USA > Massachusetts > Berkshire County > History of Berkshire County, Massachusetts, with biographical sketches of its prominent men, Volume I pt 1 > Part 12
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France and England were not yet formally at war; but peace existed no longer. The news was, however, slow to reach the settlers in the res mote valley of the Housatonic. They shared the general uneasiness with regard to the condition of affairs, but, until the last of August, appear to have gone on with their work under no special apprehensions for their own safety, especially as the friendship of their home Indians seemed to be re-established on a firmer basis than ever. They were startled from this security when, on the evening of Thursday, August 29th, two Indi- ans, who, with women, had been on a hunting, seursion to the northward. returned in haste with the startling report that on the previous day they
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had. in concealment. witnessed the total destruction of Dutch Hoogte. : settlement of Dutch farmers some twenty miles northwest of Williams- town. It was the same that was plundered six years before by a portion of the army sent against Fort Massachusetts. In the present raid seven houses, fourteen barns, and a great quantity of wheat were burned; many horses, cattle, sheep, and hogs were slaughtered; one man was killed and another made captive. The whole loss in property was estimatedat 50,- 000, " York currency." or over $160.000. The frightened witnesses nut urally exaggerated the numbers of the marauding party. A scout from Fort Massachusetts reported that it crossed Lake Champlain in forty-two canoes, carrying five, six, or seven Indians each, which would give a total of less than three hundred. Another official report makes the number of the party only one hundred and twenty-five. The people of Stockbridge on the evening of August 29th and long after, conld only take the report which was brought to them. But had the story been given as the most moderate of subsequent statements give it, there would have been quite enough to justify great alarm. As it was. the excitement at once became intense. Messengers were sent in all directions to spread the alarm, and by Saturday night a large body of armed men, many of them from Con necticut, were assembled at Stockbridge. An express on Saturday com municated the news to Colonel Worthington. at Springfield, who made it known to General Dwight. Captains Ashley and Ingersoll. and other gentlemen from the settlements in the neighborhood of Stockbridge, who immediately returned home. Colonel Worthington waited until he bad raised a company of seventy men, with whom he reached Stockbridge on Monday, but in the meantime startling events had ocemred.
As soon as the people of Connectiont received news of the danger they sent at least 130 horses to Poontoosuck to convey the women and! children-and probably the men as well -- to places of safety, and on son- day that plantation was accordingly completely abandoned. ils pende seeking refuge in the more southern towns. What few settlers there were in New Framingham and Lenox joined in the flight. The people of Stock bridge and the soldiery from abroad mostly attended church, of congre- gated in the village to discuss the situation. No immediate attack was apprehended. Joshua Chamberlain lived on " The Hill" wear the main road to the north, and some two miles from thechurch. He and his fint- ily seem to have considered themselves in perfect safety as safety then went-until they were suddenly attacked about three o'clock in theaffer noon. We have two accounts of the murderous scenes which ensued The most authentic is probably that given by Colonel Worthington, on the authority of a dispatch from Captains Ingersoll and Ashley. He writes : " There was in the house. Chamberlain. his wife, three children. and another man named Owen. Two Indians only attacked the house. fired immediately upon entering, one at Chamberlain's wife, but missal her : the other at Oven, and shot him in the form. Our namediately at- tacked Owen, and the other Chamberlain's wife. As Owen was more
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than equal to the Indian who engaged him, the Indian called his fel- low to his help and both beset Owen ; so that Chamberlain's wife escaped, as did her husband coming ont of an inner room, and left the two Indians (as we have the account) combating with Owen. who fought them like a man for a considerable time, but was so ent and wounded by them that he was obliged to yield, and died soon after He was scalped by them. as was also one of the children who was killed. A second child they carried a quarter of a mile ; and there. being discovered by a party of Indians coming from Prontomonok. this knocked it in the head, and, mortally wounding it. left it in the woods where it was picked up by these people." " These people" were a part of the whole population of Poontoosuck, who were fleeing from their homes on the horses sent by neighborly Connecticut. On their way they were repeatedly fired upon by foes hidden in the woods, and some narrowly escaped : especially the heroic first female settler in Pittsfield. Mrs. Solomon Demming. The only person killed was one Stevens, from Canaan, Connecticut, who had been employed as a farm hand by Syl vanus Pierey, whose danghter. according to one account, he had marrie ! At any rate, she was riding on the pillion behind him when he was shot, and she was rescued by Jonathan Hinsdale, the first settler of Lanos. The woods throughout the valley were infested by prowling Indians. as appears from the reports made to the military authorities. On the cih of September a man who had ventured to return to Poontoosuck was shot at by three Indians, and the bullets penetrated his clothes in set. eral places. " He returned the fire, shot down one, but did not get him." According to local tradition the white combatant. procuringaid, followed the bloody trail of the wounded Indian to the shore of Lake Onota, where it disappeared. although a pebble wrapped in cloth, which had been used to staunch the wound, was found. It was believed that his body was in the lake, into which he had plunged, or been thrown after death, tosse his scalp. On the same day two men were fired upon west of Stockbridge. It was probably also at this time that two Indians, called chiefs in tradi tion, were killed in New Framingham by scouts from Fort Massach- setts. But the settlements were full of reports of this kind -a large pro portion of them without foundation.
