Colonial history of Hartford, Connecticut, Part 10

Author:
Publication date: 1914
Publisher: Hartford, Conn.
Number of Pages: 460


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1 Trumbull's Hist. of Connecticut, I: 115.


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the following description of one: "This Hot-houfe is a kind of little Cell or Cave, fix or eight foot over, round, made on the fide of a hill, (commonly by fome Rivulet or Brooke:) into this frequently the men enter after they have exceedingly heated it with ftore of wood, laid upon an heape of ftones in the middle. When they have taken out the fire, the ftones keep ftill a great heat: Ten, twelve, twenty, more or leffe, enter at once ftarke naked, leaving their coats, fmall breeches (or aprons) at the doore, with one to keepe all: here doe they fit round thefe hot ftones an houre or more, taking Tobacco, difcourfing, and fweating together; which fweating they ufe for two ends: Firft, to cleanfe their skin: secondly, to purge their bodies, which doubt- leffe is a great meanes of preferving them, and recovering them from difeafes efpecially from the French difease, which by fweating and fome potions, they perfectly and fpeedily cure: when they come forth (which is matter of admiration) I have feene them runne (Summer and Winter) into the Brooks to coole them, without the leaft hurt." 1 It seems, therefore, that this was the first Turkish bath- room in Hartford.


Let us cross the Connecticut River to East Hartford, to locate the Indian fort of the Hockanum tribe, whose resi- dence was within the ancient bounds of the town. Tradition and the discovery of Indian relics fix the location of this fort at a place long known as "Fort Hill." Concerning this place, Goodwin says: "Traces of such an enclosure still remain in Goodwin's pasture, one-fourth of a mile east of the postoffice. ... The steep hillside having been its de- fence and outlook on three sides, and an embankment and palisades upon the north." 2 This is north of the Hockanum River and south of Burnside Avenue. The site is readily recognized by the excavation of sand which composed the hill. No place could have been more wisely chosen by the Indians. Its elevation, proximity to a river once famous for its fishing, and the adjoining swamp, were features con- sidered desirable by the natives.


1 "Williams' Indian Key" in Narr. Club Publications, I: 211, 212; Trumbull's Indian Names of Connecticut, p. 51.


2 Goodwin's Hist. of East Hartford, pp. 18, 23.


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THE COLONIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD


The documentary evidence that this was once the site of their Indian fort is found in the record of Sergeant Wil- liam Buckland's home lot. He died in 1724, and left to his wife Elizabeth and three sons, his "home lott between ye country road and ye Pine Swamp or ye Indian Fort." The younger sons deeded to William Buckland, who sold to Colonel John Pitkin. This lot is mentioned in the town votes in connection with the road that was laid out east- ward in 1679.


The Indian history of this fort, if known, would probably recite some stories of sanguinary warfare. The one-eyed Tantonimo is thought by some to have chosen it as his stronghold in 1656, when he had a quarrel with Sequassen and Uncas. The natives who lived there were in reality a band of the Podunks. Tantonimo was a sachem of one part of this tribe. He had given refuge to a young Indian, who had killed a sagamore living at Mattabeset, a kinsman of Sequassen. The latter chief had then returned to Hart- ford. Probably he was living at the fort in the South Meadow, with the other Indians. He took up the quarrel, and made an ally of Uncas who, also, had a grievance against the Podunks. The General Court made an effort to adjust the matter. It failed. The parties were then allowed to fight, only it was stipulated that it should not be on the west side of the river, nor to the injury of any on the east side. The forces are said to have met near the Hockanum River - a very advantageous place for Tan- tonimo, with a stronghold near at hand. They did not fight, however, for Uncas, fearing the result, contented himself with a threat to bring upon the Podunks the dread- ful Mohawks. He afterwards used their fear of this tribe to effect his purpose by strategy.1 With this episode, Sequassen disappears from our history. He probably died soon afterwards.


