USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Derby > The history of the old town of Derby, Connecticut, 1642-1880. With biographies and genealogies > Part 5
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lv
INDIAN BURYING GROUNDS.
often seen coming into my native village to sell parti-colored baskets and buy provisions and rum. Ruby was short and thick and her face was coarse and stupid. Jim's huge form was bloated with liquor, his voice was coarse and hollow, and his steps, even when he was not intox- icated, were unsteady from the evil effects of ardent spirits. At pres- ent I believe they are all in their graves."
There was another family called the Pann tribe, who were described by Mr. DeForest thirty years ago, as wandering about in that part of the country and owning no land. In a letter from a correspondent in Derby (W. L. Durand, Esq.) their settlement is described as located on the west side of the Ousatonic, above the Old Bridge place. He says : "They were called the Pann tribe and the old chief was named Pannee. I remember seeing some of the Panns when I was a boy. In dig- ging a cellar on the plains there, a great many bones were dug up-so many that the wife of the man who was intending to build, would not go there to live. He got the house inclosed, and after it had stood unoccupied a good many years, he sold it."
Those Indians who gathered around Joseph Mauwee at Nau- gatuck Falls, where Seymour now stands, were most if not all of them of the Paugasucks. When the Indian census was ta- ken in 1774, there were four of Joseph's band within the limits of Waterbury.
INDIAN BURYING-GROUNDS.
The first place in which the Indians buried was most proba- bly at Derby Narrows, some years before the English discovered the region. More bones, indicating such a ground, have been exhumed at this place than at any other.
Not many years since, when Mr. Lewis Hotchkiss was en- gaged in putting up some buildings near the Hallock mills, a large quantity of bones was discovered, and the indications were that they had been a long time buried. It is most likely that the Paugasuck tribe buried at this place a long time after the English began the settlement here.
The burying-ground at Turkey Hill was commenced proba-
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INDIAN HISTORY.
bly after that place was set apart for occupancy by Milford, about 1665.
Another ground was arranged soon after the beginning of the settlement of the English here, at the new fort on the Ous- atonic, a little above the dam on the east side.
A ground of this kind of considerable extent was at Seymour, where many fragments have been found within the memory of the living.
Another is said to be in existence, and the graves still visible, near Horse Hill, or, as it is called in one of the very early land records, White Mare Hill.
Across the Ousatonic from Birmingham, in the southern part of Shelton, was another burial-place, where the Pootatucks laid their departed to rest ; and there were others still further up that river on both sides.
As the Farmington Indians have been included in this survey of the ancient tribes, the monument erected at that place in 1840 may be referred to. On the bank of the river looking out upon Farmington Valley and Indian Neck, stands a block of coarse red sandstone bearing the following inscription, which is becoming rapidly obliterated :
"In memory of the Indian race, especially of the Tunxis tribe, the ancient tenants of these grounds.
" The many human skeletons here discovered confirm the tradition that this spot was formerly an Indian burying-place. Tradition fur- ther declares it to be the ground on which a sanguinary battle was fought between the Tunxis and the Stockbridge tribes. Some of their scattered remains have been re-interred beneath this stone."
The reverse side of the monument bears the following lines :
" Chieftains of a vanished race, In your ancient burial-place, By your fathers' ashes blest, Now in peace securely rest. Since on life you looked your last,
Changes o'er your land have passed ; Strangers came with iron sway, And your tribes have passed away. But your fate shall cherished be In the strangers' memory ; Virtue long her watch shall keep, Where the Red man's ashes sleep."
CHAPTER IV.
FURTHER AUTHENTIC RECORDS.
P ROGRESS in disintegration and decay in the native tribes may be traced a little further by the examina- tion of documents and records. Mr. J. W. DeForest in his " History of the Indians of Connecticut," a book which, after all deductions are made, is a remarkable production for a youth of one-and-twenty years, makes the following re- marks upon the retirement of the Red men before the aggressive race that had landed on their shores :
" Knowing little of European modes of life, and judging of the colo- nists greatly by themselves, they supposed that the latter would culti- vate but a little land, and support themselves for the rest by trading, fishing and hunting. Little did they think that in the course of years the white population would increase from scores to hundreds, and from hundreds to thousands ; that the deep forests would be cut down ; that the wild animals would disappear ; that the fish would grow few in the rivers ; and that a poor remnant would eventually leave the graves of their forefathers and wander away into another land. Could they have anticipated that a change so wonderful, and in their history so unprece- dented, would of necessity follow the coming of the white man, they would have preferred the wampum tributes of the Pequots and the scalping parties of the Five Nations to the vicinity of a people so kind, so peaceable, and yet so destructive."-(Pages 164, 165.)
