USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Hartford > Colonial history of Hartford, Connecticut > Part 5
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THE PILGRIMAGE OF THOMAS HOOKER
fix rivers, or different parts of the fame winding river (the Chickapi) not every where fordable, which they could not avoid." 1
It will be evident to any one who compares these narra- tives, that Hutchinson added several details, which he doubt- less considered true, one of which was wholly false. That he said the company crossed the Chicopee river five or six times, was a natural error, as he evidently thought their route was as the "new way" ran, which was discovered in 1648 and used in his own time.2 But when he stated that there was "in most places no path, nor any marks to guide them," and that they journeyed "depending upon the compass to steer by," he wrote as one entirely ignorant of the early customs of travel in New England. The school- boy who knows the primeval forest, will hardly believe that this company of intelligent men, skilled in woodcraft, en- cumbered by burdens of goods and provisions, driving one hundred and sixty cattle, with sheep and swine and fowls, having in charge an invalid's litter and mothers with tod- dling children, took their journey through a pathless forest,
1 Hutchinson's History of Massachusetts Bay, I: 45.
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2 This "new way" went through Watertown and Waltham, diverged from the "old way" in Weston, led west through Wayland, across Sudbury marsh and river, through Sudbury, Marlborough, Worcester, Brookfield and Brimfield to the Qua- baug or Chicopee river, which it crossed "four or five times," passing through Palmer on the north side of the river, across it again to the south side, and on to Springfield. Nashaway planters petitioned for a way across Sudbury river in 1645 (Mass. Arch. CXXI: 5). In 1648, Winthrop wrote: "This year a new way was found out to Connecticut, by Nashoway, which avoided much of the hilly way" (Winthrop's History, II: 396). John Eliot probably discovered it, and in 1649 followed it to Quabaug (3 Ser. Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., IV: 123, 125). John Pres- cott, of Lancaster, worked on the eastern section two seasons (Mass. Arch., CXXI: 31). Farms were laid out along it in 1662 (Mass. Arch., XXXIII: 22; XLV: 107; Proprietary Rec. of Worcester, pp. 21, 23). The General Court ordered high- ways in the eastern section in 1653 (Mass. Col. Rec., III: 303). In 1673 the County Court, on Marlborough's petition, ordered a highway laid out westward to Qua- baug, which was done in 1674 (Middlesex County Court Records, 1671-1680, pp. 77, 101; Mass. Arch., CXXI: 92) In 1700 it was "the stated Rhode to Conet- ticot, especially Betwixt Wooster & Brookfield," but hazardous (Mass. Arch., CXXI: 101). On March 7, 1731-2 the Hampshire County Court ordered it laid out as a highway from Springfield to Brookfield, and the layout was reported May 16, 1732 (Hampshire County Court Records, II: 143, 149, 165). It was the main road to Boston from Springfield until recent times. Gov. Hutchinson's uncle, Edward, owned a tract of land on the Quabaug river, and he probably knew the road (Mass. Acts and Resolves, XI: 423, 727; XXII: 252).
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THE COLONIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD
"depending upon the compass to steer by," especially as they did not then know the course to Hartford. It would have been a foolhardy undertaking, quite impossible of accomplishment. Only imagine Thomas Bull, with "six cows, four steers and a bull," endeavoring to find a course for his charge, west southwest, up hill and down dale, around fallen trees and through tangled undergrowth, halted abruptly by a fordless river and running head on into an impenetrable swamp! Does any one suppose that Goody Grundy could have steered her pigs, by a compass, to Hartford in a fortnight? That instrument was sometimes used to show the right path where they diverged, or the traveller was lost, but rarely, except by surveyors, to navi- gate the New England forests. The herd followed one another, as they would soon learn to do, in a beaten path. It had been trodden that season by several other com- panies with cattle. Along such a way it would have been comparatively easy for a horse litter to travel, nor would a litter have been altogether uncomfortable.1 There were landmarks, too, some of them known to this day. Indian villages were located here and there, providing food and shelter in need, as many an early pilgrim to Connecticut had reason to know. In Hooker's company, there were doubtless a half dozen or more men, who had made the journey several times. There were friendly Indians to guide the party, if necessary. Hutchinson was justified, however, in the purpose that led him astray - the lauda- tion of the heroic features of this pilgrimage. It was an arduous journey. Their path led them over "high moun- tains" and through "hideous swamps." It was long and rough, the travelling of which, even now, augments our respect for the physical endurance of those pilgrims, who followed it so long ago.
