The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut, Vol. I, Part 13

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Hartford, Conn., Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard company
Number of Pages: 1038

USA > Connecticut > Hartford County > Windsor > The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut, Vol. I > Part 13

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The tythingman was a parish officer, annually elected to preserve good order in the meeting-house during divine service, as well as to make complaint of any disorderly condnet, travel, or other violation of Sabbath time and ordinances. In early days, the young folks and child- ren were seated in the galleries of the meeting-house ; and being removed from the watch of their parents, required the constant attention of the tythingman, whose patience and watchfulness were often sorely tried by their mischievous anties. In some churches, also, he seems to have had the additional charge of keeping the "old folks" awake: in which ease a gentle rap with the end of a long pole or staff of office was generally sufficient to bring the " lapsing senses " of the offender to a " wide-awake " position. His eye and ear were also keen to detect the sound or appearance of any Sabbath traveler on the high road, and such a one quickly found their onward course arrested "in the name of the commonwealth," unless they could prove that necessity was their exense.

About the beginning of the present century, a General Armstrong (?) having been ordered to report himself promptly at Boston, was pass- ing through Windsor on the Sabbath, when suddenly his carriage came to a stand. Surprised and impatient, he called to his driver to know why he stopped ; the reply was, " A man here refuses to let us pass." Putting his head out of the carriage window, the general beheld the late Mr. Lemuel Welch, holding the horses firmly by the head, and very carn- estly insisting that they should proceed no farther - that day at least. Angry at the supposed impertinence, the general ordered him to stand off, at the same time drawing and presenting his pistol at the intruder. But Mr. Welch was not so easily frightened. Maintaining his hold upon the horses. he firmly retorted : " I've seen a bigger gun than that, sir ; you can't go no farther. I've been in the Revolution and seen a bigger gun than that, sir. I'm tythingman in this town, and you can't go no further." Finding the officer inexorable, the irate general concluded

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that " discretion was the better part of valor," and accordingly went back and laid the matter before Judge Oliver Ellsworth, who, in his capacity of magistrate, and in view of the urgeney of the case, gave him a pass, which secured him against any similar arrest within the jurisdic- tion of Connecticut.

The occurrence, however, had a marked effect upon the observanee of the Sabbath in this town. Mr. Welch called on the judge next morn- ing for an explanation of the ease. He felt mueh chagrined at the es- cape of his prisoner, and wished to know if it was expected that he was to " fish with a net that would catch the little fish, and let the big fish run through." He resigned his office in disgust, and his successors for several years neglected to perform their duties. Finally the leading men of the town became justly alarmed at the increase of Sabbath travel, and with the judge at their head made strenuous efforts to restore the execution of the Sabbath laws, but with only partial success. Some years later, among the conditions which entitled a man to the elective franchise was the hokling of eivil office, and demagogues found this a convenient office to give those not otherwise qualified for admission ; and twenty-five years ago, the office of tythingman was given to men, who, if they executed the laws, would have indicted themselves every Sabbath.

Tythingmen, we believe, are yet appointed : but, it may with truth be said, that when the gallery pews in the meeting-house ceased to be the playground for ill-governed boys on the Sabbath. the office of tyth- ingman had fulfilled its mission.

CHAPTER V.

INDIAN HISTORY.

T THE number of Indians in Connecticut, although undoubtedly over- estimated by historians, was larger in proportion to the extent of territory than in any other part of New England. "The seacoast, har- bors, bays, numerous ponds and streams, with which the country abounded, the almost incredible plenty of fish and fowl which it afforded, were ex- ceedingly adapted to their mode of living. The exceeding fertility of the meadows upon several of its rivers, and, in some other parts of it, the excellence of its waters and the salubrity of the air, were all cirenm- stanees which naturally collected them in great numbers to this tract. Neither wars nor sickness had so depopulated this as they had some other parts of New England." Numerous as they were, there is little doubt that all the Connectient clans were only fragments of one great tribe, of which the chief branches were the Nehantics and Narragansetts. It was not uncommon for the son of a sachem, when he had arrived at manhood, to leave his home with a few followers, and establish a new family or elan, subordinate to his father's. Or, perhaps, two brothers of the " blood royal" agreeing on a division of sovereignty and hunting lands, would form in time distinct tribes, closely linked by intermar- riages, and maintaining a firm alliance in matters offensive and defen- sive. "The Nehanties of Lyme, for instance, were closely related to the Nehantics of Rhode Island ; Sequassen, chief of the Farmington and Connecticut River countries, was a connection of the Narragansett sachems; and the Indians of Windsor, subjects of Sequassen, were closely united to the Wepawaugs of Milford. Thus various connections might be traced between the Narragansetts and the tribes of western Connecticut, while both united in holding the Pequots in abhorrence. and seldom bore any other relation to them than those of enemies or of unwilling subjects."

