46 



THE FARMER'S MONTHLY VISIT O R . 



March, 1842. 



vvliicli was then coveretl by an entire forest of 

 the largest and tallest trees. 



When tlie family, in their painful journey 

 through the woods, arrived at Fort No. 4, it was 

 thought advisable that his mother and children 

 should remain there for shelter, and for their 

 greater security from the Indians. To this ar- 

 rangement his mother consented, although, at< 

 she told him, it was with the greatest relu(-ta"i:e. 

 "I shuddered," she said, "at the thought o>;be"ig 

 penned up with my precious bairns within the 

 precincts of a i.anow fort, rudely built tor de- 

 lence a^-Ujist savages, for a period of time I knew 

 not owlonu; (or it was sixteen ujiles up the 

 river whither your lather and bis company ot 

 workmen were going, where ihe land was to be 

 cleared, and theVrop for tl-e approachmg season 

 was to be planted. But necessity is an imperi- 

 ous dictate, and submission was my duty. It 

 ■was nevertheless a hard parting when your father 

 pressed his babes to his bosom, and mine to his 

 manly cheek, as he stepped into his canoe, and 

 took command of his little fleet of stout and 

 cheerful men, both able and willing to subdue 

 the forest and plant the virgin soil. 



" It was some time in the early spring that this 

 parting scene took place on the banks of the 

 Connecticut river. The bud was then bursting 

 from its wintry fetters; the birds were commenc- 

 ing their wooing songs, and the wild herbage 

 sprang up all around me. Among these 1 wan- 

 dered, adtnired their beauty, and inhaled their 

 sweets : but all had no charms for me vvliile your 

 father was gone. I tried to banish iny fears for 

 his safety when l thought of his defenceless 

 state and the proximity of the ruthless savage'; 

 for there was then war between France and 

 England, and no fort between us and Canada. 1 

 also endeavored to seek refuge from my painful 

 feelings in employment for myself and children ; 

 but onr condition in the fort precluded the ob- 

 servance of regularity, and without that, little 

 can be done. So iftuch mingling of contending 

 interests, especially among a crowd of little chil- 

 dren, bade defiance to all efforts for order or 

 peace. Days seemed weeks, and weeks seemed 

 months ; and scarcely did a sun rise without wit- 

 nessing my wanderings on the banks of the flow- 

 ing stream where I had parted from your father 

 and his blithe comp.my of Cornish woodmen. 



" It was in one of these walks, that, with my 

 children by my side, I saw, as the day drew to 

 its close, a canoe coming round u point of the 

 river bank above me. 1 first thought of the ap- 

 proach of savages ; but before I had time to flee, 

 1 recognized the well-known canoe of your fa- 

 ther, and in it our trusty neighbor Diah Spalding. 

 My heart leaped with joy ; and no sooner did 

 the canoe reach the shore than the children were 

 in it and on his knees ; nor did they suffer hiin 

 to stir till they had told him I was resolved that 

 we should all return with him to their father in 

 the woo<ls. ' Do you know, are you apprised, 

 dear madam.' said" he, respectfully approaching 

 me, ' are you aware that such has been our anx- 

 iety to put in a crop and plant the ground lor the 

 coming summer, that we have found no time to 

 erect the semblance of a bouse ? I am come to 

 tell you your husband is well and all his men are 

 well, and to ob'ain information of your health 

 and safety, and to carry back with me a recruit 

 of provisions for their comfort ; but we have all 

 slept upon the uncovered ground, and as yet have 

 no place to shelter ourselves, mucli less you and 

 your little ones, from the pelting of the' storm : 

 iind will yon venture with them into the woods 

 before you are sure of a refuge.-' 'I will go, 

 and with all my children endure any storm, i" 

 you will give me hut a safe ami speedy convey 

 ance to my husband. If there he no shelter, or 

 feni-(!, or fort, his faithriil arm will guard me, and 

 his trusty men will aid him; and their God, who 

 is ahnve all, ruleth all, and directeth all, will 

 provide.' 



" A much smaller degree of sagacity than our 

 neighhDr Spalding jiossessed, would have been 

 sufficient to make him sensible that it was in vain 

 to thwart a resolution so firmly taken ; and the 

 speedy removal once determined on, all the force 

 of his ingenious and friendly mind was called 

 into action to make things ready. Such goods 

 as we needed least were secured in the fort: and 

 such as the boats would carry, ainl we needed 

 most, with ample provisions, were (Hit on board ; 

 and the morning sun had scarcely riacn, ere the 



indefatigable exertions of Spalding, and the anx- 

 ious assiduity of my children, had made all 

 things ready ft)r the voyage.' Spalding was a 

 good canoe man; and under the protection of 

 the Almighty, in whom our trust was placed, the 

 exertions of his strong arm, and the industrious 

 aid of my elder sons, made our speed, though 

 slow, yet unceasing ; and in time of war ascend- 

 ing a rapid stream in a frail Indian canoe, we 

 reached before night the little opening among 

 the towering trees, from whence the spot of your 

 father's choice appeared to our longing eyes. 

