USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Newtown > Newtown's bicentennial : an account of the celebration of the two hundredth anniversary of the purchase from the Indians of the land of the town of Newtown, Connecticut, held August fifth, 1905 > Part 3
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The Connecticut Colony had, as we may say, gained con- sciousness of its power and of its rights in the Pequot war ; it had made declaration of its principles of government and claimed and accepted the responsibilities of a common- wealth in the adoption of the Fundamental Orders, the first written constitution in the world establishing a pure and strong democracy; and it had strengthened itself by acquiring such governmental rights as were possessed by the commander of the fort at Saybrook. Meanwhile there had been growing, under the influence of an aristocratic settlement at the mouth of the Quinnipiack, a federation- for it was rather this than a commonwealth-the principles of which were not in entire accord with those of the
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River colony. We may remind ourselves, by the way, that in the first sermon preached at New Haven the settlers were bidden to think of themselves as led into the wilderness to be tempted of the devil.
Soon the days of the Commonwealth in England came and passed ; the King fell and the King came to his own again; and the new King gave to the younger Winthrop for his Colony of Connecticut that wonderful charter which continued its former government, confirmed to it all that it had ever had or claimed, and in fact assured its perpetu- ation for all time. An immediate result of the charter was the inclusion, in 1662, of New Haven in Connecticut, not very willingly accepted by those who were thus deprived of a sort of sovereignty without their consent, but seen to be necessary for common safety and for mutual advantage ; and the united colony was able to take her place among friendly neighbors and to assert her rights against her opponents. It is not amiss, perhaps, to note the growth of the body politic by enumerating the towns which came under the general provisions of the charter. In Connecticut proper, besides the original towns of Wethersfield, Hart- ford, and Windsor, there were eight: Saybrook of equal antiquity with the three, Stratford, Farmington, Fairfield, Norwalk, Middletown, New London, and Norwich. With New Haven there were four others; Milford, Guilford, Stamford, and Branford. I do not mention the towns of Long Island which were under the one or the other of these jurisdictions, as they did not long continue their relations to them. These fifteen towns formed on the whole a homo- geneous and prosperous community. Under the spiritual care of well educated and godly ministers; with upright magistrates, who administered wisely the laws made by the representatives of the people; training their children in as well furnished schools as the times would afford, and found- ing a Collegiate school for their higher education ; practising
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and strengthening what came to be known as the New Eng- land conscience; the people of this commonwealth took, quietly but surely, their place as men and as Christians.
Before the time came when these lands were secured for a settlement, Connecticut had been called upon to do a good deal and to suffer a good deal for the common interests of New England and for the maintenance and defense of the rights and claims of the mother country ; and in doing this she had come into a depressed financial condition and felt the need of greater activity ; but she was ever the same brave and patient commonwealth, doing her best and waiting her time.
And in all these years the colony was growing by the occupation of new territory and the organization of new towns, each a political unit, as the former towns had been, and each taking its place in the common life. In this neighborhood Derby and Woodbury and Waterbury had been founded before 1700, and Danbury, further west, be- came a town before the first settlers here were ready for incorporation. Such lands as we see lying about us could not be left unoccupied ; it is to hear the story of their occupa- tion and of that which followed upon it that we are assembled to-day. I have already kept you too long from listening to your historian ; but I have tried to sketch a back- ground on which the local record may be projected, and to suggest what sort of a body politic it was, with its 18,000 inhabitants, its churches and schools, its rising college hav- ing four students already graduated, its simple and strong form of government, its honorable history, its high ideals and aspirations, and its preparation for a noble future, in which the settlers of this community were preparing, two hundred years ago, to form a new unit of life and adminis- tration. Let me but add that a commemoration of this kind has a value and an influence far beyond the limits of the town in which it is held. It affects the life of the State, and
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gives an inspiration to many who have but a remote connec- tion-perhaps no personal connection at all-with your history. The deserved praise of "famous men and our fathers that begat us" awakens in others than their descend- ants an appreciation of the past and a determination to make the future worthy of it. And while we look for a result of what is said and done here to-day in a renewed interest in local history, a better appreciation of the value of your foundations, a clearer view of the opportunities of your town and of the duties of its citizens, a sense of the import- ance and appreciation of the past and a determination to make plans both for the near and for the far-off future of your home, we may not forget that all this influences a wider community ; and that as the present in its wide unfoldings is what the past, sometimes in narrow lines of work and influence, has made it, so the future is affected far beyond the possibility of our thought by our labor, our character, our unselfish devotion to the common good.
