17.4 (1.1R) - In the pull-off area are engraved stones erected to memorialize
the birth of Captive Johnson.
Massachusetts granted the township that is now Charlestown, NH, and
designated it as Fort Number Four, part of a string of forts across the
frontier. About 1740 a fort about three quarters of an acre in size was
built. In 1747, with only 30 defenders, Fort Number Four was attacked by some
400 French and Indians. Captain Phineas Steven, commander of the fort, was
sent a sword by Commodore Sir Charles Knowles (whose ship was in Boston
harbor) and when the town was resettled, it became Charlestown.
The Johnson family, who lived on the outskirts of the fort, held a party on
an August evening in 1746. A sudden Indian attack at dawn surprised them and
seven were taken captive, including Mrs. Johnson, and rushed north into the
wilderness. They stopped overnight about half a mile up the brook from this
marker and Mrs. Johnson gave birth to a daughter who was named Captive.
Forty years later, Mrs. Johnson returned to the spot and commissioned the
monuments.
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