USA > Massachusetts > Middlesex County > Framingham > History of Framingham, Massachusetts, early known as Danforth's Farms, 1640-1880; with a genealogical register > Part 5
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James Wiser's wife, about ten 66
David's widow, about six 66
Thomas his widow, about nine
Most of these Indians were confined to Deer Island last winter. The poor Indians above named desire that the honoured Council would please to order the Treasurer to repay them their corn.
JOHN WATSON.
The tribes in the Connecticut valley raised immense crops of corn ; and once from their surplus stores saved the infant Connecticut colony from impending famine. The spring of 1637 was so occupied by the English settlers at Windsor, Hartford and Wethersfield, in preparing for and carrying on the war with the Pequots, that they failed to plant the requisite amount of corn and wheat. The follow- ing winter proving unusually long and severe, their provisions were wholly exhausted. On the first opening of spring (1638) a deputation was sent up the river to Pacomptock (Deerfield), where they found plenty of corn, and purchased of the Indians enough to load a fleet of fifty canoes, which were taken down the river by the natives, and the grain delivered at the towns designated.
Looking at our territory, and taking the natural advantages of loca- tion as a guide, we should expect to find Indian villages of considerable size, at three distinct points, viz., at the outlet of Cochituate pond, near the Falls at Saxonville, and around Farm pond. All the condi- tions requisite to Indian congregate life are found at these localities. And the probability arising from these natural indications, is made a certainty by the existence at these several points of unmistakable Indian remains, and by historical records.
In addition to conveniency for fishing and planting, the signs relied on to determine the site of an Indian village, are: 1. The presence of considerable quantities of domestic utensils, such as stone pestles, kettles, knives and hoes. 2. Heaps of roundish stones bearing evidence of the alternate action of fire and water, and covered with recently formed mould. Before the introduction of metal kettles, these stones were used to heat water, by being thrown red-hot into their wooden troughs. A heap of them was kept under their fire in the centre of the wigwam, to be ready against emergency, and being cumbersome to transport, the heap was left in place when they removed to a new location. 3. The remains of granaries or under- ground barns. These Indian granaries were of two classes, one
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Indian Occupation.
large, the other small. Both were of similar construction, i. e., circular excavations, about five feet in depth. The larger ones were from twelve to sixteen feet across, while the small ones were only three to five feet in diameter. They were commonly dug in the sloping sides of a knoll or bank, to secure dryness, and the better to shed rain. A number were set close together, in order that they might be pro- tected from bears and other enemies by a picket. When filled with corn, or dried fish, or nuts, they were covered with poles and long grass, or brush and sods. 4. A burial-place. This was always convenient to their dwellings. A single grave may indicate accidental death ; but a cluster of graves unerringly points to a cluster of wigwams. 5. A pile of stone chips, where their arrow and spear heads were fash- ioned. 6. A place for a fort.
At the three points specified, these remains were abundant. Hoes, axes, gouges, mortars and pestles, arrow and spear heads, buttons, ket- tles and fire-stones were formerly found in large quantities, and are still occasionally turned up ; stone chips are common ; granaries were plenty till they were obliterated by cultivation; and their burial-places can be identified.
It is further to be stated here, that the kind of remains gives us some clew to the date of occupation. Before the coming of the English, all their domestic utensils and implements of war were of stone or copper ; after this they obtained of the whites, by exchange for furs and wampum, iron kettles, spoons, hatchets, and some other things. Substantially all the implements found in this region are of stone, and often of the rudest description; and the piles of stone chips, still in existence, after so many upturnings of the civilized plow, indicate that these tools were manufactured on the ground, and also that they are the work of successive generations.
But while the testimony of these remains is in some respects more satisfactory than oral or written evidence, because they cannot be counterfeited nor drawn from imagination, the proof of Indian oc- cupancy at these several points is abundant, both from tradition and authentic history. The names which they gave to these village-sites are preserved, and tell their own significant story. Deeds, covering these lands, from the native owners to English grantees or purchasers, are still extant, and not only clear up all doubts, but identify places and boundaries.
As has been suggested, the character of the remains found around Farm pond and other localities near by, indicate an early, as well as long residence by the natives. Probably they were very numerous up to 1616, when, according to Mourt, and other historians of the time, a malignant distemper broke out and swept off the major part of the Indians living in the eastern and central parts of Massachusetts.
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History of Framingham.