The Connecticut tribes, indeed, at the coming of the white man, presented the singular and pitiable spectacle of a whole nation, numeri- cally large and capable, in a state of abject fear and submission to two powerful and savage enemies. Those inhabiting the eastern part of the

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colony (excepting the large and powerful elan of Narragansetts ) were subject to the Pequots, a branch of the great Mohegan nation, whose principal seat was on the east bank of the Hudson River, and who. by superior prowess, had established themselves in that fine country, along the coast from Nehantie on the west to Rhode Island on the east. Inasmuch as Pequottoog (as Roger Williams wrote it) means " destroy- ers," or " ravagers," it is probable that the name Pequot was applied to them by their less powerful enemies.

It was their exactions and cruelties that induced Wahguinnacut and others of the River Sachems, in 1631, to seek the aid of the English. And their bitter hostility toward the white man, because they accepted that invitation, provoked the terrible retribution which overtook them at the Mystic Fort in 1637, and which utterly blotted the Pequot race and power from the face of the earth.

The tribes west of the Connectiont River had been similarly con- quered and made tributary to the lordly Mohawks or Iroquois. Two old Mohawks might be seen, every year or two, issuing their orders and col- leeting their tribute, with as much authority and haughtiness as a Roman dictator. Their presence inspired the western tribes of Connecticut with dread and fear. If they neglected to pay this tribute, forthwith the Mo- hawks would come down upon them, like wolves upon the fold. As soon as the Connectient Indians discovered their approach, the alarm was raised from hill to hill, " A Mohawk ! a Mohawk !" and with the terrible battle-ery of the enemy " We are come, we are come to suck your blood," ringing in their cars, they would fly without attempting the least resist- ance. If the fugitives could not escape to their forts, they would im- mediately flee to the English houses for shelter, and sometimes the Mo- hawks would follow them so closely as to enter with them, and kill them in the presence of the family. If however, there was time to shut the doors, they never entered by force, or on any occasion offered vio- Ience to the English. - Trumbull, Hist. Conn.

Gladly then did the unfortunate River Indians receive the white man as a neighbor and a protector: gladly did they witness the extine- tion of their dreaded foo, the Pequots, by his prowess ; but, how little did they imagine that their own fate was scaled, that theneeforth they themselves would gradually disappear before the arts and civilization which he brought with him. Could they have obtained one glance into the dim and dusky glass of the future, their joy would have changed to mourning, and the sweetness of friendship would have turned to the wormwood bitterness of hate.

The Indians, at the coming of the English settlers, were a nomadic race, subsisting chiefly on fish and the products of the chase, together with such little stores of corn, beans, and squashes as they could raise

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in their rude way, and nuts and berries which they gathered. Their wigwams or habitations were rude, and their domestic manners and morals loose. They believed in two deities. One, the Good Spirit, was benevolent in disposition and gave them their eorn, beans, and squashes: but, as they imagined that he did not trouble himself about the affairs of men, he received Int little veneration from them. The other deity was the author of all evil : and. as they entertained a salutary fear of his power and malignant spirit, they honored him with the greatest respect, which was evinced in frequent dances, feasts, and, it is believed, some- times by human sacrifices. The language which they spoke was the Mo- hegan. a language with some variations of dialect common to all the aboriginal tribes of New England.

We now come to the consideration of that part of our subject which is more intimately connected with the purpose of our history, viz., the Indians of Windsor. With regard to these, tradition, rather than re- search, has been the basis of our previous knowledge. And, in the in- vestigation which we have made, historie truth compels us to differ widely from the commonly accepted opinion as to their numbers and in- fluence. The most that has hitherto been known about them is con- tained in the following extract from Dr. Trumbull's History of Connerti- ent (i. 27) :

" Within the town of Windsor, only, there were ten distinct tribes. or sovereignties. About the year 1670 [nearly forty years after the first settler], their bowmen were reckoned at two thousand [and but 150 (?) volunteered from the three towns to go with Capt. Mason to fight their old enemies, the Pequots]. At that time, it was the general opinion that there were nineteen Indians in that town to one Englishman. There was a great body of them in the centre of the town. They had a large fort a little north of the plat on which the first meeting-house was erected. On the east side of the river, on the upper branches of the Po- duk, they were very numerous."

