USA > Connecticut > Litchfield County > Woodbury > History of ancient Woodbury, Connecticut : from the first Indian dead in 1659 to 1854 > Part 11
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" Woodbury May 15 1741
Henry Cassell Benijah Case Eleazer Warner Henry Castle Jr Telle Blakeslee William Harris Jr Adam Iurd Eleazer Towner
his
Hachet
Tousey
mark
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HISTORY OF ANCIENT WOODBURY.
" I Hachet Tousey constitute and appoint Abraham Hurd my agent and at- torney at the honorable assembly for me
Ilachet
Same mark. E. mark
Tonsey"1
The petition of this Indian was granted, and £20, which were raised by subscription among the members, were placed in the hands of the Rev. Anthony Stoddard and Col. William Preston, to carry out the purpose intended. The governor was requested to encour- age him in his good purposes, and Messrs. Stoddard and Preston to take care that he and his children be instructed in the Christian reli- gion, and that his children be sent to school.
Encouraged, perhaps, by the success of Atchetoset, Mowehu. Cheery, son of Raumaug, the great sachem, who died a Christian a few years before, and others representing seventy souls residing at Pootatuck and New Milford, petitioned the General Court in May of the next year for like privileges. The Indians residing at these two places, as we have seen, had never been but two clans of the same tribe, while still another small clan of the Pootatucks resided alternately at Bethlem, Litchfield and Nonnewaug, the location of the wigwam in Bethlem being near Mr. Seth Martin's dwelling- house. The latter have been known as the Bantam Indians. Nei- ther of these clans were in a well organized state at this time. The clan at New Milford, was entirely disbanded, Weraumaug, their chief, having died a few years before, and the larger portion of the tribe joining the Scatacook tribe, which had but recently been formed under Gideon Mauwehu. Cheery, son of the deceased chief, and one of the signers of the petition, had not force enough to keep his clan together, and was never sachem.
" To the Honourable gen Ass. sitting in Hartford May Anno Dom: 1742
. " The Humble memorial of Mowchu, Cheery and others, Hereunto Sub- scribing Being Indian Natives of this Land Humbly showeth that there are at New Milford and Potatuck the Places where we Dwell about seventy souls of us poor natives, who are now awakened, many of us to some curiosity of Being Taught the word of god and the gospel of Jesus Christ in order to obtain Eter-
1 Colleges and Schools, vol. 1, pp. 104, 105.
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HISTORY OF ANCIENT WOODBURY.
nal Life through Him, and now Humbly Crave the care of this Ass. that we and our children may be Taught to read the English tongue and may have some minister appointed to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ unto us; and Instruct us in the Principles of the Christian Religion, and we also Humbly ask as a Deed of the Highest Charity to us, that the Goverment will Bestow some- thing upon us to support some person or persons in Teaching of uss, and Preaching to uss, That our souls may not Perish for want of Vision in this Land of Light ; and if it may be the means of saving any Soul of uss, the gos- pel which you are favored with assures you that you Shall not Loose your Reward, and your Poor Petitioners hath hereunto put our marks
" Hartford May 13th 1742.1
Mowchu
John Coksure
Job
Pukin
Sam
John Sherman
Peeney
Cheery
Simon"
Forty of these Indians resided at Woodbury, and thirty at New Milford. The committee to whom this petition was referred reported favorably, proposing that the thirty Indians on the borders of New Milford should be assisted to attend school and public worship at New Milford ; and the forty residing at Pootatuck, on the borders of Woodbury, be aided in attending school and preaching in Woodbury, or Newtown; the ministers of New Milford, Woodbury and New- town being requested to take them under their care and instruction. The report of the committee was accepted, and £20 were appropria- ted to aid the Indians at New Milford in these matters, and £25 to assist those at Woodbury ; the money being placed in the hands of Mr. Anthony Stoddard and the minister at Newtown.