Of course the natives knew not that they were parting with their homes forever ; neither did the new settlers know how swiftly their predecessors upon the soil would melt away before the glow and heat of a Christian civilization. But the process was inevitable, and in New England, at least, however it may have been elsewhere, it was as painless and as little marked by cruelty as it well could be.
INDIAN SLAVES.
Through several documents still preserved there come be- fore us certain Derby Indians in the peculiar character of slaves.
H
lviii
INDIAN HISTORY.
To students of colonial history it is a known fact that not only negroes but Indians were held as slaves in New England. That slavery should have existed in the colonies was almost a matter of course, in view of its recognition by the mother coun- try. The Massachusetts code, adopted in 1641, known as the " Body of Liberties," recognized it, and provided for its regula- tion and restriction ; and Connecticut in its code of 1650 fol- lowed in the same path. The ninety-first article of the Massa- chusetts code was as follows : " There shall never be any bond slavery, villanage or captivity among us, unless it be lawful cap- tives taken in just wars, and such strangers as willingly sell themselves or are sold to us. This exempts none from servitude who shall be judged thereto by authority." Ac- cording to this, persons might be sold into slavery for crime ; might be purchased in the regular course of trade ; or might be enslaved as captives taken in war ; and it will be observed that no limitation is made in reference to color or race. Probably, however, the English distinction was tacitly recognized, which allowed the enslavement of infidels and heathen, but not of Christians. Of the fact that Indians became slaves in the dif- ferent ways here mentioned, there is abundant evidence. In Sandwich, Massachusetts, three Indians were sold in 1678 for having broken into a house and stolen. Being unable to make recompense to the owner, the General Court authorized him to sell them. In 1660 the General Court of Connecticut was em- powered by the United Colonies to send a company of men to obtain satisfaction, of the Narragansetts, for an act of insolence they had committed upon the settlers. Four of the malefactors were to be demanded ; and in case the persons were delivered, they were to be sent to Barbadoes and sold as slaves. In 1677 it was enacted by the General Court that if any Indian servant captured in war and placed in service by the authorities should be taken when trying to run away, it should be "in the power of his master to dispose of him as a captive, by transportation out of the country." That the regular slave trade included traffic in Indians as well as negroes appears from several enact- ments of the General Court. For instance, it was ordered in May, 1711, " that all slaves set at liberty by their owners, and all negro, mulatto or Spanish Indians, who are servants to mas-
lix
SELLING CAPTIVES.
ters for time, in case they come to want after they be so set at liberty, or the time of their said service be expired, shall be re- lieved by such owners or masters respectively." At a meeting of the Council in July, 1715, it was resolved " that a prohibition should be published against the importation of any Indian slaves whatsoever." The occasion of this was the introduction of a number of such slaves from South Carolina, and the prospect that many more were coming. In October following, the Gen- eral Court adopted an act in relation to this matter, which was a copy of a Massachusetts act of 1712, prohibiting the importa- tion into the colony of Indian servants or slaves, on the ground of. the numerous outrages committed by such persons. Of In- dians captured in war, a considerable number were sold into slavery, but what proportion it would be impossible to say. It was a defensive measure, to which the colonists were impelled by the fact that they were "contending with a foe who recog- nized none of the laws of civilized warfare." It was resorted to in the war with the Pequots, and again in the war with King Philip.
In a manuscript, sold with the library of the late George Brinley of Hartford, namely, the account book of Major John Talcott (1674-1688), which includes his accounts as treasurer of the colony during King Philip's war, there are some curious entries indicating how the enslavement of Indians'in certain cases originated. The following account stands on opposite pages of the ledger (pp. 54, 55) :
" 1676. Capt. John Stanton of Stonington, Dr., To sundry commis- sions gave Capt. Stanton to proceed against the Indians, by which he gained much on the sales of captives.