In order to appreciate the experiences of Thomas Hooker's company we must imagine ourselves to be living in the conditions of his time. There were then few country roads
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1 A horse litter was framed of "two long ash poles, with slats fastened across the middle, the forward ends attached to the horse's saddle-girths, and the hind ends dragging on the ground or fastened to the girths of another horse." Daniels's Hist. of Oxford, p. 81.
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in the Bay Colony, and those connected settled commu- nities. The only overland ways to distant regions were by Indian paths. Most of these had long been used by the natives. In some places, they were worn deep in the earth. Such paths offered the white man great advantages. They were not only a sure guide to his destination, but they also followed the higher land, keeping clear of swamps, where it was possible, and leading to fordways across the rivers. Along these paths, the Indians brought news of distant localities, desirable for settlement. At first, a few daring adventurers followed them into the wilderness to explore. Then, white families, singly or in small parties, pushed out toward the frontier, and built in some favorable place their log cabins. As their settlement grew, the path was widened. It soon became a road, along which civilization went and came. The story of its development is told by the very names applied to it. First, it was a mere "trail"; then, an Indian "path"; by and by, the "country road" of the pioneers, and, at last, the "highway" of a settled township. It was the custom to locate early grants of land along these Indian paths, the tract being bounded, frequently, by the path on one side. To this fact, we owe most of our knowl- edge of their course. Some of them have been accurately determined, and the ancient path or road, which would otherwise have escaped observation, has been discovered.
The Indian path to the Connecticut River, in 1636, was familiar to the English. There cannot be any doubt that along it Thomas Hooker's company made their journey. Wahginnacut, "a sagamore upon the River Quonehtacut," sachem at East Windsor, probably followed it when he visited Boston, in 1631. He informed Governor Winthrop that it was "not above five days' journey by land" to his country.1 Along this path, John Oldham went and came several times. In 1633, he and "three with him went over- land to Connecticut to trade." 2 "He lodged at Indian towns all the way." His route is identified, in part, by that fact, and the statement that he brought back some speci-
1 Winthrop's History, I: 62; De Forest's History of the Indians of Connecticut, p. 73.
2 Winthrop's History, I: 132.
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THE COLONIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD
mens of black lead, "whereof, the Indians told him, there was a whole rock." This could have been none other than Leadmine Hill, in Sturbridge. The General Court, in 1644, made a grant to John Winthrop, Jr. of "ye hill at Tantousq, about 60 miles west ward, in which the black lead is." 1 On his journey the following year, when he intended to go to Mohegan "by the way of Tantiusques, to the black lead mine," he missed his way, and found that he was "going in a direct course towards Agawam." 2 His descendants doubtless regretted the grant, as they buried a deal of money there, mining black lead.
In 1642, Nathaniel Woodward and Solomon Saffery, surveyors, in their work of establishing the southern bound- ary of the Massachusetts patent, made a map on which their route to Connecticut is indicated by a line. This shows their general course, and at several points, they recorded data as to their location. These coincide with the conclu- sions of antiquaries, sufficiently to prove that these sur- veyors travelled along this familiar path, and that it passed certain identified landmarks.3 The course of these surveyors led them to the earliest crossing of the Connecticut River, at Bissell's old ferry, in Windsor.
This ancient Indian path received, in early times, two names. One was given to it by the English, on Connecti- cut River. It was the "Bay Path." The inhabitants of Springfield, in 1646, voted to give liberty "to gather candle- wood in ye playne in ye Bay path." In 1647, they ordered "a Horse way over the meddow to ye Bay path." The other name was the more natural designation of the English about Boston. It was the "Connecticut Path." After
the "new way" was discovered, the former was sometimes distinguished as the "Old Bay Path," or "Old Connecticut Path." In 1674, Major Daniel Gookin described Hassa- nemesit [Grafton] as lying "about two miles to the east-
1 Mass. Col. Rec., II: 82; Proc. Am. Antiq. Soc., New Ser., XIV: 471 ff.
2 2 Ser. Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc., VIII: 7-12; The Hartford Courant, Dec. 22, 1892.
3 "Woodward's and Saffery's Map of 1642"- Mass. Archives. Published in Ammidown's Hist. Coll., I: 294; and Bowen's Boundary Disputes of Conn., p. 19. See "Interpretation of Woodward's and Saffery's Map," by Levi B. Chase, of Sturbridge, in N. E. Hist. and Gen. Reg., April, 1901; and Quinabaug Hist. Soc. Leaflets, Vol. I., No. 7.