Of the history of our Indians, previous to that date, our knowledge is scanty.
Soon after the coming of white settlers to the mouth of Charles river in 1629-30, we begin to get traces of Indian occupancy on the Sudbury river and its affluents. The first explorers report the exist- ence of villages of friendly red men, in all this region.
Our Indians were known by the general name of Nipnets, or Nipmucks, and the region hereabouts was for a long period called in deeds and official records, " the Nipmug country."
The term Nipnet, in the Indian language, means "the fresh water country." It was originally applied by the natives to the lands ad- joining the great ponds in the southern and central parts of Worcester County, and Woodstock, Ct., where was the primitive seat of the Nipnet tribe. May it not be that the general resemblance between the lands and ponds in Framingham, and those of his earlier home in Dudley and Oxford, first induced some enterprising young sagamore to remove hither, and establish a new home, and thus gain a title to the territory? A significant fact, bearing on the question, is, that in 1633, the main trodden path crossing our territory led from the Indian village at Cochituate, past Farm pond, Cold spring in Ash- land, Grafton, and so to Dudley and Woodstock. By intermarriage of his children with the sons and daughters of the chiefs of the coast tribes, their descendants acquired a mutuality of interests and proprietary rights, which brought about the state of things found existing in the Framingham plantation, when Edmund Rice, John Stone, Thomas Eames, John Bent, and Thomas Pratt first pitched upon our soil.
THE INDIAN VILLAGE OF WASHAKAMAUG. - When Thomas Eames took up land and built a house at the north end of Farm pond in 1669, the lands to the east and southward were owned by John Awas- samog ; and most of the Eames farm was subsequently purchased of him or his children. How this tract came into Awassamog's possession, is stated in legal instruments bearing his signature. In a paper duly executed, appointing his son his successor, and dated Dec. 1, 1684, he recites : " John Awassamog, of Naticke, not now like to continue long before his decease, and notable to looke after the Indian title that yet do remain unpaid for by English proprietors, do hereby acknowledge Thomas Awassamog, my natural son, my natural heir, and betrust and impower him in my stead to sell, bargaine, and alienate any of that land the Indian title of which do yet belong to me, according to the sagamore title.
His marke. John - Awosomug."1
1 Mass. Col. Records, v. 531.
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Indian Occupation.
In a deed dated January 21, 1684-5, in which his sons and other blood-relations joined, conveying the title of his Framingham and other lands to the said heir and successor, John Awassamog recites as follows : "Know all men by these presents, that we, John Awas- samoag, Samuel Awassamoag, John Mooqua, Peter Ephraim, Eleazer Pegan and Joshua Awassamoag, Indians of Natick, in the county of Middlesex, in New England, for reasons us thereunto moving, have given and granted, and do by these presents grant, aliene, enfeoffe, as- signe, make over and confirm unto Thomas Awassamog, Indian of the same town and county aforesaid, all that our whole native title, right and interest in that tract of land lying, situate and being betweene the bounds of Natick, Charles river, Marlborough, and a point of Blackstone's river beyond Mendon,-all which said right title and interest in the said land (that is not already legally disposed of) we, the said John Awassamoag, Samuel Awassamoag, Joshua Awassa- moag, John Mooqua, Peter Ephraim and Eleazer Pegan do hereby avouch and declare to be, at the delivery of these presents, our own proper estate, and law fully in our power to alienate and dispose of,- it being our natural right, descending to us from the chiefe sachem WUTTAWUSHAN, uncle to the said John Awassamoag Sen., who was the chiefe sachem of said land, and nearly related to us all, as may be made to appeare." 1
This deed carries the title and ownership of the lands in question back to " the chief sachem WUTTAWUSHAN, uncle of John Awassamoag Sen.," and fixes approximately the time of his occupancy here. This date could not vary much from 1620-30. If our conjecture is right that he is the same as Nuttawahunt, sometimes also called Nashoonan and Nashacowam, this chieftain was a Nipnet, who was present and signed a treaty with the English at Plymouth, Sept. 13, 1621. We hear of him again in 1644, in which year he and others made a covenant with the Massachusetts authorities, " to the end that mutual benefit might accrue to either party. The sachems put themselves under the government of the English, agreeing to observe their laws, in as far as they should be made to understand them. For this confidence and concession of their persons and lands into their hands, the English on their part agreed to extend the same protection to them and their people as to their English subjects."2 His principal residence was at Nashaway (Lancaster), near the Washakum ponds. He was on terms of special friendship with Massasoit, with whom he exchanged visits. Probably Framingham was his stopping-place in his journeys to and from the sea-coast.
