Reprinted from the
Weirs Times - Article by Bruce Heald - Ref: Colby’s
Indian History, Solon B. Colby, 1975.
“Before the Indian tribes became reduced
in numbers by pestilence and emigration, nearly three thousand
Indians lived along the banks of the Merrimack and it tributaries,
from the White Mountains to the Atlantic, a distance of
about two hundred miles. By 1674, according to General Gookin
in his Historical Collections of the Indians, ‘There
are not of this people left at this day three hundred men
besides women and children.’"
“In 1614, sixty years previous to Gookin’s notation,
the Winnipesaukee tribe alone consisted of more than four
hundred people with villages and campsites at Alton Bay,
Melvin Village, Wolfeboro Falls, Moultonboro Neck, Lochmere,
Laconia, and the Weirs. There are few, if any, islands in
the lake that have not produced considerable evidence of
aboriginal occupation. Most of these Indians made their
winter headquarters at the Weirs (Aquadoctan) where tons
of smoked, dried fish were stored annually for winter consumption
and where the hills at their back protected their wigwams
from the prevailing northwest winds.
“Aquadoctan was one of the largest Indian villages
in New Hampshire and continued to be a permanent one until
the spring of 1696 when the few remaining families, with
two young English prisoners, left their homes at Aquadoctan
to join the Pequaket tribe on the Saco River near what is
now Fryeburg, Maine.
“The Weirs got its name from the fish traps maintained
by the Indians in the wide shallow channel which forms the
outlet of the lake. Stones which once held the uprights
of the wooden fish-weirs in place showed the first settlers
where the original Indian fish-weirs were located, but these
stones were used in 1766 to make a wing dam for Ebenezer
Smith’s sawmill which had been constructed on the
Gilmanton side of the channel the preceding autumn.
“The Indian village site extended along the north
bank flanking the channel for more than a quarter of a mile
and along the lake front a quarter of a mile beyond the
railroad station. The total length of the site was more
than a half mile, but it wasn’t all occupied at one
time. The land on the south side of the channel rose abruptly
and was too steep for Wigwam sites, but many artifacts have
been found on that site above the bridge where the land
is flat.
“Over ten thousand artifacts have been collected from
the Weirs area alone, and they may be viewed in collection
at Concord, Manchester, Hanover and Laconia, NH, as well
as in the Peabody Museums at Salem and Cambridge, Massachusetts.
“During farming operations on the north side of the
channel, large numbers of stone tools were recovered. When
the cellar for Moore’s hotel was dug about 1890, workmen
found forty or fifty gouges, celts, and spearheads. They
also found a clay pot containing about three quarts of red
ochre. The pot was crudely made without decorative markings
and resembled a type known as Early Woodland.
“When the land for the open air theater at the Weirs
was leveled off with a bulldozer, numerous artifacts and
several burials were uncovered including two that contained
considerable red ochre. The skeletons were little more than
white streaks of calcium in the soil.
“Projectile points with bifurcated bases have been
found at the Weirs and Fish Cove. Fluted points will undoubtedly
discovered in the Lakes Region as interest in New Hampshire
archaeology continues to increase.
“The pottery in this area is mostly grit tempered
and resembles that found in other parts of the state, but
not in such large quantities as have been found at Amoskeag
Bluff (Smyth Estate) in Manchester, NH.
“Winnipesaukee is derived from Wiwininebesaki, an
Indian word which means ‘The Lake in the Vicinity
of which there are other Lakes and Ponds,’ or perhaps
a still better translation would be ‘The Lakes Region.’"
“The Weirs was known to the Indians for miles around
as a great fishing place and they had several names for
it among which were Ahquedaukee, Aquadoctan, and Aquedaukenash
which means Weir or Weirs.
“Jacob Eaton started to build on Hilliard Road, near
Pickerel Cove, in 1765. By September 29th, 1766, he had
built a house, cleared three acres of land and felled the
trees on six additional acres.
“On the lot where Eaton built were several apple trees
that Indians had set out many year before. These so far
as known were the only apple trees ever found on Indian
lands in New Hampshire. It was here that the first white
child of Meredith was born March 11, 1767; the little girl
was named Thamor Eaton.”
