that capacity traversed the almost unbroken
forests which now constitute the western and northern towns of Hillsborough
County.  He sketched and first published maps of New Hampshire, a work of great
labor and much value to new emigrants. He was in command of the first regiment
raised for the campaign of 1755 at the time of his death. His moss-stained
monument in the old cemetery in the south part of the town reads thus,--
  "The Hon. Joseph Blanchard, Esq.
   deceased April 7th 1758, aged 53."

The capture of Quebec and the surrender of Canada to the British, in 1760,
was followed by a longer interval of peace than Dunstable had ever enjoyed--
fifteen years.  It was a period of needed tranquility, for on them, more than
elsewhere, had the Indian wars told fearfully.  For sixty years there had been
no seaons where danger might not be imminent..........
  But the entire overthrow of the French dominion brought safety as well as
peace. When, in 1774, the tyranny of the British government began to provoke
colonial resistance, Dunstable, with its seven hundred inhabitants, had become
an established, self-reliant community....
  The settlers of Dunstable were of Puritan origin. The earliest comers were, as
a class, distinctly marked characters, men of intelligence, energy and some
property. They had two objects in view: to obtain permanent homes for themselves
and their posterity, and to acquire wealth by the rise of their lands. They
brought with them domestic animals--cattle, swine, and sheep,--and had they been
spared the savage outrages, which destroyed their property, and often times their
lives, in a few years they would have had large and profitable farms and
convenient houses. The constant danger of Indian attacks compelled the building
of timbered buildings--logs hewn on opposite sides so that no musket bullet could
penetrate, save at some crevice. There were no windows, except narrow openings to
admit light and air; while the doors were built with the most careful regard to
resistance against outward attacks. They were made of white oak or ask plank,
with iron hinges, and with a wooden latch on the inside, having a raw-hide string
to life the latch from the outside. When the string was pulled in and the heavy
crossbars put up, it was no easy matter to force an entrance. Many of the houses
from the first settlement until 1750 had a rude and strong stockade built around
them, consisting of timbers ten inches thick set upright in the ground to the
height of ten to twelve feet. Such a building, if protected by several good
marksmen, had all the security of a fort, and was never attacked by the savages
unless they discovered the entrance open and unguarded. The house itself 
consisted of a single room, from sixteen to eighteen feet square, with seats,
table and bedsteads, hewn by the broad axe, constituting the furniture.
  But with the peace which followed the capture of Quebec, came an era of growth
and prosperity. The primitive dark and dingy log house gave way to the framed
house, usually of one story, and consisting of a sizeable room which answered
the three-fold purpose of kitchen, living-room and parlor, with a small
sleeping-room and pantry. A few of the more wealthy built a "double house,"
furnishing more abundant accomodations. All of them had in view shelter and
comfort rather than elegance. The windows were small, without blinds or
shutters. The fire-place was spacious enough to receive "back-logs" of two feet
in diameter and the smaller wood, resting on andirons.  The stone hearth had the
most liberal dimensions and the flue of the chimney a diameter of three feet. It
was hardly an exaggeration to say that one could sit in the chimney corner and
study astronomy. All the cooking was done by the fire, the kettles being
suspended from an iron crane over it, while the bannocks were baked and the meat
roasted in front of it.  Around it gathered the family at night, often numbering
from six to twelve children, and the cricket on the hearth kept company with 
their prattle. Thus with the hardships came the comforts of pioneer life. 
Dunstable had now a local cabinet-maker, whose busy lathe greatly improved the
style of household furniture.
  Everything was made of native forest wood--pine, cheery, birch and birds-eye
maple.  Now and then a bureau or a desk was seen which was made in Boston, and
more rarely an article brought across the water from England. Vessels of iron,
copper and tin were used in cooking. The dressers, extending from floor to
ceiling in the kitchen, contains the mugs, basins and various-sized plates of
pewter, which shone upon the farmer's board at time of meals. Farmers hired their
help for seven dollars a month. Carpenters had seventy-five cents a day, or 
twelve dollars per month. Apprentices served five years, and for the first tow
years were only fed and clothed.
  The food in those days was simple and healthy. There were no dyspeptics.