The panic created by these events is vividly portrayed by Rev. DE Hopkins, of Great Barrington, in a letter dated September 3d. the Ties day after the Chamberlain massacre, and addressed to his friend. Res Dr. Bellamy.
"On the Lord's day, P. M., as I was reading the Psalm, news came that Stock. bridge was beset by an army of Indians and on fire, which broke up the same assem. bly in an instant. All were put into the utmost consternation, men, woman and children. What shall we do? Not a gun to defend 3 ; not a Fort to Ace to, and few guns and little ammunition in the place. Some ran ong was and some brother, but the general course was to the southward, especially for women and children. Women. children and squaws presently flocked in upon us from Stockbridge, half naked and
GENERAL HISTORY.
frightened almost to death; and fresh news came that the enemy were on the plains this side of Stockbridge, shooting and killing and scalping people as they fed. Some presently came along bloody with news they saw people killed and scalped, which raised a consternation, tumult and distress, indescribable. + * *
. Two men are killed, one scalped, two children killed and one scalped; but two Indians seen at or near Stockbridge are all that we certainly know of. Two Indians may put New England to a hundred thousand pounds charge, and never much expose themselves. in the way we now take. The troops that came to our assistance are now drawing off; and what have they done? They have seen Stockbridge, caten up all their pro- visions, fatigued themselves, and that is all. And now we are left as much exposed as ever (for I suppose they are all going). In short, the case of New England looks very dark, especially on the frontiers. A few savages may be a terrible sobdige to us."
Dr. Hopkins picture of the fright prevailing at the moment is be. yond doubt truthful as far as he had an opportunity to observe, and his gloomy forebodings for the future were natural ; but the strong men of Western Massachusetts, than whom few were wiser, more patriotic, brave or more energetic, were already considering measures of defense, and not again during the long war which ensued was the Housatonic valley in vaded.
The facts in the Wampaumcorse affair. the excitement and plot which followed it. and the correspondence concerning it all led those who were not intimate with the Indians resident at Stockbridge to suspect them of complicity in the massacre on the Hill. The soldiers who came to the relief of the settlers manifested their belief that they were guilty in a manner which excited the indignation of their friends. In a letter to Colonel Israel Williams, October 4th, 1754, General Dwight wrote : ". They say, and we are, and too often have been witnesses of the many in- sults and abuses which they (the Stockbridge Indians) have suffered from the English soldiery-their lives and scalps threatened to be taken, and they called everything but good, charged with the late murders, and actually put into such terror as to not know which way to turn them- selves."
General Dwight, after a very careful investigation, was fully convinced that the Mission Indians were not only not guilty of any participation in. or knowledge of, the massacre or other shooting, but were willing, if properly treated, to take part in the war on the English side. Negotia- tions with them were successfully conducted by General Dwight, and almost all the fighting men of the tribe were organized as a company in the provincial force under their own officers. They were called from: their homes and did duty faithfully and zealonely whenever their ser- vices were most required, either as a company, or, as was often the case, in smaller squads or scouts. They had a white chaplain, Gideon Henley.
