USA > Massachusetts > Franklin County > Greenfield > History of Greenfield : shire town of Franklin county, Massachusetts, Vol. I > Part 12
Note: The text from this book was generated using artificial intelligence so there may be some errors. The full pages can be found on Archive.org (link on the Part 1 page).
Part 1 | Part 2 | Part 3 | Part 4 | Part 5 | Part 6 | Part 7 | Part 8 | Part 9 | Part 10 | Part 11 | Part 12 | Part 13 | Part 14 | Part 15 | Part 16 | Part 17 | Part 18 | Part 19 | Part 20 | Part 21 | Part 22 | Part 23 | Part 24 | Part 25 | Part 26 | Part 27 | Part 28 | Part 29 | Part 30 | Part 31 | Part 32 | Part 33 | Part 34 | Part 35 | Part 36 | Part 37 | Part 38 | Part 39 | Part 40 | Part 41 | Part 42 | Part 43 | Part 44 | Part 45 | Part 46 | Part 47 | Part 48 | Part 49
" Voted Affirmatively." Each of the said parties signed the proprietors book, in witness of their acceptance of the said apportionment.
" Joseph Severance, Mehuman Hinsdale and Ebenezer Smead, were chosen a committee to make all the meadow fence above the Mill brook to the Country Farm, and are hereby impowered to make a rate upon the Commons in the proprietors book to defray all the proprietors charges."
In 1726, Edward and John Allen, the heirs of William Brooks (three sons, Ebenezer, Nathaniel and Joseph), Joseph and Robert Goddard, Jeremiah Hull's heirs, Peter Plympton's heirs, John Severance, Samuel Smead, Ebenezer Wells and Thomas Wells each held by grant a home lot on Green. River street (now Main street, Greenfield), and twenty acres in the meadows.
Samuel Childs, Isaac Mattoon and Thomas Wells each held a twenty-acre lot, and Peter Evans, Martin Kellogg, Michael Mitchell, Benoni Moore, Joseph Petty and the heirs of · Zebediah Williams, each held thirty acres.
David Hoyt held a home lot, and Joseph Atherton a large tract in the meadow, obtained by purchase.
March, 1736, the proprietors decided to divide part or the whole of the undivided Green river lands, at the rate of eight acres to the cow common, and to do it by a new method called choice pitch. Each of the forty-nine proprietors were to cast lots for preference, and not exceeding ten commons were to be taken in one body, and the choice could be located in any place within the limits of the land which was to be divided. Each proprietor had one day to select his lot or lots in each division, choice No. I to begin April Ist, and continue with
5
126
[1736
DIVISION OF LAND EAST OF GREEN RIVER
No. 2, April 2d, and so on every day but Sundays, until each had his choice. A committee of twenty was chosen to lay out the lots, any three of which might act, and each lot was to be accurately surveyed and platted, and the same returned for record.
A committee was chosen to lay out highways wherever thought necessary, before any lots were allotted, but they only reported one highway, the old road from Greenfield towards Leyden, which was to be ten rods in width.
Jonathan Wells drew the first choice and located his eighty- acre lot adjoining Samuel Dickinson's home lot (north side of west Main street) ; Judah Wright, No. 2, his forty acres " in Grave Brook Swamp " (Riddell's farm) ; Mehuman Hinsdale, No. 3, eighty acres east of Green River, adjoining the Country Farm (now a part of the Town farm). Some took land adjoining the Country Farm near Northfield line, some at Woodwards brook (Gill), some in "ye nook of ye Falls, " and others on Mill brook. The first draught of lots were generally quite regular in form, but in the second division, where the order of pitch was reversed, No. 93 in the first draught, being No. I, in the second division, and the effort of each to bound their choice upon lots laid out to them in the first division, and ad- joining roads and rivers, made the resulting plans wonderful to behold. There were ninety-three pitches, as many of the proprietors had more land than could be taken at one choice, as only eighty acres could be drawn at one pitch.
One Joseph Brooks had " squatted " upon a piece of land " near the head of Millers falls in Deerfield," which he held for several years, until dispossessed by the courts in 1739.
In 1742 a plan was devised for the division of the lands contained in the additional grant west of the seven-mile line (Shelburne), and thirteen acres was allowed for each common right. A road six rods wide was laid on the north line and another along the seven-mile line, while several ten rods in width were laid parallel to the seven-mile line.
127
LAST DIVISION OF LAND
1743-1799]
In 1743 another division of 5,569 acres, including land on Petty's Plain was made, allowing seven and a quarter acres to each common. Owing to the difficulty of building straight roads, each proprietor was given the right to cross the land of every other, necessary for his convenience.