Breakfast generally consisted of potatoes, roasted in the ashes, with a little
cold meat and a hot "bannock," made of meal and water, and baked on a "maple
chip" before the fire.  In summer salt port and greens, with an occasional
strawberry or blackberry pudding, formed the staple for dinner; in autumy the
raccoon, partridge and gray squirrel furnished wild mean for the same meal,
while late in spring and early summer salmon and shad afforded material for a
princely repast.  During the long winters farm-boys, apprentices and children
lived chiefly on bean porridge. A dinner brown bread was added, or snapped corn
was sifted into the boiling porrdige making the dish called "pop robbin."
There was no tea or coffee, but all drank from a common mug, which at dinner
contained cider.  David Allds, who lived just north of Salmon Brook, near the
bridge which still retains his name, used to say that during the winter months
his family "used up" two hogsheads of bean porridge each month.
  There were no periods of leisure to the early settlers of any part of New
England; least of all was there to the people of Dunstable. During the winter,
when the farm of to-days does little beside taking care of his stock, the
new-comer to Dunstable, finding his narrow clearing insufficient to support his
family, set himself to felling trees for a new field. All through the early
winter he was in the woods from early dawn until the stars appeared in the sky,
and sometimes by moonlight or firelight in the evening. But he had a strong
frame, and labor was not irksome; every blow struck was for himself, his
children and his homestead.  Stripping off his coat, with arms bare to the elbow,
and the perspiration standing in drops on his forehead, the blows fell fast and
heavy until the huge trunk, tottering for a moment, fell to the ground,
flinging the broken branches high in the air, and with a noise like distant
thunder.  When the snows came he hired himself until spring to an older and
wealthier settler, to earn the corn and meat to feed his family. The labors of
the housewife were no less arduous. Aside from the care of her children, she had
the sole charge of the dairy and kitchen, washing and mending for the "men 
folks," and in case of sickness, taking care of the suffering. THe people were
generally healthy. Consumption, neuralgia and diseases of the heart were rarely
known.
  Dunstable had less harmony in church affairs than most of the early settled
towns of New England. Yet, the people, with rare unanimity, gathered on Sunday
at the "Old South Meeting-House." Sunday developed the social as well as the
religious feelings. During the hour of intermission the men gathered around some
trader, or person who had just returned from Boston, whose means of information
exceeded their own, to learn the important news of the week. Newspapers and
letters were seldom seen at any country fireside. News from England did not
reach the inland towns until four months after the events occurred. Intelligence
from New York was traveling ten to twelve days before it reached New Hampshire.
IN the means of general information it is difficult to comprehend the great
change which has occurred in the civilized world between 1750 and the present
time.
  Between 1760 and the beginning of the Revolution, in 1775, the "up-country," 
above Dunstable,--what now comprises the northern and western towns of
Hillsborough County,--was rapidly settled. Dunstable had ceased to be a frontier
town, and in spring and autumn the river road from Chelmsford to nashua River,
and thence to Amhrest, became a thoroughfare for ox-teams, horse-teams, and
"foot people."  Dr. Whiton, the early historian of Antrim, said that not a small
portion of the immigrants possessed little beside the axe on their shoulders
and the needy children by their side. The taverns of a few years later were
infrequent, and the farmers of this town displayed a ready and generous
hospitality in assisting the wayfarers on their journey.
  The building of bridges over large streams taxes severely the pioneers of a
new region. The bridge over the Nashua River was for many years a source of
much expense and trouble to the people of Dunstable. THe first serviceable
bridge was built in 1742, not far from the present one on Main Street, and more
than twenty feet lower. This was carried away by a freshet in 1753, and rebuilt
the same year at an expense of one hundred and fifty pounds. Before 1759 it
was in a ruinous condition, and the town petitioned the General Court for liberty
to establish a lottery to build a new one.  The lottery was not granted, but a
new bridge was built a few years later, party by subscription and party by the
town. It stood a little below the present one. In the spring of 1775 it was
again, and for the last time, carried away by a freshet, and the new one, built
the same year spanned the current at a greater elevation.
