USA > Connecticut > Fairfield County > Greenwich > Ye historie of ye town of Greenwich, county of Fairfield and State of Connecticut, with genealogical notes on the Adams. > Part 2
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In Fort Amsterdam, ninth day of April, 1642.
Witness.
Everardus Bogardus,
Daniel Patrick.
Johannes Winkelman.
Greenwich, from that time, became a manor, and Cap- tain Daniel Patrick and Robert Feaks were patroons of the manor, with all the privileges of other patroons. The two witnesses to the foregoing agreement were residents of the manor; and it was, doubtless, in a great measure owing to their influence that the agreement was executed, and also to the fact that Captain Daniel Patrick had married Annetje Van Beyeren, a Dutchwoman from New Amsterdam.
CHAPTER III.
INDIAN TROUBLES-LEGEND OF LADDIN'S ROCK - BATTLE OF STRICKLAND PLAINS-CAPTAIN JOHN UNDERHILL - JURISDICTION OF THE DUTCH.
FOR three or four years after the first settlement of Greenwich in 1640, its inhabitants had much trouble with their Indian neighbors, the indirect cause being rum, "cussed fire-water," as the Indians called it, bought of the Dutch at New Amsterdam. The primary cause, however, was the dishonest, cruel, and revengeful treatment they received at the hands of the Dutch at New Netherlands, the governor of which was William Kieft. He was the successor of Wouter Von Twiller, the good natured Dutchman, who had by a kind and hospitable manner in a great measure conciliated the fierce Indians about the settlements. But with the new governor came a change. He was cruel-minded and revengeful in the extreme. Having selected some half-a- dozen advisers, all congenial spirits, he brought the col- ony, and all connected with it, into the greatest trouble, by the extreme severity which he exercised toward the natives.
The Dutch traders, before bargaining with the natives for furs, so befuddled the owners of them with rum as to get valuable articles for little or no consideration, and not in- frequently having made their victim well drunken, stole his richest furs. An incident is related of how an Indian, after having been made very drunk by some Dutch traders and then stripped by them of a valuable dress of beaver skins,
IO
II
Indian Troubles
upon recovering from his stupor revenged himself by killing two Dutchmen and then fleeing to a distant tribe.
The Indians, during their visits to the Dutch and Eng- lish settlements, after having been freely supplied with "fire- water," gave full display of their roguish inclinations, and were never scrupulous in their bargains, frequently taking goods without stopping to pay for them, and in many in- stances they robbed and murdered the inhabitants. Return- ing to their own country they there, with a feeling of safety, often boasted of their deeds, and these boasts were duly reported to the governor by those straggling settlers who chanced to hear of them.
Before the arrival of Governor Kieft, and as early as 1626, an aged Indian was murdered and his furs stolen by a com- pany of traders to whom he had offered his skins for sale. They secreted the body, not observing, however, his little nephew, who, hidden among the bushes, had witnessed in silence the bloody deed, and secretly vowed vengeance against the murderers of his uncle. He was one of the tribe of Weeckquesqueecks, living northwest of Mamaroneck, New York. When a full grown Indian, still bent on his purpose, he watched anxiously the faces of the traders that he might discern the countenances of those upon whom he hoped for vengeance. As a result of his constant search he fell in with one whom he recognized-one Claes Corneliz Smitz, now become an old man. On him he revenged his uncle's death by a like punishment, and then fled. A prompt demand was made on his tribe for the murderer. It replied that he had escaped to Sioascock, and that they could not give him up. Demand after demand brought but the same reply.
The governor now resolved to punish the whole tribe for the crime of the one who had escaped, and two distinct ex- peditions were planned against the Indians: one against the tribe to which the Indian belonged, on the east bank of the Hudson River, and the other against the Petuquapaen at Cos Cob, whither he was supposed to have fled. Both of
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Ye Historie of Ye Town of Greenwich
these expeditions were, however, delayed for a considerable time by a difficulty which arose between Governor Kieft and his advisers. Such was the impatience and haste of the former, that the latter refused to comply with all his requi- sitions, and the expedition as then planned against the Petuquapaen was never carried out, owing partly to this delay, but more especially to the failure which attended the other expedition. The latter Governor Kieft undertook on his own authority, and ordered Ensign Van Dyck to muster and equip eighty men and immediately proceed against the Indians and inflict upon them summary punish- ment. The governor felt sure of the complete success of this expedition, as Ensign Hendrick Van Dyck had been in the service of the colony for years, and was well trained in Indian warfare. To make success still more certain, a trusty scout had been employed to conduct the party. They moved forward in the early evening of a dark and cloudy night, in March, 1642. An injudicious halt was made by Ensign Van Dyck, during which the darkness came on so thick and fast that the scout was quite unable to point out the way. The commander, thus disappointed and angry at his own delay, led his force back to New Amster- dam, disheartened at not having seen a single Indian.
Soon after, some traders from Staten Island came up the bay to trade with the Indians, and barter rum for furs. Having treated one until they had made him well drunken, they robbed him of all his furs, and left him in a helpless condition. Afterwards, becoming sober and realizing the treatment to which he had been subjected, the enraged Indian swore vengeance against the first "Swannekin," whom he should meet; and true to his oath, he killed one Dutchman and an Englishman, whom he chanced to meet. The murderer fled to the Tankitekes, a tribe of which Paeham, who was friendly to the Dutch, was sachem, and who knew full well that cruel measures were now likely to be adopted against the Indians. He therefore expostulated with the Dutch for selling to the Indians the "cussed fire-
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Indian Troubles
water," laying to its charge all their troubles, and claiming that the Indians had been more wronged than the traders. Governor Kieft, however, turned a deaf ear to all their en- treaties and was fully bent on their destruction.
The next winter, early in the year 1643, the Mohawks fell upon two of the Hudson River tribes, and after killing their warriors, scattered the remnant in utter destitution to find food and shelter from the piercing cold among the Dutch at New Amsterdam and in its vicinity. The time for a civilized revenge had now come, and at the instigation of Governor Kieft, with the sanction of his counsellors, more than a hundred of these helpless fugitives were sent from their quiet sleep on earth to the spirit world of their race by a blow from the Dutch soldiers, so sudden that they could not even beg for life. This massacre was conducted by the governor so secretly and with so much strategy that the Indians for a long time laid the cold-blooded deed to the Mohawks. Many of the Dutch, even, were so deceived. After some days, however, during which time the Mohawks had departed, the truth became evident. Then Indian blood was stirred. Savage vengeance awoke. With almost electric despatch, Indian warrior pledged to Indian warrior, and clan to clan, the direst vengeance on their foe. I"More than fifteen hundred warriors," according to De Forest, rallied from the confederacy of eleven clans, to constitute this avenging army. "A fierce war blazed wherever a Dutch settlement was to be found; on Long Island and on Manhattan, along the Connecticut and along the Hudson." From Manhattan to Stamford the coast was desolated, Dutch and English alike atoning to the in- exorable spirit of Indian revenge for the needless injuries that had been heaped upon the Indian race.
Ann Hutchinson was among the victims of these Indian atrocities. Says De Forest, "until the last moment the Indians came to the house in their usual friendly manner; then the hatchet fell, and the ill-fated woman perished, with
I See Huntington's History of Stamford, Conn.
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Ye Historie of Ye Town of Greenwich
seventeen others in the massacre. To close the scene, the horses and cattle were driven into the barns, the barns were set on fire, and the helpless animals were roasted to death in. the flames."
Captain Daniel Patrick and the Dutch settlers in Green- wich had excited the wrath of the restless and brave Mayn Mayano, sachem of the Petuquapaen tribe at Cos Cob, who attacked Captain Patrick and two Dutchmen single handed. And although they were armed, Mayn Mayano had killed one and felled the other to the ground with his tomahawk, before Captain Patrick, the survivor, could shoot him dead. The daring of this fallen sachem had made the extermination of his tribe a necessity to the safety of the settlers.
The legend of Laddin's Rock is told in many different ways, and perhaps it might be well to digress here and relate it.
A rough old Dutchman named Cornelius Labden was riding away from the settlement in Greenwich, Old Town (now Sound Beach), on horseback, when he discovered that he was pursued by three Indians on foot. They could pass more nimbly through the forest than he, and unless he could free himself by some desperate attempt, he well knew the destruction that awaited him. In this strait he be- thought him of that steep precipice which now bears the name of Laddin's Rock, and resolved rather to die by plunging down its depths than by the torturing hand of the red man. Just as his pursuers were about overtaking him, he dashed over the steep, and they, too eager on their pur- suit, went headlong after him. Of the whole mass of mangled flesh, Labden only lived to tell the story, and that with his two legs broken. This rock still presents much of its old appearance, and is visited to this day by many.
The legend, as it appeared in the Stamford Advocate in 1854, under the initials C. L. B., is as follows:
Soon after the settlement of New York by the Dutch, a few English families emigrated to the eastern part of Green-
GATE LODGE ON THE OLD POST ROAD AT THE ENTRANCE TO LADDIN'S ROCK FARM, NOW THE PROPERTY OF WILLIAM L. MARKS.
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Legend of Laddin's Rock
wich, and began a settlement upon an eminence commanding an extensive view of Long Island Sound. The names of these families are now forgotten, with the exception of that of Laddin, who, with his wife and daughter, a lovely girl of six- teen summers, located himself a short distance, in an easterly direction, from the main settlement. The little hamlet for some time continued to enjoy the blessings of peace and security, but its grateful quietude was soon to be disturbed by its hostile neighbors, who were stimulated by the Dutch traders to deeds of violence and revenge against the English.
While Laddin was one day occupied in his usual occu- pation of clearing and cultivating his farm, he was surprised at discovering the humble dwellings of his neighbors en- veloped in dense clouds of smoke. Knowing full well the merciless foes would next proceed to his own cottage, and would complete their fiendish work of devastation and slaughter, he hurried thither with the utmost speed, and prepared to defend it and his family to the last extremity. Scarcely had he barricaded the doors and loaded his trusty musket, when the savages with their passion whetted by the previous massacre, surrounded the house, yelling terrifically, and expecting to witness its speedy ruin with apparent de- light. But, stop! Laddin stands at the window with his trusty weapon; his resolute determination surprises them; they deliberate for a moment, then advances one of the fiercest warriors with lighted torch in hand; he approaches within a few feet of the house, and falls the victim of un- erring marksmanship. But they are not thus to be repulsed and deprived of their satisfaction, at beholding the hated pale faces writhing in the flames. At the word of command, on steps another and rolls back upon his former comrade with a heavy groan; another and another advances and shares the same fate; then with unearthly yells they rush upon the house en masse. They try to break down the well- barred doors, hoping to capture and consign the poor settlers to a more lingering torture, as vengeance for their fallen brethren.
In this confusion, Laddin's wife and daughter begged him to leave them to the mercy of the Indians, and secure his own safety; he steadily refused, determined to meet death with them and for them; but by earnest entreaties and solemn assurances that life without him would be worse than death, he is at length moved to make the attempt, with faint hopes that the foe would have some respect for their sex and spare
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Ye Historie of Ye Town of Greenwich
them. The front door begins to open-all rush to enter, and thus the back door is left unguarded. Now is the time; the heroic wife and daughter brace the door against the savages, while with extreme reluctance the despairing man softly makes his escape in the rear. Scarcely has he done this, when the door gives way; his beloved wife and daughter are dragged from the house by the hair, toma- hawked and scalped before his eyes. Assistance to them was impossible. He mounts his horse, which he had con- cealed a short distance off, under a thick copse of alder bushes. He knows not whither to flee; death is before and behind him; the savages behold him, and pursue. With despair stamped on his manly countenance, he suddenly turns his horse's head toward the well-known precipice, re- solved not to fall into the hands of inhuman victors. On came his pursuers, and reached the summit of the barren rock, to hear him cry out with a voice of thunder-"Come on, ye foul fiends, I go to join your victims." A crash-and all is hushed. The rider and his faithful steed shall here mingle their dust together.
I The settlers of Greenwich being unable to protect themselves from the attacks of the Indians, Captain Daniel Patrick, as Patroon of the Manor of Greenwich, called on Governor Kieft for help, who determined to exterminate the Indians in this vicinity. Accordingly, in the fall of 1643 an expedition of Dutch and English, consisting of one hundred and twenty men under the command of General La Mon- tagne, was sent hither. The force landed in the evening from three boats at Greenwich, Old Town (now Sound Beach), marched the entire night, but could not find the Indians, either because Captain Patrick had given them warning, or had himself misdirected them. Retreat to their boats was made through the Stamford settlement, and on going through that town they found Captain Patrick at the house of Captain John Underhill. The soldiers charged Captain Patrick with deceit and treachery, and that he had purposely misled them. To resent this, Captain Patrick, who had hitherto remained silent, spat in the Dutchman's
I See O'Callaghan's Documentary History of New York.
A HORSE AND RIDER IN THE PLACE WHERE LADDIN AND HIS HORSE FELL.
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Indian Troubles
face and turned to walk away. The other in turn drew a pistol and fired a ball through his head. For this homicide the soldier was arraigned, but never punished. Thus died Captain Daniel Patrick, the first settler and leading man of Greenwich. He left a wife and one son. His wife's name before marriage was Annetje Van Beyeren.
Some of the settlers at Stamford offered to conduct the forces to the place where some Indians were, whereupon four scouts were sent in divers directions to discover them. On their return, they reported that the Indians had been given some notice of the approach of the troops, but had not been given any specific details. Thereupon twenty of the bravest of the men were at once detailed to proceed to the nearest Indian village with great diligence. They made the march and killed about eighteen or twenty Indians, captured an old man, two women, and some children. The old Indian pro- mised to lead the troops to Weeckquesqueecks. Accordingly sixty-five men were despatched under the command of Lieu- tenant Baxter and Lieutenant Pieter Cock to this village, but on arrival found it deserted. After marching eight or nine miles further, they discovered nothing but some huts, which they could not surprise, as their approach had been dis- covered. They then returned, having killed only one or two Indians, taken some women and children prisoners, and burned some corn. Meanwhile Governor Kieft had been advised that Pennewitz, sachem of the Canarsie tribe on Long Island, one of the oldest and most experienced Indians in the country, and who, in the first conspiracy, had given the most dangerous counsel, namely, that the Indians should wait and not attack the Dutch until all suspicion had been removed, and then divide themselves equally through the houses of the christians and slaughter them all in one night, was secretly waging war against the Dutch with his tribe, who had killed some settlers and set fire to their houses. It was, therefore, resolved to send this force of one hundred and twenty men; the English under Captain John Underhill of Stamford, who had volunteered his services to the Dutch;
2
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Ye Historie of Ye Town of Greenwich
the Dutch under Lieutenant Pieter Cock, and the entire ex- pedition under the command of General La Montagne. It proceeded in boats to Cow Bay, Long Island, marched toward Hempstead (where there was an English colony dependent upon the Dutch). The troops were then divided into two divisions. Captain Underhill with fourteen Eng- lishmen was sent to the smallest Indian village and eighty men were sent to the largest village, called Mespath, which resulted in the killing of one hundred and twenty Indians. One Dutchman was left on the field and three were wounded. The troops then returned to New Amsterdam.
Governor Kieft thereupon despatched Captain Under- hill to Stamford to get some information in regard to the . Indians in this vicinity. He reported verbally to the gov- ernor that the Indians were again gathering about Greenwich and that there were five hundred warriors at Petuquapaen. Accordingly, in February, 1644, an expedition of one hun- dred and thirty men, consisting of Dutch and English under the command of Captain Underhill and Ensign Hendrick Van Dyck, was embarked at Fort Amsterdam for Green- wich. It landed at Greenwich, Old Town (now Sound Beach), where it was obliged to pass the night by reason of a great snow-storm. In the morning the troops marched in a northwesterly direction over stony hills, and in the evening, about eight o'clock, came within a mile of the Indian village, after having crossed two rivers, one two hundred feet wide and three feet deep. Inasmuch as it was too early to make an attack, it was determined to remain there until about ten o'clock. The order was given as to the mode to be observed in making the attack. The hour having arrived they . marched forward toward the village, which consisted of three rows of huts set up in street fashion, each eighty paces long, situated in a low recess of the mountain, affording complete shelter from the northwest wind. This village was located on the west side of Strickland Brook, a short distance north of the mill pond at Cos Cob, and the road to North Cos Cob now runs through its site. The moon was then at the full
Pipe Stave Pond
STRICKLAND
Brook
STANWICH
TRAIL TO
Strickland
PLAINS
TRAIL TO DUMPLING POND
AND MIANUS
WESTCHESTER
PATH
NOW POST ROAD
INDIAN VILLAGE OF PETUQUAPAEN.
Burned by the combined English and Dutch forces, February, 1644.
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Battle of Strickland Plains
and threw a strong light against the mountain so that many a winter's day was not brighter than that night was. The Indians were on the alert and prepared to meet their assailants, so the troops determined to charge and sur- round the village sword in hand. They deployed and advanced rapidly and in a short time one Dutchman was killed and twelve wounded. The Indians were also so hard pressed that it was impossible for one to escape, and in a brief space of time there were counted one hundred and eighty dead outside of the huts. Presently, none dare come forth, but kept within the huts discharging arrows through the holes. Captain Underhill, therefore, resolved to set the huts on fire, and the casting of a firebrand upon the row of dry bark huts and wigwams was but the work of a moment, and the whole village was soon in a blaze. Whereupon the Indians tried every means to escape, but not succeeding they cast themselves into the flames, preferring to perish by fire rather than by the sword, and among the mass of men, women, and children none were heard to cry out or scream. According to the reports of the Indians themselves the num- ber then destroyed exceeded five hundred; some say, fully seven hundred, among whom were twenty-five Wappingers, all gathered together to celebrate one of their festivals, from which escaped no more than eight men in all, three of whom were severely wounded. After the fight was finished several fires were built in consequence of the great cold; the wounded, fifteen in number, cared for; and sentinels having been posted the troops bivouacked for the night. On the next day the troops started out much refreshed and in good order, arrived in Stamford in the evening, where they were received in a friendly manner and every comfort extended to them. In two days they reached Fort Amsterdam and a thanksgiving was proclaimed on their arrival for the exter- mination of the Siwanoys.
This battle was equal to any ever fought in Connecticut, in the number of those engaged in the fight, in the fierceness of the contest, and in the carnage and destruction made.
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Ye Historie of Ye Town of Greenwich
Those killed were buried in a large mound on the easterly side of the present road, which was levelled off only a few years ago. The Indians in this part of the country never recovered from the blow. It is true that a few desperate ones hung about the settlements seeking revenge; but they soon went away, and the remainder lived peaceably with the settlers and continued to trade with them.
Huntington's History of Stamford, Connecticut, contains a biographical sketch of Captain John Underhill in which it is stated that he was a descendant from an honorable family in Warwickshire, England; entered the English service and served during the wars with Spain, and this early military training fitted him for the brilliant achievements he attained. while in command of the Colonial forces.
He is found in 1630 in Boston, then a new settlement, enrolled among the pioneer founders of New England; and that he was deemed worthy of position among them is at- tested to by his appointment to responsible offices, civil and military. The "Ancient and Honorable Artillery Company" of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts bears testimony to his military standing and the General Court of Massachusetts honored him as its metropolitan deputy. He was soon found to be most serviceable in the field. The exposed colonists were perpetually harassed and endangered by wily and hostile Indians, and Captain Underhill was more than a match for them. So successful was he in his expeditions against them, that as early as 1632 he received a pension of thirty pounds, and from thenceforth he was one of New England's most reliable defenders against their most dreaded foe. He is next found as the governor of the new colony at Dover, which office he held but a short time. From thence he returned to England where he published his history of the Pequod War, entitled News from America, or a new and experimental Discovery of New England; containing a true relation of warlike proceedings these two years past, with a figure of the fort, or palisado, by John Underhill, a com- mander in the wars there.
Capt. John Underhill-Jurisdiction of the Dutch 21
In 1639, he again appears in Boston, and in October, 1642, he had assigned to him at Stamford, Connecticut, a house- lot, eight acres, and a piece of woodland, and the following spring he was appointed a deputy to the General Court at New Haven. After the extermination of the Indians in this vicinity he removed to New Netherlands, and in 1660 he is found established at Oyster Bay, where he died in 1672. He married Elizabeth, the daughter of Elizabeth Fones Winthrop and Robert Feaks.
'On the ninth day of March, 1648, the council then in session at New Amsterdam passed a resolution whereby it enjoined Elizabeth Feaks from alienating any part of her late husband's property; placed her children under the care of a curator at Greenwich, where she was permitted to reside on condition that she quit the bed and board of William Hallett, her paramour, who was sentenced to be banished for his adultery.
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