1 66
��Historical Sketch of West Dunstable.
��to the exploring company of Johnson and Willard. Some of their number went up this brook quite a distance, and, leaving its bank to get a view of the surrounding forests, were unfort- unate enough to lose their way. Night came on before they regained the brook ; and a thick fog set in, which rendered it extremeh' difficult for the men to follow it. Some one of their number remarked that the place was bewitched, and that the brook was bewitched : hence, it received its present name long before an}' settle- ment was made in the vicinity. There are many considerations which helped to promote the early settlements here : One was, that a great portion of mead- ow land was made available by rea- son of the beavers' building their dams for the purpose of flowing- ponds, which hunters and trappers would break ; and the whole tract was drained, leaving a mowing-field already cleared for the new settler. Another consideration was, that the Indians had planted fields of corn on the uplands as late as 1665, which were found ready for cultivation. And still another reason that actu- ated the people in settling in this section was, that its facility for fur catching was second to no other in the state.
In 1667 the fur trade with the Ind- ians had become so important that the Provincial Court of Massachu- setts passed an act regulating it ; and the exclusive right of this trade upon the Merrimack river was sold toMaj. Simond Willard for the sum of twen- ty-five pounds. The trade on Nashua river was sold at the same time for eight pounds ; that of Penichuck brook and its tributaries was sold to
��Joseph Burroughs for four pounds. Almost all the first land grants here were selected by those eager adven- turers with a. view of having within their boi'ders the greatest facilities for trapping.
During the vear of 1702 the Colo- nial Court built a trading-house for the Indians, and established a forti- fied garrison at Watauic — the Indian name for Nashua — which was after- wards called Queen's garrison, and situated about sixty rods easterly of Main street in Nashua, and about as far north of Salmon brook. This was the head-quarters of trade with the Indians for many years.
If we consider the appearance and extent of the primitive forests, in tliB midst of fiatural scenes like these, it is not surprising that these bold pio- neers should select a place like this to rear their log huts ; for, as Gov. Wentworth said, tlie royal or mast pines of Dunstable plains were the best in New Hampshire ; that they presented a majestic appearance. These trees often grew to the height of two hundred feet, and as straight as an arrow, many of them forty inches in diameter. These pines were, by royal enactment, reserved for the king's navy, and were marked by the surveyors of the woods to represent an Indian arrow, and the owner for- bidden to cut them.
So great was the security felt by the settlers at the close of Lovewell's war that they emigrated into the wil- derness in every direction. The first settlement in that part of West Dun- stable known as Witch Brook Valley was made about the year 1728 by Caleb Fr}', according to a copy of an original draft or plan of the township
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