It is this warm October day I walk the streets of this quaint New England village and contemplate a very historic past. The streets are lined with beautiful foliage laden trees, the moss-covered stone walls cross the fields once harvested by our ancestors. I stop for a moment and listen to the soothing sound of water flowing beneath the historic Edna Dean Proctor Bridge. This idyllic New England village that was incorporated in the year 1768 was first known simply as “Number Six” in a line of early settlements between the Merrimack and Connecticut rivers. In 1752 the land was granted to Andrew Todd by Masonian Proprietors. The name was changed to “Todd’s Town.” James Peter arrived in 1761 and settled along with additional people and simply called this village “New Marlborough” since some of these early settlers came from Marlboro, Massachusetts. As the years passed this quaint town was incorporated in 1768 by Governor John Wentworth and named once again in honor of a London merchant with shipping interest in Boston and Portsmouth, a gentleman named Sir John Henniker.
On this day I walk about the only Henniker on earth and enjoy the scenery, the people, the shops and certainly the rich history. I spend some time with my daughter and her family, residents of this very beautiful town, and speak about the past. In addition to the rich history of Henniker there have been people that visit each October in search of hauntings from the past. We are all aware of the Ocean Born Mary story and the close connection to this village, but today I write about a different Henniker haunting that is not quite as well known or publicized. I write about Captain Jonas Bowman.
As the early settlers arrived in the mid-18th century the memories of the witchcraft trials in Massachusetts were still recent. Though it was close to a century after the trials concluded the people still told tales to the next generation, especially in late autumn when the harvest was concluded and the hard cider stored for the upcoming winter. The early settlers in most New England villages were great believers in signs, warnings and premonitions. The population was sparse and neighbors a distance away from each other. The nights were long and dark and most unknown sounds seemed to be quite supernatural. Such was the case with Henniker resident Captain Jonas Bowman, a respected gentleman known for his common sense and practicality.
It was Captain Bowman’s granddaughter that spoke of her grandfathers encounter in the village of Hopkinton, N.H. Soon after the township was settled in this wilderness Jonas lived alone in a cabin he had constructed himself. After a day of labor preparing for the approaching cold weather, we find Jonas alone on a very dark and stormy night with strong winds outside. He gathered himself together in search of sleep extinguishing his candles and stoking his fireplace with logs for night long warmth. It was with the flickering glow of the flames in his fireplace that he drifted towards his rewarding slumber.
In a deep sleep at the midnight hour Captain Jonas Bowman was quickly awakened by a loud rap upon his cabin door. As he rose to address this late-night intrusion, he approached his cabin door. The rapping was quickly followed by a man outside his door screaming “a man has been drowned in the river!” Captain Bowman, no stranger to challenging situations, was quite startled by this late-night message. He threw his cabin door open to address the messenger and was met by nothing but the dark night. Nobody was in sight, he walked into his side yard and searched about his property, the messenger simply disappeared.
Jonas thought about this midnight intrusion and decided he would not venture into the wilderness towards the river until the evening faded and the sun rose in the east. He returned to bed and slept little, pondering this message that he received in such a strange way.
Jonas arose with the early dawn and walked along his trail to inform his neighbors about the strange late-night messenger. His distant neighbors were the Howe, Gould and Stone families. As he gathered with the families the group walked into the village to search the river for the man that drowned. There was much doubt in the group, but Jonas was quite certain the message was sincere in a strange way. The group arrived at the ford of the river and did indeed discover a body in the water just below the crossing. The men removed the poor soul from the water and discovered the body to be a gentleman known as Nathan Reed. It was soon discovered that Nathan Reed was traveling from his home in Hopkinton the prior evening and in route to Hillsborough to visit with his friends.
Many in the town of Henniker thought the late-night messenger that visited Captain Jonas Bowman at midnight was in fact the spirit of Nathan Reed, others perhaps not so. As local residents venture about Henniker this Halloween and retire for the evening please be aware. Aware of the hauntings from the past in Henniker, N.H., and perhaps you might hear a knock on your door as the clock strikes midnight.
Vintage Views is a local history column that explores Concord and its surrounding towns. It runs every week in the Sunday Your Life section. The author is a historian and not a member of the Monitor’s staff.