1 Mass. Col. Records, v. 531, 2.
2 Drake's Book of the Indians, 11, 41, 46. Shattuck's Concord, p. 20. Whitney's Hist. Worc. Co. p. 174. . Gookin's Ms. History.
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History of Framingham.
But in any event, the record is clear, that about 1630 the lands lying between Farm pond and the Natick line, and indefinitely southward, were owned by the chieftain Wuttawushan; and that the title de- scended to his nephew Awassamog, who was living here in 1649-50, and till 1684, and through whom the title passed to the Eames family.
AWASSAMOG. - Of the nephew and heir of Wuttawushan we have considerable knowledge. Like all other prominent characters of his race, his name is spelled in a variety of ways. It was customary with Indian sachems and warriors, when they had achieved some nota- ble exploit in battle or diplomacy, to take a new name, expressive of the action or result ; but in this case the variation of spelling did not indicate a change of title, but was due to the fancy or acuteness of ear of the English scribe who made the record. Deeds and other documents were drawn up by different justices and clerks, and each put down the names of contracting parties, as he caught the leading sounds of the syllables as pronounced by the natives at the time of signature. The variations, Owassamug, Owusamug, Anawassamauk, Awosomug, Awassamoag, Awansamog, are found in official documents. He was a Nipnet, having chieftain's blood in his veins, and was born about the year 1614. The place of his birth is nowhere recorded ; but the evidence is pretty conclusive that he was born somewhere on the lands which he inherited ; and leading facts point to the ancient Eames farm.
His possessions extended from the old Marlborough line and Sudbury river on the north, to the Charles river on the southeast, and southerly and southwesterly to the Blackstone river, including South Framingham, part of Sherborn, Holliston, Ashland, Hopkinton, Upton, Milford, Mendon, Blackstone, part of Bellingham, etc.
About the year 1635, Awassamog married Yawata, the daughter of Nanepashemet, chief of the Pawtucket tribe, whose possessions extended from Chelsea and Lynn on the coast, through Middlesex county to the Pawtucket Falls (Lowell) on the Merrimack river. The young couple lived for a time at Winnisimet (Chelsea), where their oldest child Muminquash (known afterwards as James Rumney- marsh) was born. Their other children were known as John Awassamog, Jr., Samuel Awassamog, Joshua Awassamog, Thomas Awassamog and Amos Awassamog.
When the apostle Eliot began his labors with the Indians at Nonantum, Awassamog appears to have been living at Mistick (Medford), and sometimes attended Mr. Eliot's preaching. He did not enter heartily into the new movement, like Waban, though he was forcibly impressed by the claims of Christianity, and in time gave in
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Indian Occupation.
his adhesion to the civil order at Natick, and became a regular attendant on Mr. Eliot's ministry there. As early as 1650, he came upon his own lands, where he remained during his life. In a deed dated 1662, he gives no residence, which implies that he was then living on his own hereditary possessions. In some later deeds, he is styled " of Natick," which refers to civil jurisdiction, not to the village boundary, and which general designation covered a large tract of land lying in Framingham, Sherborn, Holliston and Ashland. April 22, 1662, he sold a tract of eight miles square, " lying about fifteen miles from Medfield," to the English proprietors of Mendon. He sold, March 26, 1675, a farm of 500 acres at a place called Chaboquasset, joining on Medfield west line, to William Sheffield, " which he hath lived upon this fifteen years." May 19, 1682, he joined the Indians at Natick in giving a deed of 1700 acres, covering Rice's End in Framingham, to Samuel Gookin of Cambridge, and Samuel How of Sudbury. He also joined in the sale of the Wayte and Russell grants to Thomas Danforth; and just before his death, he obtained leave of the General Court to sell a large tract on the southwest of Sherborn line to Edward Rawson.
Probably Awassamog spent his last years with his son Thomas, whom he appointed his executor and heir. This son lived for a time in Sherborn, as appears from the following deed : "Thomas Awassa- mog of Sherborn, sells, June 4, 1684, Abraham Cousins of Sudbury, blacksmith, 14 acres of land in Sherborn lying on both sides of Chestnut brook, bounded northwesterly by land of Jonathan Whitney, Jr., and southeasterly with the house lot laid out to the administrators of Thomas Eames, said land being granted to me by the Town of Sherborn for a house lot." Thomas also owned a house-lot upon the land of Thomas Eames, probably situated to the southeast of Pratt's plain.
