USA > Connecticut > New London County > Norwich > History of Norwich, Connecticut: from its possession by the Indians, to the year 1866 > Part 3
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This cursory survey of Norwich is sufficient to show how richly she has been endowed by nature with sources of prosperity and with what happy results these facilities have been thus far improved.
In available sites for manufactories the town is peculiarly favored.
It is surrounded by a farming region, fertile, extensive and well culti- vated, which makes it advantageous as an agricultural market.
Its situation at the head of a navigable river gives it facilities for fur- nishing supplies to a widely extended back country and to the numerous mill seats and villages that occupy the tributary streams.
POPULATION.
1756-5,540, of whom 223 were colored. 1774-7,321. 1,024 families ; 901 dwelling-houses. 1779-7,187. 1780-6,541.
1790-3,284. 1800-3,476.
AFTER THE DIVISION OF THE TOWN.
* See article " Norwich Armories," in Harper's Magazine for March, 1864.
27
HISTORY OF NORWICH.
Census taken by Benjamin Tracy at the close of the year 1810 :
Free white males,
1,554
Free white females,
1,807
Free colored persons,
152
Slaves,
12
Total,
3,525
1820-3,624.
1830-5,179.
1840-Free white males, 3,254
Free white females,
3,633
Colored persons, 352
Total,
7,239
1850-10,265.
1860-14,058, of whom 361 were colored.
According to the Grand List of 1864, Norwich has 1727 dwelling-houses ; 267 stores ; 41 manufactories ; 758 horses ; 533 carriages ; 613 time-keepers.
Total value of property, $16,094,637; of taxable property, $10,649,619.
Total number of polls registered, 1764; military exempts, 47; firmen, 296; other exempts, 107 : total taxable polls, 1314.
' It has seven banks, besides one for savings and a savings society that has been forty years in operation ; four insurance companies ; seventeen churches ; eight school dis- tricts ; thirty-nine public schools ; and a Free Academy, open for an academical educa- tion to all the children of the town, free of expense, and without regard to sex or con- dition.
By the old stage route, from Norwich to New York is 128 miles ; to New Haven, 58 ; to Boston, 80; to Hartford, 38, and about the same distance to Providence.
By the Norwich & Worcester Railroad, Boston is reached in four hours. By the Northern Railroad to New London, and the New Haven Railroad, New York is reached in six hours; by the Northern Railroad and the steamboat line connected with it, in eight or nine hours.
Latitude, 41°, 33', N.
Longitude, 72º, 7', W. of Greenwich.
MEASUREMENTS.
Line between Norwich and Lisbon, by the Shetucket river, 4 miles and a few rods. Between Norwich and Franklin, 53 miles.
Between Norwich and Bozrah, 43 miles.
Between Norwich and Montville, by Trading Cove and brook, 32 miles.
From Trading Cove to the mouth of the Shetucket, 2 miles, 100 rods.
From thence by the river to Lathrop's bridge, 3 miles, 80 rods.
From Ist Society Court House to Lathrop's bridge, a little over 3 miles.
to Lovett's bridge, 4 miles.
over Plain Hill to Franklin line, 44 miles.
to Trading Cove, (New London road,) 3} miles. to Wharf bridge, 2 miles.
CHAPTER II.
ABORIGINAL HISTORY OF THE NINE-MILES-SQUARE.
WHEN the English began their settlements in the eastern part of Con- necticut, they found the Mohegans claiming and holding by a kind of wan- dering possession, a large area back from the sea-coast, and extending far into the interior of the country. How was their title obtained ? Not by inheritance or conquest, but apparently by stepping into vacancy and occu- pying the seats of an extinct or fugitive race. This appears to have been the origin of the right which Uncas had to the Nine-miles-square, and to several other fair towns, the ownership of which is derived from him and his sons. In point of fact, this title could not be fairly challenged ; for as aborigines and as present sole occupants, their right was paramount to all others. The English had no claim beyond the line of their conquests on the sea-board.
But who were the antecedent inhabitants of the Nine-miles-square ? What people had fished in its streams, swept over it with their hunting bands, and built their huts upon its area, not only before Mason and Fitch set up their pillars in the wilderness, but before Uncas became a sachem and his people a tribe? On this point no certainty lias been obtained. The Pequots were the earliest children of the soil, of whom we have any knowledge. Beyond the Pequots we recede into darkness and ob- livion.
