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THIS town was incorporated in 1663. This is a small township; the land is rather level, and. the soil is light
and sandy. Nashua river forms the western border of the town, and then passes into New Hampshire. There are three
churches, 1 Congregational, 1 Baptist, and 1 Universalist. Population, 570. Distance, 18 miles from Concord, 6
south of Nashua village, and 37 from Boston.
Capt. John Lovell, (or Lovewell, as his name was formerly written,) the hero of Pigwacket, and six of his men,
were from this town. He had distinguished himself in several bloody fights with the Indians, and taken several
scalps, for which he received a bounty of 100 pounds each, from the treasury of the colony. In Feb. 1724, he and
his followers surprised and killed a party of ten Indians, as they were sitting around a fire, and received 1,000
pounds for their scalps at Boston! In April, 1725, Capt. Lovell and Lieut. Joseph Farwell, Lieut. Jonathan Robbins,
Ensign John Harwood, Sergeant Noah Johnson. Robert Usher, and Samuel Whiting, from this town, Ensign Seth Wyman,
Thomas Richardson, Timothy Richardson, Ichabod Johnson, and Josiah Johnson, of Woburn; Ebenezer Davis. Josiah Davis,
Josiah Jones, David Melvin, Eleazar Melvin, Jacob Farrar. and Joseph Farrar, of Concord; chaplain Jonathan Frye,
of Andover; Sergeant Jacob Fullum, of Weston; Corp. Edward Lingfield, of Derry; Jonathan Kittredge and Solomon
Kies, of Billerica; John Jefts, Daniel Woods, Thomas Woods, John Chamberlain, Elias Barron, Isaac Lakin, and Joseph
Gilson, of Groton; Ebenezer Ayer and Abiel Asten, of Haverhill; with several others who returned without reaching
the field, of action, to the number of 46 in all, set out for Pigwacket, then the residence of the celebrated Indian
chief, Paugus. On the 8th of May, having reached the borders of a pond in what is now Fryeburg, Maine, they were
attacked by about 80 Indians, with all the fury of the most determined hostility, and the exultation of expected
victory. The heroic band maintained the fight from morning till night, when the enemy withdrew; having three fourths
of their number killed or wounded. Of Lovell’s party, himself and eight more were dead, four were groaning with
the agony of mortal wounds, several were wounded less severely, nine remained unhurt, and one had fled at the onset.
Lieut. Robbins was left mortally wounded on the field of action; Lieut. Farwell, chaplain Frye, Davis and Jones,
proceeded about a mile and a half, when they failed and were left; the two former nerished. Davis and Jones, after
inexpressible suffering, reached a place of safety. The oond alone, by protecting their rear, saved them from total
destruction. Capt. Tyng, of Mass., after a few days, proceeded to the spot, to bury the dead; 13 were interred
on the field, and their names inscribed on the trunks of the trees; but more durable records perpetuate the remembrance
of the sanguinary conflict.”—Spofford’s Gaz.
FROM:
Historical Collections Relating to the
History and Antiquities of
Every town in Massachusetts with
Geographical Descriptions.
By John Warner Barber.
Worcester
Published by Warren Lazell.
1848
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