USA > Connecticut > New London County > Montville > History of Montville, Connecticut, formerly the North parish of New London from 1640 to 1896 > Part 6
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47
Sons of Jos. Johnson deceased by Anna his wife, daughter of Sampson Occom, cast off for in- continency since a widow
Jacob Hoscott
60
HISTORY OF MONTVILLE.
Ann, his wife
Saml, about 15
Isaiah, about 9
Children of said Jacob and Ann
Jacob, about 5 Josiah, about 1 Saml Johnson, in ye army -
Children of Will Johnson Patience Johnson
Betty George, widow
Rachel Bobin, widow
Ann Bobin, alias Occom
Aaron Occon, son of said Ann
Abigail Cooper, widow of Daniel
Samuel Cooper Betty, his wife Mary, about 23
Joshua, about 18
Elisha, about 16
Children of Samuel Cooper and wife
Jonah, about 11
Lucy, about 8
Lucretia, about 5
John Cooper Esther, his wife
Jacob Cooper
John Cooper Sons of said John
Hannah, wife of ye last said John
David Cooper, child of ye last John, about 12 Mos. old Solomon Cooper
Mary, his wife Sally, about 11
Hannah, about 7 Children of said Solomon
Abram, about 5
Hannah Cooper, old widow
Betty Pequin, widow
Lucy Wequot, old widow
Lucy Cooper, widow of Sam Jr.
Amy, about 4, child of said Lucy
Hannah Shantop, old widow
61
HISTORY OF MONTVILLE.
Hannah, her daughter Jos. Shantop Hannah, his wife Martha, about 16 Joseph, about 13 Joshua, about 11 Henry, about 8 Moses, about 6 Lucy, about 3
Children of said Joseph and Hannah
Dan, about 2 mos.
Rebecca Tanner, widow, lost her 5 sons in ye army
Sarah Ephraim, widow
Henry Quaquaquid
Lucy, his wife Samuel Ashpo, lost his 3 sons in ye army Hannah, his wife
Joshua Ashpo, son of Samuel Jr. deceased about 9
John Ashpo, son of Samuel
Ann, his wife
Moses, son of said John and Ann, about 2
Lydia Ashpo )
Dolly Ashpo S Children of John, deceased
Robert Ashpo Betty, his wife
Hannah, about 13 )
Children of said Robert and Betty
Joel, about 11 Joseph Ashpo Jenny, his wife
Lucy Mercy Children of said Joseph and Jenny Andrew
Betty Silas, widow
Lydia Joquibe, old widow Mary Jowon, old widow
Eliphalet Jowon Esther, his wife
62
HISTORY OF MONTVILLE.
Jonas, about 18 Eliphalet, about 12
Jacob, about 8
Children of Eliphalet and Esther
Hezekiah, about 4
Hannah Nannapoon, old widow
The foregoing list made with the greatest percision we could obtain, By
Joseph Spencer
August, 1782. William Williams Nath'l Wales
- Committee "
In 1783 the overseers were empowered to divide all the unrented lands among the different families, and to forbid any stranger from settling upon the reservation without their consent. An order was also given that the old councilor, Zachery Johnson, and his wife, should be supplied as long as they lived with necessaries and comforts out of the avails of the lands. It was not until 1790 that the lands were by order of the legislature of the State of Connecticut sur- veved and divided to each family, at which time a map was made, and each member of the tribe had his or her tract located and set off to them by " metes and Bounds." After the division of the land, many of the Indians were too indolent to make much use of their farms, and very little of the land was cultivated, except by the white tenants, until within the past twenty-five or thirty years. Old Zachery, the Regent of the Mohegans, as he was sometimes called, died about 1787, and by some was said to be one hundred years old, and by others only about eighty years. It is probable he did not know his own age.
During the revolution many of the Mohegans enlisted in the army of the Colonies, and seventeen or eighteen of them died in the service or were killed in battle, leaving several widows, some with young children. In May, 1789, some of the Mohegans presented to the legislature a remarkable memorial which should be preserved as a relic of history, and serves to show the condition of the tribe at the time of the in-
63
HISTORY OF MONTVILLE.
corporation of this town of Montville, so far as those who drew the paper were able to understand it. It is styled " A Memo- rial of the Mohegans by the hands of their brothers, Henry Quaquaquid and Robert Ashpo."
