USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Watertown > Historical sketches of Watertown, Massachusetts > Part 16
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Whether Squa Sachem went round every winter
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gay and comfortable in Cambridge's new or second- hand finery, I cannot say. The matter of greater in- terest to us just now is how much land that piece of Cambridge dry goods may have helped to pay for. This is Bond's interpretation of the whole transaction : "it was probably the Indians' claim to the ‘ware lands' and Nonantum on the south side of the river. This conjecture is favored by the circumstance that Cambridge (Newton) and Boston (Muddy River) were embraced in the commission, and that Water- town and Cambridge paid the expense."
In 1671 the Indians tried to buy back the previous fishing property and privileges in Watertown with which they had parted.
All the above attracts our curious attention. Here in this beautiful Charles River valley abounded the Indians, owning all these lands, and in arrow-tip, spear-point and hammer-head they have left along the green river banks, by pond, and spring, and brook, the chirography of their ownership. And of any payment for that territory as a whole, what evidence have our ancestors left behind ?
The Charles River valley was traversed by Indian raids, as when King Philip's warriors swept their swath of fire through that little Medfield hamlet by the winding river. Indians though did not fire Watertown, which was so far down the picturesque valley. Our town was rather a garrison-house to which the settlers of other towns might flee. It be- came, too, a reservoir from which went out streams of aid to those in distress.
It is true there was friction accompanying the intercourse of Watertown people with the Indians. There was too much human nature on both sides to assure smooth running of all the machinery. The very first year of the young colony's life, trouble broke out among the servants of that Sir Richard who headed the Watertown colonists.
There is in the colonial records an item proving this : " Upon a complaint made by Sagamore John and Peter, for having two wigwams burnt, which upon examination appeared to be occasioned by James Woodward, servant to Sir Richard Saltonstall, was therefore ordered that Sir Richard should satisfy the Indians for the wrong done to them (which he did by giving them seven yards of eloth), and that, his said servant should pay unto him for it at the end of his time, the sum of £5 (505)."
Gov. Winthrop in his history makes reference to a Watertown man who was guilty of putting tempta- tion in the way of the Indians. This is Winthrop's reference to it made under the date of Sept. 4, 1632, in the Governor's famous diary-history :
" One Hopkins of Watertown was convict for sell- ing a piece and pistol with powder and shot to James Sagamore for which he had sentence to be whipped and branded in the cheek. It was discovered by an Indian, one of James' men, upon promise of conceal- ing him (for otherwise he was sure to be killed)."
Savage, in his notes on the text of Winthrop's his- tory, adds this quotation from the colony records :
" Hereupon it was propounded if his offence should now be punished hereafter by death." The raising of this question shows how serious an evil in the mind of somebody was this traffic in ammunition with the Indians. The proposition though, was not allowed to embarrass the men in council, for they put in practice what has proved to be a convenient device nowadays : " Referred to the next court to be determined." One escape from any perplexity to-day is to bequeath its settlement as a thorny inheritance to the people com- ing after us.
Watertown Indians were not involved in a bloody war to which I am about to make reference, the Peqnod War, but it is a singular fact that a Water- town man was the innocent occasion of it. That was John Oldham. This is Francis' version of Oldham's fate : " He became a distinguished trader among the Indians, and in 1636 was sent to traffic with them at Block Island. The Indians got possession of Old- ham's vessel, and murdered him in a most barbarous manner. The boat was discovered by one John Gallop, who on his passage from Counecticut was obliged by change of wind to bear up for Block Island. He recognized Oldham's vessel, and seeing the deck full of Indians, suspected there had been foul play. After much exertion and management, he boarded this and found the body of Oldham cut and mangled and the head cleft asunder." Winthrop's account of the discovery is very realistic. You can seem to see the little pinnace off' on the blue water, while John Gallop conrageously dashes in upon them, scattering them like a lot of ship rats that were swarming on the deck. It was a foul, bloody murder they had committed.
When the news was carried home, flying from ham- let to hamlet, it aroused an intense excitement. The fighting men of the towns were quickly on the march. In August ninety men were sent off to find and pun- ish the savages. One of the commanders was Ensign William Jennison. He acquired glory enough from that campaign to be made a captain, the next month of March. George Mnnnings, another Watertown man, was not so fortunate. He came home again, but left an eye behind him, so that the Court gave him five pounds and "the fines for one week," whatever those may have been. This campaign only made an- other necessary. The succeeding spring, Massachn- setts resolved to equip and send to the war one hun- dred and sixty men, and Watertown was directed to raise fourteen.
The now Capt. William Jennison was on the com- mittee to marshal and furnish that force, and also on a committee to divide a quota of fifty additional men among the towns. Watertown's share of glory this time was fonr men. These figures would prove that our town contained about one-twelfth of the fighting force of Massachusetts. Prominent in this Pequod campaign was Capt. Patrick, of Watertown.
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Connecticut had a hand-a bloody one-in this war. Her forces were commanded by Capt. John Mason. It is thought the Robert Seeley next in command to Mason may have been a Watertown man who had moved to Connecticut. Bond says, "prob- ably." I would that it might be shown that no Water- town man had a hand in that part of the fight. Winthrop says, "Our English from Connecticut, with their Indians and many of the Narragansetts, marched in the night to a fort of the Pequods at Mistick, and besetting the same about break of the day, after two hours' fight they took it (by firing it) and slew there- in two chief sachems and one hundred and fifty fighting men, and about one hundred and fifty old men, women and children, with the loss of two Eng- lish, whereof but one was killed by the enemy."
This fort was surprised at an early morning hour. After the astonished sentinel's cry, " Owanux ! Owan- ux ! " (English ! English !) came a volley from Ma- son's men. These now forced their way into the en closure, finding sixty or seventy wigwams and a toe bewildered and in their power. The cry of fright- ened savages confused by this fierce, abrupt assault rent the air. How suppress them ? "Fire the wig- wams!" some one must have cried. The fire-brand was adopted as a weapon.
"This decided the battle," says Barry. "The flames rolled on with terrific speed, crackling and flashing upon the stillness of the morning air, and mingling with shouts and groans of agonizing de- spair, as body after body disappeared and was con- sumed."
With such an awful holocaust was John Oldham, of Watertown, avenged. A defence of the cruelty of this reparation has been attempted. What defence can be maintained? Oldham was savagely murdered, and the Indians were savagely punished. The only thing that can be said is that Capt. Mason's men in an hour of awful excitement, fearful lest the enemy might be too strong for them, confused and bewil- dered, appealed to a power which, once in motion, feels neither fear nor pity. It is a relief to know that Massachusetts, which afterwards brought up its forces and helped finish the war, did not apply the torch to any "old men, women and children."
It has been said that Watertown territory was not invaded by hostile Indians. Neither was there any insurrection raised by resident Indians. Alarms doubtless were frequent. A tremor of fear very soon agitated Watertown's early history. Francis speaks of a trouble which was misinterpreted, but shows that the early settlers of Massachusetts were apprehensive ; " Among the wild animals, the wolf was a very com- .mon annoyance, and against him they were obliged to keep special watch. On one occasion in the night, we are told, the report of the musket discharged at the wolves by some people of Watertown, was carried by the wind as far as Roxbury, and excited so much
commotion there, that the inhabitants were, by beat of drum, called to arms, probably apprehending an attack from the Indians." A less formidable crea- ture than the wolf was the occasion of an alarm re- corded by Winthrop, the responsibility for which, I judge from the context, was shouldered by outsiders upon the Indians. This was one early spring-day after the settlement of our beautiful valley-town, and the alarm was succeeded by a visit from the Indians. "John Sagamore, and James, his brother, with divers sannops, came to the Governor," says Winthrop. "James Savage has some reason, though slight, for assigning the residence of these Indians to the neighborhood of Watertown, or between the Charles and the Mistick Rivers."
Concerning the alarm connected with this visit, Winthrop says, "The night before alarm wasgiven in divers of the plantations. It arose through the shoot- ing off some pieces at Watertown by occasion of a calf which Sir Richard Saltonstall had lost : and the soldiers were sent out with their pieces to try the wilderness from thence till they might find it."
Would that behind all the shiverings of fright there had been only a poor little calf astray in the Charles River wilderness. I have referred to the Pequod War, one season of alarm that had serious foundation. I have noticed the fact that its occasion was a Watertown man. It was in 1675 that all New England was shaken by King Philip's War as by an earthquake. It is singular how deep a dent in New England's his- tory this war made, and yet not so strange when we remember that the combatants on either side were actuated by a grim purpose, that of extermination. To-day, any historical trace of that war is viewed with strangely fascinating interest.
Our Watertown Indians were not involved in that war. Geographically its source was too far to the south of us. The spirit of the Indians in this neigh- borliood made a still greater separation. This was the neighborhood of the " praying Indians," to whom I shall make reference hereafter. It was an Indian whose home had been in Watertown, Waban, who was prominent in friendly warnings to the English that the dreadful war was contemplated and was surely coming. The war cloud had risen and was growing and blackening steadily, day by day. "In the mean time several of the Christian Indians had expressed their belief that a plan was on foot for the general destruction of the English in the colonies ; and among these was Waban, a Nipmuck, at whose tent, amongst that people, Mr. Eliot had first preached to them in their own tongue. Waban, himself, hav- ing been the first of his tribe to be converted, became afterwards the principal ruler of the Christian Indians at Natick. In April, 1675, Waban came to General Gookin and warned him of Philip's intention shortly to attack the English; and again in May he came and urged the same, and said that 'just as soon as the
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trees were leaved out, the Indians would fall upon the towns.' " 1
I shall give reasons later why this Waban may be classified as at one time a Watertown Iudian. Ilis spirit was doubtless an exponent of the motives and purposes of others in this neighborhood, his loyal breast registering the temper of many of his race in the Charles River Valley.
Watertown then had no conflict with its dnaky-faced neighbors, as the war dragged along its bloody course. It felt the war, though, in the persons of those whom this mother of towns had sent out to people other val- leys, or through those it hurried away as combatants into this awful, savage shock of arms.
Watertown people participated in the Sudbury town celebration last year, and while there a visit was made to the famous battle-ground where Cap- tain Samuel Wadsworth, of Milton, and his brave forces so stoutly contended with the Indians-a contest that ended in a massaere of the whites. We remember what a lonely spot the battle-ground . was, with its outlook on the swelling hills aud across the green Sudbury valleys. Sudbury would have been a sorer sufferer in that Indian invasion had it not been for Watertown men. The Indians first attacked the settlement on the east side of Sudbury River, making pitiful bonfires of most of the houses. The people, though, made a stout opposition, and who should appear for their defense but the stalwart Cap- tain Hugh Mason. He and other sturdy fighters from Watertown so punished the Indians that they were forced to retreat to the west side of the river. Across the wide meadows we can see them fleeing, scowling in wrath at the Watertown men, who gave them such a drubbing.
King Philip's War closed in 1676. The decisive blow was given by the English at the destruction of the Narragansett fastness in the great cedar swamp southwest of Kingston, Rhode Island. It was a blow that meant demolition, destruction, the utter collapse of the Indians, and forever, as an organized race- power here in New England. The English forced an entrance into the Indian fort, and, like their prede- cessors who closed the Pequod War, they summoned to their aid the same merciless weapon of fire.
We, of this day, eannot appreciate the bitter feel- ing aroused on both sides of the strife in King Philip's War. It developed into a process of exter- mination. What the Indians planned for the English, the awful barbarity of the former attested. On the side of the English there was a lamentable process of hardening. It would sometimes seem as if an Englishman put his sensibilities into an iron-clad suit of armor when the case of an Indian came before him. When we place those days in the scales aud weigh them, we must not forget that there was in every direction a rough way of dealing with offenders.
Edward Eggleston incidentally brings this out in an article on pre-Revolutionary times in New England ; " The New England reverence for the Sabbath tended to repress social enjoyment in the accidental en- counters of Sunday, but the week-day lecture suffered from no such restriction, and was for a long time much more in favor than even the Sunday service. From all the country round, in spite of the poverty and difficult conditions of pioneer life, people flocked to those week-day assemblages. Cotton's lecture in Boston was so attractive that it was found convenient to establish a market on the same day ; punishments in the stocks, in the pillory, at the whipping-post, or on the gallows, were generally set down for lecture time, perhaps in order that as large a number of people as possible might be edlified by the sight of a sinner brought to a just retribution. Nor did these exhibitions of flogging, of cutting off ears, and of meu sitting in the stocks, or dangling from a gallows, tend to diminish the attendance." We are not sur- prised when this is added : " At one time during Philip's War scarcely a Boston lecture-day passed for a number of weeks without the congregation being regaled with sight of the execution of one or more In- dians."
The question here arises with fitness, Why were not any Indians in this vicinity more interested in the schemes of King Philip? The Indian nature was enough of a hot-bed to develop seeds of discontent. It has been thought that Philhp's war " spread a eon- tagion of hostility far to the southward by means of that quick intelligence which existed between the tribes."? Were our Charles River Indians lessintelli- gent than those to the south of ns? King Philip's War makes in my story a dark back-ground on which I can paint with all the more vividness and effectiveness a beautiful scene of an embassy of peace and good will by some of our English ancestors-an embassy that sounded its first message near us in this very val- ley, and whose growing influence developed all through this region a different kind of an Indian from the one that swung the tomahawk and shrieked the war-whoop in King Philip's War. I mean the work started by John Eliot, the famous Indian missionary.
Although pastor of a church in Roxbury, his sym- pathies could not be bounded by the walls of that , fold. His affections weut out to the great, unshep- herded flock in the forests and by the rivers, and he resolved to reach these children of another color and another race. The first step was a knowledge of the In- dian tongue. It has been told of him that "he hired an old Indian named Job Nesutan to live in his family and to teach him his language. When he had accomplished this arduous task, which he did in 'a few months,' he set out upon his first attempt." 3
1 New England Historical and Genealogical Register, Soldiers in King Philip's War, by Rev. G. M. Boge, vol. xliv. July, 1800, p. 276.
" The Century, "Nathaniel Bacon," by Edward Eggleton. Vol. 40, p. 424.
3 " Biography and History of the Indians of North America," by S. G. Drake. Book 2, p. 111.
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Eliot himself, in " A true Relation of Our Beginning with the Indians," which at the time he modestly kept anonymous, has told this story : " Upon Oct. 28, 1646, four of us (having sought God) went unto the Indians inhabiting within our bounds, with desire to make known the things of their peace to them. A little before we came to their Wigwams, five or six of the chief of them met us with English salutations, bidding us much welcome; who leading us into the principal Wigwam of Waauhon, we found many more Indians, men, women, children, gathered together from all quarters round about, according to appoint- ment, to meet with us and learn of us." 1
Eliot spent three hours with his Indian hearers, very plainly talking to them about their duty. They de- clared they were not weary, "but wee resolved," he add-, "to leave them with an appetite; the chief of when we would come again, so we appointed the time, and having given the children some apples and the men some tobacco and what else we then had at hand, they desired some more ground to build a town together."
The interesting point comes up where occurred this first meeting destined to have such an effect, to be a little spring from which would gush out the be- ginnings of a wonderful river.
Gookin in his reference to Eliot declares, "The | been already noticed. Hubbard commenting on a case first place he began to preach at was Nonantum, near Watertown mill, upon the south side of Charles River. about four or five miles from his own house, where lived at that time Waban, one of their principal men, and some Indians with him." ? How near Water- town mill did Eliot begin his labors? Inside the boundaries of the old town? Nonantum was an in- definite patch of Indian territory, and stretched on toward the busy rumbling mill, and "near the mill " naturally leads one to locate the wigwam of Waban inside of that hazy, old-time Watertown line. As a Watertown-man, I may not have the least doubt in the world that the little spring with its wonderful out- When Groton was attacked in March, 1676, what action did Watertown take ? Over the spring roads tramped forty of our ancestors to the relief of the as- saulted town. Lancaster, like Groton, was a place in- debted to Watertown for help in its early settlement. flow was on Watertown ground. I have called Waban a Watertown-man. As a student seeking historical evidence, I can only say that "near the Watertown mill " leads me to infer that Waban probably built his wigwam in old Watertown, which, as a man of i Lancaster was not forgotten when the Indians raided wisdom, he would surely do.
It would take a long paper to hold inside its limits the story of John Eliot's wouderful work. The "praying Indians " became a distinct and large class in New England life. They had their villages at Natick, at Pakemitt or Punkapaog (Stoughton), Has- sanamesitt (Grafton), Okommaamesit (Marlboro'), Wamesit (Tewksbury), Nashobah (Littleton), Magun- kaquog (Hopkinton).
