John Fitch gravestone
The Ashby Historical Society is raising money to place a grave marker near the spot that John Fitch was buried. He was born in Bllerica in 1708. He was a pioneer who built his house on the frontier of Lunenburg on land that would later become Ashby in 1739. Nine years later, at the height of the 1748 King Georges War, he and his family were captured by Indians and taken to Montreal. He would return a year later with his children, having lost his wife during the return trip, and rebuild. In 1764 he helped incorporate the new town of Fitchburg and in 1767 he was amoung those who successfully sought Ashby’s incorporation.
At the first town meeting he was elected moderator, selectman and constable. However discord arose over the location of the meetinghouse and he was not re-elected. In 1772 he moved to Rindge, NH where he made considerable money in land speculation. By 1784 he had lost savings, was elderly and penniless. Rindge sent him back to Ashby where he lived out his life as the ward of the Gates family. He died in 1795 at the age of 85 and was buried in a pauper’s grave in the Old Burial Ground.
John Fitch’s grave would have been unmarked and may well have been mixed in with the burial of others in like circumstance. The Ashby Historical Society is raising money to place a gravestone in the vicinity of his grave in recogniton of his life and place in Ashby history. Scroll down for a more complete biography of the man.
The History of John Fitch
John Fitch was born in Billerica in 1707 or 1708 during the second French and Indian War. It is unlikely the war affected him of his family at the time as the conflict was primarily fought in Maine, Acadia (Nova Scotia) and Quebec. In Europe there was constant rivalry between France and Britain for dominance in Europe and North America. The French and Indian Wars were actually a series of wars between 1688 and 1763 in North America between British colonists and French colonists and their respective Indian allies. The British claimed all land west of the east coast of what is now the United States. The French claimed all land between Quebec and New Orleans. Whenever war erupted in in Europe between Britain and France it spilled over to the North American frontier where British and French claims overlapped.
The French and Indian Wars and the westward expansion of the British Colonies in North American would shape John Fitch’s life.
Shortly before John’s birth, during Queen Anne’s War, the town of Deerfield, Mass. had been burned and 100 settlers taken hostage. This was a wake up call to the frontier towns of eastern Massachusetts and the Connecticut River valley that they needed to strengthen their defenses and come to one an others aid. In 1733 the residents of Lunenburg, Groton, Lancaster built a road from Lunenburg to the town of Northfield in the Connecticut River valley. It became known as the Northfield Road and would allow militia to move quickly from the frontier towns in eastern Massachusetts to the towns of the Connecticut River valley in the event of attack.
In 1732, one year before the construction of the Northfield Rd. John Fitch had moved to Lunenburg. About 1734 he marries Susannah Gates and purchases a modest homestead along the road to Lancaster. It is here the couple’s first two children are born.
The construction of the Northfield road has opened up the frontier land in western Lunenburg and John and Susannah took advantage of the opportunity. In 1739 John Fitch purchased 125 acres along this road, built a garrison (fortified house) and began a farm with his wife Susannah and two children. He was 7 miles from Lunenburg center, 3 ½ miles from his nearest neighbor, on the frontier.
Here he cleared land for farming He and Susannah also provided food and entertainment for travelers along the road especially the scouts sent out by the Lunenburg militia to keep an eye out for incursions by Native Americans. Mr. Fitch also traded with the local Indians swapping metal utensils for furs which could be sold on to Boston. In this way he provided for his growing family on the frontier. In March of 1744 war broke out in Europe between Britain and France. It soon spilled over to the New World an in July of that year Massachusetts Bay Colony declared war on the French Province of Quebec.
The French with their Abenaki and Micmac allies initialy focused on the Hudson River Valley attacking villages and forts in New York and western Massachusetts. As the war progressed they began moving down the Connecticut River valley to attack Northfield, Mass. and surrounding towns.
In early 1748 residents of Lunenburg feared for an attack on their village. The Fitch garrison was one of five garrison houses that provide the outermost defense of town. In order to strengthen the defenses British troops were assigned to the garrisons. The Fitch garrison had four soldiers stationed there. By this time John and Susannah had five children ranging in age from 5 months to 13 years. In all eleven people were now living in a two room house with a small barn.
In early July one of the soldiers fell ill and returned to Lunenburg.