" Contra, 1677, April 30. Per received an Indian girl of him, about seven years old, which he gave me for commissions on the other side or, at best, out of good will for my kindness to him."
Further light is thrown on this matter by the following docu- ments, which are interesting, also, in themselves11.
The first is a deed drawn up in Stratford, June 8, 1722 :
" Know all men by these presents, that I, Joseph Gorham of Strat- ford, in the county of Fairfield, in the colony of Connecticut, for and
11They are the property of the Hon. C. W. Gillette of Waterbury.
1x
INDIAN HISTORY.
in consideration of sixty pounds money in hand received, and well and truly paid by Col. Ebenezer Johnson of Derby, in the county of New Haven and colony aforesaid, to my full satisfaction and content, have sold and made over unto the said Ebenezer Johnson and to his heirs, executors and assigns forever, one Indian woman named Dinah, of about twenty-six years of age, for him, the said Johnson, his heirs, ex- ecutors or assigns, to have, hold and enjoy the said Indian woman Di- nah as his and their own proper estate from henceforth forever, during the said Dinah's life ; affirming the said Dinah to be my own proper estate, and that I have in myself full power and lawful authority to sell and dispose of the said Dinah in manner as aforesaid, and that free and clear of all incumbrances whatsoever. In witness I set to my hand and seal in Stratford, this eighth day of June, in the year of our Lord God, 1722.
SAMUEL FRENCH, Attorney for Capt. Gorham.
" Signed, sealed and delivered in presence of us,
JOHN CURTISS, JOHN LEAVENWORTH."
The second document traces Dinah's history a little further. It is dated at Derby, November 22, 1728. Before this date Col. Johnson had died, and this is the deed by which his widow dis- poses of a part of the estate to her son Timothy :
" Know all men by these presents, that I, Hannah Johnson, widow of the late deceased Colonel Ebenezer Johnson of Derby, in the county of New Haven, in the colony of Connecticut, in New England, for the parental love and good will which I have towards my beloved son, Tim- othy Johnson of Derby, in the county and colony aforesaid, and for divers other good and well-advised considerations me thereunto mov- ing, have given and do by these presents fully, freely and absolutely give, grant and confirm unto my beloved son Timothy Johnson, him, his heirs and assigns forever : that is to say, one Indian woman called Dinah, and also a feather bed that he hath now in possession, and by these presents I, the said Hannah Johnson, do give, grant and confirm and firmly make over the above named Dinah and feather bed, with all their privileges and profits ; and unto him, the said Timothy Johnson, his heirs and assigns forever, to have and to hold ; to occupy, use and improve, as he, the said Timothy Johnson, his heirs and assigns, shall think fit, without any interruption, trouble or molestation any manner of way given by me, the said Hannah Johnson, or any of my heirs, ex- ecutors or administrators, or any other person or persons from, by or
1xi
OLD RECORDS.
under me. And furthermore. I, the said Hannah Johnson, do by these presents, for myself, my heirs, executors and administrators, covenant and promise to and with the said Timothy Johnson, his heirs and assigns, that we will forever warrant and defend him, the said Timothy Johnson, his heirs and assigns, in the peaceable and quiet possession and enjoyment of the above named Dinah and feather bed against the lawful claims and demands of all persons whomsoever. In confirma- tion of all the above mentioned particulars, 1, the said Hannah John- son, have hereunto set my hand and seal this 22d day of November, in the second year of the reign of our sovereign Jord, King George the Second, and in the year one thousand seven hundred and twenty-eight.
HANNAH JOHNSON.
" Signed, sealed and delivered in the presence of, JOSEPH HULLS, CHARLES JOHNSON.
" Derby, November 22, 1728. This day Hannah Johnson, the sub- scriber of the above written instrument, personally appeared and ac- knowledged this to be her own free act and deed, before me.
JOSEPH HULLS, Justice of the Peace."
At no time in the history of American slavery has the recog- nition of human beings as chattels been more complete than it is in this old document, in which " the Indian woman Dinah " and " the feather bed " are classed together in so unceremonious a way.
