in the Valley cemetery. Another case was that of Thomas M Carr, who died the same month, the 30th of August. So wide. spread was the fear of contagion that it was almost impossible to procure any one to care for the sick. A Mr. Gardner was employed to nurse Mr. Carr at $10 a night, but he was taken sick and died, after which, although $20 a night was offered, no help could be hired, and the brotherhood of Odd Fellows had to care for the stricken one, four of them, Charles C. Keniston, Abel M. Keniston, James M. Howe, and George C. Gilmore, taking turns, two at a time, until Mr. Carr died. All four of the watchers escaped the disease.

Several deaths occurred on Concord street, nearly opposite Vine street, among them a Mr. Fitts, or Fitz, residing in the "yellow block"; also a Mrs. Brown; close by lived Mrs. Richard Smith, the mother of Mrs. Gilman B. Fogg. Mrs. Smith was stricken down and with her aged mother fell victim to the disease. Mrs. George C. Batchelder, wife of the veteran hackman, nursed Mrs. Smith through her illness. Quite a number of deaths occurred in the same locality and also in the vicinity of Manchester street, and at the south end.

During the prevalence of both epidemics many fatal cases were marked by peculiar characteristics. Dysentery would first set in, without perceptibly weakening the subject; then the collapse would come like a stroke of lightning and in a few hours death ensued. Decomposition seemed to set in even before life was extinct, the flesh turned purple, emitting offensive odors, and mortification followed immediately after death, necessitating hasty burial. Many of the dead were buried at night, in the north east corner of the Valley cemetery, and now lie fully twenty feet below the surface, by reason of the filling up to grade.

Both in 1849 and 1854 the violence of the epidemic was expended on that part of the city lying between Elm back street and Chestnut street, isolated cases only occurring outside of those limits.

Rock Rimmon.

BY WILLIAM ELLERY MOORE,

It is not known when the conspicuous rock, near the city of Manchester, rising from the high plateau, west of the Merrimack river, was named, nor by whom the name was conferred. It is, however, quite certain that it has been generally known as Rock Rimmon for not less than seventy years, and very probable for a much longer time. As is not unusual, this name has been more or less corrupted, and has sometimes taken the form of "Rock Raymond," commonly pronounced "Rock Raymon." One of the earlier charts of the city gives the name as Ray mond. Careful inquiry reveals no evidence that this latte name was correctly given, and it was so written without authority by the engineer in charge, in ignorance of the real name or a concession to a mispronunciation and orthography then somewhat common.

The writer has taken pains to interview some of the more scholarly and intelligent among our older citizens, with the result of an entire agreement as to the correctness of the form first given, as well as concerning the undoubtedly Old Testament origin of the name. In order to show the probability and practical certainty of its scriptural origin, and application, we append such references as the Old Testament records afford.

We find, first, the name of one Rimmon, who was known as "Rimmon the Beerothite (II Samuel iv, 5, 8). He had two sons, Rechab and Baanah, who are described as a pair of bloodthirsty scoundrels and assassins, of a type quite common in their day and generation. In the absence of direct evidence it is quite conceivable that this "Beerothite" was the first settler who preëmpted that particular claim and bestowed his name upon that locality.

We again find Rimmon under the form of " Ramon," meaning exalted, as an ancient idol, by which was represented the sun, or sun-worship, at Damascus.

We find further that at a later date the city of Rimmon first

belonged to the Levites and was known as one of the cities of the priests; that it was afterwards reckoned as one of the cities of Judah, and that it was finally given to Simeon. At that time it is described as 66 Rimmon with her suburbs" (I Chronicles vi, 77); also as one of "the twenty-nine cities of Judah with their villages" (Joshua xv, 32). In Simeon's day it was spelled "Remmon." From these references we must conclude it was a place of considerable importance.

En Rimmon, a city near Jerusalem, is referred to in Nehemiah xi, 29. Um er-Rummanim, meaning mother of pomegranates, is by biblical students identified as the same place, and is described as a village in ruins fifteen miles southeast of Hebron. Between two hills, both covered presumably with ancient ruins, and a mile south of the village, is a large fountain, the chief wateringplace in that region. The word Rimmon means pomegranate.

Rimmon parez, meaning pomegranate of the breach, was one of the camping places of the Israelites, during the exodus, where they pitched their tents (Numbers xxxiii, 19, 20). Parez means a breach in a wall or cliff.

