History of Middlesex County, Massachusetts - citizen hylbom blog

tan, who, with her assistants, Mary Neff and tlie
boy Leoilardson, had taken the scalps of ten In-
dians at Coutoocook, New Hampshire, was kindly
entertained at the house of Colonel Tyng, as she was
on her way to her desolate home in Haverhill.
In the winter of 1703 Captain William Tyng,
commanding a company of " snow-shoe men,"
made a successful expedition to the headquarters
of " Old Harry," near Lake "Winnipiseogee. They
succeeded in killing six of the enemy, among whom
was the traitor, " Old Harry himself," who had led
the assaults on Dunstable. For this act of bravery
the General Court subsequently granted to the
heirs of those composing this company a tract of
land, at first called " Old Harry's Town," then
Tyngstown, and afterwards Manchester.
In the winter following, Captain John Tyng, with
another company, made an expedition to Poquaw-
kett, or Pigwacket, and took five Indian scalps,
for which they received £200. In 1710 the g.il-
lant commander of this company was mortally
wounded by the Indians between Concord and
Groton, and was buried, August 18, at the former
place.
1
The celebrated Joe English, grandson of Masconomo,
sagamore of Ipswich, was shot by the
Indians, near Holden's Brook, in what is now
Tyngsborough, on the 27th of July, 1706. He
was acting as a guard to Captain Butterfield and
wife, who were travelling on horseback. Killing
the liorse and taking Mrs. Butterfield captive, the
Indians then pursued Joe English, firing at him
and wounding him while attempting to shelter
himself behind a clump of trees. To escape the
torture of the savages, he insulted them with
taunting words, when they at once despatched him
with their tomahawks! His widow and his two
children received a grant of money from the gov-
ernment, because " he died in the service of his
country."
In 1711 there were as many as seven garrison-
houses in Dunstable, and two of them. Colonel Jona-
than Tyng's and Henry Farwell's, were within the
limits of the present town of Tyngsborough ; but
the Indian depredations were mostly made in other
sections of the settlement. The name of Tyng was
a terror to the enemy. There is a tradition, how-
ever, that as John Anthony, afterwards of Dracut,
Black Tom, and Elisha, a friendly Indian, were re-
turning with hay from Tyng's riieadow, in what is
1 See Beminiscences of Old Dunstable, by John B. Hill, Esq.,
TYNGSBOROUGH. 393
now Hudson, New Hampshire, Elisha, being in
advance of the other two, was shot by the hostile
savages, who were lying in ambush. His com-
panions, coming up, found his dead body lying
in the stream since known as "Elisha's Brook."
Three guns were fired and the drum was beaten at
the garrison of Colonel Tyng on this occasion, to give
warning that the enemy was in the neighborhood.
It is said, also, that Church Hill was so named
because a Mr. Church, on seeing the Littlehale
family who resided there, and whose two sons had
been carried into captivity by the Indians, ex-
claimed, "Let this place be called Church Hill
"
forever !
On the 31st of December, 1722, Ensign Joseph
Farwell, who with his son, Henry Farwell, had
settled on a part of the Waldo farm, died, and
was buried in the old cemetery at Little's Station.
His son, Henry Farwell, held a captain's commis-
sion, and was a deacon of the church. Oliver,
another son of Joseph Farwell, was killed by the
Indians near what is now Thornton's Ferry, on the
5th of September, 1724-. His uncle, Josiah Farwell,
born August 17, 1698, was the only one who
escaped from that fatal ambuscade.
On the 8th of May, 1725, occurred the famous
fight between Captain John Lovewell and the Pe-
quawkett Indians under Paugus, in what is now the
town of Fryeburg, Maine. In this fight Lieutenant
Josiah Farwell received a wound, and subsequently
perished in the wilderness. The news of the en-
counter was brought by Benjamin Hassell, a de-
serter, to Colonel Eleazer Tyng, who, in a letter to
Governor Dummer, dated Dunstable, May 11,
1725, says —
:
" Capt. Lovewell fell at the first Volue the Indians
shott, & Groand : this man [Hassell] being
clost by him, & then he saw several of Capt. Love-
well's men get behind trees. Upon this, seeing
such a great number of Indians, thought it best to
return to some men they had left with a sick man
at a Fort they had made, about thirty miles back,
by Ossipee Pond, & he got to the Fort the next
morning about nine oclock.
"Your Hon" Most Humble Servant,
" Eleazer TY>fG.
"And if your Honor thinks fitt, I will march up
to the place."
Colonel Tyng left Dunstable on the 17th of May
with a company of men, and proceeded to the scene
of Lovewell's fight. Here they identified and buried