July 5th began as any other day on the farm. John and the older boy, John Jr., attended to chores. Susannah prepared food and watched after the younger children. Early in the morning Pvt. Perkins headed east along the Northfield Rd to Lunenburg to get supplies for the soldiers. About 9 in the morning Pvts. Blodget and Jennings headed across the field toward the forest perhaps to hunt game to augment the food supply. Susannah went to fetch water at the spring a few hundred yards away. It was Blodget who spotted them concealed at the edge of the forest. Indian warriors. He called out warning to Jennings a few paces behind. It was the last thing he said as a bullet felled him in the field.
Jennings ran for the garrison house shouting warning for everyone to get inside but there was no need. The gun shot that felled Blodget was warning enough. They were under attack. Susannah racing back from the spring had the children inside when Jennings, Fitch and the oldest boy arrived. The door was barred and the shutters secured. A small hole in each shutter provided a place to fire upon the oncoming Indians. The two men fired their muskets. Susannah helped reloaded them. The older children protected the younger ones near the hearth.
The band of about 70 Indians pressed the attack for over an hour. Eventually one managed to fire his musket into the interior of the garrison through an unguarded hole. Pvt. Jennings fell to the floor.
John Fitch was a determined man and kept up the fight but it was soon clear to the attackers that there was only one defender left inside. The Indians were allied with the French in Canada and they would pay a good bounty on any live Englishman brought to them. An entire family should be worth even more. Much more than just the scalps. The Indians signaled they wished to talk. Though neither party spoke the others language Fitch was familiar with communicating with Indians through sign language and the few words that he understood.
The Indian’s offer was clear. “Surrender and your lives will be spared. Fight and we’ll burn the garrison down with you in it.” John consulted with Susannah but the choice was clear. He put down his musket, opened the door and walked out with his family behind him. John’s hands were bound but the rest of the family was unhindered as they were moved to the edge of the forest. The Indians took what they could carry and then burned the garrison house, barn and sheds. Gathering their loot and hostages they headed west on the Northfield Rd toward Ashburnham.
Pvt. Perkins was still walking to Lunenburg on the same road when he looked back and noticed smoke rising above the trees some ways back. At the top of the next hill he able to get a better view. There was no question. The Fitch garrison had been attacked and was burning. He ran as fast as he could manage on to the nearest farm. The alarm had already been raised though for others had heard the gunshots. The Militia was on its way from Lunenburg.
The Indians with their booty and captives soon turned off the Northfield road into the forest. Their destination was Montreal.
The Colonial Militia upon reaching the smoldering remains of Fitch’s garrison quickly assessed the situation. Blodget’s body still lay in the field. Jenning’s charred remains were found amongst the smoldering timbers of the garrison. A bucket and a bonnet belonging to Susannah Fitch were lying along the path to the spring. There was no sign of the rest of the family. The commander, Lt. Hartwell, concluded that Susannah had been taken by the Indians in the initial attack and that John and the rest of the family had either escaped or been killed at some distance from the garrison. In either case, with the enemy in the area, he needed to reinforce the remaining outer garrisons and defend Lunenburg. If they were alive, John Fitch and his family were on their own.
Montreal is 275 miles from Ashby. There were no roads. They would walk the entire way on Indian trails through the wilderness. We do not know the route that was taken to Montreal but it is likely the band followed a route similar to that we might use today. To avoid detection they likely left the Northfield Road and went northwest toward the Connecticut River, then followed the river north until they reached the White River where they again turned northwest. Crossing the Green Mountains, they would arrive at the shore of Lake Champlain. From here they followed the shore north to the Richelieu River in Quebec which would take them within a few miles of Montreal.
The Fitch family had only the clothes on their back. The Indians would have carried their weapons, any goods they took from the garrison and a bag of jerky, dried beans and corn for sustenance. Along the way they would forage where they could and hope Native villages along the way would provide additional food.
Susannah carried the baby, 5 month old Susannah, who was still nursing. Jacob, 2 years old and Paul, 5, were too young to walk the wilderness trails and each was strapped to a cradleboard to be carried on a brave’s back. Nine year old John Jr. and 11 year old Catherine would walk with the adults. The journey was arduous. There was no shelter from the rain or mosquitoes. Jacob and Paul could not eat the dried Indian food. Susannah often nursed the three youngest children to prevent them from starving. This weighed heavily on her strength for there was barely enough food to go around. Despite the privations the entire family made it to Montreal. They probably arrived in late July or early August of 1748. The Indians were paid and the family was taken into French custody.
