St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1892-03-31

news of the impending French and
Indian war and announcing that
the French would probably establish
a military post at the Coos mead
Ows.
This was four years before the war
actually began, yet efforts thus early
were made by the legislature of New
Hampshire to explore more fully the
region in question, but it resulted in
failure. In 1854. however, party
of men under the leadership of Peter
Powers of Hollis, N. H., and James
Stephens and Ephraim Hale Of Mas
sachusetts, attempted to explore this
wonderland of the Connecticut.
For a portion of the diary of this
trip we are indebted to the late Rev.
Grant Powers, a grandson of Peter
Powers, and son of the first settled
minister of Newbury On the Goth
of June they reached the cleared lands
of the Ok Bow and pushed on up the
Connecticut to Wells river, thence
they passed through the present site
of Woodsville, N. H., up the Ammo
New Hampshire. We quotean entry
from Mr. Powers diary bearing date
of July 5th, 1924:
eve marched about three miles to
our packs on the ANN the
same course we had steered hereto
fore, and we afterwards went over
Connecticut river, and looked up
Wells river, and camped little be-
low Wells river this night" Mr..
Powers thinks this must have been
near the point where the old toll
bridge stood a little north of Stair
hill.
In consequence of the disturbed
feeling among the colonists caused
by the breaking out of the French
and Indian war in 1856, no further
efforts were made to explore or settle
this region for a number of years.
In 1859, a Major Robert Rogers
at the head of a company ofColonial
troops, under orders of General Am
herst, went from Ticonderoga to the
rendezvous Of the Abenakis Indians
Tor St. Francis) on the St. Francis
river in Canada, to punish them for
their shocking atrocities. He faith
fully did his duty and set out
with his men for the frontier set
Elements of northern New England,
on the Connecticut river. His COM
pany became separated, however,
and Rogers with part of his men
came from Lake Memphremagog to
the head waters of the Passumpsic
river, and thence to Wells river,
where the Ammonoosuck comes
into the Connecticut. Gen. Amherst
had ordered provisions to be
brought up to this point by settlers
from mo T." or Charlestown, N. H.
When Rogers and his party arrived
at the point named above they found
fires still burning, but the provisions
and those who brought them had
disappeared, the scouts having re-
turned and taken the supplies with
them, after waiting two days in vain
for the arrival of Rogers. Here,
then, was party of men in the wilds
of northern New England with no
white settlement nearer than
Charlestown, N. H., about 60 miles
through the painless wilderness.
But even then they did not despair;
for building raft Of logs, Rogers
and two of his party started down
the Connecticut, and finally reached
the settlement. They soon returned
with relief, but several of the party
had persisted with hunger.
Rev. Grant Powers, writing of this
a half century ago, discredits this
story of the relief expedition coming
from Charlestown, N. H., to Wells
river with assistance to Rogers
party and of their returning with the
supplies in few days. Francis
Parkman in his "Montcalm and
WOLF" PIP. 1861, gives this incident
and says Wells river was selected as
the point for bringing relief suggest
ed by Major Rogers and directed by
General Amherst. This theory seems
to have been held by Jeremy Bel
KNAPP in his history of New Hamp-
shire.
The first settlement in the Coos
district was made on the little Ok
Bow, just across from Newbury, in
Haverhill, n. H., in 1851. These two
towns were chartered, however