COO-ASH-AUKE.
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��country, from which we might read that sometime, away back prior to the ad- vent ot" the white hunter, perhaps in the days of Wannalancet, the valley was devasted by fire, which circum- stance was of sufficient Indian import- ance to be classed among the traditions of the tribe and gave a name to the section and its river. Col. Potter, the historian of Manchester, is authority for the derivation of Sarc' from a sim- ilar traditional source.
The name this river at present bears, is said to commemorate that of an en- terprising hunter, who prior to mid- eighteenth century days, scouted this section for peltries. It is said to have been before the exploration of this north country by the whites, and prior to the advance of civilization beyond the outposts, which as late as 1 760 were Charlestown on the Connecticut and what is now Franklin on the Mer- rimack.
The generally accepted origin of the name is doubtless founded upon some show of fact, but as English knowledge of the region extends back but to about the middle of the last century, we can but think that what is now ac- cepted as dim tradition, might be traced to its circumstantial source. It would certainly be a satisfaction to the lovers of the anticiue and to the student of history to know whence came and whither went the unknown individual whose name is immortalized in the title of this beautiful stream coming down from
Where the shadows of mountains
Lie darkly at noon. And December drifts cool iu the
Sunlight of June.
The tradition which associates the name of " old Captain John," as he was familiarly known to the whites, with the present title of the river of Dalton and Whitefield at the head of the "Fifteen Mile Falls," the writer has never been able to trace to any reliable source, but will here introduce for what it is, a tradition characteristic of those times.
��Among the Cooashaukes who returned from St. Francis, or Abernaquis as their settlement in Canada is still called, and where descendants of these scattered New Hampshire tribes now exist, were two families of former distincuon among the clans. They were known as Capt. Joe and Capt. John, and were prominent actors in the events of those pre-revolutionary days. They were totally unlike in disposition and senti- ment, but both espoused the cause of the patriots during the war that followed, and did good service for the people.
The sc^uaw of Capt. Joe was known among the whites as "Molley." She re- mained true to her disentitled chief until in his old age, when under stronger influences she returned to friends at St. Francis. "Old Joe" died at New- bury in 1819, said to have been the last survivor of his race.
In the town of Barnet, just above the junction of the Passumpsic river with the Connecticut, is a small contribution to the former river known as " Joe's Brook," and its source among the hills of Barnet is "Joe's Pond," commemo- rative of "old Joe," the last of the Cooashaukes ; while a little farther to the westward are MoUey's Brook and Molley's Pond, telling to the listener's ear the story of the unfaithful squaw.
Capt. John was an active partisan during the revolutionary war. He led a small company of Indians enlisted from Coos and vicinity, and received a captain's commission. With the in- stincts of his race, like Capt. Joe, he was a wandering hunter, and the tradi- tion affirms that the river running through his favorite hunting grounds came to be known as "John's River." It enters the Connecticut from the east just at the head of the " Fifteen Mile Falls," in Dalton. This ancient chief- tain died a violent death soon alter the return of peace, and was buried at "lower Cohos." Capt. John was known among his own kindred as " Soos-sup," or Sussup, and in those savage war-whoop days he was a ter- ror among the early settlements of New Hampshire, bciu^^ a leader in
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