Name Origins of the United States Part III

  By Tiffany Amber Stockton

In June, I shared the second set of state name origins. I'm splitting them up into 5 groups in the name of brevity, to avoid bogging down a long post. Besides, it's summer, and most of you likely are looking for a quick, entertaining read. :) You can read last month's post if you missed it.

Today, it's time for the next 10 state name history stories. So, let's go!

STATE NAMES and their ORIGINS

One thing I found interesting with this list is it's almost a 50/50 split of the state names starting with a letter of the alphabet from either the first half or second half of the 26 letters. Montana is the 26th state out of 50 and the last one with an "M." The remaining 24 states come from the latter half of the alphabet. It would have been fun to see 25 of the states start with letters in the first half of the alphabet and the other 25 from the second half, but we're close!

Massachusetts comes directly from the Algonquian word Massachusett that references the people living in the area, and means "at the large hill."

Michigan is also based on an Algonquin word, meshi-gami, meaning "big lake."

Minnesota, like many other Midwest states, comes from a Native American language. In this case, the Dakota word mnisota means "cloudy, milky water."

Mississippi literally means "big river" in Algonquin Ojibwa, although it’s based on the French variation of the word.

Missouri relates to the Algonquin word wimihsoorita, which translates to "people of the big canoes."

Montana has some Spanish flair that links back to the Latin mons, for "mountains."

Nebraska stems from the Sioux name for the Platte River, omaha ni braska, meaning "flat water."

Nevada comes from the Spanish name of nieve or nevara for the surrounding Sierra Nevada mountain range, which essentially means "snowy mountains," or "snowcapped."

New Hampshire is the first of many states and cities named as new outposts of other parts of the world. In this case, Hampshire was a county in Southampton, England.

New Jersey was coined by Sir George Carteret of the Channel Island of Jersey.

And that's all for today. If you're like me and LOVE puzzles, download this PDF for some puzzle challenge fun. You might be able to solve it on your own without reading the rest of the blogs in this set, or you can save it and add to it in future months. :)

NOW IT'S YOUR TURN:

* Which one of these states was the most fascinating to you?

* Do you live in any of the 10 featured states this month? If so, do you have any other unique tidbits about your state?

* What do you think might be the origin of any of the other 20 states? (You'll learn about them throughout the rest of the year.)

** This note is for our email readers. Please do not reply via email with any comments. View the blog online and scroll down to the comments section.

Leave answers to these questions or any comments you might have on this post in the comment box below. For those of you who have stuck around this far, I'm sending a FREE autographed book to one person every month from the comments left on each of my blog posts. You never know when your comment will be a winner! Subscribe to comments so you'll know if you've won and need to get me your mailing information.

Come back on the 9th of August for my next foray into historical tidbits to share.

For those interested in my "fictional" life as an author and industry news about other authors, subscribe to my quarterly newsletter. Receive a FREE omitted chapter from my book, A Grand Design, just for subscribing!

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BIO

Tiffany Amber Stockton has been crafting and embellishing stories since childhood, when she was accused of having a very active imagination and cited with talking entirely too much. Today, she has honed those skills to become an award-winning, best-selling author and speaker who is also a professional copywriter/copyeditor. She loves to share life-changing products and ideas with others to help improve their lives in a variety of ways.

She lives with her husband and fellow author, Stuart Vaughn Stockton, along with their two children and four cats in southeastern Kentucky. In the 20 years she's been a professional writer, she has sold twenty-six (26) books so far and is represented by Tamela Murray of the Steve Laube Agency. You can find her on Facebook and GoodReads.

Colonial Meetinghouse

Elaine Marie Cooper

Colonial Americans had the perfect name for a place to meet for church: The Meetinghouse. It was a simple name that belied its community importance, for colonials placed high regard for their centrally located places of worship.

At a time in our current day amidst a pandemic, when church-goers long to return to a place to congregate in unison and worship God, it seems an appropriate topic to reflect upon. While quarantines were certainly declared during severe illnesses in early America, a high priority was placed on meeting as a congregation. After all, there were no online services to bring comfort and hear God’s Word, nor communication by phones that so readily keep us connected with eachother. Letters were helpful communication, but less than perfect. The most meaningful fellowship was always together and in person. 

