USA > Massachusetts > Hampden County > Hampden county, 1636-1936, Volume I > Part 3
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WILLIAM PYNCHON
For the accommodation of persons who wished to pass to and from the town by the river there were three landing places, one at the foot of what is now Cypress Street, called the upper landing; another at the foot of Elm Street, called the middle landing; and the third at the foot of York Street, known as the lower landing. To each of these a street or lane led from the Main Street. The street leading to the middle landing was the same that conducted to the training-place, part of which was afterward used as a burial place. This street, the Elm Street of our day, was first one rod wide, but soon was widened to two rods. Later, wharves were built at all three landing places.
Probably most of the settlers who came early to Springfield came by land. Some of them brought their families and goods. The journey was a serious undertaking, but as an emigrating family went on they began to discover signs of civilized life; the smoke from the chimney of a rude cabin might catch their attention and they would begin to realize that they were near to old neighbors and friends. They might follow the course of a small brook, since called Garden Brook, and descend a slope into the valley. They sought to find first the one man whom they had known in England and with whom they had crossed the ocean. They found Mr. Pynchon's house, which had nothing striking or attractive about it to indicate that it was the house of the leader in this enterprise of founding a town in the wilderness. It was a one-story-and a-half wooden structure, unpainted, with thatched roof. Mr. Pynchon gave the newcomers a cordial welcome to the hospitality of his house, and they were soon numbered among the settlers of the plantation. By such recruiting the population of the place was gradually increased.
The dress of the period expressed the honest simplicity of the Puritan religion. Most of the troopers and young men wore jerkins or waistcoats of green cotton, caught at the waist with either red tape or a leather band. Over this some would wear a sleeveless jacket held at the neck with hooks and eyes, and lined with cotton. As the migration to Springfield was through a wilderness at the time of a possible rainy spring, some of the party may have been clad in an uncomfortable warm doublet, and had hose of leather, lined with oiled skin. In such a case they would abandon their large, conical broadbrims for red-knit Puritan caps that were lighter. The half hoot was worn freely, and Mr. Pynchon was likely to have on great
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boots that were a luxury limited by law to a person whose estate was at least £200. Broad, white collars of linen were much worn, but not on such an expedition.
The women had strong, simple gowns with hoods, capes, high necks and neckcloths. Gowns were homemade, and drooped primly to the stout boots. The law forbade short sleeves and bare arms, and bunches of green ribbon, but there is plenty of evidence in the pioneer life of New England that neither the ingenuity of man, nor the dan- gers of wild beasts or wilder men, kept the New England woman from reflecting in her attire something of the "grace and taste that Heaven sheds on her."
There must have been much of the picturesque in the journey from the Bay to the encampment at a hamlet of wigwams, and of marked contrast between the fair-faced matron and the leather-dressed squaw. No doubt, too, there was a mutual curiosity between the soft-voiced strangers in the psalm-singing circle around the campfire, and the won- dering savages before their wigwams.
The emigration was one of families, and even children were not lacking. For instance, there were Mr. Pynchon's son, John, and his daughter, Mary, neither of whom had reached the age of twelve years, but they could at least walk some of the way, and at other times perch on horseback. Mr. Pynchon had secured an interpreter, through whom he could communicate with the Indians, and the great journey was accomplished without accident or serious delay.
Mr. Pynchon was no doubt too busy with the affairs of the planta- tion to travel about the valley to any extent during the first year. He wrote to John Winthrop, Jr .: "I will hasten to settle myself at Aga- wam as soon as I can, and then I shall see all the plantations." He was even then shipping goods to the younger Winthrop.
By the closing in of winter, Mr. Pynchon probably had his house far enough advanced to shelter his own family and possibly others. The pine forests on the great plain east and north of the new village were nearly free from underbrush owing to the Indians' annual autumn burnings. One purpose that these served was the greater ease of travel which was secured. Oak and chestnut trees, however, were carefully protected from fire. The time of the burnings coin- cided with the dreamy Indian summer, and with the fire climbing from tree to tree up the mountainsides, driving the game before it, the sight must have been very romantic, especially at night.