In 1733 the Pootatucks sold about three-fourths of their "reser- vation " in the south-west part of the present town of Southbury, and the larger portion removed to New Milford, and joined the other clan of their tribe residing there, so that the Indians residing at New Milford at this time were quite numerous. Stragglers from other clans in Fairfield county also joined them. President Stiles states the number of warriors at about three hundred, and Rev. Stanley Griswold, in a century sermon preached at New Milford in 1801, estimates them at two hundred warriors. The latter estimate is doubtless nearer the truth than the former, though it may be a pretty liberal one. The young and vigorous Indians of Pootatuck had for several years been moving to New Milford. About 1715, We-
1 Indians, vol. 1, p. 240.
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HISTORY OF ANCIENT WOODBURY.
raumaug, or Raumaug, an intelligent Pootatuck sagamore, joined the Wyantenuck clan, and soon became sachem. His residence was on a reservation at the falls on the Housatonic, about two miles below the village of New Milford, which the Indians long kept after they had sold the Indian field west of the river, opposite the village. Weraumaug also had a personal reservation of two thousand acres in the society of New Preston in the town of Washington. This reser- vation was called the " hunting grounds of Ranmaug," and was after- ward sold by Cheere, son of the sachem. At the falls, called by the natives Mitichawon, was an excellent fishing place, especially in the spring, when shad and great numbers of lamprey eels swarmed up the river, and attempted to ascend the rapid descent of waters. Shad and other valuable fish are still taken on this river quite up to this point. At this romantic spot, on the banks of the river, stood the palace, or " great wigwam " of Weraumang. On the inner walls of the palace, which were made of bark with the smooth side inward, were pictured every known species of beast, bird, fish and insect, from the largest down to the smallest. This was said to have been done by artists whom a friendly prince at a great distance sent to him for that purpose, in the same manner as Hiram sent artists to Solomon. He died about 1735, as near as can be ascertained, and was buried in an Indian burying-ground at no great distance from the place of his residence. His grave is distinguished from those sur- rounding him, out of many of which large trees are growing, by its more ample dimensions.
Weraumaug was a man of uncommon powers of mind, sober and regular in his life, and took much pains to suppress the vices of his people. The first minister of New Milford, Rev. Daniel Boardman, ordained in 1716, finding this Indian sachem to be a discreet and friendly man, became much interested in him, and took great pains to instruct him in the Christian religion. From the account he gives of him, it appears he died penitent, and cheered by the Christian's hope. In a letter to a friend he calls him
" That distinguished saehem, whose great abilities and eminent virtues, joined with his extensive dominion, rendered him the most potent prince of that or any other day in this Colony ; and his name ought to be remembered by the faithful historian as much as that of any crowned head since his was laid in the dust."
Although this statement of Mr. Boardman is the best evidence that need be had of the power of this chief, and the extent of his
8
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HISTORY OF ANCIENT WOODBURY.
tribe, yet it is hardly accurate to say that he was the most potent prince that had existed in the Colony. It will not do to overlook King Philip and other sachems. During Weraumaug's last illness, Mr. Boardman constantly attended him, and endeavored to confirm his mind in the vital truths of Christianity. It was a sad place for the dying chieftain ; for the larger part of his people, and even his wife, were greatly opposed to the religion of their white neighbors, and used all their influence to keep him true to the dark and cheer- less faitli of his forefathers. Their conduct was not only rude and abusive of the minister, but in other respects such as comported little with the solemnity of the occasion. One day when Mr. Boardman was by the sachem's bedside, the latter asked him to pray, to which he assented. It happened that there was a sick child in the village, and a powwow was in attendance, who had undertaken to cure it with his wild and superstitious rites. As soon as the clergyman commenced his prayer, Weraumaug's wife sent for the medicine- man and ordered him to commence his exercises at the door of the lodge. The powwow at once set up a hideous shouting and howl- ing, and Mr. Boardman prayed louder, so that the sick man might hear him above the uproar. Each raised his voice louder and louder as he went on, while the Indians gathered around, solicitous for the success of their prophet. The powwow was determined to tire out the minister, and he, on his side, was quite as fully resolved not to be put to silence in the discharge of his duty by the blind worshiper of Satan. The invincible minister afterward gave it as his belief that he prayed full three hours before he was permitted to come off con- queror. The powwow having completely exhausted himself with his efforts, gave one unearthly yell, and then, taking to his heels, never stopped till he was cooling himself up to his neck in the Hou- satonic.
In 1736, a part of the Wyantenucks moved to Scatacook, one of their reservations, and located on the beautiful plain on the west side of the river. These Indians, in the years 1742 and 1743, were visited by the Moravian missionaries, under Count Zinzendorf. They remained with them several years, and to appearance, were very religious and inoffensive men. They also visited the Indians still left at the Great Falls and Pootatuck, but these having in the former year applied to the General Assembly for the means of instruction, which had been granted them, gave little heed to the strangers. The Scatacooks were at this time, perhaps, the largest tribe left in the Colony. It was founded about 1728, by Gideon Mauwehu, a Pe-
10%
HISTORY OF ANCIENT WOODBURY.