Every community meetinghouse became the site for a community’s social and spiritual lives, drawing crowds from the surrounding village each Sabbath to listen to sermons preached virtually all day long. The buildings also doubled as a place for governmental and political discussions. 

Double church doors with sturdy lock

Before 1820, most of the meetinghouses were unheated, due to concerns about fire erupting. Worshippers often brought portable, metal foot stoves filled with heated coals to help them withstand the below zero temperatures. It was so cold in New England winters that the communion bread was known to freeze occasionally! 

The bell at the meetinghouse became the “town crier” of sorts, ringing for births and deaths, wars and fires. According to Eric Sloane in American Yesterday, “After a death, the bell greeted the morning with ‘three times three for a man, and three times two for a woman.’ Then after a short silence, the bell pealed out the number of years the dead person had lived.” It was a practical solution to communicate prior to telephones and the availability of daily newspapers.

While the style and structure of meetinghouses varied around the colonies, they were found throughout the states, both northern and southern. 

Salisbury Union Meetinghouse

One of the beautifully maintained meetinghouses from the early 1800’s is the Salisbury Union Meetinghouse now located at Storrowton Village museum in West Springfield, Massachusetts. It was moved to its present location in 1929 from its original site in Salisbury, New Hampshire. The designation of “Union” simply refers to the fact that it was a building paid for by multiple Protestant congregations, which combined their resources to share the same building on a rotating basis. 

Prior to 1818, meetinghouses in most of New England (save Rhode Island) were state supported through taxes. This ended in 1818 in Connecticut and 1834 in Massachusetts. Around this time more denominations began to increase in New England, following many years of predominantly Congregationalist groups—thus the birth of the “union” meetinghouses.

Pew door

When I visited the Salisbury Meetinghouse at Storrowton several years ago, it thrilled my historical sensibilities from the moment I entered the locked double doors. The pine-framed structure built in 1834 can hold 175 worshippers in richly-stained cedar pews. The pews were sold to families for around $20 for their lifetime use. The limited seating in each row would require multiple purchases for larger families.

Entering the large hall, I noticed the latched doors on the end of each pew. I asked historian Dennis Picard if the doors were used to confine wandering children. Not just children, he explained, but the mischievous dogs as well that accompanied their families. 

It’s difficult to picture the chaos bringing canines to church must have caused, but there are accounts of parsons chasing pooches out of meetinghouses. 

My favorite gem in the old meetinghouse was the sounding board, a hexagonal wooden structure placed over the pulpit to help resonate the preacher’s words throughout the spacious room. It took some extra help to get the sermon clear to the back of the balcony. The sounding board was one more practical solution, in a day without microphones or electricity.

Old meetinghouses are a reflection of our history’s heritage, rich in Christian beliefs—silent reminders of the foundations of our country.

Elaine Marie Cooper has two historical fiction books that released in 2019: War’s Respite(Prequel novella) and Love’s Kindling. Love’s Kindling is available in both e-book and paperback and is a Finalist for the Selah Awards. They are the first two books in the Dawn of America Series set in Revolutionary War Connecticut. Cooper is the award-winning author of Fields of the Fatherless and Bethany’s Calendar. Her 2016 release (Saratoga Letters) was finalist in Historical Romance in both the Selah Awards and Next Generation Indie Book Awards. She has been published in Chicken Soup for the Soul and HomeLife magazine. She also penned the three-book historical series, Deer Run Saga. Her upcoming release, Scarred Vessels,” is about the black soldiers in the American Revolution. Look for it in October 2020. You can visit her website/ blog at www.elainemariecooper.com

Trees Rooted in Revolution

When it comes to precipitating causes that led to the American Revolution, most students of history focus on the taxation of tea. Rarely does one think of trees.