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WILLIAM PYNCHON
During the first year the settlers were unable to secure a minister and Mr. Pynchon collected the little flock at his house and conducted divine service. He wrote his ser- mons and his young son often took summaries of them.
It pleased the Agawam Indians in their fort on Long Hill to see the English settling near them, for they thus acquired powerful allies against warlike tribes to the south and west, and it increased the value of their planting grounds. The Indians' name for Springfield, including the Chicopee Plains, was Nayasset.
John Oldham was killed by the Indians near Block Island a few days after the Agawam deed was signed and a terrible struggle with the savages followed. In May, 1637, war was declared at Hart- ford against the Pequots. Mr. Pynchon was not present, but it was voted that his shallop should be taken for use in the warfare.
The new plantation now had quite a number of houses along the ANCIENT SPRINGFIELD MILE-STONE west side of the present Main Street, On the Boston Road, near the United States Armory and these were tolerably well for- tified. But the dwellers lived in constant fear, and if an attack had been made at that time they might easily have been exterminated. Their safety depended largely on the Agawam and Woronoco Indians, who showed no disposition to fight. In fact, they had looked on the whites from the start as allies. It was an exciting and trying year, for no one knew at what moment the entire Indian population might rise and join the Pequots in a war of extermination. Is it any wonder that house building and land clearing and the opening of Main Street were attended with an ever-present sense of insecurity ?
Agawam Plantation
Hampden-3
CHAPTER IV
1127394
Agawam Plantation
Not until over a year passed was the first article of the original town compact carried out and a minister secured. Reverend George Moxon, of Boston, arrived at Agawam, as Springfield was then called, in the autumn of 1637, bringing with him a wife and two daughters. He was a short, stout man, thirty-five years of age, and Mr. Pynchon was a personal friend. His coming was an occasion of great rejoicing, for which the allotment of land and clearing of for- ests were only preliminaries, because what the settlers had most in mind was to establish and spread the Kingdom of God in the New World. A belief was abroad in those times that America was a pecu- liar land favored by the Almighty, and many of the laws repugnant to modern ideas of freedom and justice were designed to hasten the day when their hopes would be realized.
The coming of Mr. Moxon was very timely because it occurred in a season of general thanksgiving throughout New England at the overthrow of the Pequots. Now, with all their trials and anxieties, there was more blue sky than clouds above them, and Agawam observed October 12, its first day of thanksgiving, with renewed confidence.
It is very difficult to form any adequate conception of Mr. Moxon's character, or the value of his ministerial labors, but from the declared purpose of the first settlers to get "some godly and faithful minister" and from the fact that he had been long and intimately known by Mr. Pynchon, it can fairly be inferred that he was a man of more than ordinary ability and character. The parishioners had confidence in him, else they would not have chosen him in 1638 to be a deputy repre- senting them in the General Court at Hartford, within which jurisdic- tion Springfield was then supposed to fall. Another token of their regard is found in their assigning him a home-lot of nearly double the
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usual width, and in 1639, by a voluntary assessment, they built him a house that had the luxury of both a porch and a study. The house was to be thirty-five feet long and fifteen feet wide with stairs into cellar and chamber, and double chimneys at the sides of the cellar. This house was located on the westerly side of Main Street near what is now Vernon Street. John Alline was ready to undertake getting the thatch for the roof. There was careful consideration, too, for the daubing of the house and chimneys. Here the minister lived dur- ing the last thirteen years of his Springfield residence. In the spring of 1638, when there were at least fifteen men in Agawam, it had been voted that the expenses of fencing his home-lot on the Main Street, and of building his house, should fall in part on those who joined the plantation later.
Springfield's records of many early town meetings are unfortu- nately lost, and not until the spring of 1638 can we secure any definite idea of the course taken in local legislation. But actually every phase of it was more or less a reflection of English civilization. One of the important offices was that of church warden. Mr. Pynchon had been a warden of the parish at Springfield, England, and from the Eng- lish conception of this office came the New England "Select Towns- man." It may be said with some local pride that the hard rules of the Bay were materially modified from the beginning. There was little or no religious persecution, no clamping of the tongue with split sticks, no brandings of the forehead, and yet the scheme of parental super- vision of men's movements was strictly adhered to. Nor is there any evidence for quite a number of years that "townsmen" were appointed with discretionary powers of governing. There was no need of select- men, with the whole body of the freemen regularly in session once a month.