In 1750 a committee chosen to run the lines of the twenty- acre lots on Green river report that the dividing lines should run " East twenty-one degrees South " although they have been thought to "run East but twenty South."
The same year the proprietors "voted to divide ye south half of ye West Additional Grant," and Conway was laid out for individual ownership, only after ten years of waiting caused by the French war. The proprietors, mostly Deerfield men, had plenty of land, and by 1763 the rights were mostly owned by about forty men. Consider Arms drew 1,767 acres, and Hilkiah Grout eighteen acres, the highest and lowest shares. Much land still remained in common as late as 1788, and in 1794 a division of 180 acres situate on the road from Deerfield to Hatfield, at the Bars, was divided among nine parties. The Proprietors' Records of Deerfield commence August 19, 1699, and the last meeting recorded was Novemher 19, 1799, thus covering just one hundred years.
CHAPTER XIII
FATHER RASLES WAR
" With the measure which men metes to men, It will be measured to him again."
-Talmud.
O N the 7th of August, 1720, a party of Eastern In- dians fell upon the English at Canso, Nova Scotia, a place in which Massachusetts people were largely interested, and stripped the inhabitants of all their posses- sions, saying that they only took what they found on their own land. Three or four Englishmen were killed, and the next night some French vessels came and car- ried away the plunder taken by the Indians. An Eng- lish vessel entering the harbor soon after, a commission was made out by a resident justice and chase was given and some of the French vessels were seized with the stolen property on board. Mr. Henshaw of Boston who had suffered large loss went to Louisburg with a complaint to the French governor, who declined to interfere. The people of the eastern province of Massachusetts (now Maine) became much alarmed, for the Indians continued their depredations, stealing and killing the settlers' cattle and threatening the lives of the owners. A year of apprehension and distress followed ; the Indians con- tinuing their insults, but no declaration of war had been made. The Indians were instigated by the French who furnished them with war material and sustenance. Father Rasle,* the Jesuit priest of Norridgewock on the Kennebeck, where he founded his mission in 1695, was the determined advocate of the French
I28
129
THE NORRIDGEWOCKS
1721]
interests, and labored with intense zeal to prevent the English from obtaining possession of the Kennebec country. When- ever the Indians were at their villages he continually urged his people to depredations upon the encroaching settlers and traders.
In June, 1721, Begoir, the French intendant, writes to Father Rasle : " I wrote, my reverend father, to Mons. de Vau- dreuil, who is at Montreal, the sentiments of father de la Chase and my own, viz., what we think convenient to be done, until we hear from the council of the marine whether the French shall join the Indians openly to support them against the English, or shall content themselves with supplying ammuni- tion, as the council has advised that M. Vaudreuil might do, in case the English should enterprise anything against them. He thought it more proper to send the reverend father la Chase, than Mons. de Crosil, lieutenant &c. because the English can have no room to except to one Missionary's visiting another, the treaty of peace not forbidding it ; whereas, if a French of- ficer was sent, they might complain that we sent Frenchmen into a country which they pretend belongs to them, to excite the Indians to make war upon them."
" It is to be wished that you and your Indians may be suf- fered to live in quiet until we know the king's intentions whether we shall openly join the Indians if they are wrongfully attacked ; in the mean time we shall assist them with ammuni- tion, which they may be assured they shall not want."
The old men among the Indians were averse to war. The old chief, Toxus, who died about this time, was in favor of a treaty. Against the advice of Father Rasle, the Norridgewock's
* Sebastian Rasle was sixty-seven years of age and a man of much learning. He had lived with the Norridgewocks twenty-six years and by adopting the Indian mode of life he had obtained great ascendency over his people. Like all the Jesuits, he used his influence to forward the French interests. " He even made the offices of devotion serve as incentives to their ferocity ; and kept a flag in which was depicted a cross surrounded by bows and arrows, which he used to hoist on a pole at the door of his church, when he gave them absolution, previously to their departing on any warlike enterprise."
9
130
COLONEL STODDARD'S LETTER
[1722
chose a peace man as the successor of Toxus, but the young men were for war.
Previous to the commencement of Father Rasle's war a few houses had been built by settlers upon the Green river lands, but as the depredations of the Indians spread, the in- habitants were obliged to abandon their homes and take refuge in fortified houses. *
War parties of Norridgewocks, Penobscots, St. Francois, Cape Sable, and St. John Indians, made raids upon the Massachusetts and New Hampshire towns. Deerfield and Northfield were frontier posts and Colonel Stoddard held the active command of these frontiers.
The following letter from him to Captain Samuel Barnard, of Deerfield, was probably intended as written instructions : f
Deerfield, Aug'st Ist. 1722.
CAPT. BARNARD, SIR :
I was desirous to have discoursed with the Indians of this Town, but they being absent I have no opportunity, therefore I desire you to let them know that when I am at Boston I shall acquaint the govnor that I am enformed that they are desirous to continue amongst us of which I very well approve, and doubt not but the Govnr will be ready to improve them against the Eastern Indians in case a war cannot be avoided.
talk with one or two of the Chiefs about going to the East- ward with all speed, amongst those Indians to learn fully their designs, what measures they propose to take, where they in- tend to dispose their families, what Indians are engaged with them, where to bend their force, whether they will act in a Body or in small Parties, what Rivers and Rhoads they will use, especially if they come this way : whether it is the french that have set them on work or whether they act of their own motion ; you may suggest to them that they may pretend that the English have imprisoned some of their people and that
* Hoyt's Antiquarian Researches,
t Sheldon's History.
131
CONFERENCE AT KENNEBECK
1717-1722]
they are willing to talk with them, and concert matters that they might enform their tribe before they concluded how to act.
and although I have no orders yet I will adventure to engage them pay for their service, if their demands exceed not ten Pounds. the matter must be kept secret both by them and us.
whether this succeed or not you may propose to them, that they may take a stand near Menadnuck till my return from Boston, and that they range a cross Ashuelot, cross Contacook River, and about the head of Millers River, where they will surely see signs of an enemy in case they come speedily this way. and although they will mannage their own business, yet in that it may be of service to us, you may supply them with some quantity of Corn, and some lesser matter of other Pro- visions if they desire it. and if they meet with any of those Indians let them learn their designs, and acquaint us. and if they go on this Hunt, you had need acquaint Lieut'nt Kellogg, as well as other people that they are Hunting there. if any of the Indians continue in the Town, let some suitable place be assigned them that we may commit no mistake about them. you may assure them that all manner of friendship shall be shown them and that those of their people carryed to Boston, are or shall be set at Liberty.
I am Sir your Humble Servant
JOHN STODDARD.
if anything remarkable occur before my going to Boston, let me know it.
In 1717 Governor Shute held a conference with the East- ern Indians on Arrowsick Island at the mouth of the Kenne- beck, and made a treaty with them satisfactorily adjusting all grievances, but as soon as Father Rasle had made this known to Vaudreuil, they immediately set at work to defeat its pur- pose, and Indians accompanied by French officers and Father La Chasse, a Jesuit priest, were sent as emissaries among the
-
132
WAR DECLARED
[1722
Eastern Indians to stir up strife, in which attempt they suc- ceeded.
July 25, 1722, war was formally declared by the Colony against the Eastern Indians, and once more the entire frontier was ablaze with rapine and murder. Negotiations were entered into with the Iroquois to induce them to take part against the Eastern Indians, but with little effect. Two men were killed in Northfield by a party of five Indians under Graylock, Au- gust 13, 1723, and turning eastward they killed two boys and captured two at Rutland. Two of this party met Reverend Jo- seph Willard, a former minister of Sunderland in the road, and he being armed, killed one Indian, wounded another when the rest of the Indians came up and Mr. Willard was killed.
February 3, 1724, Captain Timothy Dwight set out from Northampton with soldiers, carpenters and teams, and in a few weeks had erected a strong fortification on the Connecticut equivalent lands, about three miles below where Brattleboro now stands, which was named Fort Dummer, and was the first building erected by white men in Vermont. Captain Dwight continued in command until the fall of 1 726. Chief Hendrick, a Mohawk, before mentioned, and a few other friendly Indians were enlisted, and served for a time with the English. Gov- ernor Dummer writes Stoddard that Captain Dwight " must let the Mohawks have as much victual as they please ; their bellies must by no means be pinched & he need not fear for the al- lowance of his account."
June 18, Benjamin Smith was killed, and Aaron Wells and Joseph Allis taken prisoners, about three miles north of Hatfield.
Captain Thomas Wells with a party, being upon a scout and finding no sign of the enemy, became careless, and, while re- turning toward Deerfield, June 24, 1724, Ebenezer Sheldon of Northampton, Thomas Colton, and Jeremiah English, " an Indian who used to be Col. Lamb's," riding in advance of the main body, fell into an ambuscade at a swamp about a mile
133
FIGHT ON GRAVE BROOK
1724]
north of Greenfield village, where they were fired upon and all killed. " The company behind, hearing the guns, rode up with all speed, and came upon the enemy while they were scalping the slain, and firing upon them, wounded several. Upon which the enemy fled into the swamp, and the English dismounting, ran in after them, and tracked them a considerable way by the blood of the wounded, but found none. However, they recovered 10 packs and heard afterwards that 2 died of their wounds, and a third lost the use of his arm."* [Pen- hallow.]