AAn incident which created much feeling among these friendly Indians occurred during the occupation of Stockbridge by the troops while nel lied to its relief. Some of the inhabitants of the town, whom Miss Jones
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in her history of the town characterizes as "not possessed of a missionary spirit," offered a reward to soldiers going north on scouting expeditions for the scalps of Canadian Indians. None of these being procurable, two vile fellows among them conceived and carried ont the idea of ex- huming the body of a recently deceased Stockbridge Indian and proenring his scalp as that of an enemy. The trick was discovered and adequately punished, but the indignation of the Stockbridge Indians was extreme.
Later investigations showed that the outrages at Hoosde, Stock bridge, and Poontoosuck were the joint result of instigation by the Schaghticokes, incensed by the Wampaumcorse affair and some encroach ment npon their lands by the Dutch settlers, and that the expedition re ceived subtle encouragement from the French. In October, Colonel Tin. othy Woodbridge held a talk with the chiefs of the Canadian tribes who had committed the ontrages, and asked them " why they had made war upon the settlements while the kings ( English and French) under whom they re. spectively lived, were at peace?" They replied that " The Scharticokes had sent to the Orondocks and Onalgungoes to come and revenge themselves for the death of several of their men who had been killed by the English and help them-the Schagticokes-to Canada." Colonel Woodbridge in his report explains that the Onalgungoes were " inhabitants of the Con necticut valley who had been driven away in previous wars : the same as the Schaghticokes."
By another report it appeared that the Onahgungoes waited ujmon the governor of Canada and said, " Father, the English have alorsed us in taking away onr lands and driving us from them." The governor re- plied, " Children, the land is yours, and not mine ; you must assert your rights." With the memories of old wrongs rankling in their breasts. neither the Schaghticokes nor the Onahgungoes needed much provocation to engage in hostilities against the English of Massachusetts, and they were not slow to act upon the diplomatic hint of the governor. But, why not having been declared, no French soldiers accompanied the expedi tion.
Colonel Israel Williams, of Hatfield. afterward in the Revolution. noted for his loyalty to the British crown, and famous still for his cortes. pondence with Governor Hutchinson, was, at the outbreak of hostilities. in 1754, the senior militia officer in active service in Hampshire conuity. which it must be remembered extended to the New York line. General Dwight and Colonel William Williams were on the half pay list, but hud no specific command. They were both civil magistrates. The militia were then as likely to be called into active service at any moment as reg. ular troops are in ordinary times, and as much vigilance was required of their affairs as of any in command of regions constantly threatened by a treacherous enemy. Volunteers were, however, called for specific ser- vices at any distance from the home of the militia men.
In the week following the Sunday of the Stockbridge massacre wvers day brought to the excited people rumors of murder and outrage which,
GENERAL HISTORY.
although in almost all cases unfounded, served to keep alive the terror of the hour. On the 6th of September Colonel Williams wrote. .. I bietet knew, in all the last war, the people under so great surprise and fear." As he did not expect assistance from "the other side of the Province." meaning that portion east of Worcester; and as the Governor was not at Boston, but "at the extreme part of the Province." Colonel Williams did not report the state of affairs on the Housatonic to the provincial authorities nutil September 6th. On that date the Connectiont troops had all returned home, but those from the Connectient valley renmined until the Stockbridge people could " make some small fortifications." On the 8th he wrote to the secretary of the province that although the settlers at Poontoosuck had removed their families a considerable nom ber of the men had returned and were providing for their defense; a sufficient number of men being posted and good scouts maintained. Co] Williams writes in the same letter that six Indians were discovered at Southampton and thirty men were sent after them. .. The Indians seemed enraged-full of fury and malice -- pushed on doubtlessly by our invet- erate enemy."