The chief seat of the Podunk Indians was near the northern boundary of East Hartford. Here we locate another native fort. Adriaen Block's narrative, in speaking of the Indians along the river, makes the following statements: "In the year 1614 they had a village resembling a fort for protection


1 Conn. Col. Rec., I: 304, 305; De Forest's History of the Indians, pp. 249-252.


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against the attacks of their enemies. They are called Nowaas and the Sagamore was named Moraheick. This place is situated in latitude 41° 48'." As Block gave the name of their sachem and their Indian word for bread, we may infer that he had some intercourse with them or visited their village. The place has been identified on the best authority as Podunk fort. The name "Nowaas" in Dutch, says Dr. Trumbull, was equivalent to "Nowashe," the name borne in the native tongue by the land between the Podunk and Scantic rivers. Stiles states that the early records of Windsor indicate that the first settlers did not call these natives "Podunk Indians," but probably "Mo- hegans." They are so named in Tantonimo's deed of South Windsor lands in 1636. "Podunk" means "place of fire." Perhaps the stream was so called because of the proximity of their village fires, and the English gave them the name of their residence. There seems to have been some relation- ship between these Indians and the Mohegans, antedating the marriage of Arramamet's daughter, Songonosk, to Joshua, the son of Uncas.


The site of their Indian village or fort is approximately determined by the land records. The southern boundary of the Podunk lands was south of the former mouth of the river, and just north of a lot, granted in 1644 to Samuel Ketchell. Here the town built a division fence in 1650. From Tantonimo, Thomas Burnham and certain partners bought a large tract of the Indian land. A controversy arose concerning it. The southernmost strip of this tract passed to William Williams, to whom the town confirmed it in 1662. In the records, it is bounded "on land now in ye management of Thom: Burnam: wher ye fort stood on ye North." The General Court finally made a division of the land claimed by Burnham, among the Indians, who sold their lots from time to time to English owners.1 An extant drawing of the western portion of this land, shows that the Podunk River then entered the Connecticut farther north than at present.2 The Indian tract was mainly north


1 Conn. Col. Rec., II: 306; Windsor Land Records, 2: 100; Hartford Land Records, 2: 103.


2 State Archives: Private Controversies, I: 42.


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THE COLONIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD


of the stream, running to a point at the southwest end by the river's side. In its course, the Podunk River, at its most northerly point within the tract where the fort stood, made a semi-circular curve southward. Its former channel can now be traced by the swale. The land thus partially surrounded by the river is high ground, and, without other evidence, would seem to have been the location of the fort. Here tradition also has located it. Indian relics have been found on this site in great abundance. It is only about one-third of a mile in a direct line to the Connecticut River. The Dutch navigator could easily have seen this fort from the deck of the Onrust. Part at least of the intervening tract was a planting-ground. Block refers to their cultivation of maize as if he had seen it. How long this Indian fort remained can not be determined. It continued for many years to be the site of their Indian village. Probably this declined rapidly after King Philip's War, when some of these natives sided against the English and went on the war-path never to return. This site is not far west of the main high- way in South Windsor.


Of all the Indian forts along the Connecticut River, this of Podunk has the best title to fame. In prehistoric times it was doubtless the stronghold of a large population. They had been greatly wasted before the coming of the white man. Thence, Wahginnacut went to Boston in 1631, to invite the settlement of the English. In this fort, Nata- wanute and Sequassen were often visitors. There the sachem Arramamet spent some of his later years. At its councils, the wily Uncas, and Foxen, his crafty adviser, plotted mischief among the river bands. One of its last Indian owners was Toto's squaw-Toto of Windsor, who is said to have revealed to the English, in 1675, the plot against Springfield.1 That timely warning of danger saved the town from a massacre.


Unless we give unwarranted authority to tradition, we must conclude that it was somewhere within these Podunk lands that the greatest tragedy of our Indian history was enacted - the execution of Miantinomo. It may almost be said that this was the sequel to Uncas's destruction of Sequassen's wigwams in the South Meadow, for the warfare