" We beg leave to lay our concerns and burdens at your excellencies feet. The times are exceedingly altered, vea, the times are upside down, or rather we have changed the good times chiefly by the help of the white people. For in times past our forefathers lived in peace, love, and great plenty. When they wanted meat, they would just run into the bush a little way, with their weapons, and would soon return, bring- ing home good venison, raccoon, bear, and fowl. If they chose to have fish, they would go to the river, or along the seashore, and they would presently fill their canoes with a variety of fish, both scaled and shell fish. And they had abundance of nuts, wild fruits, ground nuts, and ground beans, and they planted but little corn and beans. They had no contention about their lands for they lay in common, and they had but one large dish, and could all eat together in peace and love.
" But, alas ! It is not so now; all our hunting and fowl- ing and fishing is entirely gone, and we have begun to work our lands, keep horses and cattle and hogs, and we build houses and fence in lots. And now we plainly see that one dish and one fire will not do any longer for us. Some few there are that are stronger than others, and they will keep off the poor, weak, the halt and blind, and will take the dish to themselves. Yea, they will rather call the white people and the mulattoes to eat out of our dish, and poor widows and orphans must be pushed aside, and there we must sit, crying and starving, and die. And so we are now come to our good brethren of the Assembly, with hearts full of sorrow and grief, for immediate help. And therefore our most humble and earnest request is, that our dish of suckutash may be equally divided amongst us, that every one may have his own little dish by himself,
64
HISTORY OF MONTVILLE.
that he may eat quietly, and do with his dish as he pleases, that every one may have his own fire."
A committee appointed to consider this curious and orig- inal memorial reported that the condition of affairs in Mohe- gan were in such order as to render further interference at that time unnecessary. In 1790, the time of the division of the Mohegan land, the tribe held about twenty-seven hundred acres of land, and numbered about one hundred and forty mem- bers. The only religious instructor among them at this time was one of their own members. John Cooper. He was con- sidered by them to be the richest man of the Mohegans, being the possessor of two cows and a yoke of oxen. Two bearing the name of Uncas, John and Noah, were still living about 1800. A son of John, named Ben Uneas, was living about 1835; he lived at one time with Charles Hill. In the first part of the nineteenth century the members of the tribe would occasionally meet in council and discuss their affairs. After about 1800 little worthy of record took place for more than a quarter of a century. Small sales of land were occasionally authorized by the General Assembly, the whites being the purchasers of all such sales. Their territory continued slowly to contract until about 1860, when their land was re-surveyed and distributed among the several members of the tribe. agree- able to an act of the General Assembly passed at its May ses- sion of that year. The governor, William A. Buckingham, appointed Samuel Hehard, T. H. C. Kingsbury, and Henry P. Haven, commissioners to make the survey and re-distribu- tion. The Fort Hill farm, so called, was still held as tribe property, and was subsequently sold by the direction of the commissioners at public sale to Theodore Raymond of Nor- wich, and the ayails distributed among the living members of the tribe. At the time of the re-distribution of their land in 1860, only forty persons belonged to the tribe that were living to whom distribution was made, several of whom have since died, and their heirs now hold their possessions. Esther Cooper, who was a descendant in the fourth or fifth genera-
65
HISTORY OF MONTVILLE.
tion from the first Uncas, died on the 30th day of December, 1852, aged 79 years. Martha Uncas, who was also a descend- ant, died on the Sth day of October, 1859, aged 95 years. Most of the persons now living who are members of the tribe are of mixed blood, but claim the title to the land through their mothers and allowed to share in the distribution. The old Samson Oceum house has been taken down, and nothing remains of it, but up to abont 1880 it was occupied and owned by the descendants of the preacher, Jerome B. and Sally Bo- hemia. The religious interest of the tribe had become wholly neglected when about the year 1827 Miss Sarah L. Hunting- ton of Norwich, afterwards the wife of Rev. Eli Smith of the American Syrian Mission, became deeply interested in the moral and intellectual condition of this then forlorn remnant of such an historic race. She put forth her hands to raise them from their depth of ignorance and degradation. This interest was shared by other females of similar spirit, Miss Sarah Breed of Norwich, afterwards the wife of President Allen of Bowdoin College, and Miss Elizabeth Raymond of Montville. From the untiring efforts of these Christian wo- men, the Mohegans were lifted up and started again with greater success on the road leading to a higher state of morality and intelligence. A daily school was established in the farm- house on the Fort Hill farm, which Miss Huntington and Miss Raymond taught by alternate weeks, both remaining at Mo- hegan on the Sabbath, and assisted each other in conducting the religious exercises of the day. These daily instructions continued until a chapel was secured, a religious teacher en- gaged, and a schoolhouse built. The Indians themselves manifested much enthusiasm in the means employed for the improvement of their condition.