There is no record of what transpired next. The Fitch family was probably not imprisoned but kept with other captives of the war in rude housing. The men were probably required to work at menial tasks. Their stay was short however as hostilities ended in September with an agreement to swap prisoners. They were fortunate to be part of an early prisoner swap. They left Montreal in early September with other prisoners bound for New York City accompanied by five French officers. On the 23rd of September they arrived in the city but were not exchanged. The group continued on toward Providence in Rhode Island colony but they were delayed by constant sickness among the captives and in the coastal towns. It was not until late December when they reached Providence. It was there on December 24th, Susannah, weak from exhaustion fell ill and died. A remarkable pioneer woman she had kept all her children alive though five grueling months of captivity. John and the five children along with the other prisoners and the French officers went on to Boston. It was here he was exchanged for French captives. In the spring of 1749 he and the children returned to the burned garrison. John Fitch was determined to rebuild. This time it would be a proper house.
He did indeed build a proper house, reportedly somewhat more grand than was common in the area at the time. In 1750 he married Elizabeth Bowers Pierce a widow herself. They had 2 children, Mary and Sarah.
Beginning about this time there was a migration from the older towns near the coast to the frontier towns including Lunenburg, Townsend and Dorchester Canada (now Ashburnham). With the new settlers came the push to incorporate new town of which John Fitch was an enthusiastic supporter. Disagreements over the boundaries delayed the process but finally in January 1764 the Town of Lunenburg agreed to the boundary and John Fitch and 4 others set off to Boston to petition the General Court. On February 4, 1764 the town of Fitchburg was incorporated being named after John Fitch. In 1765 Dorchester Canada and some other lands was incorporated into Ashburnham. All this activity seemed to delay the incorporation of Ashby which wait until March 6, 1767 for its incorporation. Thus it came to be that John Fitch, while living in the same house, over the course of three years was resident in Lunenburg, Fitchburg and Ashby.
It was in Ashby that he began to play a role in government being elected to moderator, selectman and constable at the first town meeting. However discord would soon erupt as there was disagreement on the location of the meeting house. John was on the loosing side and was not re-elected although he would hold various town offices in the coming years.
The migration of people into the area led to a bustling business in land speculation and John Fitch participated however as the population grew the real action was further to the north and west. In 1772 John sold his homestead in Ashby and moved with his wife and two children to Rindge, New Hampshire.
It was here he gained some wealth and records shown he owned nearly 600 acres of land in Rindge as well as slave named Zeno. In 1776, with other citizens of Rindge, he signed the association test, pledging life and property in the defense of American liberty. He continued to reside in Rindge until 1779 when he and his wife moved to a homestead in Harvard. As fate would have it his wife died the following year and he, at age 73, was left alone in a town in which he was a relative stranger.
By 1782 he had returned to Rindge, NH. feeble and penniless. It was the custom of the time for towns to appropriate money to help support the poor. However Fitch, although he lived there for 7 years, had never become a resident of Rindge. Not wishing to pay more than needed to support the poor, Rindge had Fitch transported to Ashby, his legal place of residence, in 1784.
A man who was once defender of the frontier he returned had returned weakened by age and with no means to support himself. He was taken in by Abraham Gates who lived near the spot where the John and his family had defended their home forty years earlier.
“His eyes grew dim, and his sorrows were assuaged in the mists of a fading memory. The pathway of the brave old man was obscured in the twilight of approaching death. The end was ever near, and yet, in the shadow of his former vigor, with failing strength and faltering steps, he was ten years in walking to the grave. He died April 8, 1795, aged 87 years.”
John Fitch was buried in an unmarked pauper’s grave in the northwest corner of the Old Burial Ground behind the First Parish Church.
In 1844 Lewis Gould raised money and erected a monument to John Fitch on the Town Common. In 1894 the Fitchburg Historical Society erected a monument at the corner of South Road and Richardson Road commemorated the battle at the Fitch garrison.
Based of the work of Ezra S. Stearns published in 1895