That the purchase of Dinah in 1722 was not Col. Johnson's first experiment in slave-holding is evidenced by another docu- ment pertaining to the Indian literature of the Naugatuck val- ley, also in the possession of Judge Gillette. It is a brief paper from the hand of Colonel Johnson, relating to an Indian named Tobie, and certifying to his manumission. It is given just as recorded :
" these may cartifi whome it may consarn that tobee a Ingan that lived with me I had of a moheg Indian at new london 307 years agoo. he lived with me 12 year and is now and has bin a free man ever senc. october the 6 1713 EBENEZER JOHNSON."
There is an Indian deed given by Cockapatana and Ahunta- way, as sachems, and six other Indians, of land at the place still known as Tobie's Rocks, deeded to this same Tobie, in which he is said to be " a Narragansett Indian, formerly servant unto
1xii
INDIAN HISTORY.
Capt. Ebenezer Johnson of Derby." The deed is dated Sep- tember 7, 1693. The deed and the legend concerning Tobie's capture will be found in their chronological order in the body of this work.
The record shows that Tobie was taken in the time of King Philip's war, 1676 ; that he was twelve years a slave, being made free in 1688; in 1693 received the tract of land from the Nauga- tuck Indians "in consideration of ten pounds and a barrel of cider," and in 1713 this certificate was made. What circum- stances called for such a paper at that time is a question con- cerning which we have no information ; nor has there been seen anything in the records upon which to found a supposition, ex- cept that it was the time when he had petitioned, or was about to petition, the legislature for a patent for his land, as the town had just received a patent, although it proved to be unsatisfac- tory. And what reason the town could have had, if not a self- ish one, for opposing Tobie's petition, it is impossible to guess. It is probable that the certificate was given to show his right to hold property and become a citizen.
In 1709, Major Ebenezer Johnson sold another Indian girl, placing her in a vastly more satisfactory relation, according to modern ideas, than either of the other sales effected. The In- dians in deeding a certain tract say : " On account of a squaw Sarah, sold unto said Chetrenasut, and three pounds, ten shil- lings in hand received of Major Ebenezer Johnson of Derby." This tract of land was "lying in a place called 'Nayumps,' bounded northerly with Beacon Hill river, easterly with Milford, westerly with Naugatuck river, south with Lebanon river." This was a happy sale in this, that the Indian Chetrenasut obtained a bride. Well done, thou noble Red man of the forest, thou dost make a woman free, while thy white brother possesses the land that is the price of human, living flesh and blood ! O, slavery, what corrupting sin hast thou not committed in the land of Bibles and religion ! But there is a favorable thought on the slave-holder's side : he had given one man his liberty. " Seven pounds" was no price for a young slave woman ; for a few years later Mr. Johnson paid sixty pounds for one, apparently of about the same value. We may hope that the price was but nominal and the real object benevolent.
lxiii
THE TUNXIS INDIANS.
Turning again to the Tunxis Indians, with whom the Pauga- sucks are related, and from whom the Waterbury purchases were made, we find the same process of gradual decay taking place among them which we trace in other tribes. The main body at Farmington was joined from time to time by re-enforcements from the Connecticut valley ; and it is very probable that some of the Paugasucks joined them, since we are informed in one deed that some had settled in Hartford, where they were re- siding when they executed a deed of land in Derby. A school was established among them, a few were admitted as freemen, and a few became members of the church. But, notwithstand- ing the friendly feeling which existed, the lands which the In- dians had reserved slipped gradually from their grasp, and they found it desirable to emigrate. In 1761, the tribe was esti- mated at less than twenty-five families. They had moved back from their original position and were residing in the north-west part of Farmington and in New Hartford. In 1774, they num- bered fifty-six persons. Not long after, some of them removed to the country of the Mohawks ; others, subsequently, to Scata- cook, and from there to Stockbridge. The Tunxis Indians, as we have seen, had no established camping ground in the Nau- gatuck valley at the time of its settlement by white men ; nei- ther is there any strong evidence that they resided in the val- ley after they had begun to retire from their old reservation. It is probable, however, that some of the Indians who are still remembered as living in Waterbury, Litchfield and Wolcottville, belonged to that tribe. It is within the present generation that a family living in the Park road, in the western part of Water- bury, has entirely disappeared. Persons are still living who re- member Indian families in Wolcottville and Torringford. In the latter place a wigwam used to stand, in the very door-yard of a prominent citizen, Captain Shubael Griswold, some time after the Revolutionary war. Another family had their wig- wam, within the present century, in the field west of the brass mill in Wolcottville, where they had resided some years. In the edge of Goshen, a little north of Hart's Hollow, is a cave which used to be the recruiting station for the Indians while on their hunting excursions through that region. Many arrow- heads and other implements have been picked up at this place,
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INDIAN HISTORY.