The practical results of the labors of these Christian wo- men here in the formation of a church and an ecclesiastical society, the erection of a church edifice, schoolhouse, and par- sonage, are subjects which will be further considered in another chapter of this history.
5
66
HISTORY OF MONTVILLE.
SASSACUS.
" Shall no memorial in the land Remain of Sassacus? Like sand Beat by the sea, shall every trace Of the Great Spirit of lis race Be swept away?
" Once on yon mount* the Pequot stood And gazed o'er all the world of wood, Eyed the blue sound, and scanned the bays, Distinct in evening's mellow rays; Like a green map lay all below, With glittering veins where rivers flow, The distance stretched in haze away, As from his mount by Mystic bay, Whence, as the calumet went round, His eyes could measure all the sound; Or, in the boundless ocean, find Delight for his untutored mind. East ward he turns his glistening eye, There where his throne, his people lie, Lie prostrate - subjects, children, power, All, all extinguished in an hour.
" The heart-wrung savage turned aside, But no tear stained a Pequot's pride; The dark hand spread upou his breast, Only the wampum grasped and pressed. He turned - he stopped - took one last view, And then, like Regulus, withdrew. These mountains, rivers, woods, and plain, Ne'er saw the Pequot King again; Far in the region of the West The Mohawk sent him to his rest.
(JAMES ABRAHAM) ' Hillhouse.'"
The Rev. Sampson Occum of the Mohegan nation was born a pagan. In 1741, when about 18, he became a Chris- tian, and soon after applied to the Rev. Mr. Wheelock, who willingly received him as a pupil at the Indian Charity School in Lebanon, where he remained about three years.
He afterwards studied theology, was licensed by the As- sociation of Windham County, and in 1759 was ordained by the Suffolk Presbytery at Long Island, and placed over the Indians at Montauk.
* Groton Heights.
ccom.
0
amson
House
-
١٠ ٠,٠٠٧٨٨
-
-
ـعيب
67
HISTORY OF MONTVILLE.
In 1761 he left Long Island, and went as a missionary to the Oneidas, laboring there about five years with considerable success. He then left the mission for a season, and with Rev. Nathaniel Whitaker, pastor of the Second Church in Norwich, made a voyage to England, to solicit funds for the Indian school. They were highly recommended by many of the most respectable persons in America, and were cordially re- ceived. Mr. Occum, being the first Indian minister who had been welcomed to England, attracted great attention in the principal cities of England and Scotland, and preached with great acceptance to numerous audiences of different denomi- nations.
The enterprise met with great favor from the Rev. Mr. Whitfield, who had visited the school at Lebanon. He showed great kindness to Mr. Occum, invited him to his pulpit, and in- troduced him to a distinguished individual, whom he styled " the Daniel of the age, the truly noble Lord Dartmouth."
At the solicitation of the Earl of Dartmouth, the King made a donation of about $1,000, and in a short time there was collected in England and Scotland about $50,000 for the support and enlargement of the Indian school.
The success of the mission was in a great measure attrib- uted to Mr. Occum. The funds thus collected were em- ployed in founding Dartmouth College, called after the name of the Earl of Dartmouth.
Several Indians, educated as teachers, were sent from this school to the Oneidas, among whom we find the names of David Fowler, a Montauk; Joseph Woolley and Hezekiah Calvin, Delawares; Moses Peters, Johannas Abraham, primus, and Abraham, 2d, Mohawks; and Jacob Fowler a Montauk. Brandt was also a pupil.
On his return from Europe, Mr. Occum resumed his mis- sionary labors, and with a portion of the Mohegans under his care he removed from the vicinity of Mohegan to the Oneida country, where he settled at a place called Brothertown, and where he died in July, 1792, aged about 69 years.
68
HISTORY OF MONTVILLE.
The father of Samson Oceum was a Mohegan, and his mother was a Groton Indian. Her name was Sarah, and who is said to have been a descendant of Uncas, which may have been true. She was probably of the Samson family, which led her to so name her son. Samson Occum, at the age of 18 years, married Mary Fowler, whose parents belonged to the Montauk tribe on Long Island. David and Jacob Fowler were her brothers: the former was born in 1735 and the latter was probably younger. Joseph Johnson, another vonng Mohegan. who married Oceum's daughter. Tabitha, was also a religious teacher, and with the others previously named, became the projectors of the removal to Brothertown and thereby carried the gospel and civilization to the Oneida Indians of New York.