The Chorus sang "Praise ye the Father," and the Presi- dent of the day said :
"When your Executive Committee began its plans for this celebration, the chief feature of it was, as a matter of course, an historical address commemorative of the event we would mark and of the early history of the town's settlement. It was equally a matter of course that they should choose to make that address the one whom you will hear to-day. Born of a family whose ancestor was one of the original settlers of the town and which has lived in the town continuously for two hundred years down to to-day, our historian was himself a native of Newtown, and here has spent his life. He thus embodies the history
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of our town in himself. He has also the historic instinct. With a memory rich in local traditions and a deep interest in its past, he has the industry to delve into the ancient records and trace to their sources events which lie in obscurity. Nor less is he inspired with a genuine loyalty to the town's best traditions and a willingness to help lift it to high ideals. For many years a member of the Board of Education, with a deep love for children and a genuine interest in the rising generation, he has undertaken the preparation of this history largely for their benefit.
"It would be impossible in an address of suitable length to be delivered on such an occasion that the historian should trace in any but the faintest outline the complete history of our town to the present day. That he should give us with some fulness the history of the town in its beginnings and in that part which reaches back beyond the memory of the present generation, was a wise choice. His subject, there- fore, to-day is 'Pioneer Life in Newtown to the Close of the Revolution.' We trust that on a future occasion he may bring the history of the town down to our own day. It gives me very great pleasure to introduce one so well known and loved, Mr. Ezra Levan Johnson."
4
HISTORICAL ADDRESS
OF
EZRA LEVAN JOHNSON
When it became known that as a town we were nearing the Bicentennial of two events of historic interest, the pur- chase from the Indians in 1705 of the land that comprises our township, and also the time when we were incorporated a town by act of the General Court in October, 1711, the question naturally arose, which of these events should be observed, or whether each should come in its turn. The gathering of to-day shows how the question was answered.
We cannot call upon those who were active participants in the early days to tell us the story of the almost forgotten past. The moss has gathered, and is still gathering upon the headstones in our village cemetery, telling that long ago the first settlers began to fall asleep. Children and children's children have followed in quick succession, until none are left to tell the story of the first hundred years. Fortunate for us, that the town and church records have been so well preserved, that from those sources so much can be gathered of value. We have no historic landmark as the nearby towns of Fairfield, Ridgefield, Redding and Danbury have. We have no battlefields where the blood- stained sod was once plowed by shot and shell as contending armies met in deadly strife. We have no Putnam Park with its crumbling chimneys and its broken hearth-stones that mark the places where the American soldiers, under the gallant Putnam, bivouacked during the rigors of a long
EZRA LEVAN JOHNSON Chairman of the Bicentennial Executive Committee, Historian of the Day.
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New England winter while keeping vigil against an invad- ing foe. The pleasant homes that line our village street were not erected, as those of Fairfield and Danbury were, on the ruins that followed the conflagration caused by the invaders' torch. A quiet inland town ours has ever been, with agriculture as its basis ; consequently our history must lie along the lines of peace. On the plains of our vast domain that lie beyond the Rocky Mountains, where cities spring up in a day and villages are of mushroom growth, the man or the woman who drove the stakes for the first homestead plot is still living on it, and could tell us in a half hour's time or less the history of the town from its birth to the present time.
Not so is it with our staid New England towns, and Newtown is no exception to that rule. No one within the hearing of my voice will presume to say or think, that in an hour's time anyone, however gifted in language or fluent in speech, can give the history of a town that has had an existence of two hundred years. Two hundred years, as we finite creatures count time, is a long stretch. In that time kingdoms may rise or fall, empires crumble away, new republics be born, the whole face of the globe be materially and permanently changed and the population constantly give place to the ever-coming tide of human life. But, whoever hears of the death of old New England towns? They may become depleted,-and we regret to be obliged to say they do,-but they never die. They are as tenacious of life as are the giant trees of the Yosemite valley, that count their age by the thousands of years, and grow more majestic and grand as the centuries roll by.