  But the bridge across the Nashua River on the south road to Hollis was for a
time a cause of still greater trouble.  In the first settlement of Hollis,
before the era of the bridges, Mrs. Anna, wife of Captain Peter Powers, on a
summer days went on horseback to visit a friend on this side of the river. The
Nashua, at what is now called Runnell's bridge, was easily forded in the 
morning, but a sudden shower in the afternoon had caused it to overflow its
banks. Mrs. Powers must return to her home that night. The horse entering
the stream, and losing his foothold began to swim. The current was rapid, and the
water flowed above the back of the horse. He was swept down the river, but still
struck out for the opposite bank. At one instand his feet rested on a rock in
the stream, and he was lifted above the tide. Again he plunged forward, and
threw his rider from her seat; she caught his flowing mane and holding on for
life, was borne by the strong animal safely to the opposite shore. Similiar
incidents were not infrequent in the early occupiation of the country.
  But the first bridge at Runnell's Mills was built too low, and was badly
injured by the annual spring freshets. It was very necessary to the people of
Hollis, being on their main road to market, but of little use to Dunstable.
The old bridge had been built by both towns, but in 1772 a new bridge was
needed, and Dunstable was unwilling to pay half of the expense.  There were two
farmers, Ebenezer Jacquith, and Ensign Daniel merrill, who owned the land in the
bend of the river opposite the bridge, who wished to be annexed to Hollis,
and who would pay handsomely towards the new bridge if their wishes were granted.
Dunstable was unwilling, but rather than incur the expense of a quarrel, united
with Hollis in a petition for the proposed annexation. It was granted by the
General Court in May 1773. So the bridge was henceforth wholly in Hollis. Judge
Worcester, in his "History of Hillis," says "It is true that Dunstable lost five
hundred acres of territory by the settlement, but was relieved from the burden 
of half maintaining the bridge for all future time,--a charge that has already
cost Hollis more than the value of the land annexed."

The population of Dunstable previous to the Revolution was very largely south
of the Nashua River. Farms, however, were being cleared at various points 
along the river westward to the Hollis line; several farmers had located on the
Merrimack intervale between the Laton farm and the mouth of the Pennichuck; and
on the Amherst road, three and four miles above the Nashua River, Samuel Roby,
Benjamin Jewett, John Butterfield and several others had started a thrify
settlement.  In the south part of the town, as early as 1755, Abbott Roby had
settled on the farm now occupied by Willard Cummings; James and Benjamin Searles
and Philip Fletcher had taken up farms in the valley near the State line;
Sylvanus Whitney had cleared off the forest and was living on the farm now
owned by John Dane; the Fisk family lived where Stillman Swallow now resides;
and on the road now leading to Pepperell were Jacob Gilson and Luther Robbins.
Some of the older residents had acquired large and productive farms, and gave
employment to some of their less-favored neighbors, paying them largely in the
products of the farm,--food and clothing. Socially there was little or no
distinction between the employer and the employed, and in business matters their
relations were amiable. All the inhabitants of the town, except the parson,
carpenter, blacksmith and trader, obtained their livelihood solely from the 
lands they cultivated; and in truth, aoo of these were more or less cultivators
of the soil.  Trade was mostly carried on in winter, each farmer carrying,
sometimes with horses, but oftener with an ox-team, his surplus of pork, wool
and grain to the Newburyport, Salem or Boston market, and bringing back iron,
salt, molasses, rum, powder and shot.
  The first stock of goods brought to Dunstable was drawn on a hand-sled by two
men from Salem. It consisted of a few axes, knives, needles, fish-hooks, a small
keg of nails, another of rum, a lot of salt-fish, forty pounds of shot and 
twenty pounds of powder.  For many years there was only one stroe in town, and
this did a limited business, as much of the retail trade went to Chelmsford.
There was no library, no lectures, no lyceum, no amusements. There were no
recreations for old or young except huskins, raisings and neighborhood gatherings
in the long evenings of winter. Friendship was a much stronger tie that in
modern times, and neighbors took a deeper and more general interest in each 
other's welfare.
  The early settlers of any regions are compelled to suffer hardships and
privations. It was the lot of our forefathers that great perils also constantly
confronted them and their families.  Yet even with them, there was some
compensation in the newness of life around them; in the buoyancy of pure air,
clear streams, and fresh woodlands; in an exemption from the annoyances of
older communities. That period has become history and will not return...


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