During the Revolutionary War, Occum, the Fowlers, and Joseph Johnson were the Indian heroes of New England. The first emigration of the Mohegans to the lands given by the Oneidas for a settlement was in 1784, although some few families had gone there earlier. The emigrants who started for the Oneida country on May 8, 1784, included twenty families, and among them were Jacob Fowler and Occi's son-in-law, Anthony Paul. Occum himself con- ceived the plan to remove to New York and establish in the Oneida country a town governed after the Connecticut model, the townsmen wholly Indians, given to agriculture, who would be a means of Christianizing and civilizing the savages about them. Arrangements were made by which the Oneidas were to give them lands ten miles square. On the 8th of July, 1774. Samson Occum and David Fowler received the lands, settled the boundaries, and took a deed of gift. The Revolu- tionary War began about this time, and prevented an im- mediate carrying out of their plan, and it was not until about ten years after that the general move was made.
David Fowler built the first house in the township. On the 7th day of November, 1785, Oceum's company met at the house of David Fowler to organize a government. The
69
HISTORY OF MONTVILLE.
town was named Brothertown. Jacob Fowler was chosen clerk. Roger Wanby, David Fowler, Elijah Wampy, John Fuhy, and Abraham Simon were chosen trustees for a year, a new board to be chosen annually. This was the beginning of a township formed by the members of the Mohegan tribe and other tribes from Connecticut and Long Island, which con- tinued for many years. The white settlers, however, began encroachments upon their lands, treaties formed by which certain portions of their lands were given up, until at last the whole was absorbed by the whites, and the Indians removed to a place in Wisconsin, which they called Brothertown, after the name of the town where the first settlement was made, in the State of New York, and where some of the Mohegan de- scendants still reside.
CHAPTER III.
The town of Montville is situated on the west side of the Thames river, about half way between the cities of New Lon- don and Norwich. Its present area is about forty square miles, and contains twenty-five thousand acres. It was for- merly a part of the township of New London, and called the North Parish of New London. Its early history is indis- solubly connected with that of New London and Norwich, and other towns adjoining. Within the boundaries of this town was the central seat of the famous tribe of Indians called the Mohegans, whose history has been closely identified with that of the State of Connecticut. Uncas, the Grand Sachem of the tribe, being a friend to the English, received at their hands protection from his enemies, and often when in extreme peril from the hostile advancements made upon him by other tribes, the English rendered him timely assistance. Uncas was always generous to those who befriended him and his warriors, and easily persuaded to confer liberal gifts of his lands as a remuneration for friendship.
This tract of land now constituting the town of Mont- ville was, at the earliest notice of its history, in the possession of the Pequots, of which tribe the Mohegans were a frag- ment, and occupied by them as their planting and hunting grounds. A remnant of the Mohegans still continue to pos- sess and improve a portion of the land sequestered to them by the early English settlers, not, however, as wards under the guardianship of the state, but as actual owners of the soil with the privilege of citizens of the state and of the United States. Their advance in civilization and morals had been identical with that of the growth and prosperity of the town; the Indian having exchanged his lands for civilization and Christianity.
71
HISTORY OF MONTVILLE.
It is not strange that a place possessed of such natural advan- tages, when once known to the English, should have been highly prized by them, or that when obtained from the native owners it should be quickly settled, or, since its settlement, it should have grown and prospered so extensively. It has never known any serious decline, either in numbers or prop- erty, and though at times laboring under disadvantages from various sources, it has generally been upon the advance. The spirit of enterprise, it is true, has shifted from one part of the town to another, and from one source of industry to another, but it has never left its precincts or ceased to ad- vance. Many individuals whose names are inscribed upon the rolls of fame and honor have emanated from this com- munity. The records, both of church and state, contain many an honored name whose possessor had his or her origin on this soil. The names of Hillhouse, Raymond, Chester, Otis, and many others, are such as the historian has delighted to honor. In the year 1646, John Winthrop, Jr., and some others from Boston, Massachusetts, commenced to lay out and settle a plantation in the Pequot country, which was afterwards called New London. Winthrop, before laying out the plantation, called all the neighboring Indians together in order to ascer- tain the legitimate bounds occupied by the Pequot tribe, that no encroachment might be made on the rights of the Mohe- gans. Uncas at that time made no claim to any land east of the Thames (Pequot) river, nor on the west side any farther south than Cochiknack (now Oxoboxo) or Saw Mill Brook and the cove into which it flowed. This brook (now Oxoboxo) was therefore established as the northern boundary of the New London plantation by an agreement with Uncas, sachem of the Mohegans. The early history of this part of New London, called the North Parish of New London, runs through a maze of perplexity and confusion. Many of the finest tracts in the district which had been early obtained of the natives, or by grants of the town for speculation or settlement, passed from one possessor to another with great rapidity. A com-
72
HISTORY OF MONTVILLE.
