A Historical Diversion

Launching the Archives’ blog has left us in a state of anticipation. Putting together the pieces of our past is not only valuable to our institutional memory but is downright fun! My husband has been researching his family’s origins and contributions to early America (Mayflower, Salem witches, Salem maritime history) and it has proven contagious. Recently, we were in the Conway Public Library researching my family. The librarian handed me our family Bible which my great-grandfather’s father had donated for the interest of family members to come. There was recorded 3 generations of my line in different hands. Who was this John Chase who obtained the Bible and recorded his marriage to Phebe Carr? And what kind of a woman was Phebe whose father Francis has proved a mystery to research but shows as an active participant in establishing Bow, NH and signing documents in support of the Colonies. Phebe bore 12 children, relocated with John from Concord to Conway through the mountains when she had seven of them, and spent time alone with those children while her husband did various stints with militias.

After work in the National Archives, NH State Archives, and the history sections of many libraries, I have discovered more about John and his older brothers (participants in the French and Indian War, Roger’s Rangers, supplying military leadership during the Revolution, and as first settlers of several NH towns.) Reading town histories and the NH State Papers, I know that John and his father Daniel signed the Association Test in the Spring of 1776 (“at the Risque of our Lives and Fortunes, with Arms, oppose the Hostile Proceedings of the British Fleets and Armies, against the United American Colonies.”) He also signed the Non-Intercourse Agreement (“suspending all commercial Intercourse with the Said Island of Great Britain until the Parliament shall cease to enact Laws imposing Taxes upon the Colonies without their consent or until the Pretended Right of taxing is dropped.”)

He was a Second Sergeant in the First NH militia in 1774. In June and July of 1777 he twice marched to enforce Ticonderoga, once in his brother’s regiment. From September to December of that year he marched to Saratoga to support the Continental Army under General Gates. After this he moved with his family to Conway. In 1781 he became a scout with Simpson’s Ranging Co. “for the security of said Conway and towns adjacent, against Indian invasion.”

I may never know more than this although we do have our own mystery. We found where he was buried and the stone on his grave can’t be more than several years old. On it is recorded his rank from 1774. We have to wait until spring to see if there is an original stone under the snow. The Conway Parks department has no knowledge of a new stone nor does the local historian.

Knowing that my family line is made of younger sons who followed the Merrimac River from Newbury to West Newbury and on into the wilderness has given me insight into our family’s character. I hope that what we can learn from the Academy’s Archives will give us an insight into this community.