quot Indian, who was endowed with the same energy of character for which his nation was so distinguished. We first hear of him among the Paugussetts, where he was the leader of a small band, and settled one of his sons over a small clan at the falls on the Nan- gatuek River, near Humphreysville. He next appeared, for a time, among the Pootatueks, soon afterward at New Milford, and in 1729, he, with eleven others, signed a deed of " all the misold lands in New Fairfield," now Sherman. He afterward moved to Dover, N. Y., on Ten Mile River, some ten miles west of Kent. After living there awhile, in one of his hunting excursions, from a mountain in Kent, west of the Housatonic, his eye fell upon that river, winding its way through the fertile and beautiful valley, shut in by mountains, and covered with dense forests. The white man had not penetrated this beautiful sylvan retreat. It had only been used occasionally as their hunting and fishing ground by the Wyantenneks. He was enchanted with the capabilities of the place, and immediately moved thither with his family. Having invited his old friends among the Pangus- setts, Pootatucks, Wyantenneks, and others among the tribes with which he had lived, they flocked to him in considerable numbers. In 1736, after the death of Werammaug, a considerable number joined him from New Milford as above. It is believed, that at this date he had more than one hundred warriors.
The Moravian missionaries began to preach to his tribe some time in 1742, and, although Manwehu's name was among the signers of the petition to the General Assembly in May of that year, for reli- gious instruction from the colonists, yet he received them with great favor, and their labors had a happy influence on the tribe. In 1743, he accepted their faith, and was baptized, with about one hundred and fifty of his people. A church was built, and a large congrega- tion collected. Most of their conversation with the English was on religion, and they spent much of their time in devotional exercises, After a time, many of these Indians followed the missionaries to Bethlehem in Pennsylvania. The change of climate proved fatal to them, and they returned to their old homes. IIere in the absence of their religious teachers, they seemed to forget their religion, became intemperate, and began to waste away. Sneh was the sad termina- tion of the most sneeessful religious effort, perhaps, ever made among the Indians of Connecticut.
In May, 1759, the Pootatucks, or rather Tom Sherman, or Sho- ran, one of their number, to whom the rest had quit-claimed their
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right the year before, sold their last acre of land, including their village of Pootatuek, and took up their abode at Scatacook, except a few that lingered in the neighborhood of their old abodes, by the sufferance of the purchasers. In 1761, these consisted of one man, and two or three broken families. In 1774, they were reduced to nine, and at this date there were none remaining at New Milford, and but sixty-two at Scatacook. In 1786, the latter were reduced to thirty-six males and thirty-five females, twenty of the number being children of suitable age for attending school. In 1801, they num- bered thirty-five idle and intemperate beings, who cultivated six acres of ground. In the fall of 1849, the number of Indians remain- ing was eiglit or ten of the full blood, and twenty or thirty half breeds. A few of them are sober and industrious, cultivating good gardens, and living comfortably ; but the majority are of the opposite character. Three or four of them attend church, and a few of the children go to school. They are under the care of an overseer, and their property consists of a considerable tract of land on the mountain too rough for cultivation, and about five thousand dollars kept at interest, which for the last forty years has more than paid the annual expenses of the tribe.1
It will be seen that the Indians of Woodbury, New Milford and Kent, have been treated as though they were one people, which is strictly correct, except in regard to the Kent Indians. Although we find among the principal men in 1746, selling land, Samuel and Thomas Coksure, two of the sons of a sagamore of the name of Cock- shure at Pootatuck, and Cheere, son of Weraumaug, soon after, sell- ing his reservation in New Preston, yet Manwehu, having resided in many other tribes, collected together many from them also. Be- yond this the dividing line between them is not discernable. Gideon Manwehu, leader of the Kent clan, was present in Woodbury at the. execution of two deeds next to the last, conveying lands at Pootatuck, giving his assent, and signing as witness, while two of his principal men, Jeremiah and Samuel Cokshure, were among the grantors.
It is many years since the last remaining Pootatuck, an old squaw, came back to Pootatuck village to visit the graves of her ancestors. Looking up to the place where stood, and still stand the few remain- ing trees of "Tummasseete's old orchard," "There," she said, the
1 The major portion of the foregoing account of the Wyantenucks and Scatacooks, on the last three or four pages, has been collected from the works of Dr. Trumbull, Barber, and De Forest.