1 Hutchinson's History, I: 295; Stiles's Hist. of Windsor, I: 110, 118, 130, 131.


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Miantinomo thereafter waged against Uncas did not cease until the Narragansett chief was a captive in the fortress at Mohegan. The victor brought his prisoner to Hartford, as ordered. There the Governor and magistrates referred the disposition of his life to the Commissioners of the United Colonies, who met in Boston, September 7, 1643. Mian- tinomo was a prisoner, meanwhile, in Hartford's jail. The final decision arrived at by the counsel of five ministers was, that "Uncas was advised to take away the life of Myantenomo," but in his own jurisdiction and not in the English plantations. "According to this agreement," says Winthrop, "the commissioners, at their return to Connecti- cut, sent for Onkus, and acquainted him therewith, who readily undertook the execution, and taking Miantun- nomoh along with him, in the way between Hartford and Windsor (where Onkus hath some men dwell,) Onkus' brother, following after Miantunnomoh, clave his head with an hatchet, some English being present." 1 The plan the commissioners had made was that Uncas should be sent for to come to Hartford "with some considerable number of his best and trustyest men." This he doubtless did, lodging them among his kindred at Podunk. The purpose was to provide against the rescue of Miantinomo by his own people, which was feared. No other place between Hartford and Windsor than Podunk could have been referred to. That was, in a sense, within the juris- diction of Uncas. Thus, at some unknown spot not far from Hartford, the Narragansett chief, who occupies the most conspicuous place in the romance of Indian heroes, met his death. Those who review such events in the clearer light of this age, can hardly think it strange that, when John Eliot, the "apostle to the Indians," being in Hartford at a council of ministers, assembled a congregation of natives to hear his plea for the Gospel, and asked them "whether they were willing to accept of Jesus Christ, the Savior, as he had now been presented to them," the sachems and old men scornfully and angrily answered, "No." 2


1 Winthrop's History, II: 155, 157-162; Ply. Col. Rec., IX: 10-12, 14, 15; Caulkins's Hist. of Norwich, 1874 edn., pp. 34-37.


2 De Forest's History of the Indians, p. 252.


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THE COLONIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD


An interesting incident of Hartford's Indian history occurred in 1675. In the autumn, the warehouse and barn of Major James Richards, on the south bank of the Little River, were destroyed by fire. The property had originally belonged to Governor Hopkins. The Indians were sus- pected of setting the fire.' In writing of the affair to Gover- nor Winthrop, Major Richards states that Massecup had been at his house shortly before the flames broke out.1 His letters also give us more interesting information. They tell us that Massecup was Miantinomo's son and a brother of the Narragansett sachem, who was Canonchet. The records state that Sequassen was allied to and an intimate confederate of Miantinomo.2 In 1670, Massecup [Masseec- kup] had been the first signer of the Indian deed to the English, for which reason a Hartford street now bears his name. It seems probable, therefore, that Miantinomo had made a marriage alliance with Sequassen's family, and that his son was, in 1670, the head of the tribe. As information had been received that the Indians were planning an attack on Hartford, and flankers near certain houses of the town had been ordered, this incident created great excitement.3 "The indian men were all commanded into the fchool- houfe and a guard fet," wrote Major Richards, "for the people were foe inraged that we had much a doe to keepe them from falling upon them." The Indians sent word to Canonchet of Massecup's captivity. Finally ten hostages were given as a pledge of their loyalty. Massecup was among them. One of the number escaped. The others were confined for some time in a house provided for the purpose, apparently Daniel Garrad's on the south side of Pearl Street.4 The authorities were convinced, later, of the Indians' loyalty, but Massecup's confinement continued. He was in the prison from 1677 to 1679.5 Many of these


1 Winthrop Papers in MS. collections of Mass. Hist. Soc.


2 Ply. Col. Rec., IX: 11. 3 Conn. Col. Rec., II: 267, 375. ' Ibid., II: 376-380.


" There is some satisfaction, under the circumstances, in the following items from John Talcott's Account Book, showing that this hostage received hospitable treatment: "To a trucking Cloath coat being 2 yards delivered to Mafecup," "Pair of britches for Mafecup in prifon," "To Mafecup pint liqrs," "More," "To Mafecup medifons in his sicknefs," "To one pt of Liqrs to Mafecup for gripings, 1d: mor pt 1d."


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Hartford Indians enlisted in King Philip's War and did good service. There were eight warriors under the command of Captain Nassehegan, who did scout duty. To the loyalty of the River Indians, the Colony owed much in those trouble- some times.


All authorities agree that the remnant of the Suckiaug tribe removed finally to Farmington. In 1725, there were living in the South Meadow, it is said, about thirty or forty natives who depended largely upon the charity of the inhab- itants. At Farmington they were absorbed in the Tunxis tribe. Nine Indians claiming rights in the Suckiaug land had signed the deed of 1670. One of these was Wawarme, "sister and only heir of Sequassen." Perhaps she was the mother of Massecup. Another was Currecombe, the later story of whose family can be followed in the history of the Christian Indians, who removed from the West Woods of Farmington to Brotherton, New York. Of the others we have no trace. It is probable that there is an Indian bury- ing-ground somewhere in the South Meadow, where many of the natives, who once lived there, sleep. So the race, whose wigwams were clustered underneath Hartford's elms, has disappeared and left its memorials to the white man.