A committee appointed by the Commissioners of the United Colonies to inquire into the claims of Uncas to the Pequot territory, made a report in 1663, which throws some light on the ancient condition of that tract of land which is now Norwich. They had consulted, they say, "old and creditable chiefs," and the testimony obtained goes a step beyond the Pequot war, and gives us a starting-point for our history.
" They jointly affirm that Uncas had at first but little land and very few men, inso- much he could not make a hunt, but always hunted by order from other Sachems, and in their companies ; which Sachems, being five brothers, lived at a place called by the
29
HISTORY OF NORWICH.
Indians, Sondahque,* at or near the place where Major Mason now liveth, [i. e., Nor- wich,] who were the sons of the great Peqnot Sachem's sister, and so became very great Sachems, and had their bounds very large, extending their bounds by Connecti- cut path, t almost to Connecticut,# and castward meeting with the bounds of Pasquat- tuck, (who lived at Showtuekett, being a Pequot Sachem whose bounds extended eastward and took in Pachang ;§) the which five Sachems being brothers grew so great and so proud that upon hunting they quarrelled with the Pequots, at which the great Pequot [Sachem] being angry with them, made war upon them and conquered them and their country, and they all fled into Narragansett country, (leaving their country and men unto the Pequot Sachem,) from whence they never returned, but there died. So that Indians affirm all their lands and Woncas's too, according to their customs and manners were Pequot lands, being by them conquered, and now are the true right of the English, they having conquered the Pequots." !!
According to this testimony, the Nine-miles-square, at a period not long anterior to the arrival of the English, was inhabited by bands of Indians whose rulers were allied to the royal Pequot race, and probably they and their people were of Pequot origin.
Nothing more is known of these children of the soil. They were doubt- less few in number, and passed away like dry leaves of the forest, swept off by winds, or beaten into the earth by wintry storms. Perhaps the report of the aged chiefs was correct, that they withdrew into Narragan- sett and coalesced with its tribes. The territory that had been occupied by these five brothers, however, again rises to the view in 1643. It was then claimed by Uncas, the Mohegan chief, and bore the general name of Mohegan.
Various historical notices tend to show that the Mohegans were origin- ally a river tribe, possessing lands on the Connecticut, in what are now the towns of East Hartford and East Windsor. The father of Uncas having married into the royal Pequot family, acquired by this alliance a right to a certain tract of land on the west side of Pequot river, since known as Mohegan proper, and here fixed the principal seat of his sachemdom. The chiefs, consulted by the committee before mentioned, testified that Uncas was "akin to the Pequots," and that he received this tribal seat by inheritance from his father. Thus, when the five sachems were driven from their possessions in the neighborhood, the Mohegans stood ready to spread their hunting and fishing claims over the relinquished country and include it in their domain.
* Soudahque: the name comes to us through several copyists in this form. It may have been identical with Souduck, a variation of Showtuck, Showtucket. It has been suggested also that the word was originally written Yontahque, a name of which our modern Yantie would be the representative.
t The road to Hartford.
# The three towns of Hartford, Wethersfield and Windsor then constituted Connect- icut.
§ Showtucket and Pachaug are now Lisbon and Griswold.
# Conn. Col. Rec., 3 : 479.
.
30
HISTORY OF NORWICH.
The Yantic water-fall appears to have been a favorite resort of the Mohegans. It was their landing place and their fishing place. It is probable that they had wigwams at intervals in the neighborhood, and that it became one of their wandering homes. This supposition harmo- nizes with the fact that the first English settlers found here a "place of Indian Graves" which was venerated by Uncas as the spot where his parents and relatives were buried.
As a tributary chief, Uncas was exceedingly restless and ambitious. Five times, the Indians said, he rebelled against his superior, and each time was expelled from his possessions, and his followers subjected to the sway of the conqueror. But at this extremity, he had always managed, by submission and entreaty, to gain the pardon of his liege lord and re- cover his inheritance.
Still another of these rebellious outbreaks occurred about the time that the English first settled upon Connecticut river. Uncas being once more defeated by Sassacus, retired to the territory claimed by the Mohegans, near Windsor, where some of the tribe still remained. This brought him into the neighborhood and to the knowledge of the English, and particu- larly of Capt. Mason, whom he joined, with seventy Mohegan and river Indians, in the famous expedition against the Pequots, in May, 1637.