Colonel William Williams returned to his house in the eastern part of Poontoosuck and transformed it into the Fort Anson, of which a diagram has been given. The settlers who returned with him made a compaiet to work together on the lands protected by it, holding the product in com- mon, and cheerfully agreeing that if anything remained I.youd what was necessary for their own support, to give it to the soldiers whichy might be allowed them. Two years afterward Colonel Williams wrote that he offered to join with the officers sent from the East and from Con necticut with all his strength in fortifying wherever they should select. but none of them would undertake it. Upon this, rather than that no stand should be made. he proposed that if they would fortify with him. he would billet both the inhabitants and soldiers, pay the " broad axe men " three shillings and narrow axe men two shillings a day. They ar- cepted and he built a handsome, strong, and very tenable fort. He stated that if he had not done this not a soul would have been left in Poontoo. suck. Colonel Israel Williams urged his kinsman to maintain his posi tion " for the protection of the towns and places within." On the 25th of September he wrote him as follows :
"Hatfield, September ist. 1754.
"Sir: Major Ephraim Williams is returned from Boston, and I have my orders renewed for ye strengthening ye frontiers and raising a greater number of forces for that purpose and scouting, if I judge needful; but no orders for building tofts any where. The Governor will report refer? that matter to ye General Court; but vet he is desirous of having ye people maintain their ground, and has given me sufficient orders to defend the garrisons they build. As I wrote to you heretofore, so I would again urge upon your people to fortify somewhere in ye western part of Poontousuck . By what I have been informed, Asliley's honse it well situate; but if they incline to fortify further west I like it well; and if they go cheerfully and do it, there is rea-
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son to think they will meet the favor of Government; and if they do. the men that are now there must some of 'em guard, while they are about ye work; and, if the in- habitants can supply themselves with provisions Colonel Partridge will supply ye so !. diers with necessaries. We have no news from ye chemny.
" I suppose Coloncl Partridge will send to you to come in to Hatfield) when I shall confer with you about some other matters. The Governor his given the com. mand at Fort Massachusetts and Poontoosuck to Major Williams for se present.
" With proper salutations, " Your affectionate friend and servant, "ISRAEL WILMAS"
In accordance with the plans expressed in Colonel Williams' lotter Fort Anson was accepted as a province fort, and was probably somewhat strengthened.
The fort in the western part of Poontoosuck so urgently recommended by Colonel Williams was not built until the omens of fresh irruptions in 1755-6 even more urgently called for it. In 1755 General Dwight reported to Governor Shirley the arrival at Stockbridge of sixty five Connecticut soldiers, of whom twenty-five were destined for Poontoosuck As they were sent to take the place of a previous detachment which had refused to work at fortifying, and some of them were " specially enjoined " for shot duty, and, moreover, as Massachusetts furnished theny subsistenee, he suggested that those who were so enjoined should be employed in erecting a good fortress in the section suggested by Colonel Williams. who particularly designated Ashley Hill as situated best for " Ve protec- tion of Stockbridge and for scouting from." In Febriviry. 156. General Dwight again earnestly expressed his opinion that "a fort there if kopt well manned would be of the greatest service." It was built at once. Ash- ley Hill is an eminence of moderate height on the southwestern shore of Lake Onota. It is noted for commanding some of the most beautiful views in Berkshire. Its elevation, overlooking a considerable extent of rolling land in every direction as well as the lake, was favorable to defense. although this advantage was somewhat impaired by the close proximity of the forest, which would conceal an approaching party as effectually as distance. The reader acquainted only with the present avenues of travel would be at a loss to discover what constituted the importance of this location ; but it can be easily explained. A maranding party starting from Crown Point for Stockbridge and the towns below would naturally avoid the guns of Fort Massachusetts which commanded the two entrances to the Berkshire valley from the north, and the vigilance of its seonts. They would thus naturally leave the House River as far west of it as possible, pass down the Hancock valley, cross the Taconies at some of the easy grades from four to six miles northwest of Ashley Hill, Thenes the trail west of Lenox Mountain to Stockbridge would be uninterrupted.
The change in the character of the war, which soon afterward made it one of defense on the part of the French, together with the measures taken for the protection of the frontier in the Berkshire valley, prevented
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any raid upon the settlements in its southern section. Inderd, through- ont the French and Indian wars the only outrages by the onmy in that section were in the brief affair of September. 1754, in which only two In- dians are positively shown to have been engaged, with a strong proba- bility of a few others outlying as prowiers in the woods. There is, how ever, a probably authentic tradition that after the erection of Fort Ashley one of the settlers, being at work about a mile west of it, was fired upon and wounded by three Indians, who were supposed to have crossed the Taconies. He was pursued but reached the font. A scout was sent in pursuit of his assailants, but they vanished in one of the passes of the mountains, and it was not deemed prudent to follow them.