The next month some Deerfield men who were returning from their work in the north meadows were fired upon by some Indians who had secreted themselves in the bushes at the base of Pine Hill, and Lieutenant Timothy Childs and Samuel Al- len were wounded, but the whole party made their escape, and the wounded men recovered. [Hoyt's Antiquarian Re- searches.]
A few of the Mohawks were in the service of the Colony during this period. Chief Hendrick (who was killed in the " Bloody Morning Scout," September 8, 1755) with seven other Indians appeared at the Council Chamber in Boston and offered their services against the Eastern Indians, which were accepted by the Governor. The rolls at Fort Dummer show the un- pronouncable names of many other Indian warriors in the colony service.
Scouts were constantly maintained, especially in the middle of the winter when the snow was deepest, and great care was exercised when the crust was in condition for use as a highway. Men were stationed upon the tops of the highest mountains, to look out morning and evening "for smoaks," indicating
* Deacon John J. Graves informed the writer that it was an ancient tradition that this affair occurred upon or near the farm now owned by J. W. Riddell. This tradition meets valuable confirmation by the fact that a few years since, Mr. James Porter, while excavating a ditch for water pipe on Lincoln street, found the remains of an old gun, the barrel of which is now in the collection of the Pocumtuck Valley Memorial Association.
134
PERILS OF FRONTIER LIFE
[1725
the presence of the enemy. The hardships of the men, who upon snowshoes marched through the tangled woods as far as Lake Champlain, living upon a few pounds of frozen pork, a little corn meal, a few peas and a scant allowance of molasses, can hardly be imagined. Tired in every bone and muscle, after a hard day's journey wrapped in their blankets they threw themselves upon a bunch of hemlock boughs placed under the side of some fallen tree or some ledge of projecting rock, and forget their troubles in sleep. The service was full of danger. If in the dim distance a smoke was seen, the direc- tion must be noted, the distance estimated, and the scout must ascertain whether the party is an enemy or a friend, and he must obtain this information without exposing his own life to peril.
March 9, 1725, Captain Thomas Wells of Deerfield led a scouting party of sixty-five men towards Canada, and in return- ing in canoes by way of Connecticut river, three of his men were drowned April 24, at the French King rapids, near the mouth of Millers river. In July, Captain Ben Wright with fifty- seven men went on a scout to Missisquoi Bay, but made no spoil of the enemy. He was also out to the northward again in October with forty men.
Colonel Stoddard writes, September 10 : " I think the scouts from Fort Dummer and Northfield are constant and vigilant. Those men at Deerfield are very busy and careful, but so few that they are chiefly employed in guarding the laborers. I have no dependence on any Assistance from Connectet but think it will be of great benefit to continue Capt. Wright & his men in pay and in ranging the woods."
In September, Lieutenant Childs wrote to Colonel Partridge from Deerfield : " This morning there came a man from a scout sent out by Capt. Dwight, (from Fort Dummer) who informs that there were 6 men in the scout & last Saturday, about 2 o'clock, about 6 or 8 miles west of North River (Col- rain) they sat down to eat, & a few moments after they sat
135
SKIRMISH NEAR GREEN RIVER MILL
1725]
down, they discovered some Indians on their track, within about 8 rods of them, & they jumped and ran about 7 or 8 rods & then the Indians made a shot upon them & they turned & shot again upon the Indians & he says he saw two of them fall, & they were forced to scatter." Two of the scouts were killed, three taken prisoners and one escaped to Fort Dummer.
The woods were filled with skulking Indians ; scouting par- ties were constantly on the alert, and laborers in the fields had at all times to be guarded by soldiers.
Reverend Stephen Williams gives the following account of an affair which took place in Greenfield, August 25, 1725 : " Dea- con Sam11 Field, Dea. Sam11 Child, Sergt. Joseph Sever- ance, John Wells and Joshua Wells, and Thomas Bardwell, went over Deerfd river to go to Green River Farms, and they took a cow with them, designing to put her in a pasture ; the indians ambushd them, but Deacon Child driving the cow discovered them and cryd out, indians ! John Wells discharged his gun at an indian who fell upon his firing. Deacon Field being at some distance from the company rode towards them, but the company being before separated from one another, retreated towards the mill, and at a considerable distance from the hill they haltd, yt John Wells might load his gun, and then the indians fird upon them, and woundª Deacon Sam11 Field, the ball passing the right Hypocondria, cutting off three plaits of the mysenteria ; a gut hung out of the wound in length al- most two inches, which was cut off even with the Body ; the bullet passing between the lowest and the next rib, his hand being close to his body when ye ball came forth, it entered at ye root of ye heel of ye Thumb, cutting the Bone of the fore finger, resting between ye fore and 2d finger ; was cut out, and all the wounds thro' the blessing of God upon means were heald in less than five weeks by Doctor Thomas Hastings, whose death since ye war is a great frown upon us, &c."
An army of 280 men was raised in the eastern towns and
136
END OF THE WAR
[1725-1727
sent to the Kennebeck, and August 12, 1724, they surprised Norridgewock, killed Father Rasle and six noted chieftains and some thirty or forty more of the enemy. Vaudreuil, the great war governor of New France, died October 10, 1725, and the Eastern Indians having thus lost the leading men of the war, were anxious for peace. A few of the other Cana- dian Indians kept up a desultory warfare for several months, but they did not molest the Connecticut valley.
Among the Deerfield men who served in Father Rasle's war were Captain Timothy Childs, father of Captain Timothy Childs, who was in command of a Greenfield company during the Revolution ; Joseph Atherton, father of Shubel Atherton, an early settler of Greenfield, Joseph Severance, father of Jon- athan and Moses Severance, early settlers, John Allen, Na- thaniel Brooks, James Corse, John Holmes, Joshua Wells, and Aaron Denio, who were all among the first settlers of Greenfield.
Father Rasle the persistent agitator for war, had gone to his reward, and the Indians in spite of all the French influence, which had lost much of its strength by the death of Governor Vaudreuil, were desirous of peace, which, much to the satis- faction of the English, was at length accomplished. Trading houses were established on the St. George, Kennebeck and Saco rivers, and an era of good feeling continued for many years.
October 29, 1727, occurred the great earthquake, extending along the coast from Maine to Virginia. Chimneys were top- pled over, cellar walls shaken down, and the people thrown into great terror.
This year Deerfield voted to repair its meetinghouse "to make it something comfortable for a few years." Finding the old house past repair they voted to build a new one " forty foots in breadth and fifty foots in length." Then came the usual quarrel about the location. Three different locations were proposed, and it was finally settled in town meeting by
137
DEATH OF REV. JOHN WILLIAMS
1729]
the following vote : "Concluded to move out and stand at 3 Places discorst on, for Setting ye meeting house and that ye biggest number shall haue ye place, upon Tyral they Con- cluded on ye Middle most of ye three."
Mr. Williams, the beloved pastor who had served the town for forty-three years, was stricken with apoplexy, and suddenly died June 9, 1729, aged sixty-four years. He was considered " one of the pillars of the Land." After sev- eral futile attempts to find a minister, the town settled Mr. Jonathan Ashley, who remained the minister of the town un- til his death, August 28, 1780.
The few years of peace succeeding Father Rasle's war was a time in which grants of land were made upon every reason- able or unreasonable excuse offered to the colonial govern- ment. Among others grants were made to Jonathan Wells and others who went to the rescue of the Deerfield captives, of a township west of Hatfield; to Thomas Wells and others was granted Shutesbury or Road town, for clearing a road from Lancaster to Sunderland ; New Salem was granted to a company in old Salem ; eighteen square miles added to Sun- derland were given to Colonel John Stoddard for his services ; 1000 acres to the heirs of Reverend John Williams ; to Major Elijah Williams one half the 250 acres of the Country Farms, with the right to purchase the other half for £6, 5 s, in " Bills of Credit, Last Issue ;" this being on account of his brother who had been dead for thirty years, having served in the Indian war; to the widow of Joseph Bradley who was one of Ensign Sheldon's companions on one of his trips to Canada, two hun- dred and fifty acres ; to Ebenezer Sheldon and his sister three hundred acres, because they had been prisoners in Canada and now the Indians made them expense in visiting them ; to Cap- tain Timothy Childs three hundred acres near the present village of Shelburne Falls. Three other Deerfield men had three hundred acres each, and nine others two hundred acres each ; and the heirs of Robert Bardwell, (the man who counted
138
JAMES CORSE'S JOURNAL
[1730
the dead Indians at the Turners Falls fight,) one hundred acres. John Nims, William Smead, John Hawks and Seth Heaton, Deerfield men, had shares in the township of Keene. Nineteen Deerfield men were among the original proprietors of " No. 4" (Charleston, N. H.), and drew three or four hun- dred acres each.
Need help finding more records? Try our genealogical records directory which has more than 1 million sources to help you more easily locate the available records.