Awassamog died in the early part of 1685. That his last years were spent near his Framingham home is made evident from the recital in the deed given by his sons to the sons of Thomas Eames, of the fact, that "for sundry years until his death, he the said Thomas Eames did give relief to John Awassamog, chief proprietor of these lands."
Of the character of this Indian chief, there are fortunately preserved cotemporary accounts. In I Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., vol. IX. p. 198, in an Account of the Christian Indians, it is said, "John Owussamug, Sen. He was a young man when they began to pray to God. He did not at the present join with them. He would say to me, ' I will first see to it, and when I understand it I will answer you.' He did after a while enter into the Civil Covenant, but was not entered into Church Covenant before he died. He was propounded
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History of Framingham.
to join the Church, but was delayed, he being of a quick, passionate temper. Some litigations prolonged it till his sickness ; but had he recovered, the church was satisfied to have received him by finishing well.
" He was sick and in great pain a whole year before his death."
His "Confession," as given by Eliot, 1 indicates a pretty clear head, a quickened conscience, a good knowledge of Christian doctrine, and a fierce struggle with old ideas and habits, such as strong natures only are capable of. His conclusion is, "I thought it was good for me to pray to God ; and then I purposed to pray to Him as long as I live."
His widow was alive in 1686, when she signed a deed of lands of her tribe in Salem. She probably died at the house of her son James Rumneymarsh in the bounds of Natick.
WASHAKAMAUG. - The Indian name of the village-site near Farm pond was Ouschankamug or Washakamaug. The word signifies eel- fishing-place.
Every Indian village-site had a name which was expressive, either of some marked natural feature, or some peculiar animal or vegetable product, or some available use in his daily life.
In the late summer time, after the migratory fish had returned to the sea, and before the corn was matured, food was scarce with our natives, and at this time eels were a welcome source of supply. The southerly end of Farm pond and the northerly part of Washakum pond and the sluggish stream which connected the two ponds, were then a noted locality for this reptilian fish. Mr. Jonathan Eames informed the writer that in his boyhood more eels were found here than at any other place in the region. Hither then, at the season, gathered the natives from all the country round, to feast on the slimy Anguillae.
This fish was a favorite food of the Nipnet Indians. The tribe had another noted place for catching them, just over the borders of Connecticut. And once it happened that the Narragansetts, living on the Rhode Island coast, invited this Connecticut clan to make them a visit and feast on clams. In return the Nipnets invited their hosts to come up and partake of their favorite roast. But the shore Indians greatly disliked the eels ; and in consequence of some expressions of disgust, a bloody fight took place, in which the eel-eaters triumphed.
As was very common all through the country, our early English settlers, careless of the use of terms, applied the word Washakamaug,
1 3 Mass. Hist. Soc. Coll., IV. 227.
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Indian Occupation.
in a contracted form, to the southern pond, which the Indians applied to the whole village-site.
When Thomas Eames settled on Mt. Wayte, he found everything as the Indians had left them- if indeed they had abandoned the place. The adjacent fields were ready for the plow, from their previous cultivation by the squaws ; and the meadows were ready for the scythe, from the annual burning of the grass and underbrush by the natives. Fresh signs of savage life were scattered all about. The standing wigwam poles, or at least heaps of fire-stones, pointed out their living- places ; spots of blowing sand, which no skill of his could induce to turf over, indicated where had been a permanent cluster of cabins, or a burial-place ; the open granaries perhaps contained remnants of corn or nuts, and were a sore annoyance to man and beast ; hoes and axes, having their withe handles still attached, and all their various domestic utensils, were common. But they awakened a sense of insecurity, rather than curiosity ; and were shunned and destroyed, rather than gathered up and preserved.