That the above statement is founded on " old men's tales " and " old women's fables," and that it is unsubstantiated by any record evi- dence whatever - a very little criticism will show.

The statement, that in 1670 there were 19 Indians to one English- man in the town, can be traced back pretty conclusively to the Rev. Mr. Hinsdale (pastor of the North Society in Windsor, 1766-1795), from whom there is evidence to show that Dr. Trumbull probably obtained it.

1 They attempted to cultivate little of anything else than Indian corn, and that only in the rudest manner. Their domestic implements were made principally of stone, and adapted chiefly to culinary purposes. Mr. Jabez H. Hayden of Windsor Locks has a. little of the corn raised by the Windsor Indians, which bears strong marks of the manner of its culture. See Note 2. page 27.

VOL. I .- 14

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If, however, Mr. Hinsdale kept historical facts as loosely as he did his church records, his testimony is worth little. But we have weightier testimony than any traditionary lore. We have in the Old Church Rer- ord (unknown to either Trumbull or Hinsdale) a list of the number of births and deaths in Windsor from its settlement in 1635, down to 1677.' In 1650, twenty years earlier than the date of Trumbull's estimate, there were certainly 116 houses in Windsor, and probably more. If we call the average family 5. we have a population of not less than 600, in 1650. In 1677, Matthew Grant ( Old Church Record ) says the births in Wind- sor " which have come to my knowledge " (he was Town Clerk ) were " 1025, of these 128 had died." The families removing from Windsor took with them about 120 of these children, leaving in 1677 about 775 persons in Windsor born here. There could hardly have been a popula- tion in 1677 of less than 1.000; but we will suppose that in 1670 there were but 800. Multiply these by 19 and it gives an Indian population of 15,200, or 1,220 more than the total white population, as per census of 1880, in all the territory then comprised in Ancient Windsor, viz., Windsor, Windsor Locks, Bloomfield, East Granby, East and South Windsor, and Ellington! The absurdity, therefore, of Trumbull's esti- mate is apparent. If it had been correct, there certainly is no reason why the Windsor Indians should have invited the English to the banks of the Connecticut to aid them in resisting the attacks of the Pequots, for they alone could have overpowered and conquered the latter in a single campaign.

That " there was a large body of Indians in the centre of the town," we also find no evidence except the assertion of Trumbull. As early as 1640, all the lands where the " large fort " stood was laid out into house lots and occupied as such. . There is not the slightest allusion in any of the town or colony records to such a fort, or to the presence of any con- siderable body of Indians at this spot. We know that the English, in 1637, oven doubted the fidelity of the savages who accompanied them in the Pequot expedition, until it was tested in the engagement with the enemy : and common sense assures us that the Windsor people were never so imprudent as to allow the Indians as neighbors under the very walls of the Palisado. In King Philip's war in 1675, it is well known that the Windsor Indians remained faithful, and were mostly situated on the eastern banks of the Connecticut. In short, all the evidence, both real and presumptive, which we have been able to collect, strongly dis- proves the existence of any very large number of Indians, either in the center or within the limits of Ancient Windsor.

In our opinion, mouldled on a careful examination of the subject, the facts are these: We believe that the Indians in this vicinity were

1 See Appendix A.

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once numerons. Arrow heads, stone axes, and parts of stone vessels are often met with, particularly near the river. Indian skeletons are often discovered in making excavations, or by the breaking away of the river's bank. It will also be remembered that the " number of warlike Indians " was one of the chief dangers which deterred the Massachusetts Colony. in 1633, from joining in the trading enterprise proposed by the Plymouth Colony. It is not improbable that at that time the Indians may have had a fort upon the spot mentioned by Trumbull.' The position is certainly favorable for such a purpose, as our fathers thought, for they too built their Palisado there. But after Hohes had set up his trading house in Plymouth meadow, the luidians mostly settled in his immediate neighborhood, that they might better avail themselves of his assistance against their mutual enemy, the Pequots." While here, they were at- tacked. in the spring of 1634, by the small-pox, and " very few of them escaped." Their chief sachem, together with nearly all of his kindred, were among the victims of this pestilence, which almost broke up the tribe. The survivors returned with their remaining sachem, Aramamet, to their old home (near Wilson's Station ) in 1639. The Rev. Frederic Chapman used to relate that he once saw, when a boy, and living in the south part of the town, an old Indian woman, the last of Aramamet's tribe, and who was supported by the town.