indicating considerable occupation of it by these hunters. Another like place is found in Wolcott, or in the edge of the town of Bristol, near Wolcott, where implements have been found and which tradition, as well, claims to have been a resort of the Red man. Wist pond, in the western part of the town of Torrington was so called from an Indian by that name, who, it is said, was drowned in its waters. There used to be an Indian family in a cave in Harwinton, nearly opposite the mouth of Spruce brook, and another on the tract of land called the Wig- wam, lying along "West branch," not far back from Reynolds's bridge. In 1850, Mr. DeForest spoke of “ one miserable creat- ure, a man named Mossock," as living in Litchfield, "perhaps the sole remnant of the Tunxis tribe." There may be other similar traces of the departing Red man, which by a little effort could be discovered and, if it were worth while, recorded.
It is important to take a further look at the Pootatucks, from whom the extensive Litchfield purchase was made. As to their numbers, it is difficult to determine anything, but some conclusions may be drawn from the number of different individ- uals who signed the Indian deeds in Derby. From 1657 to 1678, or to the close of the sachem rule of Okenuck, a space of twenty-one years, there were over fifty different signers to these Indian deeds of the Paugasuck Indians. Sometimes only Oke- nuck's name is attached to a deed ; at other times two, five, seven and ten are recorded. The fact (which is demonstrated) that only a few signed when there were others who might have signed but did not, indicates that it was necessary for but a few to sign at a time. Hence, if during that time one in three of the men in the tribe signed, then the tribe consisted of one hundred and fifty men ; and, making allowance for deaths and removals, the tribe may have numbered one hundred men, or, on a small estimate, between three and four hundred persons at any time during the twenty-one years. It is quite apparent, nay, almost demonstrable, that the Indians increased in num- bers from 1657 to 1700, and afterward. Many of the Pauga- suck Indians united with the Pootatucks, from 1680 to 1730.
It is probable that the chief seat of the Pootatuck's in 1660 was at the old fort opposite Birmingham Point, on the west side of the Ousatonic, and that the settlement at Pomperaug was
1xv
A GREAT POWWOW.
mostly effected afterwards. In 1671, when this tribe deeded to Henry Tomlinson land on both sides of the river, at what is now Birmingham Point, fifteen names were placed on the deed, and in the next month to a quit-claim deed in confirmation of the territory of the town of Stratford, four others were added and in 1684, to another deed of the same character, eleven more were recorded. Here then, in the space of thirteen years, there are thirty men ascertained ; and on the calculations, as in the case of the Paugasucks as above noted, we estimate, making due allowances, there were about seventy men in the Poota- tuck tribe, and from two hundred to two hundred and fifty persons. When then, this tribe had increased, as most prob- ably it did, of its own numbers and by accessions from the Paugasucks, up to 1700, it very probably numbered over one hundred men. Hence, when President Stiles of Yale College, in his "Itinerary" in 1760, estimated the number of warriors of this tribe to have been fifty half a century before, he was not far out of the way.
The same writer preserves the account of a great "powwow," which took place at the village of the Pootatucks, somewhere from 1720 to 1725. The ceremonies lasted three days, and were attended by five or six hundred Indians, many of whom came from distant places, as Farmington and Hartford. While the Indians were standing in a dense mass, excited by dancing and other wild rites, a little Indian girl was brought forward, gaily dressed and covered with ornaments. She was led in among them by two squaws, her mother and her aunt ; and as she entered the crowd they set up a great yelling and howling, threw themselves into strange postures and made hideous grimaces. After a while the squaws, stripped of their orna- ments, emerged alone from the crowd and walked away, shed- ding tears and uttering mournful cries. Many white people stood around gazing at the scene ; but the savages were so ex- cited that none of them dared to interfere. A little white girl, who afterwards related the incident, ran up to the squaws and asked anxiously what they had done with the child, but the only reply was that they should never see her again. It was generally believed by the whites that the Indians had sacrificed her, and that this was an occasional custom.
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