The success of this enterprise opened the way for his return to his seat upon Pequot river. He was henceforward protected and fostered by the English, his claims to large tracts of land allowed, and the number of his subjects greatly increased by the captives bestowed upon him, and the fugitives that sought his protection. In the words of other Indians, "the English made him high."
The Narragansetts and Mohegans were rival races ; their sachems jeal- ous of each other, and the people ever ready to break out into rancorous warfare. The early history of Connecticut is perplexed with accounts of their petty quarrels. Our present Norwich was then the Mohegan fron- tier, the battle-ground and lurking place of hostile tribes. Among its rocks and ravines the scouting parties of the Narragansetts often laid their snares or found shelter when pursued; and here also was the look- out post of the Mohegans, when expecting an attack from the foe.
In 1638, the hostile sachems, Miantonomoh and Uncas, through the persuasion or authority of the English, entered into an agreement at Hartford, not to make war upon each other without first appealing to the English. But mutual dislike and national jealousy were easily inflamed into open hostility, and neither party, when roused to the conflict, waited for the sanction of its neighbors. An open rupture at length took place, the immediate cause of which is thus stated by Governor Winthrop of Massachusetts, in his journal :
31
HISTORY OF NORWICH.
"Onkus, being provoked by Sequasson, a sachem of Connecticut, made war upon him, and slew divers of his men, and burnt his wigwams ; whereupon Minantunnomoli being his kinsman, took offence against Onkus, and weut with near one thousand men and set upon Onkus before he could be provided for defence, for he had not then with him above three or four hundred men."
Other historians, and among them Trumbull, in his History of Connec- ticut, trace the dispute farther back, to an attempt which was made to assassinate Uncas by a Pequot, who was suspected to have been incited to this act by the Narragansett sachem. Of this, however, no satisfactory proof was ever adduced. Miantonomoh indignantly denied the charge, and retorted upon Uncas that he had cut his own arm with a flint, and then accused the Pequot of wounding him. But whatever might be the incident which supplied the spark of ignition, the materials had long been gathering, and the flame broke forth in the summer of 1643. The follow- ing account, more minute than is usually given of this contest, is deduced from a careful comparison of the earliest histories, with the traditions of the Mohegans.
Miantonomoh having secretly assembled a force of five or six hundred warriors,* marchied against the Mohegans. He expected to take them by surprise, the season being that in which they were usually busy in their cornfields, or engaged in fishing, and he might reasonably anticipate a brilliant victory. But Uncas was a wary chieftain ; his partizans were at that very time abroad, and he soon received information of the movements of his enemies. According to tradition the Narragansetts were first dis- covered as they were crossing the Shetucket at a fording place, near the junction of the Quinnebaug.
From this point they came streaming onward through the woods and over the long hill that commands the valley of the Yantic. This was one of the common routes from Narragansett to Mohegan, and without doubt, Uncas in seasons of peculiar peril kept the path strictly watched.
Having received information of their approach, he assembled his men with great celerity and boldly advanced to meet the foe.
When he reached what is called the Great Plain, three or four miles from his principal settlement, and a mile and a half south-west of the Yantie, he learned that the Narragansetts had crossed the fords of the Yantic, [at Noman's acre,] and were pouring down upon him. He im- mediately halted, arranged his men on a rising ground, and made them
* Nine hundred, or one thousand, says Trumbull, and the warriors of Uneas four or five hundred. This is an over-estimate, as an inquiry into the effective force of the two tribes will show. Half the number assigned in each case, would probably come nearer to the truth. In Mohegan proper, there is no reason to suppose that even two hundred warriors could have been found at that time, and though Uncas might com- mand the services of several small tributary bands, he could have had no opportunity to assemble them for this service.
32
HISTORY OF NORWICH.
acquainted with a stratagem, the effect of which he was about to prove. He had scarcely given his warriors instructions how to act, before the Narragansetts appeared on an opposite declivity. Uncas sent forward a messenger, desiring a parley with Miantonomoh, which was granted, and the two chiefs met on the plain, between their respective armies. Uncas then proposed that the fortune of the day should be decided by themselves in single combat, and the lives of their warriors spared. His proposition was thus expressed : "Let us two fight it out : if you kill me, my men shall be yours ; but if I kill you, your men shall be mine."
