USA > Massachusetts > From the Hub to the Hudson : with sketches of nature, history and industry in north-western Massachusetts > Part 4
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It is not quite certain at what date the settlers re- turned to rebuild the ruined village. Philip's War continued till the spring of 1678, when a peace was concluded ; but the power of the red men was broken in the Connecticut Valley at an earlier date. In the autumn of 1677, we find the people erecting dwellings and preparing for the coming winter. On the 19th of September, in that year, a party of about fifty Indians, who had descended the Connecticut River from Cana-
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FROM THE HUB TO THE HUDSON.
da, and had made a successful assault upon the garri- son of Hatfield, halted on their return in the woods east of Deerfield, entered the town about night-fall, killed one man and captured three others, whom they took with them to Canada. This calamity alarmed the good people of Deerfield, and they again deserted their plantation. But after the fall of Philip and the conclusion of peace, the Indians abandoned the terri- tory, and the whites were left for a time in undisturbed possession.
Ten years of peace were now granted to the dis- tracted settlers of the Connecticut Valley. These fruit- ful meadows of the . Deerfield again gave seed to the sower and bread to the eater ; the village was rebuilt, and the people began to hope that their calamities were past. But in the year 1689, the accession of William and Mary to the throne of England was fol- lowed by that war between England and France known in these colonies as King William's War. The gage of battle was taken up by the French and English colonists of North America; and the settlers of this region were again for five years harassed by constant apprehensions of attack from the French and their allies, the Indians. Several slight skirmishes with the Indians took place, but no very severe ca- . lamity befell the little town during this war, which closed with the peace of Ryswick, in 1691. In 1689 a fort was built, doubtless as a defence against ex- pected incursions of the savages. This was a stock- aded enclosure, more than two hundred rods in circum-
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MEETING-HOUSE AND SCHOOL-HOUSE.
ference, and containing about fifteen acres. Some- where within this enclosure, the boundaries of which we can fix with some degree of certainty as we ride through the village, stood the first meeting-house, built probably of logs. October 30, 1694, we find the town voting,
" That a Meeting-House shall be built ye bignesse of Hatfield Meeting-House, only ye height to be left to ye judgment and determination of ye Committy.
"That there shall be a rate made of one hundred and forty pounds, payable the present year in Pork and Indian Corn, in equall proportions, for ye carrying on ye building."
Not only religion, but education was the earliest care of these wise pioneers. The next year this vote is re- corded :
" That a school-house be built upon the town charge in ye year 1695, ye dimensions of said house to be 21 foot long and 18 foot wide and 7 between joynts."
The school-house and the meeting-house both stood within the limits of the fort.
The democracy of these days was by no means the most radical variety, as the following votes in town- meeting bear witness :-
"May II, 1701, Voted that Dea. Hunt, Dea. Sheldon, Mr. John Catlen, Edward Allyn and Thomas French, shall be ye seaters for ye seating of ye new Meeting-House. That ye rules for ye seating of persons shall be Age, State and Dignity.
" Oct. 2, 1701, Voted that ye fore seats in ye front Gallery shall be equal in Dignity with ye 2nd seat in ye body of ye Meeting-House.
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FROM THE HUB TO THE HUDSON.
"That ye fore seats in ye side Gallery be equal with ye 4th seats in ye Body of ye Meeting-House.
" That ye 2nd seat' in ye front Gallery and ye hinder seat in ye front Gallery shall be equal in Dignity with ye 5th seat in ye Body.
"That ye second seat in ye side Gallery shall be esteemed equal in Dignity with ye 6th in ye Body of the Meeting-House."
The minister at this time was Rev. John Williams, a graduate of Harvard College, who was settled in 1686, being then in his twenty-second year. The fol- lowing is the agreement between him and his people, copied from the early records of the town :-
"The inhabitants of Deerfield, to encourage Mr. John Williams to settle amongst them to dispense the blessed word of truth unto them, have made propositions unto him as followeth :---
"That they will give him sixteen cow commons of meadow land, with a house lot that lyeth on the meeting-house hill; that they will build him a house forty-two feet long, twenty feet wide, with a lento on the back side of the house ; to finish said house, to fence his home-lot, and within two year after this agree- ment to build him a barn and break up his plowing land. For yearly salary to give him sixty pounds a year for the present, and four or five years after this agreement to add to his salary and make it eighty pounds."