Pine trees became a particular thorn in the flesh for New Hampshire farmers in 1772 when a law, known as the White Pine Act, was passed by Parliament. This law made it illegal to remove from the land “any white pine tree of the growth of twelve inches diameter.” This meant that any landowner who wanted to remove these trees for farming or building purposes was forced to leave the trees there. The Royal Navy declared them to be their own. 

So why was the Navy interested in these large pines? The answer was simple: Ship masts.

The best masts to withstand the fiercest winds at full sail were “single stick” masts made from one tree. By the early 1700’s the forests of England were virtually gone, but Colonial America had a seemingly endless supply of trees. And the white pine was by far the preferred source for ship masts to supply seaworthy vessels for the growing Royal Navy. 

Although the white pines were considered the property of the King of England for many decades, it was not until 1772 that the stricter law passed by Parliament became an issue. A Deputy Surveyor of the Woods, appointed by then-Governor John Wentworth, began actively enforcing the law. The surveyor, John Sherman, would mark a large arrow on trees of the 12-inch plus diameter with three strikes of an axe head, forcing farmers to let them stand for the crown’s eventual use. Farmers ignored the law and Sherman suspected as much.

Upon inspection of several mills, large white pines were discovered and the mill owners were levied fines. They hired a lawyer to represent their cause. When the mill owners’ lawyer went to persuade the governor to drop charges, the attorney was instead persuaded to become Surveyor of the King’s Woods. Suddenly their attorney was instructing the mill owners to pay a settlement.

Most of the mill owners paid their fines in defeat. But one town, Weare, refused to pay. The leader of the mill owners, Ebenezer Mudgett, was arrested and soon released with the agreement that he would provide bail in the morning.

Instead, an incident that became known as the Pine Tree Riot occurred. A band of 30-40 men (led by Mudgett) blackened their faces with soot and assaulted the sheriff and his deputies who were lodging in a nearby inn. The mob cut off the ears of the men’s horses and shaved the animal’s tails and manes, before forcing the lawmen out of town through a jeering crowd. 

Despite this brutality, the men—who were later arrested—pled guilty and were given a relatively minor fine for their acts. It is believed that the judges were sympathetic to the colonists and the excessive taxes levied in one form or another—even on their very own trees. 

This Pine Tree Riot occurred over a year before the tea was thrown into Boston Harbor in December of 1773. When Revolution was declared in 1775, many New Hampshire colonists readily picked up their muskets to join in the fight for liberty from England. It was a fervor for justice that had its roots in the white pine trees of New England. 

Elaine Marie Cooperhas two historical fiction books that recently released: War’s Respite(Prequel novella) and Love’s Kindling. Love’s Kindlingis available in both e-book and paperback. They are the first two books in the Dawn of AmericaSeries set in Revolutionary War Connecticut. Cooper is the award-winning author of Fields of the Fatherlessand Bethany’s Calendar. Her 2016 release (Saratoga Letters) was finalist in Historical Romance in both the Selah Awards and Next Generation Indie Book Awards. She penned the three-book Deer Run Sagaand has been published in numerous magazines and anthologies. You can visit her website/ blog at www.elainemariecooper.com

First Public Library in the United States!

By Tiffany Amber Stockton

Last month, I shared about cowboys, tumbleweeds, and icons of the west. If you missed that post, you can read it here: http://www.hhhistory.com/2018/03/of-wind-tumbleweeds-and-cowboys.html.

I also shared about saying goodbye to our precious Roxie. We still miss her a great deal, but another sweet dog came to us in need of adoption, so we welcomed her into our home! This little gal didn't come with any history or details other than she was picked up in Las Vegas, New Mexico -- a little east of the Sante Fe National Forest -- and she's about two years old.

They documented her as a Chihuahua mix, and it quickly became clear to us that she's got some Shiba Inu in her and possibly some Basenji based on her expressions, mannerisms, and coloring. So, we're calling her a Shi-hua-nji for now. (grins)

One thing for sure, she has blessed our home abundantly, and our children are absolutely in love with her. She's about 1/4 the size of the dog we previously had, so it's been fun adjusting to a very affectionate and super-intelligent lap dog. We're thrilled to have her, though, and she truly is a God-send.

