Tyng Was The First
Permanent Settler Of Dunstable, Which Then Embraced What Is Now
Tyngsborough And Many Other Towns.
In the winter of 1675, in
Philip's war, every other settler left the town, but "he," says
the historian
Of Dunstable, "fortified his house; and, although
`obliged to send to Boston for his food,' sat himself down in the
midst of his savage enemies, alone, in the wilderness, to defend
his home. Deeming his position an important one for the defence
of the frontiers, in February, 1676, he petitioned the Colony for
aid, "humbly showing, as his petition runs, that, as he lived "in
the uppermost house on Merrimac river, lying open to ye enemy,
yet being so seated that it is, as it were, a watch-house to the
neighboring towns, "he could render important service to his
country if only he had some assistance," there being, "he said,"
never an inhabitant left in the town but myself." Wherefore he
requests that their "Honors would be pleased to order him _three
or four men_ to help garrison his said house," which they did.
But methinks that such a garrison would be weakened by the
addition of a man.
"Make bandog thy scout watch to bark at a thief,
Make courage for life, to be capitain chief;
Make trap-door thy bulwark, make bell to begin,
Make gunstone and arrow show who is within."
Thus he earned the title of first permanent settler. In 1694 a
law was passed "that every settler who deserted a town for fear
of the Indians should forfeit all his rights therein." But now,
at any rate, as I have frequently observed, a man may desert the
fertile frontier territories of truth and justice, which are the
State's best lands, for fear of far more insignificant foes,
without forfeiting any of his civil rights therein. Nay,
townships are granted to deserters, and the General Court, as I
am sometimes inclined to regard it, is but a deserters' camp
itself.
As we rowed along near the shore of Wicasuck Island, which was
then covered with wood, in order to avoid the current, two men,
who looked as if they had just run out of Lowell, where they had
been waylaid by the Sabbath, meaning to go to Nashua, and who now
found themselves in the strange, natural, uncultivated, and
unsettled part of the globe which intervenes, full of walls and
barriers, a rough and uncivil place to them, seeing our boat
moving so smoothly up the stream, called out from the high bank
above our heads to know if we would take them as passengers, as
if this were the street they had missed; that they might sit and
chat and drive away the time, and so at last find themselves in
Nashua. This smooth way they much preferred. But our boat was
crowded with necessary furniture, and sunk low in the water, and
moreover required to be worked, for even _it_ did not progress
against the stream without effort; so we were obliged to deny
them passage.
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