Wampum, as used by the Indians, served both for money and ornament. It was brought to Plymouth in 1627. Roger Williams wrote describing it a few years later. The Long Island Indians were the discoverers of its charms. In actual substance it was sea shells polished and shaped. Later the Block Island Indians and others became skillful in this money bead-making. The beads varied in color and value. There were black or dark purple beads, and there were the white beads which were the most numerous and the least valuable. Six of the white beads or three of the dark ones passed for
.
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a penny, and six feet of the white shell beads were worth five shillings. The dark beads were of double the value of the white, and they were entitled to the name wampumpeag. The wampum, because of its convenience, won the favor of the fur trade, and was largely used by the Indians themselves in the eastern colonies as far south as Vir- ginia. There was even imitation wampum made of white porcelain for sale to the Indians. The various colored sea shell money was so plenty that the English, French and Dutch bought furs and other things with it for six hundred miles north and south from New England.
Meanwhile the prices for wampum continued nominally the same for many years; but as the supply exceeded the demand the value gradually became less and less. Massachusetts tried to provide reme- dies, but they were not a success. The white beads in some instances sold for money at twenty-four for a penny, and the black beads, too, felt the decline. The law had failed. It was repealed, and wampum was without a legal price. Silver coins were scarce and there was nothing satisfactory to take the place of wampum. Hence it continued to be much used in the towns along the Connecticut and in other parts of New England.
Wampum was often paid at ferries and inns instead of money. When a man settled a tavern bill on a journey he did not take out a purse of coins, but strings of wampum and loose beads. Innkeepers and ferrymen received so much of the shell currency that they com- plained of their losses, for there were large quantities that could not be disposed of as fast as received.
William Pynchon, and afterward his son John, were extensively engaged in trade with both Indians and whites, and they dealt more largely in wampum than any other traders, either above or below Springfield. They bought bushels at a time of the loose shell beads, and employed the women and children of the town to string them at home. The pay was three half pence for a fathom of six feet. Nearly 20,000 fathoms were strung at this rate. John Pynchon sold wam- pum to individuals he had licensed to trade with the Indians, and some of them bought to the value of one hundred and twenty-five pounds sterling at a time.
The Pynchons' accounts with the Indians were always kept in fathoms and hands, or fathoms, hands and pence; never in shillings
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and pence. They made use of compound addition and subtraction not found in arithmetics.
The Indians used some of their shell beads to make belts, girdles, scarfs, head-bands, bracelets, necklaces, and pendants for the ears. Besides, they contrived attractive bead caps, aprons and rich girdles. To make such a girdle, about 2,300 beads were required.
During the first three years of the Agawam plantation's existence, William Pynchon was a great traveler, both in the Connecticut Val- ley and the Bay country, and his impressive figure with its strange garb was a familiar sight to the Indians. Gradually, as acquaintance ripened with this stern horseman who haunted the bridle-path, he became to the Indians a personification of justice.
Farther down the river there rode in the valley another horse- man, Captain John Mason, whose faith in the Indians was rooted to his sword-hilt, and the Indians feared him. The Pynchon and Mason policies toward the red men conflicted at all points. Neither had a high opinion of the Indian, but the founder of Springfield treated them with consideration and fairness, while the Connecticut man was continually crushing their sense of justice. A strange long-drawn-out controversy developed between Hartford and Springfield, full of bit- ter personalities. It even outlived the lives of those most warmly engaged.
Captain Mason was the popular hero of the Pequot War, although the methods he used were those of extermination. Nevertheless, his exploits were heralded abroad, and his reputation must have been a source of personal gratification. He had been an English soldier in the Netherlands, and may have known Pynchon at Dorchester, where both first settled in New England. Mason had from the start a con- tempt of the Indian as a fighting animal, while Pynchon was a student and lawyer, and believed that only through a primitive code of ethics could amicable relations exist between the English and the red men.