So thinned were their numbers, and so effectually was their power broken, that the Massachusetts people gained confidence to attempt the colonization of the country, which was commenced by the Dorchester people in the following year. At the time of their arrival, then, it is more than probable that the whole number of Indians, men, women. and children, within the present limits of Windsor, did not exceed three hund- red. There could not, at this time, have been any Indian tribes in Windsor west of the river, except that of which Aramamet was chief, in 1636, at the head of the Hartford meadow, and the remnant of a tribe at Poquonock, under Sheat, afterward Nassahegan. That they were few in number is evidenced by their reserving, in 1642, "a part of a meadow at Poquonock now in occupation of the Indians," a meadow hardly capable of supplying an ordinary English family : and the refer- ences which we find to Windsor Indians during the half century succeed- ing 1636 proves them to have been very few in number.

1 Some years since Epaphras Mather, while making an excavation near his house (opposite and a little north of Mr. James Sill's) dug up an Indian skeleton, accompanied with various bits of wampum and copper beads, evidently of Dutch or European man- ufacture. In digging a cellar to the same house, several other skeletons were found. This is near the spot where Trumbull locates the " large fort."

: This is evident from Bradford's Journal, and also from the deposition of Sequassen (Conn. River Sachem) before the court in 1640, in which he says that he was " neither at any time conquered by the Pequots, nor paid any tribute to them; and when he sometimes lived at Matainuck (Windsor) and hard by his friends (the English) that lived here, that he and his men came out and fought with " the Pequots.

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The Podunks of South Windsor were probably more numerous than either of the tribes mentioned on the west side, and there was a little remnant of the Namerick Indians a mile below Warehouse Point, too insignificant as a tribe to have had a sachem.

That there were more living east of the river than on the west side we are quite certain : but we much doubt whether all the Indians dwell- ing within the original bounds of Ancient Windsor, viz., between Sims- bury Mountains and the hills cast of Ellington, exceeded one thousand. The restless Pequot and the pestilence had prepared the way for the advancing wave of civilization, and before that wave the red sons of the forest disappeared as footprints on the seashore are offaced by the rising tide.

Adrian Block, the first white discoverer of the Connecticut River, in 1614, found its valley from the north part of Haddam, northorly to and probably somewhat above Matianuek (or Mattancang ) in Windsor, in the possession of Indians whom he calls Sequins. Between 1614 and 1631 we have no information concerning these river tribes. But in June S. 1633, the Dutch bought from the Pequot sachem, Wapyquart, the flat land (" Suckiage, Sieaoge" ) comprising " Dutch Point" and the " South Meadow," on which the city of Hartford was afterwards erected, and, " for greater security, Sequeen and his tribe went to dwell close by Fort Hope." This Sequeen (for the name in the Dutch records seems to be applied indifferently both to the tribe and its sachem) was prob- ably he who was known to the English as " Sowheag; " and though the strength of his trihe had been much broken in its wars with the Pequots, still he was "a great sachem." selling the sites of Middletown and of Wethersfield to their English settlers. The date of his death is not known, but probably before 1650, as in a report made by Governor Stuyvesant of New Amsterdam to the States General, in 1649, he is referred to as "the late Sequeen." ( Holland Doe., i. 543, 546, note ; Conn. Col. Ree., i. 434: see Judge Adams' Ilist. Wethersfield, Hartford County Mem. Hist., ii. 432): and in 1664 there is mention of land reserved at Wonggum (the great bend of Connecticut River between Middletown and Portland > for his posterity. His successor was Turra- mmggns ("Cataramuggus") who died before 1705, and was succeeded by his son, " Peetoosoh," living at Wongum (now in Chatham ) in 1706.

The Sicaog or Suckinge Indians, so named from the " black earth" (sucki-auke) of the Hartford meadows, were probably a sub-tribe of the Sequins. Their sachem, at the arrival of the English 1633-4, was unekquasson (generally written Sonquasson, and Sequessen' ), whose

Alias " Sasawin," a son of Soheag. - Souwonekquawsir, otd Sequin's son " ( Roger Williams, 1636, Max. Ilist. Soc. (M .. . vi. 207.) " Sonquassen, the son of the late Srqueen, " named, 1649, in Holland Dor., i. 543.