She even made her first visit inside a library yesterday, which brings us to today's post...

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The Public Library Is Open!

This year -- and this day specifically -- marks 185 years since the very first tax-supported public library opened its doors. The American public library movement was born in 1833 when the residents of Peterborough, NH established the first free public library supported by taxation. Today there are more than 16,000 public libraries across the country, affirming that the legacy of the Peterborough Town Library is alive and well.

I have always held great esteem for the public libraries, and I spent a a lot of time there as a girl, especially when there was one just a few blocks from where I lived. So many things are learned through books at a library, and I know many professionals (jugglers, ventriloquists, lawyers, scientists, doctors, teachers, etc.) who first learned about their profession during a visit to a library.

As a former elementary teacher and a current author, books are a definite passion of mine, and I love to inspire the love of literacy and reading in children of all ages -- even adults. We never stop learning until the day we die, and the library is an amazing resource to provide us with fuel for our imaginations and minds.

Not many know about this little library in Peterborough, New Hampshire. Nearly everyone has heard of the Boston Public Library, though. It was America's first large public library, but it wasn't legally established until 1852, nineteen years after the one in New Hampshire opened. The Peterborough Town Library was founded at a town meeting on April 9, 1833. (178 years later, my son was born, so we celebrate his birthday today as well! But that's just a little side note from me.)

The person most responsible for the founding of the Peterborough Town Library was Abiel Abbot, a local Unitarian minister. Abbot was also responsible for founding several other libraries including the Juvenile Library in Peterborough and the Library Company of Peterborough. In 1965 on the bicentennial of Abbot's birth the New Hampshire State Legislature passed a resolution recognizing Abbot's role in founding the "first free public library in the world supported by taxation". The resolution also requested that the President of the United States and the Postmaster General issue a postage stamp to commemorate the bicentennial of Abbot's birth.

“The ancient manners were giving way. There grew a certain tenderness on the people, not before remarked,” wrote Ralph Waldo Emerson of this period. The 1830’s was a time of social ferment in New Hampshire, as it was throughout the Northeast.

It was a time of active improvement, of the belief that “society must direct mankind towards moral perfection.” There was the temperance movement, educational reform, the beginnings of the anti-slavery movement, labor movement, prison reform and humane treatment of the mentally ill. It was a decade which witnessed a proliferation of religious denominations and utopian movements.

It was a period of sincere belief in mankind’s innate goodness, the belief that moral perfection could be influenced by one’s environment, by exposure to good thoughts, music, and books. It was a time when Dr. Abbot’s innovative thoughts on books and education received a receptive hearing. He gave practical expression to an idea, the tax-supported public library, hardly second in importance to the public school itself.

On April 9, 1833, at Town Meeting, a proposal was made and passed “that a portion of the State Literary Fund be used for the purchase of books to establish a library, free to all the citizens of Peterborough.”

In 1873 the growing collection of books was moved to the Town Hall, a move intended to be permanent. However, by 1890, there were six thousand books and not nearly enough space for books and users. Several citizens, foreseeing this difficulty, had begun to work quietly toward the goal of giving the library collection its own building and providing land and funds for its construction. The distinguished Peterborough engineer, George S. Morison, constructed the building at the junction of Main and Concord Streets for the collection.

The Peterborough Town Library’s claim to importance is not that it was the first library to which the public had access, for such libraries had existed before 1833. Rather, its importance rests in its being created on the principle, accepted at Town Meeting, that the public library, like the public school, was deserving of maintenance by public taxation and should be owned and managed by the people of the community, who thereby ceased to be dependent upon private munificence. In this, the Peterborough Town Library was the first – and has, since its founding in 1833, been an integral element of the Peterborough community’s identity.

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NOW IT'S YOUR TURN:

* Do you own a library card? Why or why not?

* Are you aware of the public library in your area?

* How involved have you been in the past or are you now with the events sponsored by your local library?

* What did you like most about today's post?