 ' There they are,' said the mingled voices of my 

 children ; ' there is our dear father, and yonder 

 are his men ; I bear bis voice, and the sound of 

 their axes.' For a moment all was hidden from 

 our view, by the density of the intervening for- 

 est trees. This gave me time to utter what was 

 laboring in my bosom — a prayer of faith and ben- 

 ediction. ' God of our ancestors, bless your fa- 

 ther, and me your helpless mother, and yon my 

 loved children, now, even now, as we shall, in a 

 few minutes, take possession of this our dwell- 

 ing-place in the wild woods ; and though, like 

 Jacob, we have nought but a stone for our pillow, 

 and the canopy of heaven for a covering, may 

 we all find Gad indeed to be in this place ; and 

 may this place be to us a house of God and a 

 gate of heaven !' What a moment was this to 

 one who had left all for her husband and the fu- 

 ture fortunes of her children ! The wealth of 

 India would have been meanly estimated in com 

 parison of the endeared spot before me. 



"' With your leave,' madam,' said pilot Spal 

 ding, ' I think it prudent that your husband come 

 to us, and give orders where he will have h 

 fatnily landed.' Accordingly he maile fast the 

 canoe to the willows, and desired us to await ' 

 return. Vonr father could get no direct ansi 

 from Spalding as to the nature of the cargo he 

 had brought. ' Come and see,' was all he would 

 say. ' Is all well .'' said your father; 'have you 

 brought us a good sii|;plv of food .'' ' Come and 

 see.' replied Spalding with animation, and in an 

 instant they burst upon our view ; and as your 

 dear father stood on the margin of the high bank, 

 he saw beneath his feet the frail bark in which 

 were his wife and children. The emotion was 

 almost too much for him. I saw this, and sprang 

 forward, the children quickly following. He re 

 ceived ns with a mixture of joy mingled with 

 agony. 'Are you come to die here," be exclai 

 ed, ' before your time ? We have no house 

 shelter you, and you will perish before we can 

 pet one erected.' ' Cheer up, cheer up, my faith 

 full' said I to your father; 'let the smiles and 

 the ruddy faces of your children, and the healtl 

 and chetu'fulness of your wife, make you joyful 

 If you have no house, you have strength and 

 hands to make one. The God wo worship will 

 bless us, and help us to obtain a shelter. Cheer 

 up, cheer up, my fiiithful !' 



" The sunshine of joy and hope began to beam 

 from his countenance ; the news was commui ' 

 cated throughout the company of workmen, and 

 the woods rang with shouts at the urriva' 

 the first white woman and the first family on the 

 banks of the Connecticut river above Fort jYiim 

 ber Four. All assembled to see the strangers, 

 and strove to do them acts of kindness. Tl 

 trees were quickly felled and peeled, and the 

 clean hark in large sheets was spread for a floor 

 other sheets, being fastened by thongs of twisted 

 twigs to stakes driven in the ground, were raised 

 for walls, or laid on cross-pieces for a roof; am 

 the cheerful fire soon made glad onr little dwell 

 ing. The space of three hours was not consum 

 ed in effecting all this ; and never were men more 

 happy than tliose who contributed thus speedily 

 and thus effectually to supply onr wants. Beds 

 were brought from the canoe to this rustic pavil 

 ion, and on them we rested sweetly, fearless o 

 danger, though the thick foliage was wet witi 

 devv, and the wild beasts howled all aiound us, 

 trusting in the (irotecting hand of Providence, 

 and the watchful fidelity of our faithful neigh- 

 bors. 



"The next day all hands were called to build 

 a cabin, which served us for the coming winter, 

 and in which, cheered by the rising prospects o 

 the family, and the niulual affection of all nrouuc 

 us, my enjoyments were more exf|uisite than a 

 any subsequent period of my life." 



Thus far the story fiom the lips of his venera 

 ble mother. It will serve to show with what un 



subdued, pure and patriotic spirits New England 

 IS first overspread with inhabitants. 