Of the Pootatuck tribe of Indians who occupied this region when the English first came among them, we know little as to their numbers or condition. That they were a peaceable tribe is affirmed by all historians. They never gave trouble to the whites, nor did they distinguish them-
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selves by wars upon neighboring tribes. Their lives seem to have been as peaceful as the everflowing waters of the Housatonic on whose banks they had their homes, and which locality will ever be known by its Indian name, Pohtatuck. We know not how many the tribe numbered at the time they sold their land, but President Stiles of Yale College says in his Itinerary, that in 1710 they numbered only fifty warriors, and in his opinion were at that time subject to Waramaug, a considerable sachem who lived on the Housatonic within the township of New Milford.
The Colonial Records abound with evidences of the persistent efforts made by the General Court to educate and christianize the Indians in the Colony. In 1736 it was voted "that at the next public thanksgiving there should be a contribution taken in every ecclesiastical society in the colony to raise money to be used for the civilizing and chris- tianizing of the Indians." Bounds were set for those who were called friendly Indians; the Connecticut river was the eastern boundary, and the Housatonic river the western boundary, and between those rivers the friendly Indians must stay, and no hostile Indian could cross those boundaries except at the peril of life; the General Court keeping a jealous eye on all who were looked upon with suspicion as likely to incite the Indians to any malicious or murderous intent.
From the report sent from the Colony of Connecticut to His Majesty's government by order of his Honor the Governor and the General Court in 1730, the Indian population of the Colony was reported as 1600, inclined to hunting, drinking and excessive idleness. Indians in the colony were taken into the military service when they offered themselves, and furnished with arms and ammunition and whatever else was needful to fit them for war, and for their encouragement they were to be allowed from the public treasury the same as the English, the sum of five pounds for
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every man's scalp of the enemy killed in the colony, to be paid to the person who did that service over and above his or their wages and the plunder taken by them. In 1761 it was reported to President Stiles that the number was reduced to one man and two or three broken families. Cothren, in his Ancient Woodbury, says Mauquash, the last sachem of the Pootatucks, died about 1758 and was buried in the "old chimney lot," a short distance east of the old Elizur Mitchell house and a short distance from the elevated plain on which stood the principal and last village of the Pootatucks, and that the last tribal remnant removed in "1759 to Kent, and joined the Scaticooks." Records show that in 1742 the General Court voted that the sum of twenty- five pounds should be delivered out of the Colony treasury unto the Rev. Anthony Stoddard and Rev. Elisha Kent, who should receive and improve the same for the instruction and christianizing the Indians at the place called Pootatuck. Rev. Elisha Kent was the minister in charge in Newtown from 1733 to 1740.
The ownership of land comes either by discovery, by con- quest, by gift or by purchase. Fortunately for the credit of our ancestors, as well as for our present comfort, this town- ship of ours came into their possession by purchase from those who were found in peaceable possession of it when Charles the Second, King of England, was on the throne. Many of his loving subjects had crossed the ocean to make for them- selves homes in the new world, when John Winthrop, John Mason and others petitioned his gracious Majesty the King, in view of the fact that they were so remote from the other English plantations in New England that "he would create and make them a body politique and corporate in fact and name, by the name of Governour and Company of the English Colony of Connecticut in New England in America." The petition was granted, impowering them in the name of the King and their successors after them "to be
1
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able and capable in the law to plead and be impleaded, to answer and be answered unto, to defend and be defended in all actions, matters and things of what kind and nature whatsoever, and to have, take and possess and acquire lands and to bargain, sell and dispose of, as other our liege people of this our realm of England, or any other body pollitique within the same may lawfully do." That we may under- stand the manner by which our township passed from the ownership of the Indians to the English, we must have recourse to the Connecticut Colonial Records.