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BIO

Tiffany Amber Stockton has been crafting and embellishing stories since childhood, when she was accused of having a very active imagination and cited with talking entirely too much. Today, she has honed those childhood skills to become an author and speaker who works in the health & wellness and personal development industry, helping others become their best from the inside out. She is also an educational consultant with Usborne Books.

She lives with her husband and fellow author, Stuart Vaughn Stockton, along with their two children and their Shiba Inu / Chihuahua mix in Colorado. She has sold twenty (21) books so far and is represented by Tamela Hancock Murray of the Steve Laube Agency. You can find her on Facebook, Twitter, GoodReads, and LinkedIn.

Hannah Emerson Duston & Book Giveaway!

By Susan Page Davis

Among my husband’s more colorful ancestors is Hannah Emerson Duston, also known as the Hatchet Lady and the Haverhill Hero.

Hannah was born in Haverhill, a town in the Massachusetts Bay Colony, in 1657. She married Thomas Duston (also spelled Dustan or Dustin) in 1677. Over the next nineteen years, she gave birth to twelve children, the last being Martha Duston, born
March 9, 1696/7. A relative of Hannah’s named Mary Neff, probably her aunt, was acting as her nurse in the days following the birth.

The French encouraged the Indians to raid English settlements during King William’s War (1689–97), and on March 15, 1697, band of Abenaki made such a raid on Haverhill. Twenty-seven women and children were killed in the raid.

Less than a week after giving birth, Hannah Duston was captured along with her infant daughter and Mary Neff. Hannah’s husband reportedly tried to persuade her to let him carry her to a safe place. Apparently she felt his energy would be better spent saving the other children and told him to save them. He rode his horse after the fleeing children, determined to save at least one, and fired on the Indians who tried to follow. He managed to escape with all seven to the nearest garrison. The Abenaki gave up the pursuit and turned back to raid the house. Mary Neff had stayed with Hannah.

Artist's portrayal of Thomas Duston saving his children.

The interlopers burst into the cabin and captured the two women. The baby was brutally killed, being dashed against a tree by one of the Abenaki soon after their march began. Hannah and Mary were taken northward by their captors. The thirteen captives from Haverhill were divided into smaller parties of Indians, who probably planned to take them to Canada. With Hannah's party was a boy, Samuel Lennerson or Leonardson, about 12 or 13 years old, who had been captured more than a year earlier in another raid.

This painting portrays Hannah and Samuel in action.

About two weeks after their capture, they had traveled about 100 miles from Haverhill, north of what is now Concord, New Hampshire. The party paused at an island (afterward known as Penacook Island, or Dustin Island) in the confluence of the Merrimack and Contoocook rivers on the evening of March 29. The two women were told that after a short journey to a further village they would be stripped and beaten.

During the night, Hannah and the boy Samuel secured hatchets and attacked their captors. Ten were killed, nine of them, most accounts say, by Hannah. The three captives then used a canoe to escape, but Hannah turned back and scalped the 10 corpses to have proof of the exploit. Scalps could be handed in for a bounty during the war.

Painting by artist Junius Brutus Stearns, depicting Hannah's escape,
 with an assist from Mary.

After facing many hardships, they reached Haverhill safely. They presented their story to the General Court in Boston on April 21, which awarded the sum of 25 English pounds to Hannah Duston and half that to each of her companions. Hannah Duston lived out the rest of her life quietly, moving to Ipswich after the death of her husband in 1732.

Mary, Samuel, and Hannah flee the island.

In his book The Haverhill Emersons, author Charles Henry Pope, a respected New England historian, said, Hannah’s deed “was one of the chief means of checking the cruelties of the Indians, showing them that ‘weak women’ would meet their atrocities in kind.” He also stated that Hannah “was at no other time in her life found lacking of the gentleness and peaceful character of woman; this deed was the product of maddening experience.” (Pope’s Emerson genealogy was published in Boston in 1913.)

Hannah has been memorialized in two statues of her wielding a hatchet, one in the town of Haverhill, Mass., and the other near the site of her escape in Boscawen, N.H.