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HISTORY OF ANCIENT WOODBURY.
tears streaming down her wrinkled cheeks, "there is Pootatuck." After lingering near the graves of her people a few days, she re- turned to the place whence she came. A few monuments of the existence of the fated race now remain to tell us that here a former race once flourished, scarce sufficient, so fleeting is their nature, to arrest our attention. Arrow heads, stone chisels, hatchets, axes, gouges, knives and mortars are found in the " ancient territory." One of these localities is on Mr. Anthony Strong's land, opposite Mr. Fred. S. Atwood's dwelling-house, where they had a hunting village; and another on Mr. Frederick M. Minor's land, a few rods in rear of his dwelling-house. They are also found in Bethlem, near Seth Martin's dwelling-house, and at the locality of the village of Poota- tuck. Large deposits of elam and oyster shells are also found in the latter locality. This village was about two miles above Bennett's Bridge on the Housatonic, near where Pootatuck Brook, called by the Indians Cowams, enters into that river. In addition to the arti- cles mentioned above, some have been found which the natives evi- dently received from the English. Glass bottles, brass kettles, rings and jugs have been found. In digging for some purpose a few years ago, a brass kettle was found rimmed and bailed, and under it a piece of scarlet woolen eloth about the size of a dollar, in good preserva- tion. In this kettle were three rings and three thimbles. A finger bone with a ring on it, at another time, was found, the flesh under the ring being pretty well preserved. In "Hatchet meadow," on Cyrus Mitchell's land, the Indians left a spring protected by a tub made of a hollow tree.
They had burying-grounds on the banks of the Housatonic near their village, where skeletons have been exhumed as late as the present date, (1853,) which were found buried in a sitting posture, having various trinkets and implements buried with them. Many were buried so near the banks of the river, that a great freshet that happened several years ago laid bare many skeletons. Some eighty rods further up the river, bones have been plowed out in throwing up. the highway. Near the school-house in this locality, are many mounds of a circular form, depressed in the center. Many skeletons have been at various times exhumed a fourth of a mile lower down, on the opposite side of the river, near Cockshure's Island, below Fort Hill. There was another burying-ground on the banks of the brook near the residence of David J. Stiles, Esq., in Southbury, now occu- pied by the ancient burying-ground of the first white settlers ; and
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HISTORY OF ANCIENT WOODBURY.
another still, at the upper end of Nonnewaug, on the East Sprain, where rest the remains of the chief of that name.
Such are the simple annals of the unfortunate and benighted race that once had possession of this fair heritage, and roamed in haughty independence through these sequestered vales. Not a Pootatuck remains in the territory of the "ancient town," to revisit, with Indian wail and lamentation, the forsaken and almost forgotten graves of his ancestors. When the floods, or the excavations of the present inhabitants, exhume the bones of a long-buried brave, they are gath- ered up with eager interest, to grace a public museum or private collection of antique curiosities. Their sun has set in darkness and in gloom. Advancing civilization, so fortunate and happy for the white race, brought nothing to the red man but disaster and decay. With a sad infatuation, he embraced its vices instead of its virtues. Before the white man touched these shores, they enjoyed their wild and savage mode of life without molestation. This was their own land. Here were their council fires. On the beautiful rivers they paddled the light canoe, and pursued their game in the unbroken forests. They went up by their mountains; they came down by their valleys ; they followed their own desires for happiness in wild, reckless exuberance. The mossy cliffs, and the dells in the thick woods, echoed back their shrill songs and fearful cry of war. But the white man took up his abode in their ancient hunting grounds. The strength of civilization met the weakness of barbarism. From that inauspicious hour the poor natives waned, and retreated farther into the wild solitudes. The children of the forest have passed away.
" Alas, for them, their day is o'er- Their fires are out from shore to shore ! No more for them the wild deer bounds- The plow is on their hunting grounds."
Their existence has become a matter of antiquarian research, and oft-told legend. Their brief history has been written in desolation. In the depth of the forest, in the silence of nature, away from the busy haunts of men, the contemplative mind is sometimes led invol- untarily to exclaim, " Where are they ?" and echo answers, " Where are they ?" In such solemn communion with nature and the spirits of the past, one is startled by the very depth of the silence around him.
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HISTORY OF ANCIENT WOODBURY. 111
" Where are they, the forest rangers, Children of this western land, Who, to greet the pale-faced strangers, Stretched an unsuspecting hand ?
" Were not these their own bright waters? Were not these their natal skies ? Reared they not their red-browed daughters Where our stately mansions rise ?
" From the vales their homes are banished, From the streams their light eanoe; Chieftains and their tribes have vanished, Like the forests where they grew,"
44
CHAPTER VIII.
ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY.
