USA > Connecticut > New Haven County > Derby > The history of the old town of Derby, Connecticut, 1642-1880. With biographies and genealogies > Part 6
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I
1xvi
INDIAN HISTORY.
In 1742, the Pootatucks petitioned the legislature for a school and a preacher, so that, as they expressed it (or some white friend in their behalf), "our souls need not perish for want of vision in this land of light," and their petition was granted. At this time they numbered forty persons. Previous to this, however (in 1733), they had sold about three-fourths of their reservation in Southbury, and many of them had joined the Wyantenucks of New Milford, whither they had been emigrating for more than thirty years. To the fragment of land and the Indian village which remained, known as the Pootatuck Wigwams, they re- tained a title for a quarter of a century longer ; but in 1758, they parted with it and took up their abode with other tribes. A clan of the Pootatucks resided alternately at Bethlehem, Litch- field and Nonawaug, and have been sometimes designated Ban- tam Indians. In 1761, the Pootatucks who remained in the vicinity of their old reservation consisted of one man and two or three broken families.
One year previous to the presentation of the petition just re- ferred to, asking for a school and a preacher (that is, in May 1741), a petition had been presented by a member of the Poota- tuck tribe asking the legislature, first, to allow something to- ward the schooling and supporting of his children ; secondly, to help him to a division of the Indian lands at Pootatuck. The document which is reproduced in full in Mr. Cothren's history of Woodbury,2 is a very curious one; but it demands our atten- tion just now because of the name of the petitioner, who speaks of himself as a poor Indian native, " Hatchett Tousey by name." Hatchett Tousey, notwithstanding its English sound, is obvi- ously the same name which appears repeatedly in the Woodbury and Litchfield records as "Atchetouset ;" and it is all the more interesting to us because we meet with it under the form " Hatchatowsuck " among the Tunxis and Paugasuck names af- fixed to the Waterbury deed of December, 1684, and again as connected with the Hatchett family of Derby. It would not be safe to consider the petitioner of 1741 identical with the signer of 1684; but we can certainly trace him in another quar- ter-in the town records of Litchfield. On the third day of August, 1732, John Catlin sold to "a certain Indian resident of
2Pp. 101, 102.
lxvii
A BRAVE SOLDIER.
Litchfield, commonly known as Hatchatousset, for eight pounds lawful money, one acre more or less of land in the crotch of Bantam river; " and on the 14th of May 1736, Hatchatousset sold this land to John Sutliff for ten pounds, making, as prob- ably he supposed, a fair profit.3 The idea of individual owner- ship had evidently taken hold of this native of the soil ; for in his petition, as we have seen, he prayed the legislature to help him to a division of the Indian land at Pootatuck -- " that I might have my right and just part set out to me, so that they might not quarrel with me; for they say if I am a Christian then I shall not have my land." He had learned, too, that being a Christian does not by any means take away the desire to have land ; and that being a Christian secures sometimes the oppo- sition of nearest kindred.
Another personage comes before us, whose name is already inscribed in history among the noble and honored defenders of our country. The name of one of the Indians who sold to the Litchfield settlers was written Corkscrew, apparently an im- promptu joke of the clerk at the time, who ought to have writ- ten Cotsure or Cocksure. This name within a generation or two became Cogswell ; a worthy member of the family which it represents is still living at New Milford, and another, William H. Cogswell, won a lieutenant's commission in a Connecticut artillery company in the late war. The Cornwall History4 speaks thus of this honored soldier :
"Lieut. William H. Cogswell died Sept. 22, 1864, aged 25 years, 2 months and 23 days. He enlisted as a private in the Fifth regiment, C. V., June 22, 1861, and was promoted to the Second Connecticut Artillery, for gallant services, Sept. 11, 1862. He was in the battles of Peaked Mountain, Winchester, Cedar Mountain, Cold Harbor and Opequan, and died from wounds received in the last battle.
" A handsome freestone monument, with the above inscription, erected by his fellow-townsmen, stands as a tribute to his memory. As a val- iant, faithful soldier he had no superiors, while in power to endure fa- tigue, agility, strength and never-failing spirits, he had few equals. The writer remarked to his colonel (Wessells) that William was one of
8These items were furnished by D. C. Kilbourn of Litchfield.
4T. S. Gold's, p. 223.
1xviii
INDIAN HISTORY.
a thousand soldiers. He replied, 'You might well say, one of ten thousand.'
" It is related of him that when on the march many were falling out of the ranks from fatigue, he grasped the muskets of three or four, car- rying them for miles, showing his men what strong and willing arms could do.
" Before he went into the army he was a noted runner at all our local fairs, surpassing all competitors, so that when it became known that he was to run there would be no race.
" He was the eldest son of Nathan Cogswell, to whose skilled hands Cornwall farmers are indebted for many of their fine stone walls, and grandson of Jeremiah Cogswell, a member of the Scatacook tribe."
This grandfather was probably Jeremiah Cocksure, who, re- moving with the remnant of the tribe from Pootatuck, became one of Gideon Mauwee's principal men. He was one of the converts of the Moravian missionaries, and his name often ap- pears in their lists.
When we consider the Indian's character, the stage of devel- opment he had reached, and the ordeal necessarily involved in his being brought suddenly into contact with an aggressive civ- ilization, his behavior in this trying period of his history seems worthy of high commendation. However cruel and bloodthirsty he may have been by nature, in his intercourse with peaceable white men he was peaceable ; if they showed themselves friendly he was their friend. Much is said of the Indian's treachery, but it was mostly reserved for enemies, and does not differ es- sentially from the deception and stratagems which in all ages civilized people have considered legitimate in war.
As a rule the conduct of the Indian was peaceable and friendly, but there were exceptions,-most of them traceable, it is pre- sumed, to the intemperate use of spirituous liquors. Among these exceptions may be mentioned a murder which was perpe- trated in the town of Litchfield, in February, 1768. The mur- derer was an Indian named John Jacob, and his victim was also an Indian. The guilty man was tried and executed the same year. Mention should also be made of Moses Cook of Water- bury, whose residence was on the north-east corner of Cook and Grove streets, where another branch of the family still resides. The crime was committed in the town of Bethany, on the
1xix
AN INDIAN'S CRIME.
7th of December, 1771, by an Indian named Moses Paul. It appears that Paul was born in Barnstable, Mass., about 1742. He lived at Windham, Conn., until twenty years of age, when he enlisted in the Provincial service in the regiment of Colonel Putnam. After the campaign was ended he became a sailor and followed the sea for several years, becoming confirmed in bad habits which he had contracted while in the army. After re- turning to Connecticut he lived in a very unsteady way for three or four years, staying but a little while in a place, and often be-
coming intoxicated. On the evening of December 7, 1771, at the house of Mr. Clark of Bethany, while under the influence of liquor, he quarreled with the proprietor. He seized a flat- iron weighing four and a half pounds (Paul himself testified that it was a club), and aiming a blow at Mr. Clark, missed him and struck Mr. Cook who was standing by. The wound termi- nated fatally five days afterward. Paul was pursued and arrested the same evening. He was tried in February, and after a fair and impartial hearing, which lasted a whole day, was found guilty of murder, and sentenced to be hanged in June. The General Assembly, however, on petition, granted a reprieve for three months. At Paul's execution, which took place at New Haven, Sept. 2, 1772, a sermon was preached " at the desire of said Paul," by Samson Occom, a well known Indian preacher and missionary ; the author, by the way, of the once popular hymn,
" Awaked by Sinai's awful sound."
A large assembly of whites and Indians had come together to witness the execution, and Occom, taking for his text the words, " For the wages of sin is death, but the gift of God is eternal life through Jesus Christ our Lord," delivered a quite elaborate and impressive discourse, in which there were some characteristic specimens of Indian cloquence. The sermon was subsequently published in several editions, and re-published in England in connection with the treatise of the younger Jon- athan Edwards upon the grammar of the Muhhekaneew (Mohe- gan) Indians. Mr. Occom in his preface says it was "a stormy and very uncomfortable day when the discourse was delivered," and hopes that it may be serviceable to his poor kindred, the
1xx
INDIAN HISTORY.
Indians, and that people may be induced to read it because it comes from an uncommon quarter5.
It is said that before the settlement of Torrington, a white man hunting on the hill which rises between the two branches of the Naugatuck river, just above where Wolcotville .now stands, saw an Indian and shot him ; and from this instance the hill was named Red Mountain. The reason the man gave for his deed, so closely similar to many committed on our Western frontier, was that he "knew if he did not shoot the Indian, the Indian would shoot him, so he shot first and killed him." But the white man's logic was at fault, unless he had good reason to believe that the Indian belonged to some remote and hostile tribe. Indians knew, as well as white men, who were friends and who were enemies, and there was no period subsequent to King Philip's war when any of the Indians of Connecticut would have been likely to shoot down a white man at sight, or without the utmost provocation. The shooting of this Indian was, therefore, without excuse, and the name Red Mountain stands as a dishonor to the white man.
The consideration of King Philip's war, and the other Indian wars of the colonial period, in their relations to the Naugatuck valley, must now engage our attention. Thus far we have been tracing the footsteps of a departing friend ; we have also to trace the coming and going tracks of a wily and cruel enemy.
The first war in Connecticut was that waged against the Pe- quots, in the very beginning of its history as a colony. The Pequots were of the Algonkin stock, but did not belong to the same family as the other Connecticut tribes. "The Pequots and Mohegans were, apparently, of the same race with the Mohicans, Mohegans or Mohicanders, who lived on the banks of the Hudson6." They were, therefore, without allies in the
5It is a fact worth mentioning in this connection, that the skull of Moses Cook was not buried with his body. It was probably prepared for examination and ex- hibited at the trial of Paul, and was afterward returned to the family. It was for many years in the possession of Mr. Cook's daughter, the wife of Titus Bronson, and mother of the late Deacon Leonard Bronson of Middlebury. This strange sou- venir was kept by Mrs. Bronson in a little cloth bag (it was in several pieces), and at her request was buried with her in 1841. Her grandson, Edward L. Bronson, re- members having seen it repeatedly in his boyhood.
6DeForest, 59.
1xxi
KING PHILIP'S WAR.
war, and were not only defeated, but practically extinguished by it. This was in 1636, and King Philip's war did not begin until forty years later. In the interval, which was a period of undisturbed peace, the settlement of Farmington took place on the one side, and of Milford on the other. The settlement of Derby, as we have seen, was begun as early as 1654, and in 1657 the deed was given in which Mattatuck is first mentioned -the land around the hill where the black-lead was found. It was during this era of peace that the meadow lands of the Naugatuck were discovered. Preparations had been begun for the settlement of Waterbury, when the colony was startled by the cry of war. The first intimation of a misunderstanding be- tween Philip, who was the chief of the Wampanoags in south- eastern Massachusetts, and the colonists, was in April, 1671. From this time, if not before this, Philip skillfully planned to unite all the New England tribes against the whites in a war of extermination. The want of friendship among the tribes ren- dered this a difficult undertaking, but he succeeded so far as to extend his operations from the St. Croix river to the Ousatonic. An Indian league was formed, and the result was the most for- midable war the colonists ever had to sustain. Hostilities ac- tually commenced on the 24th of June, 1675, and were termi- nated by the defeat and death of Philip fourteen months after- ward.
In this bloody conflict the colonists lost six hundred men. Thirteen towns were totally, and eleven partially, destroyed. The eastern part of Connecticut, being nearer the center of the conflict, suffered more seriously than the western ; but the val- ley of the Naugatuck was by no means exempt from anxiety, danger and trouble. If there had been no other sources of hard- ship, the enactments passed by the General Court and the Council-which have been correctly characterized as " equiva- lent to putting the whole colony under martial law"-must have come heavily upon such new settlements as Derby. At a meet- ing of the Council, held on the Ist of September, 1675, it was reported " that the Indians were in a hostile manner prepared with their arms near Paugasuck ;" and this, with other similar reports, led the Council to pass a stringent law in reference to carrying of arms by Indians :
1xxii
INDIAN HISTORY.
" The Council sees cause to order that whatsoever Indian or Indi- ans with arms shall be espied traveling in any of the precincts of our township without an Englishman be with them, if they do not call to such English traveling as they may see, and also lay down their arms, with professing themselves friends, it shall be lawful for the said English to shoot at them and destroy them for their own safety ; which it is our duty to provide for thus in time of war."
Two days afterward, it was ordered by the Council, that in each plantation a sufficient watch should be kept "from the shutting in of the evening till the sun rise," and that one-fourth part of each town should be in arms every day by turns. “It is also ordered that during these present commotions with the Indians, such persons as have occasion to work in the fields shall work in companies ; if they be half a mile from the town, not less than six in a company, with their arms and ammuni- tion well fixed and fitted for service." In October, the Gen- eral Court, in view of "great combinations and threatenings of the Indians against the English," ordered that sixty soldiers should be raised in each county, " well fitted with horse, arms and ammunition, as dragoons ; " that places of refuge should be fortified in every settlement, to be defended by such persons as the chief military officer in each town should appoint to that work ; and in case of an assault by an enemy or an alarm, any one who should willfully neglect the duty to which he had been appointed should be punished with death, or such other pun- ishment as a court martial should adjudge him to. The "places of refuge " were fortifications constructed of timbers placed vertically in the ground, so close together that no one could pass between. Such a wooden wall, with doors properly se- cured, afforded good protection against hostile Indians ; and to a house thus defended the population could resort with safety at night, and return in the morning to their own houses. In the following March, it was further ordered by the Council -" in regard of the present troubles that are upon us and the heathen still continuing their hostilities against the English, and assaulting the plantations,"-that the watch in the several settlements, an hour at least before day, should call up the several inhabitants within their respective wards, who should forthwith rise and arm themselves and march to their several
1xxiii
PROTECTION AGAINST INDIANS.
quarters, there to stand upon their guard to defend the town against any assault of the enemy until the sun be half an hour high. Mounted scouts, also, were to be sent out from every town to watch for the enemy, "going so far into the woods as they may return the same day, to give an account of what they shall discover."
It was under such circumstances as these that the inhabi- tants of Derby sought the advice and aid of the General Court.
In answer, the Court advised them to secure their grain and remove to a more populous village for protection. A few did remove, but some evidently remained.
For further account of this subject, see pages 55 and 56 of the body of this book.
J
CHAPTER V.
THE INDIAN AS AN ENEMY.
K ING Philip's war and its influence upon the fortunes of Waterbury, we should naturally suppose, must have been slight, for the simple reason that Waterbury was not yet settled. Yet it is probably owing to that war that Waterbury is where it is ; and it would not be unreasona- ble to connect the course of its later history as a manufacturing center, and therefore its modern prosperity, with the same event. As we have seen, the first purchase of land around Waterbury Center was made in August, 1674. It was during the same season that a site was selected for the contemplated village, and there seems to have been no thought at first of any other site than the elevated plateau on the west side of the river, overlooking the meadows and the amphitheater amidst the hills where the city is now situated. The land on the east side was low and swampy and full of springs; that on the west side was elevated and airy ; and accordingly in this latter situ. ation (known ever since as the Town Plot) roads were laid out, the one which ran north and south being sixteen rods wide. The " home lots," measuring eight acres each, were ranged along this road or street, sixteen on each side. This was ac- complished in the autumn of 1674, and apparently nothing more than this. So far as we can see, the settlers would have returned in the course of the following year to resume their work and erect dwellings on the Town Plot ; but in June, 1675, the war with King Philip began ; and not only was all thought of establishing new settlements abandoned, but some of those already commenced were broken up. There was no assured peace until the latter part of 1676, and meanwhile the Water- bury proprietors (unless indeed some of them went forth to the war) remained in their Farmington homes. In the spring of 1677, tranquillity being restored throughout the colony, they began again to make plans for a new settlement; but in the meantime they had learned to think of the dangers which sur-
1xxv
THE FIVE NATIONS.
rounded them. For several reasons they had become dissatis- fied with the site they had chosen on the west side; but the chief reason, the imperative argument against it, was the in- creased exposure it involved to attacks of hostile savages. At the best, Farmington was twenty miles away-the only place they could look to for succor or refuge in case of attack-and they did not deem it best to place between them and their friends, in addition to this broad expanse of wilderness, a fickle and sometimes destructive river. A meeting of proprietors was accordingly called in Farmington, and a committee ap- pointed " to view and consider whether it will not be more for the benefit of the proprietors in general to set the town on the east side of the river, contenting themselves with less home lots." On the east side of the river it was set, and the com- mittee of the General Court, in the October following, ordered that the inhabitants of the new plantation "should settle near together, for the benefit of Christian duties and defense against enemies." It thus appears that the present position of the city of Waterbury, the industrial and vital center of the Naugatuck valley, is itself a memorial of the Red man ; a reminder of the perils of war and the cruelty of the Indian as an enemy.
It was natural that the colonists, knowing the character of the Indian and his modes of warfare, should live in a state of chronic anxiety. But from this time forward the people of Con- necticut had no trouble with the Connecticut Indians. The league with King Philip was an episode in the history of these tribes ; their normal relation to the white men was one of friendship, and in fact of dependence. They were the more anxious to be on terms of friendship with the settlers, espe- cially in the western part of the Colony, because they could then look to them as their allies and defenders when exposed to at- tacks from their relentless foes, the Mohawks. As already pointed out, the Indians of Connecticut, the Pequots included, belonged to the great Algonkin family of the Red race. The Mohawks belonged to an entirely different stock : they were one of the " nations " of the great confederacy which occupied the territory now comprising the state of New York west of the Hudson, and part of Pennsylvania and Ohio, and repre- sented the Iroquois family of the Red men. So totally distinct
1xxvi
INDIAN HISTORY.
were these two families or stocks, that between the one group of languages and the other-the Algonkin languages and the Iroquois-no verbal resemblances can be traced. There are of course resemblances in grammatical structure, for all the Indian languages seem to be formed upon the one plan of thought, but the vocabularies are totally different. As indicated by the stage of development they had reached, the Iroquois were the foremost people in aboriginal America north of Mexico, and the Mohawks were the foremost of the Iroquois. At the time of the Discovery they were waging wars of conquest, if not of ex- termination, upon their neighbors on every side, and the tribes of Connecticut, west of Connecticut river, were tributary to them ; paying an annual tax, and groaning under the capricious cruelties which they inflicted. The coming of the white man to Connecticut shores was therefore a welcome relief to these feeble tribes, and it was of course desirable in their eyes to have the white man for a friend.
The Connecticut colonists had nothing to fear from the Con- necticut tribes on the one hand, nor from the Mohawks on the other, because the confederacy of the Five Nations were on terms of friendship with the English, and after 1684 had a treaty with them. But trouble came frequently from another quarter. The Indians of Canada-hostile alike to the Mohawks and the New England tribes-were the constant allies of the French, and were constantly employed by the French in war. When- ever, therefore, war raged between France and England, the French let loose their Indian allies upon the New England set- tlements, and terror reigned among the colonists. Now the condition of these settlements may easily be imagined when we are reminded that from 1689, the year when William and Mary ascended the throne of England, to 1713, when peace was proclaimed at Utrecht, with the exception of three or four years, England and France were continually at war, and the colonies continually involved in hostilities. The French aimed to expel the English from the northern and middle provinces, if not from the continent ; and the English, on their part, made repeated attempts to dislodge the French from Canada ; a re- sult which they effected at a later period. As the French availed themselves of the services of their Indian allies, they kept the
1xxvii
NEW FORTIFICATIONS.
frontiers in a state of continual alarm. The savages often pen- etrated into the heart of the colonies, spreading terror and des- olation in every quarter. They destroyed crops, drove off cat- tle, burned dwellings, and murdered the inhabitants or carried them away into captivity.
During this later war-period the town of Derby, in the lower part of the valley, could hardly be considered a frontier settle- ment ; but Waterbury was decidedly so, at least until the set- tling of Litchfield, in 1720, and shared in all the alarms, dan- gers, disasters and burdens of the times. Through a large part of the period now under consideration, Waterbury in common with the other frontier towns (Simsbury, Woodbury and Dan- bury), was required to keep two men employed as scouts. The business of these men was to keep a good lookout, to discover the designs of the enemy, and to give intelligence should they make their appearance. The citizens performed this duty in rotation, taking their stand on elevated places overlooking the village and meadows where men were at work. In 1690 the danger of invasion and attack was considered so imminent that the General Court established a military watch throughout the Colony, upon which " all male persons whatsoever (except ne- groes and Indians), upwards of sixteen years of age," were com- pelled to do duty. Widows and aged or disabled persons, whose estates were valued at fifty pounds, were to serve by proxy, and those absent at sea or elsewhere were to provide substitutes. At the same time (April 1690) it was ordered "that the fortifica- tions in each town appointed to be made be forthwith finished according to the appointment of the authority and commission officers and selectmen in each town." Several years afterward, in March, 1704, another order was issued in regard to fortifica- tions : "The inhabitants of every town in this colony shall be called together with as convenient speed as may be, to consider what houses shall be fortified." But already the town of Water- bury had moved in this direction ; for, on the 9th of April, 1700, they had voted to fortify the house of Ensign Timothy Stanley, "and if it should prove troublesome times, and the town see they have need, two more, should they be able." It was voted also to " go about it forthwith-all men and boys and teams that are able to work, and to begin to-morrow." Four years
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