The monument at Boscawen, N.H.

The monument in Haverhill, Mass.

    


Our family happened upon the monument on the island in Boscawen by chance while traveling in New Hampshire. I saw the sign and told my husband to stop. We were near a monument to his ancestor. We took the kids and walked down a shady path and along an old railroad track until we came upon the statue. It seemed an odd, isolated place for such a memorial, but this was the place where Hannah defended herself and made her escape.

The historical marker in Boscawen, N.H. Photo by Craig Michaud at en.wikipedia

You can read an article about Hannah published in Yankee Magazine in 1995 here:
http://www.yankeemagazine.com/article/history/hannah-duston-scalped-Indians

In recent years, a few people have protested the honor shown to Hannah and tried to cast her as a murderer and have the statues taken down. I have to agree with the people of Haverhill who refused to remove the monuments. Hannah is a heroine.

*** In Hannah's honor, I am giving away two copies of books from my White Mountain Brides series, either paperback or digital. Leave a comment below and enter the drawing for one of these New Hampshire colonial books centered on the Dover Massacre of 1689: Return to Love, A New Joy, or Abiding Peace. ***

Susan Page Davis is the author of more than fifty published novels. A history major, she’s always interested in the unusual happenings of the past. She’s a two-time winner of the Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award, and also a winner of the Carol Award and the Will Rogers Medallion, and a finalist in the WILLA Awards and the More Than Magic Contest. Visit her website at: www.susanpagedavis.com .

Cocheco Massacre, 1689

Enter comment below to participate in book giveaway

In the early morning of June 28, 1689, the settlement of Cocheco, New Hampshire (now part of the city of Dover) was attacked by Indians. Five fortified garrison houses were targeted, including that of Richard Otis, the town’s blacksmith and one of its leading citizens—my ancestor.

Many events led up to that fateful morning. The Indians resented the white settlers, and they held a particular grudge against Major Richard Waldron, head of the settlement's militia. In June of 1689 they began to gather, ostensibly for trading, but they also took stock of the settlers’ defenses.

Several of the colonists had fortified their homes under orders from the governor during King Philip’s War. These homes were chosen for their location on hilltops or knolls, and were essentially large, sturdy log cabins with huge central chimneys. The upper story projected slightly over the lower, with holes or loose boards in the overhang, so that hot water or bullets could be rained down on attackers. Eight-foot palisades with watchtowers were built around the houses. In case of Indian threats, neighbors took shelter at these garrisons. There were about fifty of them across the colony.

On the evening of June 27, a few Indian women asked for shelter at four garrisons. This had become customary. The householders not only let them sleep inside their palisades when requested, they also showed them how to open the gates in case they wished to leave during the night. It seems no watch was kept at any of those garrisons that night, and all the settlers went unsuspecting to bed.

Here’s the “short version” of what happened at Waldron’s, Otis’s, Heard’s, Peter Coffin’s, and his son Tristram Coffin’s garrisons.

During the predawn hours of June 28, the women opened the gates and admitted several hundred Pennacooks into the undefended garrisons. Waldron, age 74, was captured, mutilated, and brutally murdered with his own sword and his house was burned. His family was killed or captured.

Woodcut depicting the attack on Major Waldron's home.
(Public domain)

At Richard Otis’s garrison, the 64-year-old blacksmith, his son Stephen, and daughter Hannah were killed. His third wife, Grizel, three-month-old daughter Margaret, three daughters from his first marriage, Judith, Rose, and Experience, and at least two grandchildren were taken captive. One adult son, Richard Jr., escaped. The garrison was burned. In 1911, construction workers rediscovered the site. Artifacts recovered include: bolts, nails, barrel hoops, clay pipes, spoons, a tomahawk, the bow of a pair of spectacles, an ox shoe, bricks believed to be from the chimney, blacksmith’s tools, and human and animal bones. The relics are now on display at the Woodman Institute in Dover.