bination of influences served to facilitate the speedy transfer of claims. The first grants of lands within the Mohegan reservation was made by Uneas in 1658 to Richard Hongh- ton and James Rogers, and consisted of valnable farms on the river at places called Massapeag and Pamechang. The former place was situated on the north of a cove, now called " Honghtons'," and the Jatter was situated at a place farther up the river, called the " Point," near Massapeag station.
The then existing laws of the colony prohibited individuals from contracting with the Indians for land, yet many, from the spirit of avarice or from the desire to obtain places for permanent settlements on particularly cleared and culti- vated land, sought by various means to get possession of the lands. The result was that many Indian grants were made, some were gifts of friendship or in requital of favors bestowed, some were obtained by fair and honest trade, while others were openly frandulent or from administering to the vicious thirsts of the Indian, degrading him below his native barbar- ism. The first actual settler on the Indian lands was Sam- uel Rogers, the oldest son of James, then living at New Lon- don. Samuel Rogers is supposed to have moved here in 1670. Ile had for several years been on intimate terms with Uncas, who had anxiously solicited him to settle in his neighborhood. Uneas gave him a valuable tract of land on the north side of Saw Mill (Oxoboxo) Brook, a portion of which land is now in possession of his descendants, promising Rogers in case of any emergency he would hasten with all his warriors to his assistance. On this tract Rogers built his house of hewn logs, surrounded it with a strong wall, and mounted a big gun in front.
Uncas would often visit Rogers in his retired abode in the midst of the wilderness, it being about four miles from the Indian settlement on the banks of the Thames. There they would together smoke the pipe and "take a social glass." Here Samuel Rogers reared a family of six children, three sons and three daughters, being the first white children born
73
HISTORY OF MONTVILLE.
within the present bounds of Montville. On one occasion, when prepared for the experiment, tradition says, Rogers fired the signal of alarm, which was two reports in succession, which had been agreed upon with his tawny friend in case either should be disturbed by an enemy, and in half an hour's time, grim bands of warriors were seen on the hill overlook -. ing the " Block house," who soon came rushing down with the sachem at their head to the rescue of their white friend.
Rogers had prepared a feast for their entertainment, hav- ing killed a beef and roasted it for the occasion. It is prob- able that they relished the trick nearly as much as the banquet ; they seeming always delighted with contrivance and strate- gem. Samuel Rogers' house stood about three-quarters of
a mile south of the Congregational meeting-house, on a plain of land now owned by Albert A. Rogers. A short distance east of where the house stood is the burying ground of the Rogers families and near relations; nearly one hundred graves cover the spot. Samuel Rogers afterwards became a large landholder in the reservation. Ile had grants of land, not only from Uncas, but from his sons, Owaneco and Josiah, in recompense for services rendered to them and their tribes. Gifts of land were also bestowed on his son Jonathan and his daughter Sarah, wife of James Harris, who also settled here. A deed, of date 1698, from Owaneco to Jonathan Rogers, cripple son of Samuel, conveying to him a tract of land in con- sideration of his lameness, and the continued kindness of his parents shown to Owaneco and his children. The land was " bounded on other land of Samuel Rogers, and on the Hart- ford path, and the brook that cometh out of the pond called Obsopogsant." Another tract of land was also about this time bestowed upon Jonathan, lying southeast of the pond called the " little pond."
In 1698, Samuel Rogers gave a tract of land to his " loving daughter, Mary Gilbert, wife of Samuel Gilbert of Hartford," consisting of " two parcels west or southwest of certain plant- ing fields usually called or known by the name of Moheag, in
74
HISTORY OF MONTVILLE.
the township of New London, and northerly of my dwelling house, containing one hundred and fifty acres, bounded by the four corners of trees marked M. G., the northerly side being one hundred and seventy-two rods, the southerly side one hundred and seventy-two rods, the westerly side one hundred and fifty rods, and the easterly side one hundred and ten rods. Also one other piece containing ten acres, and lying westward of my dwelling, and about southwest from a cer- tain house which Samuel Gilbert built upon the aforesaid traet of land, and is distant about sixty or eighty poles, it being meadow and swamp land."
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.