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THE PILGRIMAGE OF THOMAS HOOKER
ward of Nipmuck [Blackstone] river and near unto the old road way to Connecticut." Confusion has arisen from the indiscriminate application of these names to all of the three main routes, of later years, between Boston and Connecticut towns.1 In 1636, the path that Thomas Hooker's company followed was the only one used by the English, and so continued for a dozen years. It was the "ordinary way" that Ludlow and Pynchon took to Boston in 1637, when Hooker and Stone went by the way of Providence, along the "Pequot Path" from the Connecticut River. There was no better authority on this subject in early times, than Rev. John Eliot, the "Apostle to the Indians." In 1650, he wrote of Springfield as follows: "And this towne ouerland from the Bay layeth: 80: or: 90: myles South- west, and is the roade way to all the townes upon this river, and [that] lye more Southward." 2 It is with this "Old Bay Path" that the journeys of the founders of Hartford must be associated, and when we consider that a dozen or more parties had already travelled it, we realize the ab- surdity of supposing that Thomas Hooker's company would attempt to follow an untrodden course through the forest.
1 The third route, via Woodstock, inherited the name "Connecticut Path." It was not an early through route, but was developed for such travel, partly out of sections of older paths, and became the main road from Hartford to Boston. Men- don was laid out on both sides of the Nipmuck path. Such a direct route was possibly in mind, in 1644, when the Commissioners of the United Colonies ap- pointed Edward Hopkins "to fynd & lay out the best way to the Bay," but the "new way," via Brookfield, being soon afterwards discovered, the purpose was not accomplished. (Ply. Col. Rec., IX: 25; X: 108; Mass. Arch., CXXI: 31). Ephraim Curtis, in 1675, conducted Uncas on his way to Mohegan through Natick, Marlborough, Hassanemesit [Grafton], Manshage [Oxford], Mayenecket [Dudley] and across the Quinabaug river to Senexit Meadow in Woodstock (Mass. Arch., LXVII: 214). The settlement of Wabbaquasset, designed in 1682, made a road thither necessary, and apparently suggested "a better & nearer way" to Connec- ticut, which the General Court, March 30, 1683, empowered Major Pynchon to "lay out and mark" (Mass. Col. Rec., V: 394; Mass. Arch. CXXI: 61). On its part, Connecticut took similar action for a road to the uplands, and in 1705, there was such a road from Woodstock to Hartford in general use, as shown by Chand- ler's map (Mohegan Case, p. 49). It passed through Ashford and entered the Connecticut valley through Bolton Notch. Judge Samuel Sewall came that way to Hartford, in 1718 (5 Ser. Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., VII: 195). In 1724, the Con- necticut General Assembly ordered a highway "laid out and markt" on the most convenient ground and straightest course from Hartford towards Boston" (Conn. Col. Rec. VI: 506). This was thereafter and until recent times the "Old Connecti- cut Road."
2 2 Ser. Proc. Mass. Hist. Soc., II: 49; Green's Hist. of Springfield, p. 4.
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THE COLONIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD
We purpose now to attend Hooker's company on their pilgrimage from their Newtown home to Hartford. At last, their appointed day of departure arrived. All were ready. We may think of them as gathered at the sunrise hour on the north bank of the Charles River, where their pathway began. Perhaps the conch shell blew a signal, or some hardy guide fired his trusty rifle into the air: but, if we may judge them by their tearful farewells to old Eng- land, or their practice only a year later, when their pastor gave them his blessing, as their bravest warriors pushed their shallops out into the current of the Connecticut, the excitement of departure was hushed, and they stood with bowed heads, as their reverend leader commended them to the direction of Jehovah, who had guided a trusting Israel through the wilderness.
It was a long and straggling procession that took the road westward, through Watertown. Some stalwart pioneer on horseback led the way, and guides with him made up the vanguard. Perhaps the cattle and flocks came next, driven by herders, Thomas Bull very likely in command. Then, in families or groups, as they chose, they followed one another - chivalrous husbands helping their mates, children in laughing parties, the lady's horse litter attended by her maids, their pastor with staff and pack, the elders in his company, and, in the rear, the lingering young men, who plucked many a flower by the wayside, to gladden loving eyes. We can see them now, and hear the music of the cow-bells and cheer of their voices, as they move along arrayed in their homespun of simple Puritan fashion - as noble a company as were ever guided by the star of empire.
Of their Watertown neighbors, some had gone before. There would be messages committed to the pilgrims, to carry to friends at Wethersfield. The road for some miles was "the way into the country" that many of them knew. Here and there farms had been already granted. By and by, the log cabins were few, as they passed out of inhabited bounds into the wilderness. If the company journeyed about ten miles a day, as Mather suggests, it was somewhere near the western border of Waltham that the guides halted beside some spring or brook, and began to prepare their
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THE PILGRIMAGE OF THOMAS HOOKER
camp. The cattle were gathered in some natural enclosure, and the herders began their milking. Then the parties arrived, one by one, weary, footsore and hungry, and made ready the sylvan chamber of their choice. Out of the kettle that hung over the blazing camp-fire, they received into great porringers of milk their "corn meal mush," which must have been their staple fare; and all were satisfied. Then, as the shadows of the forest enshrouded them, their pastor lifted his voice in grateful prayer, the watch was set, their laughter subsided into whispers - it was night and the pilgrims slept. Thus the days and nights followed one another with their favors.
The Connecticut Path, avoiding the lowlands along Sudbury River, led through Weston, Wayland and Framing- ham, passing north of Cochituate Pond. Then it turned southward through the present borders of South Framing- ham, Ashland, Hopkinton and Westborough to Grafton.1 Here was Hassanemesit, an Indian village of Eliot fame. In early times, it was a favorite lodging-place. Governor John Winthrop, Jr., spent the night there in 1645. Two or three miles further the path crossed "Nipnet" or Blackstone River, one of the points that Woodward and Saffery marked on their map. Following on through the present town of Millbury, north of Singletary Pond, it entered the bounds of Oxford, turning to the westward at the Center, and going through Charlton, where its ancient name was the "Quabaug Path." 2
1 Hudson's Hist. of Sudbury, pp. 5-7; Temple's Hist. of Framingham, pp. 80-82, 87, 89; Daniels's Hist. of Oxford, p. 9; Benedict's Hist. of Sutton, pp. 18, 21, 22. Another way led through Newton, diverging from the Dedham road, crossing the Charles River at the Upper Falls and passing through Needham and Natick to Grafton, where it joined the Connecticut Path. The surveyors of 1642 seem to have gone that way. It was nearer for the Dorchester emigrants. It was "the moft convenient paffage toward Conecticute," says a Dedham petition, "for all ye Plantations beyond Neponfit." It was thought about 1652 that "it will prove the beft way from Boston to Nafhaway & other plantations to be erected in those parts as alfo for the Southerne plantations Northward" (Mass. Arch., CXXI: 26, 226, 231). The later use of this path was increased by Eliot's Indian village at Natick.
2 Along this section for some miles, stone markers have been set by the Quina- baug Historical Society, where Mr. Levi B. Chase of Sturbridge has discovered the path by the means of land records. These markers are inscribed "Bay Path 1633." On certain hillsides and at fordways, the old road is distinctly visible. See Chase's
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THE COLONIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD
Along this path Thomas Hooker's company journeyed, day after day, until the Sabbath offered them a much needed rest. No place on their route seems more likely, in a computation of their progress, or more pleasing to the imagination, as their forest sanctuary, than the western slope of Fisk Hill in Sturbridge. Hither their path cer- tainly led, and here tradition locates an ancient camping place. It may be fitly named "the shadow of a great rock in a weary land," for two fragments of an immense boulder, five feet high, were probably in early times the side walls of the traveller's hut. On a rise of ground, there once stood a wide-spreading tree. Not far away, is a never-failing spring. An Indian path diverging here to the southward, led through Woodstock to Mohegan. In the near view to the southwest, is Leadmine Hill, for this is Tantiusque, the ancient Indian gateway to the west. Here, also, in 1715, Governor Gurdon Saltonstall located the corner of his grant of two thousand acres, running his lines to take in all the best land of this beautiful valley. Far away on the horizon, is Steerage Rock, which the pilgrim company must pass as they descend to the Quabaug River, which leads them on to Springfield. To the northward, is the "Hilly Country," which this path has turned southward to avoid. It was so named on the surveyors' map in 1642. On that Sabbath in 1636, the view on all sides was draped in many tints of summer green, and, underneath the cathedral arches of the forest, perhaps with friendly Indian attendants from nearby villages, this Puritan company worshipped, with prayer and praise, their Jehovah who had led them hitherto.