At the Heard garrison, a different scene took place. Old Elder William Wentworth was staying at the house while the owner, widow Elizabeth Heard, was away. He was awakened in the night by the barking of a dog. He was able to close the gate the women had opened and hold it fast. One account says he lay on his back, with his feet propped against the gate, until the Indians gave up pushing on it and went elsewhere. This was the only garrison in Cocheco unscathed that night.

The owner, widow Elizabeth Heard, with her four adult children and their families, had sailed the previous day to Portsmouth. They were returning with the tide to Cochecho at dawn on June 28. Finding the docks and main street deserted, they headed cautiously for Waldron’s home, the nearest garrison, and soon smelled smoke and heard war cries. Alerted to the danger, the family agreed to flee to the Gerrish garrison at Back River.

Elizabeth, however, was terrified and elderly. She didn’t think she could make the journey and begged her family to hide her in the bushes and leave her, which they reluctantly did. She later reported that one of the Indians saw her, but he was one she had done a kindness for in the past. He did not harm her or reveal her location, and she survived. When the Indians had left, she walked to her own home, expecting to find it a pile of ashes. Instead, she found Elder Wentworth and her house intact.

Artist's depiction of Indians attacking a garrison
(public domain)

At Peter Coffin’s garrison, the house not burned because of Peter’s past friendship with some of the Indians. He and his family were taken captive, however, and marched to his son Tristram’s garrison.

It seems none of the Indian women had sought shelter at Tristram Coffin’s; however, that isn’t certain from the sources used. While Tristram’s home was so well fortified the Indians could not get in, they forced him to open the gate by threatening to kill one of their hostages. He let them in to save his family. The Indians plundered his home, but all of the family was spared and the house was left standing.

In all, about eight houses were burned that morning, as were the gristmills and sawmill at Cocheco Falls. Twenty-three people were killed, and twenty-nine taken captive, many from the Otis family. Colonists pursued the Indians, who split into smaller groups with their captives. The three older Otis girls were rescued near Conway, including Judith, from whom I am descended.

Most of the captives were taken to Canada. Richard Otis’s young wife, Grizel, and her baby went to Montreal and were treated kindly. Grizel’s name was changed to Madeline, and she later married a French Canadian farmer and had five children with him. She stayed in Canada, as did most of the captives when later given a choice. The baby, Marguerite, was raised by nuns in Montreal, and her name was changed to Christine. She lived in Canada until she was 45 years old, though she could have returned after a prisoner exchange in 1714. After returning to New Hampshire in 1735, she and her husband established a public house there.

For the next 60 years, Indian raids continued in coastal Maine and New Hampshire. By the middle of the 18th century, the advancing whites, famine, and disease had subdued the natives. By 1770, very few Indians were left in New Hampshire.

Pavilion housing the last New England colonial garrison house
(Photo by Jillian C. York)

The William Damme garrison is the only New Hampshire garrison house remaining intact today. It was moved in 1915 and has been preserved in a pavilion at the Woodman Institute in Dover and can be visited there. It contains many period relics, and artifacts from Richard Otis’s garrison that was burned in the 1689 massacre.

My White Mountain Brides series begins with the massacre and tells what happened to three girls who were captured. These are fictional characters; I did not try to tell the stories of real captives, but based my heroines on composites of real people. In the first book, Sarah stayed with the Indians until she was redeemed. Jane, the heroine of the

second book, had been an indentured servant in New Hampshire. In Canada, she was married off to a farmer. Christine, the heroine of the third book, was entrusted to a convent. These stories start with the young women’s return to Cocheco and follow them as they assimilate back into the English-American culture.

To enter the drawing for a copy of the anthology White Mountain Brides, leave a comment below, including your contact information. E-readers may substitute an e-book of any of the three individual books from this series.




Susan Page Davis is the author of more than forty published novels. A history major, www.susanpagedavis.com .
she’s always interested in the unusual happenings of the past. She’s a two-time winner of the Inspirational Readers’ Choice Award, and also a winner of the Carol Award and the Will Rogers Medallion, and a finalist in the WILLA Awards and the More Than Magic Contest. Visit her website at: