St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1892-03-31
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TN AND ABOUT NEWBURY, VT.

MfdwiHfeY MeetInS IN 1foFAuc0 ~
r r8oz, by Lewis III. Meader.
Leaving Boston at a seasonable
bonr from the Lowell depot few
bours' ride brings one to the charm
ing valley of the Connecticut river.
From Concord two routes are at the
travellers disposal. He may enter
i nv the New Hampshire Northern
railroad at White River Junction,
where the White river brings to the
Connecticut the greeting OF the
Green Mountains; or he may Journey
bv Lake Winnipiseogee and Ply
mouth, crossing into where the Am
nonoosuck's wild waters come rush
ing down from the White hills OF
New Hampshire, river whose head
waters keep the source OF the Saco
river from being lonesome, such near
neighbors are they. Just above
Wells River are the Narrows at the
outlet of the Fifteen Mile falls. Here
for many years was the northern
limit for bringing merchandise up the
Connecticut, by boats. Just below
this point the river broadens, and is
Aanked on either side by broad mead
ows and stretches of plain land or
terraces. while farther back are high
ranges Of hills. Here must have been
broad lake in some earlier PERIOD
of Vermont's history, covering large
nortions of Haverhill and Plermont,
N H. and Newbury and Bradford,
VT. This country is interesting tor
its terraces. and nowhere are they
seen to better advantage than along
the Connecticut in these towns
Newbury village is built on one OF
these terraces, as one may see by
casual glance from car window.
The Connecticut river, as if reluctant
to push ra pidly on to the Sound and
leave this section, winds and turns
about, forming the Ok Bow, so call
ed, which covering many hundred
acres vies with the prairies of the
West in fertility.
Let US linger about these delight
full meadows to learn something of
the scenes they have witnessed in
wears that are gone. Here was the
hunting ground and abiding place of
the Coosuck Indians. They could
and did plant their corn on the fertile
Coos meadows. They could fish in
the Connecticut, and follow the Am
monoosuck to its source, while their
nearest neighbors beyond Crawford
Notch would be the Pigwackets of
Maine, whose home was on the banks
ofthe Saco. Stray members of the St.
Francis Indians wandered away
from their homes in Canada, and
found pleasure and profit in the Con-
necticut and its tributaries. Perhaps
no place east of the Green Mountains
in Vermont is so full of legends and
stories regarding these Indians. YER
mont seems to have been a sort of
natural highway for travel in early
times quite as much as it is today.
The great route from New York to
Montreal lay through Lakes George
and Champaign; while east of the
Green mountains, the Connecticut
river was the great highway from
the larger towns of the coast to the
The earliest account that | can find
of the Coos meadows being visited
bv white men was in 1904, during
Queen Anne's war A party of St.
Regis Indians, accompanied by 200
French under Hertel de Rouville, came
down from Canada, and on the 29th
of February burned Dcer6eld, Mass,
carrying away among others Rev.
Tohn Williams and most ofhis family,
as prisoners. On their return journey
to Canada they kept together until
they reached White River Junction,
when they divided, Rouville with
Williams and a large party going
north by White river, thence to
Onion river, down that stream to
Lake Champlain and thence to their
homes, while another party followed
up the Connecticut river to the Coos
meadows, where, being almost fam
ished they found wild game. Here
they spent some time and here two
of their party, David Holt, and jacob
Hix, died of starvation.
The meadows referred to must be
those in the vicinity of the Ok Bow
in Newbury. The earliest settler:
found them cleared and used by the
Indians for raising corn. At thi: