USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Whately > History of the town of Whately, Mass., including a narrative of leading events from the first planting of Hatfield, 1660-1871 : with family genealogies > Part 1
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מתקפתיפ תיעי ינו
45.03
1500
SCENE OF THE SWAMP FIGHT ABOVE HATFIELD, NOW WHATELY, AUGUST 25 1675.
HISTORY
OF THE
TOWN OF WHATELY, MASS.
INCLUDING A NARRATIVE OF LEADING EVENTS FROM THE FIRST PLANTING OF HATFIELD :
1660-1871. BY J. II. TEMPLE,
FOURTH PASTOR OF THE CONGREGATIONAL CHURCHI.
WITH FAMILY GENEALOGIES.
RELEASED
isit America,
Cathell
LIBRAR
WAGINGSTON
PRINTED FOR THE TOWN BY T. R. MARVIN & SON, 131 CONGRESS STREET, BOSTON. 1872.
CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY, OF AMERICA
RELEASED
12
CATHOLIC UNIVERSITY OF AMERICA
T. R.MARVIN WSON,
PRINTERS,
BOSTON.
Entered according to ACT OF CONGRESS, in the year 1872,
BY J. H. TEMPLE, in the Office of the Librarian of Congress.
PREFACE.
THIS attempt to gather up the memorials of a hundred years, grew out of an invitation from the citizens of Whately, to deliver an Address at the celebration of the centennial anniversary of the Incorporation of the Town.
The materials collected have been embodied in these pages. Some chapters are inserted as they were written for that address, and the book is now published in accordance with a unanimous vote of the town at its annual meeting in November.
Somewhat isolated in position, and with nothing of natural advantages to attract notice,-except the quiet beauty, and rich variety, and broad expanse of landscape, as seen from the cen- tral village and the hills lying westwardly-Whately has laid claim to no special distinction among her neighbors. But the public spirit of her people, and the generous liberality displayed in arranging and carrying out to a successful issue the com- memoration of her centenary, and in providing for the preserva- tion of her annals in the printed volume, are worthy of imitation by the other towns in the Commonwealth. Records are perish- able, and are always incomplete ; they are at best but the out- lines ; the filling up must come from personal reminiscences of character and actions, and those incidental items of civil and social affairs, which are transmitted by oral tradition-distorted and colored, of course, by pride and prejudice-but with enough of truth to explain the records, and enough of reality to help the practical antiquary in giving a life-like picture of the time of which he treats.
The territory comprising the town was included in, and for one hundred years was a part of Hatfield. The history of the colony,
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then, properly begins with some account of the mother settle- ment. Whatever is characteristic of the growth, is to be found in the germ. What society was in 1771, is a result of causes pre-existing, and working through the preceding generations : hence a sketch of leading events, from the first purchase of these lands by the settlers from Connecticut, seemed necessary to a clear understanding of any peculiarities of opinion, and the domestic customs and religious faith of our fathers.
The writer has confined himself to a narrative of facts. It is easy to swell a volume by speculations, and long-drawn com- parisons between the past and the present ; but in these pages it is assumed that, with the facts plainly before him, the reader is competent to make comparisons, and draw contrasts, and establish a philosophy-more satisfactory to himself, at least, than any which the author might suggest.
Official documents have been the source relied on for historical matter ; and no pains or expense has been spared to secure accuracy and fullness. That some errors will be found, is ex- pected ; that all which might have public value and interest, has been collected, is not claimed. And some commonly accepted traditions have been set aside, because well authenticated records require it.
The Family Registers of the first settlers of the town, includ- ing two generations, were collected and published by the author, in 1849. Those records have been enlarged so as to embrace all the permanent inhabitants ; and the families have been traced down to the present time, by James M. Crafts, Esq., with im- portant aid (which he would gratefully acknowledge) from Ches- ter G. Crafts, and Leander L. Morton.
The frontispiece, representing the ravine where the "Swamp Fight" of Ang. 25, 1675, commenced, is from a drawing by Mrs. A. H. Hall, a descendant of Dea. Salmon White.
The autographs, which comprise the names of most of the first settlers of the town, have the merit of being fac-similes of original signatures.
The writer would do violence to his sense of justice, and his appreciation of kindness, not to acknowledge his indebtedness to Sylvester Judd, Esq. (now deceased), who was his carly friend, and who, in one portion of his field, left so little to be gleaned.
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He would also record his obligation to the Secretary of the Commonwealth ; the Register of Probate of Hampshire County ; the Town Clerks of Hatfield and Whately, for free access to the records in their respective offices ; to the New England His- toric-Genealogical Society, for the use of their valuable library ; to Dea. R. II. Belden of Hatfield, for the privilege of exam- ining deeds of a large part of the lands lying in the southerly half of the " Bradstreet Farm ; " to James M. Crafts, Esq., for statistics of industries, and manifold aid in copying records ; to Hon. George Sheldon, for historical data; to Mr. Jonathan Johnson, for loan of ancient account book ; to Capt. Seth Bard- well, for list of privileges on West Brook ; to Rev. J. W. Lane, for various documents ; to S. B. White, Esq., for list of sokliers of the late War; to Mr. Erastus Crafts, Dea. Elihu Beklen, W. H. Fuller, Esq., Messrs. Dennis Dickinson, Stephen Bel- den, Edwin Bardwell, Dr. M. Harwood, Mr. and Mrs. Eurotas Dickinson, and Mrs. J. C. Loomis, for important information.
But with the aid derivable from all these sources, -official records and the memories of persons now living,-it is but justice to say, that this picture of " the olden time," such as it is, and the personal history of the men and women who settled Whately, could not have been given but for the abundant mate- rials furnished the writer while a resident in the town, by Mr. Oliver Graves, Mr. Justin Morton, Mrs. Hannah Parker, and Mrs. Eleanor Dickinson, who were eye-witnesses of events for the ninety years following 1760.
JOSIAH HOWARD TEMPLE.
FRAMINGHAM, MASS., Dec. 21, 1871.
HISTORY OF WHATELY.
CHAPTER I.
INDIAN OWNERSHIP - PURCHASE BY PYNCHON AND THE HADLEY COMPANY.
AT the time of the proposed settlement of the part of the valley of the Connecticut River lying between the Mt. Holyoke range on the south, and Sugar Loaf and Toby on the north, this Tract was in the occupancy of the Norwottuck Indians, who were a branch of the Nipnett or Nipmuck tribe, whose chief seat was in the central part of the State.
The Norwottucks of the valley were divided into three princi- pal families, under three petty chiefs, viz. : Chickwallop, Ump- anchala, and Quonquont. Each claimed ownership of the lands lying for a distance on both sides of the river, and extending indefinitely east and west. Chickwallop held the lands pur- chased by the Northampton planters and eastward. Umpanchala claimed on the Hadley side as far north as Mill River, and on the Hatfield side from Northampton bounds to the upper side of Great Meadow. Quonquont occupied from Umpanchala's line to Mt. Wequomps, or Sugar Loaf, and Mt. Toby. North of these was the territory of the Pocumtucks, or Deerfield Indians. Collectively, these were called the River Indians.
Each of these Indian families had its fort, its planting field, and its hunting grounds. The fort was located, for obvious reasons, on a bluff, in some commanding position, and near a stream or spring of water. It was constructed of palisades, or poles about ten feet long set in the ground. Its size depended on the lay of the land and the necessities of each tribe, as their
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wigwams were placed within the enclosure. The cornfield was always close to the fort.
Quonquont, who claimed the lands now comprising Whately, and eastward, had a strong fort on the east side of the Connecti- cut, north of Mill River in Hadley. It was built on a ridge that separates the east and west School Meadows, and enclosed about an acre of ground. His cornfield, of sixteen to twenty acres, was in the upper meadow. This fort was abandoned some time before the attack on Quaboag.
The principal fort of Umpanchala was on the high bank of the Connecticut near the mouth of Half-way Brook, between North- ampton and Hatfield. This fort was occupied by the tribe till the night of August 24, 1675, and was the last fortified dwelling place held by the Indians in this part of the valley. The plant- ing field of this family was the " Chickons," or. Indian Hollow, in Hatfield South Meadow.
The Indian's home in this valley was then, what it still remains, a scene of abundance and beauty. The mountains reared their bold heads towards the sky for grandeur and defence ; the hills, clothed in their primeval forests of variegated hues, arrested the showers, and poured down their tributes in little rivulets whose path was marked by green verdure and brilliant flowers ; the annual overflow of the great river made the valley fat and fertile. Yet these natural advantages appear to have been of small account with the natives. So far as we can judge, convenience and necessity alone influenced them in the selection. The furs and flesh of animals, and the fish of the streams, met most of their ordinary wants ; grass was of no account ; and even the corn which their women raised was a kind of surplus for emergencies, to be relied on in the scarcity of game, and the event of war .*
The Indian was a savage, with the instincts and ideas of a savage ; and he estimated things accordingly. Personal ease and sensual gratification was his highest happiness ; the pursuit of game was his excitement ; war was his highest ambition and field of glory ; and outside of these he had nothing to love, and
* Josselyn, Voyages, says : - " They [the Indians] beat the Corn to pow- der and put it into bags, which they make use of when stormie weather or the like will not suffer them to look out for other food."
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nothing to live for. All these local advantages he had here ; and war with some rival tribe was always at his option.
The red man had long been the occupant of the territory. And he seems to have understood perfectly the validity of his title to these lands by the right of possession. Why then-the question will naturally arise-was the Indian so ready to part with his title, and transfer his right to the new comers? The general answer is, because he was a man and a savage. There is a strange fascination accompanying a higher order of intelli- gence, and the power inherent to enlightened intellect, which is irresistible to the untutored child of nature. He looks up with awe, and instinctly yearns for companionship with that higher life. To his apprehension it is allied with the supernatural ; and partakes of the potent, if not the omnipotent. And, aside from any veneration, he sees the advantage every way of civili- zation ; and the manhood in him rises up in hope and expecta- tion. His ideas may be vague, as to results to accrue. But he anticipates some great advantage ; he expects to become a par- taker of that which draws and inspires. It is only when, by actual contact and contrast, he discovers and comes to feel his inferiority, and his moral weakness, as compared with civilized man, that he becomes jealous of him; and the jealousy ripens into hatred ; and the hatred ripens into hostility. No doubt acts of injustice and wrong aggravate the jealousy, and hasten the conflict. But civilized and savage life can never coalesce. There is inherent antagonism which necessitates a conflict. And in the struggle the weaker must yield to the stronger. And strength lies not in numbers, but in resources ; the courage which con- quers is moral rather than physical. Thus the two orders of society cannot exist together ; one must yield and flee, or become subordinate and be absorbed in the other.
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In selling their lands to the settlers, the Indians in this valley expected to be, and believed that they were the true gainers by the bargain. They reserved all the rights and privileges that were of any real value to them ; and calculated on receiving advantages from the skill and traffic of the whites, as well as those indefinite, perhaps imaginary advantages, to which I have alluded. One reason why the River Indians were anxious to sell, at the particular time when the whites came to the valley,
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was their fear of the Mohawks from the Hudson, who were threatening a war of extermination-just as, sixteen years later, the Pocumtucks and Norwottucks planned a war of extermina- tion against the whites, whom they now so cordially welcomed.
THE HADLEY PLANTERS. The company that formed the original Hadley Plantation, covering lands on both sides of the river, was from Connecticut. Their first step was to obtain leave from the General Court to settle within the jurisdiction of Massachusetts ; and the second step was to purchase the lands of the Indians. The negotiation was carried on through the agency of Maj. John Pynchon of Springfield, to whom the deeds were made out, and who assigned his rights to the Company, and received his pay of individuals as they took possession of their assigned lots. Maj. Pynchon paid the Indians in wampum and goods ; and received payment in grain, with perhaps a consider- able quantity of wampum, and a small amount of silver.
Wampum, which was in the shape of beads, was made of sea- shells. It was manufactured mainly by the Indians of Long Island, and, later, by those of Block Island. It was of two kinds, white, or wampumpeag ; and black or blue, called suckau- hock, which was of double the value of white. In 1650 the Massachusetts government ordered that wampumpeag should be a legal tender for debts (except for country rates) to the value of forty shillings, the white at eight and the black at four for a penny. This law was repealed in 1661 ; after which wampum had no standard value-the price being regulated by demand and supply. A hand of wampum was equal to four inches. In the Hatfield purchase it was reckoned seven inches. A fathom was ten hands, and was ordinarily worth five shillings. It was used much for ornaments, such as belts, bracelets, head-bands, car- pendants, and by the squaws of chiefs for aprons. Its use in trade was continued for many years by the whites.
The first purchase on account of the Hadley settlers was made December 25, 1658, and embraced the lands on the east side of the Connecticut, from the mouth of Fort River and Mt. Holyoke, on the south, to the mouth of Mohawk brook and the southern part of Mt. Toby, on the north, being about nine miles in length, and extending eastwardly nine miles into the woods. The price
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paid was two hundred and twenty fathoms of wampum and one large coat, equal to £62 10. The deed was signed by Umpan- chala, Quonquont, and Chickwallop. Quonquont reserved one cornfield of twelve-sixteen-twenty acres, near his fort ; and all reserved the liberty to hunt deer and fowl, and to take fish, beaver and otter.
The second purchase was made July 10, 1660, and comprised the lands on the west or Hatfield side, from Capawong brook (now Mill River) on the south, to the brook called Wunckcompss, which comes out of the Great Pond, and over the brook to the upper side of the meadow called Mincommnek, on the north, and extending westerly nine miles into the woods. (The north line was probably where is now the meadow road running east and west, just north of the dwelling house of Austin S. Jones, Esq.) The price paid was three hundred fathoms of wampum, and some small gifts, equal to £75. The deed is signed by Umpanchala, and approved by his brother Etowomq. The reservations are the Chickons, or planting field, and the liberty to hunt deer and other wild creatures, to take fish, and to set wigwams on the Commons, and take wood and trees for use.
The third purchase was the meadow called Capawonk, lying in the south part of Hatfield. The deed is dated January 22, 1663. This meadow had been bought of the Indians in 1657, for fifty shillings, by the Northampton Planters. The price paid by Hadley was £30.
These three purchases comprise all the territory north of Fort River and Northampton, actually possessed by Hadley. No bounds were established for the town by any act of incorporation ; and the only claim it had to what is now the northerly part of Hatfield and Whately, was a report of commissioners appointed by the General Court, to lay out the new plantation, in which their north bounds on this side of the river are stated "to be a great mountain called Wequomps,"-which report of Commission- ers seems never to have been accepted. And the last two pur- chases, viz. : from Northampton bounds on the south, to a line just north of Great Meadow, comprise all the territory west of the river owned by Hatfield, at the time the latter town was incorporated. The tract of land lying northerly from Great Meadow (now North Hatfield and Whately) was purchased of
Ica. uger Ricarica,
LIBRARY 4
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the Indians by Hatfield, October 19, 1672. This was Quon- quont's land, and the deed was signed by his widow Sarah Quan- quan, his son Pocunohouse, his daughter Majesset, and two others. The price paid was fifty fathoms of wampumpeag. The south line was from a walnut tree standing by the river in Min- commuck meadow, westerly out into the woods. It was bounded on the north by Weekioannuck brook, where the Pocumtuck path crosses it-the line running east to the great river, and west six miles into the woods.
The reservations in these deeds were somewhat various ; but . it was understood by both parties-indeed it was a tradition eur- rent in my own boyhood-that the Indians had the right of hunt- ing, fowling and fishing any where, and to take what walnut and white ash trees they had occasion to use for baskets and brooms.
CHAPTER II.
SETTLEMENTS-DIVISION OF LANDS-INCORPORATION OF HIATFIELD.
THE first planters of New England were wholly unaccustomed to the work of clearing off woodlands. They had seen and heard nothing of it in the mother country. Hence the carliest settlements were uniformly made at places where they could begin immediately to cultivate the ground, and find natural pastures and meadows.
It was considered scarcely desirable or safe, to form a Planta- tion where there was not plenty of "fresh marsh "-what we should call open swamp. And so, when the west side people petitioned for a new town, the Hadley Committee, in their answer to the General Court, gave as one of the strongest reasons against the separation, that the tract west of the river " does not afford boggy meadows or such, like, that men can lire upon ; but their subsistence must be from their Home lots and intervals."
Both the east and west side settlers found the meadows and adjacent uplands ready for grazing and tillage. There was needed no preliminary work of clearing off the forests. They began to plant corn, and sow wheat and flax, and mow grass the first season.
From early times the Indians had been accustomed to burn over the whole country annually in November, after the leaves had fallen and the grass had become dry, which kept the meadows clean, and prevented any growth of underbrush on the uplands. One by one the older trees would give way, and thus many cleared fields, or tracts with only here and there a tree, would abound, where the sod would be friable, ready for the plow ; or be already well covered with grass, ready for pastur-
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age. The meadow lands thus burnt over, threw out an early and rich growth of nutritious grasses, which, if let alone, grew "up to a man's face." Then there were plots of ground, of greater or less extent, which the Indian squaws had cultivated in their rude way, with shell or wooden hoes, and where they had raised squashes and beans and corn.
Strange as it may seem, both timber and fire wood were scarce in the valley when the first settlement was made. At the outset Hatfield passed a vote, that no clapboards, shingles, or rails, or coopering stuff should be sold " to go, out of town." The upland woods, on each side of the river, both above and below the towns, were passable for men on horseback.
As already stated, the Hadley planters were from Wethersfield and Hartford, in the Connecticut Colony. They had mostly come over from England in the years 1632 to '34, and landed at the mouth of the Charles River in Massachusetts. A part lived at Watertown till 1635, when they removed to Wethersfield. Mr. Hooker, who came over with his flock in 1633, stopped in Cambridge till '36, when they removed to Hartford. Thus they had resided in Connecticut about twenty-five years.
Their reason for leaving this Colony, and seeking a new home in Massachusetts, was a difference of opinion in regard to church government and ordinances. Mr. Hooker of Hartford was a " strict Congregationalist," as was Mr. Russell, pastor of the Wethersfield church. After the death of Hooker, his successor. Mr. Stone, introduced certain innovations, which were thought to have a leaning towards Presbyterianism, and in which a majority of his church sustained him. An active minority adhered tenaciously to their carly church practices, and with- drew. Mr. Russell and the majority of the Wethersfield church sympathized with the withdrawers. The matter was brought before the magistrates and before ecclesiastical councils. The final result was, that Mr. Russell and nearly his entire church, with a minority of the Hartford church, removed to Hadley. There is no record of any reorganization of the church, nor was the pastor reinstalled. The existence of the church was there- fore coeval with the existence of the Plantation.
The first comers were men of wealth and high social position ;
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and were regarded by the Massachusetts authorities as a most desirable addition to her population. They had-as their sub- sequent history proved-the self-reliance and earnestness and courage which usually attach to men who strike out a new path for conscience' sake.
The agreement to remove to the new purchase was signed April 18, 1659; and some went up that summer to make pre- paration for a general transfer. Perhaps a few families spent the winter of '59-'60 at the new plantation, which at first was called New- Town. It received the name of Hadleigh in 1661.
In the course of the year 1660, forty families effected a settle- ment, thirty-four on the east side of the river, and six on the west side. The six who took lots on the Hatfield side appear to have been Richard Fellows, Richard Billings, Zechariah Field, John Cole, John White, Jr., and Nathaniel Dickinson, Jr. In the course of this and the next year ten others joined them, viz., John Coleman, Thomas Graves, JJohn Graves, Samuel Belding, Stephen Taylor, Daniel Warner, Daniel White, Samuel Dick- inson, Thomas Meekins, and William Allis. The last two were from Braintree, Mass. Billings, Field, Cole, White, Graves, Taylor, Fellows, and Warner were from Hartford; Coleman, Dickinson, and Belding from Wethersfield.
DIVISION OF LANDS .- By agreement made before leaving Connecticut, each original proprietor received an equal share, viz. eight acres of land as a home lot. The street on the Had- ley side was laid out twenty rods wide; and the lots extended back from it on each side. The street on the Hatfield side was ten rods wide, and the first home lots at the lower end con- tained eight acres ; those granted afterwards, further north, contained only four acres.
Ownership of land in fee simple, by every inhabitant, was a characteristic American idea, and was a corner-stone of the social . fabric built by our fathers. It was personal independence ; it was capital ; it was power ; it was permanence ; and it was substan- tial equality. The first planters here recognized the principle that every honest citizen, whatever the amount of his cash assets, had a right to so much land as secured him an indepen- dent home, a real property, which could not be alienated except
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of his own option : which assured him the means of rearing and educating a family. He was a freeman indeed. He had some- thing to build upon,-something to fix his affections upon,- something to defend,-something to leave his children, which they after him could love, and build upon, and defend. Love of home and love of country are co-ordinate and reciprocal, and have their most vital root in ownership of the soil, with the power and privileges it engenders.
Our ancestors in this valley could never have stood against the tides of savage warfare, which in rapid succession burst over them, had it not been that they defended their own and their children's home and heritage.
As we have seen, the first division of home lots was equal. But after this first equal division, all subsequent allotments of meadows and intervals were made according to "estates." Yet here only a nominal inequality was allowed, a single man of twenty-one receiving one-fourth as much as the man of large wealth and family. The term "estates," as used at that time, requires an explanation. It did not represent a man's actual property, real or personal. Precisely how the thing was brought about we are not informed. But by mutual agreement, evi- dently satisfactory to all parties, a sum varying from £50, for a young unmarried man, to £200, for a man of independent means, was set against each proprietor's name and called his "estate," and used as a basis of land distribution and taxation. The wealthy planters consented to receive less than their proper share of lands, and were held to pay less than their ratable proportion of expenses ; while the young man, for the sake of receiving a larger allotment of land, agreed to pay a proportionate part of the plantation taxes.
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