Miantonomoh, who seems to have suspected some crafty manœuvre, in this unusual proposition, replied disdainfully, "My men came to fight, and they shall fight." Uncas immediately gave a pre-concerted signal to his followers, by falling flat upon his face to the ground. They, being all prepared with bent bows, instantly discharged a shower of arrows upon the enemy, and raising the battle yell, rushed forward with their toma- hawks, their chieftain starting up and leading the onset." The Narragan- setts, who were carelessly awaiting the result of the conference, and not expecting that the Mohegans would venture to fight at all with such infe- rior force, were taken by surprise ; and after a short and confused attempt at resistance, were put to flight. The fugitives and their pursuers, with despairing cries and triumphant shouts, crossed the river at the shallows and swept like a whirlwind over the hills, regardless of tangled forests, rushing torrents and precipitons ledges of rock. The course of flight and pursuit led across the Yantic shoals below Noman's acre, and from thence through Norwich, over the high ridge of Ox-hill, toward the well-known fords of the Shetucket, above the mouth of the Quinnabaug.
One of the Mohegan Captains, who was very swift of foot, singled out Miantonomoh and pursued him with relentless pertinacity. The sachem had nearly reached the river, but being, it is said, encumbered and retarded by a corslet of mail,* his pursuer overtook him, and throwing himself against him, impeded his motion. When the chief had recovered himself, he repeated the act, continuing thus to obstruct his flight, but not attempt- ing to seize him, that Uncas might come up and have the honor of his capture. The moment that Uncas touched his shoulder, Miantonomoh stopped, and without the least resistance, remained calm and silent. Un- cas, surveying him, demanded why he did not speak. "If you had taken me," he said, "I would have besought you for my life."} The captive chief made no reply, "choosing rather to die, than to make supplication for his life."¿ Uncas, giving the Indian whoop of victory, collected his
* Furnished by Gorton of Rhode Island. Probably it was only a padded or quilted vest to check the force of an Indian arrow.
t Winthrop 2: 158. Savage's edition, 1853.
¿ Hubbard, 451.
33
HISTORY OF NORWICH.
men around him and the strife ceased. The conflict had been short, and the pursuit rapid, occupying the shortest space of time in which we may suppose the fleet-footed Indians to have swept over a distance of five or six miles.
About thirty Narragansetts were slain and many more wounded. Among the latter were two of the sons of Canonicus and a brother of Miantonomoh.
We have said above that a Mohegan warrior overtook Miantonomoh in his flight, impeded his steps, and materially assisted Uncas in hunting him down. According to Winthrop's account, it was two of the flying sachem's own men who arrested his course and gave him up to Uncas, hoping thereby to obtain favorable terms for themselves; but the Mohegan sachem, indig- nant at their treachery, slew them on the spot. This account is happily at variance with other contemporary testimony, which states that the cap- ture of the Narragansett chief was secured by a Mohegan, and not by the cowardice and treachery of his own companions. The very name of the fortunate warrior has been preserved. Mr. Thomas Peters, who was shortly afterward a visitor at the fort of Uncas, mentions Tantaquieson as the Mohegan captain "who first fingered Miantonomio." Hubbard also, in his History, gives the credit of the capture to the same chief .* More- over it was this exploit that elevated the name of Tantaquieson, (or Tan- taquidgin, as it was pronounced in later days,) and made it an honorable one among the Mohegans. His descendants long afterwards, in their visits among the neighboring whites, were accustomed to boast of the capture of the great Narragansett giant by their ancestor.
But while it exalted the warrior in the estimation of his own people, it pointed him out as the special object of Narragansett vengeance, exposing him both to open attack and secret assassination. Various snares were laid for him, and both craft and courage employed to accomplish his destruction ; but apparently he escaped all designs against his life, and died in a quiet way.t
Traditions of this remarkable contest, embellished probably with various legendary additions, have been preserved both by the whites and Indians in the neighborhood of the scene. In point of fact, it is the most conspic- uous purely Indian fight recorded in the annals of New England. The English had no direct concern in the conflict. It was entirely aboriginal in its character and execution. The numbers engaged, the dignity of the sachems, the importance of its results, and the romantic incidents in its train, combine to enhance the interest of the contest, and to demand for it a special prominence in the history of Norwich. Here was the battle-
* App. to Savage's Winthrop, Vol. 2. Hubbard's New England, 459.
t One of his grandsons was an estimable deacon of the Mohegan church.
3
34
HISTORY OF NORWICH.
ground : the flight, pursuit and capture of the sachem all took place within the limits of the present town.