Gookin calls these "the seven old towns of praying Indians." There were others in Massachusetts, but I mention only these. Waban's history is that of an interesting character and of an old neighbor. He moved finally to Natick. "When a kind of civil community was established at Natick, Waban was made a ruler of fifty, and subquently a justice of the peace. The following is said to be a copy of a war- rant which he is-ned against some of the transgres- sors : 'You, you big constable, quick you eatch um Jeremiah Offscow, strong you hold um safe, you bring um, afore me, Waban, justice peace.' A young jus- tice asked Waban what he would do when Indians got drunk and quarreled; he replied, 'Tie um all up, and whip um plaintiff, and whip um fendant, and whip um witness." " 3
Waban was a good friend of the English. From them seeing us conclude with prayer, desired to know | his class the praying Indians came sympathetic neigh-
bors in peace, and active allies in war. They were a bulwark to our interest in the colonial life. If there had been ten John Eliot- or a less number even in New England, peace everywhere would have been regnant. As it was, the Indian character in the Charles river valley which ineindes so much of old Watertown, was powerfully influenced.
That Watertown was not insensible to the gauntlet of trials that other towns were called upon to run, has of difference of opinion between Watertown and the government in the earliest days of our town-life, uses this language of Watertown, "they stood so much upon their liberty." Watertown always bad an independent way, and would not permit unchallenged any encroachment upon its rights. It can also be said that it did not see unmoved an invasion of the inter- ests of others. When other towns might echo with the whoop of plundering, firing savages, it marched out its fighting men to the rescue. I have spoken of the fight at Sudbury ; I give only one more instance here.
it. William Flagg, John Ball and George Harrington by their graves proved that Lancaster was remember- ed by Watertown men. Among the forms of other combatants rising out of the turmoil or the dark days of Indian strife, various Watertown men could be named who were " faithful unto death."
But Watertown in its connection with the history of the red men appears in another and still more honored character. This neighborhood not only wit- nessed the coming of the Gospel of Life to the In- dians, but this neighborhood sent out a like embassy
1 Collections of the Mass. Hist. Society. Vol. 4 (3d series), p. 3
2 Collections of the Mass. Hist. Society for the year 1792. Vol. 1, p. 168.
3 General History of New England, by Wm. Hubbard, p. 144.
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elsewhere. It is an interesting coincidence too that the south side of the river witnessing the preaching of the Gospel to the Indians, gave preachers who should take the same Good News elsewhere. I refer to Thomas Mayhew who lived on the historie "south side," and also to his son, Thomas Mayhew, junior.
Bond in his pains-taking genealogical list refers to the very honorable relation the name of Mayhew sus- tained to our infant town, and speaking of Thomas Mayhew's probable arrival in 1631, says: "For the ensuing 13 years, it appears by the colonial records that few, if any other persons so often received important appointments from the General Court." 1
Watertown early lost this shining light on the other side of the river. Where it shone next aud how ben- eficiently, I will let Gookin tell out of his ancient Historical collections of the Indians in New Eng- land : " Martha's Vineyard, or Martin's Vineyard, called by the Indians Nope, which we have in the former book described hath been through the grace of Christ, a very fruitful vineyard unto the Lord of hosts, and hath yielded a plentiful harvest of con- verted Indians.
"The first instruments that God was pleased to use in this work at this place, was Mr. Thoma- Mayhew and his eldest son, Mr. Thomas Mayhew, junior. The father was a merchant, bred in England, as I take it, at Southampton, and he followed the same calling in New England, at his first coming over which was in the beginning of the settlement of Massachusetts col- ony. His abode was at Watertown, where he had good accommodations of land, and built an excellent, profitable mill there, which in those first time- brought him in great profit. But it pleased God to frown upon him in his outward estate; so that he sold what he had in Massachusetts to clear himself from debts and engagements, and about the year 1642 transplanted himself to Martha's Vineyard with his family. . .. His eldest son Thomas, being a scholar aud pious man, after some time was called to be minister unto the English upon that Island. It pleased God stroug- ly to incline the two good men, both the father and the son, to learn the Indian tongue of that island ; and the minister especially was very ready in it; and the old man had a very competent ability in it. These two, especially the son, began to preach the gospel to the Indians about the year 1648 or 1649, as I best remem- ber and had set appointed times to meet with them."
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