 The names of the children of Dudley Chase 

 and Alice his wife are as follow : — before moving 

 to Cornish, N. H., Mercy, Louis, AbimU, Simeon, 

 Salmon, Ithamar, Baruch. After coming to Cor- 

 nish, Jllice, Sarah, Corbett, Heber, Dudley, Rachel, 

 Philander. 



Of these, Salmon was a barrister in Portland, 

 Me., of whom the late Judge Dawes of Boston 

 was heard to say he " never saw him enttjr iho 

 court but with feelings of respect." Died in 

 1806. Ithamar was for many years member of 

 the cnumril of the state of New Hampshire, 

 Died in Keene, N. H., in 1819. Baruch was so- 

 licitor for Hillsborough County, N. H., for many 

 years, and president of Merrimack County Bank. 

 Died March 4, 1841, at Hopkinton, N. H. Heber 

 was a physician. Died in 1799, in Demerara, 

 South America. Dudley v/ns long a member and 

 speaker of the legislature of Vermont, afterwards 

 chief justice of that State, and senator in the 

 congress of the United States, and of whom the 

 writer has heard the late President of the United 

 States — the lamented Gen. Harrison — say, that 

 during the last war with England, while associ- 

 ated with him in congress, he bad no friend on 

 whose steady patriotism he could more confi- 

 dently rely in that trying crisis. He is still liv- 

 ing. The youngest of the whole family, and 

 the fifth educated at college, is the writer of this 

 memoir. 



From Hill's N.H. Patriot. 

 Death of Col. Philip Carrigain. 



In this town, on the liith inet. Philip Carrigain, 

 Ksq. in the 7l8t year of hie age : for the last three or four 

 .!.» u..»i*i. ..rf..^) f u...) Ka»n ,.i-..iii..ii.. i*n:i;«» ....A 



than himselt. 



Haines and Richard Bartlett — men who have been 

 highly distinguished as among the first scholars of the 

 Granite State — were each patronized by Col. Catrigain 

 when boys, and may be said to have had their minds 

 moulded into their literary shape by his plastic hand. Sev- 

 eral yeiirs their senior, he lived long enough to mourn 



igain was educated at Dartmouth College, studied law 

 and was admitted to the practice about the year 1800. 

 From 1805 to 1809 he was Secretary of State for New 

 Hampshire; during that time he engaged with zeal in- 

 making surveys to complete his elegant Map of JVew 

 Hampshire, and expended from his own means many thou- 

 sand dollars. Several years were employed in this busi- 

 ness ; and liis resources being exhausted, he went to Phil- 

 adelphia, and there associating himself with the first ar- 

 tists of the country, by exchanging work with the engrav. 

 era and by subsisting on the stinted means procured by 

 the labors of his own hands, he brought out in the year 

 1816 a Map of this State of more accuracy and elegance 

 than at that time had been produced in this country. In 

 the construction of this map, as men of his talents are 

 paid lor labor while in the public employment, Col. C. 

 should have realized a fortune. Other States of the Un- 

 ion since his map was made have expended thousands 

 from the public chest to make maps less valuable than 

 those of Col. Carrigain. Since he returned from Phila- 

 delpliia, Col. C. lias resided a part of his time in this 

 town, and partly in Epsom and Chichester — has kept up a 

 lawyer's sign — assisted hundreds with gratuitous advice 

 to extricate them I'roiii the meshes of the law, and labor- 

 ed weeks and months, sometimes for a pittance, some- 

 times without compen.sation, to aid the old soldier and 

 the widow in procuring the bounty of the government. 

 Whether himself in affluence or penury, his h.ind and 

 heart were always devoted to the cause of the distressed. 

 There was no misfortune, no difficulty of life so great as 

 at any time todestroy the native vivacity and cheerfulness 

 which left him not when strength of body and even mem- 

 ory had deserted him. To the literary amateur — to thn 

 lover of the history of men and things for the last sixty 

 years, the mind of Col. Carrigain was fike a never-failing 

 stream of pure water. — .-Vniination and even eloquence in 

 rocit:iI, good nature and playfulness, made him the inler- 

 estinj companion of voung and old ; and no human beine 



IN MEMORY OF PHILIP CARRIGAIN. 



A requiem for the dead ! 



.\ dirge of passing wo — 

 The solemn measur'd tread 



Of mourners as they go ; 

 The shroud that wraps the clay, 



In silence of the tomb — 

 The " dust to dust"— all say, 



" F.artli ! give the sleeper roor 



Room ! for the wasted form — 

 The spirit's sunken eye — 



Rnoin for a iieartonce warm 

 With tenderestsynipathy. 



Room for the brother worm 

 Hio revels dirk to hold— 