At the session of the General Court holden in Hartford in October, 1667, an act was passed appointing a committee and empowering them with liberty to purchase Pohtatuck and the lands adjoining to be reserved for a village plan- tation. In 1670 the court further decreed
"that whereas several inhabitants of Stratford have had liberty to purchase Pootatuck for a village or town, the aforesaid committee with Mr Sherman of Stratford are hereby impowered to order the planting of the same, if it be judged fit to make a plantation; pro- vided if they do not settle a plantation there within four years, it shall return to the Court's dispose again."
In 1671 the General Court gave
"liberty to certain men to purchase of the Indians such land as they shall judge convenient within the bounds of the Connecticut colony always provided the said land shall remain to the dispose of the General Court, and when the land is disposed of by the court the committee shall have rational satisfaction for their disbursement."
In 1673 the court again appointed a committee
"to view the lands of the Pootatucks and those adjoining whether they may be fit for a plantation and to make return thereof how they find it, at the next session of the General Court in October."
Again, in 1678 the General Court appointed another committee, the Honored Deputy Governor, Major Robert Treat, with three other prominent men
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"to view and buy convenient land for a plantation in those adjacent places about Pootatuck, and when said land is purchased it shall remain to be disposed as the Court shall see cause and reason to order for the planting of it."
We have followed the action of the General Court in regard to the purchase of the land from the Indians to make clear that from start to finish there is no evidence of any undue haste or of intrigue in getting possession of their lands, and although the price paid for the land when it was sold looks contemptibly small and mean, it was a square deal and no trouble came from the Indians afterward in regard to the same.
On page 48, Volume I, of the Newtown Town Records is recorded the deed given by Massumpus, Mauquash and Nunnawauk acting in behalf of the Pootatuck tribe of Indians, to William Junos and Samuel Hawley, Jr., of Stratford, and Justus Bush of New York, of a tract of country eight miles long and six miles wide lying on the west side of the Great River, now called Housatonic, and bordering on it.
The deed was given in the reign of her Majesty, Queen Anne and reads as follows :
"Know all men by these presents, yt we Mauquash, Massumpas, Nunnawauk, all belonging to pootatuck in ye Colony of Connecticut for and in consideration of four guns, four broadcloth Coats, four blanketts, four ruffelly Coats, four Collars, ten shirts, ten pair of stockings, fourty pound of lead, ten-ten pounds of powder and forty knives, to us promised to be paid as by these bills under hand and one may more fully approve, we say we have Given, Granted, Bargained & sold, alienated, Conveyed and Confirmed and by these presents do freely, fully and absolutely Give, Grant, Bargain sell, alienate, convey and confirm unto William Junos, Justus Bush, and Samuel Hawley all now resident in Stratford in ye Colony aforesaid, a Certain Tract of land, situate, lying and being in the Colony of Connecticut, Butted and Bounded as followeth, viz. Bounded South upon pine swamp and land of Mr Sherman and Mr Rositer, South West upon Fairfield bounds, North West upon the bounds of Dan-
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bury, North East by land purchased by Milford men at or near ovanhonock and South East on land of Nunnaway an Indian, the line running two miles from the river right against pootatuck, the sd tract of land Containing in length eight miles and in breadth five miles but more or less, with all appurtanances, privileges and con- ditions thereunto belonging or in any wise appertaining to them. The said William Junos, Justus Bush and Samuel Hawley, their heirs and assigns to have and to hold forever to their own proper use, benefit and behoof for ever, and, we the said Mauquash, Mas- sumpus and Nunnawauk for us our heirs and administrators do covenant, promise and grant to and with the said William Junos, Justus Bush and Samuel Hawley, their heirs and assigns yt before ye ensealing thereof, we are the true, sole and lawful owners of ye above bargained premises and possessed of ye same in our own Right as a good, perfect and absolute estate of Inheritance in fee simple, and have in ourselves good Right, full power, and Authority to Grant, bargain, sell, convey, alien and confirm the same and all the privileges and particulars before mentioned in manner as above said and yt ye said Wm Junos, Justus Bush and Samuel Hawley, their heirs and assigns shall and may from time to time and at al times hereafter by virtue of these presents lawfully, peaceably and quietly, Have, hold up, occupy, possess and enjoy the said bargained premises with ye appurtenances free and alone and freely and clearly acquitted, exonerated and discharged of, and from al and al Mannor of former and other Gifts, Grants, Sales, losses, Mortgages, Wills, Intails, Joyntures, Dowries, Judgments, Enventory, Incumbrances, or other incumbrances whatsoever.