"The Rock of Rimmon " and "Rock Rimmon are spoken of in Judges xx, 45, 47, and xxi, 13.

Finally, we find the scriptural Rock Rimmon to have been a high rock or hill ten miles north of Jerusalem, and four miles east of Bethel, on which there is now a modern village. After a loss of more than twenty five thousand fighting men, in a series of sanguinary battles in the great Jewish civil war, eighteen thousand men having fallen in one engagement, the remnant of the tribe of Benjamin, six hundred in number, held this Rock for four months against their enemies. The Rock appears to have constituted a natural fortress of great strength, as the warriors of Benjamin are several times spoken of as in the Rock."

After the foregoing Old Testament record, and especially in view of the distinct and remarkable appropriateness of transferring the scriptural name of Rock Rimmon to our Merrimack valley rock or cliff, there appears no reasonable doubt as to its original appellation, and that it was and is and should remain Rock Rimmon, nothing appearing to the contrary.

Narrative of James Johnson

A CAPTIVE DURING THE INDIAN WARS IN NEW ENGLAND.

COMPILED FROM THE MASSACHUSETTS ARCHIVES, VOL. 38 A, PAGE 329, AND ANNOTATED BY G. WAL.DO BROWNE.

SKETCH OF CAPTAIN JOHNSON.

Captain James Johnson was among the earlier settlers of Grant No. 4, now Charlestown, N. H., and came here from Massachusetts with others to help defend a post that was so favorably situated to guard one of the most common routes of the Indians on their way to and from Canada. The fort here was built by Massachusetts and was supposed to be in that province. On the morning of August 29, 1754, he and his family, consisting of his wife, three children and sister-in-law Miriam Willard, were surprised by the Indians, and with two men named Peter Larabee and Ebenezer Farnsworth, were carried off captives. The long journey proved extremely trying, the party at times suffering for food. On the second day Mrs. Johnson gave birth to a child, a daughter christened Captive, from the conditions surrounding her birth. The captors appear to have been very solicitous of the welfare of their captives, and upon reaching Montreal, Johnson was given a parole of two months to enable him to return and solicit aid to redeem himself and the others. Appealing to the assembly of New Hampshire, he obtained, after a vexatious delay, one hundred and fifty pounds sterling. But the season had been well advanced before he had returned, and it was then winter, and he was unable to get back to Montreal before another spring. This gave his captors grounds to claim that he had broken his parole, and after being robbed of considerable of his money he was seized and thrown

in to prison, together with his wife, four children, and her sister. Remaining a year and a half in prison, Mrs. Johnson, two of her daughters, and her sister were sent to England, from whence they eventually reached Boston. Captain Johnson was kept in prison three years, when he was allowed to go to Boston, accompanied by his son. The other child, his eldest daughter, had been innured in a nunnery just out of Montreal, and he was unable to effect her release. He and his son fortunately reached Boston in season to meet the fugitives from England, and after having passed through a series of hardships, sufferings and misfortunes peculiar to pioneer life, the distressed family were reunited, with the exception of the daughter mentioned, who never rejoined her kindred. Still Captain Johnson's misfortunes were not entirely over, for he was soon arrested and thrown into prison charged with being in the employ of the French. Happily he soon disproved this charge, and there is nothing to show that he experienced any further harm.

This account of personal adventures is valuable mainly for the information it contains regarding the distances, physical features of the country, and the association of the French and Indians.

DEPOSITION OF CAPTAIN JOHNSON 1

The Committee who was directed to examine James Johnson, a Late Captain in Canada, beg leave to Report that he gives ye following account of facts (viz.) that it is a hundred miles from No. 4 to Crown Point that in his Journey to Canada2 he

1. November 14, 1757.

2. This was the most common route of the Indians in their passages to the valley of the Connecticut below what was known as " Moose Meadows," now included in Haverhill and Piermont. These highways of travel for the Indians always followed the most convenient waterways, and after following a stream to its fountain-head, If their course led as far, they loaded their burdens on their backs, including their canoes, and so crossed the country to the nearest river or pond lying in their course, In 1759, New Hampshire cut a road from the junction of Black River with the Connecticut at No. 4, across what is now the State of Vermont to the headwaters of Lake Champlain in order to open an easier route to Canada. This followed very closely the old Indian trail from Pocumtuck valley to Montreal. Another trail of the red men was up the Connecticut River to Weld's, now