Travel Back in Time: Hannah Dustin Memorial

Hannah Dustin Memorial Park, on the Concord and Boscawen line, may not be the first historic place people consider when visiting Concord, N.H.

As everyone knows, Concord is literally filled with history … monuments and statues, government buildings, historical graveyards and hedgestones, museums, granite galore … you can't walk by a spot of Concord without running into something historical.

But what makes the space so memorable and unique is that it offers pristine views of the Merrimack Rive, a nice “get away from it all” opportunity, and while one can imagine the life and turmoil of Hannah Duston and her family.

In 1697, the Dustin (phonically spelled Duston) family were settlers in Haverhill, Mass., when the town was sacked by Abenaki Indians. Most of the family escaped. But Hannah, a baby named Martha, and Mary Neff, a family nurse, were all captured. The Indians reportedly killed Martha by smashing the baby against a tree.

The Indians and their prisoners traveled north through the March snow, traveling about 100 miles. Eventually, they stopped and settled on Contoocook Island, near where the Merrimack and Contoocook rivers join together (the island is now known as Dustin Island).

The Indians and their captors stayed there for a number of days. Hannah, however, later led a revolt against their captors, with the help of the nurse and an English boy who was also being held. The trio killed 10 of the 12 Indians in the tribe (two escaped the revolt, according to historians). Hannah and the others scalped the Indians, to prove that the incident actually happened, and took a canoe down the river to safety back in Haverhill.

The state of Massachusetts awarded Hannah and the others rewards for the scalps and their valiant escape.

The historical representation of the incident became more storied through the years as Nathaniel Hawthorne and other writers and artists shared the story and published books about the account. And Memorials were later built in Concord and Haverhill. Items are in museums in both states.

Today, the railroad is virtually abandoned and the New Hampshire Department of Transportation has set aside a portion of the area around the park on Commercial Street as a drop-off location for construction equipment that is being used to reconstruct parts of Route 4, at the intersection between Penacook and Boscawen.

But if you walk down the side of the hill and across the railroad bridge, you will see spectacular views of the river. There is also an extensive nature path near the monument and along the grounds of the park, around to the north side of the Merrimack. You can literally imagine the conflict and how Hannah and the others made their escape down the Merrimack. 

Other historical opportunities

If traveling a bit off the beaten path isn't your kind of thing, there are many other historical opportunities to enjoy in Concord. 

There are historical monuments all around the grounds of and inside the State House. A block to the northwest of the State House is the New Hampshire Historical Society Library, which houses a number of state artifacts and collections. Two blocks to the east of the State House, the Museum of New Hampshire History offers a number of historic exhibits to patrons. 

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