Furthermore, we, ye sd Mauquash, Massumpas & Nunnawauk, for ourselves, heirs, executors and administrators do covenant and engage the above described premises to them, the said William Junos, Justus Bush and Samuel Hawley, their heirs and assigns against the lawful claims or demands of any person or persons whatsoever for ever hereafter, to warrant and defend. Moreover, we, washunaman, was nabye, Moctowek, Awashkoeum, Annummobe, Mattocksqua, Jinnohumpisho, wompocowash, munnaposh, punnanta, wannomo, mosunksio, tacoosh, morammoo, Stickanungus, susrousa, we and every one of us doth for ourselves and each of us by ourselves, Do freely give grant and of our own voluntary mind Resign to the said William Junos, Justus Bush and Samuel Hawley all our Right title and interest by possession, heirship or by any other way or means whatsoever. Witness our hands and seals July ye 25 in the fourth year of her Majesties Reign, Anno Domino 1705. Signed,
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sealed and delivered in presence of Jacob Walker, Daniel Denton, Edward Hinman, Indian witnesses Obimosk, Nunawako, Maquash & Massumpas,
Personally appeared at potutuck & acknowledged ye above written Instrument to be thare free and voluntary act & deed before me this 12th September 1705, Jon Minor Justice Witness
Ebenezer Johnson .*
The above written is a true copy of the original file.
Test Eleazor Kimberly.
Exactly entered and compared Jany 22, 1710 per me. Joseph Curtis, one of the committee for Newtown."
As the General Court had sole power and control of purchasing Indian lands, the three men acting in their individual capacity exceeded their power, not having been appointed a committee for that purpose. Their act was contrary to the laws of the colony, as the General Court never intended that any Indian lands should be purchased in the interest of a land speculation. The deed of purchase bears date July 25, 1705, which corresponds to August 5, New Style. At the October session of the General Court holden in New Haven the same year of the purchase, the following vote was passed :
"Whereas, there are some persons, namely, William Junos, Samuel Hawley, Junr., of Stratford, and Justus Bush of New York, who have, contrary to the laws of this colony, lately purchased of the Indians some thousand of acres of land lying on the west side of the Stratford river as appears by a deed of said purchase now in the hands of the Court, this court doth recommend it to the civil author- ity in the county of Fairfield to take care that the said offenders may be prosecuted in due form of law for their illegal purchase of lands as aforesaid and do order that a copy of the said deed be
* The historian of the day is of the fifth generation in direct line of descent from Ebenezer Johnson, one of the first settlers of New- town, and whose name appears as witness on the deed given by the Indians. The names of the Indian witnesses are copied as written by the Recorder.
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transmitted to the said county court, that the said persons may be thereby convicted, and likewise to order prosecution of any other persons who shall be found to make or have made any such illegal purchases of land in said county."
At the May session of the General Court, 1706, the following act was passed :
" Whereas, Justus Bush of New York, Mr Samuel Hawley, Junr., and William Junos of Stratford, have, without liberty from this corporation, purchased a tract of land of some Indians lying within this colony, for which they are to be prosecuted at a special county court in Fairfield in June next, the said Junos offering to this court to resign to this corporation his part of said purchase and to endeavor that his partners shall do the like before or at this special court, this court do therefore see cause to order, that if the said Bush and Hawley and Junos do, before, or at the said county court make a full, free and firm resignation of the said deed or purchase of land above mentioned to this corporation and deliver the same completed according to law, into the hands of Capt Nathan Gold and Mr Peter Burr or either of them for the use of this cor- poration, that then the above said prosecution against them shall cease, or if any one or more of them shall do the same for his or their part, he, or they so doing shall not be any further proceeded against for his or their breach of law in making the above said purchase, and the person or persons so resigning, may present at the General Court in October next the account of his or their charge of their purchase above said for the Court's consideration."
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