In March, 1638, Captain Mason called on William Pynchon at his Agawam home. It was a meeting of two notable men and was held in the first house that the settlers built. Mason was accompanied by some armed troopers, and a Nonotuck Indian. "I am come," he said to Mr. Pynchon, "to get corn from the Indians, and have already traded some at Woronoco, and I had purposed to meet you at Nono- tuck. Instead I met this Indian here at Agawam, and would have
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traded some corn with him yesterday night, but he says he dare not without your leave. He said he was afraid of you, as are also the Indians on the riverside, for they have stolen 13 coats that belong to you, and some cloth, but whereas they say they stole only two pieces of cloth, you say they stole six pieces. I told them I thought you were not angry, and would not harm them, and now I pray that you tell this Indian of Nonotock that you will not be angry with him if he traded corn down the river."
Mr. Pynchon at once said, "I know of no reason why the Nono- tuck Indian or any other should fear me. I believe they no more fear me than they do their own shadow." Then he proposed that the conference be carried on apart, as it would not do to let the Indians know the extent of the English distress for food. "I care not who knows," Mason said. But Mr. Pynchon ordered his trader to open the trading-house door, and the party went in. There were four of them-Captain Mason and an associate, and Mr. Pynchon with his trader.
"This is what I will do," Mr. Pynchon said. "I will propose a rate for carrying down the corn, and a lesser rate to bring it to my house, and give them a choice."
At that the captain flew into a great passion and exclaimed : "What hurt can it be to you? I pray, sir, let me know, for it is a dark riddle to me."
Parson Moxon, who had been sent for, arrived at this juncture, and Mr. Pynchon explained the situation, adding that Mason had given the Woronoco Indians wampum in advance, and would have done the same at Nonotuck if Pynchon had not objected. The parties were testing Captain Mason's corn-bag when Henry Smith came to the trading-house, and the discussion was renewed.
Then Mr. Moxon said, "An Indian promise is no more than to have a pig by the tail."
This, by the way, is the only quotation in existence of anything Moxon ever said.
It was agreed by Mr. Pynchon and his friends that advance pay- ments in buying corn from the Indians were the worst way to get a supply. He had been having a recent experience in connection with a debt they owed him. What they did was to stay away and avoid keeping to their promise, and Mr. Pynchon said, "Thus will they deal
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with these Connecticut men, who will say afterward, by way of excuse, that they were fools, not knowing what they did."
Captain Mason at last began to harken to Mr. Pynchon, who agreed to aid him as best he could. Thereupon the Nonotuck Indian, who was loitering about, came at the call of Captain Mason, and Mr. Pynchon addressed this up-river Indian, telling him the captain was a sachem who wanted to trade corn. But the Indian protested that much of their corn was ruined by the snow, and that the river was too high for transporting any to Hartford. It was evident that the Indians knew the stress the English were under, and were trying to get more for their corn. There had been other similar occasions, and if corn went up, it did so on the issue of supply and demand, which holds good in most countries and times.
Mr. Pynchon now began making daily displays to the Indians of both cloth and wampum of the best, in exchange for corn if they would bring any, but still they put him off with excuses on purpose to make him raise the price. And he said, "Indeed it would weary any one to hear what crafty pleadings they have used for this purpose." The upshot of all this was a Pynchon-Mason interview from which they parted in anything but a cordial spirit. Captain Mason, in particular, was very much displeased, and made an abrupt departure.
Three days later the General Court of Connecticut issued an order for Mr. Pynchon's presence at the next session and a trial followed with very serious charges. Commissioners were assigned to hear the case, and the founder of Springfield with several witnesses, and with Reverend George Moxon as his counsel, put in a full defence. Mr. Pynchon was completely taken aback by the spirit and extent of the charges. He was represented as one who had traded on the misfor- tunes and privations of Connecticut towns that were less fortunate. . For instance, he had raised the price of corn to Connecticut's disad- vantage, and was holding the Indians to their bargains, all for his private gain. He refused to lend a canoe to a Woronoco Indian, who was under contract with Captain Mason to take corn down the river. He kept the local tribes in abject fear of him that he might be con- sidered the great English sachem of the Connecticut Valley. Lastly, he induced certain Mohawk runners to sell him some beaver skins, which were sent by Mohawk chiefs to the Connecticut authorities as gifts and tokens of good will.