1666 TO 1760; THE HALF-WAY COVENANT CONTROVERSY AT STRATFORD LEADS TO THE SETTLEMENT OF THE TOWN of WOODBURY ; THIS PRACTICE EXPLAINED; JOSEPH JUDSON AND OTHERS' LETTERS TO REV. MR. CHAUNCY ; CHURCH AN- SWER TO THE MEN; TOWN PROPOSITION TO MR. CHAUNCY; THE PARTIES DIVIDE THE MINISTERIAL LANDS IN 1666; REV. ZECHARIAH WALKER BEGINS TO PREACH TO THE MINORITY IN 1668; MR. WALKER ALLOWED THE USE OF THE CHURCH TWO HOURS EACH SABBATH; MR. WALKER'S BILL OF PARTICULARS TO THE GENERAL COURT IN 1669 ; THREE HOURS' USE OF THE CHURCH EACH SAB- BATH ALLOWED MR. WALKER ; MR. WALKER EXCLUDED FROM THE CHURCH ; MR. WALKER ORDAINED OVER THE SECOND CHURCH OF STRATFORD MAY 5, 1670 ; COVENANT: SECOND CHURCH REMOVES TO WOODBURY IN 1672-3; MR. WALKER'S DEATH AND CHARACTER; STATE OF THE CHURCH; REV. ANTHONY STODDARD SETTLED IN 1700, AND ORDAINED IN 1702 ; HE PREACHES SIXTY YEARS ; GREAT PROSPERITY OF THE CHURCH UNDER HIS MINISTRY ; REVIVALS ; HIS DEATHI ' 760; SECOND CHURCH BUILT IN 1747 ; OLD AND NEW STYLE ; CHAR- ACTER O. MR. STODDARD ; REVIEW OF THE LAST NINETY YEARS.
RICHI as the historical incidents relating to Ancient Woodbury have been from the very first, and endowed as it has ever been with men of mark-minds of the first order-it is remarkable that this town has never found its historian. It has always occupied in deeds, if not in fame, a prominent place in all the historical events of the State. Wherever there has been labor to be performed, or deeds of valor to be done, the sons of Woodbury have ever been in the front rank. As in local position it is retired and secluded among the sweet valleys, surrounded by verdant hills ; so in historical position, her sons have allowed her to remain in the silent consciousness of unob- trusive worth, while later-born and less gifted sisters have occupied the fields of fame before her. Even now, at the end of nearly two centuries, the work of gathering the memorials of its long-buried worthies, the work of gratitude and reverence, is left to one not a native of the soil, nor bound by ties of consanguinity to the early
-
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HISTORY OF ANCIENT WOODBURY.
fathers. The first, and it might be said, the only history of the town, physical or biographical, if we except the brief paragraphs in Trum- bull's History of Connecticut, Pease & Niles' Gazetteer, and Barber's Collections, is comprised in the following extract :
" Woodbury lies on the same river, (Osootonoc, ) and resembles Kentish-Town. The township, twelve miles square, is divided into seven parishes, three of them Episcopal. In this town lives the Rev. Dr. Bellamy, who is a good seholar and a great preacher. He has attempted to shew a more excellent way to heaven than was known before. He may be called the Athenian of Con- necticut ; for he has published something new to the Christian world-Zuinglius may learn of him."!
This seems to be rather a brief history, for a town of which so much may justly be said. It would have been fortunate had the present labor fallen into better hands, but it is proposed to supply in some measure the desideratum of an accurate local history.
It has been before stated in these pages, that the settlement of Woodbury was the result of religions dissensions among the people of Stratford. The principal cause of difference was in regard to church membership, baptism, and the discipline of church members. What the precise nature of the controversy was, could not be dis- tinetly understood by the most learned and pious even of that day. It was the same as that which existed at Hartford, Wethersfield, and other places. One would say, at this distance of time, that the question to be decided was, whether the " Half-way Cove' nt Prac- tice " should be introduced into the church or not. Upon nis ques- tion there was the most grave difference of opinion among he best and most distinguished men in New England. By this plan, a per- son of good moral character might own or renew the covenant of baptism, confessing the same creed as members of churches in full communion, and affirming his intention of becoming truly pions in heart and in life, and have the privilege of presenting himself and children for baptism. Nor did the privilege stop here ; he might also present for baptism his grandchildren, children bound to him as apprentices, and even his slaves, by giving a pledge for their reli- gious education. Persons thus owning the covenant were considered church members to all intents and purposes, except that they might not come to the communion table. For conduct unbecoming church members, they could be and were dealt with and punished in the
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