The sudden rout and extreme terror of the Narragansetts, which fol- lowed the first onset of the Mohegans, shows in a strong light the bewil- dering influence of panic. Considering the preponderance of their num- bers, and the confidence with which they advanced to the attack, the precipitate, headlong retreat that followed becomes almost ludicrous. If we may credit the accounts given by the Mohegans, so great was the dismay and alarm of the fugitives, that they seemed bereft of their senses, and were driven like frightened sheep through woods and swamps, or captured without resistance. Long afterwards some old Mohegans were heard to boast of having found in the chase a poor Narragansett struggling and panting in the thicket that bordered the river, and so frantic with fear and excitement, as to suppose himself in the water, and actually attempt- ing to swim among the bushes.
It is to this headlong rout that the traditionary legend connected with the Falls of the Yantic may with some degree of probability be assigned .* One band of the fugitives being turned out of the direct line leading to the fords of the Yantic, were chased through woods, and over rocks and hills, by the relentless fury of their pursners, and coming upon the river where the current was deep and rapid, many of them were driven into it headlong, and there slaughtered or drowned. Others, in the rapidity of their career, having suddenly reached the high precipice that overhangs the cataract, plunged, either unawares or with reckless impetuosity, into the abyss beneath, and were dashed upon the rocks, their mangled bodies floating down into the calm basin below.
After the battle, Uncas returned in triumph to his fortress, carrying his illustrious captive with him, whom he treated with generous kindness and respect. But on the requisition of the English, he condueted him to Hart- ford and surrendered him to the custody of the government, consenting to be guided in the future disposal of the sachem entirely by their advice.
The whole affair was laid before the Commissioners of the United Col- onies, at their meeting at Boston in September, and the question was there debated whether it was just and lawful to put Miantonomoh to death. His execution of a Pequot who had testified against him; his repeated attempts upon the life of Uncas by assassination, poison and sorcery ; his turbulence in making war against the Mohegans without a previous appeal to the English ; and his inveterate hostility to the whites, to exterminate whom
* It is difficult to give these old unwritten tales their proper place in history. The author formerly assigned a later date to the frightful plunge of the fugitives at the Falls, but when all the accompanying circumstances are considered, the legend is found to coincide best with the strange panic that prevailed among the Narragansetts at this time.
35
HISTORY OF NORWICH.
he was accused of endeavoring to bring about a confederacy of several tribes, and of hiring the Mohawks to assist in the deadly work, were the arguments urged against him. Nevertheless, the court still hesitated whether it would be just to put him to death, and in this dilemma referred the matter to ecclesiastical counselors. Five of the principal ministers in the colonies were consulted, and these, considering it hazardous to the peace of the country that the sachem should be released, gave their voice in favor of his execution. This decided the question in the affirmative, and the Commissioners directed that Uncas should conduct his captive
" Into the next part of his own government, and there put him to death : provided that some discreet and faithful persons of the English accompany them and see the execu- tion, for our more full satisfaction."
1464454
Such was the death-warrant of the Narragansett sachem. The result is recorded by Governor Winthrop of Massachusetts, in his Journal. He states that the Commissioners from Connecticut, on their return to Hart- ford, sent for Uncas and acquainted him with the decision in regard to his captive. He readily undertook the execution of the sentence, and Mian- tonomoh was accordingly delivered into his hands. Two Englishmen from Hartford were directed to remain with the prisoner as witnesses of the deed. Uncas promptly obeyed the directions given. Winthrop says :
" Taking Miantonomoh 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."
This slaughter of the Narragansett chief undoubtedly took place on that tract of land south of the Podunk which was claimed by Uncas and inhab- ited by scattered families under his jurisdiction. The narrative of Win- throp is explicit in stating that Uncas led his captive to this district, and that he was executed suddenly on the way, probably as soon as they had passed the English boundary and entered upon Indian territory. We can not doubt that the Commissioners had this special tract in view when they directed Uncas to carry his captive into the next part of his own govern- ment, and there put him to death. Winthrop, who records the event, understood, evidently, that the execution took place in this Mohegan claim between Hartford and Windsor, that is, the present East Hartford and East Windsor, and he probably derived his information from the Englishmen that were designated to witness the act and see that it was done without torture. We are thus, in a manner, compelled to admit that Miantonomoh was executed in some unknown spot, near the old boundary line of Hartford and Windsor.
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