Capt. John Lovell

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_Lovewell

John Lovewell (October 14, 1691 – May 8, 1725) was a famous Ranger in the 18th century who fought during Father Rale's War (also known as Lovewell's War). He lived in present-day Nashua, New Hampshire. He fought in Father Rale's War as a militia captain, leading three expeditions against the Abenaki Indians.

John Lovewell became the most famous Ranger (i.e., scalp hunter) of the eighteenth century.

Favored by a grant from the Assembly, John Lovewell, whose maternal grandparents (Joseph Hadsall/Hassell and Mary Perry) had been killed and scalped by Indians, raised a company of thirty men and was commissioned a captain. In part because of Farwell's commonsense Lovewell selected him as his second-in-command and he was made Lieutenant. Lovewell and Farwell went on three scalp hunting expeditions from December to May.

Although the outcome was a draw, Lovewell's Fight marked the end of hostilities between the English and the Abenakis of Maine. This conflict was a turning point. So important was it to western Maine, New Hampshire and even Massachusetts colonists that the Fight was celebrated in song and story, and its importance was not eclipsed until the American Revolution.

The final major battle of the war - the Battle of Pequawket, or "Lovewell's Fight" - was fought between Captain Ranger John Lovewell, who led the New England troops, and Chief Paugus, who led the Abenaki. Both leaders were killed in the conflict. The battle marked the end of hostilities between the English and the western Wabanakis of Maine

Legacy

• Lovewell Mountain in Washington, New Hampshire, which he climbed to do surveillance, is named for him, as is Lovewell Pond in Fryeburg.
• Lovewell was celebrated in song and story. More than one hundred years after his death Henry Wadsworth Longfellow (poem, "The Battle of Lovells Pond"), Nathaniel Hawthorne (story, "Roger Malvin's Burial") and Henry David Thoreau (passage in the book A Week on the Concord and Merrimack Rivers) all wrote about Lovewell's Fight.
• The town of Lovell, Maine, is named after John Lovewell.

Commemorations

• The first published poem of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, 1807–1882, was "The Battle of Lovells Pond". The poem, written when Longfellow was 13, and published in the Portland [Maine] Gazette of November 21, 1820, retold the story of John Lovewell's death.
• Nathaniel Hawthorne's 1832 story, "Roger Malvin's Burial", concerns two colonial survivors returning home after what he calls "Lovell's Fight."

Sources

1. http://www.imaginemaine.com/ImagineMaine/Lovewells_Fight.html
2. The expeditions of Capt. John Lovewell, and his encounters with the Indians; including a particular account of the Pequauket Battle, with a history of that tribe; and a reprint of Rev. Thomas Symmes's sermon (1909)
3. The scalp hunters: Abenaki ambush at Lovewell Pond, 1725 By Alfred E. Kayworth, Raymond G. Potvin. 2002.

• Genealogical Guide to the Early Settlers of America: With a Brief History of ... By Henry Whittemore
• http://books.google.com/books?id=cSrlHHj2AFcC&pg=PA256&lpg=PA256&dq...
• Pg.334
• LOVEWELL: -- John, Boston, 1660, nothing known of him, excepting that he was a witness that year to will of Thomas Rawlins.
• LOVEWELL, JOHN, Dunstable in 1690, had John, born 14th Octorober, 1691; celebrated for his services and saga-city in Indian warfare; killed at Pequawket 8th May, 1725; Hannah; Zaccheus, 22 July, 1701, who was colonel of a N. H. regiment in the French war, 1759; and Jonathan, 14th May, 1713, a preacher, representative and judge, he is said to have been 120 years old, and probably was near 100 at his death about 1754.
• REFERENCES: .... etc.