There was a further agreement between Mr. Wil- liams and the town relative to his salary in 1696, the terms of which we find recorded by Mr. Williams him- self :-
"The town to pay their salary to me in wheat, pease, Indian corn, and pork at the price stated, viz : wheat at 3s. 3d. per bushel, Indian corn at 2s. per bushel, fatted pork at 2d. 1-2 per lb. ; these being the terms of the bargain made with me at the first.
(Signed) "JOHN WILLIAMS."
THE STORM IS GATHERING. 57
These old records illustrate for us the life of the early settlers during the years of comparative peace and plenty which closed the seventeenth century ; and they show that the village, though annoyed by the war, was hardly interrupted in its growth. On the death of King William and the accession of Queen Anne, in 1702, another war broke out between England and France, which brought to these good people of Deer- field hardships greater than any they had yet suffered. At this time Deerfield had grown to be quite a village ; there must have been a population of between two and three hundred souls, and several comfortable framed houses had been built, both within and without the fort. Deerfield was the frontier town on the north, the few inhabitants of Northfield having been driven from their homes during King William's War. On the breaking out of Queen Anne's War, in 1702, the pur- pose of the French to sack this town was discovered ; the fort was repaired by the inhabitants, and twenty soldiers were sent by the Governor as a guard.
And now the last and worst of their calamities was ready to be visited upon them. On the night of the twenty-ninth of February 1704, Major Hertel de Rou- ville, with sixteen hundred French and one hundred and forty Indians, arrived at what is now known as Pettis' Plain,-a short distance south-west from the village of Greenfield, and two miles from the fort at Deerfield, having made a toilsome march of between two and three hundred miles, through a deep snow. Here he halted, ordered his men to lay aside their
3*
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FROM THE HUB TO THE HUDSON.
packs and snow-shoes, and prepare for an assault upon the fort. Crossing the Deerfield River a little before daybreak, he took up a rapid march on the stiff crust of the snow across the meadow. Fearing that the noise of the marching might give the alarm, he ordered frequent halts, in which the whole force lay still for a few moments, and then rising, rushed on at the double quick. These alternations of noise and silence, would he supposed, be mistaken by the senti- nels for gusts of wind followed by moments of calm. It was a clever ruse, but hardly necessary, for the sen- tinels were asleep. On the north-west corner of the fort the snow had been drifted nearly to the top of the stockade, and over the bridge thus provided for them the whole force gained an easy entrance, and found the whole garrison asleep. Quietly they now divided them- selves into parties, and began the assault. The doors were broken open, the people were dragged from their beds, and all who offered resistance were slaughtered.
The house of Mr. Williams was one of the first as- saulted. Awakened from a sound sleep he sprang from his bed and ran toward the door, but the Indians had already entered. Quickly returning to his couch he seized a pistol there secreted, and aimed it at the foremost Indian, but it missed fire. Instantly he was seized and pinioned, and made to await the brutal pleasure of his captors. Two of his young children and his negro woman were taken to the door and murdered before his eyes. His wife and five children were made captives with him.
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THE OLD INDIAN HOUSE.
The door of Captain John Sheldon's house was so securely fastened that they could not force it open. With their hatchets they succeeded in cutting a small hole through the double thickness of plank, and thrust- ing a musket through they fired and killed Mrs. Shel- don who was just rising from her bed. The house was captured and used as a place of confinement for the prisoners. Another house about fifty yards south-west of Sheldon's was repeatedly attacked but was defended by seven men who poured a destructive fire from win- dows and loop-holes. The bullets that kept the foe at bay were cast by brave women while the fight was going on ; a fact which Lucy Stone may use with ex- cellent effect when she makes her next speech in the Connecticut Valley.
Another house outside the fort, surrounded by a circle of palisades, was successfully, defended, with some loss to the assailants.
