Excerpt from The Leading Business Men of Concord, and Vicinity, Embracing Penacook, East and West Concord
"Where once the savage Penacook
Took deadly aim at beast and bird,
And all the silent valley heard
His whizzing arrow, where to-day
Whistles the engine on its way."
The first settlers of New England found it inhabited by five distinct Indian nations, among these being the Pawtucketts, concerning whom Daniel Gookin wrote in 1674 as follows: "Their country lieth north and northeast from the Massachusetts, whose dominion reaches so far as the English jurisdiction or colony of the Massachusetts doth now extend; and had under them several other smaller sagamores; as the Pennakooks, Agowames, Naamkeeks, Pascataways, Accomintas, and others. They were a considerable people heretofore, about three thousand men, and held amity with the people of Massachusetts. But they were almost totally destroyed by the great sickness that prevailed among the Indians, so that at this day they are not above two hundred and fifty men, beside women and children. This country is now inhabited by the English, under the government of Massachusetts."
The "Pennakooks," or Penacooks, to use the accepted style of spelling, occupied the tract of land on which Concord is located, and are said to have taken their name from the erratic course pursued by the Merrimack river in flowing through the township, Penacook meaning "the crooked place." When first known to the English their chief was Passaconaway, who had a great reputation as a sorcerer, and was credited with the ability to turn water into ice in the heat of summer and do many other wonderful things. In spite of the superstitious awe with which he was regarded, even by the English, he foresaw that armed opposition to them would result in the ruin of his people, and hence was as friendly as circumstances would allow. Passaconaway was induced to embrace Christianity by the apostle Eliot, in 1648, and when the great chief died some twenty years later, at the age of more than one hundred, his farewell command to his son Wonolancet, who succeeded him in the leadership of the Penacooks, was, "Never be enemies to the English; but love them and love their God also, because the God of the English is the true God and greater than the Indian gods." This command was faithfully obeyed, for although Wonolancet suffered many privations and finally lost all his property by reason of unjust suspicions, he never injured the English by word or deed, but on the contrary interposed several times to save them from attack.
The last sagamore of the Penacooks was Kancamagus, a grandson of Passaconaway, but totally unlike him in character. Kancamagus was concerned in the attack upon Dover, in 1689, and was among the six "eastern Indian enemy, sagamores" who signed a treaty of peace with the Massachusetts government, November 29, 1690. The power of the Penacooks as a tribe was then at an end, and such as were hostile to the English joined other tribes, the rest remaining in the vicinity of Penacook and rendering valuable aid to the early settlers by supplying them with food in winter and doing them other services.
The first petition for a grant of land in "a place which is called Pennecooke," was presented in 1659, but this and several others which followed amounted to nothing, for although the grants were made they were forfeited on account of breach of conditions, and it was not until June 17, 1725, that the decisive petition was presented to the authorities of Massachusetts Bay Province. This was granted January 17, the petitioners being given a tract "to contain seven miles square" upon certain conditions, among which were the building of a meeting house within three years, the cutting of a road through the wilderness to the plantation, and the division of the land into one hundred and three equal parts or shares, of which one hundred were to be given to one hundred desirable per. Это и многое другое вы найдете в книге The Leading Business Men of Concord, and Vicinity, Embracing Penacook, East and West Concord (Classic Reprint) (George F. Bacon)