The remains which have been found in modern times indicate that a large cluster of wigwams stood on the southeast slope of Mt. Wayte, and in the sheltered nook by the bridge leading to the camp-ground, and on the surrounding bluffs. One of the large-sized mortars for pounding raw corn, and some small mill-stones for grinding parched corn were discovered here, as well as ornaments, and large and small implements, all of which clearly point out long continued residence. The fort belonging to this settlement was probably on one of the bluffs, but no tradition of its exact location exists. Wigwams ap- pear to have been scattered along the plain between Farm and Learned's ponds. Heaps of fire-stones were plenty ; and a large granary and sweating-pit were visible till a late date on land of Henry Eames, a little distance to the northwest from his house. The granaries have been already described. A sweating-pit was a circular hole in the ground, about four feet deep, in the bottom of which was placed a bushel or two of small stones, which could be heated by a fire built over them. The patient was placed within the mouth of the pit, and water thrown in small quantities on the hot stones and coals, which would generate the requisite amount of steam.
The main burial-place of this clan was at the spot known one hundred years ago as " the Old Field," where is now the Common, in front of the Baptist meeting-house, including on the south, Nobscot block and the Richardson straw shops, and on the north, the Lovell Eames and Franklin Manson house-lots. The family tradition is, that Nathaniel Eames, when he built the Jonathan Eames house in 1693, found this spot clear of trees and underbrush, and easily worked, and
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History of Framingham.
used it for his corn-field. The graves of their common people were smoothed over, and hardly distinguishable. The chiefs and their families were usually buried in a place by themselves, and mounds of earth or stone raised over them. Such graves usually contain valu- able ornaments and wampum.
Directly under the Baptist meeting-house was found an Indian grave which contained, in addition to the bones of a skeleton, five or six new spear-heads, about seven inches in length. An Indian grave was found on the house-lot of Andrew Coolidge, in which was the rem- nant of a coarse kind of sacking. Another grave was opened in 1873, near Gleason's pond, in which was found a set of tools for making wooden troughs, viz., an axe, two chisels and a gouge. They were about three feet below the surface, embedded in a deposit of dark friable mould, while the soil around was the natural light col- ored loam. The tools are of chloritic slate. From the appearance of things, the body was placed in a sitting posture. A stone bark-peeler, thirty inches long, was found in an excavation about four feet below the surface, near the Bennett house, now James Jordan's, clearly indicating the place of a grave. And it is an interesting and suggest- ive fact, that all the tools and implements found in Indian graves hereabouts, are either new, or bear evidence of having been newly sharpened and burnished.
Scattered wigwam-sites are found in all this neighborhood. There is one on the west shore of Farm pond, on land of Mrs. John W. Moore; there is another, near a spring, to the southwest of Washa- kum pond, and others can be traced on Pratt's plain. Probably our Indians had their summer and winter residences, which were interchanged to meet the necessities of food and comfort. The construction of their wigwams was such that they could be readily put up, wherever straight saplings were at hand, and only the covering mats were stripped off and carried away, when they moved. 1
The gorgets, hatchets, buttons and kettles, scrapers, drills and awls, and all the tools and ornaments found at the Indian village above described, and at the other wigwam-sites in this town, were manufac- tured from stone of various kinds; nothing made of copper has yet been discovered. Possibly a more extensive examination of burial places might disclose some metal ornaments. Chloritic slate, largely used for chisels, hatchets, etc .; phonolite, of which was made their bark-peelers ; and quartz, for small arrow-points, are common in our hill-sides, as is the greenstone out of which the large mortars were
1 Mr. Dunton, an English traveller, who visited Natick in 1685, says: "The wigwams or Indian houses, are no better than so many huts, made of poles covered with mats, and with a little hole upon the top which serves for a chimney."
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Indian Occupation.
fashioned. But jasper and porphyry, so commonly used for spear- heads and knives, was brought from abroad, the jasper probably from Saugus and Malden. The potstone, of which kettles were made, must have come from Vermont. The peculiar flints discovered here have not been traced to any known locality. Professor Dana, who has examined them, is at a loss to determine whence they came. They are remarkable for hardness and toughness ; and from their shapes, and sharp or nicked edges, were evidently used in cutting jasper, basanite, phonolite, and other hard rocks. A peck or more of these flints, varying in size from a trade dollar to a man's hand, was found hidden in a mud-puddle at the north end of Farm pond. The deposit was close by a large heap of stone chips and other evidences of an Indian workshop. These flints are exactly similar to those described by Dr. Abbott, in his work on the Primitive Industry of the Native Races of the north Atlantic Seaboard, and are by him classed as "chipped flint implements." He states that such concealed deposits have been discovered in various parts of the country ; but is unable to determine their age or use. Several of his figured speci- mens will answer well for those now in the writer's cabinet.
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