Before eight o'clock in the morning, the work of destruction and pillage was complete, and Rouville collected his prisoners and his booty, and set out on his return. Possibly his steps were hastened by the arrival of a party from Hatfield, whither the news of This the assault had been carried by a fugitive. small and late re-enforcement, being joined by the people who had defended the two houses, and a few others who had escaped into the woods, pursued the enemy into the meadow, and gallantly attacked them ; but being outnumbered and almost surrounded, they were compelled to retreat, and the invaders marched
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FROM THE HUB TO THE HUDSON.
away with their captives and their plunder. One hun- dred and twelve persons of both sexes and all ages were made prisoners; the slain, including those who fell in the fight in the meadows, numbered forty-seven, and the loss of the enemy was about the same num- ber. Fourteen of the captives,-probably infants and infirm persons,-were killed by the Indians during the first day's march, which was not more than four miles. Two of them escaped, and Mr. Williams was instructed to inform the prisoners that if any more escapes were attempted, death by fire would be the portion of the rest. A full and graphic account of this sad journey, and the exile in Canada which suc- ceeded it, may be found in a little book written by Mr. Williams, and entitled, "The Redeemed Captive Returning to Zion." The first day, he tells us, he was separated from his wife, who was in feeble health; the second day he was permitted to speak with her, and for a time to assist her on her journey; but at length her strength failed, and he was forced to leave her behind. The Indian to whose tender mercies she was left, finding her unable to travel further, despatched her with his tomahawk. Not long after, a party from Deerfield, following the trail of the Indians, found her dead body, and brought it back to Deerfield and buried it. By slow and weary marches through the deep snow, the prisoners finally arrived in Canada. It appears
that they were regarded as the property of their Indian captors ; and though some of them were purchased by the French inhabitants, the greater part were retained
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THE CAPTIVES REDEEMED.
by the Indians at their lodges in different parts of the country. Mr. Williams was set at liberty by Governor Vaudreuil, and by great exertions succeeded in procur- ing the release of all his children but one, Eunice, a girl of ten years. In 1706 a flag-ship, sent from Bos- ton to Quebec, returned with Mr. Williams, four of his children and fifty-two other redeemed captives. Eunice Williams was left behind, grew up among the Indians, forgot her language, married an Indian who assumed her name, reared up a large family, and died at length a Romanist in an Indian cabin. Three times during her life, attended by her tawny spouse, and attired in Indian costume, she visited her friends in Massachu- setts ; but they could not persuade her to forsake her home or to forswear her faith. Eleazer Williams, the pretended Dauphin of France, was her grandson.
The little party that bravely followed and assailed the invaders, found, on returning to the smoking ruins of the little village, that not much of it was left. Hoyt tells us that, "excepting the meeting-house and Shel- don's, which was the last fired, and saved by the Eng- lish who assembled immediately after the enemy left the place all [the buildings] within the fort were con- sumed by fire. That which was so bravely defended by the seven men accidentally took fire and was con- sumed while they were engaged in the meadow." But this statement is now disputed. It is supposed that seven or eight houses remained after the burning, and some of them are yet standing. We shall see them as we ride through the village.
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FROM THE HUB TO THE HUDSON.
The house of Sheldon stood with but little alteration until 1849, when it was removed to make way for a more modern structure. The old door, which the Indians pierced with their tomahawks was still upon its hinges when the house was taken down, and it was preserved as a relic by Mr. Hoyt, the owner of the house. Some years afterward it passed into other hands, and at length in 1863, the citizens of the town learned with great regret that it had been purchased and carried away to Newton, by Dr. D. D. Slade. Negotiations were immediately opened with the worthy doctor, who at first refused to part with it; but finally, in 1867, he wrote to the committee that after thinking the matter over he had concluded that the door belonged to Deer- field ; and upon receipt of the amount which it had cost him, he would return it to the town. Whereupon, a fair was held, the money was raised, and the people cele- brated the return of the door with a festival, a speech by Rev. J. F. Moors of Greenfield, and a poem by Josiah D. Canning, Esq., of Gill, well known in this region as the "Peasant Bard." Here are some of his verses:
" Here where you stood in those dark days of yore, And did brave duty as a Bolted Door ; Where you withstood the Indians' fiendish rage Who on yon tablet, scored a bloody page ; Where you survived the havoc and the flame, And float Time's tide to-day, a Door of Fame ; Here where for long decades of years gone down
You've served attractor to this grand old Town, Made for yourself and physics one name more,- For thou hast been, shalt be, Attraction's Door ;
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A HYMN OF ADORATION.
Here where years since, a wonder-loving boy, I first beheld thee with a solemn joy, Gazed on thy silent face but speaking scars, And dreamed of "auld lang syne " and Indian wars ; Door of the Past, thou wast indeed to me And Door of Deerfield thou shalt ever be ! Here grim old relic ! thou shalt aye repose, By keepers guarded, unassailed by foes ; Stronger in age than most doors in their prime, The Indian's hatchet and the scythe of Time Thou hast defied ; and though no more for harm, 'Gainst thee the painted warrior nerves his arm, Still shalt defy the blade of Time so keen, Till he his scythe shall change for the machine. "Bless thee, old relic ! old and brave and scar'd ! And bless Old Deerfield ! says her grandson bard. Towns may traditions have, by error spun, She has the Door of History,-here's the one !"
The old door is now enclosed in a handsome chestnut frame, and hung in the hall of the Pocumtuck House, where it is easily accessible to visitors : but it might find a better resting-place. Deerfield ought to have a Memorial Hall, into which its relics and its archives might be gathered. A large and valuable collection would soon be obtained; no town in the country, ex- cept Old Plymouth, has greater need of such a build- ing. Some of the rich men of the cities, whose genea- logical tree sprouted in these historic meadows, ought to set this enterprise in motion without delay.
The terrible calamity just narrated did not destroy the courage of this heroic people. Those who were left determined to maintain their plantations. When
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FROM THE HUB TO THE HUDSON.
Mr. Williams returned to Boston in the flag-ship in 1706, he was met by a committee from Deerfield who invited him to return to his former charge; and though he had received some propositions from a church in the neighborhood of Boston, the brave man went back. to the perils of the border, saying, "I must return and look after my sheep in the wilderness." Here he was content to live and labor, and here, after a ministry of forty-three years he was gathered to his rest. A stone in the old burying-ground marks the place where his ashes repose.
During the years that intervened between the de- struction of the town in 1704, and the treaty of Utrecht, in 1713, Indian depredations and murders were fre- quent. Then the land had rest, for a season, and prosperity returned to the homes and the fields of the Deerfield farmers.
Again, in 1744, when many of the heroes of the former conflicts had passed away, war broke out be- tween England and France, and its threatening shadow fell once more upon this peaceful valley. On the 25th of August, 1746, a party of laborers were assailed by the savages at a point in the south meadow known as " The Bars;" several of them were killed and others carried into captivity. Eunice Allen, then a young girl, was pursued by an Indian who plunged his toma- hawk into her skull and left her for dead; but she re- covered from the frightful wound and lived to be more than eighty years old. This was the last serious col- lision with the Indians in the history of Deerfield.
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NOBLES AND NOTABLES.
Single persons were killed and captured after this time, but nothing occurred which amounted to a disturbance of the tranquillity of the town.
From the hardy men who fought these battles a worthy progeny has sprung, among whom many emi- nent names are found. Ephraim Williams, Esq., an eminent jurist, and the first reporter of the decisions of the Supreme Court of Massachusetts, was born here, in 1760, married at the age of sixty, and his son -the child of his old age, is the revered and trusted Episcopal bishop of Connecticut. Richard Hildreth, the historian, President Hitchcock of Amherst Col- lege, and General Rufus Saxton, all belong by birth to Deerfield. General Epaphras Hoyt, the author of the history upon which liberal drafts have been made in the preparation of this sketch, lived and died in this town. His book is a monument of research, fidelity and literary skill.
Having put ourselves in possession of some of the important facts in the history of this old town we are now prepared to appreciate and enjoy the things we shall see. The road leads southward from the Public Square past the shops of the Russell Manufacturing Company, under the high bridge of the Troy and Greenfield Railroad spanning Green River, through Cheapside, under the bridge of the Connecticut River Railroad, crossing Deerfield River, upon which we looked down from the Bear's Den; across the old wagon bridge, where toll is no longer demanded, and along the eastern border of the Deerfield Meadows.
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FROM THE HUB TO THE HUDSON.
The owners of two thousand acres of these meadows were for a long time members of a corporation known . as " The Proprietors of the Common Field." The fences around the whole were built by the corporation ; each man cultivated his own land in the summer, and in the fall, after the crops were gathered, all pastured them in common. The incorporation has lately expired by
limitation. Soon we are at the entrance of Deerfield street and it is safe to predict that not many of us have ever seen one more beautiful. It is just a mile in length ; and the branches of the majestic elms, meet- ing over head form a lengthened canopy for the whole of that distance. An old brown house on the right not long after we enter the village is the residence of George Sheldon, Esq .; a gentleman of extensive an- tiquarian research, and of excellent historical judgment, who has done more than any other living man to col- lect and sift the traditions of this old town. Mr. Shel- don has one of the largest collections of Indian an- tiquities to be found in the country. He was the man of whom the witty Springfield Republican said that it was his delight to invite a company of antiquarians to supper, and then to amuse them afterward by dig- ging up Indian skulls in his back yard. Mr. Sheldon is now engaged upon a work for which he is thoroughly qualified, and which all his neighbors hope he may live to accomplish-the preparation of a fristory of his native town. When it is done it will be well done, and no descendant of Deerfield can afford to do with- out it. The Unitarian Church is a brick edifice on
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MEETING-HOUSE HILL.
the west side of the street, and at the north end of the Common. The slight elevation on which it stands" was known among the early settlers as "Meeting- House Hill." The northern boundary of the old fort ran along this bank; it extended far enough east to enclose the houses on the east side of the street. It was an irregular oblong enclosure, its greatest length being from west to east. The elevation on which it stood was once an island in the lake; and was very likely wooded, when the settlers took possession. A white house stands fronting on the Common directly in the rear of the church, on the spot where the old Indian House stood. The Pocumtuck House is an excellent hotel on the south side of the street, in the hall of which we shall find the Indian Door. The next house beyond the hotel, was probably standing when the town was burnt in 1704. In the Common stands a beautiful shaft of brown freestone, surmounted by the statue of a soldier in fatigue dress, with a rifle at the po- sition of "load." Engraved upon the monument, with various appropriate mottoes, and the names of the bat- tles and prisons in which they gave up their lives are the names of forty-two soldiers,-and this inscription :
"In grateful appreciation of the Patriotism and self-sacrifice of her lamented sons and soldiers, who for their Country and for Freedom laid down their lives in the war of the Great Rebellion, Deerfield erects this monument, A. D. 1867. Their precious dust is scattered on many battle fields or was hastily buried near some loathsome prison pen ; but the memory of their brave deeds and willing sacrifices shall be cherished in our heart of hearts sacredly and forever.
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FROM THE HUB TO THE HUDSON.
" This Monument stands upon the Old Meeting-House Hill, and is within the limits of the Old Fort, built A. D. 1689, and which remained until A. D. 1758, and was one of the chief de- fenses of the early settlers against the attacks of savage Indians. With pious affection and gratitude, their descendants would hereby associate the sacrifices and sufferings of the Fathers of the town in establishing our institutions with those of their children in defending them."
" Aye, call it holy ground, The soil where first they trod They have left unstained, what here they found, Freedom to worship God."
The Orthodox Congregational Church is a neat, white edifice on the left hand side of the street, front- ing southward. Between the two houses standing north of this church on the principal street, it is said that there was formerly an underground passage pro- vided for the safety of the inmates during the Indian wars. On the south of the common a side street leads down to the old burying-ground, past the old home of President Hitchcock on the left, and the spot on the right where stood the residence of Parson Williams, and where his well still remains. Here lie buried many of the victims of Indian barbarity. The date of the oldest inscription is 1695. A little guide-board marks the spot.
Leaving, now, this quiet street whose atmosphere is pervaded with old memories, let us drive to the top of Pocumtuck Rock, which overlooks the village and the valley. There let us sit down and muse awhile, feast- ing our eyes upon the beautiful picture at our feet, and
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THE VIEWS FROM SUGAR LOAF.
supplying in our imagination the scenes that have trans- pired during the last two hundred years within the circle of these hills.
Another day, perhaps, we will drive further south through the meadows, along the route where Lathrop and his troops and teamsters marched so many years ago, to the spot where they were slaughtered, now marked by a marble cenotaph. This monument was dedicated in 1835, with an oration by Hon. Edward Everett. While we are in this neighborhood too, we will climb to the top of Sugar Loaf, the hill at the base of which the fight took place.
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