CHAPTER VII


THE DUTCH AND THEIR HOUSE OF HOPE


ON the banks of the Little River, in the spring of 1636, two types of European civilization met, to contest their rights in the western world. One was the English colonist, with all the ideals of his Puritan faith, seeking a new home for himself and his children. The other was the Dutch trader, satisfied with the liberality that is bred in an adventurous life, a soldier of no mean fame and a clever merchant, seek- ing the profits of the wilderness. Whether it be credited to their virtues or faults, the fact is that these two were unfitted by their character and training to live together as good neighbors. One or the other must prevail. They met like two adverse currents of the sea. One was moving eastward from Manhattan, the other westward from Ply- mouth Rock. There could not but be a surge in the waters; and, this conflict, which is illustrated so clearly in our local history, was, in reality, the same that then engaged like elements elsewhere. It may seem to be insignificant in its issues and petty in its details, but underneath all was the vital question, whether the spirit and arms of England or Holland were, in the end, to control the destiny of the American colonies. That was not a matter that kings could settle. It was determined by the genius of colonization - that wonderful spirit which multiplies homes under adver- sities and makes the wilderness blossom like the rose. Puri- tan emigration soon overcame the advantages of early occu- pation by Dutch traders. Whatever may have been the right of their respective claims on the Connecticut River, this spirit of colonization animated the Puritan governor, when he told DeVries, the Dutch navigator, that "it was a sin to let such rich land, which produced such fine corn, lie uncultivated." These words were not offered as a justi- fication for any unlawful act. From the colonists' point


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of view, this was thought to be sufficient reason for insisting upon their rights of ownership. The author will attempt merely a recital of the facts involved in this controversy between the Dutch and the English, leaving the reader to exercise his judicial faculties, or to render a verdict, as most writers have done, according to his prejudices.


The discovery of the Connecticut River has been generally attributed by historians to Adriaen Block. In 1614, having completed his yacht, the Onrust [Restless], he set sail from Manhattan, to explore the bays and rivers to the eastward. He ascended the river as far as the falls. Because of the quality of its waters, he named it Versche Rivier [Fresh River], though it was called in the Indian tongue Quinni- tuk-ut [on long river]. The early settlers often spoke of it as the "Great River," in distinction from the stream that emptied into it, named the "Little River." To the west- ward at Manhattan, through the voyage of Henry Hudson in 1609, the Dutch had secured the rights of discovery and trade. Accordingly, on October 11, 1614, the States General had granted to the "Directors of New Netherland," for a period of three years, the right "exclusively to visit and navigate to the aforesaid newly-discovered lands lying in America, between New France and Virginia, the sea-coasts whereof extend from the fortieth to the forty-fifth degree of latitude, now named New Netherland." 1 This privilege expired by limitation and a renewal was refused.2 Occu- pation and exploration continued as before, until June 3, 1621, when the States General granted a patent to the West India Company, investing it with rights of govern- ment and trade between Newfoundland and the Straits of Magellan. No parallels of latitude were specified, but New Netherland was understood to be included. This company became effective in 1623, and for many years was the repre- sentative of Holland in the western world.


It is not known that any European visited the Connecti- cut River for nine years after its discovery.3 . Then the


1 Brodhead's History of New York, I: 63. 2 Ibid., I: 89, 90.


$ Brodhead erroneously located the scene of Jacob Eelkens' ill treatment of an Indian sachem, in 1622, on the Connecticut River near Wethersfield (Brodhead's History, I: 146, 152, 168). The original account, in Wassenaer's Historie, states that it happened at "Sickenames" (Doc. Hist. of N. Y., 8º edn. III: 45, 46). The


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West India Company began the location of fortified trading posts in New Netherland. Several ports were built, and it was afterwards claimed that in 1623 the Dutch took posses- sion of the Connecticut River, and began the erection of the House of Hope.1 This is very doubtful; but, if true, it was not a factor of any importance in the subsequent con - troversy. The Dutch traders did visit the coast as far east as Cape Cod, at intervals for years, and perhaps entered the Connecticut River.