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seat was at or near Hartford, who held the sovereignty of the Windsor, Hartford, Wethersfield, and Farmington tribes.' He seems to have been a brave and talented but unprincipled person, whose fame has been somewhat tarnished by his alleged conspiracy against the English in 1646. His only immediate connection with our Windsor history, which we know of is his interest in the first land in Windsor sold by the Indians to the Plymouth Company in 1633. The latter had purchased the same " for a valuable consideration " from Sequassen and Nattawanut, who are described as " the rightful owners." Nattawanut was the actual sachem of the Matianuck or Windsor tribe. He fled to the English for protection from the Pequots, and was brought back by Captain Holmes in 1633, who purchased of him the land on which he settled at Windsor." He is probably the sachem who died from small-pox the next spring, as his name does not again appear after that time. Ile was succeeded as early as 1636 by Aramamet, whose residence was on the high ground at the upper end of Hartford Meadow, opposite to the mouth of the Podunk River. It seems that he afterwards removed to the immediate vicinity of the Plymonth House, where he could easier avail himself of assistance if attacked by the Pequots. After the transfer of the lands of the Plymouth Company to the Windsor settlers, in 1638. Lieutenant Holmes, the agent of the former, refused permission to the Indians to plant on the small tract of land which was reserved to the Plymouth Honse, whereupon "Aramamet and the Indians cohabiting with him" complained to the court about it, and the court, after a full hearing of the case, decided that the Indians might " plant the old ground for this year only, and they are to set their wigwams in the old ground, and not without."- C'ol. Conn. Rec .. ii. 16.

Aramamet afterwards, 1670, resold or confirmed to the Windsor people all the land which his predecessor Nattawanut had sold to the Plymouth Company nearly forty years before, and which they had trans- ferred to the Windsor people. This extended from Hartford to Poquon- ork, and probably marks the limit of the Matianuck tribe. Aramamet, although the successor, was not the son of Nattawanut. He was either a Podunk by birth, or intimately connected with that tribe by marriage, as he figures in several of their land sales on the east side of the river. He claimed, and the Colony recognized his title to, the greater part of the Podunk lands (South Windsor and East Hartford ), which he willed in 1672 ( being then resident at Podunk ) to his daughter, Songonosk, wife of Joshua ( alias Attawanhood ), son of Uncas.3

De Forest, Hist. of Conn. Inds .; Conn. Col. Records, and other authorities.

" Bradford's Hist. Plymouth Colony, 311, 313: " I brought in Attorangut, & there left him where he lived & died upon the ground, whom Tatobam, the Tyrant, had before expelled by war." G. Window's Letter to Winthrop, 104.

3 Windsor Land Records, Chapin (Ilist. of filasteubury) erroneously calls Aramamet a son of Uncas.

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North of the Tunxis or Farmington River was another distinct tribe called the Poquonnoes. Their seat was upon the beautiful meadows of that portion of the town which still bears their name. AAmid the charm- ing scenery of that pleasant valley of the Tunxis dwelt the largest mm- ber of Indians collected at any place in Windsor west of the Connecticut. Their first sachem known to the English was Sheat, who died soon after the settlement, and was succeeded by his son Coggerynossett, and his nephew Nassaheyun.' These twain seem to have held joint sovereignty until the death of the former, about 1680. After this date Nassahegan was the chief sachem of the Poquonnoc tribe." He was a good friend to the English, for we learn from a deposition made by Coggerynosset before his death, that Nassahegan " was so taken in love with the com- ing" of the white man that he gave them certain lands " for some small matter." His name, with the prefix of captain, is found among those Indians who went up with the English to the relief of Springfield in 1675. The next year he seems to have somewhat fallen under suspicion, and was confined at Hartford.3. Most of the lands of his tribe passed away from their possession before 1700. Sepanquat. his son. is only once mentioned as deeding a certain traet in Poquonnoc to Samuel Marshall in 1670, in consideration of a fine which he had incurred at the county court, and which the said Marshall had agreed to liquidate. Remnants of the Poquonnoc tribe lingered for many years around the homes of their fathers, and some have dwelt there even within the memory of people who are now living. A place in Poquonnoc meadow, bordering on the river, is still called The Old Indian Burying Ground.

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The history and genealogies of ancient Windsor, Connecticut, Vol. I, Part 13

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909 Publication date: 1891 Publisher: Hartford, Conn., Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard company Number of Pages: 1038

Author: Stiles, Henry Reed, 1832-1909
Publication date: 1891
Publisher: Hartford, Conn., Press of the Case, Lockwood & Brainard company
Number of Pages: 1038