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As to the charge of dishonorable speculation in corn, the condi- tion of the Agawam Plantation in the spring of 1638 was such that the five hundred bushels Mr. Pynchon had contracted for with the Indians were not more than Agawam itself needed. Actually, the food situation was as acute up the river as it was down. Mr. Pynchon in his own testimony affirmed that the whole population had been in severe straits, both of persons and cattle, for two or three months together, and the wants of the plantation forced some to give malt to pigs in order to save the creatures' lives.
Three or four persons were in consultation planning to leave home for a while to earn their bread elsewhere until corn might be had at Agawam. Some women gave their poultry and swine English grain intended only for seed. Mr. Pynchon's wants were so great that he sometimes had no more than half a bushel of corn in the house for his family and cattle, and when a bushel or less was brought in to trade, he "as much prized God's mercy and Providence therein, and was as glad of it as at other times of twenty bushels."
All the while the Indians were willing enough to trade, if they might have their price. But that, Mr. Pynchon refused to give, and insisted refusal was for the public good. He said, "Though my fam- ily did urge me to raise the price, partly in mercy to my cattle, and partly to save their own lives, I held to my course." His family told him he had lost some cattle already and was sure to lose more if corn were not provided. "I found their word true," he said, "and my wife, walking more amongst the cattle than I did, professed it was her daily grief to see them in that poor, starving condition for want of corn, and did urge me to raise the price in pity for the cattle, whatever the cost. Yea, at that time I wrote a letter for advice with regard to raising the price of corn. My family and cattle, and neighbors had spent our former supply, and whereas before I had depended on the payment of five hundred bushels promised by the Indians, my hopes were like to a spider's web. Therefore, I wrote for counsel what course I should take with those Indians. I neglected mine own cattle and family, and suffered that loss which might have helped with God's blessing."
When the time came for a trial before the commissioners, Mr. Pynchon was surprised to find that the chief witnesses, besides Captain Mason, were the very Agawam Indians with whom he had negotiated
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for the five hundred bushels of corn, and he might well have felt serious concern, for they were only too anxious to do anything that would relieve them of their bargain with him. Their chief accusation was that he kept them in continual fear. The court sustained Mr. Pynchon's appeal, and after it had been explained to the Indians, that the five hundred bushels of corn must be paid, he expressed his good will and cordial feeling to the group of dusky savages.
The next point taken up that involved them was the charge that Mr. Pynchon bought of Mohawk runners beaver intended as presents to the authorities at Hartford. Mr. Pynchon said he could not imagine that it was come as a gift "because they spoke of no such thing, but called for trade. Besides, a large part of these skins were such as were not fit for a gift to great sachems. One of the Indians brought seven sachem scalps and he was first at my house.
"Neither in likelihood could they expect such a thing because these Pequot Sachems were killed two days' journey on this side of where the Mohawks lived. It was too far, therefore, and it is most prob- able the beaver promised, was to give the telling of some pleasing thing, as is their ordinary manner when they want a favor. They had an interpreter, and all they said was that the Mohawks did much love the English, and would be in friendship with them and destroy all Pequots that came in their way, but mentioned no such gift of beaver."
Mr. Pynchon's accusers not only made an assault on his general character, but used hearsay evidence picked up on Agawam streets. Finally, the commisisoners, after hearing Mason, the Indians and the rest, called in Reverend Thomas Hooker and Reverend Samuel Stone as experts on the ethical question of Mr. Pynchon's conduct. They both said emphatically that Pynchon had broken his oath. He then got up and explained his mode of bargaining with the Indians, which avoided any advance payment of wampum. But that only stirred the ministerial ire the more.
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