In 1626, the Pilgrims of Plymouth began to trade. They soon established a southern port at Manomet, on Buzzard's Bay, twenty miles from their plantation, all the distance except a "carry" of five miles being a waterway. Here they located a trading house and built a pinnace.2 The following spring they were surprised to receive a friendly letter from Isaak de Rasières, Secretary of the Dutch government at Manhattan, the purport of which was an invitation to trade.3 In his reply, Governor Bradford, while reciprocating their good wishes, expressly cautioned the Dutch against trading within the territory granted by his Majesty the King of England to the Council for New England, which extended to the fortieth degree of latitude. To this the Dutch responded, maintaining their right to trade in those parts, which, they claimed, they had carried on for twenty-six years. The Plymouth governor could not be thus outdone, and replied that the English had begun to navigate and plant thereabouts in the time of Queen Elizabeth, "well nigh forty years ago as appeareth by her patents and royal grants." This correspondence of 1627 culminated in a visit from the Dutch secretary in the autumn, and at that time Governor Bradford urged upon the Dutch the necessity of clearing their title to plant in those parts, "lest it be a bone of division" between them.4


historian identified that name with "Sequin," but it was the Indian designation of Mystic River.(Mem. Ilist. of Hartford County, I: 13).


1 N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll., New Ser., II: 276 and note; Holland Documents, I: 290; Doc. Hist. of N. Y., 8° edn. III: 49, 50. Cf. Brodhead's Ilistory, I: 151 n., 153 n .; Winthrop's History, I: 135.


2 Bradford's History, p. 221. 3 Ibid., pp. 222, 223.


4 1 Ser. Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., III: 51 ff .; N. Y. Hist. Soc. Coll., New Ser., I: 362 ff.


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The English evidently considered that they had legal rights antedating those of the Dutch, and superior to theirs within certain parallels of latitude. Bradford, like other early historians, dated the discoveries of Englishmen from the voyages of the Cabots, and their occupation from the venture of Bartholomew Gosnold in 1602.1 King James I had by patent, in 1606, opened all the territory between the thirty-fourth and forty-fifth degrees north latitude to two companies, the southern being the London or Virginia Com- pany, and the northern the Plymouth Company. On November 3, 1620, seven months before the date of the West India Company's charter, he had reconstituted the latter, with extraordinary powers, as the Council for New England, including the territory between the fortieth and forty-eighth parallels. This was the parent corporation of all early grants. The Pilgrims, and other English settlers later, based their rights upon these facts, and they enter- tained no intention of abandoning them, however they might be involved in disputes with the Dutch at Manhattan or elsewhere.


The subsequent conduct of the Plymouth traders is evi- dence of this attitude. In the above intercourse with the Dutch, they had learned, as probably also from the Indians, of the existence and location of the Connecticut River. The former had commended it unto them, says Bradford, "for a fine place both for plantation and trade, and wished them to make use of it." They had, however, been other- wise engaged. Yet when they began their trading they accepted these proposals, though not in the way of coloniza- tion under the West India Company, which the Dutch had desired. The sequel should be given in their historian's own language: "And having now good store of comodities, and allso need to looke out wher they could advantage them selves to help them out of their great ingagments, they now begane to send that way to discover ye same, and trade with ye natives. They found it to be a fine place, but had no great store of trade; but ye Indeans excused ye same in regard of ye season, and the fear ye Indans were in of their enemise. So they tried diverce times, not with out profite,


1 Bradford's History, p. 77; Hutchinson's History, I: 1.


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but saw ye most certainty would be by keeping a house ther, to receive ye trad when it came down out of ye inland."1 This passage clearly refers to early ventures on the Con- necticut River, conducted, doubtless, by Edward Winslow, and the most natural interpretation is that these visits were made between 1627 and 1631.2 Brodhead, the Dutch historian, admits that Winslow made a voyage thither in 1632, and "pitched upon a place for a house." 3 The date was certainly before the settlement of the Dutch in 1633, for the Governor and magistrates of Massachusetts, when examining the matter in 1643, received from Winslow him- self the testimony that he had "discouered the said fresh Riuer when the Duch had neither trading house nor any pretence to a foot of land there," and the Commissioners of the United Colonies made this declaration ten years later.4 The Indians on the river, moved by the desire to secure English allies against their enemies, and finding that the Plymouth people were not "very forward to build ther," solicited the help of Massachusetts. That was the purpose of Wahginnacut's journey to Boston in 1631, in which he was disappointed. Then the Plymouth traders, in 1633, sought the partnership of Massachusetts in such a venture; but, failing to secure it, they determined to make a begin- ning themselves.5




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