Ebook The History of Haverhill, Massachusetts

In the early history of almost every town, there is a great variety of incidents which are well worth preserving. However trifling some of them may appear to strangers, still they carry a deep and abiding interest to a native. No one can heedlessly listen to a narrative of the customs and manners of his fathers - to a recital of the deeds they accomplished, and the dangers they surmounted. Every valley and hill has its history - the ancient tree that stretches its long branches to the breeze - the flowers that spring up and blossom in our pathway - and the glassy stream that bursts from the green hillside, rippling in the shade of the thick forest, or winding slowly among the open and cultivated fields; - and it cannot but interest those who are now seeking pleasure or profit among them, when they reflect that, on the same places, their fathers reared their thatched cottages, defended themselves against the attacks of prowling beasts, and grappled with the fierce savages.

The depredations of the Indians form a prominent feature in the following pages. Haverhill was a frontier town for more than seventy years, and about thirty years it suffered all the horrors which accompanied savage warfare. The history of the dangers and hardships endured by some of the inhabitants, in the latter period, appears, in many instances, like some fabulous story; and, perhaps, we should so consider it, were it not derived from respectable and authentic sources.