Two other forts of considerable strength were built by private enter- prise in the eastern part of Poontoosuck. In 1756 Charles Goodrich. man of strong character and considerable wealth, who owned much land in the township, represented that Fort Anson was too far from his clear. ing (two miles) to afford him any protection, and was promised support for a garrison of eight men if he would build a fortified place at his own expense. He did so, and received rations for eight men, being ap. pointed sergeant, and empowered to keep as many men as he could of that provision.
In 1757 the General Court received a similar petition signe T by Stephen Crofoot, Solomon Deming. Ebenezer Holman, Nathaniel Fairfield, Jesse Sackett, Abner Dewey, Ephraim Styles, Simeon Crofoot. Hezekiah JJones, Eli Root, Israel Dewey, Benedict Dewey and David Bush. They started that before they were obliged to leave their lands on account of the war they had made considerable improvements on them ; that the mon selt by the Connectient committee of war had been employed by Colonel Wil liams in fortifying his own house, which stood about two miles from their lands and was useless for their protection. Some of the petitioners had been at Fort Anson in the pay and subsistence of the province in the hope of a resettlement of the town. Now they desired to build at their own expense, and only asked that a suitable number of themselves au l others -about eighteen in all-might be put under the pay and subsistence of the province and some disinterested person appointed to the command. In January the same parties, together with Moses Miller, Ezekiel Phelps, Benjamin Goodrich, Abner and Israel Dewey, and Jacob Ensign informed the court that they had built " a good and defensible ganison eighty felt in length and sixty in breadth with mounts at the opposite corners, with comfortable and convenient housing within and suitable situated for the settlement." The location of the fort was on the farm of Nathaniel Fair- field, near the crossing of Housatonic River by the east of old road be- tween Pittsfield and Lenox, and consequently very near what in the earliest days of Pittsfield was considered the center of the town. After- ward Colonel Williams and Charles Goodrich, fel sighers, were the most prominent of its citizens. The location of the dort, its strength, mol the character of its garrison, under the command of Nathaniel Fairfield, who
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was appointed sergeant, rendered Fort Fairfield of more value than either Fort Anson or Fort Goodrich in preventing raids upon Stockbridge by the valley west of the Lenox mountain range : but the three forts. all within a distance of less than four miles, and all with good garrisons, ren dered any expedition down that valley ahnost impossible.
During the war blockhonses. as a place of refuge for the inhabitants. were built in most of the towns, but they were not looked to as provis ions for the general defense. One of the same class was built in New Framingham when the settlement was resumed in 1759. " The ostablish- ment on the western frontier." as the garrisons in the forts of that quarter were officially styled, fluetnated in mmabers as fear and the spirit of economy prevailed among the provincial legislators. Aside from the garrisons that "alternated" in the private forts. Fort Massachusetts usually had about fifty men, Poontoosuek thirty, besides the Connectiont contingent.
Except in the northern Hoosac valley we find no record of any out rages or injuries inflicted by the enemy during the war upon Berkshire soil, other than those which have been detailed. It seems to have been within a charmed circle : but without " the heathen raged." Passing over what occurred in adjoining regions, the vicinity of Fort Massachu- setts was again the scene of slaughter. On the 17th of June. 1756. Ben jamin King and William Mesch were killed within a short distance of it. On the 20th thirteen men belonging to the western army, on their way to the fort, and within thirteen miles of it. were surprised by a large body of Indians, eight killed. and the rest captured. On the 11th of July Captain Elisha Chapin, the commander of the fort. with Sergeant Chidesby and his son James, were killed a little west of it. in what is now Williamstown. This completes the sum of the French and Indian atror ities committed on what is now the soil of Berkshire, but the tale as thus told does not indicate the terror justly inspired by the dangers which threatened it from 17443 to 1759.
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