The path leads on down the slope westward, over the brook, along the foot of Cemetery Hill, across "Old Tan- tiusque Fordway" and up the valley through Fiskdale. It passes the southeast corner of John Eliot's grant of four thousand acres, called "Potepog." Here he proposed to establish another Natiek of "Praying Indians." Their prayers were interrupted by King Philip's War, but that did not invalidate the apostle's title to the land. Along this section of the way, there were once many Indian vil-
"Early Indian Trails through Tantiusque," etc., in Quinabaug Historical Society Leaflets, Vol. I, No. 6 and No. 7.
,
AN EARLY CAMPING PLACE ON THE BAY PATH FISK HILL, STURBRIDGE, MASS.
THE COUNTRY ROAD AT NAMERICK BROOK USED BEFORE 1662
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THE PILGRIMAGE OF THOMAS HOOKER
lages. The path passed north of Little Alum Pond, where the records fix it, on to "Little Rest," and north of Sherman Pond. Here was that famous Indian stronghold, known as "Quabaug Old Fort." As the path passes north of Steerage Rock and descends the slope, the Quabaug or Chicopee River is seen, winding its way through the valley westward. Here the "old road" has been traced by land grants, and the site of Richard Fellows's tavern, established in 1657 as "a house for travellers," has been marked. We can imagine the Newtown pilgrims, inured to travel and hardship, hastening onward with reviving spirits, as they drew near to Agawam. They scented with delight the aroma of the trees, as they passed over the "Pine Plains" which the sur- veyors of 1642 noted, and ere long they reached the sum- mit of the hill where the path broke from the forest's shade into the plantation's clearing. Thus the glories of the Connecticut valley, of which they had so often dreamed, burst upon their view, and they were among their friends of Roxbury.
The portion of Hooker's route, that is of greatest interest to his company's descendants, is that from Springfield to Hartford. Here there can be no doubt as to the location of the Bay Path. It passed through the usual stages of development, from an Indian trail to the "country road," and finally to a highway.1 At the upper end of Long- meadow where the shoulder of the hill is only a short distance from the river, was "Longmeadow Gate." Through this the path led southward. It was sometimes called "Long- meadow Path." In 1682, the road to Freshwater River was laid out on the upland and the old road through the meadow was abandoned. The railroad now runs about where the old path or road was, north of Longmeadow sta- tion. South of this the railroad diverges to the west, and traces of the old road can be seen on the east. In 1664, the County Court appointed a committee to consider the lay-out of this old road as a highway. The record of their action specifies the route as follows:
"From ye lower end of Springfield to long Meddow gate, running where it now doth, in breadth ffour rods, & from 1 The Bay Path, by Dr. J. G. Holland, pp. 401, 406, 407.
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THE COLONIAL HISTORY OF HARTFORD
ye long Meddow gate to the bridge ye lower end of by the Rivers bank shal be in breadth two rods, & from ye lower end of the Said Meddow into fresh water River, soe called, as the way now runs, ffourr rodds, & from thence to Nam- erick, where John Bissell had a barn standing, as now ye way runs twenty rods, & from thence to Namerick brook where will best suite for a bridge, two rodds, & from thence to ye dividing lyne betweene the Collonyes, where ye horse way now lyes, two rodds." 1
The latter part of this lay-out refers to the road within the present bounds of Connecticut. At Namerick Brook, the records and topography afford the best opportunity to locate the way, into which the Bay Path was soon developed by the early use of settlers' carts. It is most convenient to trace it northward from Windsor, for so the records run, and in that town the path was made a highway within six years of the time Thomas Hooker travelled it. An extant leaf of Windsor's original town votes has the following record, dated February 21, 1641[-2]:
"Its ordered that the way betwixt Henry Styles & James Eggleftons there homelotts downe to the greate riuer, fhall be allow[ed] for a publicke highway for horfe & droue[?] to Agawam & the Bay, and from thence [southward] to the bridge & foe by the head of Plimouth meade downe to Harteford." 2
This road turned eastward from the present highway, about sixty rods north of the Ellsworth homestead. It was evidently laid out where the original path had been, leading down to John Bissell's "old ferry." On Woodward's and Saffery's map is the note: "Crossing Conecticott river at Windsor fery place, the house of John Bissell being on the west side and the Widow Gibbs hir house on the east side of the river." In 1662, Mathew Grant, after an examina- tion of the town records, gave a rather minute description of this "country road" in the book of Town Ways of Wind- sor. The ferry landed on the east side between the land of Abraham Randall and Catharine Gibbs. The further
1 Burt's History of Springfield, I: 141.
2 Windsor Town Votes, Ms. in collections of the Connecticut Historical Society. The same lay-out is found in Windsor's old book of Town Ways, pp. 14, 20.
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